Some orphaned log cabin blocks

Here I have a bag full of log cabin blocks and log pieces that have been given to me by my friend Sharon.

I am not sure what she had intended to make with them.  It was not going to be your regular log cabin block quilt, because the log cabins are of varying sizes, both the blocks and the size of the logs as well.  I am curious as to what the design was supposed to be, but Sharon does not give the pattern with the pieces.  She would prefer to see what I come up with, with her left over pieces.

When I get a chance to clear my design wall and all the quilting I have lined up, I will have to take these out and play.  Maybe leave them up on the design wall to let the ideas percolate.

When things are on the design wall, just sitting there, they have a tendency to swim around in my head, even if I am not there.  Sometimes my daughter will come along and move things, just for the sack of it.  This may spark something else, some other idea to play around in my head, and eventually, we come up with a design.

I take this process slowly,  it's more of an evolution.  My daughter and I enjoy bouncing ideas off each other this way.  No idea is better than the other, just different perspectives, put together to make one great quilt.

Stay tuned....

Little red hearts

So......I thought I would share a bit of what is going on around here.

At the moment I am still quilting away on the diamond hexagon quilt for my cousin, and when I get a chance to do some handwork, I work on the label for the quilt.  It is going at a snails pace though.  The hexagons are being each and every one of them echoed inside.  This is when I get to use the phrase "within an inch of it's life".  The quilted hexagons are literally about an inch in size.

But......that is not the only reason things are slow around here.  Well, I guess I should rephrase that.  Things are a bit slow quilting wise, because the rest of my life right now feels like I am on a fast moving roller coaster ride.  I am still house hunting for my mom, the kids are finishing school shortly, my daughter is graduating from high school, I am trying to keep up with the weeding of my garden, a few extra trips into the office for work and the renovations of my laundry room.

Enough to keep my head spinning.  However, at the end of the day, or whenever possible, I steal a bit of time to get my quilting fix.  I am now over 1/3 of the way done quilting the hexagon quilt. I am guessing approx. 1/4 of the way done the second third.

In the meantime, I thought I would share with you some blocks that my friend Sharon from the Quilting Bee gave me.  Sharon is our hostess of the Quilting Bee.  Sharon has made quite a few quilts herself.  She really enjoys the hand quilting process.

Sharon has been doing some reorganizing in her quilt room and taking inventory.  She came across a few projects that she started and decided it was not for her or she no longer wanted to do them, so she gave them to me.

This was one of them. The box has blocks of solid cream coloured fabric with a little red heart on each of them.  They are about 10" square and there are I believe 20 blocks.  Enough to make a fair sized quilt.  I will have to come up with a design to do these blocks up.

So....I may not be posting quite so often, but life keeps moving along.  That is what makes life so interesting.  I will continue to post when I can.

I am hoping everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather we are having.  Take care.

Carol's crazy block

At our last Quilting Bee meeting, Carol brought in her crazy quilt block.  As you may already know from one of my previous posts. I would at one time like to make a crazy quilt, or at least a wall hanging.

This block is Carol's.  She used mainly cotton for her block with some shinny fabric as well (sorry, don't recall what it is called).

Like most people, I am attracted to the fancy stitches that are used to embellish the blocks.  Each seam is embellished, usually with a different type of stitch.  Some of them may be simple, but most of them get pretty fancy.

Some of the embellishments include lace as well, like the picture below.  I also like the swag in this section that includes what appears to be embroidered tassels. I've even seen some people use buttons and ribbons to make flowers or clusters of interesting designs

The stitches divide the different fabrics and usually hide the seam altogether.  This section of the block below, even used French knots to fancy up a vine, and one of the rows of stitches uses two colours.

This section also has a seam that uses two colours in a fancy chain stitch.  Do you see the cream coloured fabric with a large lace in the centre?  When the scrap pieces are big enough, some people get very elaborate with larger pieces of lace fancied up with stitching.  Others may use the space for clusters of ribbon flowers. I've even seen full sceneries.

The possibilities are endless.  You can take a block as far as you want.  From simple to extremely complicated.  The choice is up to the maker.  It looks like so much fun!

I am going to try this one day.......maybe others would like to join me?

Simple yellow blocks

Last week, before I got started back on quilting the hexagon diamond quilt, I wanted a few minutes of sewing.  Well.......maybe a bit more than a few minutes, but who is counting.

So.......I started sewing these bright cheerful yellow blocks.  I wrote about the material coming from a friend in an earlier post.  The material is a light weight linen fabric.  I've never worked with linen for a quilt before, so thought I would give it a try.  Since the fabric is light I figured simple 3 1/2" blocks would be best.  The folded fabric the blocks are sitting on, is going to be used for the backing.

This is going to be a little baby quilt, so what would be more fitting than the alphabets that are printed on the fabric for the backing.  I like that it too is a cheerful yellow.

I am putting this quilt together in a web format.  Column 3, 4, 5 & 6 are all attached and folded on top of each subsequent row, in a web form.

