Seeing Beothuk stars

Hi everyone! It's been yet another hot and rainy week here, and really, it's starting to get old.  I wish it would pick one-- hot or rainy, but not both.  I know that some of you are rolling your eyes right now, but this has been one wet summer so far.  If I had a north side, it would be growing moss. 

Anyway. . .I have had some trouble focusing lately (can't think why that would be) but I did manage to put together the rest of the Beothuk Star quilt top, and I really like it!  See what you think:

I think it turned out great! This was a free quiltalong from Sandra at mmmquilts, though I am way past the quiltalong finish date.  Big surprise there.  The quilt was designed by Sandra and is named after the Beothuk people, one of the indigenous peoples of Newfoundland.  The touching story of the last of the Beothuks is HERE.  Worth a read, really.

This was a fun little quilt to make, and it went together really quickly.  Once you get all the hsts made, it's really just an organization issue.  I put mine together in a little different order than Sandra recommends because it made a little more sense to me to make the yellow star first and then construct the rest around it. 

I really like the colors in this little quilt, but I bought the kit from Bernie's shop, I didn't choose them myself.  I was worried about the print background, and while I was working with it it was fine.  It's a really pretty fabric, but now that the top is finished it makes me feel a little twitchy.  I'm having a small problem with the fact that everything doesn't match up.  This is why I don't use patterned backgrounds very often.

When I was dodging the raindrops to take these pictures I realized that these might be the last photos I take of a finished quilt top on this property.  This makes me a little bit melancholy, but I promise that there are many great places to take quilty pictures at the new house, including not one but *two* decks that just scream to have quilts hanging from the rails.  I'll miss this property, though.

So, yay, another top done!  Since we're moving, it's going right into a box to go to the new house.  I'll have to have a quilting marathon once we get there, because there are a *lot* of things stacked up now. 

I have one last thing before I go.  I wrote a small guest column for the Craft Industry Alliance blog about the decline of one of my favorite places, Nancy's Notions.  If you're interested, you can check it out HERE.  While you're there, there are a lot of other great articles to read, so stay a bit and check those out, too.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  And to those of you out there in Louisiana, I'm thinking of you and hoping that you all come through the storms just fine.  Stay as dry as you can!

Sharing at the fun places listed over to the right>>>

A flurry of triangles

Hi everyone, and welcome to the hottest day of fall!  It's supposed to be fall, but right now its something like 77 degrees and the next few days are going to be even warmer.  And here I was just starting to anticipate cooler temperatures and looking forward to the first freeze.  So much for that for now.  Plus it wasn't 77 degrees when I got dressed this morning, so, you know, overly warm all day. 

Since it's not going to be cold around here any time soon, I've been creating my own "flurry" of sorts with hsts:

That, my friends, is 84 4-1/2 inch half-square triangles.  Yes, that many!  They took forever! I am participating in the Autumn Abundance blog hop next week with some friends and these are for my hop project.  (The hop is being hosted by Bernie at Needle and Foot, so be sure to check in with her starting next Monday. Or today, if you want!)

I used the Magic 8 method to make most (80) of these hsts.  I confess that I've always used other methods, and I never used to make hsts larger and cut them down, but now I do both of those things.  To make the hsts using the Magic 8 method, I cut 10-inch squares, stitched, and then trimmed them to the correct size.  What is happening to me? Combine that with the golden background fabric and there is definitely something going on!

Remember the 4-patches I made last week with these same fabrics? (I guess this is a good place to say that these fabrics are from the Into the Woods line from Paintbrush Studio, the sponsors of this blog hop.)

Well, I am combining those with the hsts to make blocks.  Here's a sneak peek:

Can you guess the pattern for this quilt? It's going to be lovely, and maybe by next week it will feel like the fabrics belong in our current weather.  Looking at the forecast, it's not looking good.  But at least the quilt will be pretty!  

(Why do those units look wonky?  I promise that they're not!)

