April FNSI

For April's Friday Night Sew In we were challenged to make one pillowcase for for Conkerr Cancer, who distributes pillowcases to critically ill children.

I had 28 inches left of this cute frog fabric which is the perfect size for a pillowcase.   It came together super fast.  I even did the french seams on it and it was still fast to put together.

Which meant I could use the majority of my sewing time last night for finishing up the quilting and binding on Sara's Turning 20 quilt.

Sara, a guild mate of mine, had been gathering flower fabrics that represented each state where her children were born.  She also added some other fabrics that represented each child and her husband.  The top and bottom border are forestry fabric to represent her husband and his long career in that field.

I did an all over flowery loop quilting for this quilt.

I love all her flower fabrics, they are all so soft.  My favorite is this pink flowered fabric.

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First of the 9 Patch Quilts Finished

 I finally got the binding on this quilt this afternoon.

  That makes two complete quilts for my shirt quilt project. 

 And finish #11 for the year.

  Yay!!

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Gaggle of Geese

I must have some form of Quilters ADD.  I can sit at the sewing machine or cutting table for hours no problem, but I usually end up working on a couple different projects during that time.  Very seldom do I take one project and work on it from start to finish.  For instance, yesterday I started fiddling with my tube blocks, but then I ended up cutting and sewing together all my flying geese for my Schnibbles "Summer Day" quilt this month.  

Luckily this time I didn't' have to spend time picking out fabrics for this project (which sometimes takes me days) because a couple months ago I bought a kit from Quilt Taffy that had the pattern and all the fabrics picked out for me.  So when they announced "Summer Day" as the new pattern this month I got excited since I already had everything I needed.  The girls at Quilt Taffy picked out a Sophie charm pack and some yardage to go with it.  They did a great job, I am loving all the geese in these soft colors.

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Tube Blocks

I made some good progress on my Strip Tube quilt last night.
I cut and pressed all the blocks and got a few of them sewn together in pairs.

Then I fiddled around with the scraps.  I figured if I don't trim these up now they will sit for who knows how long.  There were some extra triangles at the end of each strip tube that weren't quite big enough for a full block, so I trimmed them up and sewed them together in smaller hour glass blocks.  On each tube I also had enough fabric to trim off  2.5 inch  strips.  I'm thinking of sewing these all  into blocks and adding them to the back of the quilt. That will reduce the yardage I need for the back and look pretty spiffy at the same time.

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Baby Cakes Top Done

I've been busy sewing blocks together and got my Baby Cakes top together.

I also got the quilting done on my second shirt quilt.  All it needs is the binding.

It is sitting next to the lily I won at our last guild meeting. 

They were the centerpieces for out Southern Tea Party activity.

At the end of the meeting they gave them all away as door prizes and the last name they picked to take one home was mine!!!  

I also won the guild block of the month!  

WAHOO!!

I am super excited about that too. 

I laid out all the blocks last night to get an idea of how I wanted to put them all together
and have decided to turn them on point.  I am two blocks short though.

I thought about moving the two in the center to the bottom and putting two empty squares in the middle so I can quilt something spiffy on them. Or I can just make two more blocks.

I also need to figure out what color sashing I want to use.
I will think on it for a bit while I get the quilting done on some of my other quilts.

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Blocks and Strip Tubes

I finished sewing my Baby Cake blocks yesterday. 

With Chain piecing they went together pretty quick.

Later on in the evening I worked on my Strip Tube quilt.  

I got all the tubes sewn together.

Did you notice I flipped my cutting mat over?  

I was ready for a new color on the cutting table.

Two sided cutting mats are wonderful!!

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Lorene's Quilt

Here is the quilting I did on Lorene's Quilt

It is all freehand feathers and loops.

I did mark the arcs on the triangle blocks though so I could have a uniform shape for all the curved feathers.

 I also marked some straight lines in the other triangle blocks so could have a line to base all the loops on and so the adjoining triangle loops would line up together.

I love all the blues and browns in this quilt.  Lorene did a great job picking out the colors for this beauty.

I didn't think it was that windy outside till I tried to take a photo of this quilt.

