Category — Quilting

Sometimes I think it is best to not make plans….at least ones that you really have your heart set on.

For the last two weeks, I have been trying to sew backings together and finish quilt tops with one plan in mind….Labor Day weekend I would attach myself to my quilting machine and quilt until I wilted.  Well…it wasn’t me that wilted first.  It was my quilting machine.  Every time a went backwards, it would skip an inch worth of stitches….UGH!  I took it in yesterday with hopes they could fix it on the spot.  NOPE….I even begged and whined a little….NOPE…it didn’t even phase them.  (I am guessing the gals that came in before me also begged and whined and they have become immune to it.)

So…it looks like my Labor Day weekend is going to involve the most dreaded thing….CLEANING!  Ugh.  Enjoy your weekend..I’ll be painting and cleaning.

P.S.  My Accuquilt Go! Cutter giveaway is still Go!ing one….Oh….something else that won’t get finished, the AWESOME project I was working on with the circles.

I am at again…MORE circles with my Accuquilt Go!

Over the last year, when I made all my Schnibble Quilts, I saved the left overs.  There were a few 5″ charms of this fabric line and a few of that fabric line….only six or seven of each.  I kept the little bit of binding strips and the little left over border pieces thinking that someday, once I had enough scraps, I would put it all together into one quilt.  I have looked for a pattern to entice me into using the scraps but nothing has stuck…..Then I got my Go! and my circle die.  I know what I’m going to do with them, but I’m keeping it a secret for a couple days so I can try it out and see if it’s going to work.

Now…onto our winners of the trivet kits:

Judy D
Lola
Christine
Charlene

I will send out emails to the winners so I can get your address and put your goodies in the mail.

A big giveaway will be happening right….real soon.  Keep checking back because it’s Go!ing to be a BIG giveaway.

Well today is September 1st and if you are a member of The Year of Schnibbles group, you know it’s time for the September Parade of Schnibbles.  For those of you are aren’t Schnibblers, Schnibbles are quick patterns designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company.  Typically they use two charm packs and a bit of yardage.

For this month’s pattern we had our choice…Make Short Story (which I already made) or Plan C.  We could make them in the large or small version from the Schnibbles Times Two book.   I went with Plan C in the small version.

My heart wanted to do Short Story in the large version as I LOVED the small version but gardening and canning this month put a HUGE dent in my sewing time.

In my typical fashion, I added a couple extra borders to make mine a good size for a baby quilt.  After I made the quilt I added a narrow white 1.5″ border and a outside 5″ border with setting corners.  The fabric line is Freebird by MoMo.  I LOVE it.  It’s very bright and colorful.  I love how the dark browns mix with the bright colors.

I free motion quilted a bunch of swirls and flowers and if you don’t look too close it looks pretty good.  I like to try different to me free motion quilt designs on these small quilts.  It lets me “preview” a new design without committing to an entire large quilt.

The back is from my stash…it matches perfectly. I believe one can never go wrong with a polka dot.  I think the backing fabric is from American Jane’s OLD fabric line Recess.

If you want you can check out ALL of the Schnibble quilts I have made for the year by following this link.

Oh…I have a little giveaway going on too!

As with every month,  A Quilting Lifeand Pink Pinchusion are hosting a big parade of Schnibble quilts.  Head on over and see what everyone made and check out the new Year of Schnibbles.

When I was a kid, my mom always told me….
“Use your head and save your feet.”  Typically she told me this as a way to get me to think ahead or to multi-task.  Sunday I did just that.

Remember this little pile of fat quarters I bought?

When I purchased them they were all rolled up like this.  I don’t store mine rolled.  I store them folded.  I started taking the rubber bands off, folding and putting them away.  Then I stopped….Wait!  I need to cut out the next step of my “Odds and Ends” quilt….It’s just scrappy so why not use these?…

And I need to cut out circles for my trivet and GIVEAWAY

….So I started cutting as I was putting the fat quarters away.  Well my fat quarters are closer to fat eighths, my circles are cut and more of quilt blocks are cut…oh, the fat quarters are folded and put away too.

Mom would be so proud.   I used my head and saved my feet!

Over the week, I admit I have been VERY excited about all the new sewing goodies that have come my way.

I hit an AWESOME going out of the fabric business sale at Alco in Spring Valley, Minnesota and purchased this HUGE stack of fabric.  46 yards worth.  I know that’s a huge stash addition BUT it was all $1.50 to $2 per yard.  It’s all quality name brand fabric…perfect for quilt backs and the like.

There is fabric there to back many of my Schnibble quilts, a couple graduation quilts I am working on, 3 quilts of valor quilts, yardage for curtains and the like.  I will be busy with this pile for a LONG time.

I hit an AWESOME fat quarter sale at  The Calico Hutch in Hayward, Minnesota and bought 24 fat quarters of my favorite fabrics, Civil War Reproductions….