Hope you're all having a lovely week with lots of temperate weather.  Is it weird that I kind of want it to be cold enough to wrap up in this quilt?  My day for the hop is next Tuesday, and there will be a bunch of giveaways, too, so I hope to see you back here then!

Sharing at Linky Tuesday and Let's Bee Social!

Terrestrial star

Hello friends! How's everyone?  I have been working really hard this week, on all kinds of things.  I did some work outside, wrote part of a paper, took down some curtains, put up new ones, cleaned like a crazy woman, and also stitched a little bit.  I also sneezed quite a lot and looked like I was crying half the time because the trees have finally all leafed out and are shedding allergens like there is no tomorrow.  This is the latest in the spring for full leaf-out that I can remember, so I'm usually past this by now.  But we are having FROST again tonight, so who knows what's going on.

Since I've been so busy, I have just one thing to show today, but it is super-cool.  At least I think so!  Here it is:

I call this Terrestrial Star, mainly because the colors remind me of the trees and the grass and I see several different stars here. Can you see the green one in the center?  It's my favorite!

If you recall, I made this to use up the brown string triangles that I had originally done to make a different pattern.  This used up all those triangles--not a one left over!--and I like it even better than the original plan. I do have plenty of brown strings left over, though. 

The border on this quilt is my new favorite border treatment. I used it on the Odd Fellow's quilt (which STILL needs a binding) and I loved it. I think it looks great on almost any quilt.  For the narrow brown border here I pulled out the longest and widest strings I could find, then cut them all to 1-1/2 inches and seamed them together. I like it!

This quilt ended up about 64 by 64, which is not a bad lap size, especially when I did this off the top of my head. The giant half-square triangles are 6-1/2 inches each.  It was really weird to work with such big pieces, but I managed to overcome the strangeness and piece them just fine.  The string-pieced brown triangles were pretty stretchy, but I overcame that, too. 

Here is one more terrific part of finishing this project:

An empty project box! (Don't worry, it will be full again soon.)

That was my big project for this week.  Since this is Memorial Day weekend in the US, Best Husband Ever and I are taking a small trip to visit our daughter and enjoy the weekend with her, so I won't have another post until Tuesday.  A small but much-needed vacation!

Hope everyone has a terrific start to summer as well.  Don't skip the parade, and be sure to applaud for the veterans!

Linking to Lorna for Let's Bee Social,  Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Amanda Jean at Finish it up Friday.

A new use for old triangles

Hi folks! Hope everyone has had a very good and productive week. This was my week: read a paper, grade an exam, read a paper, grade an exam, read a paper. . .repeat over and over. But the end is definitely in sight!

Even with all those papers to read, I managed to sneak in a few stitches. Here is what I've come up with for those brown string triangles:

Not all bad, but I have to stay out of direct sunlight.  The lighter triangles there are really a light Kona blue, not white. I like the colors together, though! The half-square triangles finish at 6-1/2 inches each, so this is just about 39 inches square right now.

And hey--the return of the clothesline!

 

It was very, very windy, so this quilt center eventually got pinned to the fence for a better picture. But the important part is that the clothesline is back out, and I even washed some sweaters and put them out to dry on the line before they get packed away for the summer. This was an extremely happy occurrence, and to celebrate I read another paper.

What you see here is the center of this quilt. See that print in the very center? I have a 4-inch by 42-inch strip of it, and nothing more. I really, really want to use the rest of it in the quilt, but I'm not sure how.  I'm thinking on it. I also have plenty of blue and green left, and 24 of the brown triangles. I think I'm going to make one more "round" on this quilt, maybe pairing the browns with blue for the outside round. That would use up the rest of the triangles (hurray!) and probably look good. I have been having fun playing with it, that's for sure.

As long as I don't have to make any more of these dark brown string blocks, I think it will be fine!

Here's the other big thing that happened here this week: 

Leaves and flowers at last! Our reward for all the rain we had this week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'll be finishing up those papers and then my friend Renee and I are heading to Nancy's Notions warehouse sale! It will be very exciting and very dangerous for the pocketbook. Nancy won't be there this year--take a look at her note HERE for the reason. We've met her at the sale before, and she has always been very gracious and giving, so spare a good thought for her if you can. 

