Leo’s Mane Sew Along

Wednesday 31 October 2012

A Newfo......


But hopefully not a UFO, since I'm hoping to have this one done for our grandson Jack for Christmas. It has a long way to go, but it sews up quite quickly.
This is another Judy Martin pattern, from her book Scraps. It's a pattern called "Celebration". It will be twin bed sized when it is done. I have tons and tons of the 3 1/2 inch novelty print squares cut. Probably enough to do 2 of these quilts. I'm having a lot of fun playing with these fabrics. And this isn't all of them. I have some cut into 5 inch tumbler shapes, and some more cut into 6 inch squares. Lots and lots of fun to come. I'm linking up to Cat Patches Newfo Party for October.

Monday 29 October 2012

Design Wall Monday, Oct. 29, 2012

It is dark and gloomy and cold and wet here today. We are currently feeling the outer bands of the hurricane. We've been out today and stocked up on water, candles, lamp oil and firewood, just in case something in the infrastructure around us goes down. One of the things they have been predicting is extra high waves on the south side of the Great Lakes. Our water supply for this city comes from a pumping station at the south end of Lake Huron, so we thought stocking up on some water would be a good idea. It is definitely a good day for staying indoors.
I have a finish on my design wall today. Think Inside the Box is finished. I really wanted to make this bigger. It's measuring 56x72 at the moment, and I had hoped to get it more into the twin bed size. But no matter what I tried to do, the quilt wouldn't let me. It is quite loudly shouting that it is finished and that adding anything else would ruin it. So, I'm listening
to it.
I've also finished the backing for it. I had 8 of the grass or seaweed in water type fat quarters in my stash, and have never been able to quite figure out what to do with them. I decided to combine them with some water with bubbles fabric and came up with this as a backing. This makes 2 grandson quilts done, 2 to go, before Christmas.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday post. There is lots of fun stuff to see there.

Sunday 28 October 2012

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report


I think I might be starting to climb out of the fibromyalgia pit I've been in for the last 2 weeks. I actually managed to spend a little bit if time in the sewing room yesterday, and pieced a backing for a quilt, and did the set of orange nine patches for October's nine patch swap at the guild. I did get a lot of hand stitching done in the past week.
I think the only thing left to do on this is the centers of the flowers, and then colour the rest of it in. I've been working on Laurie's stocking, too, and it is getting close to being done. I'm on piece 74 out of 117.

I haven't done a stash report in a couple of weeks now, and the numbers reflect that. I picked up 4 fat quarters of sky looking fabric for a quilt I have planned. There is a "quilt til you wilt" day coming up in November, and I know exactly what quilt I want to work on, and I needed more sky type fabrics for it. And then I picked up a package of 40 five inch I Spy charms, that have been trimmed to tumbler shapes. I'm collecting them to eventually be able to have enough for a twin sized quilt.

Used since Oct. 14:                                         6 yards
Used this year:                                            103.9 yards
Purchased since Oct. 14:                                1.7 yards
Purchased this year:                                     159.5 yards
Balance:                                                          55.6 more yards in than out.

I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

I'm still here......

Even though I haven't posted in about 10 days, I'm still here. It's been a rough week and a half, starting with scheduling issues at work, and ending with a major fibromyalgia flare up. There has been no quilting accomplished, at all. I did manage to get the sleeve and label sewn onto the last quilt that is going into the quilt show. They have to be delivered tomorrow afternoon, sometime. The rest of the time has been spent on the couch, or in the recliner chair, or in the bed, waiting for this particular flare up to run its course. I've gone through a few books, a couple of netflicks movies, and a bit of embroidery.
And I am so thankful, for an understanding husband, who takes such good care of me. For a terrific Christian sister who called to talk and give encouragement. And most of all, for a gracious heavenly Father who gives comfort and peace when it feels like all the walls and ceilings are coming crashing down.

Monday 15 October 2012

Design Wall Monday, October 15, 2012


Think Inside the Box is still up on my wall, but it is making progress. The first 3 rows are completely sewn together, and the fourth is all sewn and ready to be added. The 5th row has its plain muslin top and bottom triangles on, and ready to sew into a row. The 6th still has to be done.
I think this quilt is going to go to one of our, new to us, grandsons. A long time ago, for reasons I can't go into here, Scott lost contact with his daughter from his first marriage. Our daughter, Becca has looked for her on Facebook, pretty much ever since Facebook came into existence. Well, last year around Christmas time, she found her. To make a long and complex story short, Lisa, Scott's daughter, and he have reunited. She is happily married, and has 3 sons, ages 5, 4 and 2. It has been a wonderful and exhilarating experience, the answer to many many years of prayer. Both Lisa and Scott glow with joy when they are together. I am hoping to make each of them a quilt for Christmas this year.
Here's a close up of some of the fun fabrics. I think this is going to get a border of the muslin to frame the whole thing, and then another border of the novelty fabrics, maybe in 3 inch squares, as a final border. Life is so good, and God is so faithful to answer prayer. Our hearts are filled with such joy, my eyes fill with tears every time I think about it, or talk about it.
I'm linking up to Judys Patchwork Times Design wall Monday. I've already been over there to look, and there is lots of fun stuff to see.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Stash and Sunday Stitching Report, Oct. 14, 2012


For the hand stitching this week, I've been working on the block of the week for the Grandmothers Choice.
                 
