I.S.T.H Finished - First for the Q4 FAL

This is my first finish for the fourth quarter of the Finish-A-Long.  You can see my finish list here. I decided to start with a project that was mostly finished to give me a kick start to the quarter.

For this one all I had left was to finish the quilting in the purple border and the yellow in the stars. I decided to leave the curves in the light purple fabric as they were.  The original hold up for this project was trying to decide if I wanted to add feathers to those curves.  I decided to keep the quilt soft and not put in the feathers. Once the rest of the quilting was done, binding it was quick.

While I was taking photos, some of the ducks at the park kept getting closer.
They seemed really interested in what we were doing.  

 

Or perhaps they thought we had food.

I sure love my quilt holders. This holder is my youngest son.
He is the perfect height to hold this one up. 

One finish complete, that leaves 11 more for the quarter.
I'm fired up to get these finishes knocked out, some have been waiting a long time.
Lets hope that fire doesn't die out after the first month.

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Orca Bay Quilt Complete

The Opportunity Quilt for my guild is now complete.  I finished the binding on the Ocra Bay quilt the other day, but was waiting for some good weather to take photos.  That day was today.  The day started out cloudy, but by the afternoon the skies were blue.



I took my boys to the park with me and had them help me hold it up.

For the back I used the wide backing fabric from Connecting Threads.
It sure was nice not having to piece the backing.

Since the quilt is so busy, I decided to quilt it with an all over design.

 I'll turn the quilt over at the November meeting and we will start selling tickets for the drawing in March.  We'll pull a winner at the end of the Civil War Re-enactment which is usually held the first weekend in March.

I really love this quilt. So much so that I may have to make one for myself. 

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Finish Along 2013 Fourth Quarter

I am a little late to the party, but better late than never right?  I have decided to join the last quarter of the Finish Along for 2013.  I will finally have some more quilting time for myself this fall since I am only enrolled in one college class.  Next spring I take three more classes and then I will have my bachelor's degree. YAY!!

 Leanne, the host this year, said go large so that is what I plan to do!  I am going to aim for four finishes per month. That's doable right?? So without further delay I will list the finishes that I want to get done this quarter.

1. Quilt and bind my HST Christmas Quilt

2. Quilt and bind my Starry Night Christmas Quilt

3. Quilt and bind my Pinwheel Christmas Quilt

4. Sew together a fourth Christmas quilt from these strips I cut out last year.
I am going to add an off white fabric and make a strip tube Christmas Quilt.

Can you tell I want to be ready for Christmas this year??

5.  Finish quilting my i.s.t.h. quilt.  I am almost done with the quilting.  The hold up on this on has been me trying to decide if I wanted to add more feathers to a curved lined I quilted in the large triangle sections.  

6.  Finish the top for my twisting maple leaf quilt.

7.  Quilt and bind my Slide Show Quilt

8. Finish my Dresden quilt.  I am so close to having this one be a complete top.

9. Make that last Mondo bag which I bought the interfacing for.

10.  Quilt my Leap Year Schnibbles quilt

11. Quilt my Jacks Schnibbles Quilt

12.  Finally finish the quilting on this Pinwheel quilt.
Out of all the projects on the list, this one has been waiting the longest.

Phew, that is a lot of quilting.  Let's see if I can get them all done. There is no penalty for not finishing everything on the list, so it is good to make a long list.  It also helps put things in a time line for me.  If I have 12 things that I know I want to finish these next three months, I won't waste time trying to figure out which ones should get done first.  I love this list! I wish I would have jumped into this Finish Along sooner.

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Getting Wicked

My project for the Wicked Blog hop is under way.  It is an original design and I am excited about it!

Can't wait to show it off on October 22! 

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Orca Bay ~ Top Done

The Ocra Bay top is finished.  Now it is on to the quilting.

I am really in love with this quilt.   It will be the opportunity quilt for my quilt guild. Unfortunately based on my previous luck at having my name drawn, I feel my odds at winning this back are very slim.  So much so that I see myself cutting more red, white, blue, and black fabric in my near future.  

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Twist to the 60's with Batiks - Blog Hop

Flower Power!!  That is what comes to mind when I think of the 60's.

I wasn't around in the 60's so I don't have any memories of the era, but I can definitely appreciate the music, movies, and art from that time.  The 60's were full of color which makes batik fabrics perfect for this hop.

I stitched together lots of flowers from some of my brightest batik fabrics
and to go along with the flowers I made a few pouches.

The first pouch was made using a technique similar to the cathedral window technique.

You can find the process tutorial at Patchwork Notes and can use any pouch pattern you like.

I found the perfect spinning flower charm at Hobby Lobby and

my daughter lovingly attached it to the zipper with an extra long chain.

I hand sewed my zipper/lining to the front section because I was sure I couldn't line up the stitches on the front without having it look like a disaster.

It took me a little longer, but you can't see the stitches on the front of the pouch and I am digging the small blue hand stitching in the inside.

I used the Clover Kanzashi Flower makers to make all my flowers.

I used two different styles: the small Daisy Petal and the Large Orchid Petal

These tools from Clover are awesome!  I have made these flowers by hand before and now that I have the plastic tools by Clover I will never go back. They make it so much easier and the petals come out perfect every time.  I bought my flower makers at JoAnns when they had them half off.  I will definitely be going back for the other styles!

This next pouch is called Suzy's Sack, the pattern is by This and That and I bought it from Connecting Threads. It only cost $4.50 so it was easy to add to my cart when I ordered some fabric and thread.

The pattern called for 1/2 inch d-rings and a claw clip for the handle, but I couldn't find either of those at Joanns or Hobby Lobby. I will have to look online to find them.  

