ORCA BAY: Clue #2... yes, I know I'm working a bit backwards

Today sees the completion of 10 string blocks for Clue #2. Yes, I'm working a bit backwards -- lol -- I did Clue #3 yesterday. Not to worry. As long as they all get sewed up sometime between now and ??? whenever, it's all good! LOL. Check out all the info at Quiltville -- you'll be glad you did.

I wasn't sure if I would like the Blue String blocks -- blue is a great color, but my personal fave is RED! But now that they are sewn together, I find myself really really liking them -- even loving these cute little blue blocks! Glad I tried a color outside my usual. The "stretch" will do me good.

Isn't it weird how the blocks look so yucky and strange after sewing [pic on left]... but TRIM [pic on right] and they look wonderful!

Yup... me likey these little blocks. Perhaps "stringing" is my thing; scrap blocks certainly are! I made a Spider Quilt last year -- Katrin talked me into it! LOL.  Katrin started a Spider Ring and it was so much fun.

Tomorrow will see more of Clue#2 HST blocks and the beginning of Clue#1 QST blocks. The method I am choosing for all triangle blocks is Inklingo! I love the predictable precision I get when using Inklingo. Rather than run paper through my printer, PP, and pick off paper; I iron fabric to FP, run through printer, cut, sew, press, DONE! Love it. A big thanks to Linda Franz for her invention. I have no affiliation, I am just an extremely Happy Camper!

That's all for now... I am off to my closet to pull more black, blue, neutral and some reds. If I do some prep now, I can sew more tomorrow... or at least that is my plan.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. . .

Quilty hugs,

SOME FINISHES! A Spider, Pillowcases, Receiving Blankets & some organizing. . .

Ta Dah! Finally, a finish -- the little Spider quilt, which I have named: "Itsy Bitsy Spider" [after the childrens' song]. It gave me the shivers, but I put a spider drawing on the label... couldn't resist. And added a Spider Plant, too, just for fun.

Thank you everyone for your input. I agree with your good advice and put a red binding on it. I like it. I am thinking about embroidering a couple of little black spiders in the upper left & lower right hand corners. What do you think? Would that be too creepy?

[note: the quilt is straight, but my photograph is a bit wonky! I need more practice, or maybe a class!!]

Sorry it's been almost two weeks since I posted, but I have been mostly off the puter these last two weeks. First, I had some lovely company from out of town [out of the Country, actually]. Did a little reorganizing and refurbishing around the house, and even been working on cleaning out the garage! Wow.

Have completed a number of small projects. The first one [below] is a reversible receiving blanket for my soon-2-b-born great-granddaughter Nailay [means 'I love you' in Native American]. The blanket takes TWO, one-yard-pieces of flannel. The process: trim up the sides; sew together all around leaving about 12 inches open to turn; turn; slip stitch opening, and voila! A blankie. Oh, I did sandwich 1.5" of cotton eyelet lace in the seam and used a saucer to round the corners... this makes up pretty fast.

Making pillowcases is so much fun. Talk about almost instant gratification! lol. Below is a case made from material depicting the famous Route 66 highway that runs mostly East to West across a lot of the USA. I made this for my DD Laura to commemorate our drive on Rte 66 a year ago last May. She is stoked! I tried something different this time: after turning the "tube" [which encloses all the seams in the hem] I topstitched the flange. Then I finished it off as usual. Hopefully this little trick will make it all behave better in the laundry ... we'll see. ;-)

Below is a very fuzzy picture--sorry-- but you can make out some of the attractions that are along Route 66.

Below shows my beginning efforts to put up new shelves. I hope to eventually get everything sorted into nice looking baskets and have those sitting on these shelves. As you can see, I need to shop for and install a couple more shelves. lol. The top shelf, although not especially pretty looking, is organzied and done... the other one needs a lot of work yet! lol

That's all for now. Thank you so much for stopping by to visit!  I hope where ever you are, that you have time to make something that makes you or someone you love happy!

Hugs,

SCRAPPY SPIDER IS QUILTED & A Quick Salad Idea Using Avocados. . .

