Quilt Finish: Just Because You Can

My goal for 2017 is to clean out my sewing room and finish up as many UFOs as possible.  My friends, however, conspire against me to sidetrack me.  They show me pretty fabric that I just "have" to buy.  They show me new quilt patterns that I just "have" to make.

Pat Sloan is one of the people who try to derail me.  I am making her 182 Day Solstice Challenge quilt and her Children's Library quilt.  What more does she want from me?  Apparently, she wants me to make even more quilts because she sends out bonus quilt layouts based on her individual blocks, like Cobble Stones.  I saw the bonus quilt challenge there. My resolve to not start any new quilts wavered but I held firm...

...until...

my friend Joliene (a fabulous longarm quilter) sent me photos of her Cobble Stones challenge quilt.  After seeing her gorgeous quilt, my resolve completely broke and I dove into my scraps to make my very own quilt.  Thanks, Joliene.  Some friend you are.

Here's my Cobble Stones quilt, made entirely against my will:

Joliene asked me what I was going to name it.  I named it "Just Because You Can."  Some of you will know why I named so (hint: it's a song lyric.  And you are welcome for the earworm).  

I quilted this entire quilt with ribbon candy, just because I could.  

If you want to learn to quilt ribbon candy, here is a link for 50% off my Craftsy class with the ribbon candy lesson.

This is a total scrap quilt.  All of the fabrics were from my stash.  I sewed together bits of flannel for a cozy backing.  I joined a bunch of wool batting scraps together for the batting.  I pulled out bright binding strips from my leftover bag.  Knowing that by making this quilt I removed fabric from my sewing room makes me feel more righteous about breaking my resolve to not start any new quilts.

Pat Sloan, however, is at it again. She sent a bonus layout with her Tidy Rows block.  I like the "X" variation rather than the "O" variation.  I was thinking green, black, and white until I started reading this book yesterday:

It looks like I'll have to make yet another black and yellow quilt.  I'll actually have to buy yellow fabric because I have none left!

Tempted: Canning Season

I am tempted by the fruit of another new quilt!  Click HERE for today's earworm.

Do you know Shelly Pagliai?  She is talented.  She is fun.  She is a temptress!

She is leading a quilt along of her Canning Season quilt.  I saw it and desperately want to make it.  Desperately.

Sadly, I have several other half-square triangle quilts in the works.  They are my 'leader and ender' projects.

These blocks are made with leftover trimmings from one of my bed quilts:

My Summer's End quilt also yielded some leftover triangles.  I've made two copies of the quilt.

Mostly Manor:

and Gypsy Dance:

I'll be teaching this quilt at my local guild's Super Saturday and will likely make another copy.  Which Cutie Pack should I choose for the next one?  They are all so pretty!  And will make even more leftover triangles.

Once I finish these projects, I might make Canning Season.  I'm thinking about baby blue background fabric with black and white triangles:

Which fabric will you choose to make Canning Season?

In Process: A Tuffet

I am finally making a tuffet!  I have wanted to make one for a few years but it never worked out.  The class was always a two-parter and I was only ever home for one of the classes.  I finally found a local class that fit my crazy life,, took one class, and am working on my tuffet homework:

I can't wait to show you my finished tuffet next week!

Cutie Quilt in Progress: Picnic Patch

A few weeks ago, my bin of Cuties (fat eighths) was overflowing and wouldn't close.  I had to pull some out to make a quilt.  I pulled these:

My fingers were itching to piece this quilt and here's what it looks like so far (on my New Design Wall!!!):

I will use solid cream fabric for the squares and border and then... the quilting!  Picnic Patch is probably my favorite quilt to quilt.  I plan to use a barely pink thread (mostly cream) for the quilting and I will quilt row after row after row of lovely ribbon candy.

I plan to give this as a wedding quilt to someone I don't know very well.  Is this too girly?  Too much of a style?  Or do you think it reads as a generically pretty quilt for a wedding?

Happy Place: Journey Toward a Design Wall

One of the biggest frustrations in my sewing room, next to the sheer messiness of it all, is the lack of a design wall.

I don't have walls in my sewing room; I have doors and windows and a fireplace.  I tried portable design walls, but had nowhere to put them.  They were useless to me so I passed them along to folks who could make better use of them.

The only wall space in my sewing room that is wider than two feet is behind this rack (warning messy sewing room photo):

That rack is filled mostly with thread.  I needed to get rid of the rack and everything on it (given away or stored elsewhere) to clear that wall for a design wall.

Slowly:

Little by little:

I finally found new homes for everything on the rack and had a clear wall:

It was time to make the design wall.  I bought a sheet of foam insulation and covered it with extra-wide white flannel.  Instant design wall: just add quilt blocks!

