Simple Yet Beautiful Quilts

I love seeing how people use quilts in their home.  I recently found this new to me web site http://www.houzz.com/    There is a search box on the site, and when I put in the word quilt these are just a few of the photos that I found.  There is an "Embed On Blog" button next to each photo, with the name of the designer listed below each photo.  

What struck me about these quilts is how easy they would be to make.  This first quilt looks like it was made from a layer cake (or two) and the shams were made from charm squares.  I think the quilting is what makes this quilt interesting.  It looks like straight line quilting that alternates direction with every block.  

Traditional Bedroom design by Denver General Contractor Teton Heritage Builders

Again these look like layer cake squares but ten inch squares could just as easily be cut from fabric on hand.  This quilting looks like straight line all the same direction.  

Traditional Kids design by Denver Interior Designer Zeal Denver

Here are more layer cake and charm squares.  

Traditional Bedroom design by Minneapolis General Contractor Lands End Development - Designers & Builders

This quilt looks like a mix of plaid and floral squares, and the quilting is a diagonal grid.  

Traditional Kids design by Burlington Architect Joan Heaton Architects

Love this rail fence.  The neutral colors and wide strips give it a modern look.  

Eclectic Bedroom design by Other Metros Design-build Blue Sky Building Company

Time to stop dreaming and head to the sewing machine.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

Squares to An On Point Quilt Again

Here's another try at taking a rectangle of squares sewn together to make an on point quilt.  I got a few comments and e-mails with concern over losing the points on the outside round of my Halloween table topper (see earlier post).  I cropped the top of the photo below too close so it looks like I will lose my points in the border seam allowance, but they are still there.




Here is the layout of the squares.  The only problem with this one is where to make the cut.  In the end I had to sew another green triangle on one corner of the quilt to complete the square.  This layout is 6 X 10 squares.  

Here is a layout that I tried.  The empty spaces are white squares.  That doesn't show up too well in the photo.  I was trying to get a white square in the center and.......




Oops.  So it's back to the drawing board.

 

I'm having company this weekend, but stay tuned for the next installment of this project.  I'm working on yet another idea.

I had a BFO (blinding flash of the obvious) and realized that each time I try one of these experiments, I'm creating yet another UFO.  They will be good for machine quilting practice.

Hope you are finding some time to stitch this weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

Joining in a Crochet Along

I've joined in the Mixed Stitch Stripey Blanket Crochet Along going on over at Jules blog, Little Woollie.    Katrin  (Cattinka blog) first showed her progress on this crochet along on her blog.  I think Cyn (Cyns Quilted Travaels) and I saw it there at about the same time and wrote each other.  Then we wrote EllyD (Mad 4 Patchwork) to join in, and now the four of us are all working on the same crochet along together again.  The four of us have also worked on the Granny's Gone Wild Crochet Along and the Giant Granny Square quilt along.  It's a lot of fun to crochet along with these blog friends again.

Here is my progress so far:



I'm doing a blanket wide enough to fit our king sized bed.  I think this bed really needs some pillows!

I have loved this blanket since I saw it on the front of this magazine in March 2011.  

The crochet along blanket is very similar to this one, but I think I'm going to like it better because Jules is adding a lot of variety in the stitches.  I really appreciate her effort writing out the pattern and showing great photos of her work.



Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  

From Squares To An On Point Quilt

This is my latest project.  I turned the rectangle of squares on the left into the little quilt on the right with just two cuts.





On one of the quilting boards that I read, there was a post from someone who said that to turn a quilt on point, they simply just turned it and trimmed away the excess.  That seemed like a lot of waste, and I thought there might be a better way.   


I had some leftover 5" squares from another project.





I sewed them together into a rectangle.   This will work if your rectangle is a 1:2 ratio.......4 X 8, 5 X 10, 6 X 12, 10 X 20 for example.   These are 5" squares so this rectangle is 18.5 inches X 36.5 inches after stitching it all together.

Now cut as shown in the photo below.  I tried to arrange my squares so that the "setting triangles", along where the cuts are made, would all be dark.  You will end up with 3 right triangles which will fit back together into a square.

