Design Wall Monday Week 12

 I have another UFO finish. Woohoo!!!!!! The Hexagon stars baby quilt is done. I'm doing a happy, happy dance. I didn't have anything in my quilting designs library that I thought would suit this quilt, so I took a chance and for the first time, designed a pantograph. What a challenge that was. It gave me a whole new respect for the people who do all those wonderful designs we use so frequently. Coming up with the basic design was easy. I knew I wanted fish. But, getting it to all fit together, and nest properly from one row to the next was where the challenge came in. The close up shows a really good shot of one of the fish. I'm really quite pleased with the way it turned out. Then, while going through the design wall posts last Monday, I found a link to a wonderful tutorial on how to do a Faux piped binding that could be completely sewn on by machine. I tried it, and it was wonderful. To make it even easier, I used the same fabric as the piping as was in the backing, so that there were no thread matching issues. This is definitely a keeper technique, for me at least. And, I really like the little bit of extra colour and detail that the piping gives it. To see more design walls, go on over to Patchwork Times Who knows, someone might have another great idea or technique that could add to, or change the way to do something to make it faster, prettier, and easier.

Design Wall Monday Week 11

On my wall today is the finished flimsy for the UFO challenge My hexagon Stars baby quilt. I am hoping to get the quilt that is on my machine finished today, so that I can load and quilt this one. For the first time, I designed my own pantograph pattern for this, so I'm curious to see how it works out, and how the rows nest together when it is done. With the desire to finish that quilt on the machine in mind, this os going to be a short post. The second picture here is a close up of the border fabric that I think is just so cute. To see more design walls, go to Judy's Patchwork Times 

Design Wall Monday Week 10

I have finally finished preparing and glue basting the second block of the My Tweets BOM. I am so totally enjoying doing Erin's designs. I love the graceful curves of the stems, and of the feathers of the birds' tails. I know some people call applique the "A" word, as if it is something bad, and to be avoided at all cost. But, the more I do of it, the more I enjoy it. I love the way My mind can go quiet, and wander where ever it wishes to go, while I quietly stitch. I do a lot of the stitching at work, on supper and coffee breaks, and it is amazing how it can take my brain, and just settle it into calm paths as I stitch. The only snag is that the cataracts in my eyes are getting noticeably worse, and everything has shadows and halos around them, which is making the stitching, and especially the
needle threading, a challenge.

The other occupant of my wall is the quilt I am doing as my #1 in the Ufo challenge, which is the Hexagon baby stars for the upcoming grandson. I am hoping to get all the rows sewn together tomorrow, and maybe even the borders added to it as well. To see more design walls, go on over to Patchwork Times Judy has a quilt up on her wall that she is going to turn into a pattern that I would love to add to my want to do someday list.

Design Wall Monday Week 5

I have a fully cut, partially arranged and partially sewn, grandson six point star quilt on my wall. It was actually one of my UFO challenge quilts, but impatience got in the way, and I simply couldn't wait to work on it. There will certainly be more for him than just this one. It has used some of the fabrics that have come into the house this year, but only a strip or 2 from each one. The pieces are cut small, so the individual prints don't show up very much, but emphasize the colour contrast instead. I think I will do something like a Yellow Brick Road style quilt that will have pieces big enough to showcase some of the really cute fabrics. But, I like the colour play in this arrangement. I have to work this afternoon, but am hoping to get a row or 2 sewn before I go. It was a rough weekend at work, so I don't have a lot of energy to spare for much else. This is the first Monday in a long time that I've had to work. But, there are so few hours availabe, that I have to take what I can get, and am grateful to God for them. Go on over to Patchwork Times to see more wonderful and inspiring design walls.

Design Wall Monday Dec 13

I wasn't planning on doing a wall post today, since I didn't have anything new, and wasn't planning on making anything new. I've spent most of the last couple of weeks working on Christmas gifts, so I can't show pictures of those. Today, I was planning on working on, and trying to get finished, my Nine patch pineapple. But, when I went into my room this morning, the new fabrics that I got in the mail called my name and asked, very politely, if they could come out and play. How could I say no? (giggle) I knew when I ordered them that they were going to be hexagon blocks, in a grandbaby quilt, so I set out to make a few, just to see what they would look like. I'm, so far, only doing gender neutral colours, since we won't know till the end of the month whether it is a boy or girl. I've cut the strips at 3 1/2 inches, so that a lot of the fabric and colour will show, without being overwhelmingly busy. I think they look fun, so far. I'm going to end up with leftovers of each set, so, the plan right now, would be to use the leftovers in a border, but, that is a ways away. Go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see more walls. And now, to work for awhile on the nine patch pineapple, and then maybe more hexies, and go back and forth between the 2, as the mood hits.