Monday, March 31, 2014

Honeypot

Spring has finally sprung. The only snow left now is what is left of the deepest drifts. Spending less and less time indoors. I did get these blocks together finally. And added the border. Thank goodness for the gals coming over to quilt Wednesday nights or I wouldn't have gotten that much done.

 One good thing about the snow, it brightens the wall for taking better pictures of my quilts.


Stop by Judy's next for Design Wall Monday.




Tuesday, March 25, 2014

STiLL Winter

It sure doesn't feel like spring yet. I don't remember a colder March. That means it is still quilting weather. Lots of us are getting a little tired of the dark colors of winter, me included. So I brightened up the blog a bit. Even though black isn't a bright springy, cheery color, I love it with the bright prints in this quilt. It's all I've had time for.
If you have the new version of the Thirtysomething Square Up, you can make these stars and border units easily using it. You will also be able to find the block in my new book, The Thirtysomething Block Book.
and I may be late, but I am still linking up to Judy's.

Monday, March 17, 2014

What's it to you?

Still busy as all get-out, but at least I am getting stuff done. The only sewing I have done is to make these 3 sampler blocks for my beginner class. My neighbor is interested in joining the class now, so I will have to catch her up.

Otherwise, I'm still working on the book.  You may be surprised that I seem to be working on it so much when I said I was pretty much done.  That's cause once I figure everything is ready for the book designer or graphic artist and she does her thing we see that we have room to add a little something here and there. Or some of the drawings didn't convert well from Electric Quilt to Corel Draw on a PC then to Adobe Illustrator on a Mac. Then there is juggling stuff on the pages and the reference to it that you have to check/correct. Stuff like that. Unfortunately,it doesn't look like it will be printed before I go to California in early April. It was never part of the original plan, so that is ok. I'd rather take the time to do it right, than rush through it and regret it later.

Quilting at church tomorrow. No prep required there. Hopefully we will finish up our log cabin blocks for our raffle quilt.  I hope to have no part in deciding what arrangement they want those blocks in. That no doubt could take all day with a roomful of women.

I was discussing terms for techniques with another quilter. Gee, it would sure be nice if we all spoke the very same language. The one that got us going was where you sew diagonally across a square that has been placed on the corner of a bigger piece. After our discussion I checked several of the quilt books in my collection and found the following names for the same technique. And sometimes no name was used, just the directions to do it.

fast 45's
corner square
folded corners
snowballing
connectors
stitch and flip triangles
squiffy squares
flip over corners
fast corners

I hear folded corners most around here. So, what's it to ya?

Other names that I hear used differently than me

My term                                 Their term

block                                        square
unit                                           block or square
half-square triangles                triangle squares
back/backing                           lining

No wonder people have trouble learning how to quilt!  I hope I don't add to the confusion with this. While sewing with friends, I try not to swear.  Okay, just being honest here. So instead I just say "Oh, bobbins".

For my last Spring report, I noted that the robins and redwing black birds are back. Today I saw the geese and just now I hear the cranes. Yep, that's the order every spring. It totally makes sense that their clocks are set by amount of daylight and not temps. Forecast this week is for temps warm enough to melt most of the remaining snow. I am hoping along with the rest of the nation!

oops, It's Design Wall Monday, at Judy's. Nearly forgot.


Till then, Happy Quilting









Friday, March 14, 2014

SEW Busy

I can't believe how busy  I have been. The book is taking longer than  I thought it would. Probably cause I found this great graphic artist that has ideas of her own. And partly because I am not as computer savvy as you'd think. Besides getting the book ready to print I've had another group of beginners start a sampler class. It was getting a little crowded here so we set up class at our house across the street. Otherwise it will sit empty till it gets a new roof and then who knows what my in-laws will want to do with it. Should be fun.
My daughter and her friend have been coming regularly, too. Lisa started her sampler probably 15 years ago. The blocks are all framed now,next they will get sashing and a border. I am happy to see my daughter showing an interest in quilting again. I imagine it will just be a winter thing, but that's ok.
Spring is on its way. I knew it was coming too. We had a few days of snow melting so the deer probably won't be coming around to raid the bird feeder much anymore. Still have lots of snow, though it didn't keep the robins from arriving on time and even the chipmunks are awake. We haven't seen the stray cat we fed this winter since it warmed up a bit and the coons came around to eat it's food.
Before you know it I'll be digging in the garden again and I won't have made many quilts all winter.
Yikes! Lots of odds and ends waiting for borders and such. Maybe I can focus on that. Once taxes are done, and. . . Mark has been a wonderful help. I imagine once it's nice out, he will be outa sight. I guess I will enjoy it while I can.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Great Do-over

If you have been following my blog for a while, you may recall that last March Sue and I bid and won an antique quilt top from on ebay. I say "we" cause Sue isn't connected. The top was for her. She's crazy about them old 30's and 40's prints. And probably really 50's prints. Her plan was to take it apart and remake it.
Here's the before and after pictures.

Generally I don't blog about other people's quilting but this time I had  to share cause she was so sweet and gifted it to me. WOW. Why would she do that?  Well, she knew I loved this particular pattern and lots of those prints. After all I kept her informed of all the goodies I found on ebay and shared with her the treasures left at church. But apparently this is her favorite pattern to piece - having done 3 now. Giving it way gives her a reason to make another top.  Apparently she has a problem with them piling up at home and she is happy to give it to someone that she knows likes it.

It doesn't take much to see what changes she made to it. Besides changing the many colored melon patches to one color, she swapped out some of the fabrics that were very thin. She is fond of the stripes so added those and introduced a bunch of the bright yellow. One of the biggest improvements to this piece is the workmanship.  The quilter that had attempted to put this thing together had no concept of a consistent width seam allowance and didn't have a clue how to get those corners to meet and lie flat. Sue ripped out all the hand stitching that had a backstitch every 3 stitches and then recut the pieces for the 9-patch.  Sue was a a little disappointed in how flat and smooth her pieces fit together, but I assured her that it will "quilt out". Let's hope so.  I bet she is going to expect me to hand quilt this thing.  That's her favorite thing to do with a quilt top and on a gem like this, I guess I ought to to honor Sue. She has been my sister-in-law and friend for 40 years and I am really glad to have this piece from her.

Book 9 I am calling the Thirtysomething Block Book and is in the hands of the graphic artist, so now my attention turns to marketing it. Thinking of a blog hop/book tour. What do ya think. There would be give-aways involved.