Rearrange them as in the photo below.  Sew the two smaller triangles together first, and then sew this unit to the larger triangle.

You will end up with this little quilt.



I started with a rectangle 18.5 inches  X 36.5 inches and ended up with this little quilt/table topper that is approximately 26 inches square.

   

Thanks to my husband and daughter who helped me brainstorm this idea at breakfast yesterday morning.    I'll link this in my Tutorials and Patterns section on my sidebar.

Thanks to Judy for hosting Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times this morning.    

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!  

Machine Quiltin' By Iva

Here is another quilt shop I visited on our trip to the Smoky Mountains.  This shop is called Machine Quiltin' by Iva.   There's a lot to see in this shop.




The back wall is full of bright fabrics and a nice display of little quilts.

This is the batik wall....and this isn't all of the batiks they carry.

There is lots of inspiration in this shop with lots of samples to look at.

If you look at the shelves, you can see all of the pre-cuts that Iva carries.  There are more charm packs, jelly rolls, and layer cakes in this shop than I've ever seen in one shop before.  It is just amazing.....and also very tempting.

After I got home I realized that I didn't take photos of the two back rooms that are also full of fabric.  This shop is always on my list of places to stop when we head south.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Cherry Pit Quilt Shop

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my plea for help with my Picasa Blog This! button.  I found out there are many ways out there to edit and post photos.  But, I am partial to Picasa and can post so much faster that way.  Chookyblue sent me a link to one of her posts that shows a really neat way to email photos to your blog from Picasa.  I hope you'll go to her blog and read it if you use Picasa.  

http://chookyblue.blogspot.com.au/2009/01/emailing-pics-to-your-posts.html

The Blog This button is working again, so now I have two ways to post photos to my blog.

While we were on vacation in Tennessee, I stopped by The Cherry Pit Quilt Shop.  I've been there before, but they are always changing things in their shop.  So I thought I would share a few photos with you.

I love to walk into a quilt shop and see a bed with a quilt on it.  This iron bed makes a beautiful display.  There is a lot to look at just in this one small section of the shop.

There are so many bolts of fabric in this shop that it is hard to see everything.  I love this star quilt.  

There are lots of samples everywhere.

And, here's another bed.  I honestly don't remember seeing it, but it must have been there because it's in the photo.  I might have been focused on the fabric.........

And more fabric....

This is what you see when you first enter the shop.  The valance is made from cherry fabric.  They have a whole section of cherry fabrics.

The window display was really interesting, but my photo has a reflection of the buildings across the street.

The shop is painted a rosy pink color so it is hard to miss.  You can visit their website at:

http://www.quiltingatthecherrypit.com/ and link to their blog from their.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Need Some Blogger/Picasa Help

I haven't posted for awhile because I am having problems uploading pictures to my blog.  I download my photos into my computer, and then I close that window down.  (They go into something called Picture Library.)  Then I open up Picasa where I can edit, crop and add my watermark to the photos.  Picasa has a "Blog This!" button at the bottom, so all I have to do is select all of the photos I want to put on my blog, click the Blog This! button and then I just add my text and publish.  For the past few days that hasn't worked.   I can use the Insert Image on the toolbar here on blogger, but it takes my photos from my Picture library where the photos are just as they came out of my camera.  

I've updated to be sure I have the latest version of Picasa, checked my settings, cleared my cache, switched to a different browser, and done all of the troubleshooting they suggest.  I can drag photos from Picasa to my desktop and then insert them here, but they aren't what I'm seeing in Picasa.  And, once I drag them to the desktop they go to a different place in my photos.  

I posted the problem to Google along with others that are having the same problem posting their photos from Picasa, but Google isn't responding.  I'm using Chrome for my browser which is a Google product, and usually all of the Google things play nice together.  

I guess what I'm wondering is how do some of you post your photos to your blogs?  Any idea why I might be having this problem?  Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I am saving all of my photos in my computer twice and it's taking a lot of memory........not sure how to get around it????       Thanks for reading.

Hope you are all stitching today.