It is amazing what a little wind can do.

I finally got it to lay still for a brief second.

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Tish's House Quilt

I've been busy quilting. 

In between working on my own projects, I have been working on this House Quilt that Tish made.

She told me to add the blue border on for her and do what ever with it.

I had fun playing around with thise one.  I really love her woven pineapple.

I put some grass quilting in her front yard.

and did some more circle feathers.

I stitched around the windows and doors and the frame of the house, you can see those better from the back.

I also finished up Lorene's quilt this week. I will post that one tomorrow.

Now I am off to the machine to sew up some Baby Cake blocks.

I am watching the baby this week so I better take advantage of that afternoon nap!

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How I Paper Piece

The other day I worked on some fabric postcards.  This particular swap was themed "Black and Orange". 

I had the idea in my head of what I wanted to do for these cards, but I couldn't find the right sized paper pieced tree pattern, so I made my own.  As I started the paper piecing process I kept having trouble lining up my next piece.  I'd use the light box to help line it up, but then things would shift as I took it to the machine. and I wasn't quite sure where the line was anymore. I would either have the top too far off or the bottom in the wrong spot, so I decided to try it a little different.

Instead of trimming the pieces to a 1/4 in seam allowance AFTER I sewed the pieces together, I decided to trim it BEFORE the actual sewing.  Here is what I mean:

This is what I have so far.  It is ready for the next piece of fabric.

I flip my paper over.  The piece I am adding next is piece #7.

I find the line I am going to sew on next and fold the paper right on that line.

Fold it all the way and crease it.  You can now see all the extra fabric from my last few pieces.

Line up your ruler and trim that fabric off.

Since I was making a postcard that won't get washed, I used a 1/8th seam allowance.

Flip your block back over.

You now have a nice straight edge to line up your next piece with.

Line it up and take it to the machine.

Sew on the proper line.

Press that piece open 

The iron not only presses the fabric, but it also presses out the crease you just made in the paper.

Continue the process for the rest of your pattern.

Feel Free to use my Paper Piecing Tree pattern to make your own 4 x 6 postcard.  

These trees would also look great as Christmas trees, or winter evergreens. or even pastel spring trees.  

The possibilities are endless.

Four pretty orange trees making their way across the US.

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A day of Cutting

I didn't do any sewing today.  Instead I took a break from the machine and spent it with my rotary cutter.

First I cut out the Baby Cakes kit I ordered from Connecting Threads.
I had it on my wish list for awhile and finally snatched it up as soon as it went on sale.  

The fabric is from their Wild Ones line and is all flannel.  

After I grouped up all the Baby Cake squares and rectangles, I got out my Reunion fabric for my Strip Tube Quilt. I cut the 4.5 inch strips I need to finish up the tube.

The last thing I cut up was another kit from Connecting Threads.  This one is their Wild Thing Kit with their Urban Odyssey line, one of my favorites from them. Its also the same fabric I used for my Bibelot quilt. 

 Can you see the gray in the top right corner?  It is Sheen again. 

He didn't hop up on the cutting table until I pulled out this last kit.  

He must like this fabric line as much as me.

 With all this cutting done, I will have plenty of projects to choose from for those nights when I just want to piece something on the machine.

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T is for Turtle

I have finished this months "Another Year of Schnibbles" all the way down to the hand stitched binding.

The official name for the pattern is Bibelot, but I think I will call mine "T is for Turtles".

The fabrics remind me of green and brown turtle shells swimming in blue water.  

I picked a blue and green paisly-ish fabric from my stash for the back.

I had planned to do some fancy swirly stuff in all the T's but I thought that would take too long, so I decided to stitch in the ditch around EVERYTHING, which ended up taking as long as my previous plan.

Either way I Love It!!

 I am going to put it in the family room so it can keep little legs warm while watching tv.

I love this stripe binding.  

oh, and it is definitely cat approved.

This time Jasper had to take a turn sitting on it while I was adding the binding.

He rubbed his head all over the machine,

then stretched out and got comfy

This makes finish #10 for the year!

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