Hurricane Irene

Aside from some very strong wind gusts and some needed rain, we escaped the wrath of Hurricane Irene here in central NC.   My family in NJ reported lots of rain and one of my sisters is dealing with water in her basement.  My thoughts and best wishes are with those who had many worse things to deal with.


I made use of the day stuck home with extra time at my sewing machine.


I saw this great tutorial for double pinwheel blocks at Always Expect More and decided to give this a try.  Pinwheels are clearly one of my favorite blocks.

The block uses 4 charms squares and finished at 4 1/2 inches after squaring off.  I used squares from a Hullabaloo charm pack and then cut 4 1/2 squares from a Lollipop solid from my stash.   This will be 16 x 12 when finished.

This was very fun to assemble!   This is for my DD to hang in her room over her desk and I've have added to a pile of  a number of small things I am getting ready to FMQ.   Looking at next weekend - 3 day weekend!! - as an opportunity to get a number of these small projects done.


Since I was just playing, I didn't concentrate as much on accuracy as I should have and didn't press along the way.  So clearly far from perfect but it was fun.  I will make this block again and spend a bit more time on it.


Have a great week.


Happy Stitching!

Sweet Tea

Sweet Tea is all back from the LAQ.  Isn't she a beauty?

This photo really shows off the quilting.  The pattern used has some pretty flowers in an  edge to edge design.

This quilt used a layer cake of Summer Breeze.   I will be binding it in the same yellow as I used for the back - my favorite yellow from the quilt.


The quilting really pulled this quilt together and pleased I added the white border.


Happy Stitching!


Edit: pattern from http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/03/sunkissed-jewel-box-quilt.html

Autumn in the air

I did a little organizing of my sewing room corner of playroom this weekend which included assembling a bookcase.  My DD (13) did all the work - she loved using power tools!

I did more work on my charm pack blocks.  This is the Hot Cross Schnibble pattern.  Charm pack is Grand Finale by Sandy Gervais.


I need 25 blocks - only made 24 so far. After pressing and trimming, I took a look at how this is going to come together.


There are a few deep purple and deep aqua charms in here that I may have pulled out if I had planned ahead.  

Here are the blocks with the purple and aqua block included:

Here are the blocks without the purple and aqua:

What do you think?


Right now I am thinking of calling this little quilt Autumn


Happy Stitching!

The ultimate giveaway

Green Fairy Quilts is getting ready for their annual trip to Romania to support an orphanage  with quilts and money for food and school supplies.  Judi is having a giveaway and donating to the cause gives you extra entries.  Judi and her husband are very generous of their time and support - the ultimate giveaway!  For more information, visit her post!  My compliments to Judi and all the wonderful people who donated quilts and money to support their mission.

Judi's blog is one that I follow daily.  She does amazing long arm quilting and has very fun quilt patterns.  Her on-line store is a source for many of the precuts I purchase.


I found a fun envelope in my mail box yesterday.  Earlier in the summer I won a giveaway at Retromummy.  Corrie is another one of my favorite bloggers - she is quite the busy lady, has the most adorable children and is generous with information (and giveaways!).   Corrie, Thanks!!

My DD (13) picks up one of the charm packs and says

'Ooooohhhh!  I just love this fabric!  Make me something with it!'.  

'What?', I asked.

'I don't care.  Just something.  This fabric is so ME!'

Smile.  She is my daughter!




Happy Stitching!

Charm packs were calling!!

My goal for FNSI (Friday Night Sew In) was to work on my pinwheel quilt.  However, I had these two Grand Finale by Sandy Gervais charm packs sitting on my sewing table and they were calling my name.  I spent about 2 hours last night assembling a Schnibble.   I hope to spend more time later today to get it assembled together.  Not much to show at this point.  A couple of finished blocks - not trimmed or pressed - and a string of pieces.

Picture doesn't look like much (and blogger turning it isn't helping) but the fabric is fun to play with.  More photos to come!

If you haven't heard about the Wantobe Quilter campaign underway at Sew We Quilt it isn't too late to join.  You need a blog sponsor (pick me!) and can enter to win prizes as a brand new quilter or an experienced quilter.  See this post for more information.


Happy Stitching!

My quilt is in the dorm!

My DH dropped our son off at his university - didn't make sense for the whole family to fly there so I did my tearful goodbyes from home.  


I had them capture a photo of my quilt - Infinite - in the dorm room.  Likely will never look this neat again.  Even then, note the large pillow lump at the head of the bead.

Friday Night Sew-in this Friday.  Go sign up!


Happy Stitching!

Spinning pinwheels

A few weeks ago, I turned a pile of HST blue batik into pinwheels.


At first, I was randomly sewing them together reminiscent of a 'crazy quilt' pattern.  As much as I liked this looked, I wanted something small enough to quilt myself and this one was going to be too big.

I decided to set the 8 inch blocks inside a white border done somewhat 'wonky' so they would look like they were twisting and turning.


I put the first two blocks together and it created the look i wanted by setting them inside a wonky border.  Block still square but now at 9 1/2 inches.

