my list

as per your request from this post.
this is not my Christmas to do list, if you were wondering. :)

do you feel better about your own list now? erin?

tree

Well, I finally got the tree up today. The little hands in the house love it.
I like it, but I can't believe that I was really that country at one time.
My tastes have changed quite a bit.

This guy is my favorite.

This year at our house it is all about use what you have, do it yourself, eclectic, throw it together at the last minute Christmas. Fun times.

house of girls II

In seven years of quilting, this is my first charity quilt. About time, no? This is going to be donated to my church for the Women's Christmas Dinner Silent Auction, which is tonight. The quilt was finished last night around 11pm. (See, I can make a deadline once in awhile.)

It was improvisational pieced, again. All you need to do is take 2 pieces of pretty fabric, sew them together, press, add another piece of pretty fabric....on and on until the piece is big enough for a quilt. This type of piecing is so addictive! I recommend you try it sometime.

Polka dots are my favorite choice for the binding these days.

The backing is a heavier weight cotton purchased at Mill End last April while shopping with Roxanne. (It's good to be using up some of that stash.)

The quilt is a lap size, measuring about 55" x 70". It was quilted on my Juki, again with the meandering. (It's basically all I do anymore.)

And for those of you keeping track, this is #15 completed for the year. I hope to squeeze in a few more finished before the end of the year.

quilt-a-long, week 5

Welcome to week 5 of the quilt-a-long. Have I told you lately how excited I am that y'all are quilting along with me? It makes me so very happy....thank you! I am so appreciative that you have taken an interest in this project. And those of you who are using your stash get extra points. (hee hee)

This was going to be the block for today...I tried to do something simple and quick because I am busy and I am sure you are busy, too. But once it was finished, I thought it looked a little too familiar.

It is basically the same block as week #1, just a different way of putting it together.
So, I tried again. (oy!) Maybe I can laugh about this tomorrow.



Lets get on with it, shall we?

cut 4 squares 2 7/8" from the background fabric

cut 16 squares 2.5" from the background fabric

cut 5 squares 2.5" from 2 different fabrics, for a total of 10 squares

from a different fabric, cut 2 squares 2 7/8" and one square 2.5"

and from another fabric cut 2 squares 2 7/8" and one square 2.5"
mark all 4 of your 2 7/8" background squares with a pencil on the diagonal on the wrong side of the fabric. pin together one background and one colored square right sides together.

sew on each side of the line a quarter inch. do this for 4 sets of squares....

press open and you should have 4 squares of each fabric,
for a total of 8 half square triangle blocks

layout your block as shown

sew together

and you should have this...repeat for the other block...

now, for the nine patches

layout as shown

sew together

and you should have 2 nine patch blocks


(that was easier than the first two, wasn't it?)

layout as shown

sew together

and here is your completed block...it should measure 12.5".

as always, any questions will be answered in the comments.
if you have joined in and I haven't added your name in the sidebar, send me a quick email and I will add it. :)

quilt

This quilt was made by my newest quilting student, Heather. Didn't she do a great job?

(only half the quilt is shown, and binding still needs to be added)

We saw a quilt in a quilt shop made with similar fabrics and we both fell in love with it. We picked out some fabrics, she pieced the top and I quilted it. (In exchange for some lovely fabric, I must add. Gotta feed that addiction somehow.)

The pattern is Happy Hour by Atkinson Designs. The quilt on the cover of the book isn't much to look at, but the pattern is fantastic. The blocks are 14.5" finished, so the piecing is very quick.

I have also seen this quilt done in Heather Bailey's freshcut fabrics and it was quite lovely as well.

I am anxious to start one of these myself. It is near the top of my list. (oh, you should see my list...)

surprise

my sweet, sweet husband

bought me these fabulous

sulu earrings.

just because.

family fun

My sister often asks me in her letters, "what fun things have you done with your family this week?" Little does she know how much guilt that question usually brings. I rarely plan fun things to do with my family. I feel we are usually focusing on survival. Once I think about it though, I can usually come up with a few fun things we have done together, like:

...making the alphabet out of K'nex.

...watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer together. (I remember being so freaked out by the abominable snowman as a kid.)

...shoveling snow. The boys helped me start on the driveway last night. I was thrilled to see that they are of the age that they can start helping out with some of these big tasks. We had fun shoveling. Go figure. :)

Thanks, Clair, for the reminder to enjoy those little things. I needed that.

------------

And here is a sneak peek of today's quilt project.

I *heart* this quilt.

another finish

This quilt was made for some dear friends that I have known for a long, long time. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in October, so this gift will be a bit belated. (I need to work on my deadlines!) They live in a hundred year old farm house and collect antique quilts. I hope this fits into their home nicely.

It all started with these squares that I didn't quite know what to do with.

When I saw this quilt, I got excited because I could still make a full size quilt with only half the amount of 9 patch blocks. Those 9 patch blocks get tedious!

The making of this quilt was touch and go several times. I had to do quite a bit of color editing. Several lighter colored squares made their way into my scrap bucket. That helped a ton, but once I got the quilt top put together I wasn't really thrilled. It hung over my banister several weeks. I started to strip piece the backing with pieces from my stash. That didn't last very long. I gave up, went to JoAnn's and bought a big piece of backing fabric...so glad I did. I thought about ripping the top apart several times. Or just cutting it apart and salvaging what I could.

