On my Design Wall ...

Everything is where it was, but I have more of the applique pieces attached to the Lady quilt :) I still have 6 pieces that are waiting for applique and then I can sit down and stitch and stitch ...

I'm looking forward to assembling this quilt!

Check Patchwork Times for more design wall inspiration :)

Design Wall Monday

It has been a while! With an 8am Monday morning class, I've missed out on a few DWM posts. May be next semester ... ?

On my design wall this week is the Lady of Shallot piece, some random bits, a Guild Challenge piece and the Self Portrait that I started a while back (and haven't done much with).

I have been slowly chipping away at the Lady of Shallot design. I have the applique pieces in the little triangles and have stitched down the applique in one section:

All of the rest of the applique pieces are traced onto my fusible, now to iron it on the appropriate fabrics and get them all cut out!

My self portrait is just waiting for me to do something else with it. I was all gung-ho at first, but now I'm waiting for inspiration on taking it to the next level.  Do I want to add my glasses? If so, what is my best option? I really don't want to ruin it, so it sits on the wall and stares at me.

I've also got a start on a challenge issued by my guild. Anyone in my guild should recognize what challenge this one is for! (we have two challenges going right now)

What is on your design wall? Check out Patchwork Times for a bunch more design walls this week of Christmas!

In my Sewing Dungeon

I have been sneaking into my Sewing Dungeon every so often between studying for my college courses ...

 

 This one is my own design, highlighting the Spiderman fabric that was hanging out in my stash - I had it pieced quite a while ago, now it is quilted :) I'll dig out my fabrics and hope to get some binding cut later this week.

AND I've got a start on the appliques for the Ricky Tims sew along. I'm behind as the appliques are October's assignment, but they do take some fussing, so I can't get too many done at a time.

The Last Monday in October - where has the time gone?

I have been extremely busy - going back to college after a 30+ year absence is different than straight out of high school! This has kept me from large quantities of time in my Sewing Dungeon.

On my design wall today is a variety of things. Some random, leftover blocks, a self portrait block, blocks from a class with Flavin Glover and my Lady of Shalott pieces from the Rick Tims sew along.

What is on your design wall? I'll be perusing them at Patchwork Times ...

It's Monday - what is on My Design Wall?

 I have started on my Quilt Along with Ricky Tims. The name of the pattern is Lady of Shalott - though I am changing it up a bit ;) I started off by changing out the center, adding applique to the very center.

Now I've started working on prepping the borders. Next month we add appliques ;)

Is anyone else working on this Quilt A-long?

Check out Patchwork Times for more design wall beauties :)

Nothing new on my Design Wall - but Ido have a new quilting machine :)

I have been doing other things, like studying and writing papers for my college classes, and not sewing this past week.

BUT on Saturday, Chris from Friends Quilting Basket came and got me set up with my new machine and frame and gave me some training on using the new set up  :)

Now I have more reason to get my homework done and keep off the computer!

For some real design wall inspiration check out Patchwork Times :)

Today my frame gets set up :)

This empty spot will contain a new frame and machine :) I already replaced the cardboard with antifatigue mats, so it is already looking better.

Nothing New

I haven't been sewing this last week ... my first week of college after dropping out 32+ years ago added to two sick family members, followed by my succumbing to the illness made for no time in my Sewing Dungeon *sigh*

On my Design Wall are some old blocks (that little NYB block is at least 10 years old) and some newer blocks.

For some reason, I keep misplacing the indigo blocks, so they are up on the wall until I find the package of indigo fabrics and put them together. Since I am working on going through all of the various things that were stored under and around my quilting frame, I hope to come across the package soon ;)

For some design walls with more recent  work, check out the links at Patchwork Times.

Empty Space = So Much Potential

I sold my quilting machine and frame. The new owner is thrilled with the extra space (she has been using a frame with a 9" machine) and how smooth the carriage travels.

Now I have a large empty space in my Sewing Dungeon ...

Do you like the poor man's alternative to an anti-fatigue mat? Opened up cardboard boxes from our move two years ago made up the floor covering in front of my frame :) Maybe I'll get some real anti-fatigue mats for my new machine/frame.

And I have to decide which machine/frame combo to go with. AQS in Grand Rapids is still running tomorrow and I will be test driving and finding out more about other machines/frames (and maybe even ordering as I have a down payment ;) ).

At AQS Grand Rapids :)

Silly grin on my face, excited to have my quilt in a major quilt show (in the guild challenge!).

I will admit that dh is looking forward to having this quilt back home and on his office wall ...

I drooled over machines and frames today. I am thinking of getting something with more bells and whistles. There are some lovely machines and I think I'll be happy with one of them in my sewing dungeon ...

Design Wall Monday ~ August 18, 2014

On my design wall this week is the block I made a couple of week ago and a small self-portrait block I'm in the process of working on ...

I need to work more on the eyes and add in glasses as well as doing a little bit of thread painting :)

I'm mostly pleased with how it is coming along ;)

For more design wall links, check out Patchwork Times.

