Easy Street-Step 3

From Bonnie is complete!

                                                                 The two sections

                        It passes the accuracy check Bonnie told us how to do! No white showing!

                                                                         63 to go!

                                   All 64 happy little shaded 4 patches hanging out together!

This is the last step I will be able to do until after the new year. We are leaving soon for a trip to Florida to visit all the relative for the holidays. I will have to be content watching everyone elses progress. While I am gone I will have to content myself with hand sewing.

I have also decided my new leader ender project and have been chopping/kitting up for it. I have chosen "Blue Ridge Beauty" from Bonnie Hunter. My last leader ender was the postage stamp quilt. I wanted to start out with a simple pattern to get the hang of the whole leader ender concept. Let me just tell you it is an awesome way to keep from wasting thread and of doing an extra quilt while you sew!  So for the last few days I have been digging through my stash/scrap bins to find every blue and neutral I have for it.

Happy Holidays to all!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Final Finish for Christmas!

I did it! All the Christmas gift quilts are done! This is a Triple Irish Chain quilt I made for my sister in law as a replacement for "Disaster Quilt". She has been patiently waiting for over 2 years for a quilt. When I saw this fabric line I thought of her. This is Summer Breeze from Moda.

I love scrappy quilts. I love the randomness of them. To get this random look, I could not strip piece this. So each square was individually pieced.

Now that I am caught up on the quilts, today is earmarked for canning some sweet potatos.

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Another finish!

It is done! My queen size, scrappy, postage stamp quilt is finally done!!! I sewed on this quilt as a Leader Ender project between 5 other quilts. It has 3840 (after sewn) 1 1/2 inch pieces in it. I went through my stash and picked every floral print I had (which was alot) and used them. The sun was so bright yesterday it was hard to get a picture that didn't look washed out. Plus this quilt is heavy!!!! My arms were shaking from holding up my side!

Today's agenda is to finish my sister-in-law's triple Irish chain. The binding is almost done so I can share pics soon.

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

"Easy Street" Step 2.... DONE!!!!

                                                                       127 to go!

 

 

After sewing for 8 hours I finished them all! I started out just saying to myself that I would just get the strips cut out, then I thought that I would just get the shapes cut out...... and it kept going until I finished them! I was one tired sewer last night! I have two very large quilts that are Christmas gifts that I want to get the binding finished on this weekend so I wanted to knock out as much on the mystery quilt as I could.

Isn't it amazing that no matter how hard you try to keep things random there is always order that comes out of the chaos?? Every scrap quilt I have done has at least one piece that works out this way. I just leave them that way and put them in the quilt. Somehow I think Bonnie would approve! Down the road some one will notice that wierd block and think either one of two things. They may cluck their tongues and say, "Oh isn't it a shame that quilter missed that the fabric was the same..." or they may just say, "Oh I love how that quilter was so free and wonky she didn't care!"

I want my quilts to be one of a kind expressions of ME! I am a bit wonky! Off to get these bindings done so I can post pics!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Small finish!

Finally finished the small flag Bargellow wall hanging quilt I designed for my Mom. I think it turned out pretty good. I made one small mistake with the stagger. I was one row off from the pattern I drew, but to me it was not very noticeable. Not worth ripping out over half the quilt for.

97 4 patches done for Bonnie's mystery quilt are done. I need to get cracking today to finish the rest as she is releasing the next mystery step tomorrow! Off to the sewing room!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Disaster Quilt! aka The quilt that beat me up!

It is beautiful being held up by my DH isn't it??? Well let me tell you looks are deceiving! This is the quilt that made me stop sewing for over 7 months! What you can't tell by the picture is this quilt is all kinds of wonky! I swear I don't know what happened when I put this quilt together. My mind must have been in outer space.

When you lay this quilt on a bed it puckers like crazy. I measured it and it was 4 inches off in spots. I was so embarrased about how badly I assembled this quilt that I just couldn't face sewing for a long time.

Every time I would go into my sewing room I would see it and get so depressed. It was meant to be a gift to one of my sister-in-laws. So finally after 7 months I hid this quilt. I started another simpler project and it went together really well. I got some of my confidence back. I have made 4 or 5 quilts and they have all been successes. I am back!

So now I have dug out this disaster quilt and have spent the last 4 days disassembling it. I am breaking it down to the basic blocks. I will try my best to salvage it. I have measured as I have been ripping and it seems that the culprit was the inset triangles. I was so lucky that I was able to find replacement fabric online for the inset triangles. The fabric line was discontinued about 5 years ago.

I won't let this quilt beat me!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

191 to go!

I have decided to do Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt this year. I really regretted not doing it last year. I was afraid of her bold choices of colors and decided to pass on doing the mystery. I was so dissapointed when I saw how gorgeous Orca Bay turned out. This year I have decided to take the "Easy Street" outside of my comfort zone. Again this year she has made bold color choices and the little " be safe" voice in my head rebelled against the colors. I decided to ignore that voice and be bold myself. Here are my fabrics!