I messed up when putting column number 1 together.  Instead of putting it together with column 2, I forgot and put it together in a row.  I've already taken it apart and will sew it together properly, when I get a chance to get back to this little distraction.

I call it a distraction because this quilt is not on my list of quilts to do, nor is it on the list of quilt pieces waiting to be done.  This project was just a flash of inspiration that came in a bag from my friend Carol.  It's all her fault that I am distracted. LOL!

Started working on a label

I did up three quilt labels on the computer the other day.  One is for my cousin's Dresden plate quilt, the second is for her diamond hexagon quilt and the last one is for my Mother's Day gift wall hanging from my daughter.

I wrote them all up on fabric that I prepared.  They are ready to be hand embroidered.

This one here is for Rose's hexagon diamonds quilt.  It is the quilt that is under my machine, in the process of being quilted.  Slowly, but surely.  I started embroidering the label and will work on this when I sit down to do some handwork.  Maybe I can get it done around the same time I get the quilt quilted and bound.

A friend's quilts

Last week Wednesday, I went to our quilting bee meeting.  Carol had some show and share.  She has been a very busy bee.

This first picture is of four different panels.  I can't quite remember, but I think they are just pinned together for now.  They are individual wall hangings, each bound separately.  Whether you use them separately or as a large display, that would be up to the user.  The whole applique scene is of an Italian nature.

This first panel is your usual tableau of red wine, bread and a bounty full of food, which looks like tomatoes and eggplant.  Even the batik fabrics she used have the feel of Italian.  The second one on the top right hand corner is your traditional fair.  It's a large bowl of spaghetti with an appliquéd spoon and fork with the word pasta written across the top. 

What would be an Italian meal without your olive oil to soak your bread in prior to the meal.  The third panel on the bottom left hand side is just that, with some heads of garlic and the words Oliodi Oliva.  Lastly, on the bottom right hand corner there are a bunch of tomatoes with the word pomodori written across the top.

I really love the batiks she used for the background.  I don't think she could have chosen anything else that would have complemented the whole scene any better.  Great job, Carol!!!

This second picture is of a lone star.  This quilt was started by Carol's daughter.  Her daughter chose all the colours to make the quilt.  I believes she started the quilt partially, but never had the interest to finish it.  Carol has decided to finish up some of her daughter's quilting projects, and this was one of them.

The different shades of red with grey and white on black are very affective.  The centre vibrates.  Very nice.  I am sure her daughter will love it!

A quilt in my dreams (QW)

I came across this quilt on a Facebook forum for Bonnie Hunter followers.  It is gorgeous.  Definitely a quilt that I one day dream of making. Though I fear it may be challenging.   I like the effect of the small white squares.  The white squares are nine patches.

This next picture is of the same layout as the one above, however they are using one plain block instead of the nine patches.  The nine patches really transform the quilt and make it appear to be made of circles. 

Here is a close up of the quilt block.  It is made up of six squares, six triangles and in the centre a hexagon.  Up close like this it helps to break it all down and makes it easier to understand why the edges of the picture at the top are curved.  Each block is attached to the curve and a connecting triangle is sewn on. 

The first picture above also colour coordinates each block.  Each block uses the same colours for the triangles and the white throughout the quilt appears to be the same.

Beautiful!!!  One day.......maybe.......

The colour purple in older quilts

One morning I was sitting on the floor in my quilting room, sharing Maddie's mattress, while I was having my morning tea.  I am sitting there musing about everything and nothing in particular, when I look over at the diamond hexagon quilt that I finished removing the stitches on.  The quilt is sitting there nicely just waiting to start quilting again.

That is when I noticed there are a lot of purple hexagons.  There are a lot of many different colours too, but I can't say that I noticed, just how many, purple hexagons there are.  For the most part, each diamond has at least one purple hexagon.

Purple is a very common colour in older quilts.  Mostly I see a darker blue lavender purple like the background of the hexagon above and the one below.

There are some that are a bit lighter like this one below.  I've noticed too, that beside a purple you will usually see a yellow, like all the pictures in this post.

This diamond had both a dark purple on white background and a deep dark purple. 

These were only small scraps of purple added to a quilt, but in order to have the scraps, one would have purchased the material to make something.  This quilt was like many others, made with left over bits and pieces.  I have found, that in almost all the older quilts that I have seen, there is some purple.

I've seen many quilts, mostly made around the 30-40s, that use lavender purple as a main colour and some of them are put together with soft lemon yellow, like the quilt below.  This is traditionally what you would find when looking at older quilts, as well as the usual blue and pinks.

These last three pictures of quilts I found on google images when I searched Dresden plate quilts.  Each one of them is completely different from the other.  For a Dresden plate quilt I have found that most are appliquéd to a white foundation and most use a solid colour for the centre circle.

I guess the reason the colour purple stood out to me that day, was because I was also looking at the Dresden plate quilt I am finishing off for my cousin.  It was on the design wall next to me.