I snuck in a new project

I'm trying to finish up some UFOs this summer and not start new projects until I've cleaned out some of the old ... but I couldn't resist making a new bag (as if I *needed* a new bag).

I made a Mondo bag. These use Quiltsmart foundation for the piecing and you get wonderful results - all your corners WILL come out perfect because of the way the sheets are designed. I'm very happy with the results - and now I have a HUGE bag all ready in time for AQS in Grand Rapids, MI.

Now back to my regularly scheduled UFOs.

My Garage Quilt

While The Army Guy is home this week he is getting things done around the house :) The fence has taken up a huge amount of his time (that and running the Boybarian to a farm to pick blueberries). 

One other thing he did today was put up my garage quilt :) We don't have a barn, so we can't participate in any of the barn quilt projects, so I painted one for our garage here in the city ...

The hardest part (of hanging the block) was deciding how to center the block --- centered on the garage or over the doors? We chose to hang it centered on the garage and ignore the fact that the doors are not centered.

I started thinking of hanging three of them up ... that would be nice and might disguise the offcenteredness of the garage doors :) But the Army Guy said that if I make more, he wouldn't be finishing them and hanging them. I guess I'll have to wait for our retirement house to hang another one (or more).

My Garden

Since we moved here I have wanted to plant a few vegetables ... and this is the first year that the space was ready for them :)

The Army Guy built some raised beds during the spring and I acquired some heirloom seeds and the garden was planted.

 The Army Guy is on leave this week (vacation for us civilians) and he is putting up the fencing around the garden. When you live in the city, on a corner lot, sometimes you just would like to have a bit of privacy (and a way to keep others out of the garden!).

We've got some tomatoes growing, we've been harvesting peas and lettuce (the lettuce is bolting, so we are at the end of the lettuce) and we've had one zucchini. More zucchini is on the way (no pics).

We tried the Veggeti - an As Seen on TV gadget - on our first zucchini and found it really does work and the zucchini noodles were tasty (well, the Army Guy and I liked it).

We also have some summer or crookneck squash just starting to grow.

All of my Pak Choi bolted before it got anywhere near harvesting :( AND the pests really seem to like the taste of the Pak Choi, so we let them have it ;)

How is your garden growing this season?

wanting to upgrade ...

I'm putting my quilting machine and frame up for sale ... I've quilted many lovely quilts on this machine, but it is time to upgrade as I am ready for more bells and whistles than are found on/for the Voyager 17.

It will be rather wrenching to part with the machine, I have very fond memories of many quilts on this machine!

If you would like to contact me, email me here: shout4joyDOTgeoATyahooDOTcom (of course, replace the capital letters with the appropriate symbol ;) ).

one lovely block on my design wall this Monday morning

Last year I bought the Spring Bouquet quilt pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts. I finally got around to doing block one ... and here it is. I did a little bit of modifying - I made a couple pieces a bit easier for me to applique (I used a turned machine applique method) and used yoyos for the smallest circles. I also made my bias strips too wide :( I won't change them out for skinnier ones and will just make the rest of the quilt with bulkier vines/stems to match ;)

I don't mind the more folk arty feel of the chunkier vines :)

To see more design wall posts, check out the links at Patchwork Times

on my design wall today :)

I have a bunch of 30s 4 patches :) I am going to be hosting a swap of these blocks, so I thought I'd make some ahead of posting the swap.

Patchwork Times has links to more design walls, enjoy!

Six Lonely Little Blocks

I have six little blocks up on my design wall ... they will finish at 4" so, yes, they are little and lonely as I still have to make the rest of the blocks for the small quilt they will grace.

To see more design wall goodness, check out Patchwork Times.

FINISHED!

and hanging on the wall :) I have the perfect spot for seasonal quilts on my wall  ... this is supposed to be my spring quilt, but it will hang for the summer now that it is finished (and I'm not sure what my "summer" quilt will be).

Applique design by Kim Diehl

Close to finished!

 The piece is quilted! Now to cut borders (OK, I meant BINDING! - that is what comes of writing a blog post in the morning before my brain is awake) and sew them on :) Here it is on my floor, as now it is too heavy to be on my design wall:

For a close up and more true color of the border:

It will most likely be the middle of the week before I get any more work done on it ... I'm enrolling in college and have testing and orientation this week! It will be strange to be in classes with youngsters the same age as my kids ... 

For more quilting inspiration check out Patchwork Times.

Nothing on my Design Wall ... But I am quilting :)

It has been a while since I updated my blog ... busy times here at my house!

My design wall has lots of fuzzies from various quilt blocks that are no longer there, but I do have a wall quilt I am quilting on my beloved Bernina 930 :)

This is the quilt I started in the Kim Diehl class in April ... I've got the field quilted and am now quilting the borders :) I'm still unsure about what I'm going to do with the checked border ... any ideas for me?

