Design Wall Monday, Dec. 31, 2012

Another Monday, another blank design wall. I'm making good progress in getting all my fabric bits and odds and ends sorted and cut into regular sized pieces, with the leftovers going into either string or crumb containers. I really want to start life in the new apartment with a fresh and organized approach to all my fabrics, both stash and scraps and crumbs. It's a lot of work, and quite tedious, but I think I'll be glad to have it done. The only problem... I'm starting to have sewing machine withdrawal. I have all these gorgeous strips and bits, and now I want to sew something with them. LOL!! But I have promised myself that I will persevere, and get it all done.
However, I do have a picture of a finish that I can share. Nathan's quilt is done.
This is a pattern from Judy Martin's book Patchwork Among Friends. The pattern itself is called "Forever Friends". This one was so much fun to do, with all the bright colours, and the novelty prints at the center of each of the stars. It was doubly fun, because I started this at a Quilt-til-you-wilt day, sponsored by the guild back in November. I had so much fun sewing in a group, rather than by myself as I usually do. And Gail helped with the pairing of the fabric colours for the star points, the backgrounds and the center print.
I especially like this one.For the backing, I used up the last of the fish themed fat quarters that I had that were simply too cute to cut up. All three of Lisa's boys have backings made out of fabrics from this collection.Here's a close up of some of those fishy fabrics.
 
I'm Linking up to Judys' Design wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  I'm working the next 3 evenings at the hospital, but I might be able to get more ironing and sorting and cutting done before going in to work. I am determined to get that chore done, and to never let it get this bad again.
Edit: Here it is, Friday already, and I haven't had a chance to write another post. But, I'm going to kink this one to Crazy Mom Quilts, where every Friday there is a link up to celebrate our finishes. 

Think Inside the Box finished

It's Friday, and I have another finish.
"Think Inside the Box" is finished. It is from the book Geometric Gems by Cathy Wierzbicki. This one was a lot of fun to put together, choosing all the fun fabrics for the boxes, and the colours for the edges of the boxes, as well.
The binding is done with a really bright diagonal stripe, with a narrow piping fabric of a yellow, with red dots. This one is for our grandson Lucas for Christmas. I hope he has fun looking at all the fun things in the boxes. He's 2, so he can learn all kinds of words and colours as he grows, and learns to play the game I Spy.
I'm linking this finish to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Two finishes this week.

I have 2 great finishes this week, both Christmas gifts for our Grandsons.
The first is what I've been calling Avery's Truck Quilt. I'm not too terribly good with creative and catchy names for quilts.

I first saw this particular quilt design over on Jamie's blog here. I asked her if I could use the design, and she graciously said yes. I quilted it with an all over design called Hotwheels, designed by Dave Hudson, and purchased from Digi-tech Designs. 
The design shows up really well on the white areas on the backing. The bindings were done with my now normal faux-piping technique using the border fabric as the binding, with just an accent of orange in between. The backing was made with leftovers from the fabrics for the quilt top, plus other fabrics that I thought said something about Avery. There is book fabric in there, because he loves his books, yellow and chocolate lab fabrics, because he has a chocolate lab named Shelby. There are sailboats, because he loves the water, and lives quite close to it. The back was almost as fun to piece as the front.

Then the other finish I have is Jack's quilt, which is a pattern by Judy Martin, called Celebration, found in her book Scraps.

 I quilted it using a very simple continuous curve. I wanted all the fun fabrics in the quilt to be the focus, rather than the quilting. His binding is a diagonally printed stripe, with red as the piping contrast.
I'm looking forward to being able to give it to him and to explain to him that it is more than a quilt, that it is a game, called I Spy, and start him looking for all the fun things in it..... good things to eat, things found on a farm, things that live in the water......
I had some really fun fish and ocean themed fat quarters that I could never quite bring myself to cut into, since they are just so much fun to look at whole. So I pieced them into a backing.

Here's a close up of one of them. These were such fun quilts to make. There are still 2 more, waiting to be finished, as well. I'm linking up to the blog Crazy Mom Quilts for the Finish it Friday posts.

Finish it friday

I have 3 finishes this week, which actually sounds better than it really is. I did indeed get Becca's cold, (thanks for sharing that, sweetie), and it has knocked me off my feet for the past 4 days. However, while surfing around blogland yesterday, I came upon this post from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville, giving information about a quilt drive for survivors of hurricane Sandy. I have had 3 quilts sitting on a shelf in the cupboard for the last 2 or 3 years almost finished. Two of them had the binding sewn on, but needed the binding turned and sewn to the other side. The third needed to have the binding completely put on.
The first one is a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Bricks and Stepping Stones.
The second is a half hexagon.
The third is a Kansas Troubles or Delectable Mountains, variation. I'm going to get labels put on them, and then hopefully have time to get them shipped off, if not today, then Monday.  I'm linking up to Amandajean's Finish it up Friday .

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.

