Christmas Design Wall

On the design wall today are the blocks for my "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt. This is a sew along project from Sew Fresh Quilts. 
I just finished the Christmas Wreath pattern that was posted in June. It was just like constructing a jigsaw puzzle using pieces of fabric!

I've fallen quite a bit behind on this project. There have been 13 block patterns posted and I've just now finished sewing my 4th block. 

That's okay... there are still 5 months until Christmas!

Up next is the reindeer block... I'm thinking I'll make mine a Rudolph!

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Small Quilts.

Temecula Sew Along

Temecula Quilts is hosting a "Marvelous Mini Monday" sew along for the summer, making a block or two or three every week. Here is my collection as of this week. These blocks use up the tiniest scraps that "normal" quilters throw in the garbage, so I feel like this is a free quilt!

Temecula Sew Along

Here are the first 4 blocks for the Marvelous Mini Monday 12 week sew along over at Temecula. 

The top ones are "Jacob's Ladder" blocks. It's ordinarily an easy block to make in regular size, but these ones took an embarrassingly long time to make. I described them to my friend Diane as "sweet", and after making her blocks, she described them as "stressful". Yes, both adjectives are accurate! This is precision sewing at it's finest with the completed blocks measuring 4".
This week's block is a framed pinwheel... I'm off to the sewing room!

New Temecula Mini Sew Along

Did you see that Temecula Quilts has started a new 12 week sew along called Marvelous Mini Monday? What better way to start the week?!?
These blocks are an adorable 4". 
Aren't they sweet? I'm making 2 each week since I have so many small scraps to use up. It's the perfect scrap user project, so YOU should probably join in too!
Who's with me?!?

PS Did you see Temecula's "Baked to Perfection" anniversary cake quilt? What a great quilt! I baked them a red reproduction cake, which is in the second row, third from the right in the finished quilt. It was my small way of saying thank you for all the ways in which they have freely given to the quilting community. Temecula received cake blocks from almost every US state, as well as from Netherlands, Canada, Australia, South Africa, France, England, Ireland, and Germany. It was fun to be a tiny part of this amazing international quilt. 

The Bear is Back!

And here he is on the design wall in all his glory!
This is from Lorna's MOD Bear quiltalong.

I think my fabric choices were all a bit too similar in value and kind of mush together. However it might be perfect for a camouflage effect, and so I'm going to say I did that on purpose. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

As I was sewing the bear I got an idea for some improve pieced blocks which might be fun as part of the bottom border. I'm going to work with my idea this week and see if it works out. I think this is the finished size of the inside of my bear quilt, plus there are a few more borders to add including a paw block border. 

I'm linking up today to Let's Be Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts. I hope there will be other bears prowling around over there!

It's a bear!

Are you making a bear quilt with Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts?
I am sewing a small version of the quilt... maybe a wallhanging or a table runner kind of thing. Just look at all these pieces! It is a lot of work, and I must say that Lorna is an amazing "one-of-a-kind pattern designer". I consider myself to be an experienced quilter, but this is one challenging pattern I must say! 

This is a bear somewhere here!
The pattern is written so clearly that I just follow one step at a time and somehow magically these blocks just come together. 
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

On the design wall today is my version of Pam Buda's Pocket Patchwork called Tucker. Most of the fabrics in this little quilt are scraps from a block sampler quilt that I finished at the beginning of the year.

As you can see, I made a few little alterations to the original design. First, I removed the "too bright" blue square that was on the right of the star in my version of step #2. I just couldn't stop seeing that square in the overall layout, so it had to go!


Then I put the 'scrap love' fusible applique section at the top. The idea just came to my mind when I saw the final layout. When I quilt this little wallhanging, I will stitch around the edges of the shapes to fasten them more securely.

I used up leftover HST's to make most of the flying geese blocks. And I added an extra border of little squares all the way around the whole thing because I had so many bits leftover.
I will try to finish this in time for the quilt parade on Dec. 15th.
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

More machine quilting... and a new sew along starting!

Did you see that Pam Buda is starting a new Pocket Patchwork Sew Along called Tucker - fabric requirements are here.  I made the last pocket patchwork project called Nabby's Dowry, and it's one of my favourite quilts. So you just know I'm eager to start this next one. And it's all small scrappy pieces, so that's even better!

But first.... I have to finish my last sew along project. I do have some bits of self control, on some days! It's pin basted and half quilted. It's a great little project to work on when I am tired of pushing and pulling my large UFO through the machine. I am marking the quilting lines as I go along using my hera marker. It's my favourite tool for marking stitching lines. Now I am highly motivated to finish it up since a new project is on the horizon!

Design Wall Monday

On the design wall/cutting board today is a new project for Valentine's day. This is the Temecula Quilts sew along called Hugs and Kisses. 
I haven't yet finished the Valentine's quilt they posted last year (click here to see it) and here I am starting another one *sigh* 
But it's just a small quilt, so it doesn't really "count" as a new quilting project. It counts as using up scraps. How's that for rationalization?!
So far we have made 6 kisses (9 patch) blocks and 6 hug blocks. The cutting took way longer than the sewing. 



The next step will be posted today, so I am hopping over now to see what to sew next!

To see more design wall postings, visit Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

On my design wall today is the Temecula Letter Sew Along.

All the sashing is sewn together and that took me quite a while to complete.
The quilt is smaller than I thought it would be, so I am thinking of adding a larger border to make it a bigger baby quilt. 






