on my design wall April 15th

Do you have your taxes done? Our Federal Taxes were done a long time back ... but we need to pay the state, so I'll get that one out today :)

On my design wall is a baby quilt top. I sewed it up a couple of weeks ago (to use as a sample when trying to peddle my pattern) and it has been sitting there waiting for me (I'm glad that tops are so patient!).

 Instead of using it for a sample, it will be going to a baby shower on Saturday :) 

That means it must be quilted and bound before then!

I've hardly touched my machines for a while. We have had company for the last 2 1/2 weeks - all happy times with our daughter coming for a few days, my sister (and her children) for a few days, my sister in law coming for a few days (dh and I took off and went to a conference) and then my in laws came ... in that time, I played taxi driver to my two teenagers while they were gearing up for a theater production (opened last weekend and we still have this coming weekend ... ).

I'm exhausted :) in a good way.

For some delightful Design Wall Inspiration check out Patchwork Times.

On my Design Wall

On my design wall are the four trees I made for the Block-of-the-Month with Jennings Community Church. The other finished blocks can be seen HERE.

This week I plan to work on costumes for Robin Hood The Courtship of Alan A'Dale. The Boybarian is in the cast and Princess Sunshine is working with the Crew backstage. I'm thinking not much quilting is going to happen for the next two weeks!

Check out Patchwork Times for more Design Wall inspiration!

Project Quilting - Last Challenge

Project Quilting's last challenge for Season 4 was Hurray for Spring! I spent a lot of time thinking on Spring this week while being the homeschool mom who taxis her children from place to place.

The Boybarian has been under the weather, so he went to the Dr. and found out that he had a double ear infection (just didn't have any ear pain for the first SEVEN days of feeling ill). The homeschool theater group is very busy with practices and Princess Sunshine has been helping out at the scene shop for an upcoming production of Music Man ...all in addition to our regular lives *sigh*

I wanted to do tulips. I also wanted to use this fabric that my mom and dad  brought home from Hawaii (they went to celebrate their 50th anniversary):

And the fabric refused to be used for tulips *sigh*

Does your fabric tell you what you can and cannot do to it? Mine obviously does. It almost was screaming at me when I got the different design ideas together and started pulling coordinating fabrics!

SO, the fabric told me I needed a new purse :) My current purse is made from denim and a lovely paisley that is fairly dark. So, I should have a bright and happy purse for spring.

I'm a fan of small purses, so I pulled the Mini Messenger Bag pattern and started to work on the flap :) I pulled a lovely green that reminded me of grass, found a great gold and a pink for the flower and drew out my shapes on the paper-backed fusible web. I fused the shapes and then scribble stitched the flower down, quilting it in the process.

 The flower was going to point down (as shown in above photo), but I changed my mind later :)

I added a divided interior pocket.

I also added a back pocket and a loop to hang my keys.

This purse is going to make my day brighter as I use it - I'll smile at the happy flower and the lovely batik!

Now to make some accessories to match :)

Finished!

 Here is the finished quilt, hanging up at the quilt guild meeting :) I had a lot of compliments on the quilt, and I'm so glad I got it done (though if our challenge quilts make it into the show, I'll be putting on the hanging sleeve as well as blocking it properly). Yes, I hope to get better photos later ... I was working on this right up to the minute I left for quilt guild and didn't get a chance to snap a good shot.

I'm very excited about how the boots turned out. And the laces came from the Army Guy's boots, so they are authentic Army laces (he gave them to me, I didn't just take them!) - they just make the boots come alive! And together with the borders made from old uniforms - it just makes me happy.

I found some jewel star buttons to add in the corners (the challenge said we had to use a minimum of 5 jewels in our shoe quilts). I also see a spot where I need to clip some threads *sigh*

Along with putting the poem's name in the border, I also made sure that I didn't leave the poet out.

The poem, Daddy's Boots is by C.J. Heck and can be found HERE. The author has graciously given  permission to use the poem for this quilt.