A week went by before I had time to do 10 more of the squares.  The only problem was that I forgot how I did it the first time!  But of course I didn't notice I was doing it wrong until all ten were done.  You can see these are clearly not square.

Once I noticed my error, I had a few minutes debate on whether I should I bond with my seam ripper?


I decided to go with the quilting flow and just trim the blocks back to 8 1/2 inches square.

Eight have been sewn together so far.  I'm liking the way this looks - while it isn't quite as much spinning movement as I want, I've got some ideas that can still be incorporated.

More to come.  (About 12 more pinwheels to be precise.)


Happy Stitching!

What is a stash?

stash  (stsh) Slang

tr.v. stashed, stash·ing, stash·es

To hide or store away in a secret place.

n.

1. A secret place where something is hidden or stored.

2. Something, such as money or an  illegal drug  fabric, that has been hidden or stored.

If you don't know what a stash is, you could be the next WantoBe Quilter who wins big during the three months of giveaways at  Sew We Quilt.

Week two of 13 is now complete but there are still 11 more weeks to go of giveaways 5 days each week.

Last week, someone won one of these -

Well, not exactly that one - but a sewing machine just the same - see here to see the sewing machine giveaway prizes!

You too can win!


The rules are very simple.


(1) Find a registered quilt blogger to sponsor you.  A Stitch in Time is such a registered quilt blog and I'd be very happy to sponsor you.  Comment on any post with your name and email (comment won't be public) and I'll get you on the official list.


(2) Follow Sew We Quilt blog.


(3) Want to be Quilters - those who don't have the tools of the trade (i.e. sewing machine, fabric stash, rotary cutter etc) should comment on Sew We Quilt every Monday, Wednesday and Friday before midnight EST.  You will also need to follow the blog of the guest blogger of the day.   In your comment, make sure you list the name of your blog sponsor A Stitch in Time!


(4) Already a Quilter - you should comment on Sew We Quilt every Tuesday and Thursday before midnight EST.  You will also need to follow the blog of the guest blogger of the day.   In your comment, make sure you list the name of your blog sponsor A Stitch in Time!


It is NOT too late to register - there are still 11 weeks to go.  That means 33 more chances to win for new quilters and 22 more chances to win for experienced quilters!


Recruit your friends to the campaign and tell them to choose a blog sponsor (hint: A Stitch in Time).




Happy Stitching!

Happy Birthday to my daughter!

My lovely daughter turns 13 years old today.

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Stitching!

Infinite

My son is about to leave to start his freshman year of college.


He is my oldest of 3 so the house will not be empty when he leaves ,,,,  but it will be emptier.

I made him a quilt.  Introducing Infinite, binding attached and all beautiful after a trip through the washer and dryer.  (No idea why this photo is turning sideways.)  The quilt is sized for a XL twin.

 Very pleased with the wonderful job by my LAQ.  She outlined the design beautifully.

 In the areas around the center, she did an overall intersecting rectangle design.

You can read more about this quite on this post.   It is a fractal, significant since my son will be studying math and computer science.  After much trial and error, I made templates.  The back is a soft flannel (he is my baby after all!).  All I need to do now is make a quilt label.

I had my Andy moment this weekend when I helped him start to organize his room to sort out what he was bringing and what he was leaving behind.  (Movie clip from Toy Story 3.)

Sigh.

Happy Stitching!

My favorite things

Home from our wonderful week long vacation at the beach.  

There was plenty of time for beach combing - I found about a dozen pieces of sea glass.... (Water bottle cap in photo for size compare.)

time for watching the sunrise (I woke up early every day - go figure) ....

time for a Wild Horse Adventure Tour.  (Decedents from horses brought to the outer banks in the 1500s live wild.  There are about 120 horses in a protected area of the island.  There are some beach houses there - but the area is only accessible with a 4 wheel drive car.  We rented a jeep and joined a tour and saw about a dozen wild horses including 3 very young ones.)  As you can see, they aren't actually fenced in here.  They roam in herds.

and for quilting.

I was using these HST blocks as my "leader and ender" blocks with the full intent of assembling a very simple HST quilt like the photo.  (These were a set of charm squares all shades of blue batiks.)

But then I decided on pinwheels.  Can't explain why - they just called out to me!  But now I am torn between a very traditional placement or one that look more like this - picture these across white fabric.

I started this assembling without any measuring ahead - essentially creating a very large crazy quilt.  Didn't get far because I am still a bit undecided.  This is what I have so far- clearly in desperate need to be ironed.  Someone unclear where I am headed with this so I will put it aside for a few days and think about it.

Finally, a week or so ago, I went to a Sound of Music sing-a-long with my daughter.  Just wanted to say we had a blast.   They gave you a little bag when you entered of 'props' to use during the movie.  There was a noise maker for the first kiss, pictures of Maria to hold up during the 'How do you solve a problem like Maria' song and instructions for the hand motions to be used in the 'Do, Re, Me' song.   Singing along with everyone else was incredibly fun.

Some folks came in costume.  I thought the most creative was the 'brown paper packages tied up with string' - see the far left of the photo.

Happy Stitching!