Two Big Finishes Tonight!

Another post tonight! When I began the binding on my NPOP I realized I only had one short side left to stitch. Then Rachel came down the finished the last few inches on my fall table runner. From this distance, I DO like the quilting...I just wish I had used a darker thread. I made inverted and "out"verted swirls (in other words--both directions) to give the pinwheels movement.

I wish ALL of you could come to my house and see the following quilt (especially you, Debbie). This turned out so nicely. I love the quilting in the borders. If you haven't seen Dawn Rameriz's DVD of the Pajama Quilter, you will have no mental picture, but these are Wonky Feathers. I love them. They are an open but lovely swirly design...my favorite kind. There is no pillow tuck on this since it's going on our wall bed, hence the solid piece of fabric for under the pillows at the top.

Tomorrow I will wash these two new quilty items and put them to immediate use. The NPOP is for my daughter's room/our guest room. That's the same room, but she if often somewhere else!!



TTFN,

~Joan

New Fall Table Runner for Kitchen

I bought the Twister rulers (large and small sizes) a while ago. I rarely buy specialty things that only have one use, but I was hooked. I plan to make lots of runners using these for Christmas gifts.

Last night I started this runner. I like it and I don't like it. Why would I be making a new fall table runner this late in the game (I'm already envisioning my home with Christmas greenery)?? We have taken two leaves out of our table, leaving us with a table for eight. I know that sounds enormous to some, but to us, it is small. To my last year's table runner it is small. I have to fold the runner under one block just so it doesn't extend out under the plates at the end of the table. This. won't. do.

So, I present my new fall table runner (until we put the leaves back in at least)...I like the runner, but I'm not crazy about the quilting I did on it (which I'll show you tomorrow).

And here is the close-up of the top. I was teaching my youngest daughter (12) how to do a layout of prints to make them look good. I also let her sew the 5" squares together. She needs much more practice at making consistent seam allowances and straight seams. Enough said. But since this is for me, I didn't make her rip out any more than was absolutely necessary. Didn't want to kill her enthusiasm for the whole hobby.

Off to hopefully finish my NPOP quilting...only about 3 feet long of an area to do in the borders. There are still two sides of binding to hand sew down, but I'll do that later while I watch a movie in bed (I hope).

~Joan

Love It When A Plan Comes Together

This is the back of my Nine Patch One Patch quilt. Two width of fabrics were just four inches short of what I needed for the length of my quilt. I didn't want to cut more backing fabric. There is a drawer in my storage system for "quilt blocks". I found the half square triangles and four-patches in there. I didn't have enough of either for all the way across the back, so I used some of each. This added just the width I needed. Amen.

~Joan

Quilting Borders on NPOP

It was difficult to get a picture that shows the texture, but here is the Wonky Feather machine quilting design I'm doing in the border of my Nine Patch One Patch quilt. I am going over all 3 borders and the side triangles. I started quilting a wavy line through the blocks in the center of the quilt, but I am going to take it out. I only did two lines. They detract from the quilt.

The thread is a light tan to dark taupe variegated. I later got one side of the binding sewn to the back by hand. It's coming along!

Off to sew a little more...

~Joan

Nine Patch One Patch Borders

Here are the borders for my Nine Patch One Patch. I think this will work. These are just laying on the design wall, but I overlapped them so that I could see how the finished product would look. With just the first cream, it seemed too large for the center, but now I think this looks fine.

I hope to finish my laundry and sew these on tonight.

~Joan

Latest, But Not New

This is from last week some time. I did not post the picture at that time, and I can't remember why. It might have had something to do with sleeping all day Friday and Saturday, under the influence of seasonal allergy gunk. I also have put on the first inner border. But that is not in the picture.

After I finished all my 9-patches, I realized that the header of the quilt needed to be 10 inches wider. I am adding a set of border strips that will add up to 12 inches on the other three sides, so I guess I could have just added them to that side as well. I wanted the top of the quilt (where the pillows would go) to be different than the other 3 sides. The way this is, the top of the quilt LOOKS different, so that differentiates it from the foot. Clever, huh?

~Joan

NPOP Progress

Here is a close-up of the side of my NPOP quilt. I am so close to having the center of the top put together. I still feel quite horrid, but if I can't talk or swallow w/o pain, I can still piece, right?

Most of the fabrics for this are from the load I bought from my sister. She had a box of scraps from which I gleaned most of these lovelies. The purple setting fabric is also from her.

Here is the whole top so far. I did two more rows since the picture was taken...so close to being finished. I love it when I really like a quilt even if it wasn't totally planned from the beginning.

As I was piecing this, more scraps came to my notice. I have a sudden desire to make a two-color quilt (I'm thinking cream and red, blue, brown, or green). If you have a favorite two-color quilt, please send me a picture of it. It will be scrappy (duh), and I favor traditional patterns and fairly small pieces. Thanks in advance!

Off to put in a few more stitches...

~Joan

NPOP Starting Down The Final Stretch

I am pretty sure it's the seasonal stuff, but I don't feel well. Sore throat, body aches, and a low-grade fever. Yuck. Oddly enough, my daughter that is acting as live-in help for another family has the exact same symptoms. She texted me this AM to let me know she wasn't feeling well. I took her over some cough drops, tissues, cold medicine, and chicken soup. Maybe I got it from her??

