TGIFF Times Three

Not one, not two, but three finishes today!

First up, a quilt that was pieced ages ago. I made the first quilt of Japanese Taupe fabrics for the high school graduation gift for the last of the 4-H'ers from my boys' club. I had enough fabric left over to make a second quilt just like the first. It sat in the "to-be-quilted" shelf for almost three years. Then I decided the son of my friend, Lori, should have a quilt, even though I didn't know him when he graduated high school.

I took the quilt to my long-armer, Connie of Ponderosa Patchworks late this Spring. When the Black Forest fire burned her house, Connie rescued this quilt along with all her other customer quilts. Mine was the first customer quilt she quilted when she opened her new studio. Since Lori's house was also threatened by the Waldo Canyon fire two years ago, I think it's appropriate that Connie quilted this one.

 

Stuart will be home from college for Thanksgiving next week. I hope he likes the quilt!

I've decided my quilt #48 for 2013, "Full Moon" shall remain borderless. I do like the just-five "moons" rather than one in each block.  Here is a link to my post with details of this quilt.

I also calculated the sashing strips for my "Morning Joe" and finished it.   Here's the image from the pattern cover:

(Image from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.)

And here is my finished "Morning Joe."

My blocks are 16" square, the table runner will finish at 64" X 24" -- and I know just the niece who will receive this as a hostess gift on my next trip to Idaho!

Linking up to Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday, hosted this week by Australian Lynne at Never too hot to stitch.

And also to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

The first "real snowfall" of the season happened yesterday. I can't wait until the clouds blow away so we can see Pikes Peak in all its glory!

From the desk of your

WIP Wednesday Quilt #49

I might make it to 52 quilts this year after all!  The last two have been table runners, but I count them if I quilt them myself!

Here is my November "Schnibbles" quilt, "Morning Joe."

I used a single charm pack of "Java" by Deb Strain for Moda. I didn't cut down the 5" squares, just made them into half-square triangles. Because my seams on the diagonal weren't quite 1/2" apart, I could square up the HSTs to 4.5" -- so my HSTs are larger than those called for in the pattern. I don't want to go back and cut them down to the smaller size, so I'll have to calculate my own sashing strip sizes.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

I just got word from My Little Sailor that he is back on the ship after going ashore in the Philippines to document the relief efforts. He's "a little sunburnt" but safe!


From the desk of your

A Wednesday Schnibbles

Today's WIP is my reward for making all those Farmer's Wife blocks last week. Looking at the pattern photo, it looks to be a snap, doesn't it.

(click on the photo to go to Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.)

I hate making quilts that go together in rows.  Especially diagonal rows (see this example from Quiltmaker's Scrap Squad. Love the quilt, hate the technique.)

You know how they tell you to read through all the directions before beginning a quilt? If I'd done that, I probably would have put this pattern away and made one of the other Schnibbles quilts I didn't get made this summer. I had it all cut out and the sashing four-squares put together before I realized it had to be sewn together in rows.

However, I plowed on and now it's on the design wall.

Bad photo, I know. When it's sewn together, I'll move it to a wall with better lighting.  The fabric is "Gypsy Girl" by Lily Ashbury for Moda. She's one of my favorite designers, I've made several quilts from her fabrics.

This is "Cheaper by the Dozen" in Summerhouse, quilt #5 in 2012.

And this is "Strips and Ladders," #43 in 2011.

I love Lily Ashbury's fabrics!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

I am determined to have a second October finish by Friday. Come back and see if I made it!

From the desk of your

Sunday is for . . . Schnibbles!

Remember last week when I whined that I had to finish five quilts before the end of the month? Here is #4, the July Vintage Schnibbles project. It's Quilt #32 for 2013!

The pattern is "Lincoln," from Another Bite of Schnibbles by Carrie Nelson.

The neat thing about this book of quilt patterns is that each design is made with either 5" charm squares, or 10" layer cakes.

I chose the layer cake size, because I wanted a bed-sized quilt. Of course, I made a few modifications. I'm not a fan of square quilts, so I thought I would make my quilt 5 blocks by 9 blocks. When I got it on the design wall, I decided it was too long. So I cut the two extra rows of rail fence blocks at 4.5" and used them for the outside borders.

The print fabric is Sweetwater's new line, Road 15. When they were designing this fabric, they asked their blog readers to send in their street address, which was used for one of the prints in this fabric line. I don't see "Oz Court" on the fabric, but I've only seen the pre-cuts so far. I hope it will show up on the yardage!  The background is my favorite Moda Bella Solid, Porcelain.


I've submitted this quilt to Sinta at Pink Pincushion for Thursday's "Vintage Schnibbles" parade.

 

I'll be hosting my own parade on Thursday, the July UFOs. Come back and see what everyone finished this month!


