Design Wall Monday~February 28

The end of February already! Can you believe it? What's on my design wall? It's a new version of the 16 patch quilt. Last week I posted about this 16 patch and I wasn't happy with my choices of fabric. I was making a Trudy Hughes quilt and although I liked hers, a little bit old fashioned but so were my scraps, I just couldn't find anything in my stash that seemed right for that quilt.  But then I thought "Hmmm, I don't have much time invested in the connector blocks, why not look for something else". And I did and found the perfect quilt on http://quiltville.blogspot.com/. I am much happier with this layout and fabric.  I should have it finished by the end of the week. I HAVE to 'cause I've got work to do on my March UFO!

I only have 8 more pinwheel blocks to sew and then I can really take advantage of the design wall. Yes, the pinwheels are oversize, I will square them all to the necessary 8 1/2 inches.

Enjoy!
Toni

SEW MANY WAYS 2 SWAP!

Have stuff to swap? Go visit here! http://sewmanyways2swap.blogspot.com/

Boy do I have stuff to swap! I'm starting slow. It takes time to learn to take good pictures. Especially of shiny stuff.  I removed the plastic jackets, I tried with flash, no flash, room lights on, room lights off and still these are the best I can come up with.

If you are interested in any of these, I'm particularly interested in acquiring a variety of blue fabric pieces, cotton, good quality please, either 15x15 or 8x21 for an airplane quilt I want to do. I will, of course, be happy to consider other things you may want to swap.

So here, for your enjoyment, are my first four items.

Now the details:
By Curiousity, Ribbons and Roses-Round Wreath Applique Pattern, 16" Block and Border. Wow! What can I say. Gorgeous! Exactly why I bought it even tho' it was/is well beyond my skill level. Brand New. Never even unfolded the directions.

Simple Pleasures, by Cynthia Tomaszewski. Crazy Daisy, Applique to finish at 54x54". Darling, love the look! Do I applique? Sure, simple shapes. Again, seduced by what could be. But not for me. Brand New.

Christmas Night by Thimbleberries.  Block size is 12 in, Wall Quilt finishes at 46 inch square. Now who doesn't like a nice Christmas Wall Hanging. Again, never used. But so much potential.

Evergreen Tree Skirt by Thimbleberries. Sorry the pix is a little blurry but you get the idea. Finishes at 45" square. Nice, traditional tree skirt. Still brand new.

Now you know how much I paid for these patterns...but that doesn't matter! They have been sitting here for years...depreciating? Well, if not, at least unused. 

Whatcha got?
Toni

Baby Quilt Requested by G'Kids

The pix does not do it credit. I want to keep it!  Too late as the G'kids asked for a quilt for a former teacher and I let them choose from some flimsys. I don't think I can get them to change their minds now!

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~February 14

My husband says I need to put more stuff on the design wall.  He thinks it looks pretty boring.  Last night I put up some of my scrap blocks for "Road to St Louis". I'm not sure the blue and gray are the way to go but I didn't want to do red and blue. So what do you think...continue with blue and gray?

I don't have EQ but this is what the Trudy Hughes pattern looks like.

And here are four blocks that had potential for the add a border bee on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/groups/add-a-border/

I will be sending the 2 on the left. The top right one is too small and the lower right one isn't good enough.

Enjoy!

Toni

January UFO Finished!

Yeaa! Now I'm caught up again.  I don't know why the quilt looks 'stretched' it really is square. Just funny photography I guess.  Here's front and back!

And a bonus picture of what it looked like outside yesterday. Lot's of hail and then sunshine and then more hail.

Now to work on a quilt for the grandkids teacher.

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Tuesday?

Not really!  I didn't have anything new to show on the design wall. BUT, I did get my February UFO(s) done! You will be able to tell by the fabric that both of these quilts are very old. Not quite vintage but probably from the early '90ies.  When I made my list for the 2011 UFO Challenge, number 8 for me was "Whirligig" but when I unfolded it, I found that I had two! So I decided that even tho' I wasn't very excited about them, I would finish them.  Here they are, they will be used around here, certainly not given as gifts!

And what about my January UFO you ask....wellll, I had hoped to show that today too, but I've not finished hand sewing the binding.  I should have it done by Friday.

Cheers!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~February 7

If I showed a picture of my whole design wall, it would pretty much look like last week. I'm playing too much and not working on my UFO's or my Monochromatic quilt but quilting is supposed to be fun.Not an exercise in "have to do"

So I played! I want to do an airplane quilt and I want to do a blue and white quilt. So I think I am going to combine both and later this year be able to cross two off my list. Let me tell you about the following blocks.

In a Fons and Porter book there is a quilt called "Safe Landing" very much like the blue and white block above. I cut the templates and I cut fabric for one block. I started sewing and found...had I not paid attention earlier? That the block required set in seams. I hate set in seams! Many people hate curves, I don't but I do hate set it seams. I struggled with the block, it was only going to be a test block anyway but after that one, I knew I was not going to be making a full size quilt using that pattern.

But now that I've been working on being "liberated" I thought "ha! I can modify that block and it doesn't have to have set in seams."  That is what I did. Thus the blue and white block.

Then I thought "that was too fun but not exactly what I want so why not continue to play and use a tutorial I had saved previously and make another airplane?" It doesn't require templates. It doesn't require measuring and there are no set rules. You know what an airplane looks like. I made the blue and gold block from the following tutorial. (Thanks Amy!)

http://badskirt.blogspot.com/2009/10/airplane-block-tutorial.html

The gold and blue plane isn't exactly what I want either, the proportions are wrong but now that I've done one from Amy's tutortial I'm feeling very bold and this week I will continue to play with other sizes of airplane blocks, different tail options and different propeller shapes.

We are all artists. We just have to believe that we can do it!

Do you have an airplane block that you really like? I would love to see other designs.

Enjoy!
Toni

Liberated House Study

I need to practice roofs!  I guess that is why Sarah and Molly are sponsoring this liberated study!

Remember the Liberated Birds from January? They will be in the same quilt eventually.

Enjoy!
Toni