AYOS - Dimestore

Finished with plenty of hours to spare.
I was actually done before dinner last night. 

Once the sashing was cut to size and the blocks were sewn the rest went together super fast!

It is always fun to see how everyone else interprets the pattern each month.
You can see the parade of Dimestore quilts on Sinta's and Sherri's blogs.

Of course Sheen had to test out the top.
It is Cat approved.

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Start of Dimestore

I will definitely be coming in just under the wire for this month's Schnibble project.  With summer vacations and school starting, for the kids and me, there hasn't been much time for sewing this month. I did take time to cut my fabric for my Dimestore Schnibble yesterday and today I spent most of the morning sewing blocks together. 

I am adding an extra row to make my top a rectangle.

 I wanted to use this red and blue flower print for the background, but I didn't have a charm pack that matched for the sashing.  So instead of going to my scrap bin and pulling out a bunch of different fabrics to match, I decided to take the easy route and make all the sashing the same.  I have sewn them into strips and will cut them to the right size.  So this ended up being a color cordinated quilt instead of a scrappy one.  I hope it turns out good.  I don't have any distractions later on this evening, so tonight I will be at the sewing machine finishing this top. It will be ready just in time for the parade tomorrow.

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Faceted Jewels Basted

 Last night, with the help of Sheen yet again, I basted my Faceted Jewels Quilt.

I drew out my quilting design last night too.
But I will have to wait till this weekend to start the quilting.
First I need to work on a quilt for Tish and finish up my top for AYOS.

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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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