it’s music to my ears

My very first quilt was from a precut kit of 6.5” squares.  I was so excited about sewing those squares together in nice rows that I collected a bunch of music fabrics and cut most of them up into 6.5” squares. 

Then they got pushed to the wayside and now since I’m in a git ‘er done mode I really want to get rid of the stacks by making something, so, I sorted through the stacks and divided them into groups of nine squares


I made a practice 9 patch

Then I quartered it, turned the pieces til I liked how they looked and sewed them back together.  It’s called a disappearing nine patch.  I like it.  So I’’m going to do some more and end up with a pretty large quilt by the time I’m finished.
I’ve been putting the smaller squares together to make the sets of 3 that will become 9 patch squares.

I’ve got seven 18” squares so far.

Once I get them all sewn together then I’ll cut them all into fourths and finish them.  I think I may put sashing  between the rows.  I’m going to take a couple of the squares to the stitchers garden –home of  1 million  several thousand bolts of fabric.  If I can’t find somethin in  red or the kind of goldy brown then they don’t make it

update

In between running errands, playing with the dog,  buying some sandals, and other life stuff, I did spend time in my sewing room and managed to finish that stack of towels that I’ve been accumulating for embroidery purposes.  I also finished piecing these two quilts ( they are both throw size)  One will be a Christmas gift.  The other is will be donated to the school where I taught in MS to use in a raffle to help defray overnight field trip costs for some of the students who can’t afford them.  This is the second year that I’ve donated a quilt.  They did pretty well last year.  This time I went to the local fabric shop back home and they very graciously donated the black and white fabrics for the top and I paid for the backing.  Both the quilts were fun to piece.  The Christmas one is from a pattern called Crazy Eights.  It called for eight fat quarters.  The other is from a pattern called Take 5.
Here are some pictures.

Recognize some of those fabrics Polly?? 



I totally love the bright blue (which will also be the back) and the zebra print border.

A few of the fun towels

DO NOT think of your ghost as an exclamation point when choosing a fabric – you might not pick white –not that it matters because it doesn’t except that I had originally planned on white but didn’t get the fabric out and when I actually needed it I was thinking exclamation and went for a different fabric.  It grew on me pretty fast

They need to be washed to get some of the  chalk off and the last of the washaway stabilizer.
The witch’s feet is my favorite.

on the road again

Tomorrow I'm heading to Ohio and PA for a week.  Got a weddinig to go to and then I'm bringing my mom back to TN for a visit so I"ve scheduled a couple of posts to appear at odd moments while I'm away.

yipee skipee

Tomorrow the Bernina shop will open back up after their week at Bernina School.  I'm going to take my 820 in so if they need to keep it it should be fixed when I get back from my trip.   I hope what ever it is it is not serious.

UPDATE

My machine should be ready tomorrow. They said it is probably thread or lint stuck where I couldn't see it to get it out  ARRRRGH!   Oh well.  I still accomplished a lot.

bffs

a quilters dream giveaway

My blogging friend Polly is giving away an AccuQuilt Go baby cutter.  The winner will also receive three die of her choice.  It is a great tool for any quilter (or crafter).  It cuts out everything from strips to triangles to hearts and a whole lot more.  That's why I signed up!!  Go check it out here. And don't leave her blog without looking at all  the awesome quilts and other projects that she makes.  She is a very creative lady. 

lesson in binding

I  will be so glad when I get my ME (Mary Englebreit) quilt finished.  I’ve had to redo several things more than once with that quilt.  The last (I hope) crazy thing I did was to cut two of the corners when I was trimming some excess fabric after I had sewn the binding on.  On corner was actually cut in half, the other was just sliced and looked like this

Luckily I had used scraps to make the binding and it was a fairly easy fix.
I took out about five or six inches of the binding on each side of the corner

and replaced it with the binding I had left over and voila

four completed corners.  At least “sewing machine” complete.  I still need to fold the binding over to the back and hand sew it down.  Then it’ll be 100%. 
Now I have two quilts to take on my trip with me and finish the hand work.

what do you do if

you have a quilt all basted and ready to quilt (that you want to take with you when you leave to visit relatives next week so you won’t have to mail it) and something goes wrong with the bobbin tension on your 820 AND the bernina shop is closed for this entire week? 
You could get mad and or you could move your Deco embroidery machine and your Activa that goes to class with you into the kitchen so you can watch whatever you want on the big screen and work on turning this stack of waiting to be embroidered towels

into this  -- I’ve done ten so far and have 8 more to go.

and while things are embroidering you work on turning cut out quilt pieces into quilt squares like this

and then into finished quilt tops. 
This is just the beginning folks.  I hope to be very productive doing a bunch of little things so maybe my “works in progress” baskets will be emptied and I can fill them back up again. 
I decided to move out of the sewing room for awhile because it is actually cooler in the kitchen/den  as long as I don’t cook and when I sew, I don’t do much of that.
More later,

want to know a secret?

I have developed a love / hate relationship with borders.  I will be so glad to get this quilt finished.  I completed the top a few days weeks months ago and it has been hanging in the closet.  When I took it out to make the backing and get it ready to quilt I noticed how it seemed to be pulling and puckering around the borders.  After several failed attempts at smoothing all those wrinkles,  I finally removed the two borders and took them apart .  I don’t know what I was smoking thinking the day I put the borders on but the inside (black) border was so short that I was able to add a 1 1/2 inch square in each corner and didn’t trim much of anything off  the length  

…and I had to add a little bit to the outside border too.  It is much better but still not perfect.  Anyway, I’m going ahead and finishing the quilt as is and I think it will turn out ok.  This is the front

and this is the back.
 
I think it turned out pretty.  I love the bright Mary Englebreit colors with the white.  I’m going to use scraps for the binding and then it will be done.  Woo Hoo!!

there’s muslin and then there is really nice muslin

I’ve gotten to where I enjoy using muslin to back quilts whenever it’s an option.  I thought I had enough to use as backing for this quilt     

but I don’t.
I have a good bit of muslin that I could use for backing on a wall hanging or a lap quilt that I’m keeping but my really nice muslin that I got on sale is almost used up so I’m going to have to see if JoAnn’s has some more.  I did finish my embroidery  for the back.

The plan is to place these sort of randomly on the back.  Once I figure out the placement, I will cut strips accordingly and piece it together.  Hope everyone is having a great week.

my front door

My house is red brick/taupe siding , red shutters that melt into the brick and white doors and trim.   B.O.R.I.N.G.  I’ve been wanting to do something to liven it up. Decided to start with my front door.  So I got this paint sample  and painted the top left quarter of the door --- I just didn’t fall in love with it.

… and this paint sample and painted the top right quarter of the door and really liked it but after looking at it every time I drove away or returned home for a couple of days weeks, I realized that it was not going to pop with the red brick.

After several people asked me if I was dcorating early for the fourth with my r/w/b door, I went back to Lowes and looked at paint again.  This is what I ended up with.  The color is evergreen and I liked it so much I didn’t even worry with a sample.  I just got a quart and got busy.  I still have to paint the side lights and I’m also going to take the hardware off and spray paint it with

some Oil Rubbed Bronze.  The guys have taken my shutters down and I’m going to paint those black.  I think it will look very nice.

Then I will move on to phase 2 which is to  build a grand front porch with a swing and …. figure out how to make the steps leading up to the door more inviting.  But that will be for another day.