Stay-at-home bee

Saturday was my regular bee meeting day but the center where we meet was having a large meeting, and the room was not available.

So, since I had put together some things I wanted to work on during the meeting, I decided to dedicate three hours to working on it - at home!

This flying geese quilt top has been folded up and "laying-in-waiting" for a long time now. 

I started it in 2012 (read the post here), and when I put the final brown strips on I put it aside til I could decide what to do for a final border. 

I decided on a homespun/plaid piano key border, and I had been piecing these strips together off and on - whenever the mood struck me.  No hurry at all to finish this!

During my bee-time I pieced twosies, to foursies - enough to make several 6" wide groups. 

The foursies got pieced into long strips, to be trimmed down to a slightly narrower size because some of my edges were sorta wavy.
Unfortunately, that's the nature of homespun!

So that was my bee day - sew forth and sew on til later!

Silent Sunday

"They took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"

What the ...!!?

That little flower basket quilt ... I swanee!

The rows were all joined and it had been laying on my table for about 4-5 days, but I hadn't trimmed it because all the setting triangles weren't aligned just perfectly, and I had to pay attention when I trimmed it.  So ... yesterday I figured why not just get it out of the way?

So I trimmed it and it's just perfect, right?

Take another look!

See that one row turned upside down?

When I was joining rows I remember one row had the setting triangles turned wrong, so I turned the row around and didn't give it another thought.

Well ...  I should have!  I fixed the problem, the borders have been added, so now it's ready for the flower applique and quilting.

Is that a humongous border, or what??  Seven inches!

Looking at the finished top with all that border space, I probably could have stayed with the 6" baskets rather than downsizing them, but it'll work out.  It's those little things that remind you to stay woke!

Note to self:  Do NOT go to Fabric Place Basement, they are having a sale!  Sew forth and sew on.

I'll take a cup of Spring, please

It's springtime but the snowfall doesn't seem to realize it. Since we'll have to go with the flow, here's my favorite mellow snowfall music.  Drifting gently, softly, silently ... enjoy!






Sew forth and sew on...

Guild meeting

When I walked into the guild meeting yesterday and saw a lot of people bunched around a table, I just knew something was in the air ...

Quilt seeds!  A member had sent in two large bags of strings and chunks and hunks of quilt seeds, ready to be planted into 30 or 40 new quilts!

We had wonderful show and tell at the meeting.  

One member challenged herself to finish a block from her applique class ...

Another member made two quilts as a thank-you for a neighbor who takes in terminally ill dogs ...

T-shirt quilt

A cute cartoon dog quilt

A new member shared a medallion quilt she made from her deceased sister's fabrics...

A new quilter shared a very pretty disappearing 4-patch ...

Nine patches - set on point!

A scrappy quilt - love it!  The blocks were pieced onto phone book paper.

And last but not least, a fabric embellishment demo...

As usual, it was a great meeting and we all had a great time; sew forth and sew on til later ...

Guild BOM

I had totally forgotten about the BOM's my guild is doing this year until yesterday morning.

This is January's BOM - 1930's Square. 

This year we have three choices of the blocks we want to do - beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

I took the middle of the road just to get them done quickly, so I can show something at the meeting.

February's BOM - Castle in the Air.

I need to do the dark corner squares and two more of the combination blocks (two were cut too small).

My thoughts for these blocks are to use that one background fabric, and blue/green batiks.

March BOM - Arkansas Cross Roads. 

All the blocks are from Quilters' Cache and they will all be 12".

When working on these blocks I realized how accustomed I am to working with smaller sizes!  I felt really clumsy slapping four 6" slabs together to make a block, geeez!

I don't like the corner cutouts on these, I might replace them if I don't run out of the background fabric.

That's it for now, guild today - sew forth and sew on til later!

Setting decisions

My little flower baskets are all ready to be sewn together, but I should have auditioned more fabrics for the setting and corner triangles!

The fabric on the right has words swirled in different directions and it looked okay with all the blocks laid out on top of it.  But when I sacrificed cut it to get the setting pieces, it looked more like a one-way design as you can see above.

Not gonna work!

I think the fabric on the left has more potential because of the random polka dots that run through it.

I spent my sewing time yesterday adding the setting triangles, it's starting to look pretty good.  Just have to sew the rows together, trim it and add the final borders. 

I've always shied away from setting blocks on point because I just assumed it was too hard, but it isn't.  I found a chart online at Generations Quilt Patterns that has all those measurements figured out for you; all you have to do is cut and sew!

Things are looking up!

That's it for now, have a great Thursday, sew forth and sew on...

Baskets and a box

I found this little decoupaged box at the quilt show last weekend for $1.00.  I figured hey, why not?

It was made in 1971, and it's kinda cute and looks to be handy for lots of things.  Perhaps I'll store small stuff inside, like needle packets or seam rippers or rotary blades. 

Scrappy triangle block 23 - another very easy one with only 4 pieces.

And last but not least ...

I pieced all my baskets - 25!  

After I put in the setting and corner triangles, I'll add another border to bring it up to the 36 x 36" size to meet the challenge.  My friend appliqued flowers in her border, I'll see what the quilt asks for.  Looking good!

That's it for now, sew forth and sew on til later...

Triangles, quilt show

Scrappy triangle block 22.  When I saw the pattern for this block I thought of a butterfly flying towards the sky, or an angel with golden wings. 

I found the perfect piece of sky fabric in my scrap bin, it has just the right amount of yellow swirling through it to make it interesting!

Of course I had to redo the bottom piece of block #21!

You know the deer appreciate it by that relieved look on their faces.



I can share a little more quilt show goodness with you; the show was small, yet there was a lot to see.

First, here are the labels from the Political Circus quilt; she chose to make one for each party.  Clever!

Another HST idea, love this heart quilt...

This rail fence is different from all the others I've seen because she pieced most of the strips that make up the rails...

You might not be able to see the detail, but the blue and white quilt on the left caught my attention because each blue 3 (or 4) inch block is made of diagonal strings!

That's it for now, enjoy your Monday.  Sew forth and sew on

Signs of the time

Or should that be "time for a sign"?  Spring is right around the corner, and a sure sign is national "playing with time" day, better known as spring forward day for most of our states.

Another sign of spring?  Quilt shows! 

If quilt shows start, can spring be far behind?

Yesterday Felicia, Charline and I went to "The Best Little Quilt Show in Maryland" presented by Southern Comforters Quilt Guild of Bowie.

And great it was!  We not only saw gorgeous quilts, but we also got great ideas at the same time. 

Have you seen a more beautiful example of a half-square triangle quilt?  I mentioned before that my guild (Uhuru) has a 36 x 36 HST challenge due in September, to be displayed at the fall SewExpo in Fredericksburg, VA.

Here's more eye candy...

Remember...

I found Allietare from a Quiltville mystery!  I like her color selections:

My all-time favorite - Political Circus!

I might share more later ...

... but Sasquatch says that's all for now!

Sew forth and sew on