 The bag is a small and is meant to hang off or inside a larger one, so the clip would be nice.  The pattern also gives instructions if you don't want to use the clips, which is what I did, but it looks like I can alter it easily when I get the clip and D-ring.

Last I made an Ear Bud Pouch from Erin Erickson's tutorial, but this time I used her Heart Shaped Tutorial.

These are for ear buds, but you can put anything small in them.  My daughter uses hers as a coin purse.

I had a great time sewing up all my creations, the flowers in particular. I sewed them up while watching Dr. Who on Hulu, which coincidentally originally aired in the 60's.  

Make sure you check out the other 60's Batik hoppers today.
Click on the links below to see all the goodies for today.

September 30

Seams To Be Sew
Words & Stitches
Banks of Frog Creek
Quilted Delights  - ME  :)

For a full list of the blog hoppers Visit:

Twist to the 60's with Batiks Schedule

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Time to Sew Rows - Orca Bay

I placed all the sections on the design board to make sure nothing of the same butted up next to each other.  It was fairly easy since there are so many different fabrics.
All I have left to do now is sew the rows together.


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Adding the Red and Blue Strings

I am on the home stretch! My goal is to have the top finished by the next guild meeting, which is October 3.  I already had the blue string blocks finished and today I put them on the design board with the Ohio Star Blocks. This morning I finished up the last of the red string sections.  

Phew, these red triangles took the longest and there weren't even as many of these as there were Hour Glass Blocks.  I definitely know that chain piecing makes things go faster.  I wasn't able to do that with these string blocks though. I took my time finding strings that were just the right length - I hate to waste fabric, even string fabric.  Now that they are done, it will be a breeze to add the "wings" (which I have already started).  Once the wings are on all I have to do is piece the rows together.  I even have the borders ready to go.  I Can't wait to see it all together.  I am totally in love with this quilt!

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Lots of Ohio Stars

These blocks would make a great quilt all by themselves, but they are going into something else.

I have been asked to be in charge of the Opportunity Quilt for my guild and I have decided to make an Orca Bay quilt.  It was Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt a couple years ago.  I didn't do the mystery at the time but every since I saw the finished quilt I have always wanted to make one. I figured this would be the perfect time to do it.

I used a lot of my own scraps and also asked the ladies of the guild to donate their red, blue, black, and neutral fabrics.  Then I went out and bought some fat quarters to fill in the rest of the scraps.   I wanted to have a lot of different fabrics in the quilt.  Each Ohio Star block has a different red fabric center.  That is 56 different red fabrics!  I love it!

I'll finish up the colored string blocks this week and then I will add them to the Ohio Star Blocks.  I am getting really excited about this project.  I may have to have my husband buy a bunch of tickets so I can increase the chances of it coming back to my house when it is finished.  ;)

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Quilting for Beverly

I finished quilting two quilts for Beverly this past week.
She wanted an all over desgin on both of them.  

This is her "Love Quilt".  It is made with love for her husband.

She used up a lot of her scraps to put this one together.

I think it turned out wonderful. I love scrappy quilts!

This is the second one she asked me to quilt for her. 

I am loving the red centers surrounded by all the different shades of blue.
I makes me want to make a quilt like this.

I bet this design would look fabulous in Christmas colors as well.
It is a beautiful quilt.

Thanks for letting me work on your quilts Beverly, they are both spectacular!

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Busy Quilting - Tish's Pastel Quilt

Wow, based on my blog posts this summer it looks as if I haven't been at the machine.  That is quite the opposite though.  I have spent most of my time at the machine this summer quilting for others.  Unfortunately  I have to wait before I can show the quilts I have been working on since they are surprises.
I do have one that I can show now though.
  

This is a Quilt I partial pieced and quilted for Tish.  Since she was able to show it off at our guilds UFO Challenge meeting I can now show it off.  She had given me three large 12 inch pieced blocks (the two on the bottom, and the top left) and the large Dresden block in the center and asked me to do something with them. She gave me her pastel fabrics to work with.  After a couple different layout decisions I came up with this.  I had to make another large 12 inch block, the green and yellow Dutchman's puzzle, and then I made four smaller 8 inch pieced blocks to go in between the larger blocks. I surrounded everything thing with 2 inch alternating squares.  I really love how it turned out.  For the quilting, since Tish doesn't like a lot of heavy quilting, I did a loose meander for her.  It turned out lovely.

For the back Tish gave me a large pieced flower block.  I want to say this is a version of the Carolina Lily block, but I am not certain.  I added the yellow corners to it then added enough borders to make it match the front of the quilt.  It makes a nice double sided quilt.

Tish also had me quilt a small table runner for her, but can you believe I didn't get a photo of it!  It has been a long time since I have forgotten to take a picture of a project.  I sure don't want that to happen again!

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4 Small Quilts

Sometimes you just need a walking foot.  I made the tops in the spring for my guild's charity project and they have been patiently waiting for me.  With the September Guild meeting coming up I lit a fire under myself to get them finished to turn in. I spent my labor day at the sewing machine and got them all finished. (I wasn't the only one inspired, we had over 15 donation quilts turned in during the September meeting.)

 It took me less than an hour per quilt to get these done.  No fancy free motion quilting, just straight lines with the walking foot and they turned out great.  Sometimes all you need is some straight lines and in the ditch quilting.  They measure around 24 x 36.

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Ready for Quilting

Yay! Borders are on.  Phew.  It took longer that I thought to get all those Economy blocks sew together.

I was working on quilts for other people (which I can't show right now) at the same time though, so that might have added to my delay.  I am keeping this one hanging on the design wall so I make sure it gets quilted in time for Christmas!

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