The sunflower block is now completely finished, and the star on this weeks block is about halfway stitched. This makes seven blocks, so I can go ahead from here and sew the first row all together. I cut all the sashings and cornerstones this past week, so that's a good amount to come off the stash.

Used this week:                                                 3.8 yards
 Used this year:                                                97.9 yards
Purchased this week:                                            0 yards
Purchased this year:                                         157.8 yards
Balance:                                                              59.9 more yards in than out.

I just might break the 100 yards used mark in the next couple of weeks. That would be cool. I'm linking up to Judy's Stash report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. I'm working this afternoon, so unless I do some stitching on my breaks, there won't be much stitching done here today.

Friday 12 October 2012

Shakespeare is done

I have no idea why it took me this long to get this quilt finished. Looking back, I started sewing on this quilt in July of 2010 and finished the quilting back in August of 2011, and then it sat, buried under a pile of quilts sitting on a chair in our dining room, waiting for the binding to go on. Well, it is now on, and totally finished.
This is another Judy Martin pattern, from her book The Creative Pattern Book. I love the movement in the quilt. I love the way the dark background shines through the gold stars.
I used spiraling feathers that follow the movement of the snails trails blocks, and the feathers also reach into the outer background areas of the large stars. The star points and interiors are quilted with continuous curves.
And, as usual, I used the faux piping technique to completely machine sew the binding. The binding fabric was a stripe printed on the diagonal that I found a year or two ago, bought expressly for binding this quilt. I'm linking this finish up to Amylouwhosews, who's having a virtual sewing sewing summit party this weekend. Unfortunately, I'm working this weekend, so can't participate, but she's also invited Friday finishes, so I can do that. I'm also linking up to Finish it up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Monday 8 October 2012

Design Wall Monday, Oct. 8, 2012

I'm late posting again today. But I have a really good excuse. My daughter, who rarely ever is interested in anything to do with sewing, called tonight, and wanted to talk about sewing, and fabrics, and ideas and we talked for over 2 hours. We had the same web sites up on our computers and oooo'd and aaaaaah'd over all kinds of stuff. She was all excited and enthusiastic about making some things with the idea to sell them. Was I going to say no............ heck no!! I don't know if it will happen, but I sent her some links with pattern ideas, and we'll see where it goes from here. The idea of actually sitting down some time and sewing with my daughter has me all tickled pink, as the saying goes. 

I have the first six of the Grandmother's Choice blocks up on the wall.
It really isn't a very good picture for colour quality. I had to play with the exposure editing function of the photography software, since it was dark when I took the picture, using a flash. I read on somebody's blog recently, I can't remember whose, that they had heard of someone else putting  the sashing  onto their blocks as they made them. I thought this was a fabulous idea, and I'm going to do the same thing. I found that brown fabric in my stash. It's been sitting there for years.  It seems to fit the feel of the rest of the fabrics in there, so I pulled it out, and started cutting sashing strips and then put it all up on the wall, stood back and went "Wow..... I like it". One more week, and I'll have a full row to put together. So, when the year ends, the quilt will be done. And this way, I can get a balance of colours as I go, as well. I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday post.

Sunday 7 October 2012

Stash and Sunday Stitching report


It is 11 pm. and we just got home from thanksgiving with all the family about 45 minutes ago. I was going to write this report while we were over there, but when I went looking for my stitching to take pictures of it, I realized that I had left it at home. DUH!! This is actually a 2 week report, because I missed last week. In the stitching department, I've finished up the second of the Promises and Borders
blocks, and I'm almost finished with the fifth of the blocks in the Grandmother's choice block of the week.



 
We had a lovely dinner tonight, filled with lots of love and laughter, but not a whole lot of talking. We were all much too busy laughing at Avery's antics. He is hilarious. He loves sweet potato casserole that his daddy makes. He did get some of it into his tummy.
 
And even more than sweet potato casserole, he loves yogurt.
He's very serious about his culinary skills. He's just about ready to graduate to 5 star restaurants. LOL!! After all that yummy food, he had to have a bath.
That's better........ all clean again. He is absolutely the ultimate in cuteness. And he looks so much like his daddy did at the same age. He makes my heart melt into a big pool of mush...........

Oh, wait a minute, this is supposed to be a stash report. I got sidetracked by grandson cuteness.

Used this week:                           2.6 yards
Used this year:                          94.1 yards
Purchased this week:                      5 yards Kona Charcoal for Great Granny Squares
Purchased this year:                   157.8 yards
Balance:                                      63.7 more yards in than out.

I'm linking up, better late than not at all, to Judy's Stash report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching , even though I didn't actually get any stitching done today. I mean, really, with all that Avery cuteness happening, who can find time to stitch.

