National Sew a Jelly Row Day

Hello Everyone! It’s been over a week since I last posted, but I decided I would join in the National Sew a Jelly Roll Day hosted by Moda. I hope you had a chance to take some time to join in. I had a little mini solo retreat. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday working on this project.

Do you ever watch “The Midnight Quilt Show” with Angela Walters? The videos are usually less than 15 minutes long and Angela is fun to watch. There are new episodes on YouTube every Wednesday. I chose my Jelly Roll project from this episode.

I like pre-cuts, but I usually go for layer cakes and have recently purchased a few fat eighth bundles. I only had two jelly rolls. I bought the one for this quilt almost 8 years ago. I also purchased coordinating fabrics to go with it so I had enough to make this quilt.

The fabric is Figgy Pudding by Basic_Grey. The pattern is called On Point and is a Cozy Quilt Design.

I cut strips from the background then sewed the strips and background into a tube.

Next you cut triangles from the tube, then you had half square triangles. It all went pretty quickly.

By late Sunday afternoon, I had this much sewn together. I’ve added two more rows since then and have three to go. This will make a nice Christmas Quilt.

I also started to make a pillow for fall.

It’s almost finished, so I’ll have an update when it’s done.

I haven’t made my Moda Blockheads block for the week and I will probably get behind on those because we are going away for the week this weekend. With the sewing time I have left, I’m going try to get my Minis and More finished for October. I have most of it pieced, but I’m not sure it will get quilted.

I hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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Works in Progress

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is having a good weekend. My prayers and good wishes are with those in Florida that had to evacuate. Here in the Atlanta area, we’re supposed to start getting the winds and rain tomorrow and Tuesday. They’re calling for power outages and we have to worry about pine trees coming down. The forecast keeps changing, so we won’t know how bad it will be until it gets here. I’m prepared with water, peanut butter, batteries and handwork.

 

I also want to remind you that you have until Monday at midnight to leave me a comment here for the I Love Home Giveaway. Make sure you leave the comment on the Block 2 post.

 

 

 

I had a few days this past week just to spend on sewing! I started working on the pillow inspired by the Mini Pumpkin quilt. I decided to do my pumpkins a little differently than the quilt.

I set the pumpkin squares on point. Last fall I wanted to make a pumpkin pillow with this setting which didn’t happen! I was going to make the pumpkin about 8″ last year, this one is 4 1/4″. I’ll put some maple leaves with it and hopefully have this finished in a week or so.

I also finished two Moda Blockhead BOW.

This is block 26, Cat’s Cradle by Betsy Chutchian.

This is Bock 27, Union Variation by Jo Morton. I’m starting to play around with the settings to see what kind of background fabric I want to use.

This is another option. The problem with using the black is I don’t have enough and it’s hard to find now with the tan and black. Most of what I have been using is years old.

I also finished September’s block from A Quilting Life’s BOM. This is the 12″ block using the Pondicherry fabrics by French General for Moda. I like the way Sherri has you cut everything slightly larger, then trim it down to size.

That method helps all those points match! This is the 6″ version using Fig Tree fabrics.

Only three more blocks for this BOM. I have no idea how I’m going to set these. Soon Sherri will be offering some suggestions. I’ve been saving the leftovers and have made some half square triangle pieces that can be used.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe if you’re in the path of Irma.

September Embroidery and a Finish-A-Long

Hello Everyone! I hope all my readers in the Southeast and Florida are bracing for Irma. My husband suggested that I go ahead and pick up some bottled water and food just in case for us. One of the tracks show it moving through central Florida and Georgia, which I would actually prefer. That would hopefully keep it away from Pensacola where my daughter is, and the Outerbanks NC, where we are planning a weeks vacation near the end of the month.

Now on to my finish for the 2017 Finish-A-Long. You can find my list here. If you are visiting for Jacquelynne’s “I Love Home BOM”, this is a post about a finished embroidered piece so you may want to scroll to the Block 2 post after this one, if not, you can find Block 2 here. Be sure to leave your comment on the Block 2 post to win this month’s giveaway.

Now that business is taken care of, on to the finish.

This is September’s “a year in the garden” mini embroidery designed by Jenny of Elefantz. I started these little mini embroideries in January 2016, and finished half of them. This year I’ve been trying to get the rest finished before the month they are due. I almost made it this month! The embroidery was finished, but I wanted to change the background quilt to reflect fall colors. So what better than a Fig Tree  fabric with fall leaves on it. The border on the embroidery is also a Fig Tree fabric.

For the background quilt, I kept the quilting simple and if you look closely, there is no binding. I placed the front and the back with the batting, wrong sides together, sewed around it leaving an opening, then turning. Then I stitched 1/4″ around the edge to make it look like a binding. That’s also how I do the embroidery piece. The borders are added to the front, then I sew it the same way.

