Back to a Schedule and Mondo Bags

Well, Summer is finally over.  We spent the last week of summer in the mountains of NC camping, tubing down Deep Creek, and visiting with family.  We camped from Sunday to Thursday. There were a total of 32 family and friends at the campsite.  A few went to spend the night in a nearby cabin but they hung out with us during the day.  It was a blast!

 We came home Sunday just in time to start school the next day.

 It was early morning and only two of us were awake when I took this photo.

There were two more tents that you can't see. 

We had a great camp site right next to the creek.

We tubed three days in a row. What a great way to end the summer!

When my family left on Thursday we headed to Asheville to visit my husband's brother.  We had a good time driving around the mountainside in his Mule, looking for deer, and enjoying nature.

There was an awesome view from the top of one of hills.  It was cloudy when I took the picture, but usually you can see all the humps of the mountains on the skyline.

I haven't done much of any sewing since I got back, but I did do some before I left. My mom watched my dogs for me while we were gone and when I dropped them off I also wanted to drop off a Mondo bag for her and my sister, who came with us. I finished them up the day before we all left for NC.

I even personalized them on the inside handles.

I used Batik Strips from Connecting threads to make these two bags.  I bought two different color ways and still have enough squares to make another bag.

I have made three bags total. Here they are all together.  The Mondo bag on the right is the one I made for myself a couple weeks ago. 

Now it is time for me to get back into my regular school year schedule.

I sure will miss the lazy, fun days of summer.

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Guild Block of the Month - August

This is the block I turned in for my Guild's August block of the month.
To my surprise my name was drawn and I got to take home all the blocks!!

I started sewing them together like a regular string quilt, but then I thought some black sashing would bring out the black novelty fabrics in the center of each one. So I got my stitch ripper out, took apart the six I had sewn together, and came up with this.

I made an extra wide border with the intention of doing something spiffy in there, either with quilting or applique.  After staring at it a bit an idea hit me, so I cut up some green fabric strips and proceeded to make some vines.

I ended up making a lot of vine, way more than I think I will need, but I was having a good time with my new bias tape maker.

I glue basted the center vine on last night and laid out a few scrap triangles to get a feel for what it will look like. I think triangle flower petals will match perfect with the triangle sting blocks.

I have six mini triangles ready for hand applique, only 138 to go.  

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Busy Quilting

 I have been busy at the machine.  I quilted three of the four quilts I previously basted. This is the first one.  It was made by a guild mate of mine and she is going to donate it to one of our local charities. 

The pattern is a Disappearing Nine Patch.

I did an all over swirl for the quilting. 

And it is a two sided quilt!  This panel with wide borders is the perfect backing for this one.

The other two quilts I quilted are still waiting to be trimmed so I can attach the binding, but I got distracted with another project so they are patiently waiting.  I won all the blocks at my August Guild meeting and I was excited to start putting them together as a top.  I have to take one more good picture and I will show what I did with them tomorrow.  

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An Afternoon of Basting

 I spent the afternoon basting quilts.
Of course I had some help from Sheen.
At least this time he wanted to play with my basting tool instead of biting at the pins.

Click here and scroll down to see more links with Pets On Quilts.

I got four tops basted then ran out of pins.  These four are on the top of my "to quilt" list. One is a charity quilt made by Tish and the others are three of the shirt quilts I have been working on. I contemplated going out and buying more pins so I could baste the last shirt quilt, but I figured I could just quilt these and get my pins back.  A good incentive to get busy with the quilting.

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July AYOS - Jacks Top Complete

Finished just in time for the AYOS parade tomorrow.  Phew!
I made it a little bigger than the picture on the pattern.  I like them big enough to cover your legs while on the couch, but not big enough to swallow the whole couch.  I made my version 5 blocks across and 7 down.  

I used four charm packs of Tapestry by Fig Tree Quilts. It wasn't quite enough to finish off the border though, so I added a wee bit of their older Patisserie line for the extra pieces I needed. Both fabric lines have the same colors in them so they blended together perfectly.

I am going to put this near the top of my list to get quilted.  I just need to find a good backing fabric for it.  I already know who I want to send it too so I am excited to finish it up.