The Dresden plate quilt is done now, all folded up waiting it's turn to be quilted.  I was looking up some images of Dresden plate quilts to get some ideas on how to do the quilting.  When it comes to the quilting, there is not much variety.  We will just have to see what I come up with....

Working on my leader/ender

Today I took some time in the morning for me, so I could do some quilting.  Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I was up at 4:10 am.

Unfortunately, Maddie got sick in her cage/bed.  I got up to make sure she was ok and strip the bedding to wash it.  The fortunate part is once I was up, I figured it was no use in going back to bed, so that gave me a lot more time to my day.

I started by removing the last diamond quilting from the hexagon quilt.  It is all done now and ready to start quilting again.  I put away all the Dresden plate blocks that I finished basting yesturday and cleaned off my cutting board.

After making myself another cup of tea, I decided I wanted to do some mindless sewing.  So, I took out the half square triangles that I had cut and paired off in my leader/ender tray and started running them through the machine.  In the process I got two sixteen patch blocks done as well.

I sewed up a bunch, started pressing them open.  Here is the first batch completed waiting to be trimmed to size.  It doesn't look like much, but there are almost thirty half square triangle blocks here.

I drank my tea and played with Maddie some more, and started sewing some more.  It was going so well, just zipping along.  When I needed a break I stopped to press this next batch of blocks open.

It was going so well, that I decided to finish all of the rest of them.  In this batch there are over forty half square triangle blocks.  At this point I finished what was already cut and paired up from the leader/ender tray, but I am not sure if this is all I will need.  I will have to do a count to see.

This afternoon after my daughter finished work, we went out dress shopping for her graduation dress.  She wanted a nice simple light dress to wear underneath her robe.  We managed to find the dress and the shoes in the first two stores we went to.  Wow, I was impressed.  Fastest shopping I've done in a long time.  I even bought some stuff for me too.

Tomorrow is another day, maybe I can get some of the renos a little further along or some gardening. 

We will see.....

Another Dresden plate done

Today I had another late start at work.  This gave me some more time to sit and do some hand stitching while Maddie curled up against my leg and slept.

This is the third full block I have done.  Now I have nine more full blocks to go.

After work today I did some weeding in the garden, to get a head start.  I figured if I could get some done today, I would have some more time on the weekend to do the other things I need done and hopefully get some quilting in too.

Hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather we are getting.

One of my Dresden plates blocks is done

Well, it has been a while that I have been able to sit and sew.  Two solid weeks of prepping my Mom's home for sale, and another week having my Mom over while the viewings were going on.  Monday just past, we all got together to review the offers.

Mom can now relax a bit.  Her house is sold firm.  Two big steps done, now we need to keep looking for another home for her.  Preferably something not too far away.

As today is my late start at work, I was able to sit down with Maddie/puppy sleeping and do some handwork.  I finished the second large block of twelve.  Ten more to go.

During the past weekend, between doing renovations at my own house, I also took out some more stitches from the diamond hexagon quilt.  I have about 3/4 of the last large diamond to take out and I can go gong ho with the quilting and get that one done.  My progress on my list has been pretty slow lately, but that is life.  Always things coming up and things to do.

This coming weekend I have to take my daughter out looking for a dress and shoes for her graduation, and also work on the bathroom renos before my Mom's house closes, so she will have a decent and clean bathroom to use while she is here, between moving to the new house when we find one, plus the garden still needs to be cleaned up.

Even with everything that needs to happen this weekend, I still want/need to find some time to quilt.  I can usually go for a few days, sometimes for a week, but after that I get very cranky, if I do not get some sewing time in.  Working on quilts is my form of stress relief.

Hopefully I can do enough quilting to write my post more regularly again!

**Progress on my top 12 list (which turned out to be 18 instead)**

Work in progress:  

3. Quilting - Lise's hexagon quilt (family)..........only one diamond left to frog...rip-it, rip-it

4. Quilting - Navy blue & cream quilt (my own)

7. Main work - Spools quilt (my own)..........first row done, taking a break to do quilting

8. Main work - Mel's romance & roses quilt (family)
9. Leader/Ender - 16-patch pinwheel quilt (my own)..........more done while working on Lise's DP
10. Handwork - Reconstructed Dresden plate quilt (my own)...........2 & 4 halves done, 10 left to do

11. Main work - Lise's Dresden plate quilt (family)..........all of the horizontal rows are sewn together

12. Handwork - Machine wall hanging (my own)

13. Paper piece - Pineapple quilt (my own)..........these are put on hold again for a bit

Total number of quilts completed - 9
Total number of quilts left to be completed - 9

Completed quilts:
1. Quilted Flo's hexagon quilt (commissioned).  

14. Sabryna's 16-patch pinwheel quilt (family)

16. Reversable crazy quilt & matching doll quilt (charity)

15. Log cabin quilt (my own)
18. Small wonders quilt (charity)
17. Scrappy stripes quilt (charity)

2. Michelle's midnight flight quilt (family)

6. Jean material quilt (charity)

5. Midnight flight runway quilt (charity).