I love this design wall more than I can possibly express.  When I'm working on a block from my never-ending supply of block-of-the-month quilts, I place the units on the design wall and take them down as I stitch them.

Where has this been all of my life?  And how did I ever live without it?

I think I need to add lights to this part of my sewing room.  They would help me see while sewing and also help see the design wall better.  That is a problem for another week, though.

Mischief Managed

I solemnly swear I was up to no good last week.  My husband and I took a quick trip to Universal Studios in Florida for the Celebration of Harry Potter.  I decided to go on this trip when Alan Rickman died last year, and spent a whole year looking forward to drinking butter beer in Hogsmeade.  

We located Platform 9 3/4:

 

and took the train to Hogsmeade:

Does it look a wee bit crowded?  Because it was.  Crowded.  Witches and Wizards and Muggles EVERYWHERE!

I toured Diagon Alley, took a wrong turn, and ended up in:

I saw very frightening things there, but the most frightening thing I saw during my my entire trip  was in my hotel room:

I have argued "over" versus "under" for nearly 50 years, but this???  I don't know how to handle this!!!

I shouldn't have left the safety of the magical world because as soon as I did, I was attacked by a raptor:

Yeah.  He moved and tried to bite my head.  I'll never have hiccups again!

So my vacation was cold and rainy and I caught a cold on the airplane ride, but we had so much fun!

I'm back to the magical world of my quilting studio.  There's no butter beer here, but there are also no dinosaurs so it kind of evens out.

Weekly Summary

I was on vacation for part of this week but still managed to make progress on some of my quilting projects.

I'm digging into my Bloom Quilt this week:

Block 1:

Block 2:

Block 3:

Block 4:

This week's 182 Day Solstice Challenge, Tidy Rows:

This month's Children's Library block by Pat Sloan:

Another Splendid Sampler Block, Iowa:

I hope to make some more progress on my blocks next week!

Quilt Finish: Girlfriends Bag

OK, maybe not a quilt but how about a handbag?

I hinted earlier that I finished a gift.  I can finally show it to you!

I made this purse for my sister-in-law:

Purses are hard to photograph!

This purse has interior pockets, expandable gussets with magnetic snaps, and will hold a TON!

I hope you enjoy your purse, dear SIL!

Living with Quilts: Round Robin

Do yourself a favor and never, ever join a round robin quilt group that has me as a member.  I am apparently the kiss of death in a round robin quilt group.  If I'm in a group, whoever has my quilt will move, get sick, or (no, I'm not kidding) die while they have custody of my quilt causing me to never see my quilt again.  I am also missing a quilt because (again, not kidding) "I'm sorry!  My dog ate your quilt!"  I have participated in many round robin quilt groups, put tons of effort into other people's quilts, and lost all of my quilts...

Except one.

This is the only round robin quilt that has found its way back home:

This quilt dates back to 2001 or so.  I pieced the center star and the other members of my group added a sawtooth border, an applique border, a star border, and a trapezoid border.  I added the final blue/purple border and quilted it.  I had no plans for this quilt so it sat folded in a pile for a year or so.

Behind this quilt was a hole where the hard-wired smoke alarm (that doesn't have a battery so it won't die) used to be and we took it out because... wait for it... it died.  After buying this house we had approximately $0.87 in the bank and couldn't afford to both buy a new smoked detector and fix the wall.  We installed a new smoke detector and hung the quilt so the quilt covered the ugly hole in the wall.  Problem SOLVED!

We have since fixed the wall and painted that hallway purple to match this quilt.  I see this every time I walk upstairs to the bedrooms and it just belongs there.

Quilt in Process: Bloom

I'm hard at work on Lori Holt's Bloom quilt and have finished the first four blocks.  I'm impatient and had to sew them into a row just so I could "oooh" and "ahhh."

"Ooooh!"

"Ahhh!"

Play no attention to the painter's tape.  I'm in desperate need of a design wall and this is my temporary fix.

Living With Quilts: Arbor bed quilt

I like big quilts and I cannot lie.

My first quilt was a bed quilt and even now, thousands of quilts later, I still have trouble making little quilts.  I always have a quilt on my bed and rotate them due to season or mood.

My current bed quilt:

(Next time I'll move my iPhone charging cord out of the photo --  oops!)

This is an early version of my Arbor pattern.  I've made several versions and several sizes as I perfected the pattern for publication.

Some might say that I overdid the ribbon candy, but in my opinion that is impossible!  If you want to learn ribbon candy, I teach ribbon candy in one of my Craftsy classes.  Link for 50% off retail price of class.