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Jacks in Progress

I made some good progress on my Jacks Schnibble quilt over the weekend.
I should have all the rows sewn up by tonight and then I can start on the scrappy border.
My next post should be a completed top just in time for the AYOS parade.

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Cutting For Jacks

When Sinta and Sherri announced we could pick any Schnibble pattern for AYOS this month I knew exactly which one I was going to make - Jacks.  I even had the pattern in my hands on the 1st of the month.  But here I am, less than a week till the parade and I am just starting my Schnibble. My delay was trying to figure out which fabric I wanted to use.  That always seems to be the hold up for me. I am worried if I pick the wrong fabrics I will ruin the quilt. Or I think I want to save some of my nicer fabric for a different project, but I don't have any "different" projects in mind. Sometimes I think I can't cut into a fabric because it hasn't sat on the shelf long enough for me to admire it. 

 Well, I finally told myself I was being ridiculous and picked up my newest charm packs, Tapestry by moda, and cut them up.  I was worried for nothing.  They are going to be great for this pattern and this can be the "different" project I have been waiting for. And when I am done, the fabric can sit on my shelf as a new quilt while I decide who I want to gift it to.  :)

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Vickie's Quilt

This week I finished up Vickie's Quilt.
I love her fabric choices for this quilt!  And her piecing is wonderful!
It was a fun top to quilt.

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I did some alternating freehand feathers in the big white triangles, a different feather variation in the green/blue triangles, and some curves and loops in the smaller white triangles to finish off the center of the quilt.

For the border I did more freehand feathers.

Thanks so much Vickie, it was fun to work on your quilt!

Now I am off to cut up and sew my fabric for my this months Another Year of Schnibbles.  I have less than a week to go for the parade, I better get busy at the machine!


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June's Quilt

Lately I have been so busy quilting that I haven't had time to get the camera out and take pictures so it may look like I quilted three big quilts in two days, but in reality it took me longer than that.  My latest quilted finish is June's patriotic quilt.  I finished the quilting on this one yesterday.

June did a great job piecing this one and it was fun to examine all of the different fabrics she used as I quilted over it.  I used another variegated thread for this quilt. This time red white and blue thread.

 I went with an all over star swirl design to match the patriotic feel of the quilt.

Perfect quilt for the month of July.

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Beverly's Last Two Quilts

This is the third quilt that Beverly asked me to quilt for her.
She asked for an all over design and left the specifics up to me.

For the quilting, I did my all over leafy swirl pattern.
Since there was a lot of orange in this quilt I decided to use an orange variegated thread.
I love how the orange thread makes the leaves pop out on the dark blue border.

This next quilt is the fourth and last quilt Beverly asked me to quilt.

The blocks look totally different from the quilt above, but they really are pretty close to being the same.  

All you have to do is swap the color placement of the flying geese.

The top version makes a diamond block, the bottom makes a star block.

It's amazing what fabric/color placement can do to a block.

  I had a lovely green variegated thread that went perfect with this quilt.

 I did swirls again for this quilt, but this time added five petaled flowers between the swirls.  My daughter came up while I was working on this one and told me they look like clovers to her.
If clovers have five petals then sure, they can be clovers.  :) 

I am excited to be dropping these off at Beverly's tomorrow.  

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Beverly's Second Quilt

This was the other item I finished up on FNSI.

It was mostly complete when I started for the night, I just had to finish up some quilting in a few of the circles.

Beverly she said this top was made by her sister-in-law and has a very special place in her heart.  Beverly's sister-in-law pieced it when she was about 12 years of age. She got the fabrics from her grandmother and great grandmother. Then in 1991 before she died, she sent the top to Beverly from Anchorage Alaska.  At first Beverly wasn't sure if I could quilt it since it was sewn together kind of wonky,  I tried to iron it real good, but it was difficult. I kept ironing new creases when I tried to get rid of old ones. So I did the best I could with pressing and then basted it.  With a little time, patience, and a lot of fudging of fabric I was able to quilt it up for Beverly.  It does have a few puckers in it from odd seams but I think it turned out wonderful and am glad that I was able to help make it a finished quilt.  It has its own beautiful unique charm.

All the different fabrics in it were wonderful to look at and were all so soft. 

