Designing Monday

I received an email this week ( I think it was All People Quilt ) that had a free pattern attached.  I downloaded it and decided to make it.  The name of the pattern is Wish Upon a Star by Gyleen X. Fitzgerald.  The photo of the quilt was really sweet -- made in 30's feedback prints and very girly.  I printed out the pattern pieces - only 3, How hard can this be?  Made my templates, scrounged through my stash and got busy.  I made the center stars for 7 or 8 blocks on Saturday.

Then Sunday made a run to Joann's for some bleached muslin for the background.  I decided to make one test block before cutting out all the background pieces and it is a good thing I did.

This is a quilt of @#$!!# SET IN SEAMS @#$!!#!   Oh my.  That was some bad language I just used.       I hope I didn't offend anybody.  I managed to get the background sewn onto the first star with a lot of gentle pulling and pinning and stretching.  After ironing the finished block I laid it out on my cutting mat to measure.  9 1/2".  I could swear the pattern said 10".  Let me double check that.  Yep- 10".  Oh yes, and that is the finished block!  Say what?

So I went back and remade the template for the background and added an inch to the outside edges.  I made another test block and Voila!  They now measure 12" unfinished.  Plenty of extra to trim off and  oh! those set in seams are just a breeze now.  I am liking how these blocks look and the beauty is when they come together.  Stay tuned for next week and I should have the center finished.

Hope you have a yummy Thanksgiving and lots of leftovers.  I am definitely thankful I solved the mystery of this quilt before I made all 12 blocks incorrectly.  Hop on over to Judy's blog to see some more yummy sewing.

Me? An Artist?

A chance meeting at church on Sunday led to a fun class on Monday.  The class was painting silk scarves.  I am the first to admit I am not an artist - can't color, can't paint, can't sculpt or draw.  If you give me a quilt pattern, I can usually follow it and I'm pretty good at picking out colors that go together.  The teacher of this class said NO Sewing, so I knew I was out of my element.  She gave us a brief explanation and demo of the process and showed us many samples of her gorgeous work.  Since I was a beginner (and not an artist, remember?), she recommended that I try the simplest technique and design.  Works for me!

We each received a blank white silk scarf which we ironed to freezer paper to keep it from wrinkling. We picked colors and painted on a paper towel first, then a silk swatch, and finally we were ready to create.  I started by putting some black and silver lines using a resist type paint, then went to town with the fabric paints.  To get some watery special effects, I used two sizes of salt.  We dried our scarves, ironed them to set the paint, washed them in a fixative, and ironed once more. And

TA DA!  Here is my gorgeous scarf!

The most fun part was painting the fringe.  Isn't it fun?  Now I want to make more, more, more!  Maybe I CAN do art!  I'm wearing it out today for lunch.  Can't wait.

I also saved my little swatch.  It's about 12 inches square.  I am thinking I might be able to make a little rosette pin if I can figure out how.


 We had company for the weekend and they left us this beautiful bouquet and a bottle of wine as a thank you gift.

You probably didn't know I have my own vineyard and wine label, did you?

Well I do have a vineyard that consists of two grapevines, but no, this I haven't tried winemaking yet.  I do think it is pretty cool to have a wine named for me!  LOL!

Designing Monday

I have been making more hexagons.  I started this as a hand project to do at my monthly stitching group, but I could see there is way too much yakking and not enough sewing to make much progress.  So I decided that I would work on it during TV time.  I know lots of you have been through the hexagon craze already, but I seem to wander in and out of it.  I have other shapes in my collection and hope to get around to those one of these days.

I got this little leaf runner bound and hung for the month of November.

Enjoy a day of stitching and hop on over to Judy's blog  to see some beautiful designs.

Designing Monday

This is all I have to show for the week.  I did this on Wednesday and Sunday night.  Wednesday was my Fiber Friends get together for the month and Sunday night was the Packer game.

I am involved in an endless painting project at my church.  I dragged my husband into help, so hopefully it will be done this week.  So no sewing this week.

Have a great week and hop over to Judy's blog to see some lovely designs.

Designing Monday

My post looks nearly the same as last week.  I finished one of the two leaf projects I started last weekend and mailed it off to a friend for her birthday.  Then I realized I forgot to take a photo of it to post here.  I guess you will just have to imagine how cute it was!

Here is the second project.  I got it quilted and prepared the binding and then decided it needed some more quilting.  Finally I am ready to put on the binding which should happen today.  I seem to need to do a lot of percolating in my brain in between steps.  I sort of dither over the right fabric for the border or the binding or the right quilt pattern, etc.  Am I the only one?

Our fall leaves are falling from the trees pretty quickly here.  There are still a few on the ash trees behind our house.  The maples in front are always the last to go and they haven't even changed color yet.

I don't think I ever posted this finished little quilt. It is my last orange and black quilt.   I decided to free hand quilt some little pumpkins along the border.  They turned out fine and really finished it off well.  I got this cute hanger at the Quilt Expo in Madison.  This is a 12" quilt.

Hope your fall is beautiful wherever you are.  Hop over to Judy's blog to see some beautiful designs.

Designing Monday

I guess it is a good thing that Judy holds these Monday get togethers or I would probably forget to blog at all.  I am working on fall leaves for the Small Quilt group on Sentimental Quilter's blog.  Kathy provided the free pattern on her blog if you are interested.  I am making a 12" square as a gift and a long wall hanging with 3 leaves for myself.  I should have these done in a day or two.

I have also been making necklaces for Halloween.  Here are the supplies - a frame with 2 pieces of glass and a chain - both from Hobby Lobby.

Then I downloaded some Halloween art and resized it to fit my frame. I printed out several options and then cut out two that I liked.


The frame opens from the side so you can slip in two printed papers and the two pieces of glass and then close it up.  Easy Peasy!  I am making several for friends, too.

Stop by Judy's blog to see what other quilters have been up to.

A Fun Quilt Show

Last Saturday I went to a quilt show in a small town west of here with my friend, Joyce.  It was about an hour's drive which gave us lots of time to catch up on any news since we last talked.  It was a very overcast day and the main street of town was blocked off for an art fest so the GPS was having a bit of trouble getting us to the Civic Center where the quilt show was held, so round and round the blocks we went til we finally located it.  We had driven past the sign and the building, DUH!

I took a few pictures to share of my favorite quilts.  There was also a bed turning with about 20 antique quilts.  That was my favorite part.

On to the show:

The quilt is a bed runner for a girl's bed.  The little girls are pre-printed on fabric to be paper dolls.  The maker used old hankies for the skirts and velcroed them on so that they could be switched from paper doll to paper doll.  The flowers are also velcroed on to be switchable.  I love this idea.

Here's a close up.

 Each of the white blocks has an embroidered dresden plate.  The center is an embroidered bowl of dresden flowers.

Dresden Sweetness.  Centers are yo-

yos with a button.

When we left the show it was raining so we dashed for the car and started towards home.  We stopped on the was back for lunch at a Harley Davidson store that looks kind of like the Clampetts meet the Wild West.  It was storming and pouring as we came in the parking lot, so no photos of the outside.  They had lots of fun decor in the restaurant (plus great BBQ), a gift shop, a large antique store,  a large showroom, a bar/ party room and animals - crocodiles, bison, other large critters.  We made it only to the restaurant and antique store as they were connected.  Guess we will save the rest for next time.  Here we are getting ready to take a ride!