Design Wall Monday 07/25/11

Not much sewing happened this week.  I made progress on the project that I started here.  It's funny that I had pulled piles of fabrics and I only needed to use a small triangle from each one.  Now I just need to put these quadrants together to make the block, which will finish at 12" square.  I made it on a whim, with no real idea of what I would do with it.  It was just something that I had wanted to do for a while and frankly I didn't feel like working on the project that I had in progress at the time.  I really like how it is coming out and it is possible that I'll make this the center of a larger project.  Maybe I'll add rows of blocks all the way around in a medallion setting.  We'll see.  The fabric I ordered for the borders of last week's quilt arrived, so I guess I'll be working on that next.

I had a little scare recently when our computer died.  We are very diligent about backing up our data, but when we tried to recover it, we found that not all of the files were being backed up.  Specifically, the files were I keep the patterns that I write.  I estimate I've written over 40 patterns in the last 5-6 years, and I was starting to panic.  Fortunately Lance researched and worked very hard and we found that we were able to pull the hard drive out of the computer and plug it into a reader and recover all of the files.  Whew!  I think I'll be saving a copy of my files in the "cloud" from now on.

Be sure to check out Judy L's blog to see what is on other people's design walls!

Design Wall Monday - 07/18/11

I actually have a design "wall" today!  This one was too big for the table.  My sister and I are working together on a quilt and here's how far we got in one day.  I just love the zig zag quilt.  It's so impressive looking, and yet so simple to make.  We'll be squaring off the sides (no setting triangles) and adding a couple of borders.  Working together worked out really great. We both cut and I sewed with she pressed and pinnned and did the layout.  I had made this quilt once before shown here, and I didn't realize that we ended up with the same colors as the first one until my sister pointed it out after it was sewn together.  Funny how that happened!  Now to choose borders...

See what others are doing on Judy L's blog!

Pop Top Gifts

I recently found this tutorial on Our Best Bites, one of the cooking blogs that I read regularly.  I have been having so much fun with these!  It's a great way to package a little gift or just some sweets.  I originally made some for Mother's Day gifts, and filled them with See's Candy.  I didn't take any pictures of those, but then I made a few more recently for Father's Day and a Graduation gift (two shown above).  Candy and nuts went into the Father's Day cans and candy surrounding a gift card for the Graduation can.  They are so easy and everyone is stumped as to how they are made!  Go to the tutorial link above for a step by step tutorial - but basically what you do is buy a can of anything that has a pop-top, such as mixed fruit or pineapple.  The mixed fruit comes in smaller cans, so I got pineapple, which comes in bigger cans for the bigger items like the gift card.  Open the bottom of the can with a can opener (I have the safe style which kind of un-crimps the bottom).  Empty the contents into a container for later use.  Wash and dry the inside of the can making sure you don't bend it out of shape.  Fill with treats or a small gift.  Glue the bottom back onto the can (we used crazy glue) and allow to dry completely.  As noted in the tutorial, you might want to put a small piece of tissue paper in the bottom of the can before gluing in case any drips inside.  Cover the outside of the can with decorative scrapbooking paper and a label, and you are done!  These are super easy to make and are always received well.  However, sometimes people think that something is going to jump out at them - of course, you could to that too!

Design Wall Monday - 07/11/11

I've finally got another project in progress on my Design "Table"!  I've been roadblocked working a project for quilt class in the fall.  So for whatever reason, I felt that I couldn't work on anything else until I made decisions on how to set that project.  Let's just say that I got over that feeling this weekend and started pulling fabrics to make a color wheel block.  For a very long time, I've been seeing lots of interpretations of a foundation pieced block with flying geese going in a circle.  I mentally bookmarked it to come back to at a later date.  Well CrazyMom showed one last week and I finally decided to just do it.  I don't know where it will go - a one-block wall hanging or possibly a center medallion for a bigger quilt - the possibilities are endless.  I chose to do a color wheel with a black background.  I had trouble printing the foundation the right size - had to do some creative enlarging/cutting/pasting.  Above are the 12 colors that I've chosen so far - I may tweek them before I start.  Most of these came straight out of my scrap bag.  The reds are not reading very true in this picture.  They were right under the lamp.  I only need a tiny piece from each fabric so most of this will go right back in the stash.  Unless I build it bigger...

Stash Busting 2011 - Week 28

Sorry about the unintentional blogging break.  Lots of things going on at work and at home, and I haven't had the energy to blog much.  I do have some things that I am working on that I'll show this week.  But today is for my stash report.  I'm reporting for the past several weeks.  Let's see, I have a yard of a beautiful aqua and brown paisley print left over from a large piece that I had cut up into fat quarters and given to my quilt class on the last day before the summer break.  Also, my husband went to visit his family down in Clovis, where my favorite fabric shop (Quilter's Paradise) is located.  He is such a sweetheart that he stopped in an picked up a couple of fat quarters as a surprise for me (above).  He said he wanted to try to pick fabrics in a style that I didn't already have.  He did a great job!  Lastly, I did give my sister a yard of solid black from the bolt I bought recently - so yay - one yard down!  I'm still working on the mini basket quilt, but I haven't finished the top, so I won't count that fabric out yet.  Here are my totals so far:

Fabric in this week:  1.50 yards
Fabric out this week:  1.00 yards

Fabric in this year:  36.25 yards
Fabric out this year:  5.75 yards

Check out Judy L's blog to see how everyone else is doing!