AND…the best…Accuquilt sent me a Go! Cutter!…and I’m getting one to give away to one lucky blog reader in the upcoming month or so.  You can check back tomorrow and see what I’m working on.  It’s a Go! Cutter project and there will be a small giveaway to go with it.

I should probably feel a little guilty about the HUGE addition to stash, but I don’t….it’s fun to splurge once in awhile.  Plus getting fabric for such a deal makes me able to quilt and give quilts away.

So for this week….
52 yards in.
0 yards out.  BUT today is a quilting day.  This is bound to change LOTS by next Sunday.

It’s been SO long since I finished a quilt.  I’ve been piecing and working on things….just not finishing anything.

This is my Between Charming Friends Quilt.   The pattern is from Darlene at Quilting Daze.

I am happy with how it turned out….of course, this quilt had it’s own drama.  You can read about back at this blog entry.

I did a simple stipple quilting pattern.  I am beginning to wonder if I need to ban stippling for a bit just to make myself try something different….but sometimes, when I don’t feel confident about a new quilting design, stippling is just easy!  Plus, it never looks bad.

This quilt is headed to school with the kiddos tomorrow.  It will be donated to the Music Boosters Fall Fundraiser.

Now, that’s one quilt off my list….does that mean I’ll start two more projects?  Nope…I am resisting temptation and am going to finish TWO more quilts before I start anything new….wish me luck on that!

Yesterday I showed you a few quilts from the Iowa State Fair…Here’s some more.

This quilt is TINY only about 12 x 18.  It is so cute.  I have seen the pattern and have thought about making it.  This rendition has me thinking about it even more.

This quilt was done by a 4-Her.  I love the red and gray.

Wonderful Appliqué….

This is one the best looking T-shirt quilts that I have seen!  It was given a high honor.  All of the T-shirts are Iowa State Fair T-shirts.  The boxes along the top and bottom make it really cute.

More beautiful appliqué…

I love ocean waves quilts….this one has baptist fans in the quilting…another thing I love.

Isn’t this little nine patch a gem?  It definitely intrigues me.

What would any Iowa quilt show be without an Iowa State quilt?

I had an awesome time admiring all the great workmanship.  I’ve never entered a quilt in a show before….it’s got me thinking I might investigate it.

Tonight I am hoping I can FINALLY get a binding on a quilt.  Life has been topsy turvey here….unfortunately, it’s my sewing time that has been cut.  I keep hoping that I’ll get some one on one time with my Bernina this weekend.

Our family ventured down to the Iowa State Fair a week or so ago.  I had always heard that there were quilts there but I had new seen them.  Boy….was I missing something awesome.

I snapped a few photos so that you could enjoy a taste of the Iowa State Fair quilts too.

Check this one out.  It is made out of TINY squares.  There was a photo near the quilt that the quilt was modeled after.  All I can say is WOW….I would NEVER try that…but what a masterpiece.

Next is a quilt pattern that I have actually made…

That’s today’s eye candy.  I’ll show you a few more of the quilts tomorrow.

If you want to see more quilts from the Iowa State Fair, follow this link.

Do you ever just look at a pattern and just jump into it before reading the directions?  Well that’s what I did.

I am making my Plan C Schnibble Quilt for the August Schnibble of the Year.  I just looked at the picture and started sewing.  How hard are some four patches and star blocks….

I laid them out on my table and WHAT….how can that be the blocks didn’t “fit” together!  Turn, twist… Nope….it didn’t work.

Well you know the adage…”When all else fails, read the directions”.  I did and silly me.  The stars don’t get sewn together as a unit.  10 minutes of “unsewing” and I was back in business.

See…much better.

I should have figured this out when I was half way done sewing the blocks together as I ran out out of corner squares…Did I stop and read the directions….NO.  My immediate thought was that I didn’t pay attention when I was cutting the pattern out.  Then I thought,  maybe there is a typo in the pattern directions.  I just cut more squares.  I should have stopped then and read the directions.  Oh well…lessons learned.  ”Read the pattern directions before starting to sew!”

I am really happy that this happened on a little Schnibble pattern that is only 30 X 30 and not a big quilt.  I would have really been complaining then!

When Kayla and I were out and about shopping Thursday, I finally found a backing fabric for my Patchwork Times Mystery Quilt.

It was the end to a long quest.  The dark in the quilt is actually a dark, dark blue even though it looks black so black fabrics weren’t working…the green fabric is actually a golden green so greens weren’t working.

I ended up with a Jo Morton print from the clearance rack….it has a mixture of greens and gold that  I think will look fine.   I am a bit stingy as I don’t pay full price for backing fabric ever.

So my stash report….
6 yards and one charm pack in….
Nothing out….hopefully by next week the quilt will be finished and those six yards will be a wash.

Check back tomorrow and I’ll show you what I am working on and share a little lesson I learned.