Happy sewing, all!  Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday. 

May first!

Hi all, and welcome to May! May is one of my favorite months because both our older daughter and our son have birthdays in May, but for the life of me I have no idea how it's May already. Another great thing about May is that this month gets steadily warmer, so I am definitely looking forward to that. But really, where is the year going?

This week was super-busy, but I did finish this:

The center block for the Kaleidoscope quilt! Hurray! It's a little washed out because it's an indoor picture, but you get the idea. The center of the quilt is pretty much the whole reason that I bought the kit to begin with, and I'm glad it's turning out as nice as I expected.

I even had a little time to add on the log cabins to the quilt center:

This quilt is assembled like a puzzle, not in rows, and this is section 1. At this point I can probably assemble a couple of other sections, too, but I do have a few more units to make before the whole thing can go together. This feels like a big step forward, though! And I love how the colors look in the sunshine. It's the worst-written pattern ever, but it's going to be a very pretty quilt.

Thanks to everyone who offered a suggestion for colors for the brown half-square triangles. All of them sound awesome and I'll be trying some others in different projects. For this one, though, I chose these fabrics:

That's a different green tone than I had earlier, with a little more of an olive and less of a lime cast to it, as well as a pale blue for a background. The print fabric is just a very few scraps that I have, but I think it looks spectacular with the other colors. I wish I had enough for a border, but I have a good idea to use what's here. If I get some time, I'll be making some hsts this weekend.

Finally, a picture of some flowers that are finally blooming to ease us into the first weekend of May:

Bluebells! We'll have leaves on that tree someday, I swear, but for now these are very, very happy. Especially since we had frost again this week, I'm really happy to see them.

Everyone have a great weekend.  I'll be outside, getting all dirty and loving it. Hope you get some stitching in, or at least some dirt under your fingernails!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday. Happy sewing!

Chasing the rainbow

Hi folks! How is everyone today? Hope you're all doing really well. So far this week, it's been great around here. We had our first snow on Friday, but it's warmed up a bit since then, so there is none on the ground now, though there probably will be some later this week. I really felt bad for the trick or treaters, but we had a record number this year, so I guess candy trumps cold. I'm pretty sure it would for me if I were a kid.

I have a few things to show you today. I'm getting excited about finishing up this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. Coming down to the wire on finishing the blocks, so these are close to the last ones! First up are two light blue 9-patches for RSC14:

Okay, the one on the right is more of a medium blue, but it is definitely blue, even though it looks a little greenish.

Next, I made three multi-colored blocks from the leftover HSTs from the single-color blocks:

These don't have quite the same effect as the single-color blocks, but I think they'll be fine in the quilt.

I've been thinking of using this black and white for the setting triangles:

I'm not really sure about it any more. Going with white would be the super-easy choice, but I'm tired of white and want to do something different. I'll have to think on this one. There are a few more blocks to make before I'm done, so there's a little time.

Other than that. I'm still working on the Drunkard's Path blocks. Not sure how big this quilt is going to be. They are 16-inch blocks. I'm hoping to have 12 done this week.  I'm using the 4-inch templates and am finding this tiny rotary cutter very useful:

The one on the right is a 45 mm cutter, and on the left is an 18 mm one. It's so teeny, but it cuts those curves really, really well. So far I've only been able to cut two layers at a time with it, but it's still way better than scissors. 

That seems like a little, but there's really a lot going on here. At least it feels like a lot to me. And of course I went fabric shopping this weekend and planned another project using these fabrics:

What am I going to do with those? Well, here's a clue--do you want to build a snowman? (Some came from my stash--I didn't buy all of that, though it would be nice to be able to!)

Happy sewing everyone!

Linking to Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday, and Let's Bee Social, and also the awesome Angela at soscrappy for RSC14.

Surprise finish

Surprise--it's August! How did THAT happen?

Here's another surprise: I finished the blue fields and furrows quilt:

A clothesline--my grandmother would be so proud!

