A Triangle Finish!

From start to finish, it's done by me! :-)  ...and in time to post with all those who have joined in The Sassy Quilter's Triangle Quilt Along!  At approximately 50x66, it was a great size for straight stitching with my walking foot.  I used Quilters Dream batting and it's just very huggable :-).

Andrew and Izzy joining in with the photo session :-).

Linking up with Paula at the Sassy Quilter.

Alphabet and more...

 There are so many fun things going on at my house ... some exciting sewing projects, new chicks, and two new ducks and of course a lot of yard work.  If it weren't for the gnats (no-see-ums), the yard work would be much more enjoyable :-), but the weather is so fabulous!   I've had a small finish, "Sail Away", which is being given to my doctor, friend and neighbor.  That's my nephews dog, Izzy, who was visiting.  :-)  I used the serpentine stitch to quilt it and love the look of fish netting for my sailing friend! 

Today, I've been working on Moda's Spell it With Fabric ... Super simple alphabet pattern (and numbers) ... Moda Designer Blog Hop. Four assorted blocks are needed to finish the quilt and I stitched up the last two today. 

It just so happened that Cheri Leffler, friend and former owner of the LQS years ago, asked me to review her book, "Animal Parade" ... soon to be released by Martingale.  I was totally delighted and flattered.  Two days ago, I received the book and today have four of her animal blocks done!  They are going to fit into my Moda Alphabet quilt beautifully!!  

The animals are so darn cute!  The cover says, "Adorable Applique Quilt Patterns for Babies", but I think any young child would adore a "Who Dat" owl quilt and more!!  Wait until you see the penguins!!

I love machine applique and was unable to develop that love for needle turn.  This book is suitable for both styles of applique, needle turn and fusible-web. Anyhow, more on the book and the alphabet later!

As soon as I get my alphabet sewn together, I'm anxious to get my triangle top sandwiched and quilted.  This is a QAL by Paula at The Sassy Quilter.  I have a rough idea of the straight line stitching that I'll do on my machine.  

  

When the edges were trimmed, I had all of these (12) pieced half-triangle scraps and I saw what another quilter had done playing with her scraps.  So, I started playing and realized I had a great looking kite when two triangle halves were pieced together.  So, in no time, I had made two future pillows (or pillow shams), to go with the triangle quilt.  

Not sure when these will be finished, as I'm so deep, in unfinished tops at the moment!  I dove into Material Girl Quilts Layer Cake Sampler QAL ... and what was I thinking!  I did six blocks, after waiting for another layer cake of April Showers (which I adore), ran out of my background fabric, and waited some more.  So, do I pick it up again (is it worth finishing?!!) and work on umpteen more blocks?  I do love half square triangles and using the Bloc Loc ruler.  

The good thing about so many WIP's is the fact that I always have something to work on that fits my mood :-)  And I love joining Flickr groups ... so much fun to share progress with fellow quilters.

I wish I had taken a "before" picture of my scrap basket!  Oh my gosh, it was piled high and I just didn't want to spend the time organizing and sorting.  But the time finally came when I had to do something, so last night, with the nothing good on TV blaring, I organized.

Sure did become a much more manageable assortment!  

It's been a full fabulous day and I'm now so happy to post!!  

Deb

...and my first attempt to link up with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced

Another WIP Thursday

The door to my sewing room is open catching the spring winds, leaves and probably pollen!  But, its so beautiful!  After a week out of town, the following week sick with bronchitis, things are a bit behind and crazy.  I got back to sewing two days ago and its wonderful to be back on my machine!  I picked a project that would allow me to just sew without much thought or planning.  So, picking up 4 charm packs, two of "Hearty Good Wishes" by Janet Clare for Moda, and two solid parchment-colored packs, and using the new free pattern by the Fat Quarter Shop (Charm Pack Cherry), I began a throw for my favorite doctor!  He loves to sail, so this was perfect for him!  