From the desk of your

Friday Finish: Schnibbles

My last finish for June was my "under the wire" Vintage Schnibbles quilt. The pattern is "Dulcinea," and the fabric is "A Simpler Time" by Holly Taylor for Moda. I used Moda Bella Solids "Natural" for the background.

When I started to square up my 3/4 square triangles, I realized I could trim them to 4" rather than the 3.5" as instructed in the pattern. Of course, that meant I had to fiddle with the borders to make them fit. I had to add one 1" strip to the strip pieces on each side of the outside border. The quilt finished at 37.5" square -- perfect for a wall hanging. The colors just match the mountain condo of my friend Lori, so it will be a belated hostess gift!

You can see other "Vintage Schnibbles" at A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion.

Linking up to Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts:

As well as Thank Goodness it's Finally Finished at Quokka Quilts:

And also, "Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?" at Confessions of a Fabric Addict:

Come back tomorrow for a peek at the newest quilt shop in town on Saturday Stash!

From the desk of your

Two Friday Finishes

Last week I got so tired of working on my 2012 Designer Mystery BOM, I dropped it and whipped up the May "Vintage Schnibbles" project.

The pattern is Gentle Art by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. and the fabric is a charm pack of The Ladies Stitching Club from Moda. It's the 22nd quilt I've pieced in 2013, on my way to my fourth year of 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks.

On Memorial Day, I took a notion to finish a red-white-and-blue quilt for a Sailor on The Younger Son's ship, the USS George Washington. She passed the test for her Navy Warfare Qualification, kind of a big deal in the Navy.

I blogged this one in process. The pattern is "Stars from Stripes" by Cozy Quilts, and the fabric is all from my RWB strip bin.  Congratulations, Sailor!

Tomorrow's Fat Quarter Fun class at Ruth's Stitchery has been cancelled. Instead, I will work on the last FQF quilt I started. It's called "Currents," designed by Sharon Winter for Brookshier Design Studio..

Can you believe that design is made with just HSTs and solid squares? I'll show you my version on Design Wall Monday.

Linking up to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, hosted this week by Lucy at Charm About You, Link a Finish Friday by Richard and Tanya, and Can I get a Whoop Whoop by Sarah.

 

Tomorrow is UFO Parade Day -- get those May UFO finishes in before 6pm MDT today to be included. And come back tomorrow to see some wonderful finished UFOs!




From the desk of your

What's on the Design Wall?

I know, I promised a road trip report.  I got caught up working on the next Jelly Roll Party sample, so I'll save the Saturday Stash for next Saturday!

The June Jelly Roll Party quilt at Ruth's Stitchery is "At Sea," from Cozy Quilts.

The Party Girls chose this one for June from a pile of patterns I brought into the shop.  I love it, mostly because of the name.  I want to have some quilts completed in case a Sailor on My Little Sailor's ship, the USS George Washington, gets a major award.  It takes two weeks for mail to reach them, so I need to be ready to ship off a quilt at a moment's notice!

Here is my layout of the blocks:

My fabrics are from Edyta Sitar's "Laundry Basket" batiks collection.  The background is a very pale seafoam green.  I'm waiting for the yardage from Edyta to arrive at Ruth's for the border.

After I had the blocks for "At Sea" pieced, I decided to finish the blocks for this month's "Vintage Schnibbles" parade.  The pattern is "Hat Trick," and I'm using 1930s reproduction scraps for mine:

I did go with the muslin for the setting squares and triangles.  It will be fun to quilt something fancy in those blank spaces.

There is barely one week left to finish my April UFO, and this is all I have done!

How about you?  When you have your UFO "finished" (remember, *you* decide what is finished!), take a photo and email me the photo at AuntMarti at 52quilts dot com. The parade will be May 1st! 



From the desk of your

Design Wall Monday: A Hat Trick

You've probably heard that Sinta and Sherri are hosting "Vintage Schnibbles" this year. The first Schnibbles quilt is "Hat Trick."

This is one of the first "Schnibbles" patterns, so if you don't have it in your collection you can download the PDF version from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. here.

When I think of "vintage," I instantly think "30s reproduction fabrics."  I have quite a collection of 30s repros -- nearly 20 years ago when the 30s reproductions first came out, I bought a fat quarter of each fabric.  Soon the number of prints was overwhelming, so I had to back off.  But I still have two bins of 30s fabrics!

What fun to dig through the bins and find light-and-dark prints to make the 20 little nine-patches.  My problem is the setting squares.  Should I use light prints?

Or plain muslin?

I only have ten blocks complete, so they will probably be rearranged in the final quilt.

What do you think?  Print or plain setting squares and triangles?

From the desk of your

Scrap Basket Sunday

Hooray!  Both the quilts I'm working on this weekend are from my scrap basket!

