Manic Monday~March 26

Good Morning! Doesn't everyone have Manic Mondays? I've decided to quit doing "Design Wall Monday". I recently reviewed my blog subscriptions and follows and purged some. Design Wall Monday is one of them. Our interests change or reasons for doing things change. Hopefully we all continue to grow and change. Boy! I'm so wise this morning! Not really, of course.

Two pictures, a few more words about them, and then I'm back to sewing this morning.

Here is this last weeks New York Beauty Blocks. I don't know why these blocks were hardest for me. You would have thought the week befores blocks with the little squares would have been harder but no...these four were my most inconsistent to date. The good thing is, I don't need four blocks from each weeks sewing. I'm mainly just doing them for more practice. So here I have two "horrible" blocks that I may not use. No loss. I'll find another purpose for them. You can almost see that I'm using different backgrounds...black, navy and midnight purple.

And here is my progress on my Hopscotch QuiltALong.

If you need information on either of these QuiltALongs, give me a shout.

Enjoy!
Toni

Design Wall Monday~March 20

Good Morning!

Just touching base to let you know how my projects are going. And then, I will have to slow down for a few weeks.  I told my husband that I would start painting the interior of the house on the first day of Spring. Do you know what tomorrow is? The vernal equinox. So less sewing, more painting. (Yuck!)

This last week I finally got “Heat Lightning” quilted. And I’m sick about the stain on the bottom. There was residue oil/grease? leftover from when I had it serviced. I tired several products to remove it and it looked fine wet. When it dried I had this mess. I’ll have to work on it.

I also finished the number of blocks I’m doing for the Granny Square Quilt A long. Today, I will sew the rows together and add sashing.

These are my blocks for the second week of the Flickr New York Beauty QAL.

And these are only five of the eight blocks I have done for "The Swooning on a Hop Along" over on the Flickr Group. This is the Hopscotch pattern by Camille Roskelly. The same designer as the "Swoon" pattern everyone liked so well. I’m treating that as a block a day. Surprisingly easy blocks. Don’t you love the “Lilly” fabrics?  These are the ones I told you I won.  I will be adding in other fabrics from my scrap strip tote.

 Additionally, I pieced the back for the Rainbow quilt and plan on getting that machine quilted by this next weekend.

I also have hopes to finish one other UFO, already layered and partially quilted.  

I hope you have BIG plans for your quilting pleasure this week!

Enjoy!

Toni

Design Wall Monday March 12

How lucky am I? I have probably only entered five give aways in two years. Last year I won two patterns (one give away) and this year I won fabric from LiMA Sews http://www.limasews.com/.
The give away was sponsored by Sara of  http://www.sewsweetness.com/ who is in Chicago. Besides the great fabric it was fun to find that I was getting fabric from Portland Oregon. LiMa Sews is in Portland. I’m in Molalla, OR which is about 30 miles southeast of Portland. Isn’t that fun? Funny?
 

Sara at Sew Sweetness is the one mentoring the New York Beauty Quilt Along. http://www.flickr.com/groups/1900096@N20/   I had only done one paper piecing project previously. I did the “LOVE” wall hanging to become familiar with paper piecing. I’d always thought paper piecing didn’t appeal to me but I was successful with the wall hanging so decided to TRY the NYB Quilt Along. I am so thrilled with my first NYB blocks!  Now I'm hooked! I didn’t like the directional fabric in the first one

But thought the colors were okay so made two more blocks.

 Still, okay, but they didn’t tickle my fancy. And lastly, I did darks and brights. I had always thought if I ever did a NYB it would be something eye catching. The reason I didn’t start with the brights? ‘cause I am (supposed to be) shopping from my stash and there really aren’t that many brights in there.  So, too bad! I guess if I want to do this quilt this way, I will have to spend money on fabric. You know I’m not crying over that!

Oh! I almost forgot. Here are the blocks I’ve finished for the GrannySquare Quilt Along. For those who don’t know, they will have sashing between the blocks.

 See more here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldredbarncoquiltalong2009/

Visit Judys for more great inspiration: http://www.patchworktimes.com/

Enjoy!

Toni

Design Wall Monday~March 5

Good Morning!

Swoon is finished! I hesitate to show you any more pictures as I’ve taken, and shared, so many throughout the process. But….. just one more to show that it is actually done! (I know “meat is “done” people are “finished”!) I guess I should have said “Swoon is complete.” Here is a pix so you can see the quilting,the binding and how the backing looked after using the QAYG method I chose with pieced blocks and sashing.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person but somehow I struggled with the block that is part of another Quilt Along. Granny Squares. Just a block a day: http://www.flickr.com/groups/oldredbarncoquiltalong2009/

I know the link shows a date of 2009 but it is current. Anyway, I couldn’t really get the concept of “ inner ring, outer ring” as it applies to this block. Trust me! I crocheted plenty of “Granny Squares” in my day. I thought “No problem. I will just use white for all the centers and it will be easy.”  And although I am using scraps and will be using all colors, I did red, white and blue first. Pretty snazzy looking, huh?

  

But not really the old fashioned look I wanted.

So I did another block…..hmmm, nice enough but still no inner and outer rings. Back to the Flickr group to see the pictures and choose the ones I LOVE and see how they do it.

Aha! I think I now have it!

Now off to play with more Granny Squares…gotta stay caught up. And also to play with the paper pieced block for the New York Beauty QAL that starts today. Only one block a week! http://www.flickr.com/groups/1900096@N20/

Don’t forget Judys Design Wall: http://www.patchworktimes.com/

I love my Flickr groups! Visit them too!

Enjoy!

Toni