I didn't have any of these colors in my stash. They are not colors I "normally" use. I had to go buy all of them. But once I got them laid out I can see them working together, even though my safe side is screaming in protest.

Here's to an interesting journey doing this mystery. Off to the sewing room!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Sewing Frenzy!

Finished the blue pinwheel sampler today! I have been so productive the last few weeks! I really love how this turned out!!

I got "The Wave" turned into the longarm quilter today and she gave me some great news! She had finished my sister-in-law's pinwheel sampler.

I just love how this looks! Now to get the binding on it before Christmas! Thinking of doing a scrappy binding. Here is a closeup of the quilting she did.

I love how it looks like the wind is swirling around the pinwheels! So now I am almost completely caught up so I can begin the "Oh My Stars" quilt-along after Christmas!

Today I "Occupied" my sewing room!

I just loved the whole concept behind Cat Patch's "Occupy your sewing room" idea! Well I have spent the last two days firmly ensconced in mine! I just finished "The Wave" flimsy!

I just love the way this turned out. My hubby is tickled pink with it too! I still need to satin stitch around the stars, but I didn't have a gold thread that matched. I have to run to JoAnn's tomorrow anyway for batting, so will just pick it up then. Shouldn't take me long to stitch around the stars. Am hoping to have it done so I can turn it into the long-armer on Monday.

Remember the Pinwheel sampler that p.s. i quilt did back at the first of the year. Well, I finally got the last few blocks completed last week for both my sister-in-law's and my quilt **blush**. I finished her flimsy last week and thought I had snapped a picture of it before I turned into the long-armer, but alas no. I started putting the sashing on mine today and should have that flimsy done tomorrow also. I will post pics then.

I hope you all are able to "Occupy" your sewing rooms at this busy time of year!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

"Oh My Stars" quilt-along

So I decided having 4 quilts in progress isn't enough, I need one more! I have decided to partake in Thought and Found's quilt-along. Here are my fabrics I have chosen to use for my stars.

It is from the "Summer Breeze" line from Moda. I have wanted a blue and yellow quilt for a long time and this pattern really lends itself to one. I picked a nice crisp white Kona cotton for my background.

I won't let myself start yet until I finish "The Wave" quilt. I should have that flimsy done by this weekend. Then I can dive into all this blue and yellow yummie-ness!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

4th of July at Christmas!

I mean if you can have Christmas in July, why can't you have it the other way around??? I still need to add one more inner border and the outer border, plus the applique stars.

I found this quilt pattern at my LQS Loving Stitches. It is called "The Wave" by The Sweet Tea Girls. I fell in love with it and immediately thought of making it for my hubby. I have sewed alot of quilts but have never found anything I thought suited him, until I saw this pattern.

Hehe, going to try this blogging thing again. I have been MIA since March. I completely went into a quilting funk... you know what I mean? I just couldn't seem to get creative for about 4 months. I would sew now and again, but nothing really productive. But about two weeks ago I had a fire lit under me (as my Momma says). I have been working on multible quilts at the same time. I finished a lap size flimsy for my sister in law and have been steadily working on my postage stamp quilt. I will post more on those later.

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

Life happens, but quilting does too!

Sew busy the last few weeks! Went to Florida to deliver the quilts for my brother and my niece. They really seemed to love them! I was so happy to find out green is my niece's favorite color! I had really been sweating the choice of green as the border for her quilt.



My brother with his quilt.

My brother and niece holding up her quilt.


My brother acting crazy with his quilt! What a nut!

My niece was yelling at me for taking this one because she said she was having a bad hair day, I told her she was gorgeous no matter what her hair looked like!

I spent a week down visiting and just as I got back I found out my aunt was in the hospital and wasn't expected to make it. My husband had just left for a business trip and I couldn't go down to say goodbye. She passed away the next day. I was so sad so I started sewing to pass the time and to keep my mind occupied. I will post my progress pics on the next post.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Sew busy!

My niece's quilt came back from the longarm quilter yesterday! I spent today petting it and sewing the binding on. I just love how this quilt turned out. It is my own design. It is the first time I have made a quilt without following a pattern. I used the "Eden" line of fabric. My vision when designing it was to see peeks of the garden as you look through a lattice fence. It is so bright and cheery and you can't help but smile when you see it!



My sister in law's quilt is progressing quickly. It is suprisingly easy to assemble as it is all strip piecing.
As usual when I get the camera my "model in a previous life" kitty comes running and hams it up.Here are some of the squares after assembling. Yes those are 1 inch 9 patches! Phew so tiny to work with!

So I have not been slacking!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

TaaDaaa!

Finally! My first finish of 2011! I got the binding and the label on late this afternoon on my brother's shaded nine patch! I decided to name the quilt "No Flowers Allowed 2" The first "No Flowers Allowed" I presented to my son last year. I decided to make another one in the same theme (slight variation of pattern) for my brother. It took me almost a year to collect enough fabrics to make these two quilts. It is soooo hard to find anything that doesn't have flowers on it.

I am so excited! I drive down to Florida on the 21st to present it to him. I will (hopefully) also be giving my niece her's during the same visit. It is supposed to be back from the longarm quilter Wednesday. I will post pics as soon as I get it done.

