Playing with the Longarm and Blogging Frustrations

I just realized that it has been quite awhile since my last post. I am still busy sewing but have been having some blogging difficulties lately. While I have no trouble posting it seems that my difficulties in leaving and receiving comments in my email is pretty much impossible. I get some of your comments in my email but not others and any comments I leave immediately bounce back saying they cannot be delivered! I miss my conversations with my blogging friends and the connection with everyone but am not sure how to fix it.

Anyway, I have been back on my longarm this month and finished up this fun winter quilt that was Quilt Doodles 2014 BOM. I made a few changes to the original pattern and love the finished result, a fun winter quilt in the guest room.

I even had some fun with the backing. I did not have enough of the backing fabric but did have a bunch of left over strips from the piano key border and one snowman face that I made the wrong size that I was able to incorporate into this pieced back.

And here are a few photos of the quilting detail. My longarm quilting still has a long way to go but I am learning to just have fun with it and try to come up with a few new pattern ideas here and there. This is the area I have the least confidence in but at least my tops are finally becoming quilts!

I also finished the 2014 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Grand Illusion, just in time as this year's mystery begins on Friday.

You may have heard of the Moda Sampler Shuffle a block of the week available online through many different quilt stores. I am making my 6" blocks mostly from an old Moda fabric line Noteworthy by Sweetwater. These are fun little blocks and a great way to use up some fabric that I have had sitting around awhile. Perfect for those days when I just need some easy stitching. Here are the first 9 blocks, so cute and fun to make.

And ever so slowly I am assembling the blue and white Antique Wedding Sampler, sure hope I can show a photo soon.

 

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Quilt Doodles BOM 2014

I finally was able to take a photo of my finished Quilt Doodles BOM today. While it is not yet quilted, I have completed most of the embellishments and assembly of the top. I do have one other embellishment idea that need to be added after quilting but that will just have to wait.

If you have been following along with this BOM you will see that I did stray from the designers pattern. One thing about a mystery, you never know what is coming next and in this case I started having a vision for the quilt about 1/2 way in. We started with the snowman heads and I decided to use bright colors thinking this would be a fun winter or Christmas quilt for one of the grandkids. I was happy with the stars, trees and house and had decided to add some snowflakes and little snowmen early on. The ice skates threw me for a loop but I thought they were cute and decided that my little grandson would like them so I happily sewed them together. June's row was steaming cups, adorable but not what I wanted in a quilt for a little guy so I decided to draft some mitten blocks instead and the idea of dressing a snowman was born.

I skipped the next two rows, candy and Christmas lights, and instead made some woolen hats, (toques in Canada where I grew up) with yoyos for the pompons.

I had such fun creating borders to look like striped scarves and adding snowflakes in the corners.

My snowflakes, snowmen and deer were cut from wool felt on a die cut machine and appliqued by had with a tiny whip stitch. I love the bit of texture that they add but I am not sure how well they will stand up to machine washing so for now, the quilt will stay at Grammie's house. A fun Christmas quilt for the guest room.

 

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Trying to catch up

With my excitement over Stonefields and a few other projects, I have fallen behind on my Di Ford mystery quilt. I suddenly realized that the next issue of Quiltmania will be arriving at my LQS any day and I made a start on part 4. After working on Stonefields these colors seem so dark and muddy but I am enjoying the variety.

I have also been working on finishing up my Quilt Doodles BOM. I made several changes to the design. Here is a bit of a preview of the work in progress.

The snowflakes, snowmen and little deer are thanks to my son who cut them on his die cutter and shipped them to me. They are wool felt and after fusing I ended up doing the stitching by hand, a little too detailed to machine appliqué as I had planned. But it was worth the effort. I will share the finished top soon, it is just a bit too large to get a good photo!

 

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Tote bag fun

On a recent road trip I stopped in a quilt shop and saw a fun fabric line that would be perfect for my SIL. It is called Bee My Honey by Moda and since she loves bees and the line was in colors that she likes I decided to pick up 2 charm packs and a bit of yardage. But frankly I had no idea what I was going to do with it. Should I just send her the fabric or make her something. She is my long distance quilting buddy and good friend and is always making quilted gifts for others so I decided that I wanted to see something for her. But what? Since I knew she was interested in starting more handwork projects I thought she might like a tote bag and accessories that she could store her handwork project. And here is what I came up with. A Charm square tote from Sewn Up by Teresa Down Under, a little zippered bag, and a pincushion. The pincushion was made using the bee design and pincushion pattern from Raspberry Rabbits, Fellowship of the flowers.

The package was received yesterday and it seemed to be a hit. I also sent the extra charm pack and fabric so she can have some sewing fun too.

And when I was sorting through the charm squares, I realized that the fabric line had two different colorways, one with red and one without. Since my SIL loves red she got the red colorways. But my favorite is aqua and there were enough charm squares that I made a tote and accessories for me too! The navy dot fabric is from a different fabric line and I had enough for the 2 sets. I just pulled the aqua and lining fabric from my stash. The pincushion and needle case are from a Bird Brain Designs pattern that I have had sitting around for years.

So fun to have a few finishes for a change!

I also got caught up with my Quilt Doodles Mystery BOM. This month was a row of cups of hot drinks. It was cute but since I am making this for my little grandson I thought a row of mittens might work better. I drafted the mitten row and sewed it up and am very pleased with the results.

Here is the quilt so far. There are still a few rows to go and it will be fun to see what August brings.