Did you ever think you would finish a quilt one way, only to finish it in a completely different way? That's what happened with this one. When we last left this project, I was trying to decide between a border of squares or rectangles. Turns out that neither of them looked very good, so I had to come up with something else. That's how I got the narrow white and blue borders. Kind of goes with the "furrows" idea, you know? I thought I was home free with this one, but then I started putting the border fabric--that is a part of this fabric line and that I have had for AGES--with the quilt center. It looked awful. Really. Take a look:

Aaack! Where did those giant hot pink flowers come from? Yikes. Ok, it's not so bad, but it completely clashes with the relaxed vibe of this quilt. There was no way I could use that fabric on this quilt. Time for Plan C (actually we may be at Plan E or F by now, but. . .) My only real option was the wide white border. I have more of the solid-looking blue for the binding, so that will make a nice frame. I'm disappointed about the border, but I do like the fields and furrows center. I think this is one that I'll like a lot more after it's finished.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with how this turned out, especially considering its origins. (For that story, see HERE.) I didn't set out to make a two fabric quilt, but I like how it used up all of those HSTs--and then some, because you may have noticed that what was a 5 by 6 quilt is now a 6 by 7 quilt.  (With 378 HSTs!) I just couldn't leave a triangle behind, so I made a few more so that they all got used up.

I'm counting this as a major scrap finish. I'm just sick about that border fabric, though. I can't stand to waste any fabric!I would just give it away, but I feel like at some point I can strip it together with another color to make a backing or something. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Speaking of using every inch of fabric. . .does anyone want these?

These are the cutoff pieces from the HSTs. There are a couple hundred, and I sewed one set together to get an idea of the size:

I can't guarantee that they're all the same size, but probably they could reliably be expected to be 1 1/2 inches, to finish at one inch. They are from first-quality Moda fabric, which means I can't bring myself to throw them out. I could probably come up with something to do with them, but I have plenty of projects. Maybe someone makes miniatures? Any way, if you would like them, I would be happy to mail them to you. Leave me a comment and let me know what you'll do with them. If more than one person wants them, I'll pick a random number. Let's say Monday at noon central time? That sounds good to me.

Well, that's my surprise finish! Everyone have a great weekend. I can't believe it's August! Here's to sipping a cool drink during the dog days.

Linking with Sarah and Amanda Jean, and maybe also Angela because this was all scraps. I'll have to check the posting rules on that. I see that August's color for RSC14 is bright green.  From what everyone was saying, I was all set for orange! Here's my pathetic stash of bright green scraps:

I may have to go shopping, and isn't that a tragedy?

Happy sewing!

Crunch time

Nobody panic, but it's the end of July. Soon it will be August, and you know what that means, don't you? That's right--school. So it's time to buckle down and get all my summer projects done. (I say that like it will really happen. A woman can dream, can't she?)

Seriously, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and need to get some of these projects done so I can feel like I've actually accomplished something. I do this to myself all the time. I may need help.

First up is the blue fields and furrows quilt. If you recall, this came from Vicki Welsh's HSTeria quilt challenge. I really had no intention to start a new quilt, but all these HSTs were already made, so it should have gone fast, right? And it has gone reasonably quickly. I've finished the center:

I like the center, and I think the darker stop border is good. I think I have enough of that for a binding too. I have a ton of blue squares left, so I'm thinking of an inner border of blue and white squares.

 Maybe I'll cut them into rectangles.

Hmmm. I think I like the rectangles. Or maybe smaller squares. We'll see how it works out. Anyone with an opinion, please let me know. Since this started out as another quilt, I also have border fabric all cut and ready to add. Maybe this can get finished this week. While I didn't plan to make this quilt, I am grateful to have had an excuse to use those HSTs and get one more project out of the closet.

Aaah! Those are the only pictures I really have! The red and white dancing nines continues to grow, and the other triangle quilt center is almost finished. I'm also working on a top-secret project which is a gift for a friend, and I made a lot of progress on that, but I can't show it here until it's gifted. There will be pictures once it's sent off, I promise!

