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Adding a personal touch

May26

Still piecing away, almost down to the last block.  Here are blocks 7 & 8, on the design wall in pieces, waiting to get assembled.  Again, where you see a solid color, it is really just a print of very small dots.

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I should have the blocks done by tomorrow, then there’s the sashing (easy) and decision on the borders.  I would like to make it fit for a king size, something like 100×100.  I’ll need to add about a 10-12 inch border around the quilt for that.  Still thinking about utilizing the remaining fat quarters from my bundle of Happy Go Lucky that I didn’t use in the blocks to add in some flying geese units in the opposing corners.  Add a little more interest and personal touch.

Another personal touch I want to add is some embroidery in the center square of the center block.  Since I’m giving this as a wedding present, I thought putting their names and wedding date would be nice.  I was inspired from this post by Pretty by hand blogger, Kristyne Czepuryk, to download a font I like and use that as my template.  Take a peak at her post here, where she offers an Embroidered Signature Block tutorial.

My personal handwriting is, and has always been, terrible.  My hand actually starts to cramp now if I write more than a few paragraphs in long hand.  That’s how little I write anymore.  I learned how to type in high school, even won a couple of awards at UIL for speed – so there was never any struggle to transition to a computer world for me.  Every person in high school should learn how to type properly.  Invaluable.

I digress.  I am shamelessly stealing the same font idea from Kristyne and using Stalemate for the wedding block.  I’m not crazy about the “B” letter – I might play with it a bit before I commit to the ink.  The fonts are available as free downloads through this website – 1001 Fonts.  I had also downloaded Tangerine, Sacramento and Adine.  But Kristyne had the right selection already – Stalemate.

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I went through my limited stash of embroidery thread.  Most of which I picked up in a clearance opportunity at my local quilt shop, but I also had ordered a range of colors by COSMOS floss.  None of which matched my fabric.  None of it.

Guess that means I have to go shopping.  I have to go.   I am forced to go shopping. Plus – I have a coupon for Joann Fabrics!  Love that!

Selected a variety of colors, in case I wanted to embellish a little in the block.  I’m likely to use the darkest navy color for the lettering.

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While at Joann’s, I also found this book that I couldn’t pass up.

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Not only did I have a coupon for 10% off everything … the quilt books were 40% off also!  I love looking at English Paper Piecing (EPP) projects and there was this one in the book that caught my eye in particular.  I still have near the top of my list to make a little tablecloth for my daughters kid-size table.  Something she could use for her tea parties.  I already have the perfect fabric, and I have some patterns that I have considered – but I might have to add in some EPP to make it even more special.   Those are little hexagon diamonds in between the butterflies.

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So – that leaves me with one complete block to go, with embroidery.  Sashing, borders and piecing a quilt back.  I have asked Linh of Elvy Crafts blog and LiMa Sews to do my longarm quilting.  I have her on reserve for next week!  I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!  No more updates on this quilt until the BIG REVEAL!

Thanks for stopping by this weekend – I hope you are enjoying it wherever you are!

Jennifer

Still progressing

May22

Two more blocks done, and three more to go.  I’m one block behind on my schedule, so it may be a late night.  Here are my two recent completions:

The orange looks like a solid in these pictures, but it is actually covered in small white dots.

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Finished this one last night.  I’m continued to be shocked at how crisp and clear the points come out in these blocks.  It helps that it is a really large block I guess.:

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And, finally, the combo picture:

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I have yet to lay them all out together on a bed or anything.  Holding off so I can ‘surprise’ myself with a reveal!

FQS has now gotten in the yardage for Happy Go Lucky, so I have already obtained my backing fabric.  Will need to piece it some since I plan to make this top 100×100 in size for a King size bed quilt.

Hopefully I can show you all 9 blocks by Friday night!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

Swooning Along

May17

I think I can still pull this off.  I have until June 1st (ideally) to get this pieced and quilted.  My goal is to be done with the top and send it off to ‘someone’ by Saturday, May 25th.  I have seen several quilters advertising really fast turnaround times, and I don’t need custom quilting – so here’s hoping!

I have completed two more blocks and these bright, cheery colors are just enormous!  These blocks are soooo big!  Love it!

Really love this red check design in the pattern!

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Ok , so I said “finished”, but this one is still in three separate rows.  Pratically done – right? 

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Here is the new combination, selected by my lovely assistant Nora:

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And a final, last picture of the two blocks together:

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Four blocks done, only five more to go!

Good news for me… we decided to postpone the Mother-in-Law visit from Memorial Day weekend.  Now I will have all three days at home to play!  I know, it sounds like I don’t want to drive 3 hours with two small kids, sleep on an airbed and constantly worry that the dog will pee on our stuff.  But – when we do visit, it will be warm enough to swim as a family and there are a lot of nice kids parks.