Saturday 6 October 2012

Quilt-a-thon day 3



I'm not sure just how much quilting will get done today, during the 3rd day of Judy's virtual quilt-a-thon, to add to the accomplishments of the last 2 days. I'm hoping at least a little bit. I have pies to bake for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner -an apple and a pumpkin. I found the second quilt that I needed to get binding, sleeve and label done on last night. So far, the binding is made, the hanging sleeve is made, the label is done, and all of that is almost all sewn on to the back of the quilt. If I can get the front side of the binding sewn down, I can take it with me when we got to visit with Noel and Laurie and Avery over at Matt and Becca's this evening and do the hand stitching on the hanging sleeve and the label.
This is where it is at now. I just need to join the 2 ends and finish stitching it down. I can probably get to that while the pies are in the oven.
And today is also the Grandmother's Choice day. I do have the blocks from the last couple of weeks done. And this week's doesn't look that hard, so I might be able to fit that in, as well. I'll check back in later with a progress report.

It's 2:50 in the afternoon. The apple pie is out of the oven. The pumpkin has a few more minutes to go, yet. No sewing so far today.

It's now 10:30 pm, and the binding is all sewn down onto my Shakespeare in the Park. I can take it with me tomorrow to Matt and Becca's and hand sew down the edge of the hanging sleeve and the edge of the label, and then I can count this as another finish.
I love the effect of diagonally printed stripes in bindings. It looks like a bias binding, without all the work of bias binding. 

Friday 5 October 2012

Heartland Star is finished!!





I've continued today, working along with Judy and some others on day 2 in the October virtual quilt-a-thon, and I accomplished my goals. WOOHOO!!
Here she is in all her finished goodness, bound, labelled and hanging sleeved. It feels so very very good to have her completely finished. She is from a pattern designed by Judy Martin, in her book Patchwork Among Friends. Have you ever had a book where you want to make almost all the quilts in it? This is one of those for me. This is the first quilt I've done from this book. It won't be the last. There is an Autumn leaves one that is loudly calling my name.
I used the faux piping binding technique to completely machine finish the binding. I know some people love doing the binding, and putting in the last stitches by hand into it. It is their favourite part. Not so for me. By the time I get to doing the binding of a quilt, I am so very ready to have it done, that the time it takes to hand stitch the binding drives me crazy. So, I used the fabric of the wide border for the binding, and the darker green of the inner border for the piping. I like the little added spark that little bit of accent gives the finished quilt.
Here's a close up of the center of the quilt. I love the colours in the center of this star. I bought these fabrics on a shopping trip with my blog friend Jannette. It was the first time we had met in person, and it was such a fun day. This quilt will always remind me of that day and our first meeting.
And here's another view of all those feathers in the background, along with the smaller stars. I LOVE THIS QUILT! I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it in the book, and it turned out exactly as I dreamed it would.
I'm linking this post up to Amandajean's Finish it up Friday and also to Sarah's Can I get a whoop whoop

Thursday 4 October 2012

October quiltathon Day 1


Judy, at Patchwork Times is holding another virtual quiltathon for this weekend. We're having family visiting on Saturday and Sunday, so I won't get much done those 2 days, but I sure can see how much I can get done today and tomorrow. Noel and Laurie and Avery are coming for the weekend, and staying with Matt and Becca in their new house. This is the first time they've been able to visit down here since before Avery was born. So there will be lots of family and playing with Avery time this weekend. For today, my challenge is to get Gail's quilt finished. This is where it is now, with 3 passes finished. I would like to be able to get it completely finished, and be able to get my Heartland Star quilt trimmed, bound, labeled and hanging sleeved by the end of tomorrow. I'll report in later with a progress report by updating this post.

It's 6 pm, and Gail's quilt is off the frame, and on its way home with her. We had a scary moment, though, that quilt and I. When I advanced it to do the last pass, I noticed that the backing was about an inch too short on one of the corners. And her border is pieced flying geese, so there would be no way to just trim it off. EEEEK!!! OH NO!!!! However, I calmed myself down, did a phone consult with Gail, and we decided to try to ease in the extra fullness into the quilting. It worked, with about a quarter in to spare. So now, I can get some supper - leftover spagetti from last night - and then get to doing the binding on Heartland Star.

10 pm, and I'm done for the day. Heartland Star is all trimmed. And am I ever glad I have a 12 foot long surface to do that task on.
 
The binding is made for the faux piping machine technique, and 3/4 of the way sewn on to the quilt. And I even made a label for it, and got the hanging sleeve made and one edge of it sewn on with the binding.
 
All in all, a very good day's work. 

Wednesday 3 October 2012

An almost finish..




It's been quiet on this blog lately. That's because it has been anything but quiet here. I've been working like a madwoman trying to get this quilt finished.
I think I went a little crazy with all the feathers.
All of the small stars are done with continuous curves, with a loop up the center of each star point. The center star has continuous curves in all the diamond shapes.
 
 I did a couple of different style feather motifs in the borders.

 
And here's a view of the back.



 
It needs binding, and, since it is going into the quilt show, it also needs a label and an hanging sleeve.
Now that this is off the machine, I've loaded on Gail's Mystery Quilt. Here's a sneak peak.
Two passes are done on it. I think there are 7 or 8 left to go. So, it's back to work for me.