I love the big flowers in this design and when I first saw them, I wondered what stitch Jenny used. It’s a buttonhole stitch! I used Auifloss by Aurifil and Sue Spargo’s Elaganza by Wonderfil thread. The light orange and variegated flower are Sue’s 8 wt  perle cotton. The coral flower is the Aurifloss.

The Aurifloss colors are from the Farm House collection by Fig Tree.

I bought this collection of the Sue Spargo thread at our quilt show in June. I couldn’t wait to use these wonderful fall colors. I’ve also used one of the variegated threads in the “I Love Home” Block 3. You’ll see that in October!

To see all my “a year in the garden embroidery” mini quilts, check out the category by that name on the sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe and continued prayers for all those in Texas.

 

 

I Love Home, Bock 2

Hello Everyone and Happy Labor Day! Today I’m pleased to share Block 2 of the “I Love Home” free BOM by Jacquelynne Steves. It’s not too late to sign up to receive your free blocks each month. This month, Sarah J, one of our featured bloggers, is giving away this great prize…

Find out how you can be one of the eight lucky winners of Sarah J’s fabrics by reading to the bottom of this post!

Now onto this month’s block!

I love this block! Well I love all of them. It’s been so fun to pick fabrics for both the applique and piecing. The fabrics in this block are Fig Tree Coney Island, Chestnut Street and Strawberry Fields Revisited. The coral house, door and tree trunk are from Corey Yoder’s Sundrops. In my post for the first block, I forgot to mention the background fabric, it’s Graceful Moments by Maywood Studio.

I used my Aurifloss by Aurifil for most of the applique and embroidery details, but since I didn’t have any to match the darker colors, I pulled out some DMC floss.

Just like on the first house block, I added some embroidered details to the applique.

For the windows, instead of using a buttonhole stitch to hold down the applique, I thought I would try a chain stitch and it worked. It adds a little dimension without taking up room inside the applique. I have a tutorial on working the chain stitch on an applique here (the pictures on that tutorial are on block 3 windows). I also used the chain stitch in the heart instead of adding another applique heart.  I liked the details Jacquelynne had from the embroidery design for the windows so those got added, too.

For the roof pieces, I was going for a gingerbread house look. On the dark roof section, I used the light coral Aurifloss on the buttonhole stitch so it would contrast nicely with the top, then used the matching DMC on the bottom so it would blend in. For the dark coral roof section, I used the matching floss so it would blend into the background then added the solid lines from the embroidery design.

On some of the smaller pieces and the tree trunk, I used one strand of floss instead of two just so the stitching wasn’t so dense. I also liked the flowers from the embroidery design so they were added, too.

If you are having problems trimming your applique or embroidery to size, you can make a viewing window. I made mine out of cardboard and marked the centers of the 8″ window to help with the placement.

I mark each corner so I have a reference for trimming. When trimming, make sure to trim 1/4″ outside each mark and make sure your corners are 8″. Mine are slightly less than 8″, so I need to adjust it slightly when I trim.

Block 1 and 2 together.

Be sure to hop around to see everyone else’s second block this month.

• The Crafty Quilter
• The Inbox Jaunt
• Designs by Sarah J
• Farmhouse Quilts
• Penguin and Fish
• Podunk Pretties
• The Quilting Nook
• The Sewing Loft

You can also follow along and post your own pictures on social media using #ILoveHomeQuilt on Instagram and Jacquelynne’s Sew Quilty Friends page on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Now for the giveaway. Even though it’s still warm where I am, September starts to remind me of fall, my favorite season. What are you looking forward to;  football, leaves changing colors, etc.? Let me know and leave a comment by Monday, September 11 by 11:59 PM, for your chance to win Sarah J’s fabulous fat quarter bundle.

One last thing…for those who follow me regularly, Janet sent me an update on her Coffee themed placemats that she made from my Christmas Placemat Tutorial.

She entered them in her county fair and won First Place! Congratulations Janet!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy making block 2!

Mini Pumpkins and A Finish-A-Long

Hello Everyone! Today I’m sharing the Minis and More Parade project for August, Mini Pumpkins by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew. This is also on my list of finishes labeled August Minis and More for the 2017 Finish-A-Long.

This was really fun to put together. I had seen this quilt on Cluck Cluck Sews blog and Instagram posts. I was glad when I saw Sherri and Michele had selected this one for our next project. One of the fun things about making this quilt is that there are several styles of the pumpkins; short, tall, scrappy and solid, some with leaves and some without.

I love fall fabrics and have quite the collection, but I didn’t have enough oranges that were predominately orange. So, I just had to add 4 more orange fat quarters for the pumpkins to my stash. A few of the fabrics I’ve had for a while and now there’s not much left of them. One of my favorite fabrics is the orange grunge, the solid tall pumpkin below. This picture doesn’t really show how vibrant it is. I bought several yards so it would last a little while.

The background fabric is from Cheddar and Indigo by Nancy Gere for Windam Fabrics. I love this line and thought the small check was perfect for my background. I bought a fat quarter bundle of the whole line at a local shop recently. I have so many projects in mind and never enough time!

