Big Quilting Update!

Waaaaaaaayyyy back in February, or maybe it was even January, Heather sent me some photos of quilts she was working on.  I immediately texted her and asked if I could please test some of them!!!  By the next day, I had copies of several of the patterns.  I started with Petals on a String.

Please go over to Heather’s blog, Anka’s Treasures, and take a look at her photos.  They are so much better!

I got a big surprise earlier this week when I was cruising though Instagram.  My quilt is on the cover of her new book, Angles With Ease 2.

I also tested Radiant.  I absolutely love this quilt!!!

The fabric is Moxi, a new line from Moda.  My plan with this one is to put an applique border on it with some bold flowers.  I can’t ever just leave something alone!

I also pieced another quilt for her that I forgot to photograph, so I’ll save that for another post.

Heather’s book, Angle’s with Ease 2, will be available soon.  I love every quilt in the book.  You’re going to want it!

And now I’m going to go outside and enjoy the sunshine.  It’s that sunshine that made the first quilt very hard to photograph!

So, We Have This Puppy…..

Our new puppy Lola is adorable.  She’s smart.  She listens well.  But she’s still a puppy.

She went potty on this quilt soon after I took the photo.  I yelled at her.

Anyway, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my sewing room because I can keep her contained there.  Needless to say, I’m getting a LOT of quilting done.  I have enough stuff to write several blog posts.  I’m just not doing it.  I finished the quilt that Lola is sleeping on.  I will have to photograph it soon!  I’m working on two moron projects that deserve their own posts.  And I started two BOMs.  I’ll blog those next week when I work on the next month.

I’ve been wanting to change my quilting style for a long time.  I’ve always bought a fat quarter bundle of a line of fabric and made a quilt with it.  The photo above was done that way.  I want to start making scrap quilts.  It probably means I’m going to have to take apart my fat quarter bundles and sort them by color.

I started another project last night.  I decided to do the APQ quiltalong again.  Here is the info if you’d like to know about it.  I’m going to do this project.  (I borrowed the photo from Lissa’s blog.)

 

This quilt was designed by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  I love her quilts.  She does scrappy projects with lots of little pieces.  I started with a line of fabric, Nell’s Flower Shop, an old line from Moda.  I’ve added a whole bunch of fabrics to it, and I like it so far.  I’m feeling so brave!!!

There are 444 blocks in the quilt.  If I decide to be a moron and do the quilt king size, I’d have to do 1,188 blocks.  I have one block done.

These little blocks finish at 2 inches.  I’m planning to make the smaller quilt and if I’m not sick of it, I’ll go for the king size.

I have all the strips cut and sewn for the four patches.

It’s a start!  We’re doing a quilt retreat next week, so I’ll have lots of time to sew.

And now I have a puppy that needs to go outside.  After that, I think I’ll go sew four patches while she plays.

I Love Cherries!

I’ve always loved cherries.  Almost 29 years ago, I picked out a dress for our rehearsal dinner.  I only ever bought clothes that were on sale, but this dress was expensive.  Anybody remember Carole Little?  Anyway, it was white with cherries on it.  My dad actually went with me and bought it.  It was a great dress!

Fast forward to last week.  I had to make this!

This is Mini Cherry Pie from Fig Tree & Co.  I pulled some fabric scraps, and by the next day it was pieced, quilted, bound, washed and dried, and hanging in my sewing room.  I found the cute little shelf on clearance at Target.  And yes, I love wild wallpaper!

I also finished a spinning project.  I think I started spinning this in November.  I was going to leave it as singles, but I hate single ply yarn.  I just have to remind myself of that occasionally.

It’s a little bit under plyed for my taste, but I may just be too lazy to fix it.

Speaking of single ply yarn, I have another weaving fail.  I chose an alpaca, wool yarn to weave, and it has problems!

I had a terrible time working it through the lease sticks.  See how fuzzy it’s getting.  I’m starting to break ends.  I’m going to go as far as I can with this.  Maybe I’ll at least get a couple of pillows out of it.  No more singly ply yarn for me!!!  My only consolation is that it would have made a horrible sweater.  It would have pilled the first time I wore it. Now it’s out of my stash.

By the way, if you’re a weaver, you probably just groaned and said, “Well, duh”!  Please feel free to offer advice in the comments.  I won’t be offended.  This weaving thing is kicking my butt!

I’ve been spending the bulk of my time in my sewing room, because it’s the easiest place to contain this little girl.

I actually heard myself say, “Lola!  Don’t eat the sewing machine”.  She was quite interested in the foot pedal cord.  She listens well, but has to be watched all the time.  Todays lesson was to not chew on my knitting.  She is the sweetest little thing and hates being scolded.  It will all take time!

And now it’s bed time for me.  Having  toddler in the house again is hard work!

Post Christmas Chill Out

Whew!  We survived Christmas.  I could tell you all about the parties, food, and all the stuff we did over Christmas, but my brain is fried!  We ate a lot.  We had fun with family.  We got on each others nerves. We opened presents.  We laughed a lot.  Mostly at Frankie.

And now we’re all chilling.  The boys have been ice fishing.  The girls are just hanging out.  The Genius and I are on a crafting binge.  I finished a bunch of mug rugs, and got several of them ready to go out in the mail today.

I saw a photo on pinterest and decided I needed to make one or ten.  I cut one strip of white fabric and ended up with 10 squares, so that’s how many I made.  So scientific of me, huh?  I made a stop at Pier 1 before Christmas to find snowman mugs.

You’ll have to excuse my late night photography.  This is one of those projects that I’m really pleased with, but they were kind of a pain.  They’re six inches square, and binding the silly things took forever!  Anyway, I actually executed a plan, and finished them!  It seems like it usually takes me about 3 years to finish a Christmas project.

The Genius has taken on a HUGE project for me.  She converted my big loom to a new system and this is her test project.

Yes, she is a moron.  It’s her 4th weaving project ever, and it’s on a different loom.  I’m proud to say she inherited the moron gene from her mother!!!  I’ll tell you more about this project soon!

I’ve done very little knitting, as I seem to be back in a quilting mood.  The Genius has also done very little knitting, as she’s found out that playing X-box with her little brother is more fun.

And now that it’s 1:30 AM, I should head to bed.  I’m sitting here listening to a bear snoring in the next room.  I think I’ll wander around the house and find an empty bed somewhere.