Hope everyone else is getting more sewing done.  Too bad life keeps interfering with quilting, isn't it?

Linking with Vicki's last HST linkup, Linky Tuesday, and Let's Bee Social. I always love seeing what everyone else is doing, so go on over and check out some new ideas!

Bits and pieces

Wow, where has the day gone? Don't know, but it's 88 degrees and I'm blaming the heat for the time getting away from me.

There is a lot going on in the sewing room here, but little of it is fit for pictures. Everything is in pieces, some of them on the floor, and other things are in piles. The only thing that is really done are a few more blocks for the Loyal Union Sampler:

These were hard to photograph! I like them, though. Only one more block and I'm done with the February blocks. At this rate, this quilt will be done sometime in the next two years or so. They're only 6 inch blocks, so the pieces are small and some of them are very fiddly (if you know what I mean).

I'm also working on the triangle quilts. The center of the fields and furrows is done and now I have to work out some borders. Thankfully, there's a lot of fabric left for that. Then there is this one:

I keep calling this 'exploding triangles,' so the first thing to do is come up with a better name. I like the orange cornerstones with the aqua triangles, and I need to add another color, but I'm not sure what to add. I was thinking of lime green, or maybe yellow. I better decide soon, because I want to be done with this.

The other thing I'm working on (when I get bored with the triangles) is adding the sashing to the Dancing Nines blocks. They go quickly, so I already have a nice stack.

I'm already trying to figure out borders for this one too. I think there is a print with larger cherries, so I'm planning to look for that.

That's what's happening here! Lots of mess, and lots of progress, but not a lot that can be photographed  easily.

Finally, the red daylily has bloomed at last!

It's a good month late. I think even the plants are confused by our weird weather.

Happy sewing to everyone this week! Linking up with Linky Tuesday and Fabric Tuesday. Go check them out!

Half-square dancing

Hi all, and welcome to another summer Friday. Isn't it great? We have lots of sunshine today, but more rain is coming, so we all better get out and enjoy it while we can.

So, I did a little productive sewing this week. The brown triangles mini is now done, with borders:

The final measurement of this little quilt is 21 by 23. Not sure if those borders are too wide or not, but I like them. I have a little of the brown left, but it was a real downer as a border, so I'll use it as the binding. All of these fabrics are from Fig Tree and are probably four years old? Maybe less. I can't remember. The best part is that those bonus triangles are now used and out of the plastic bag that was their home since forever.

I've also started putting some of the blue fields and furrows together:

Oops. Drooped a little into the bush there. More triangles out of the bag. It's nice so far, but a little heavy. There are a LOT of seams. I have 20 blocks, but I already know I'm going to want one more row across and down, so I'll actually be making more HSTs. I went back and forth on whether the blue or the white should be the center, but I think the white was a good choice. I have a decent idea for a border, too, so I'm feeling good about this one.

Next up on my list are these turquoise triangles.

I'm keeping this layout, but I did see a post online of a similar layout that had the triangles oriented the same way but with sashing between them. I think I want to try that and see what it looks like. Believe it or not, I actually have a whole bunch of leftover pale blue strips that might work. If I use those, that would be even more scraps out of the closet and into a quilt to be used and loved. There's a win if ever there was one!

Finally, the yellow Odd Fellow's are done! In time for the last weekend in June!

Pretty soon I'll have to take a "family picture" of all the Odd Fellow's blocks together. They're looking good.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the white on white fabric in these blocks is little dragonflies. Mr. Academic Quilter saw the fabric and asked if I was intentionally using mosquito fabric in my project. He really needs to get out more. All that time with computers is frying his brain.

Linking up with Vicki Welsh's HST quilt along, the awesome Sarah, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Scrappy Saturday. Wonder what July's color will be?

Have a great weekend everyone! Happy sewing!

