Catching Up for the Last Two Months!

I HAVE been quilting during the last 2 months, just not blogging about it. I finished the "Simplified Log Cabin" a few weeks back and last week I went to GA to see our kids and grands and also to take a class in using the Handiquilter at A Scarlet Thread in McDonough. After taking the class I rented time on the machine for the rest of that day and most of the next day. During that time I was able to get a comfort quilt done that I started 2 years ago - as well as my "Simplified Log Cabin" and the "BargelloBowl" that I pieced on Super Bowl Sunday 2008 (a Bonnie Hunter project) These last 2 will stay at our house - I am hoping to get them bound and labelled in time to put them in the quilt show our guild has in July. I learned a lot from Kathy, the Handiquilter teacher at A Scarlet Thread, and had fun using the machine. Thanks so much to Wendy for helping me out when I had little boo-boos! I am not planning to buy one anytime soon as I have no room for it, but it sure does allow this hand-quilter to get some tops done more quickly!

Our guild had a retreat 2 weeks ago. It was held at the Virginia Horse Center in town, but it still felt like a get-away with 20+ quilting friends. Friday we had a class taught by Augusta Cole about making what she called Batik Beauty. We made 9-patch blocks to look like half-square triangles and saw various ways to assemble them. I have 9 blocks made so far and am thinking that I will put them together like this - The picture of the red and white quilt is in Karen Combs' Combing Through Your Scraps - called Star Puzzle. I took a class from Karen Combs thru Quilt University 4 years ago when I first got back into quilting - it was called Combing Through Your Scraps, but at that time I didn't realize she had a book by that name. I never finished that quilt, but I did learn a lot from her. We all enjoyed Augusta's class, as well as her lecture on tips the following morning, and hope she will come back for a guild meeting next year. One of the most helpful things she showed us was how to use Eleanor Burns' Triangle Square Up Ruler - a great ruler for squaring up HST's! And most of us bought one from her too!

Saturday afternoon at our retreat one of our members showed us how to make a folded log cabin square using iron-on templates from Foldy Stuff. Here are the two I have done so far - It is fun to do, and goes pretty fast once you have your strips cut. Of course it took me longer than most of the others because I was trying to use different fabrics in each block, or at least putting the fabrics in different places - typical of the way I seem to do things -- making them more difficult than is wise! A few of my quilting friends were surprised that I was using colors that were not blue and yellow, but I have lots of black/white and white/black fabrics left from the quilt I made for Lillian.

I am the program co-chair for the guild for the next two years. We are planning a challenge for our ladies that will begin in June. I don't want to give anything away in case some of them are reading this - but here is a picture of the pieces of a block that is involved in the challenge - More to follow in mid-June!

Allie's "Going Around in Circles Again," the Final ALA Biblioquilters Block and Progress on the Simplified Log Cabin

Allie has now finished her "Going Around in Circles Again" quilt and it is probably on its way to the recipients. This photo shows her quilting really well. I don't see how she does all those lines so evenly spaced, even with using the walking foot, on her domestic sewing machine!
Here is another picture showing the quilting up closer and closer still I wish I could see the quilt in person, but she made it for the niece of the family that she works for, and it is probably on the way to her and her new hubby now.

I finished the last of the 5 ALA Bilbioquilter blocks a couple of days ago. I like the design, and I like the look of stars, but I don't think I can do them very well. I can add the flying geese pieces on the sides OK, but sewing the blocks together so that my seams don't eat the points is frequently a problem. I always have to sew at least one seam again to get it better. If anyone has suggestions for that problem I'm all ears!
I've also been working on the Simplified Log Cabin and now have 9 rows pieced It is 11 blocks wide; I'm thinking I will make it 13-14 blocks long and hope to be working on it some more today. I love the fact that the border is a part of the piecing, so when I'm thru it is ready to sandwich. I' m thinking I will use a batik for the back - maybe see what I can find in a wide piece so that I don't have to piece it. I think I want to learn how to use a Handi-quilter at some shop where I can then rent time on the machine to do some quilting myself. There is a shop about an hour from here that does that, but you have to buy a set of leaders. There also at least 2 shops in the Atlanta area that have Handi-quilters so I might be able to work in a day or two of lessons and practice with an extended trip to see kids and grands there.

This Pattern Kept Calling My Name!

A couple of days ago I bought a pattern online called Simplified Log Cabin from e-PatternsCentral. I printed it and it has been sitting by my computer calling my name - over and over again! Tonight I finally gave in to it and pulled a bunch of colorful batiks to use in it. I have now cut 21 blocks, and positioned them where I think I want them to go, and have sewn 3 of the blocks together. Here is the layout for the upper left corner - and further to the right Here are two of the blocks sewn together and a third ready to sew to the first two. I think one of the reasons this pattern appeals to me, besides the bright batik fabrics, is that it is a tessellating design. The pattern calls for 42 blocks, but I think I will make it bigger. Since the border is part of the blocks I will need to decide on the size I want before I can finish the top row. I think the thing that will decide it for me is how much more of the border material I have.