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

Success........ UFO for August is done

My goal for yesterday was finished, with the exception of one pillow case. And that pillow case is all cut out, and pinned and ready to sew. Another hour should finish it.
It's not a very good picture, with part of it in the sun, and it gives a good idea of how the whole thing works.
Here's a closer view of the side setting triangles. I tried hooked feathers for the first time on this one. And I did the faux piped binding by machine again.
Here's the backing. You can see some of the continuous curves done in the blocks here.
And finally, the pillow case. It goes with this quilt, quite well,  but I think it will go well with other quilts in my collection, as well.
And now, does anyone have an idea for a name for this thing. Right now, it is called Spring Swap because the star blocks in the quilt are from an online swap I participated in back in 2010, hosted by Shannon at Pieceful Kwilter. I would like something a bit more imaginative, but I have a terrible time coming up with names for quilts.
Edit: after much thought, and a suggestion from Gail which focused my brain on the flying geese in the quilt, I've decided to name this quilt Spring Migration. I think it fits with the flying geese in the quilt blocks, and with the fact that the star blocks "migrated" from all over the United States, and even one from Australia. I'm linking this post up to Can I get a Whoop Whoop at the blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict and to TGIFF at Amy's Crafty Shenanigans and to the August UFO reveal at Patchwork Times.

Rose Log Cabin is finished....... Woohoo!!!

 I finally have a finish, and it feels soooooooo good. Rose Log Cabin, designed by Deloa Jones, started, according to this blog in July of 2011. It is now on my bed, because this one is staying right here.

Here's a close up of the center section. I quilted leaf shapes into the dark green areas, and petal shapes into the reds. The beige backgrounds are filled with fern type leaves, and the dark green geese shapes and squares have continuous curves.

I decided to keep the design simple, and put the fern type leaves and curls into the light green background areas as well.

And I also managed to get the matching pillow cases done. I used the fabric from the backing for the main body of the pillow case, the green as the contrast colour, and red as the cuff.

And here's the binding, done with the mock piping technique, again using the red, with the same fabric as the backing and the pillow case for the piping. So, that is 3 out of 5 goals that I set for this week done. Once more...... Woohoo!!!

I'm linking this post up to Amylouwho's Sew and Tell and to Sarah's Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, because I am definitely whoop whooping. I'm also linking to a new Friday linky that I found, hosted by Elizabeth at Pieceful life called Show off Friday

March UFO report

 

 My March UFO was my Double Duty quilt, a pattern from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. I had started out doing this as a cross hatch in the log cabin squares. I had the top left hand corner done, stood back and looked at it, and didn't like it, at all. So I ripped out the vertical stitches, and just left in the horizontal straight lines. That I was happy with. I took the last stitches in the binding at 2:10 this afternoon, and took the pictures at 2:25 this afternoon. Considering I had to be at work by 3:00, that was cutting it a bit close. I still have the thread ends of the starts and stops to tie off and sew in, but that is something that I can do while travelling in the car later this month when going up to see Noel and Laurie and Avery again.

Here's a close up of the center of the quilt.

And a closer look at the design in the flying geese portion.

And the backing. 

So far in this year's UFO challenge, I've managed to meet each month's goal. I'm linking up to Judy's UFO Challenge Linky. She's pulled the number 10 for April, which is my Rose Log Cabin. It needs quilting and binding. That should be do-able, I hope. I'm also linking up to Crazy Mom's Quilts finish it friday and Amylouwho's Sew and Tell

Make Your Point is finished

I took this quilt off the machine Wednesday, at about 6 pm, and started to set it aside to be bound at some later date, since I have another quilt also waiting for binding that I had on my to-do list for this week. But then I started thinking (always a dangerous thing to do, LOL), that it really didn't matter which quilt I bound, and wouldn't it be a good idea to get into the habit of, whenever possible, bind a quilt as soon as it is quilted, rather than set it aside for some future date.  So, that's what I did, which means that other quilt is still waiting for it's binding. Maybe I'll do it next week, and that way have something else for the Friday finishes link ups. Now there's a plan......... I wonder if I'll stick to it.

 Anyway... the quilt I finished is called Make Your Point. It is a pattern from a book called Scrap Lovers' Quilts, distributed by Leisure Arts. It was designed by a lady named Mabeth Oxenreider. The 16 patches in the body of the quilt, and most of the checkerboard around the outside were pieced over maybe 2 or 3 years as leaders and enders, after I first read of the process on Bonnie Hunters' Quiltville. It is quilted with continuous feathers  alternating with continuous curves from row to row, which really emphasizes the points. In actual piecing, the quilt is made up of 16 patches set side by side with pinwheel blocks. It's the turning of the pinwheels, and the colour placement that make it look as if it is on point. I feel in love with this quilt when I first saw it on the cover of that book, and knew I had to have one. I am thrilled over the moon with the way it turned out. I used a very pretty pink tone on tone for the backing, which shows the quilting quite nicely. And it is bound with a bright pink stripe. I'm linking up to a few Friday finishes sites. Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and  Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. There are a couple of other friday finish sites as well, but I have to pop out to do some errands, and have to get this posted. I might do an edit and add them when I get back.