A little bit of this...A little bit of that!

So, I haven't posted in quite a while.  I wanted to, but this past summer has been the summer from H@#$L literally and temperature wise.  I am not a lover of all things hot, especially the swamp hot days in the Washington, DC area, so...so long summer, hello autumn.  The temperatures are a perfect 75 to 80 degrees during the day and cool 50s at night.  Just perfect.  So now I am trying to get back in the swing of things. Here is a short update on a little of this and that...

The ocean waves quilt has moved up to the fore front again and I am trying to complete the top and be done.  I have been working on this way too long and everyone keeps asking for the status of the ocean waves quilt. I need one full uninterrupted day and it should be done.  You can see a photo here.

So lately I have become intrigued with English paper-piecing and Hexies.  I have been following Bonnie Hunter's progress with her hexagon quilt and Kelly Jackson over at I Have a Notion posted a tutorial on her blog on how to do hexies.  I am hooked...  Not worried about when a quilt gets made.  This is a long term project and who knows...I may tire of it, but right now, it fills in available time.  So here is a little stack of hexies and I keep everything in a ziploc baggie.  Who knew???

I am still making blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler in the Japanese taupes.  This is block #16.  I only have 109 more to make. 

Out of the blue, my four year old granddaughter asked me to make her an owl pillow.  I have never made anything like this ever, pillows and stuff like that, but her request was so sincere, I felt I needed to do this.  So I made Hootie for Niani.  She loves it...even got into a tussle with her Mom (my daughter) because she wanted to take it to school and mean ole Mom said "No."  I think he is kinda cute.  And my granddaughters think that GiGi can make anything:0)

My watching TV project is putting the binding on this quilt that I made over a year ago.  I think I found the pattern in one of the McCalls magazines.  It is named Architectural Gems and I used bali pops.  It was easy to put together, just big.  My friend Carrie quilted it for me.  I don't think I have ever posted a picture, but it is on my WIPs list and it will soon come off. I will post a photo when the binding is done.

And lastly, I have been kitting up a couple of quilts that will fill in the void when I get bored.  The first is a pattern from Fons and Porter magazine in all pink and brown reproduction fabrics.  I had a lot of them on hand and I even won a giveaway on Debby Kratovil's blog for a new line of pinks and browns.  It is named Rootbeer and Bubblegum. 

Then I am having a new love affair with Mary Elizabeth Kinch and her small pieces.  So with more repro fabrics I am cutting up the pieces for one of the quilts in her book "Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts," called "Leap of Faith."  Both contain lots of small pieces and HSTs.

Thanks for stopping by...

One Down…??? To Go!

The last border has been sewn on Half-Square Triangle Madness (HSTM) and it is ready to be quilted. I even had the backing fabric in my stash and I have enough yardage that I don’t have to piece the back. I may piece it anyway to make it more fun…but I am happy that I am at this point. It turned out really nice and I am anticipating getting it quilted. Probably, a feather pattern in the big blocks and stitch in the ditch around the hst’s and borders. So, the next WIP on the list is the Ocean Waves quilt. I think this WIP goes back about 2-1/2 years and like HSTM, it has a heap of half square triangles. There are 800+ in the finished quilt. I am not even going to count them, because I don’t want to develop a mental block. This quilt requires 80 – 10-1/2 inch blocks. Well, I thought I only needed 40 blocks, but each ocean waves block requires four 10-1/2 inch blocks to make one 20-1/2 inch block. So, I have to make a few more blocks, but everything is cut out. I just need to sew them together. I am shooting for completing the top by the end of the weekend. And yes, I have the backing fabric for this one too…

I feel I am on a roll, but when this top is completed, I am going to do a little work on the Farmers Wife Sampler, may be 1 or 2 more blocks. And then, may be a little time on the Orca Bay mystery quilt. With Bonnie Hunter’s quilts there is a lot of cutting, sewing and cutting again, so it takes more time. But I want to complete at least 2 blocks to see if I am going to like this quilt. If I do, then I will keep working on it however long it takes. If not, then I am going to pack up all of the pieces and donate them. Pineapple Blossom is up next…

I learned a new quilty word yesterday from a new blog friend at http://theslowquilter.blogspot.com/ . Flimsy is the word used to describe what we used to call "an un-quilted top" that has been hanging around for more than a year. You complete the top and put it away promising to get it quilted real soon. But it never happens. Just when I thought I was putting a dent in the fabric and WIPs backlog, here comes something else. So now I need to know…how many flimsies are lurking in a bag (I don’t do boxes) some where. How many flimsies do you have?  Below is a photo of the Half Square Triangle Madness quilt top.  It will not become a flimsy.  And now on to the Ocean Waves blocks.