But, I persevered. I decided to see the quilt through to completion. I must say that I am glad I did.

The backing is a large scale paisley that dresses it up nicely.

As does the large scale printed binding.

Someone asked me once (I think it was Megan) if I ever get nervous about how a quilt will come together. I would have to say ALL the TIME!

Is it worth it? Totally. Every time.

quilt-a-long week 4

Are you all ready for another block?

More triangles today. (sorry) But I really love this block and I think they are worth it.

cut 4 squares 3 7/8" from 2 different coordinating fabrics, for a total of 8 squares.

cut 8 squares 3 7/8" from the background fabric.

draw a line with pencil on wrong side of the background fabric from one corner to the opposite corner.
pin 2 squares right sides together-one background fabric, one colored fabric.

sew 2 lines-each one 1/4" from the line that you drew.

cut apart on the line, press and you have 2 squares.
not so bad, right?
continue doing this technique with remaining squares, pairing a colored and a background fabric each time.
you should now have 16 squares.

layout as shown

sew your strips together

and your block is done!
it should measure about 12.5" square.

any questions about this block will be answered in the comments.
happy quilting!

winner

Nicole is the winner! Thanks all, for your kind comments. I stayed away from the computer the entire contest, so this morning I read all 110 comments at once. It was lots of fun. Thanks for celebrating the sale of my house with me.

sold

We sold our house today!

The closing was this afternoon and some lovely couple in their 50's bought their first home today. Or so I hear. We didn't have to travel to Michigan to close, we did it all through the wonders of Fed-Ex. For that I am so thankful. The traveling we did over the Thanksgiving weekend nearly did me in.

Anyway, the selling of our home is reason to celebrate, don't you think? (Especially in this market.) What better way to celebrate, than to have a give away?

I sewed up this purse today in honor of this oh-so-very joyous occasion.
You know the drill.
Leave me a comment and I will pick a name on Sunday morning, December 2, 2007.

8 random things

I was tagged by Libby to do the 8 random things meme. I love reading memes, so I am happy to play along. I get a lot of questions about quilting, fabric, etc. so I thought I would combine the two.

1. Where do you buy your fabric?

I buy about a quarter of it on-line. Otherwise, I buy some from JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, Mill End Textiles (love!), and various quilt shops. I have done some fabric scrap swapping, which I love, because it rounds out my stash nicely. I used to be of the mindset that quilt shop/designer fabric was way too expensive, but now I am seeing how much better it is in quality and design. A little designer fabric goes a long way, especially when you combine it with a lot of solids, which I like to do.

2. I want to start quilting....where do I start?

I learned from a friend of mine (thank you, Nancy) and that is the best way to go, especially if you are pattern challenged like me. Having someone show me in person was the best route. If you don't know anyone personally who quilts, take a class. The teachers are usually passionate about quilting and will be happy to share their enthusiasm and knowledge. Then, after you have a good foundation, read, read, read. I love to READ quilt books. It makes me feel like such a nerd, but it is fun to learn tips, tricks and insight from other quilters. I gleaned a lot from this book, especially when it comes to design and color choices.

3. What type of batting do you use?

Warm and Natural. I buy it at JoAnn's and either use a coupon or wait until it goes on sale, otherwise it gets quite spendy. Once in a while I will use a higher loft polyester batting when I want a slightly thicker and bulkier quilt. Sometimes I use the needlepunch cotton batting from Wal-Mart. It comes in king size, so it works for large quilts.

4. Do you have any machine quilting tips?

Practice, practice, practice.
Then practice some more.

Don't expect perfection the first (or second or third or forth) time.

5. How do you baste your quilts?

I did a tutorial here.
Good basting is a large factor in quilting success, as well.

6. How do you get so much accomplished?

I am a work-aholic.

I stay home a lot.

I can't sit still.

I am always working on something.

I am a firm believer that you will find time to do what you want to do.

And also, I feel like I am pretty good at time management.

7. I am just starting to build a stash, how much yardage of each fabric should I buy?

This is purely personal preference. I like to buy a quarter yard cut of a large variety of fabrics rather than buying more yardage of fewer fabrics. Of course there are exceptions to this. I will buy more if I know that I really love it, that it is very versitile and that it will be unavaliable to me very soon. But you also have to consider that I love scrappy quilts-the more fabrics in a single quilt, the better. Usually. If I find a great deal on fabric that will work great as a backing fabric, I have been known to buy the end of the bolt. I think the largest chunk of fabric that I have bought is 7 yards and 11". Oh, that was a good day. :)

8. One quirky thing about me and fabric...when I buy new fabric, I have a hard time adding it in to my stash right away. I leave it in the pile that I bought it, separate from the stash for some time, thus preserving it's newish-ness. I guess once it is blended into the stash, I feel like it isn't quite so special anymore. Strange, eh? The fabrics in the photos are from various shopping trips in the last few months. One of my local quilt shops in Michigan still had lots of Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy fabric left, so I had to stock up before it was gone forever. (so sad.) I *heart* fabric.

I am not going to tag anyone, but please join in on the 8 random things meme if you would like-I would love to read your list.