This was not the best time to be starting another quilt top - I still have Lillian's quilt to bind and label (but I have finished the quilting on it), another block to make for the ALA quilts, fabric to cut for a table runner class at our guild meeting on Saturday, and tomorrow, well, actually today, I need to start taking the wallpaper off the bathroom walls so the contractor can start on our renovation project. Oh, and I also need to make some of the refreshments for the guild meeting. So around all these things I wonder how many blocks I could get sewn together this weekend??

Orange Crush and Batik Block Swap Update

To my surprise, I have finished the 150 4-patch blocks that was the first step in Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush mystery. This photo shows them with the yardage fabrics - and a bottle of Orange Crush. The next clue probably won't be published until around April 14, so I have some time to catch up on some other projects in the meantime. For these 4-patches we were to use neutral and dark scraps. I think I probaby used 50 or more fabrics, but since I am not quite to the truly scrappy mindset I tried hard to make sure that no two of the 4-patches are alike.

I also finished the other two blocks for the Spring Batik Block Swap on Carol Doak's Yahoo Group. Here is block #3 and #4 Number 3 is Nancy's Block from Carol's 40 Bright and Bold Paper-pieced Bocks. Number 4 is F88 from the Bonus Blocks of the Designer Edition of Foundation Factory. Now I only need to make the Bonus Block. The whole group will be invited to vote on which one they like the best, with the winner getting the other 15 or so in her group of Bonus Blocks. I know which pattern I want to use for that, and think that I have picked out the fabrics I want, but not where to put what. I need to get them in the mail around the 15th so that doesn't give me much time to finish!

I showed the ladies at the Senior Center some of Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilt designs last Wednesday since we are beginning to think about what we want to do next. One that I like is Maverick Stars - but they all agreed that they didn't want to do that one since they thought people who looked at it would think they couldn't make an accurate star. They did seem to be interested in doing one of her string quilts, so we'll see how that goes. At the next meeting we will be working on quilting the sampler blocks that we made last fall.

Orange Crush Mystery Quilt and Spring Batik Block Swap

I am getting ready to participate in the Orange Crush Mystery that Bonnie Hunter has on her Quiltville website. Opening day is April 1 - don't know how much I will be able to do that day since that is DH's birthday, but I'll get started soon after that. After a shopping trip yesterday in Charlottesville, VA after DH ran in a 10-mile race there I now have my fabrics - I was unsure about the green fabric because it might not read as a single color, but I really like the design and with there being a bit of yellow that connects it to the orange/yellow batik, and bit of black that connects it to the black fabric I'm hoping it will work. Not sure which of the blues I will use for the accent - I guess I'll decide that as we go along. I have never done a mystery before, though I did follow along with Bonnie's last one. Along with these fabrics we will be using a lot of light and dark scraps. I have some small pieces of lights and darks selected but haven't cut them yet. Bonnie has said we can cut them into 2" strips, as well as some 3.5" strips of the darks. Since she hasn't said yet what length to cut the pieces from these strips I am waiting on that. If need be I can use various light and dark fat quarters rather than these smaller pieces that I have selected. I doubt that I will be able to keep up with the others doing this mystery since I have several other quilts and quilt projedts underway, but I'll work along on it as I can. Part of the fun of doing this will be all the back-and-forth between the participants on Bonnie's chat group. This will be a new experience for me because I've not really made a scrap quilt before. I did make the BargelloBowl quilt with Bonnie's group, but I don't think it would be considered a "scrap" quilt. I'm making several quilts with lots of different fabrics, but I'm not sure that they would be considered scrap quilts.

I also am working on 5 blocks for the Spring Batik Block Swap on Carol Doak's Yahoo group. Here are the first two that I have finished. This one is #102 from her 300 Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks - This one is #162 from the same book - Each of these blocks is supposed to have some green in it and the block is supposed to represent spring - and of course be a Carol Doak design.

Allie's Green Batik Quilt

Our youngest daughter, Allie, has been visiting us since mid-November. She had been working as an intern on an organic farm in the Hudson Valley of NY, and after a visit with us left this past Friday to go back to work on that farm for a few weeks before moving to a nearby farm where she plans to work this coming season. During the last couple of weeks that she was with us she decided she wanted to make herself a quilt using some of my batiks. She was living in my sewing room, surrounded by my stash and I think it must have been calling her name! She likes to make up her own designs in her quilts, and her knitting. She has two quilts in progress that I have pictures of on my Quilting Links webpage - http://mamanance.info/quilting/index.htm#family She hand-pieced and is hand quilting them, but this time she wanted to try out my Brother. She started on it Jan 7, and finished all but sewing down some of the binding by the time she left here Friday. She had never machine quilted but practiced a bit with the walking foot and with free motion, and, as I guessed she would chose, she liked the free motion better, so did a meandering stitch all over it -- and seemed very happy with the results!