Hope you have great expectations for a weekend and time to do what you love!

Jennifer

I can’t resist Collections!

May16

From an early age, I have always been attracted to collecting things.  Groups of things.  Books in a series (hard cover Stephen King books), figurines from a particular maker (Crinkle Claus figurines), movies/sequels on DVD, etc… 

Now, with my obsession with fabric these past few years, I have a huge opportunity to exploit and run with my little ‘personality quirk’!

I have my favorite designers whom I know I will buy yardage and bundles of fabric with each release.  Those include Fig Tree, Bonnie & Camille, and (most of the time) French General and 3 Sisters.  I’m pretty mainstream I guess.  Although I have now accumulated quite a bit of vintage Lori Holt fabric as well, and plan to add to it with Bake Sale that was just released.

Even within each fabric group, there are certain collections which I find it hard to pass up buying (and hoarding) deals on fabric cuts.  Some of these collections include Peace on Earth by 3 Sisters, Allspice Tapestry and Patisserie by Fig Tree Quilts, Rounneries ( & Deux) by French General, and I could go on and on and on.

Is this just me?

My latest fascination is Collection for a Cause that is put out by Howard Marcus Dunn for Moda fabrics.  COLLECTION is even in the title of each release!  How perfect is that! 

This endeavor started several years ago, so in my effort to try and figure out what I was missing – I found that it was hard to locate somewhere that told me exactly all the collections, in addition to pictures.  I finally found the spot on the United Notions website (in my own opinion, not very easy to navigate around).  In case anyone else had this same question or curious about all the colletions in one place … here you go!

Here is the website link if you want to browse the materials for yourself:  http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/fabric-collections.  Then type “Collection” in the search menu.

I am NOT an expert blogger or webmaster.  I made this in Excel, then copied it into Microsoft Paint so I could save it as a jpg image and load it here.

Col for Cause

Every one of these came out with a pattern/kit of some sort.  I have all but 3 of the oldest, and I will probably wait a bit to buy the most recent release (Mill Book Series).  Have I made any of the quilts yet?  Nope.  Do I care?  Nope.  I have ‘collected’ them.  My favorite so far though is the “Hope” kit.  Beautiful!  That will probably be the first one I do.  I have never done a Lemoyne star quilt, so this would be a great example.

If anyone out there has the kit for Charity, Alliance or Legacy – would love to discuss that with you!

All the best and thanks for stopping by today.

Jennifer

Why didn’t anyone tell me?

May11

I am LOVING this Swoon pattern.  I should have made one a long time ago.  When other people comment on how big these blocks are, they aren’t kidding.  It’s very striking to complete a block and it takes up half of the design wall area.

I am making my first Swoon out of Happy Go Lucky prints by Bonnie & Camille.  Here’s my first block:

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That gray/white check print gives it some real interest when you see it in person.

Here are the combinations I am planning for the other blocks (9 total for a King Size):

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I had my daughter pick out the next combination to construct.  She was severely disappointed that there was no PINK to be found, but she did end up picking one.  I was able to complete the second block last night:

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And, here’s a picture of both of them on my design wall.  Which can now, no longer fit anything else at the moment.

imageNo wonder this pattern has like thousands of pictures on Flickr.  It is just one of those that appeal for the sake of size, contrast, design, looks complex – but isn’t, etc…

I am giving myself the next two weeks to finish this quilt top so I can give it as a wedding gift to an extremely nice and deserving woman at work.  She is getting married for the first time, in her early 50s, and she is trying her best to keep it small.  We, at work, are trying our best to blow it up!  So, likely the next two weeks of posts will be consumed with this project.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

Hmmm … do paperwork or quilt?

May9

I took a semi-impromptu vacation day today.  My plan was to work on some needed claim paperwork and tax return items.  I started off by working in the early morning for my job (remotely), then getting the kids off to school, then going into the office to get some other tasks done that were ‘important’, then met up with Stewart for lunch and then … before you know it – it’s 2:30 in the afternoon!

Well, that wasn’t a great start to my plan for today.  So – did I buckle down and get into my files and folders?  Perhaps start a recycle and shred box and clear a space off the desk?  ….

Look at what I just opened up!  My FQ bundle of Happy Go Lucky!

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With so many different colors in this collection, it feels like there is more than 40 fabrics in the pile.  They feel so great when they are new like this 🙂

I have  special person at work that is getting married at the end of the month – so I was thinking … what bundle do I have and what pattern could I use to make a quick quilt for their wedding gift?  I thought about the bundles I have in my stash and while I was at work, I asked her to tell me a preference between four pictures (the one where it shows all of the prints in a collection):

  • Happy Go Lucky
  • Avalon
  • Tapestry
  • Butterscotch & Roses

She was definitely into the bright fabrics and she chose Happy Go Lucky!  Yeah!  I get to make my first project with this fabric now.