The fabric is from Lonni Rossi.  I fell in love with that border print and absolutely had to have it.  Had to.  Have it.  Without question.

When the weather changes or my mood changes, I'll change my bed quilt.  Until then, I get to wake up to this beauty!

Happy Place: Touches of Whimsy

I look in my sewing room and all I see are problem areas.  My cutting table is improved, but the rest of the room is quite a disaster.

One month into my "Great Sewing Room Clean Out of 2017," I want to feel happier when I am in my hopefully soon-to-be Happy Place.

I decided to add a few touches of whimsy to make me smile.  If you don't know that I have a slight Hello Kitty problem, you will soon understand.

I hung a couple of my quilts above my desk:

The fabulous Hello Kitty hook is courtesy of my dear friend Maddie.  Thanks, Maddie!  If you look closely, you'll see that my headset is held together with Hello Kitty tape.  I'm hard core.

I have a gas fireplace in my sewing room.  It is pretty but is also the main heat source for this room.  One nice feature of a fireplace is a mantle.  It's been a catch-all area for years, but I decided to place some treasured items on it:

The dolls are from Russia.  I know this because I got them when I was in Russia.  My husband bought me the tea set when he was working in Taiwan.  The painting is the one and only thing I have ever painted.  It doesn't completely suck.

I added a few pieces from my Hello Kitty collection to the mantle:

I have so much more work to do in my sewing room before it truly becomes my Happy Place, but I now have a few bright spots that make me smile.

Have you intentionally added some fun to your work area?  Do you collect something that isn't Hello Kitty?

Living With Quilts: Squared Away

Quilting is my job.  Quilting is my hobby.  Quilting is my lifestyle.

Quilting is also my decorating choice.

This quilt is currently in my center hall.  It is one of my favorite quilts.  Ever.

The pattern is Squared Away, one of my Cutie Quilt Patterns.

I love this quilt because it's quilted with ribbon candy, whole-y ribbon candy, and nothing but ribbon candy.  Ribbon candy is the most perfect machine quilting design in the whole wide world, but that's just this quilter's opinion.  I teach ribbon candy in one of my Craftsy classes.  Link for 50% off retail price of class.

The other reason I love this quilt so much is because it is made with a really old line of Fig Tree & Co. Fabrics.  Who doesn't love Fig Tree fabrics?

I have a few quilts that fit in this space and I rotate them.  When I get tired of this one, I'll change it and show you another quilt that I live with every day.

Weekly Summary

My blocks are finished!  My blocks are finished!  I finished all of the blocks for my Inez's Walk Around the Block!

Block 8:

Block 9:

I finished all of the blocks for my first BOM UFO this year!!!  Now I just have to set, border, quilt, and bind it.

Maybe "complete" was too strong a word?

More from The Splendid Sampler:

Block 6 Focal Point:

Block 7, Snug as a Bug:

Block 8 Friends Around The Square:

Block 9 Local Quilt Shop:

I'm current on my 182 Day Solstice Challenge.

The Crosswalk:

I don't know if I can keep making one block a day for each day of the year, but I have already completed 28 blocks this year.  That's progress!

Quilt Finish: Golden Coins

I am blessed to call Pat Sloan a friend.  But this friend of mine is so bad for my productivity.  She shared a new pattern that is simply magical.  It inspired me to make one of my own (instead of finishing another UFO) so I pulled fabric from my scraps based on the theme of my beloved Steelers (no, I'm not going to talk about our loss to the Patriots):

I had a bag full of 2 1/2" black/white/gray scrap strips, so I really only had to look for the gold fabric.  This quilt pieced up very, very quickly:

Then it was time for the quilting.  I was trying to choose between FabuLux Cloudy Skies and FabuLux Midas Touch:

I decided to use BOTH, and am totally in love with the random length variegation in the ribbon candy:

I teach how to quilt the ribbon candy and the leaves in one of my Craftsy classes  -- link for 50% off retail.

My favorite quilt hanger is my snow-covered deck.  I only get to take a few quilt photos out there each year, so I'm excited to show this one:

I took a more traditional quilt photo as well:

As a devoted Steeler fan, making a quilt wasn't doing enough to root for my team.  I needed more black and gold in my life.  These fat eighths followed me home from the Quilt Basket last weekend:

I increased the black and gold by finding this lovely Bumblebee thread:

I finished my Cutie Scarves to Share scarf in time for Sunday's big game:

The bright yellow Hello Kitty purse completed my outfit.

I will give this quilt away (to someone who has no idea that it's a Steeler quilt) and pack away my Terrible Towel and other Steeler garb until next season.

Do any of you blend your sports and quilting passions?