For more quilting inspiration check out Patchwork Times!

Finished the block :)

I have finished the applique block shown on Monday :) I added a dot to the center as I felt it needed something ... Here it is with the other two blocks that were completed in 2006 ... there are 9 total in the pattern, but I think I might only do 5 of them.

The blocks are by Sindy Rodenmayer of Fat Cat Patterns and was from a Block of the Month in 2006 :) Obviously, I didn't keep up!

on my ... design surface ;)

I have pulled out an old UFO* and have prepped a block. I seem to have dropped a piece before laying it on the background ... but that is OK, that will be easy - compared to carefully taking this back apart so I can applique all the pieces down :) There are 68 pieces (you can see 67) and I have scaled back on how many pieces this block calls for, plus I simplified one shape to make it easier to turn the edges.

I am using the applique method that Kim Deihl taught :) It takes about the same amount of time that my previous methods did, but I am happier with the results (after looking at a couple of my previous blocks).

More design wall posts are linked at Patchwork Times :)

*UFO = Un-Finished Object

on my design wall

This has been on my design wall for a week ... I meant to show it last week, but the weather did not cooperate. We were without power from Saturday afternoon to Monday evening ... high winds brought down many trees in our city. I did get the first two borders sewn on this week :)

SO, I have this lovely one block quilt hanging on my design wall. I just have to add the last border, quilt it and bind it and I can enjoy this hanging on my living room wall. I am SO tickled with how this one is turning out. I changed the borders from what the pattern called for, I liked the second border better than having a 16 patch in the corners with plain borders in between.

This is my class project from the class with Kim Diehl. I highly recommend her as a teacher - she was very encouraging and her instructions were very clear :)

For more design wall inspiration check out Patchwork Times.

Six blocks, one wrong to unsew and resew!

On my design wall are 6 blocks from my Celtic Solstice quilt ... and one glaring mistake!

As you can see, I chose different colors from Bonnie's colors and I have chosen to use a single background in my blocks.

I won't get any sewing done on these today ... I'll be at a quilting class with Kim Deihl!

See what other people have on their design walls at Patchwork Times.

on my design wall March 24

One lonely block. It was supposed to be a project for Project Quilting's last 2014 challenge, but life got in the way *sigh* I have plans to make this into a baby quilt - the bright colors would be good for a baby quilt, don't you think?

Most of the fabrics for the star are from Obnoxious Fabric Swaps and I find I am getting low on the brights from that pile of fabrics. Must be time for another round (it will be posted after next weekend - email me for more details).

For more Design Wall fun, check out the links at Patchwork Times.

National Quilting Day

 How did you celebrate National Quilting Day?

Our guild hosted a Quilt-In at the church where we meet. A small group of us spend the day with fabric, rotary cutters, irons and machines :)

 

Several ladies spent their time working on a charity quilt

 Some of us worked on our own projects.

 

 

 I worked on an old UFO:

 All my blocks are done, not I need to do some trimming and adding of sashing ... but I will need to choose something for cornerstones (unless I just use more of the blue batik for cornerstones).

I hope your National Quilting Day was productive!

what I'm working on today ...

... at least until I had to start getting ready for Awana ;) Silly Socks night ... I'm not sure what I have available in silly socks, but I'll be looking for something!

I'm got all the blocks done for Keukenhof Tulips (pattern by Kimberly Einmo from her Quilt a Travel Souvenir book)! I started this in a class in 2006, so it has been a long buried UFO. Now it is close to being done :) :) :) I'll sew the blocks together and start auditioning border fabrics.

I would LOVE to put a pieced border on this quilt, but I only have 1/2 yard of the background fabric left and the pieced border would need more, so I might just go back to the drawing board as I think a pieced border would really set off the field of the quilt.

What are you working on?

Too Heavy for My Design Wall

 While they may not look much different than they did in the last post, the boots are finished to the point they are just waiting to be sewn on the quilt. They have a thin black line behind them which helps set them off from the background of the quilt. They are too heavy to have up on my design wall, they keep falling off!

And the quilt is quilted. I have to bury the threads and trim it down to size so I can bind it and get the boots sewn on. I'll lace up the boots and hope that I have enough time to get the hanging sleeve sewn on ...

For more design wall goodness, check out  

Patchwork Times today :)

Progress on Boots Quilt v.2

 The boots are almost ready to sew on the quilt. They get sewn on AFTER I do the quilting. I have minimal quilting on the boots themselves. I also will add the laces after everything else is done :)

I am in the process of quilting the quilt. I am doing some very small quilting. I didn't mean to, but this quilt must really want it, because I'm doing it again! That is OK, as you can see, I now have a magnifier so I can see the stitching. When using invisible thread, I have the hardest time seeing my quilting stitches. The magnifier helps me to see them (or rather, I can see the HOLES left by the stitches). Maybe it is my older eyes ... but those threads that are the size of the hairs on my head
are REALLY hard to see ;)