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July FNSI

I got lots of progress done during FNSI this weekend.  I finished up Beverly's second quilt and my Mondo bag.  I was gone all day yesterday though and didn't get a chance to take pictures or post my projects so I am doing it today.

I don't have a picture of Beverly's second quilt yet because it has been raining on and off today and I didn't want to risk it getting wet.  I did take some photos of the Mondo Bag though.

This is one huge bag. It is 10 x 10 across the bottom.
And the fusible fleece makes it stand up all on its own.

This is going to be a great bag to carry my show and tell to guild meetings, and for the beach, and for overnight or weekend trips.

I did have trouble with the lining though. The pattern said to make the lining the same way as the outer bag. So I did that, but once everything was sewed together and flipped right side out the outer corners of the bag did not match up with the corners of the lining and the lining would not lay properly inside the bag. It looked like a wadded mess of fabric in the bottom of the bag.  

I couldn't deal with that so I unstitched the whole thing this afternoon. I thought that if I rotated the lining one turn the inner and outer corners would line up. After fiddling with that for an hour and getting no where I finally realized that because of the construction method of this bag I had to sew the lining together in the opposite direction of the instructions. So I unstitched the entire lining and resewed it together, backwards.  After I did that the lining fit snug and now I have nice full corners on the outside and nice smooth lining on the inside.

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Beverly's Quilt

Here is the first of four quilts I am working on for Beverly.
She has pieced a beautiful Trip Around the World quilt.  

I quilted an all over flower loop design for her.

Tonight for "Friday Night Sew In" I plan adding the final stitches to her second quilt. 

After that is finished I plan on working on my Mondo Bag.
Hopefully if I can stay in my productive mode and get them all finished.

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Back From Vacation

It seems like I have spent three weeks at the beach.  Although I have come home for a few days in between each visit.  Those days at home were spent getting ready for the next visit.  One week we spent at the beach visiting my husband's daughter.  The next week me and the kids went to visit with my parents.  The next week we were back again for the 4th, and then for a weekend camping trip.  Lots of beach time and I am still not sick of it. I love it there!

That has left little time for sewing though.  I barely managed to finish last month's Schnibble project and have barely had time to work on customer quilts.  I got two basted and spent what spare time I had sewing together muslin backing for four more.  Muslin gets boring to look at for hours on end though so I had to play with a little color last night.  

When I was at the beach during the second week, my mom and I stopped by Quilters Cottage and I picked up the pattern and some pre-cut batiks to make a Mondo Bag.  (I also snatched up some extra batik yardage since they were having a 30% off sale.)

I was pretty skeptical of this pattern at first. It requires pre-printed interfacing, which came with the pattern, and as I was looking at sample bag I didn't see why I would need pre-printed interfacing just to sew squares together.  But.... and this is a big BUT, The interfacing made sewing so much easier and faster!  

You lay out your squares on the interfacing and press them down. It's like a design board on your ironing board, yet you don't have to take it all off the design wall row by rows and then chain stitch them together. Instead you take the whole thing to the sewing machine and start sewing rows. Nothing gets out of order, and nothing falls off.  It is great and fast.

I am excited to get this finished, but I really need to get some quilts quilted, so back to those for the rest of the week.

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AYOS - Leap Year and Vacation

I finished up my Leap Year just in time.  Last week I was on vacation at the beach but I stayed at my Mom's house and since she has a sewing machine, I took my Schinibble project with me so I could finish it up in time for the parade.

I sewed a little in the mornings before we headed out for our activities, then spent Saturday morning finishing it up.

My mom and I took all the kids to Brookgreen Gardens on Tuesday. We got to see the butterfly exhibit and all the animals before our feet started hurting and our tummies rumbled.  We will have to go back one day to get pictures of all the flower gardens and statues on the other side.  It was a fun day. All the kids had cameras and were taking just as many pictures as my mom and I.  

We spent almost every evening/night on the beach or pier.

The beach at dusk is one of my favorite times to go.

Friday we did the super touristy stuff and rode the SkyWheel.
It has some awesome views.

I am only an hour and twenty minutes from Myrtle Beach so I get to go often.

But sometimes I wish I still lived there.

Sitting on the beach after a day of school or work is the best way to end the day.

I need to find a way to move back there.

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