The Guild Challenge - more process shots

In making my quilt, I put borders on (surprise, eh?) ...  

 

I always measure my borders to the size of the middle of the quilt. I do not just sew and trim as I have had enough experience with wavy borders on quilts where they stretched when sewn on!

 

 After measuring, I find the half and quarter along each edge and pin the border on.

Before I sew, I also pin the edge of the border to help keep it square. When I skip this step, it seems that the corners on my borders become more acute an angle and I don't want that!

After sewing on, the border is nice and square :)

and I can start quilting. I seldom do a plain old meander, but the camouflage look of basic stippling 

really fits this quilt.

 Tomorrow I plan to post the finished pictures ... I did get the quilt finished (still need to attach the hanging sleeve, but will only do it if our guild's challenge makes it into the quilt show).

Met my goal for today on the Guild Challenge Quilt

Today's goal was to get words on the quilt. I met that goal and even surpassed it. That makes me happy!

I put freezer paper on the back of some muslin, put a printout of words on the back of that, and borrowed Princess Sunshine's light box so I could trace

 the letters onto the muslin. 

Yes, I'm still in my robe, I was just so excited to get working on this that I started before 

I hopped into the shower.

I also put the name of the poem in the first border as well as the author's name :) It was a little bit harder to trace those letters as I couldn't see what I was doing. The letters were visible through the brown fabric, but I couldn't see the ink I was putting on the fabric.

Out came the bag of ACU fabrics. The Army Guy breaks down his old uniforms when they get too worn out and gives me bags of these fabric pieces ... and I work on finding creative ways to use them ... and this is a perfect quilt to use some.

I trimmed up some pant legs to the right size and then sewed them to the sides of the quilt. This is where I ended up not so happy. I miscut two of the sides and they are a smidge too short, causing the center of the quilt to bulge *sigh* As long as the borders need to come off, I think I'm going to ditch the black corner blocks, they just seem like black holes in the corners of the quilt (and they just beg for a special quilting treatment and I am not sure I want to go there).

Tomorrow's goal will be to fix the borders and then to applique the boots on the quilt.

I'm getting excited about the quilt! It is starting to come together as I saw it in my head. Now quilting designs are dancing in my imagination, lets hope they gel soon so I can apply them!

The poem, Daddy's Boots is by C.J. Heck and can be found HERE. The author has graciously given  permission to use the poem for this quilt.

Guild Challenge

My quilt guild has a challenge for us ... and I've had an idea rattling around in my head for months. I've been gathering photos for inspiration, found just the right words to add, looked for the embellishments ... and procrastinated.

The challenge pieces are due next Monday. So TODAY I started sewing ...

The challenge is to make a 35" square quilt with a minimum of 5 jewels on it. The theme is Shoes.

I wanted to do Combat Boots. So I have took a picture and analyzed it for shadows and made the picture big :) Then I used the techniques from Vicki Pignatelli's Quilting Curves book to draw up my pattern. I didn't dig out the book, so I had to work from memory and thus did some backtracking a time or two.

Here I have one boot sewn and then next one plotted out. I don't have all of the marking done on boot two, but you can get an idea of where I am going from the picture :)

 

The "fun" part of this quilt was the lacing system. I was unable to find the right stuff to make authentic looking quick lace and eyelets. I had a choice of shiny gold or shiny silver eyelets. I chose the silver ones as they were less obnoxious than the gold ones. 

The longest part of getting these boots done was preparing the pieces for the eyelets. Cutting the tiny little holes for the eyelets to go through with little scissors was time consuming (is there an easier way? If so, let me know in the comments!).

The second boot is in process. I use a lot of pins to hold those curves in place :) I don't want them to shift while I am sewing them!

Here are the finished boots - well, there are some more things that need doing, but the basic boots are now finished. I will work on getting them ready to applique on the quilt and they will get laces after the quilt is quilted (authentic laces right from the Army Guy's old boots!).

I'll try to remember to take more process photos as I work on other steps this week.