My Design Wall Today

I've left my design wall behind this week to take a little vacation in the mountains.  Here is the view from my balcony.

When I travel I usually pack one of my quilts to sleep under.  This quilt is called Fall Foilage Spectacular from Judy Martin's book Cookies 'N Quilts.  I set my blocks a little different so there would be 4 leaves in the center instead of having a log cabin center. 

I quilted this quilt on my home machine.  I bought a leaf stencil at a quilt show and then practiced drawing it on a sketch pad until I felt ready to try and quilt it on the quilt. 

Everything here is decorated for fall.  Here is a display from the welcome center where we stopped.

 I hope you are all enjoying fall (or spring) and doing some stitching today.  I've brought my crocheting along and will show my progress soon. 

If you want to read more about our Granny Gone Wild Crochet Along, go to this post:  http://luannsloosethreads.blogspot.com/2011/10/granny-gone-wild-crochet-along.html

Here is the link to our Flickr group:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/grannygonewild/

If you are crocheting on anything "granny" feel free to post a photo of your project on Flickr.  We would love to see what you are working on.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Granny Gone Wild Crochet Along

I recently finished this giant granny square afghan as part of Sucrette's giant granny quilt along. 

There were four of us that started that quilt along about the same time:
Cyn of Cyns Quilted Travels, Elly of Mad4Patchwork, and Katrin of Cattinka.  We enjoyed sharing our progress and our photos over on Facebook and on our blogs and decided that we wanted to continue crocheting and sharing our projects.  Cyn of Cyns Quilted Travels and I have been talking about starting another Crochet Along and here it is.  I hope you will grab some yarn and crochet along with us.

Here are some ideas of projects you can do. 

This is just a regular granny.  It can either be a giant granny or individual squares.

This is a log cabin granny.  This was a sample I made...not sure I am completely happy with it.

This block is from a pattern called Pokey Dots Throw in the free pattern section of Red Heart yarn.  I first saw this pattern over on Judy's blog, Gramma's Quilt Room.  Click on the link to see her post with photos of her afghan.

Here is a granny square done from the pattern in the Leisure Arts booklet called Grannies Gone Wild. The chain 3 loop round is done in the same color as the following round.

This version is called mosaic crochet.  I saw the idea for this on Sucrette's blog.   Her version has the chain 3 loop round done in white each time.

This is called African Flower, and the pattern is available on Ravelry.

Here is a rectangle sample I made. 

Check the Flickr group to see Cyn's gorgeous rectangle granny photos. 
http://www.flickr.com/groups/grannygonewild/

So grab the button in my sidebar and join us.  Post your crochet photos in the Flickr group so we can crochet along.  I'll be looking for your photos there.

I hope you are finding some time to crochet or do some kind of stitching this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today! 

Fabric Shopping

I have had my eye on this new line of fabric by Lauren and Jessi Jung for Moda called Flora since I first saw it at The Fat Quarter Shop a couple of months ago.  I have a plan for it (really), so I went ahead and ordered it.  The UPS man brought it this afternoon.  It's even prettier in person than on the web site. 

I also ordered these 2 Ruby charm packs by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.  I don't have a plan for those yet, but I know they will come in handy.  

 

I'm still spray basting UFOs and doing some machine quilting.  I hope you're stitching, too!

Thanks for visiting!

Fall Table Topper

I have been around to visit your blogs, but for some reason I can't seem to leave a comment.  It has been this way for several days.  This is the prompt that I get when I try to comment. 
Cookie value is null for FormRestoration

Blogger doesn't seem to recognize me even when I'm logged in.  So when I comment I have to log in with my name and type my whole blog address in another window...and sometimes this doesn't work.  I ran Crud Cleaner and SpyBot on my computer today, and that didn't help either.  I'm wondering if this isn't a blogger problem.......    If you have any idea what I can do, please let me know.  Thanks for letting me vent. 

I am still basting quilts and table toppers with my 505 baste spray.  I'm still on the first can, and I'm getting quite a bit of mileage out of it.  Of all the table toppers I have, there wasn't a fall topper so I made one.  Here it is all basted and ready to quilt.

Here are the directions on how to make it:
Floral - I bought 2 1/4 yards so I would have enough for the backing
Rust -    1/2 yard
Yellow - You need about 4" so scraps work here
Green -  Again you need about 4" from scraps
Blue - Scrap piece about 4" wide
White - Scrap piece about 4" wide
Binding - Choose 1/3" to 1/2" of one of the above fabrics.  Yardage depends on how wide you prefer to cut your binding.

Floral:   Cut (2) 12" squares.  (Cut in half diagonally)

              Cut (1) 6" square for center.

              Cut (4) 4" wide strips for outer border

Rust:  Cut (2) 5" squares (cut in half diagonally)

           Cut (4) 3 1/4" squares

           Cut (4) 1 1/2" strips for inner border.

Green:  Cut (8) 3 1/4" squares for connector corners

Yellow:  Cut (4) 3 1/4" X 6"

White:  Cut (4) 3 1/2" squares (cut in half diagonally)

             Cut (4) 3 1/4" X 6"

Blue:  Cut (4) 4" squares for corners. 

Using the 8 green squares and the 4 white 3 1/4" X 6 rectangles, sew the connector corners as shown.

Lay the pieces out as seen below, and sew into rows.

Here is the center unit. 

 Sew the floral triangles on each side.

Add borders and quilt.

