Oregon Trail - America the Beautiful

I outlined this block in the photo to help decipher the actual block in the quilt. I used so many scrappy fabrics for this section, it makes it hard to see the block if you are not familiar with it. Another reason it may be hard to decipher is due to the shape of this section.
There is only one full Oregon Trail block in the quilt. The rest get cut off by other sections.

Reveal date is getting closer!  I am excited to show off the whole quilt and to see how the rest of the guild interpreted this theme.  I'll share some of those photos as well on June 6th.

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Texas Tears - America the Beautiful

To represent the lower west and the desert states, I used the Texas Tears Quilt block.

You may be able to visualize what the whole quilt may look like by now. But I still have the quilting to show off, which I'll do on June 6th.



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Purple Mountains Majesty

 Scrappy purple mountains.  I went through every purple I had to make these mountains.

Some were scraps that were gifted to me, some came from my yardage where I cut off  a 1.5 inch stripe.

In the top photo I was going for dark mountains in the front with medium in the middle and light in the back to show how things in the distance are always lighter in color to the eye.

I drew these pointy mountains on paper then paper pieced them together.

My goal was to have all the dark fabrics on the left since the sun is shining on the right.

While piecing though, I ended up flipping one around. Whoops!  I left it like it was.

You can see a hint of the Oregon trail block under these mountains.

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Kansas Star - America the Beautiful

This is another block in my America the Beautiful quilt.

It was made for my quilt guild's annual quilt challenge, "America The Beautiful - Home Sweet Home"

For this challenge I decided to make a quilt using my own design.  This section is the Kansas Star block and it represents the Amber Waves of Grain. The block measures 6 inches and I paper pieced it together to get nice sharp points.

I'll show more sections of the quilt every few days and on June 6th, the day of the Challenge reveal, I will show the whole quilt in all its quilted beauty.

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Carolina Lily - America the Beautiful

Here is my version of a Carolina Lily block representing the south.

Hubby said it reminded him of Christmas, which it kind of does to me too, but I wanted the background to be green instead of white since the south is full of green trees.

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Ohio Star - America The Beautiful

Representing the upper Northern half  of my "America the Beautiful" quilt is the Ohio Star block.

Lots of green with some blue to represent lakes.  You can also see a hint of the "Carolina's" Under the Ohio Star. The curve of the river on the left almost makes it look like I used a fish eye lens on my camera.

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Rolling Hills

This is the first section I worked on for my guild quilt challenge, "America The Beautiful: Home Sweet Home". I had a good time collecting all the green scraps from my bins to make this section. They represent the Appalachian mountains that run up the east coast.

You can also see a hint of the sun rays and the start of my flying geese.
It isn't quilted yet in this photo. I'll save those photos for the big reveal in June.

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Guild Quilt Challenge

Every year my guild puts on a Quilt Challenge.
The theme for this year's challenge is "America the Beautiful - Home Sweet Home".
  I have been spent most of my quilting time working on my interpretation of the theme.
The Reveal isn't till June 6th, so until then I can only show bits and pieces.

   Today I want to show off one of my favorite parts of the quilt.
It is the storm at sea section (with a hint of sandy beaches on the left).
I drew out the block on graph paper so I could work with a 6 block.
Then I printed it out and used the templates for paper piecing.  

There will be a total of 8 different quilt blocks in the quilt, along with some other techniques.  I'll show a little every couple of days and then on June 6th, I'll post a photo of the whole thing along with the other quilts in the challenge.

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Churn Dash Block

The block of the month for my quilt guild's last month was the Churn Dash.  

The only stipulations were that it had to be 12.5 inches and done in your favorite color.  

My churn without a doubt had to be red.

It's not sewn together yet in this photo, but this photo turned out way better than the sewn version.

I also created a photo with some simple cutting instructions for the guild's newsletter which I am in charge.

And here are all the churn dash blocks that were turned in at the meeting.  

I am anxious to see how the winner puts all these together.

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Dresdens Going Together

I've been spending the week hand appliqueing down my Dresden plates.  I have six more to go.

Halfway done.

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I am glad my kids still like to hang with me when I sew.
I use to give them buttons to play with when they were little,
Now they have upgraded to the pins.
This is what my 16 year old did with my pincushion yesterday.

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More Spring Baskets

I showed my kids the first basket I made and they said they wanted some for their Easter baskets,

so I made three more.

I was picking out fabrics for the basket on the left when my oldest son came in the room to keep me company. He said he wanted to pick the fabrics for his basket so I let him.  His is in the middle.

My youngest son, who is 9, wanted all solid fabric for his.  I tried to convince him to use some patterned fabric for cuteness, but there was nothing I could have said or done that would have convince him to use anything other than solids.

I pulled out the colors he wanted and cut out the pattern.  He kept assuring me it would look fantastic and he was right.  It did turn out fantastic.  He says the solid one is the best out of all four.  :)

My middle son said he wanted one made in all browns. The darker the better.  I am still trying to convince him to go for more Easter colors. We shall see what happens...

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Spring Basket

I saw this basket on the Sweetwater blog and loved it right away.
When I saw they were offering kits in their Etsy shop I snatched one up so I could make one of my very own.

 The pattern called for something called Soft and Stable which I hadn't heard of before. After a google search I found it is a foam type interfacing that makes bags stiff.  I also realized I would have to order some through the internet since I don't have any local quilts shops nearby to purchase it from.  I was really eager to make the basket though so instead of waiting for soft and stable I used fusible fleece instead.  The basket still came out nice and stiff. I do eventually want to try the Soft and Stable just too see first hand what it is like. It will have to be some good stuff  though to make me switch from fusible fleece, I love that stuff.  

I plan to make another basket and already have more fusible fleece cut out, but on the next one I want to make a better knot at the top of the basket.  This one didn't come out as pretty as I envisioned it.  Perhaps I can fiddle around with it to make it more beautiful.

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Civil War Re-enactment

Every year my quilt guild attends the civil war re-enactment of the Skirmish at Gamble's Hotel.  We have a little booth near the main house and show off some of the quilts we have made and offer little demonstrations on hand sewing and quilting.  On the last day of the event we giveaway a quilt to one lucky winner   The event was held over the weekend and I love seeing all the people dressed up in period costumes.  This is on of my favorite photos from the event.

I have been asked to be in charge of making next year's opportunity quilt.
It is a big task, but I am excited to do it and already have some ideas rolling around in my head.

I'll keep you posted.

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Christmas Top Finished

I added the green and red borders this afternoon and now the top is complete. Yay! 

I never knew it could feel this good to be one step closer to finishing Christmas sewing in February.

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Christmas Quilt in February

My Christmas quilt has been on my design wall since December. It has gone from this....

  ...to this.  Everyone denies knocking the board over. They are all blaming the cat.  

With the help of my son we got it back to it's regular layout.  That was about a month ago.

Yesterday I found the motivation I need to get this project rolling-
I need my design board to help design a new quilt.
Nothing like something new to help you move along with something old.  :)

I have all the Half square triangle sewn in pairs, a couple full blocks sewn together, and one whole row done.

Not sure why I picked the third row to sew first, but you can see how much shrinkage there is from layout to finished row.  The plan is to finish the top this afternoon. Hopefully I won't have too many distractions.

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