Saturday, December 28, 2013

Shaded Four Patches

AKA Mary's unit blocks according to Sally Schneider

So today during quilt cam I launched into Clue 5 Celtic Solstice.  I read a few posts on Facebook and remembered a workshop taught by one of our guild members a few years ago on the Mary's Unit Block. I dug through all the UFOs and found the nice stack that I had started with the workshop. The units were quite a bit larger than needed for this clue but I also had a conversion chart for making the unit in different sizes....I had also acquired  The "Gizmo" which is sold on Sally Schneider's site (sallyschneider.com)


It is a small acrylic ruler
 for marking the unit 
In a wonky half



These are my beginning units all sewn



This one has been pressed open

You then layer it with a blue rectangle
Mark the sewing lines with the 
Offset "Gizmo" sew on the lines and
Cut them apart.....
Two units !


So far 20 units made...
And 80 partially sewn.

With this method you make units 2 for one.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas

Finished a few gifts yesterday, and was able to finish my Step 4 of the Celtic Solstice. 





Today I wrap and take a few gifts to friends.


 I have to work tomorrow so our day will happen tomorrow night. Whenever I have to work on Christmas my husbands brings a yummy breakfast into my work for all of us who are working. Cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole. Love that guy! Will be nice to spend  time tomorrow with my son and  DIL. Merry Christmas all!



Thursday, December 19, 2013

Ready for Step 4

Just pressing the last of step 2 of the Celtic Solstice mystery.
Now I am all ready for the next clue that comes tomorrow.



 
Check out all the progress of other players.......
 




And our tree got a new skirt this year.




Enjoying my day off today, a massage and a little sewing for gifts. 
Getting ready for a visit with my San Diego family.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

HSQ in Part 3

This weeks clue for the mystery involves.......Half Square Triangles. Love to hate them right.  So many ways to make them.....what to do.....

After procrastinating and having read every blog post and comment on Facebook on how to make one (or 200 for this weeks clue) I have decided to try a ruler that has been in the arsenal for let's just say quite some time...

STRIP TUBE RULER

https://www.cozyquilt.com/aspx/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=517



Found a few scrap strips from my 2 1/2 inch bin....


Never having used this ruler before I will save my judgement for after all 200 HSQ's are finished.




First the tube is sewn




After seeing that I made the tube way too big.....I found my groove!

Okay I am sold..... Off to make 194 more....

Putting step  2 aside for now....






Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Progress on Celtic Solstice and oh yeah Christmas is coming!

Needing to take a little time off from CS this week as I have a few things to sew for Christmas. I have actually been doing step 2 as a leader ender between my projects. I have managed to finish 30 of the 100 so not too bad.


http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up.html

And , oh yes I have to work a few days in there too!

My new Christmas tree skirt still needs a little hand work. 



We had a little snow overnight. Enough to remind us it is wintertime!



So off I go to my "sewing studio" .......

Monday, December 2, 2013

Linky Thingy 1

Monday and time to link up with Quiltville for a little show and tell....

I have my blues on the right side of the orange and about 1/3 all of my creams. Hope to sew a little more tonight and then I have to work a couple of days. I hope to finish up on Thursday in time for the second clue on Friday. Love to see everyone's progress both on Facebook and Quiltville .


http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up-1.html




This is a picture of my cut pieces and my sisters cut pieces before the sewing began.



 
tonight I am at the halfway point.....
 
Enjoy the process!




 

Saturday, November 30, 2013

And so we begin.....

I hope all had a very nice Thanksgiving. Yesterday the first step to the Bonnie Hunter Mystery was posted. The cutting has begun. My sister and I have just a few more triangles and side triangles yet to cut, and then she will bring up her new to her featherweight to begin the sewing. 

A few pics of what we are doing.....


Sisters' pieces all cut.



No slicing of fingers!



Supervision



And another supervisor




My stack is growing.

Friday, November 22, 2013

November Bee Blocks


These blocks were fun to make. I followed this tutorial

http://cyndistitches.blogspot.com/

For the Sew Bee Wonky Bee




And these for  Do. good stitches  / Harmony




Thursday, November 21, 2013

Quilts for OBT

PMQG is making doll quilts to be sold at Oregon Ballet Theaters'/ Nutcracker this year . These were my two contributions. Fun working with minke on the back, and i was able to use a few block scraps from my mystery Easy Street from last year.





Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

San Diego

Boy could I get use to this weather......

Time for me to head home today. I have had a nice long weekend visit with my son and DIL , but my visit has come to an end.....

Now I know I said I was going to pull from stash for the Celtic Solstice mystery coming up but I just couldn't resist a few pieces that I found at a few quilt shops down here ! Thank you DIL / chauffeur for taking me . 




I found a cute pattern for charity /baby quilts and a fun black and white stripe for binding too.

Guess I better get my bags packed. See ya later San Diego.....


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Perfect Tote

I have had this collection of fabric for a while now. I bought it in the hopes that I would make a Weekender Travel Bag /Amy Butler with it.

and then I saw this...tote that uses quilt as you go panels for it and decided to make that instead.



http://www.ohfransson.bigcartel.com/product/perfect-quilted-totes-pdf-sewing-pattern

I just love a good tote!

and so here is my version of it.

 
Maybe I will call it.....
Put a Bird on it!
 

 
Love the Blue/Green mix of colors.
 

 
and inside a professional finish with
zip pocket and slip pocket.
 
Think this will go with me today to San Diego.
off to see my kids.....










Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Pulling from the stash

Going through my stash today . Trying to find some bits for the Celtic Solstice  Mystery.....

This is what I found so far.



I think I will have enough of everything in the stash for the quilt top without having to buy anything.
Now that's a good feeling.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

get ready for a good Mystery

Last week Bonnie Hunter posted the color and fabric requirements for her holiday mystery. Now this is HUGE! She has a mystery on her blog every year between Thanksgiving  and New Years . Last year I did Easy Street along with her and all her followers. I think this group grows every time she does this.  I even had two sisters follow. I saw several Easy Streets at the Sisters Quilt Show in July and one of my Guild girls also had a beautiful one.

So anyway off to Lowes I went to pick up her suggested paint cards to start going thru my stash.

  Going to try and not buy any fabric this time , at least for the front. She has two sizes to choose from, not sure about that yet.
 
So how about it. Are you up for a good Mystery. Come and join the Mahem! 
You know you want to.......
 
Click on the little button with the green bear off to your right. It should take you to the site.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Time for a Talk

Nothing like getting ready for a little trunk show to get you finishing those UFO's!
 Tonight Ann Marie and I will be giving a little talk and trunk show at the WQG meeting.
 The content is "Modern Quilting" .
 Now my co presenter is a prolific awesome quilter and she amazes me with her quilting. You can see her site there in my side border for those blogs I love to follow. http://runandsewuilts.wordpress.com/
 Love her STUFF!

Enough said about that ....
I was able to finish 3 quilts for the talk tonight.
 Just finished hand sewing on the binding of the third this morning.
 Another beautiful sunny day here in Oregon so outside I went
 to take some pictures of the three newly finished quilts.



Grannie Square Quilt



Back of the quilt




Modern Crusade Quilt


And the back of it.



And this Friendship Star Quilt that 
I  showed last week.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Friendship Stars Improv

Finally finished the binding on this little quilt. It is my first attempt at improve piecing. The blocks were made and sent to me by my friends in the Sew Bee Wonky group on Flickr. I added a few of my own blocks and decided to offset them with low volume prints. Love how this turned out. Straight line quilting or as one of my guild friends called it... " corduroy quilting ".

 
Sunshiney day today so a good day to
take the picture outside.
 

 
The back with a few leftovers thrown in.
 
 

 
and one more picture of the front.
Love this quilt.
UFO No More!

Friday, October 11, 2013

MQX West

Got to go to MQX West friday. Quilt show and classes for machine quilting. Not to mention a vendors mall. I wasn't planning on taking any classes but when I got there they had an opening in a lecture demo with Angela Walters and Lisa Sipes so I took it. The two of them showed how they would quilt blocks that people had brought in. It was a great 2hour lecture class. I enjoyed looking at some amazing quilts and had fun walking through the vendors. A great day indeed.






Vibrant colors. 






Angela in action



Lisa . She is so fun.



Some of the blocks that were quilted




Angela's beautiful work.