This is what's on my design wall today.  Visit www.patchworktimes.com to see what others are working on.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Quilting 101

I am really excited about the 505 Spray Baste I ordered, and I am basting everything in sight.  But before I got too carried away I decided I'd better try quilting one of these basted quilts.  I'm still hand sewing the binding down.  Here is the result:

I quilt on my trusty Bernina sewing machine, and the past few days I've been watching machine quilting videos by Leah Day, Patsy Thompson, and You Tube videos by Karen McTavish.  These ladies all make it look so easy.  They all recommend that you baste a practice quilt sandwich and start there, but I have at least a dozen of these table toppers like the one in the photo above, and I only have 2 tables so I figured why not just practice on one of those.  Most times when I sit down with a quilt like the one above I draw a blank and don't know what to try and quilt in which space.  So I just kept watching videos and jumped right in.  I tried some paisleys in the yellow, and just a little meandering in the white, and I don't know what that is in the square but it looks like it went very wrong.....but it does fill the space!

I know there are a lot of mistakes, but the only way to know if the spray baste did its job was to give it a try, and I like the results so much that I've ordered a second can.  I love watching the videos on McTavishing.  This is supposed to be Leah's version of McTavishing.  Instead of hitting the point on each swirl she only hits the point at one end and then echoes a quarter of an inch on the other end.  This was really a lot of fun.  It's kind of like a puzzle in a way because when you work yourself into a corner you have to figure a way out. 

I would really love to learn to do feathers.  When I go to quilt shows I love to look at the stencils, and I buy a few.  I mostly look for the ones that could be quilted with a continuous design.  But, I don't trace my stencil designs onto a quilt.  Instead I do this......

I trace the stencil onto a sketch pad, and then I use a marker and trace over and over those lines until hopefully my hands and my brain have that movement before I work on a quilt.  Then I prop this drawing up against the wall in front of my sewing machine just like I'm taking an open book test. 

And this is how it ended up on my quilt.  These look more like droopy balloons than feathers, but it's a start.

In between crochet projects, I've been doing a little hand quilting, too. 

I thread basted this redwork Santa top (wall hanging), and I marked the lines with the red Frixion pen.  These are the pens from Staples that disappear from fabric when heated with an iron. 

Earlier this week Marta at Polka Dot Classic Blog awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you so much Marta. 

As part of receiving this award I'm supposed to tell seven things about myself.  I received the Stylish Blogger Award back on January 20 of this year and in that post I told 8 things about myself.  You can read those here.
I'm also supposed to tag 15 of my favorite bloggers, but I have a list of you a mile long that I love to visit and couldn't possibly pick just 15.  I love visiting your blogs and reading each and every one of you. 

I hope all of you are doing a little stitching today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Halloween Pinwheel Quilt

This is my Halloween Pinwheel Quilt so far.  I did some rearranging from the last photo I posted so the black sashing would line up.  I turned the orange border into a flange so that I could keep the orange color around the stitchery without adding to the measurement of the inside block.

Here is how I make my pinwheels:

I either use charm squares for the pinwheels or cut 5" squares of background fabric and focus fabric.

Take one square of background and one square of focus fabric and place right sides together.   

Sew all the way around the outside of the square with a 1/4" seam.  Here are several 5 inch squares sewn together.

Cut the square on the diagonal both directions.

Press the half square triangles open toward the darker fabric.

 I know making HSTs this way puts the bias on the outside of the block, but I feel that I can better match the midpoint of the pinwheels with this method.  Also when I am chaining a lot of HSTs through my machine I always get them tangled and have to spend time looking for 4 that are alike to make my pinwheel.  This way the 4 blocks are always together.  If you press your block carefully it won't be distorted.

 Here are more blocks ready to assemble.

Here are the blocks that are on my design wall this morning ready to go into the quilt.

Visit Judy's blog to see what others have on their design walls.

I hope you are all finding some time to stitch today. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Basting Quilts with 505 Spray Baste

I ordered a can of 505 Spray baste after seeing a post on SewCalGal's blog about machine quilter Patsy Thompson .  Patsy has a lot of free videos and downloads about machine quilting on her web site plus patterns and DVDs for sale.  In one of the videos she showed how she bastes her quilts with 505 Spray Baste on a vertical surface. She made it look so easy that I went right to Create for Less and ordered a can.  It came by FedEx yesterday, so today I watched Patsy's video again and tried my hand at her method for spray basting this afternoon.

I'm basting on my design wall, and just as Patsy did in her video I pinned newspapers on the wall to catch the overspray around the edges of the quilts. I also put a bed sheet down on the floor to protect the carpet.  Then I pinned my backing on the wall with the wrong side out just as you would when making a quilt sandwich.  In this photo you can see the backing with the batting already spray basted to it.

I basted several quilts this afternoon.  I started with a couple of small ones. 
This one is a table topper from a block of the month series I did a few years ago.  This was one of the spring months but not sure which one.

Next I basted another table topper from this series.  The batting in these two is like a thick piece of flannel. 

Then I basted my Peppermint Twist quilt from the Jo Morton book Remembrances.  I used an 80/20 batting in this one.

Next I did the Christmas Presents wall hanging that I made from a Flurry charm pack.  You can see my directions for this wall hanging here. 

I basted one more after this but forgot to take a photo.  Tomorrow I plan to start with one of the table toppers and do some machine quilting to see how the spray baste holds while moving the quilt around under the machine.  I found my sewing machine manual and know how to adjust the presser foot pressure in case there is too much drag on the quilt. 

So far I'm impressed with the baste spray but I'll know more after I quilt some tomorrow.  Until then.....

Thanks for visiting!