Flower Blocks

These blocks will be a wedding quilt some day.  Right now I'm having too much fun with Christmas sewing and RRCB.  Wedding quilt not required until late in 2011 so I have some time.  I was very inspired by an Australian quilting magazine that had unbelievable borders and sashing.  I'm trying to figure out how to make this quilt just as wonderful...going to take a while.  There will be only the nine blocks, I plan on adding a maroon sashing as soon as I can figure out what kind of curve I want it to have, then borders, I love borders, they will be yellow, green and maroon, certainly with embroidery on them as well.  You can also look at the post that has the coasters, I pulled 4 of the flowers out of the designs for coasters for my daughter.  http://suedaurio.blogspot.com/2010/11/made-some-coasters-today-was-suppose-to.html.

The embroidery pattern is Art Nouveau Floral Square Design Pack from Embroidery Library - http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=X6007  Lots of stitches, I finished a quilt top while the 9 blocks were stitching out!!

One more day of sewing then back to reality

One more day of vacation then back to the real world.  Lots of things accomplished this week - baby quilt (oh that wasn't part of the plan, but very pleased with the outcome), Snowman collector quilt - all button hole stitching completed on all blocks, pillow cases for great nieces and nephews (Justin's is hard to read but hey he's only 3, he can't read yet ;).  And the design wall got redone and I absolutely love it!!   Before I just had batting hanging on the wall, nicely trimmed of course.  But it was not a strong batting and was starting to sag.  I saw a posting from someone on Quiltville board regarding insulation foam and wrapping that with batting.  So my husband had a nice afternoon project and I absolutely love it!! I love that it's so easy to use pins.  I love my machine embroidery and the stabilizer doesn't always stick as nicely as I would like to the batting, but now it's so easy to pin things to it.  Oh and I  finished clue to of RRCB, ya...can't wait to see how that's going to turn out.  I love scrappy quilts.  Tomorrow, I need to start on some of the machine quilting, a few projects are starting to stack up.  They are all laid out nicely in the guest bedroom.  We have guests coming in 2 weeks....must do quilting tomorrow.  Oh, it's just so much fun to do smaller projects and see some quick results.

My first EQ7 Quilt top done

Well there we go the top is done.  There are a few things that I still want to tidy up a bit.  But I'll save that for Friday.  What I learned - look closely at the pattern of the quilt.  While EQ7 had this as one block, I should have split it up into two blocks. This would have avoided the whole twelve pieces of material coming to one point.  That is really too much for my skill level.    So look closely and redesign the blocks if needed.  I learned that pinning really was important and that I really don't like it all that much.  I need to improve my pinning skills.  Use long, thin, sharp pins (watch the fingers - I still poke myself way too often), push the pin in parallel to the material, or as close as you can get and for the points I pinned just above by a thread or two.  Still lost a couple of points, but what can you do?  I never said I was an expert quilter, I just like to have fun and try new things.  

Now, to do a little Christmas shopping and think about dinner tomorrow and then back to my regularly scheduled snowman quilt that I have been avoiding.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Dang it, I should have paid more attention

I thought the EQ quilt was so cute and was so pleased that the checkered border worked correctly.  However as I was on the last row of the border (which I had on top (another dang it) I noticed that the checkered border does NOT line up so nicely.....ughhhhhhhh.  I'm leaving the checkered border but really need to move the the two squares in a row on the bottom side.  Time to redo, and I really wanted to have the quilt top done before I started things for Thanksgiving.....well may next year.

Pinning is really hard for me

I struggle with pinning, usually I don't because I actually get better results without pins.  However there are times when pinning is just necessary, like in the example of the baby quilt I'm working on.  I did manage to pin things correctly for the most part and I'm satisfied with the results.  By the time I got to block 9 I think I was pretty good at, still working on it though.  My poor fingers have been pinned and re-pinned many times.  Now that the blocks are done, lets see how I am at pinning the blocks together!!

I got a lot of good tips from the cyber quilters that really helped!

Made some coasters today, was suppose to be working on the snowman quilt

How could I work on a snowman quilt when we had tornado warnings today?  Really, tornado's in the mid west in late Nov???  So I worked on the baby quilt.   Oh it's coming along so nicely. All the embroidery is done and I should have some blocks ready tomorrow.   While I was piecing on one machine I made some coasters for my daughter on the other.  I think I just might keep these though I really like them.  the flowers are a from a design that I'm using for a wedding quilt for my nephew. That one is on hold until after the holidays.  There are just too many quick fun things to make this time of year.

Another productive sewing weekend

How long can this last?  Two great sewing weekends in a row!  I finished step one for Bonnie's RRCB mystery quilt.  This is my first mystery quilt and the very excited about it.  I just can't wait for step 2.

I have been playing with EQ7, I've created dozens of quilts on the computer, now to make one real!  Starting with a baby quilt (I love making baby quilts) and the embroidery has started.  I'm using the left over blues from the snowman collector quilt for a baby boy quilt.  While the embroidery is going I'll be working on my snowman collector quilt.  I have all the blocks cut and fused, now just need to add the button hole stitching.  Lots to do while I wait for clue number 2.

Oh and I have the week off so there will be plenty of sewing this week!

EQ7 finally going to make a quilt!

I've created dozens of wonderful quilts on the computer, now it's time to turn the bits and bytes into something tangible.  I'll be making a baby quilt.  There will be embroidery in the big blue diamonds, very exciting.  I have the embroidery started and all the material.

Productive weekend!!

Wow what a productive weekend.  I finished 8 sets of coasters (nieces and nephews getting coasters for Christmas), the tops of two sets of place mats are done (siblings getting place mats for Christmas) and my first attempt at cathedral windows.  Someone sent another technique that I will try.  I want to master this and someday make a cathedral windows quilt, but I'm not quite there yet.  Since it was such a productive Saturday I have started on a holiday table runner for myself!!

Learned about fabric decorating in 4D

Just learned about this and having some fun with it, not sure if I really like it but it's fun to experiment

Colts quilt completed

This is a surprise quilt for my grandson.  I don't normally like doing surprise quilts, that's a lot of work if someone is disappointed!!  But I think he'll like it.  And if he doesn't I do and I'm a colts fan too.!

Organized Thread

and here's the picture without the thread, just simple screws