Design Wall Monday 06/13/11

Here's what is on my design "table" today.  I'm not sure I'm crazy about it.  It is going to be a miniature version of my Scrappy Baskets quilt, which I'll be teaching later this month.  I wanted to play with the coloring, so I used one fabric for all of the basket handles and used some pink and aqua charm squares mostly from my Bliss charm pack.  I'll keep putting it together to see how I like it once it's complete.  It often happens that I don't really like a project until it is done.  I already like it better seeing it in the picture over real-life.

Check out Judy L's blog to see what is on other Design Walls!

Dear Jane L8

I finished Dear Jane block L8 last night in class.  I'm happy to say that this one went together with no problems and really didn't take me very long at all!  I've started on another couple of projects, so I may be putting Jane on the back burner for a while -- but I sure did get a lot of them done in the meantime!

Dear Jane B3

Above is my latest Dear Jane block that I finished this weekend.  I'm kicking myself because I didn't plan ahead and press my seams so that they were opposing when I put it together.  The intersections are a little bulky, but they meet just fine.  I was so far into the block that I decided not to re-make it.  Maybe if there were 30 hours in the day...

Dear Jane G4

Things have been crazy busy at work recently, and I really haven't done any sewing outside of the Monday night classes.  Above is Dear Jane block G4, which was complete except for trimming, which I did today.  Now I have my workspace cleared off and ready for some sewing today, but I just can't decide what to work on.  I'll be co-teaching a three day workshop in June where I had planned to teach a project that I already taught recently.  But inspiration struck and now there are two new projects vying to be taught instead.  Of course I would have to complete one from start to finish in about a week, which seems impossible, but for some reason I want to give it a shot.  Now I'm trying to decide which one to actually make.  This probably sounds about as confusing as it is in my head.  Perhaps I'll just read my book for while instead and let it stew!

Stash Busting 2011 - Week 20

I haven't posted about Stashbusting lately because there's been nothing-in and nothing-out.  But I must confess some purchases! The three fat quarters above were purchased at a Sew Many Quilts, a quilt shop in the town where my sister lives.  I also got a few pieces for my Dear Jane quilt, but I haven't been adding those to the official stash because they are dedicated to that project.  The three above just spoke to me for some reason - especially the orange one on the right.  My bigger purchase is actually going to help me bust my stash (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).  I bought two bolts of fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop recently.  I bought a bolt of solid white and a bolt of solid black.  They have really good deals on their Moda and Robert Kaufmann solids, and I was able to combine that with a coupon and was very pleased with what I ended up paying.  The way I figure it, now that I have these fabrics on hand, I won't have to go out and buy background fabrics whenever I want to make a quilt.  I have plenty of stash, but it is mostly smaller pieces - not much yardage.  Let's see how long I can go now without buying anything (except for the DJ quilt).  It's a personal challenge!!

Fabric in this week:  30.75 yards
Fabric out this week:  0.00 yards

Fabric in this year:  34.75 yards
Fabric out this year:  4.75 yards

Dear Jane K8

I like this block a lot! I had it almost complete back on Monday, and it took me until today to finish it up.  I'm really on a roll with these Dear Jane blocks lately.  I promise to post something else non-DJ related soon!  I did make some fabric purchases, so I'll have to confess report those tomorrow.  Also the Bloggers Quilt Festival is going on, and I'd really like to post something for that, too.  If all goes well, I should have some new posts up soon!

Dear Jane K9

This is probably the block that I'm least pleased with so far as far as workmanship goes.  It's a fairly simple block, but there are a couple of seams that don't match up that bother me.  In the scheme of things they are not a big deal and I'll probably never fix them, but becuase it's my most recent block so they are on my mind.  However, I have another block nearly finished and I'm sure I'll forget all about those pesky mis-matched seams soon!

Dear Jane E9

Another Dear Jane block done!  I got the majority of this block done on Monday night at class.  I only needed to add the borders to the sides, which I did today.  Twice.  Yes, I put the borders on with wider strips than I needed, so that I could trim the block down to the exact size.  However, I trimmed it completely wrong!  Two sides were narrow and two sides were wide.  Ugh. I had to pull all four borders off and then sew new ones back on so that I could trim it properly.  Maybe today was not a good day to sew!  It is all done (correctly) now so I can add this one to the list!

Dear Jane C11

C11 is the latest Dear Jane block that I made.  I wanted to do one with applique, and this one was simple enough.  I opted not to do what Jane Stickle did, which was to applique four small blocks, each with two quarter-cirlcles, and then sew those together to make the larger block.  Instead I cut one large shape of the light background fabric and then appliqued it onto the orange fabric.  This way I was able to place the center circle over a motif in the orange print.  I think it came out pretty nice and it really didn't take me long at all.  I was a little worried about the orange color shadowing through the light fabric, so I cut away the orange underneath before I added the borders.

Dear Jane H1

I finished up the second Dear Jane block that I had started on Monday night. I love how this viney print looks in this block.  I have a project box for this quilt and I have been picking up fabrics for it as I see them. The prints are in a mixture of scales.  The blocks are so small that I have been mostly using very small scale prints, so it was nice to be able to use one that had a little more going on.  Next up, I am going to prepare an applique block, as I haven't done one of those in a while.  The pieced ones are much easier to work on in class, so I have been focusing mostly on those so far.