Happy April Fool's Day!

May you be Prank-Free today!

Stashbusters UFO Finish for March

I didn't do well in the Numbers Game in the Stashbusters yahoo group this month.  The numbers drawn for March were 7 and 17.  Well, I didn't have a #17 since my list only went up to 14 - and #7 was a creepy strippy that I just can't fall in love with.  I did sew it together from the cut strips, but it still doesn't strike my fancy.  I even bought a different fabric to add to it, but no inspiration there either when I got home.  Back in the bin it went ...

But I did finish quilting my low-contrast quilt top that was a UFO, so I accomplished something in the UFO Challenge for March.  That’s good for me!  This is the finished quilt:

Closeup pictures of the quilting were shown in this post.  The pattern is adapted from one called Chain Reaction in a recent Fons & Porter magazine.  The panto is called Delight.  I donated this one to Project Linus today since I am holding up one of their tops until I finish the embroidery - that could (and will) take me awhile to finish.

Oh Scrap! Progress

Recently I took out my small bin of 2.5 inch scraps and started making 16-patches.  I didn’t have a setting design in mind so I started experimenting:

 

The picture shows more contrast and less busy than in reality.  What looks like solid black is really white dots on black, so it really looks pretty cluttered.  I'm definitely going to change out the sashings and go with a light color instead; and maybe red stars. 

Decisions, decisions?!!  I’m going to have to take a look at google images because there are thousands of wonderful settings for 16-patches – I’ll find a good one.

This is what I might do with the sashings that are made now:

The little zoo babies are surrounded by surfing sayings - I sure wonder what the whole fabric line looked like!

Linking up to the Oh Scrap! party over at Quilting is more fun than Housework’s blog.

More Project Linus

My goal this year was to quilt 2 tops for Project Linus each month.  I am one behind because of the extra embroidery that I am doing that I talked about in this post, but other than that, I am on track.

This cute little Hello Kitty was quilted with musical notes – half notes, whole notes and the treble clef – just too cute.  Sorry the quilting doesn’t show up well in the photos!

And then there is always the quilt that is hard to give back – lol !!  I fell in love with these little firehouse puppies:

They were quilted with puppy tracks, of course!

Celebrate National Quilting Day!

http://clipartmountain.com/7clip/quilting.htm

The National Quilting Association, Inc., hopes you enjoy making the official 2015 National Quilting Day project, Crooked Path by Danielle Bohannon. Whether you make this pattern for personal use or for charitable giving, enjoy the annual celebration of quilting this year on March 21!

For the pattern and directions, go here:  http://www.nqaquilts.org/nqd/

Another colorway you might enjoy:

 

 

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Added the final colorful border to the newest Scrappy:

And put the last border on the Scrappy Trails:

And a sneak preview of what's going on the frame to quilt for Project Linus (not hard to guess who!):

Another Try at Scrappy

I have never made crumb blocks, but I was sent some from a fellow member of the Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild ( a group that makes donation quilts for children).  My first try at working with these blocks was a strippy quilt described at this post and shown below:

 

Digging into the box she sent again, I had some more of two sizes of blocks to work with.  So I decided to use the rectangle arrangement like the Boston Commons look with the smaller blocks in the center and the larger ones to make up the outside border:

There were cute square-in-a-square blocks with chili peppers in the center that had a dark blue background, so I used a dark blue for the stop borders.  I like that contrast.  Sometimes I use black fabric to make colors pop, but I like the richness of the navy in this one.  I might add one more border with colorful fabric or I might not.

 

Linking up later today to Quilting is more fun than Housework’s Oh Scrap!

 

And speaking of colors that pop, my neighbor has two orchids in her backyard that are blooming – these photos were taken at dusk but aren’t these still gorgeous despite the low light?!!

 

Happy Pi Day!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The number π is a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter "π" since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes spelled out as "pi".

And today, math geeks everywhere are excited – a perfect Pi (π) date out to four decimal places – 03/14/15 - won’t happen again for another hundred years.  Oh, and at 9:23 and 56 seconds, you can go out to nine digits!

"Pi has held an almost mystical quality to humans throughout time," Smithsonian Magazine explains. "Its unspoken presence can be felt in the circular ruins of Stonehenge, in the vaulted ceilings of domed Roman temples and in the celestial spheres of Plato and Ptolemy."

 Of course, there are Pi quilts!  Check out this one by Cheryl at her blog “Meadow Mist Designs - Engineer By Day, Quilter By Night”:

 

Cheryl’s quilt was displayed in the Modern quilts section at the APQS show in Charlotte, NC in Aug 2014.   Cheryl is a chemical engineer/patent agent and a quilter – what a talented lady!

And how wonderful that today is also Albert Einstein’s 136^th birthday …  So let’s eat birthday cake pie in celebration!