I wanted the back to have more color to it, so chose this coral and appliqued an anchor in the blue "pearl bracelet" ... imagine the bracelets as lines on a boat :-)

And the label ...

Now I've got my batting after a fun trip to my LQS, Block Therapy, yesterday and its gonna be fun to straight line stitch the quilting this weekend.  

I got caught up with my Mystery Quilt blocks last night, blocks 9 and 10:

And this is what I started before leaving town:

The patterns are "Spell It With Moda Fabric!", Moda Designer Blog Hop that began the month of February.  After watching a bit, I just couldn't resist joining in!  All it takes is a jelly roll and some background fabric, sashing fabric ... I'm using some low volumes from my stash for the background.  The completed tops I've seen online are super great.  This is a very addictive project!  

Tomorrow is Friday, which means Material Girl Quilts is coming out with her two newest blocks for the Layer Cake Sampler Quilt along.  How could I resist this one?!  I had a layer cake ... I had lots of layer cakes :-), but I do need a background color, preferably another layer cake.  So, pictures of this to follow soon!  

I still have some catching up to do with Quilty Fun and any choice of projects to begin, depending on my mood!  Guess that's the fun of having several or more :-) going at the same time!  

Happy happy weekend!

WIP Wednesday

It's Thursday, I know, but in deciding which project I was in the mood for today, thought I'd just write about what those choices were!  

First off, I have this fun Ryan McKenna block to work on... "All Cooped Up".  It's a small kit that I bought last year of a block to try.  I love her patterns.  She has a brand new one out called "Dog Park" that looks especially cute...to the dog lover like me!  Anyhoo, I'm gonna try my hand at free motion quilting around the pieces with plans to stretch it on canvas for a small wall hanging.  This piece I started last week...finally!  (Seeing pictures of "Dog Park" sparked my memory of this kit)

And then there is block #8 of the 2013 Designer Mystery Block of the Month hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop.  It's a house called "Heartfelt Home" designed by Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson in Fig Tree's gorgeous reds.  

I decided to put some small borders on the Schnibbles "Clover" that I did a while back, hoping to make it a functional throw.  It's so pretty in the High Street collection.  I got a bright solid yellow for the inner border and a yellow High Street print for the outer border.  This will be a great size for practicing my free motion quilting on my domestic Baby Lock...or who knows, its also a good pattern for straight line quilting.  I'm signed up for an exciting class at Block Therapy for free motion quilting on your domestic machine in February, plus I also purchased a Craftsy class on the same topic some time ago.  Learning to do something besides a meandering stitch is my goal for this year!  

An exciting project that I've gathered fabrics for is a Swoon quilt for my sister-in-law.  She likes greens, yellow and coral, (no blues) with a splash of aqua...so with those colors in mind I've chosen a collection of 18 fat quarters and the background fabric.  It's gonna be interesting to see how well I've chosen my colors to work with the pattern.  I admire Camille Roskelley and love her work and patterns.  It just so happens that the Craftsy class I purchased late last year on Piecing Made Simple by Camille, covers and demostrates the Swoon pattern...an exciting plus!  I've watched up through the cutting of the fat quarters.  

You can probably tell that I got very little sewing done in December, other than making Christmas gifts.  I made zipper pouches for family and friends...super fun!  There was also the fun of getting zipper pulls from Etsy to individualize the pouches.  Wish I had taken pictures of them!  

And one last final big event for me...the sewing of the binding on my barn quilt!  It took me a while to get a photo of it and I'm still not happy with the results, but its done and its totally wonderful!  

I should not miss telling you about the gorgeous quilting on this Barn quilt!  I have a new quilting friend, Kathy Olkowski, "Stitch by "Stitch" who lives in Montana. Kathy does beautiful custom quilting and I totally love what she did to the barns.  The roofs and blocks are awesome ... and I'm sorry my photos don't show you the quilting better.  She hasn't seen the last of my quilts! :-) 

One last note today ... I'm signed up for a class in Sisters, Oregon in July with Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts!!!  So excited!  