Remember the Spider Web Ring that Cattinka put together a few months ago? Many of us joined the SpiderWeb fun. Thanks again, Katrin! Making the blocks was fun... and, I used up a lot of scraps that were just laying around not doing anything. lol.

Above is my little WH. It is machine quilted, but not bound yet. I'm thinking maybe a RED binding... what do you think? Also, the SpiderWeb quilting design does not cover all of the Yellow Border-- so I am thinking of embroidering a few small black spiders in the Yellow... is that a good idea, or should I leave well enough alone? Please tell me what you think. Thank you. [Sorry for the wonky picture. . . I'm not sure how it got so crooked. ;-( ]

Recently we acquired an InfraRed Gas Grill. My DD Laura is getting very good at grilling! The other night she made some Alaska Wild Samon -- while she was doing that, I created an Avocado and Tomato Salad to go with it... no dressing, just a sprinkle of some mixed herbs on the top. We had just returned from a trip to the Carlsbad Farmer's Market with fresh produce, so that dictated our ingredients. lol. It was delish. We ate all the fish before I remembered to take a pic! lol.

Until next time, I hope you have the time and inclination to create something that makes you or someone you care about happy.
Hugs,

SPIDER WEDNESDAY & Other Strings n Things, & 10-Minute Quilt Blocks

Yesterday was Tuesday Friendship Group and Deb brought her Spider top -- isn't it gorgeous? A big "thank you" goes to Katrina for organizing our SpiderWeb Ring .  . . it has been a lot of fun! Go visit Katrina's blog to see a list of the whole Ring of quilters making Spider blocks.

Now to decide -- border or not to border? Here's one option:

I finished the embroidery on Sidney's SBS block and decided to make the little bird dark blue with a turquoise-green eye. Now just a small pieced border to finish it off. I'll take it with me to Hawaii on Saturday and finish sewing it while waiting in the airport. With a long two hour wait until flight time, it will give me something pleasant to work on.

Rani is new to our group  [but long-time friend] -- she makes beautiful quilts. This is her latest batik squares:

Also Rani's -- very colorful and with applique:

Pat has been busy sewing up more 10-Minute blocks from 5 inch batik Charm Squares. If you would like to see how to make these click here for a short how-2 video:

Pat is auditioning her layout [above] and the tape is to keep it all together -- she rolls it up and takes it home and everything stays in place! Good idea.

That's all for this morning -- I hope where ever you are that you find time to create something that makes you happy.

Hugs,

BEARS n STRINGS n FRIENDSHIP. . . fun at Tuesday Friendship Group

First, as today is SPIDERWEB Wednesday, I should note that I have nothing new to report! ;( My top is finished, but not quilted or bound [please see pic of last Weds]. Perhaps by next week?!

Today is mostly about posting pictures. . . I hope you have fun with this "picture show". . .

Carolyn's red/pink/white/cream -- layout designed by her mother Darlene. They quilt together; isn't that nice?

Above: Pat's version of the "10 Minute block" made with 5 inch charm squares. If you are interested in making some of these blocks, go to U-Tube and search for "10 Minute Quilt Block". The video there explains everything!

Above: Susan's Batik Strings with the inner border, flange, and outter border added. This is a gorgeous quilt, but I didn't get a very good picture. I'm still learning about digital photography.

Two counted cross stitch blocks by Jill, a member of the Tuesday Friendship Group. The back of her work looks as good as the front! Wow, such neat work!

Below: Jill again. This time with one of her quilt-as-you-go blocks. I think the pins she used to baste with are nifty.

Chelsy is Pat's special friend and comes with Pat to all our meetings. Here she is 'helping' to pick out some sashing for Susan's string quilt...lol

Jill makes these tiny handmade and fully jointed bears... all the joints move and all are made by hand with the facial features embroidered. Darling! Hardly bigger than a small spool of thread.

Below: a sweater made combining quilted squares and handknitted pieces. Made by Jill.

That's it for now; thank you for stopping by to visit and I hope you enjoyed the pictures . . . it is time for me to get back to sewing some blocks that need finishing.