 

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I'm Sewing Again - My Temporary Sewing Space

At last I am back to sewing. This is just my temporary sewing space but it is finally organized enough that I can get back to some fun. Every time I change spaces I think long and hard about how to make the space work for me using some configurations that were working in my previous space and trying something new in other areas.

You might notice that I love using furniture from IKEA. The tables are sturdy and super lightweight which means I can move then around if necessary. My main piecing machine is in a Horn sewing table and I can slide the IKEA table up to make a large table surface. With all the appliqué prep that I do a large table area is a must for me. This time I set up an L shaped space with an IKEA cube type shelf behind me in my appliqué prep area. It is also near my light box and copy machine both of which are in constant use during the prep work.

Here is just part of my stash stored in these wire baskets, again from IKEA. Unfortunately they recently changed the design of these baskets so I won't be getting any more. :( I previous areas these were stacked 3 high, but due to the sloped walls in this space they can only go 2 high. A quick trip to Home Depot and I had a 4' x 8' laminated board cut to fit the top and I was able to add a shelf for all my Longaberger baskets. I have had these for many years and I use them to hold projects, supplies, scraps of fabric etc. I also think they add a bit of a decorative accent in this space.

Based on some previous comments, you might wonder why I consider this space temporary. Amazingly I have lots more fabric that does not fit in this space, a longarm machine and I can't set up a design wall in here. I still can't find several things which must be in other boxes in that unfinished basement, but I can sew again which makes me happy. This morning I even made May's block from Quilt Doodles BOM.

 

 

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A New Month

Wow, it is already March and with a new month comes new mystery blocks and BOMs. First up is the Quilt Doodles mystery block. This month is the tree block shown here with last month's house block. I really enjoy how quick and easy these blocks are, perfect for some simple sewing at the beginning of each month. Since this makes a twin size quilt I am looking forward to a fun winter quilt for one of the grandchildren when it is done.

Before starting this month's Benjamin Biggs block, I want to finish this installment of the Di Ford mystery. I do not really have enough of the large leaves in my fabric do do the corner leaves in broderie perse. Instead I have made a pattern for the leaves and found a green that looks suitable to me. The hexagons are darker than Di's but I am OK with them and may add a bit of embroidery if they seem too dark later. I am still struggling with the stripe border but may have found something that will work.

Last week I visited my sister who winters here in Florida, about 2 hours from where I live. She had asked me to come and do a trunk show and appliqué demo for her quilting friends which was lots of fun. We also went to a few quilt shops in her area. Since DH just started a new job and I had been saving for this trip, I did a little fabric shopping. I actually found a few great finds, including that piece of red and pink shown just below the stripe. I had been looking for that fabric for years and found it for $6.99/yd. I was so happy I bought the end of the bolt! And maybe that stripe will work for my Di Ford mystery. The rest are possible additions to LE or the mystery. Hmm, I see I am in a repro phase!

Finally the latest installment of Soupçon was released on Friday. There are two different borders suggested and I decided to go with the hexagons. But when I printed out some 1/2 inch hexagon template sheets I forgot to turn off the scaling setting on my printer and my hexagons turned out 1/16th of an inch smaller than 1/2 inch. I did not realize til I had cut almost 100 hexagons so my hexagon flowers are a bit small. As a result they will not fit the border as suggested but that just means a little adjustment and hopefully it is a happy accident. Here are my first 6. Only 18 more to make! Guess I better get stitching.

 

 

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LE center complete and a bit more stitching

Last week I spent lots of time prepping blocks for appliqué. But for me that is a daytime job so the evenings were spent stitching and I finally finished the center of Love Entwined. I am so much happier with my color choices now that the center is all together. I am now thinking about my approach for the borders but first I am basking in the glow of the center!

Here is a close up of the final corner vase. If anyone is working on Di Ford's mystery from Quiltmania magazine, you will notice that my broderie perse is done using the same fabric that she selected to use. I had planned to purchase a bit more if needed but now, due to the excitement over her mystery, it is sold out where I purchased it. So I will make do with what I have and hope I have enough to add some of the flowers to the border vases. I do love Di's quilts and hope to make the mystery quilt myself but I will be selecting a different fabric as my starting point.

I also stitched the second block in the Benjamin Biggs Quilt BOM. I am really enjoying these simple green and red blocks.

Now that all the pomegranate blocks are prepped for my Jacobean Elegance quilt, I could not resist stitching the first one. While stitching I realized that I am no longer intimidated by all the tiny curves of the leaves. In fact they were really fun to needleturn. I think the tiny details in LE have helped my appliqué!

And finally, for a bit of quick machine stitching, I put this block together for the Quilt Doodle Designs BOM. I did simplify the construction of the block due to my use of more modern fabrics. The original design is rather scrappy but I am liking this look with my bright colors.

Still no house sale so I will be back in the sewing studio this week. Trying to save money means no fabric store trips, no eating out and no excursions that are not free. So happy that I have a large stash, free online patterns and all my blogging friends to keep me busy. Thanks to everyone who stops by, you really help to brighten my days!

 

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Happy colors

Here are a few things I am doing with some happy colors to brighten my day. First up is this week's flower from the Fellowship of the Flowers. I decided to go with brights on a white background for the next project. The next project includes 6 flowers so I am sure to have something bright and happy to work on at least once a week. Yay!

And this is the first panel in another mystery BOM. This one is being done by Quilt Doodle Doodles and it is a row quilt with a winter theme. It makes a twin size quilt and I am able to use fabric from my stash and should have a fun quilt by the end of the year. Once again I decided to go with a bright theme to give me something happy to look forward to each month.

It is funny how much color affects my mood and these days brights seem to make me happy. Do certain colors make you happy?

 

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