Messy work in progress

It has been a few days of upheaval here. We've had a new shower installed (and you know what a mess that is), plus had some less-exciting home improvements done and some new furniture delivered. The place is a wreck! Plus, we're still waiting for the tree-trimmer to come back. He was up in our big locust tree and saw some lightning, so he wisely got right down and said he'd be back. Lightning every work day since. And pieces of tree still laying in the yard.

So, we are a little bit disheveled, but that does not get in the way of sewing! (Too much.) First, I started a new quilt, because all my old projects are finished. Ha! Just kidding. This is the quilt I started:

Pleated Patchwork, from this book by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side:**

I really like this book. Seriously, I think I have a plan for every quilt in this book except one, and none of them are in neutral fabrics. Oh, well. Here are some of the fabrics that I chose for the Pleated Patchwork quilt:

This was a fat quarter set that I got a while ago from Shabby Fabrics. I've lost the little card with the fabric collection name, but they are very nice florals. The quilt calls for 42 blocks and this set will give me enough for 20, so I need to add some others. May need to shop again. Darn. Here is one of the pleated blocks:

Super easy blocks, and they turn out well. The hardest part is finding the half-inch mark on my machine to stitch the pleats. I've got 1/4 inch well-marked, and 5/8ths is pretty much branded into the machine, but I had to mark the 1/2 inch line with tape.

I also worked some more on the HST projects. I'm still making the blue and white fields and furrows blocks for one quilt, but I finished the center for the brown HST mini quilt:

I can't decide if these are beige triangles pointing up or brown triangles pointing down, but I like it a lot. Plus, it used up all my bonus triangles! I miscounted and thought I had 69, but I actually had 73, so this used up 72 with one lonely little one left over. Yay! I have a small bit of the original fabric left over, so I want to put some borders on this by the end of this week. Right now this is 16 by 18.

So, some sewing is going on amid all the hammering, sawing, and people walking on the roof. I also did get a little fabric shopping done:

Wonder what I'll do with those?

Hope everyone is having a productive week and that things are less messy where you are. Or at least that you don't have branches and other pieces of trees laying all over your yard.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social. And Needle and Thread Thursday if I remember. Come on over and get inspired!

**Just wanted to make clear that I don't know Amy Ellis (though she has a nice blog and I'm sure she is a lovely person) and I'm not paid to promote her book. I'm using it because I'm really enjoying making quilts from it. No sponsors here! I bought the book myself!

Progress

Hello friends! Hope you are having some good quilting time already this week. Or at least shopping time! This weekend I checked out a new quilt shop near here. Quilt-agious is a very cute shop with some really nice fabrics. Plus she wants to start a Quilt of Valor chapter! So if you are anywhere near, go check it out.

Here's what I'm working on for this week:

Fiesta Pinwheel blocks! That will brighten anyone's day, won't it?  I certainly have been enjoying working on this very happy quilt. Hope to finish putting the blocks together by the end of the week! Exciting, no?

I am also working on making some fields and furrows blocks from my abandoned half-square triangles.

(What looks like a misalignment there is just a shadow. I checked!)

These are easy blocks, but I keep having to stop and check that I'm putting them together properly. Believe it or don't, I've never made fields and furrows before. Learn something new every day. Also, I was sure that I had at least 100 of these HSTs. Turns out I have more than 200, plus a bunch of left-over fabric. So I'll make 20 of these blocks and then see where I want to go from there.

Other than that, I've been making bindings. You know the big pieces of backing that are left after you have a quilt quilted? Like these big hunks:

I just cut those up into strips and make bindings. Usually I can get a bunch of 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inch strips from these chunks.

 Then I have a nice basket o' bindings to use! Saves me a lot of time. If I have a 60 by 80 quilt, I can usually get at least 300 inches of binding from the backing scraps, which coincidentally is enough to bind a 60 by 80 quilt! Win, win.

Have a great week everyone!  Happy sewing!

Linking up with Connie and Lee and Let's Bee Social again. Come on over and get inspired!

Also, check out the blog roll! Some of the gadgets may FINALLY be working!I'll be adding more now that it works, so check back if you're looking for someone specific.