First up, this month's Fat Quarter Fun class at Ruth's Stitchery.

The pattern is "Currents" by Sharon Winter, published by Brookshier Design Studio.  If your LQS doesn't have this pattern, you can call Ruth's Stitchery, or get it from Quilters Warehouse.  Sharon says this pattern was "inspired by 16th century tilework in a Portuguese palace.  It was fun to see how it worked up in various colors, I used purple!  Because I have a ton of purple scraps I've collected for my next Scrap Squad quilt.

I only made one block, because I want to save this project for next month's quilt retreat.

Another scrappy project is the "Vintage Schnibbles" at Pink Pincushion and  A Quilting Life. I didn't have a charm pack that really grabbed me for this little quilt, so I went to my enormous collection of 5" square scraps and decided to use 30s repros for "Hat Trick."

I have the squares cut for the 9-patches.  I think I'll use muslin for the setting squares and setting triangles.

Linking up to Kim's Big Quilting Adventure for Scrap Basket Sunday!

We're expecting a major snowstorm tomorrow night here in Colorado, so I should get a lot of sewing done in the next few days!

From the desk of your

Saturday "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" Stash

Elder Son and I have a theory that there are two kinds of people in this world as far as gifts are concerned:  Those who want what they want, and those who want to be surprised.  ES and I are of the "want what we want" school of thought.  Younger Son wants to be surprised -- with exactly what he wants.

This theory makes Christmas easy on DH.  I just buy what I want and say "Look what you got me for Christmas."  He did particularly well this year.

See this?  It's a Moda Bella Solids color card.  Since most of my Jelly Roll Party quilts for 2013 will be made from Moda Jelly Rolls, won't it be nice to see what solids go with?  This is the kind of gift every quilter would love, but probably wouldn't buy for herself.

In addition (and to take advantage of Hancocks of Paducah's discount and free shipping offer:

If you buy an entire bolt, the cost is less than $6 per yard!

I also completed my Madrona Road collection with the help of Sew Fresh Fabrics:

Can't wait to start on my Front Range Modern Quilt Guild challenge pillow.

Some people send "fruit of the month club" gifts.  I prefer the "Stash Stack Club" from Pink Castle Fabrics -- brown this month.

This is the second year in a row I've scored Lizzy House's holiday bundle.  It even has a bit of her newest collection, "Constellation!"  I can't bear to unwrap it, they look so pretty stacked up.

If you're buying it to make gifts, does it still count as a gift to yourself?  This is "Type" by Julia Rothman for Windham Fabrics.  Got the first few pieces from my favorite etsy shop, FreshSqueezedFabrics, and completed the collection with further help from Sew Fresh Fabrics.

Stay tuned in January to see what they will become!

One of the BOM clubs I joined for 2013 at Ruth's Stitchery is "Ryokan."  A Ryokan is a Japanese Inn, appropriate for My Little Sailor who is stationed in Japan.  I thought I had some leftover Japanese Taupes from two graduation quilts, but I must have used up all the scraps.  High Country Quilts had a few Daiwabo prints:

I'm thinking I'll use these prints from Sew Fresh Fabrics for the borders:

Has anyone heard if Sinta and Sherri will continue Another Year of Schnibbles in 2013?  I'm ready, if they do!   Who could resist BasicGrey's new collection, "Kissing Booth?"

One of my great-nephews missed out on the "12th Birthday" quilt, so I picked up this beauty at Suppose quilt boutique in Preston on my most recent trip to Idaho.  Unfortunately, the kit doesn't contain enough fabric for a queen-size quilt.  Lucky for me, Kathy had enough of the Kaffe Fassett stripes to make up a second kit, sans pattern.  Also lucky for me, his birthday is in December, so I have a whole year to make this quilt!

I pre-ordered this book from Amazon and it about killed me not to buy it when I saw it in the store before I received my copy:

So fun to look through and say "Hey, I read her blog!"

Can you believe the newest Miss Rosie's Quilt Shop pattern requires Flying Geese?  I tell you, the Universe is conspiring against me:

I ordered the rulers that Carrie recommends.  We'll see if they can make me like Flying Geese!

Now, I didn't buy ALL my own Christmas prezzies!  Look at this adorable chicken made by friend Mary:

It's a pincushion!  Can you see the matching pink scissors?  Too cute!

I ordered these Fimo people from the daughter of Randi, owner of FreshSqueezedFabrics.  I planned to give them as gifts, but really, they are so cute . . . .

Aubrey even made an "Aunt Marti" figure.  DH says the purple one is a teletubby -- Tinky Winky.  We won't say why he knows that!

Here's hoping Santa brings you just what you want -- surprise or not!


From the desk of your