I started my next major project by washing the fabric and starting to cut out the pieces this evening. I am embarrased to say how long (let's just leave it at years) I have had this kit to make this quilt. The pattern is called "Trellis Rose" and was designed to go with Alex's Anderson's cottage rose fabric line. This one is earmarked for my sister-in law.

I also cut out a leader/ender quilt project to sew in between the Trellis Rose off and on during the past week. I plan on doing a postage stamp quilt as the leader/ender. I am doing it in soft cottage rose fabrics. I wanted to keep the theme going, hehe!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Wordless Wednesday

My sewing area is coming together!

Our house was built back in the days of formal living rooms. For years it has been underutilized. When people come to visit they always headed to the family room to sit and talk. So I decided to take over some of the space as my sewing room. I gave away the old 30 year old furniture and did some rearranging.

When I finished my lone star quilt I really wanted to display it. I just couldn't seem to find a spot in my house where it would fit and look like it is the center of attention. I decided that it would be a perfect backdrop to my sewing cabinet.

Of course Jake had to jump up and ham it up for the camera!

My sewing cabinet with all of the extensions out.

And finally holding my brother's shaded nine patch while I sew the binding on. I love this spot! The hardwood floor makes for easy rolling of the cabinet and is easy to vaccum up all the threads.

Still more work to go on the room so will post more pics later! Hubby is still working on my cutting table.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

I think I might give this bloggin thing another shot!

Here it is almost a year later from my last entry. Where to start? So many things happened and didn't happen in the second half of last year.

We have been wanting to move to Florida to be closer to our aging parents and we thought that our chance finally came. My dearest hubby applied to a tailor made job position (or so we thought) for him. We were so confident that he would get the position that we put everything on hold to get ready to move at a moment's notice. As time passed we were in disbelief that he didn't get the job. It took them almost 2 months to notify us that he hadn't gotten selected. It really deflated us. We both got so down and it took us quite a while to regain our footing.

We had started remodeling some of the rooms in the house at the beginning of the year and we just put that on hold because we thought we would be moving. So with the start of this year we readjusted our attitudes and decided to go with the old addage "Bloom where you are planted". Even though this is not where we truly want to live, we have to "bloom" because this is where God has his plans for us.

My quilting took a back burner also. I just had no where to sew except the kitchen table. I hated pulling everything out and then having to put it away every evening. I did manage to finish "Chocolate Obsession" during those down months. I will post pictures of it later.





In December 2010, I finished piecing the quilt top for my brother's nine patch I started back at the beginning of the year. Here it is before quilting.

And after quilting. It turned out wonderfully!

I also finished my nieces quilt top at the beginning of January and it is now at the quilters.

Of course Sunshine had to ham it up for the camera while I was sewing the borders on!

We have also started putting things back away and finishing the remodeling that we started. It is still a mess but I now have my own sewing area. It is not finished yet, but I will post pictures as it progresses! I am very excited about finally having my own space.

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

As my sewing came to a screeching halt....

I am still alive! Yep.... just no sewing at all to share. I have mentioned before I am big into couponing. It helps me stay at home and not work, and still have money to buy fabric. Well this week our grocery store, Harris Teeter, is having triple coupons. So my week has been spent rounding up, clipping, printing, organizing and getting up early to go get the freebies. It has been a fantastic week for the bargains! So far I am up to $380 dollars of groceries for $6.54! I still have enough coupons for one more run tomorrow. It also was a fantastic week for the freebies at Walgreen's and CVS. I have gotten over $100 dollars worth of stuff for about $6.00.

I doubt I will get much sewing done next week also. I need to make a trip to Florida to take my mom some of the goodies I have been accumulating from couponing. Not only does couponing help me, but it helps my mom who lives on a very tiny fixed income. In truth I don't know how she does it; living on such a pittance that the social security sends her.

Just wanted to post an update!

Happy Quilting!
Cindy

block eight

Spent all day working on these two blocks. I chose the "All Hallowed Variation" block from p.s. i quilt's list. I love, LOVE how this block looks and I may revisit this block down the road and do an entire quilt out of it. If I do I will use thangles to do all the half square triangles. I have to admit it was very nit nerdy to do and was a pain to get all the lines and points right, but it is such a gorgeous block.

I only plan on doing one more block in each colorway. I should be able to complete the 9th block this weekend. I am making two lapsize quilts out of the 9 sampler blocks.

Sunshine had to hop up for a photo op! Such a ham!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy

Block 7 done!

Finished these two last night before supper. I have to say I love these two blocks! They went together so easily and I love the way it looks. p.s. i quilt's measurements were spot on. Now to pick a block to do for block 8 today.

I forgot to post about these finds yesterday. While at JoAnn's I fell in love with the striped fabric and bought the two coordinating browns to go with. The brown on the left is for the fabric I posted yesterday to make a tote with. I may also attempt a tote made out of the stiped and other brown if the first one turns out okay.

Ok off to sew on block 8!

Happy Quilting!

Cindy