I already knew the pattern I wanted to use … SWOON.  I took this picture randomly from an internet search for Swoon quilt images.

For full disclosure, it is from the following Flickr photostream…  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferworthen/with/7238325288/.  Again – just picked a random image out of the first hundred that came up and I liked the contrast in her blocks…

Swoon Quilt

Everyone else has already made this quilt (some even more than once), but I haven’t completed my destiny yet.  And I had already bought the pattern, right?  Right?  RIGHT?  Crap.

I can’t find it.  I know it’s here.  I also know I can plunk down $10 again to get a PDF sent to me which I can print in black and white on my little home printer.  But I already OWN it.  Crap.

Wait!  I know!  I had bought the CRAFTSY class “Pre-Cut Piecing Made Simple” by Camille Roskelley (author of the Swoon pattern).  One of the projects in that online class is the Swoon quilt, so I was able to just go online and download the instructions from there!  I had only made it half way through the class, so I had not gotten that far already.  Meant to be.  Meant to be.

Hopefully I can get it cut and pieced in a week or two, so I can have it quilted and present it to her at a little gathering she is having on June 1st.  I shall try my best.  Stay tuned.

Oh – one last picture of my completed Robin’s Nest Block 1.  This one is all connected now and ready for the next stage.  I think, for the most part, the star tips came out great.  Maybe a couple are cut off, but I’m happy overall.

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Thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

Building the Nest

May8

A few progress pictures to share today.  I made it through Block 1 of the Robin’s Nest quilt by Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork (in Australia – very exotic!).  In her latest post, there is SERIOUS EYE CANDY if you love hexagons or fussy cutting or kaleidoscope blocks or beautiful fabric.  GO and look at it now.  I will wait.  Go.  Now.  Link is above.  I have now officially added a Ring of Roses quilt to my bucket list in a red/white colorway.

Continuing …

I obtained my pattern and templates from Somerset, but opted to get the monthly fabric delivery for this quilt from Homestead Hearth (postage costs and such).  I think I just received Block 6 last week, so you could say I’m a bit behind!  I don’t see Robins Nest on their site right now, so I don’t know if they sold out or what.  However, if you do go and browse – take a look at the Merrimack quilt that is coming this summer.  It is another pattern by Karen Styles that they are offering.  Love it too!

I finished the ring of blue stars that will encircle the center medallion of the hexagon applique and six red stars that I showcased in this blog post.

RM Blue Star Ring

Here’s a couple of closeups of the blue stars:

RN Blue Stars Closeup 2

And another:

RN Blue Stars Closeup

For the 3 1/2″ finished stars, I used the Mini Fit to Be Geese tool by Monique Dillard of Open Gate Quilts.  Although the matrix of instructions didn’t specifically give me cutting instructions for a 2 1/2″ x 1 1/4″ unit, I winged it by cutting my background into 2″ squares, and cutting diagonally once.  And then cutting my blue fabric into 1 3/4″ squares and cutting them diagonally once as well.  Then paired them up like any other unit with this tool and there were guide lines there to make them perfect.  Much easier for me than cutting the exact template shape for each fabric piece.

Here’s a picture of the pattern cover for Block #1.  Karen produces top notch, quality patterns with clear steps:

RB Block 1 Pattern Pic

And here are my two pieces, overlaid for now on my design wall in this picture:

RN Block 1 Overlay 2

 

It’s really getting me excited to see it take shape.  After I took the pictures last night for this blog post, I couldn’t help but stay up late enough to sew these two pieces together – so I’m DONE WITH BLOCK 1!!  My own little rehab success.

The next step, for Block 2, is to applique this to a large square of background fabric and then fussy cut this scallop print fabric such that I applique it around the square to form a larger block.  I will do some show and tell on that block next time.

Thanks for stopping in today! 

Jennifer

Another Friday, Another late night opportunity

May3

Fridays are particularly special for me because I have no hesitation to stay up late working on my quilt projects.  I can get the kids tucked in, and then it’s all about “me time”.  Yes, I do have a husband, and he does live with us.  However, he has no capacity anymore to stay up past 9:00 pm.  So – I get to go a little retro and pull late night sessions like I was in college again.

First – I wanted to show you what I have in my shopping basket right now with FQS.

There is a new collection of backgrounds/neutrals that really caught my eye.  It is Linen Closet by Renee Nanneman.

