ALYOF Finish

Finished my circular quilting on this scrap quilt.  I set the stitch length higher than I normally do - at 2.8 - and I really like the stitch definition.

My ALYOF challenge for August was to assemble this quilt top

from this set of blocks I had put together probably two years ago.  (Goal blog post.)

This finishes at 36" and I'm in the process of basting.  I'm going on another circular quilting adventure.

Interested in a tutorial on circular or spiral quilting?  I've started a new blog (more on that soon) and you can find the tutorial here on Elm Street Quilts.

I'll be linking up here. 


Happy Stitching!

Summer is almost over

Where did the summer go?  

My 3 kids are now all back in school - 2 in high school and 1 in his last year in college. 

I love summer.

Summer means not having to nag anyone about homework and no early bedtimes.  Summer means family time at the beach and quiet time as I swam laps in our local pool.   But it was too short.

Now, as the temperature starts to cool and summer winds down, looking forward to quilting time makes me happy.

Another Lovely Year of Schnibbles (and a bit more) starts up tomorrow.  (see here for more information).   I've played along for a couple of years now and so much enjoy the monthly challenge as the opportunity to see how others have taken on the same challenge.   At the end of the month, there is always a parade at n A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion blogs. 

My favorite one from last year is called Buttons and made from a Little Bites pattern called Mites.

What fun it was to carefully choose all that fabric.

Another favorite is called Sparkle made from a Schnibble pattern called Hook.

I don't always do circular quilting on these quilts but the small size makes it a fun choice.

Please consider playing along - check out Sheri and Sinta's blogs ( A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion) on Monday to see the Sepetember challenge.

Happy Stitching!

Back to the farm for Blocks 18-20

I enjoyed the assemble of these blocks.

First up is #18 - Century of Progress

Then # 19 - Checkerboard

Finally #20 - Churn Dash, a new favorite block

Ta da - the first block of 20!!!

Happy Stitching!

Some leftover geese

I did some circular quilting.

I always start in the center by tracing a round object and work my way out then come back and finish the middle.

This is a small mini (roughly 24 x 24 inches) that I made from scraps.

Happy Stitching!

FW Blocks 15-17

Spending some more time on the farm. These generally come together quite quickly although I always need to use my seam ripper at least once!

#15 - Buzzard's Roost

#16 - Calico Puzzle

#17 - Cats and Mice  - I had a  bit of trouble with this one.  The paper pattern made this end up with a bunch of y seams when assembling so I've got a little bit of a tuck that needs to be repaired.

I am going to try to do 3 of these each week and my plan is to make all 111.  17 down, 94 more to go!

Happy Stitching!

AMB license plate quilt

In May, I got to participate in American Made blog tour and designed a license plate for North Carolina.

The pattern is available from my sidebar.

Clothworks recently posted a photo of the quilt in progress on their blog - so excited to see my NC plate.  The quilt is going to be great!  (my block is in the 4th column towards the bottom.)

Photo from the Clothworks site here.

So excited!

Happy Stitching!

Color Explosion

Quite some time ago, I had assembled a bunch of blocks using a charm pack and a honey bun of Sweetwater Make Life.

I laid all my blocks out to start to assemble them.

I didn't like all the blocks of color - here are just a few of the blocks and it didn't look good.  There was nothing to rest your eyes on and if you stare at it long enough you'll find yourself going from large color block to large color block.  Kinda dizzy.

So I cut the blocks up and reassembled them.

Still a riot of color but a much more attractive riot of color - IMHO.

This currently finishes at 36" square.  Now I need to decide whether I should leave it this size and make it into a wall hanging or make it larger and into a lap quilt.

I'm thinking a wall hanging.  It would be fun to hang in my sewing room or maybe even my office.


Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife Blocks 12-14

Doing these blocks three at a time works real well for me.   I'll do the paper piecing of each section - iron and trim - and then come back a bit later to do the final assemble.   I have only partially removed the paper from the completed blocks.  I intend to do this once I hit 20 blocks - a reward?????

This is #12 called Broken Sugar Bowl.  The wind was kicking up so it was hard to get a flat photo.

This is #13 called Buckwheat.  (Still need a trimming!)  I wasn't certain of my color placement until it was all assembled.  This one was fun.

This is #14 - Butterfly at the Crossroads.  I like this gray dot fabric a lot!

Now all 14 blocks..... they are so much fun to take out and pet and look at.   All laid out, I see that I have done a few with gray backgrounds instead of the white and that I need more blue ones.

Happy Stitching!

A week of (almost) sunshine

Just got back from a week at the NC beach.

Every year I cart my sewing machine there and enjoy time quilting during the middle of the day.  At that point, the beach is crowded and the sun is too hot.   This year, we had days of rain in the beginning which meant for nice quilting time.   I had a bunch of leftover geese so assembled them into this mini.

I intend to do some circular quilting on this one and have the starting circle marked and ready to go.

More photos when the quilting is done!

Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife (9-11)

The fun continues - I just love seeing all these blocks together!

#9: Bowtie

#10: Box

#11: Broken Dishes - could be my favorite so far!

Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife Continued (6-8)

8 blocks done so far and more sitting on my sewing table ready for assembly.   Paper piecing is the only way to go here.  I can't imagine dealing with these as templates.

#6: Big Dipper  (enough thread on this one!)

#7: Birds in the Air  (could never have done this one with templates)

#8: Bouquet

Happy Stitching!

ALYOF Goal for August

One of the very first Sweetwater fabric lines was Make Life.  Quite (quite) some time ago, I had taken my charm pack and a honey bun and made a whole bunch of blocks.

Besides the blocks, I've got some bits of fabric like this cheerful one - maybe a 1/2 yard.

My August goal is to get this quilt top assembled.  It will be fun and colorful.  I need to decide how I might want to break up the riot of color.  Or not!

I'll be linking up here. 

Happy Stitching!