Olympic Binding Marathon #3 of 8

 This one took a while to finish.  It is harder to sew into the wee hours knowing I need to get up and go to school in the morning.  I think it was during men's gymnastics that I took the last stitches.  The bow tie blocks were part of a leader and ender quilt-along that Bonnie Hunter suggested at the beginning of the year.  I did mine with 2.5 inch blocks rather than 2 inches, so it didn't take quite so many to make a quilt.  By the time I was ready to set them together I went back to find some more of the cheddar fabric, but had NO luck.  It sat for ages waiting for inspiration to strike before I finally started cutting lots of triangles in lots of colors to finish it off. 

The quilting came as part of a wild and crazy weekend of nonstop sewing.  It is another freehand fan pattern, this one done with variegated gold thread.  I don't usually like the way the thread changes color, but I think it blends nicely on this quilt.  Schoolwork is starting to take up lots of time, it will eventually settle into a nice routine, but right now I spend hours in meetings making "to-do" lists, hoping to get out so that I can do some of the things on the list. 

Handwork Sunday

 I was on a roll with machine quilting and thought I would take on the Dear Jane that has been sitting in a cupboard for a while now waiting for hand quilting.  I got two rows done before deciding that it just didn't look good.  It looked like a child had drawn all over my quilt.  Instead I switched the machine to a long basting stitch and basted the rest for hand quilting.  I'll be out of town for training next week and this will make a nice take along project for the hotel room.  This really is a quilt that calls for hand work, and it isn't all that big with only 48 blocks. 

The rest of the day was busy with binding.  There are now 7 quilts in my stack waiting to have the binding hand sewn to the other side.  I guess I won't be bored during TV time for a while!  4 of these were quilted during my weekend marathon, the other three were already done and waiting for the binding to be made and sewn on.  Now I need to go reassemble the sewing room and get things put away so that I can pack and get ready for my training tomorrow.  Shifting gears is so hard to do.

So Done

I am actually in physical pain from standing in front of the quilting frame all day long.  Just pulled the Bow-ties off though, so I will call it a night.  Tomorrow will start with binding and cleaning up some of the aftermath of a marathon session of quilting.  For now, stick a fork in me, I am DONE. 

Next?

 As soon as dinner was done, I started piecing a back for the bow-ties.  I'm not sure why I think they need to go with green, but as I am fresh out of anything yellow, I think green will work nicely. 

I think I'll get this one loaded up while I ponder quilting patterns.  First though, I'd better run out to the store, we ran out of milk during dinner and will need some for breakfast. 

Happy Easter

 I hope everyone is having a relaxing and rejuvenating Easter Sunday.  I tried sneaking into the sewing room first thing after the egg hunt this morning but was pulled back into a round on house cleaning that lasted until lunch.  Hopefully that silliness is over and I can get back to my little hideaway soon.  I put yellow sashing strips on two sides of my green crumb blocks to give them a less formal feel than a lattice and cornerstone treatment.  I think I still need to randomize the rotations a bit more.  After that I pulled all the cheddar bowties out to see how close I am to getting that one done. It has been ages since I finished anything and I am starting to feel that there are too many irons in the fire. 

Yesterday we went to a HUGE Easter party that a good friend hosts every year.  The kids have all been looking forward to it for ages and were so excited to get all dressed up and smash confetti eggs on all their friends.  I've been sweeping up leftover confetti all day but the kids are already looking forward to next year. 

Design Wall Monday January 9, 2012

 My design walls seem to be Bonnie Hunter patterns all the time these days:)  First up is my Orca Bay so far.  I finally was home long enough to get some work done this weekend.  I'm still in the process of putting together the pink string geese, but all the parts are there, so it is going fairly quickly.  My version is called Flamingo Bay for Florida. 

Next up are my cheddar bow-tie blocks.  I am loving this setting and color groupings, now I just have to figure out how big it wants to be so I know when to stop.  I think Bonnie is having a link up for the bow-ties on today and Judy always has her design wall on Mondays, so be sure to stop by and see what everyone is up to.

Design Wall Monday December 5, 2011

 It was a weekend of little bits of lots of things.  I did manage to finish piecing all of the blocks for the Four Square Brown quilt.  I'm not crazy about the light colored blocks, but maybe they will grow on me?   I'll get that webbed together soon and make some decisions about borders.  Rainbow Crumb Bricks is on the frame.  It is about half done so far. The quilting pattern is called double bubble and it goes pretty quick. 

 I got just a few more Bow-Tie blocks put together and spent some time playing with my new Double Wedding Ring die.  If I keep practicing, I am sure I will master curved set in seams.  Pop over to Judy's Blog to see what is on everyone's design wall this Monday. 

In between all of that I worked on Orca Bay step three.  All the units are cut out, and it looks like about 50 of them have gotten finished up so far.  The rest are waiting patiently by the machine until I have time to get back to them again.  I'm not at all sure how these bits are going to fit together in the end, but I have faith that they will.  Can't wait to break out the hot pink, I think it will perk things up.  Be sure to visit Bonnie's Blog to see the progress other people are making on their Orca Bay mystery quilts. 

Maybe More Like This?

After looking at the photo of the Bonnie Hunter inspired bowtie blocks in diagonal rows on the design wall, I thought about trying out some different block arrangements.  I don't have quite enough blocks yet for a quilt top, so a little rearrangement isn't holding anything up at this point. I kind of like the circle effect, maybe tomorrow I'll try some zig zags just for fun? 

While I was in the sewing room, I went ahead and quilted just a few feet on the Scraphappy Squares. The nice thing about having a quilt on the frame is that you can do "drive by" quilting. A few minutes here and a few minutes there...

Design Wall Monday November 14, 2011

I've been working on these cheddar bow-ties as leaders and enders for a while now.  The stack seemed to be getting pretty big so I thought I'd throw them up on the wall and see how far they would go.  Seems like there are enough so far for a lap sized quilt.  Maybe I'll keep going until I get enough for twin sized so that this one can go in the donation pile.  Mom called today and asked if I could get some more quilts ready for her Sunday school class to give away for Christmas.  I brought her 9 quilts last time we went up, but she says they are doing Christmas presents for 12 families this year.  They got hit by a bad tornado not long ago and there are a lot of families in need.  I'm sure there must be something else in the stack that will work. 

Another Productive Day

After having school off yesterday and getting to spend quite a bit of time in the sewing room, I felt very spoiled to have everyone out of the house all day today.  First up was finishing off the flimsy for Scrapphappy Squares.  I'm so thankful for the design inspiration from Marlene that sent me down the Garden Rail path with the setting on this one. 

Then it needed a back of course. I had some nice black and rainbow fabric, but as I'll quilt it in white thread, I thought this soft yellow would work better.  I did add an extra rainbow stripe from fabric I had auditioned for the sashes.  Loading it on the frame seemed easier than putting it away and having to iron it all again later.   Though I started the first row of quilting, I was in more of a piecing mood and sewed up the extra half blocks that the Rainbow Crumbs have been waiting for.  I also put up the Cheddar bowties on the newly liberated wall space from the quilt on the frame.  Still having the house to myself, I started in on some more crumb blocks to finish off the rows.  I'm about done with the black and just started on the brown.  I'm still debating on the white, I guess it will depend on the final measurements. 

I was in the midst of my little crumb explosion when the gang came home with the EXCITING news that they qualified to go to the regional Lego Robotics competition during their tournament today. It was supposed to be just an early practice round but I guess it all went so well that they took second for the day. Most exciting of all, their robot got the top prize for design! Much happy dancing was done along with trophy posing and celebratory woohooing.