Ginger Belle

 Okay, are you sitting down? This will be a shock, and I don't want you to get hurt.

I've been piecing quilt units...and not just any quilt units, units for a quilt for me! I know, amazing right?

The pattern is Ginger Belle from Miss Rosie's Spice of Life Book by Carrie Nelson. The fabric is a Moda fat quarter bundle I bought over 15 years ago. I cut it out two years ago, put it in a project box and haven't touched it since.

It calls for 60 hour glass blocks and 261 4 patch blocks. I don't know how I managed it but I didn't cut enough strips for the 4 patch blocks. Normally I over cut, not undercut. I have about 50 more to make then I get to spend some quality time pressing them all open.

My goal is to finish the quilt top by the end of the month. Make sure you hold me to it.

This was my morning view a couple of days ago. The tempts are cooling and we've started getting morning fog. When it sits low in the valley like this it almost looks like a very large lake.

Visitors

 Angela and her husband Randy drove up for a really quick trip. Palo Alto to Grants Pass in one day, then back to Palo Alto the next day. A lot of driving in two days.

Recently one of the ladies in Angela's guild (a modern guild) gave her a LOT of fabric, kits, and patterns. Angela kept some of the fabric and kits but a lot of it wasn't her style. She was going to donate everything to a local thrift shop. Well guess who opened her big mouth. Yup. Me.

Yardage.

Over a dozen BOM applique kits.

Fat quarters and more kits. This isn't all of it. There was also a bag of Halloween fabric, a bag of Christmas fabrics, and other odd bits and pieces that I forgot to include in the pictures.

A lot, most, of the fabric and kits were from 1998 - 2002. I don't applique but I know a lot of my guild members do so I took about a third of the kits and some of the fabric to my guild meeting today. Most of it was gone before you could say Free (although they do have a jar for donations to the guild).

I'll take the rest to the next guild meeting in two weeks. I'm giving the next batch, the good stuff, to the chairperson of our quilt show boutique. The proceeds from it go to two local non-profits.

And yes, I did keep a little bit (a LOT) for myself.

I think Angela's and Randy's trip was so quick because they were afraid I'd give it all back. hehehe

Oops, Forgot it was Monday

 I know it was Monday yesterday, but it didn't feel like Monday. It felt like Sunday...kinda. Also felt like Saturday as my landscape guy usually comes the last Saturday of the month and he was here yesterday. 

Do those sound like good excuses why I forgot a blog post yesterday? Yeah, I thought it was pretty lame too.

I don't have anything exciting to show.

Airplanes with red flannel.

Bears with blue flannel.

Sports with blue flannel.

Lion flannel with yellow fabric. I think these lions are so CUTE!

All are about 40 x 48 inches. I could easily do one a day...and almost have. They take a little more than three hours to prep, load, quilt, and machine sew the binding. I got a little wild and quilted loops on the sports quilt. ;o)

Monday Again?

 Didn't do much last week. The sale of my mom's house finalized today. We signed the papers last week and I spent Sunday doing a quick clean.

I loaded, quilted, and added binding to one of the sandwiches I prepped last week.

You'll probably get bored of these long before I finish with them.

You'd be proud of me. I took four quilts to turn in at the Quilts for Kids meeting and didn't bring home any new quilt tops or sandwiches. That's gotta be a first for me. (hehehehe)

Odds and Ends

 Bella started "nesting" in the pile of quilt sandwiches I showed a couple of weeks ago. When she nests, she destroys batting. So I've spent the week prepping the sandwiches for long arm quilting.

Most of the sandwiches were 1.5 yard cuts of fabric...front, back and batting cut to the same size. Spent time deciding what would be the top and what the bottom. Trimming edges and selvages as needed. 

I also made a couple of executive decisions...

This was one sandwich...both fabrics were cute but not together. I split them up and found backs for both.

Some were not even close to being considered a "kid's quilt". I just couldn't quilt this, so split the fabrics up and maybe they will be backs for a future quilt.

This one is just scary ugly. The back with it was a directional fabric that wasn't going in the same direction as the panel. I haven't found another back yet...partly because I really really don't like this panel.

Pressed, trimmed and ready for long arm quilting. I'll probably do a simple meander on all of them. Then I'll have to find binding fabrics.

This one was interesting. The top and border fabric are manufactured pre-quilted fabrics. It was sandwiched without batting and the edges sewn with a serger. I carefully quilted it with my walking foot and added binding.

A different person made this quilt top. I don't know what the fabric is but it is not quilter's cotton. A little stiff. I tried to soften it up a bit with flannel on the back.

I quilted it with an edge to edge pantograph in blue thread. I think the picture is showing my first pass...a little rough...by the end of the quilt my quilting was much smoother.

I found a different blue that I like much better than the blue I showed last week. I shortened the panel also. I have a back for it and the binding is made from a cute sunflower fabric I found at my local quilt shop. Now I have to decide how I'm going to quilt...any suggestions?

This week the boys were back in town. (do I have you singing the Tin Lizzy song?)

There was a third buck, but I couldn't get all three in the same picture.

Auditions

This past week was a bit busy so not much time to sew or quilt until today.

I played with different cornerstones in the sunflower quilt. I showed the black last week.

Gray. My favorite of all.

And blue. The person who requested the quilt liked the blue.

It's a long narrow panel. With the blue cornerstones I recommended shortening the panel. I think it highlights the bird more.

I realized after the fact that I don't have enough of any of the fabrics to use for the binding. Since I'm not crazy about this solid blue, I think I'm going to shop for a different blue and get enough to use for binding also.

I took this light from my mom's house. I really like how it lights up the whole sewing surface. I was sewing blue binding with matching thread and was able to see what I was doing.

This panel was already quilted by someone else. I just trimmed it and added the binding.

Bella has a new friend. She isn't mad or scared, I caught her tail mid wag. Today two foxes went through the backyard and one of them made a quick stop to check Bella out. Wish I could have taken a picture, she was totally bored by the fox.

 

 

It was another busy week. Lots of appointments and I've been going through my mom's house again, making sure I haven't missed anything. My niece took some of her furniture and we both took some Christmas decoration. Moving furniture when it is 98 degrees out is not fun. The estate sale agent takes over tomorrow, and the sale will be September 12-14. Hopefully the house will be empty by the 17th and escrow closes on the 23rd...then I plan on sleeping for a week.

Not much sewing going on.

I made the back and got the ribbon and rose quilt loaded on the frame.

I'm using a kinda dense pantograph with a bright blue thread...probably not the best choice since I'm not very good at pantographs. The blue thread on the solid white shows every jig and jag.

I've been playing with the sunflower panel.

More blue sky or less?

It is kind of long and narrow, so I've then thought about removing the barn. I like the pattern design but I'm not sure about the border or accent fabrics. I need to play more before I sew anything together.

Nothing happened with the number/alphabet panel, but I did get the red binding made. 

The free table at my guild is my downfall. 

How cute is this. There was matching border/binding fabric and backing fabric...all are the softest flannel.