And now its time to feed to feed the dogs...and I think I'm going to begin cutting the background fabric for my Swoon!  

Debbie

A BIG FINISH

A BIG FINISH!

This is my first big finish for 2014 and when I say big, well, it is queen size, finishing at roughly 90"x90".  Using Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book and a sew along hosted by Sara @ Sew Sweetness for motivation and inspiration, and added fun, I began these blocks back in June, 2013.  

There are 100 6 1/2" (unfinished) blocks and were assembled in the gridlock pattern shown in the back of the book.   I had very little Tula Pink fabric and solids when I began.  The first groups of blocks were made with Amy Butler and miscellaneous from my stash.  Along the way, I built up my Tula Pink collection and discovered how beautiful they were...very different colors from my usual fabric collections.  The Saltwater collection is probably my favorite. 

The white sashing and border is done using Robert Kaufman's white "linen-look".  It took quite a bit longer to assemble all the blocks than I expected, but then again it usually does!   I had to use tons of pins to keep the grid lined up.  Can't wait to see it quilted!!

Feeling so happy and proud of myself!! :-)

Debbie

Morning Joe

Another Shnibbles top completed!  Loved this pattern, Morning Joe, by Carrie Nelson, Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  Simple and fun half square triangles that came together beautifully thanks to Carrie's simple instructions.  They were made a bit larger and then each trimmed to make for near perfect squares.  

I also rolled the seams of the pinwheels to make for nice flat seams with less bulk.  

Fabrics used were two charm packs of Giggles by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda and a Kona white.  The approximate size is 54" x 54".  

As much as I'd love to get this into my machine and do the quilting, November craziness has begun!  I'm readying things for a trip to Georgia to visit my parents for Thanksgiving and a short trip to New Orleans to meet up with longtime friends from San Antonio, TX.  I just don't want to get behind on some ongoing projects, like my City Sampler blocks, and I just couldn't resist joining Lori Holt's and FQS Quilty Fun Sew Along...and then my block of the month.  Heehee...crazy fun! :-)) 

Signing off!  Debbie

Happy Friday!

Oh happy day!  I started a new project yesterday and that's the November Schnibbles...a pattern called "Morning Joe".  Some of my best thinking is over that cup of morning coffee.  This pattern is just making me happy!  It's wonderful and pictures will be shown soon.  

I also made the first block of the Quilty Fun Sew Along ... and this is just gonna be a very fun project!  It will be scrappy, using no specific collection of fabrics ... and will most likely be a fun "stash builder" project! :-) Wouldn't some Pam Kitty fabrics be an awesome addition?!

In this past month, my 12 barns were sewn together, the backing prepared and off to the quilter its gone!  

I had some great input from my friends at the local quilt shop (Block Therapy).  It was their suggestion that instead of a John Deere tractor that I make it a Debbie Miner tractor...and so it is!  :-)

More projects in progress: 

My City Sampler blocks!  I'm up to block 64!  That's 64 six inch blocks!  I've finally gotten organized with my fabrics for these and its going a little faster...and its so much fun! (of course, everything I've been doing is just Fun!) Here are a few I've finished...

My photos aren't that great and I see that one is upside down :-( Please forgive my newbie state with posting pictures. 

As this day began and progresses, I'll continue to be thinking about the fabrics and patterns that I want to use for a special quilt for my brother and sister-in-law.  I've got her favorite colors in mind.  And then, there's the pouches I want to make all my special girls and girlfriends for Christmas. I'll be using a Moda Bake Shop pattern and the mini-charms.  

My dogs are bugging me for breakfast...we are back up to four dogs now.  Darling Steven brought home a rescue...and I love her!  The chickens are probably ready to be let out too.  

Coffee is cold, sun is getting warmer...I'm off to a happy Friday! xoxo