I had to wait for two loads of laundry to process, so even though I didn't want to do anything but sleep, I started putting the rows of my Nine-Patch One-Patch together. (for those of you who are new to my blog, you can click on anything underlined in a different color, and it will take you to all the past posts or links on that subject). I decided on a light-ish purple Thimbleberries for the setting triangles and one of the borders and the binding. Refer to the original picture to see the pattern. I chose purple because the room where this will be used is painted purple. I picked out the color myself :)

Here is a picture with one row missing...I happened to have that one in the sewing machine when the picture was taken. This looks like an optical illusion. I had to put some of the blocks slightly on top of their neighbors to make room for all the blocks on my design wall.


Here's a close-up of the purple. I think I'm gonna like it!!

Here's how much I have finished. I didn't do any more because I. am. finished. I need to go sleep, or at least recline in bed.

Just counting the 9-patch blocks with the colors in the corners and center, this is 8 blocks x 10 blocks, on point naturally.

Good night!

~Joan

Nine Patches and Flood Waters

Here are a couple pictures from a week ago when our basement was nearly flooded. It's hard to get the scale in a picture. We have a ranch with a finished basement. From the front of our house, it's hard to tell we even have a basement. These pictures were taken in the dark (6 AM) from the deck off the main floor of the house. The water was sooooo close to going into our basement. You can see the wood of the deck in the front of the pictures. The noise from the creek turned river was incredibly loud.

I also sewed a few more nine-patches this afternoon. It was my, "Yay--another school day finished" treat to myself.

Susanna and I are going to an all-night sew tomorrow night from 6 PM till midnight. Fun on the horizon.

~Joan

Third Post Today

I cut and sewed up a few more scraps from my sister. Here is my NPOP so far...

~Joan

OPNP Update and Batik Baby Quilt Finished!

Last night, I sewed for a while to relax. I pieced a few more blocks for my NPOP (Nine-Patch One Patch), using up scraps from the plethora of fabric from my sister. So far, so good...

I also finished the quilting on this batik baby quilt. I meandered in the cream with cream thread, then did a three-loop free form shape in each of the triangles, with a larger one in each corner.

Here is a close-up of the corner. This was washed and dried this morning, ready to be delivered in a little while.

Have a blessed day. My own heart is heavy on behalf of my son, who is having a lot of emotional turmoil right now. I pray he rests in the Lord.

~Joan

Design Wall Monday

Saturday Susanna and I did some major rearranging in our sewing room. When you bring home 560 yards of fabric, that is necessary. Miraculously enough, we made it all fit...quite nicely. We were fairly quickly struck with the realization that we will never live long enough to sew all of this fabric. We intend to sell a lot of it come this fall. Fat quarter sets, yardage, kits...half of it must go!!

Here is what is on my design wall today. I think this block is soooo cute. It was one of nine. It's made of all wool. The flowers in the sheep's mouth and on the ground are tiny buttons. In a not-terribly-sane moment, I threw away the parts for the other eight blocks. A cutting error on the backing fabric (the goldish cream) ruined the project for me. Now I wish I hadn't thrown the rest of them away, but what is done is done. I think I'll make this into a pillow for our living room.

I sorted through a large box of what my sister told me were "scraps". Didn't she know I am the scrap queen? There were pieces as small as 4" square. I sorted them into colors, ironed some, and pieced some into blocks for my Nine-Patch One-Patch quilt. The sorting and ironing took so long that I was only able to piece a few blocks, but I am really liking it so far...

And, lastly, but not leastly, is my Honeycomb Stars. I finished the piecing just as the sun was setting on our way back from Ohio this past Friday. I need to trim it, baste it, quilt it, and bind it. But the longest part is already finished...it is pieced! Susanna likes it so much that she requested a queen-sized quilt from this pattern. Hahahahohohoheeheehee...never!! The tiny diamonds just twinkle.

Off for a chiropractic visit (whoopee!!) and a grocery store run. My neck has felt like a paper-clip shape since the first night of sleeping in Ohio. Had a horrific headache and backache for the past few days, but that let up a little last night, praise the Lord. Hopefully the chiropractor can straighten me up.

~Joan

All-Night Sew Plans Revised

I called the quilt shop where we were supposed to have the all-night sew (6 PM to midnight) tonight to let them know Susanna and I were coming, and we were bringing a friend. Good thing I called, because it was cancelled. So we invited our friend, Rachel, to come to our house.

We had a couple unplanned errands to do earlier today, so I felt rushed, but we sewed for about 3-1/2 hours together. I sewed and pressed this...

I also pieced, trimmed, and pressed these...

Raise your hand if you're surprised I've already started on one of these for my family. I don't see any hands.


And here is Susie Seamstress herself...

She worked on this amazing tote bag for herself. It's a pattern and accessories kit we picked up at the Hickory Quilt Show. She said it's a great pattern--easy sewing, but tedious. A million steps. I think she exaggerates. She got the fabrics later at Mary Jo's. Isn't it bee-you-tee-ful??

~Joan

Quilt Show Pic #7

I love everything about this quilt, color, size, pattern. How simple could this be? The border is especially attractive to me with its different sizes. This would be a perfect leader/ender project. Gorgeous!! Fantastic swap idea, too. Bwahaha...

~Joan