I hope where ever you are that you find the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy!

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

SPIDER WEDs., and more strings n things, & a Touch of Crazy!

SpiderWeb Wednesday is here! Thank you Cattinka for starting and managing our 'web'. It's been a lot of fun. The block was drawn in EQ7 and so were the four setting corners in the border--they were all made with PPing. Not sure how to quilt it... does anyone have any suggestions??? I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts. Thank you.

Many of the gals in my Tuesday Friendship Group are also making Spiders and other string projects. This is Susan's Batik Strings set 4-blocks-together and then sashed:

 Rosemary made a couple of quilts! She's one of our High Achievers! The quilt below is her take on an Amish String HST. This quilt will have more borders added to it:

I love Crazy Quilting of all kinds. This is a pic of a name tag I made about 1987 or 88. It is worn and frazzeled, so it is time to make a new one... here's the oldie [but goodie?? lol]: Oh, I should mention that this piece has 'real' fresh-water pearls & 14k gold 'liquid' beads sewn on it... nope, don't wanna wash it.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. I hope where ever you are that you have both the time and the inclination to create something that makes you happy. . . until next time. . .

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

SPIDER FINISH. . . It's not Weds., but. .

Hello!  As I don't expect to have Internet access on Wednesday, I will share my SpiderWeb quilt top finish now:

The poor little thing had it's pic taken on the tan rug, so the s.a. on the pale yellow stars are really shadowing through. It will be fine once the batting and backing are sandwiched together -- I hope.  This quilt measures about 30" square, which will be just fine as a table topper in my breakfast room.

For my "process". . . I decided to also string piece the final border corners and modified my original 4.5" block in EQ7 adding some lines and deleting others:

As you can see by the stitching lines, I only used this pattern as a general guide and didn't follow the lines exactly. I adjusted the lines based on the piece of scraps I had left to work with.  Here is a final corner block:

I sure wish I had more of that "stone or pebble" fabric.  . isn't it great?

Mitering the border corners didn't look right to me. . . I did lay one corner out and look at it. . . hmmmm, nope, don't think that's going to look right:

Because my strip sizes were so random, the corner didn't look good to me so I abandonded the mitering idea and created sort of a "fan" block for the corners.  It's not perfect, but it works.

Now I'm thinking about how to quilt it. On the machine, for sure with all the seams! Probably something minimal and not too fancy as there is a lot going on in this quilt already.

Thank you for stopping by to visit.  I hope where ever you are that you have the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy.  . . .until next time. . .

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

SPIDER WEDNESDAY. . . And: Strings, Strings, Strings!

This is my progress so far on the little Spider Block table topper I'm making:

Late last night I finished sewing the four pieced borders:

This is how I pressed it... with seams twirled inside the blocks, and s.a. pressed open block-2-block:

Yesterday was the meeting of our Tuesday Friendship Group. Many of the gals in this group are now making various versions of the Spider block.  This is Joy's block... what a cutie with the Pink ric-rack in the wedges:

Here is how Joy lined up the rickrack for sewing:

Deb sewing a triangle piece. A finished triangle sits on her machine:

Rosemary made TWO kinds of string blocks. . . Amish Shadows, and diagonal stripping:

Rosemary's layout for her batik blocks:

Our ever-smiling Renee', shows another version of stripping:

This is the pattern she drew [Renee is also a great teacher!]:

And some of Renee's blocks-in-progress:

An iron beside the sewing machine is a handy help with this kind of strip piecing:

Some 'lost' blocks found in Deb's Grandma's attic. . . trust me, Deb will do something wonderful with these rescued beauties:

Well, now that I've exhausted your eyes with 13 photos, I'll close for now. . .

Thank you for stopping by and I hope where ever you are that you have time and the inclination to create something that makes you happy.

Hugs,

Cyn; -)

PS: Want to see more Spider blocks? Click here for Katrin's blog -- she is the clever gal who started this whole "Spider Web Ring" thing.
On this side of the BigBluePond, Rosa is also making a Spider -- check it out -- nifty!