I also really like the brown and orange oval dot binding that I used. I only had a fat quarter and I didn’t have the selvage with the name on it. I bought it either last year or the year before, so if anyone knows what it is, can you please let me know. I’ve looked locally for it, and no one has it any more.

For the quilting, I used an orange Aurifil 50 wt to quilt the pumpkins in a cross-hatch pattern.

I decided I wanted my lines to be straight, so I attached the ruler foot and quilted away! It’s a little slower, but much more accurate.

For the background quilting, I wanted to try something new so I started looking through my books for some ideas. I decided to try this new design I saw in Christa Watson’s book The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting she wrote with Angela Walters. It’s a double loop and mine aren’t all the same, but with some practice, I hope to improve it.

To see more Mini Pumpkins, visit Michele and Sherri. Sherri has also been working on some mini maple leaf blocks and there’s been some discussion of mixing and matching them and the pumpkins together. I need a fall pillow so I may make one for me with both of them. If I do I’ll use Sherri’s tutorial from a set of placemats that was last September’s Minis and More project. She also has a mini Maple Sky Mini Quilt if you prefer leaves!

Thanks Sherri and Michele for hosting. Can’t wait to see what September’s project will be.  Thanks for stopping by and please continue to pray and help however you can for all the Harvey victims.

 

A Little This and That

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to share a quick update on my projects, but first, I have a special project to show you.

Janet sent me this picture of her coffee themed placemats made from my Christmas Placemats Tutorial. They look great Janet, and thanks for sending me the picture. I hope you get a lot of use out of them. I never did make my summer placemats and I’m still using the Christmas ones. Now I should make some for fall!

I also started a new quilt-a-long (sort of ) on Instagram. It’s the #100hexies100days2017. I thought this would be a great time to use my Grandmother’s fabrics that I’ve had since she passed away many years ago.

She had pieces of all kinds of fabrics; cottons, denim, twill, and even some double knits. More on all of that later. I do have a project in mind for the hexies, but I’ll get my 100 hexies made before I make my final decision on how I’m going to use them. Each week has had a theme and last week was rainbows:

I found solids in all the rainbow colors in Grandma’s fabrics. Since they were solids, I decided to do a little embroidery in each of them. The bigger hexies are 1″ and the small ones are 3/4″. I will probably be adding more embroidered hexies along the way. This week’s theme is animals, but there aren’t any fabrics with those, so I’ll be back to picking out what I like.

I also finished Week 24 and 25 of the Moda Blockheads BOW.

For Block 24, I used my Half Square Triangle ruler to make these 1″ finished half square triangles. I think I get more accurate squares when I use it.

Week 25 was a fun block and I can see using this block in a larger quilt. I plan to set these blocks on point and I’ve begun to think about how I want to set them and what fabrics to use. If you have any ideas, I’d be happy to hear.

I’ve also finished my Mini Pumpkin quilt for the Minis and More Parade. I’ll have that for you on Friday, September 1.

My prayers are with all of those who have been affected by Harvey and will be in the near and distant future.  It will be a long road to recovery for them.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Blocks On the Go for Quilts That Grow Finish!

 

Hello Everyone! I have finished the Blocks on the Go for Quilts that Grow Quilt Along from last year. This is also my 3rd finish for the quarter for the 2017 Finish-A-Long. You can find my list here.

I started working on this with my quilting friends, Lydia and Joyce. We meet once a month in a local hotel lobby to catch up and get some sewing done. It was also my go to project when traveling. When I started this, I had never done any English Paper Piecing (EPP) before, so I did some research and got started. I have to say, I love this quilt.

The quilt has 52 EPP blocks from the New Hexagon book by Katja Marek. The block pieces are enlarged to 133% and I bought the paper pieces from Paperpieces.com. The batting was placed between the background piece (white fabric) and the block, then the blocks were appliqued to the background piece which became the backing, too.

Each block took 5 – 6 hours to EPP and applique. When it came time to put them all together, I decided I wasn’t up for more hand piecing. I also wanted to free motion quilt it. I ended up butting the pieces together and used the feather stitch on my machine to sew the blocks together.

Except for the background, all the fabrics are from various Bonnie and Camille lines for Moda. The background is a Moda Basic. I used Aurifil 50 wt thread to piece, applique and quilt.

I quilted free form free motion quilting motifs using my domestic Pfaff 4.0 Quilt Expression. There are feather flowers, feathers, swirls, some paisley, pebbles, and a little McTavishing. I had a lot of fun quilting this.

 

The back really shows off the quilting.

The quilt is the perfect picnic quilt. If I hadn’t spent so many hours on it, I would enjoy taking it to the park, sitting on it while listening to a concert. But instead, I will enjoy it in my home for now. These pictures were taken on a small dock at Lake Acworth.

Here’s one last picture. If you are interested in seeing the individual blocks, on the sidebar under the Categories, you can click on Blocks on the Go for Quilts that Grow, and find all my previous blog posts on this quilt.

Thanks for stopping by!