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I have two favorites in this group … the bees and the pins:

LinenCloset Bees

LinenCloset Bees

LinenCloset Pins

LinenCloset Pins

Both of these come in two colorways – light gray and wheat.  I’m thinking the ‘Pins’ fabric will be a perfect background to go into the next Vintage AYOS pattern, called “Gentle Art”.

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Gentle Art Pattern

If you were following some of the quilty blogs late last year, there was a big sew-along on another thread spool pattern.  Although I had my fabric all picked out for it, I never got around to starting it.  Now I have another chance for redemption – because I do think a “Spool” wall hanging is a must-have for anyone with a spare bedroom corner of a sewing room.  The May AYOS pattern is called “Gentle Art”.  You can purchase the PDF pattern through Carrie’s website by clicking here.

My thought is to browse through my vast collection of charm packs and jelly rolls of vintage Fig Tree fabric (perhaps Allspice Tapestry or Mill House Inn) and get started on this one as soon as I get my order in from FQS for the background.  I was so inspired by the parade of quilts this week, that I am going to really study this pattern to see how I can make it my own.

Finally – I suppose it is time to get started on my Halloween BOM that I have collected over the past six months.  I ordered the Sew Spooky BOM from Suzanne’s Quilt Shop and have all the components now, except for the backing.  You can find this BOM at a lot of online shops, just search for it on the internet.

SewSpookyBOM

Isn’t it adorable?  Some piecing, some applique, some fussy cutting and an accessory kit to go with it.  Then I came across a new collection of Halloween theme fabric, called Spooky Shadows, while browsing “What’s New” on the FQS site and I believe I have selected this to be the backing.  Cute – yes?:

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Ok, I guess that’s enough on my plate for today.  Hope you are getting excited about some upcoming, quality “me time”.

Have a spectacular weekend and thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer

AYOS Virgin no longer!

May1

Today was the deadline for completing the first quilt in 2013 AYOS hosted by Sinta and Sherri.  AND I MADE IT HAPPEN!  My very first Schnibbles!

 

Really, it is amazing – if you just knew how little bits of time I have to piece (pun intended) together to work on quilt projects.  Sometimes it may be only 5 minutes before running off to the next family crisis.  In fact, I have my daughter hanging on my shoulder, trying to demonstrate to me how to blow pretend bubbles with her princess wand and a straw and she doesn’t seem to care that I’m typing.  She just keeps talking.  She is adorable.

 

But… back to my success… 🙂

 

Here is my completed Hat Trick quilt top.  I didn’t alter the pattern at all.  It has a pieced border on top and bottom, but not on the sides.  I have one of the pink prints for the backing and binding.  I plan to quilt it myself and then hang it in my sewing area to inspire me on the next month’s Schnibbles.  I’m so excited!!

 

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Pattern is Hat Trick by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company

Fabric is from the Lario collection by 3 Sisters for Moda

I can’t wait to see everyone’s completed Hat Trick tomorrow during the parades.  Visit Sinta and Sherri’s blogs on May 1st to see the results and find out what the new pattern will be for May!  And browse their sites if you haven’t been there before.  Lots and lots of eye candy and enjoyable blog writing.  Sherri has just come out with a book of quilt designs and Sinta is preparing for a quilt show of her own quilts.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Jennifer

Sharing some Spring

Apr24

Well, it can’t decide if it is Spring or Winter still even as south as Houston.  We had to grab our jackets again this morning for the ‘cold’ front that passed through overnight.  Temperatures in the 50s are valid around here to be considered ‘cold’.  I hope this means a cool trend for our summer to come.

With Spring this year, I have decided to start again with my Daylily collection.  When I lived in Charlotte, NC – I had a whole garden area dedicated to my Daylilies and would search out all the local nurseries for as many varieties as I could.  I had many varieties that had double blooms and really vivid colors too.  We had such a great selection of flowers and flowering plants in North Carolina.  Almost anything you can imagine would grow in that earth.  Beautiful!  Probably the biggest thing I miss from the move back down to Texas.  Loved the gardening and weather.  A must have on your bucket list should be to drive on the Blue Ridge Valley parkway in the Spring.  So relaxing and refreshing, unless you are driving too fast… there are drops and curves on the mountains that are breath taking for sure.

Last weekend, I picked up three daylily plants and got them in the ground to start enjoying.  I can see them from my sewing machine too, which is a bonus.  One of the three has a closed bud, but it will be open by the time I get home tonight.

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I meant to look again at the plant tag so I could tell you the name of this variety.  I’ll try to remember for next time, when I add some more.

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Last picture of this Schnibbles until the big reveal at the end of the month.  I took this picture after getting the center done, but before trimming it up.  Last night I was able to get the inner border added, so just an outer pieced border left to go, and then of course the quilting.

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Hope you are having a great week as well!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Jennifer