All of these coloured fabrics are hand dyed by Vicki Welsh and they have been so lovely to work with. I won them by participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - how lucky am I?!?!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Cascadia Finale

Another mystery sew along has come to an end. Lori at Humble Quilts has posted the reveal of her mystery sew along, as well as the inspiration quilt - click here to see it.

This quilt used up a lot of scraps - 260 scrappy 1.5" squares to be exact!
I realized that my seminole rows were exactly 1 square shorter than the others, so I removed one square from the straight rows (instead of adding fabric to the end of the seminole rows) for a perfect fit. The finished size of the quilt is 17" x 17".

I had such fun with the machine quilting, stitching a wavy line through the diagonal rows, and diagonal lines through the straight rows. 

Can you see the quilting design in this photo?
A big thank you to Lori for another wonderful little quilty adventure! I can't wait to see what you will come up with next!

And now I am hopping over to Quiltville for the reveal of step #2 of the ongoing Grand Illusion mystery.

Temecula Letter Sew-Along

These are my little Temecula letter blocks that have been posted weekly since September. It has been a very comfortably paced sew-along to keep up with, and the last letters were posted yesterday.

I had a wee bit of difficulty with some of the letters. What do you think this letter is?!?
Next I will be cutting sashing strips and cornerstones, and there are still some filler blocks to sew.

Design Wall Monday Letters

The Temecula letter sew along is continuing and I was able to get caught up on the blocks posted so far. We have finished 20 letters and have 6 more to go, plus the 4 filler pieced blocks.
I am loving these hand dyed fabrics made by Vicki Welsh!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.



Now don't forget about the two blog hops starting today:
1) Quiltmaker's 100 blocks volume #10 and
2) Sew Sisters Canadian quilt blog hop  
Have fun in blogland!

Design Wall Monday

On my design wall today is the Marcus Sew Along quilt top. I was pleased with how well the rows went together. I used a black print with directional hearts for the setting triangles and now I am auditioning fabrics for another border or two.

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Sew Along Update

The Temecula sew along is rolling right along. They have posted 15 letter patterns and I have been able to keep up so far. Here are my rainbow letters.

Won't these blocks make a great baby quilt?
All the block patterns are posted on their blog, so you can join in and make your own quilt at any time.

Design Wall Monday - Marcus Sew-Along

I have finally finished sewing the alternate blocks for the Marcus Fabrics sew-along. They should have been easy blocks but I kept making cutting errors, which made sewing the blocks together much harder than it needed to be. The problem was that some of the pieces are 2" and some are 2.5", and I repeatedly forgot which was which!

And here on the design wall is the recommended layout with the blocks on point. I'll definitely be moving the blocks around to balance the greens and red a bit more.
What do you think?
I think it's not terrible, but it won't be my favorite quilt.
The next step will be to decide which colours to use for the setting triangles and borders. 
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday - Letters

The Temecula sew along letters are on the design wall today. It has been interesting to learn another way to sew letter blocks. I have sewn other letter quilts before using Tanya's method (see one here and here) but the Temecula letters are more structured and less "liberated".
A sew along is such a "no stress" method of making a quilt - just a couple of easy blocks every week, and before you know it, I will have a baby quilt to give away. You can see the layout of what the quilt will look like here. 

I am using Vicki Welsh hand dyed fabrics for the letters and they are divine to sew with. The backgrounds are a variety of black dots on white.
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

TGIF - Sew Along updates

It's Friday!
The Marcus sew along layout is revealed today, and I'm hoping it will be able to turn my sow's ear into a silk purse!
Here is block #9 that I sewed this week. I changed up some of the colour placement and used up many background scraps.

And here are all 9 of my blocks...

Too scrappy?
I don't know...we'll see what the layout is today and maybe that will help spruce it up somehow?
I'm heading over to see the big reveal...

And just as the Marcus sew along is ending, there is a new Snowalong starting over at Canuck Quilter - how fun is that??!! She is posting snowflakes blocks every week. I haven't done paper piecing in a while and am looking forward to making the first block.

And the Temecula letter sew along is up to the letter 'G'. I made a little adjustment on my G block and like it better. This is a fun project, with two 4" letter patterns posted each week. Check out the two finished letter quilts they posted. This will make a great baby gift!

TGIF - Sew Alongs

I love a mystery sew along. You can probably tell because I am involved in a few of them and I will update 3 of my current sew alongs in this post!
*The last Marcus Sew Along mystery block will be revealed today - click here to see it. These are my first 8 blocks.

Next week will be the layout reveal, and it is likely that I will need to go shopping for some fabric for the alternate blocks, since I have just been using scraps so far. There are setting triangles in the quilt description, so the layout will be on point and I need yardage for that. 






*I am also trying to keep up with these little 4" letter blocks from the Temecula sew along. Aren't they cute?!? 

*BeaQuilter has a sew along just starting over at Island Batiks. This is a smaller project, so if you are new to mystery quilts, it's the perfect project for you to try.  I am ready to start cutting into these beauties!
Have a great Friday!

TGIF!

It's Friday!
And not only that, it's the 3rd Friday of the month, which means it's Friday Night Sew In! I was organized enough this month to plan ahead, so I have a couple of friends coming over to help me sew up a storm tonight. You can join in too and sign up here.

First on my sewing agenda will be the Marcus Sew Along block.
Here is my version of block #7 from last week. 
It will join these 6 blocks below.
Hmmm.... not lovin it so far.
Let's see what block #8 is.