"One of These"

So a few days ago my husband asked "Are you going to build one of these for April Fools Day?" "One of these" is a table runner. Even tho' I told him the correct name I'm pretty sure he won't remember.

We have not been table runner (Heck! Should that be one word or two?) people. But this Christmas I did several as gifts and kept one for us. We really liked the way a small table runner make such an impact and have used them since. I have to admit we are still using the St Patricks Day table runner, which is what prompted the question. I assured him that I did have a new tablerunner in the works, not an April Fools Day one but a Spring one.  That wasn't quite an untruth, I did have one in the UFO pile from years ago, so I drug it out and will be quilting it today or tomorrow.

Apparently, in the old days, I equated "Spring" with pastels. I certainly am more of a brights gal now but it will still be nice to have this off finished.

Enjoy!  Toni

Design Wall Monday~March 28

Here is a quick update for WIP from last weeks Design Wall. The orange and pink is now officially a flimsy and I have a backing chosen for it. The 16 patch, I about half of it sewn into rows. The rest should be finished today so it can be called a flimsy. The Tumbling Blocks; I've pieced the back and I will layer and begin quilting today. Still thinking I can have that UFO finished by the end of day March 31.

The pictures above will be my UFO for April. Nancy from Patchwork Penquin pulled (early! yeaaa!) the number 2 and this is number two on my list. The nice thing about this one is that everything is all together in one tote. Fabric, blocks, and book.  Not like the Tumbling Blocks where I found things in three different locations! Boy, it's nice being organized!

You can visit other design walls by going to Judys website http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/03/28/design-wall-monday-march-28-2011

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~March 21

Where is this month going? I don't have much to say today and even my design wall is mostly "re-runs"! Back on the design wall is the 16 patch. I am to the point of moving blocks around and auditioning borders.

Off the design wall is the Tumbling Blocks. Now I'm piecing the back. Remember, this is my UFO for this month so it HAS to be fnished

And then, just for fun, as if I don't have enough going, I joined "A Blockwork Orange" on Flickr. A swap of crazy nine patches. You get back how ever many you send in. I sent in 18 but just made another 12 (I'm keeping 3) and send another 9 to swap. The pix below is representive of nine blocks and not arranged in any particular order.

And then, just for fun, I started this, because I saw and fell in love with the pink. You really can't tell but inside the white dots is a touch of orange. I just seem to be into hot, intense colors at the moment. This will be a small quilt tho', just to play with the colors.

This block really is square. There just seems to be something going on with my camera recently.
I hope you are all being productive and having FUN!

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~March 14

I am making progress on this months UFO. This picture is slightly different than last weeks! Actually I am "into" it now. If it weren't for a storm yesterday that left us without power for over 6 hours I probably would have had the top completely pieced. That will happen today.

This UFO has shown me the value of where we have been and where we are now. This is the oldest of the 4 UFO's I've worked on this year. What has changed? First, my quarter inch seams back then were a pretty generous quarter inch. No wonder I always had a problem matching points. I also used a much longer stitch length back then. Probably this was to allow me to easily unsew! I don't know...I'm just making things up because there was another major change between that quilt top and what I do now and one of those changes is....back then, I didn't unsew much. Hated it! Get the quilt top done was my motto!

Working on this quilt has really made me reflect on the changes in myself. Or at least in my approach to sewing. I now enjoy the process more...I no longer have a "get'rr done" and move onto the next project attitude. I enjoy every step. Even if it means unsewing. I will recut, rematch, resew, all with a relaxed attitude. I am no longer  frustrated by my mistakes. We all make mistakes. So should we ignore them, move on to the next thing, or be happy that we learned something and know what is important is doing it right? Recently we were asked in a quilters survey "What is your least favorite part of quiltmaking?" I had to give this alot of thought because I no longer have a "least favorite part". I did answer "layering a quilt" but even today, with the advent of good basting sprays I don't even mind that.

Basting spray brings to mind one other change in my quilt making method. I used to make bed size quilts. ALWAYS! All that fabric was darn expensive, the colors had to match a specific room (boring after awhile there are only so many colors in your home to match), and then, as it was so large, I would pay someone else to machine quilt it. Once, back then, someone said to me "oh! you paint the picture and someone else frames it." I said "Yes" but I really wasn't comfortable with that answer. It was a self justification. I didn't know how, nor want, to machine quilt. I wanted to start another quilt! Today, I make what I call persoanl quilts, smaller, they don't have to match a particular room, I give more away, they don't cost as much AND now I quilt them myself.  Oh! The satisfaction!

Two more quick things~ See the two stars on the design wall?  Those are being mailed to Moda today for their "Just One Star" Project in support of  the"Quilts of Valor" Program. Who can do just one star?

And if you would like to see more March 14 design walls, visit;http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/03/14/design-wall-march-14-2011/

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~March 7

There are two things on my design wall this morning. One is the Tumbling Blocks that I started many years ago. When it's number came up I really had to search for all the components. This was started much before I started storing UFO's in a manner very similiar to Judys; Seen here:
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/03/05/packing-it-away/

Anyway, I do have the rest of the blocks and fabrics all in one place now. Fortunately I still like the quilt top and fabrics. So finishing the piecing and machine quilting it should be easy to accomplish this month. Oh Darn! I don't have a backing for it. Even after shopping my stash, so maybe I will treat myself to some new fabric from Fabric Depot on Wednesday, I mean beyond the Kona white I was already going to buy!

The other blocks, that you can barely see I also dug out to at least finish making the needed number of blocks and sew the top together. If I can just feel like I've made progress on that one I'll be happy.

Enjoy!
Toni