 

Hand Work Before Quilting

The local Project Linus group was given this darling piece to use for one of their quilts:

The pretty pink-checked gingham fabric is mostly finished with “chicken-scratch” embroidery.  Remember chicken-scratch?

 "Chicken scratch embroidery" is a form of cross-stitch

            embroidery done on gingham fabric, also known as "teneriffe,

            depression lace" or "snowflaking" among other names.

Almost everyone’s mom had some checked gingham aprons in her kitchen drawers with embroidery on them:

photo credit:  Blog Second Hand Roses

http://tinyurl.com/lqk3pg7

So before I attempted to quilt this one up, I decided to dig out all of my embroidery flosses and see if I could remember how to work these stitches and finish this little project.

I was organized many years ago!  This is box 1 of 2.

This is where it looks like someone else had the same idea to finish it, but gave up on completing the work – this heart was partially completed:

 

No two stitchers have exactly the same touch – and this little piece as a slightly different look than the heart on the right of it.  My stitches are likely to look slightly different also, but by the end, they will all blend in and the piece will be darling!

The one design is done using the Circle-Stitch and the other is the New Smyrna Star Stitch.  Yep … I remember how to do those.  So now I have something to do while sitting in waiting rooms … I should be done by this time next year – LOL!

BIG SMILE !!!

My Genuine Scrappy

This one is an easy scrappy made completely from leftovers in my stash.  I decided to take all of the FQ or smaller pieces that were predominately orange to yellow from my drawer and assorted other hiding places,

and cut one 10x5 inch strip and two 5 inch squares from each fabric.

Then I started laying them out on my design floor and rearranging until I thought they looked ok together:

I sewed them into blocks (two squares to one large strip) then alternated the placement of the larger strips, one horizontal then one vertical.  Yes, I had to cut down the large strips by ½ inch when I sewed the blocks together but I had intentionally cut them at ten inches (just in case I needed more 5 inch squares) since I wasn’t really counting anything at that point and didn’t know how many of each size I would need to make a top.

After sewing the blocks all together, I added a small dark orange stop border and a six inch top and bottom border to make it approximately 40 x 60.  That size is good for Quilts Beyond Borders, which is where this quilt will go.

Don’t know how I’ll quilt it yet, but it was fun to make!  I still have orange and yellow pieces, but maybe I'll make another with yellow and blue ... the sky's the limit now!

Linking up to Quilting is more fun than Housework's Oh Scrap!

Did I Mention ...

that I hate Daylight Savings time?  I guess I mention it twice a year ... what a drag I am.  A better post tomorrow.

Frame Friday

What?!  I'm a day late?  Oh well, here's what's still on the frame eveb though it's Saturday:

My low contrast Chain quilt is in the works.  The panto is called Delight:

And it's pouring down rain today with a little lightning.  The Knockout roses are loving it:

 

Monkey Goes Square Dancing

I quilted up the Monkey quilt with a panto called Square Dance.  The squares went very well with the modern fabric in the quilt and made the Monkeys happy!  Still needs binding ... but at least it's now in that queue.

Another Project Linus Finish

I quilted up this cute dinosaurs panel last night for Project Linus:

I used a recently purchased digital dinosaur pantograph and I wasn’t very happy with the results.  It seemed to me that the stitching was very jagged, almost erratic.  A lot of the turns and zig-zags were a single stitch long, so the overall stitching did not appear very smooth.

Some of the problem could be in the digitizing, but it could also be that I changed the size of the panto from 9 inches tall to 7 inches and I changed the pattern density.  I guess I’ll have to experiment on some scrap muslin to see if I can get it to stitch out better next time – could all be operator error – and I'd like to use it again because I thought the dinosaurs were cute and good for “boy” quilts.  We’ll see.

And the jury’s still out on the homemade numbering pins.  My least favorite chore is picking up blocks off of my "design floor" and I always number the rows so they go back together in the right order.  I have been using post-it notes and reusing them until they fall apart. The “real” genuine numbered pins are so very expensive that I thought I’d give a sharpie marker and flathead daisy pins a try first!  Here are some in my homemade carrier that I can roll up and set aside in between uses:

I know the flatheads that I purchased were very inexpensive and might not be a good choice for the experiment.  I lost one of the “heads” that pulled off when I was at the last Quilts of Valor meeting and I never could find it on the floor.  That just might happen to them all, but I’ll keep you posted if these last very long!  Here they are numbering the rows of my scrappy trails blocks that are ready to be sewn together:

Friday’s February UFO Finish

This quilt was a finish from a homemade kit I had from December – only the blocks had been put together until now:

I had made up some kits for myself before my husband went in for surgery in December (it was successful) and they are coming in handy now to grab a kit and make up a quick quilt.  The Numbers Game in the Yahoo Stashbusters Group had pulled #2 and that was this kit on my list.  It was a fun finish for February!  It will go to a group called Wrap-a-Smile for children around the world who will have cleft lip/palate surgery.

I quilted using a panto called Paw Prints that were fun, too!