HSTM revealed...

Following up on my previous post, I wrote that I would take pictures of a quilt that I started on about 4 years ago.  I saw it in a magazine and absolutely fell in love...knew I had to re-create it, however challenging it might become and sealed the deal on what would become my love affair with everything half-square triangles (hst's).  This quilt has a little bit of everything that I enjoy working with: taupes, batiks,  black, and of course lots of hst's.  It is a variation on the ocean waves quilt pattern and I finally counted the hst's.  There are 120 (480) in each border and approximately 1200 in the quilt top.  It will finish at about 80 x 80. They are all 2.5 inches.  I used the Tada fusible triangle product to make them and it was a breeze somewhat...I can't believe I am admitting to this, but I stopped working on this quilt because I became overwhelmed by so many of the hst's.  And then I miscalculated the border triangles and they did not fit and I had to take them apart. Sheesh... It just made me crazy.  One of my coworkers named it half-square triangle madness (HSTM). Mariah is not a quilter, but she didn't realize how right she was. The name stuck and I folded it, not so neatly, along with unsewn borders, bias edges and all and stuffed it in a tote bag.  From time to time, my friends would ask about it and I would claim ignorance on its whereabouts.  But I knew...it was thrown up in the back of the closet in the tote bag. :0)   Up until this weekend, I didn't even have a picture of it.  So feeling guilty about the number of WIPs, I moved it to the top of my to do list,  I pulled it out of the bag, my girlfriend Wendy (thanks again Wendy) pressed it a little for me and I am back to work on it.  I have one more border to construct and put on and then I will have it quilted and decide on a home for it.  I may keep it for myself, but I haven't reached that decision yet.  So, here it is ... revealed at last.   I will post a pic of the completed top very soon.



When you have to work on the weekend...

You might as well try to have some fun.  The painters worked this weekend and as the facilities manager, I needed to be there with them until the job was completed  So I expected to be in the office all day on Saturday and hopefully only a half day on Sunday.  I guess I could have found something to keep me occupied through out the office.  But I decided that if I had to babysit the painters that I wanted to do something a little more fun than paperwork.  So I packed up my sewing machine that I travel with to sew-ins and classes and put it by the front door.  A while ago I felt like the quilt that I sleep under  had become much love-worn, so I decided to make another quilt for me!   And it needed to be quick and easy.  What is more quicker than a snowball quilt?  I had a ton of African fabric charms (I buy them every time I go to shows) and some Michael Miller jet-black fabric.  And off I went to spend the day in my office...making snow ball blocks.  It can't get any better than that.  We had warned those staff people who just have to come in on Saturday (I don't get it) to stay away while the painters were here, so I didn't have any interruptions.  And to make the deal even sweeter, Create TV featured quilting, crocheting, knitting, and sewing shows all day.  I should have over 100 snow ball blocks done by the end of the weekend.  And to make it even better, I also made bonus half square triangles based on Bonnie Hunter's system.  So, I will have 400 inch and a quarter HSTs.  This quilt is going to be a stunner!   So, here is a pic to show you that I really was at work...working.

Quilters Unlimited Show and a Challenge

Quilters Unlimited Guild had their annual show this year.  It was a little bit of a transition from what we have been used to...different building...different show set-up...new vendors...missing long-tme vendors, long lines.  But the quilts were beautiful and we enjoyed the camaraderie.  I always enjoy seeing my quilting friends and it was especially nice to see Linda (eatsleepquilt.blogspot.com).  My friend Wendy and I spent the morning and a better part of the afternoon at the show and we were both exhausted by the time we left.  I did have a chance to take a few photos of some of my favorites from the show to share...

I love all quilts with half-square triangles.  The picture does not do it justice.

There were many New York Beauty and Cinco de Mayo quilts. 

This one was a real beauty.

Finally, I thought I would stretch a little and participate in a challenge by a well-known quilt lecturer and designer. Here is a picture of the first block...I will share more after the June 30th deadline for the challenge.

More to follow soon...