Friday, September 28, 2012

My husband and I singing Young Girl.

I am not sure how this will work.
If it does not play find my FaceBook page (Sue Mohr) it should be on my Timeline!
Boy does the camera ever add weight! I have lost 28#'s and it looks as if I never lost any! Sigh!
XOXOXO Subee


https://www.facebook.com/ajax/flash/expand_inline.php?v=527795843913988&target_div=uh15bg0116&playertype=permalink&max_width=403&max_height=403&context=timelineSingle



Thursday, September 20, 2012

My Tulip Fields designed by Bonnie Hunter

I cannot apologize enough to Our Bonnie Hunter for me not staying for her trunk show or for not attending the Crumb Class the next day.
But on the brighter side, I did get to see and talk to Bonnie. And I also made this great quilt:


The pattern, Tulip Fields, can be found in her newest book String Fling.

I only made 6 blocks during the class. But I have spent this week immersed in piecing this quilt. I decided on my color scheme by wanting a quilt to match this border fabric by Jinny Beyer. My burgundy fabric is also a Jinny Beyer fabric. Both printed by RJR fabrics. They are also both pretty ancient. I am sure they are both out of print (OOP).
I harvested the thin border strips from the fabric and used that for the sashings. I loved the effect!!!
I am not sure if I even want to add the thicker border print. I will have to let this quilt stay on the design wall for a few days as I decide.


Of course the thicker border print will be mitered.


I used 1 1/2" strips to cut my QST. And Bonnie taught another way in the class. (I am not telling!) So I took my ruler and cut a 3 7/8" square once on the diagonal and taped that UNDER my ruler and used that to trim all my units. It worked great!!


My copy of Pieced Hexies by Mickey Depre came on Tuesday. Such a great and clever idea for getting more "art" out of Hexies. Before it had come I did guess how she was achieving those results. And I was right. But once again I am not telling. Buy her book!!!!


The cooler weather has made me bake some whole wheat bread. Oh my is it ever good!!!  The happy postman came yesterday with his arms full of swap packages. He is so nice and so careful with these precious envelopes that I gifted him with a huge hunk of bread!!! He took it gladly!!!

I did not have any molasses as the recipe called for so I used honey. I will have to add that to my "winter" grocery list. I am slowly really stocking up the cupboards with canned goods. I try to buy all the heavy groceries before the snow and ice hit. DH put up three huge storage shelves in the garage for the excess canned goods. WHOOHOOO!!!!

Then I will start my Christmas shopping. I already have a few items bought from last year's clearance sales after the holidays. I get everyone two pair of pajamas. That is so easy to do.  Then socks and slippers and a few little items.
And I also buy myself "home wear".
 I am so looking forward to being snow bound with DH!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

North Manchester and Our Bonnie Hunter

Yep! Here is proof...Bonnie is taller than I am!!!


 She is slim, lovely and ever so patient with all the newbie quilters. She showed them all how to achieve that "perfect 1/4" seam"! There are many methods that work and she helped each quilter adjust to their specific machine.


Signing books. Her time is sure not her own with 40 information starved quilters waiting with bated breaths.
The room was huge and she even had a microphone to get her words of wisdom to the far corners of the room.


The fluorescent lights really played havoc with my camera's settings. Some are very yellowish. The above photo is my day's work. My baskets are all string pieced in various shades of green. My tulip tips are burgundy.
 Six  7" tulip blocks made and three 3" spool blocks. The spool blocks are Bonnie's newest Leaders and Enders challenge. I even brought her a baggie full of pre-cut spool blocks for her own personal collection.


Here is my "space" set-up. I am NOT good in crowds. So I was in the last row on the end in case I needed some breathing room. I cannot help it. Even loving Bonnie as I do it was really a large effort to be there. 40+ women even with plenty of room was a bit too much for me.
On the chair is my Cinnamon Triangles quilt that is based on Bonnie's Pfferneuse pattern in her newest book, String Fling.  It made a great cushion.
I bought a black TV tray table that has three adjustable heights. It worked flawlessly at level #2. It was the perfect fit for the Janome 3160 QDC with the Janome 6500P's acrylic table that fits!!!!
A fellow guild member made me the ironing pad for the smaller TV tray. I was quite comfortable. When I needed to do some rotary cutting I simply stood up for a stretch too.
Here are a few photos of my neighbor's blocks:




So many nice people and the North Manchester College campus is beautiful. It is tucked into a residential area with lots of large trees and plenty of walking space.

I need to stay home with DH tomorrow so I called and offered my spot in the Crumb Piecing class to the next quilter on the waiting list. No charge of course.
Sorry Bonnie.....
XOXOOXXO Subee

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Bonnie Hunter will be in Indiana!!!!

Yep!
She will be in North Manchester tomorrow-I will be there.
She will be in Goshen/Elkhart on Monday-I will be there.
She is now in Fort Wayne!!! Just a few minutes from me!!! I keep looking out the window hoping she will just drive up to pick up her diet Dr. Pepper!!!
Oh Bonnie!!!!!

I am all packed up and very ready for this excursion.
I bought a Tutto sewing machine trolley last year. I have never even tried it before. I love it. It rolls easily even with it all packed up as you can see in the two pictures following:



So it will be just one trip from my truck to the sewing room at the Manchester college Student Union building!!!!!

Here are my pinks all picked out for the pink 2 1/2" strip swap this month. They are now all washed, pressed, cut and packaged for the swap. This color is possibly my favorite swap color.
WHOOHOOO!!!
XOXOXOXO Subee

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

My hand quilting project.

Our Bonnie Hunter sure has a way of getting us up and moving. Perhaps it is a guilt trip over neglecting this sweet little quilt. It was my "go away" project at the end of this past Winter season.


 I love, love, love the needle cases made by Clover. They each hold 10 threaded needles. I am so OCD that when I like something I want lots of those somethings! I guess 40 threaded needles will hold me for a while. HA!
I also only use YLI quilting threads. I have every color of course. And my precious Jinny Beyer thimble made by TJ Lane. Same maker as Bonnie's new thimble. They are pricey but worth every penny.

This is a knitting bag but I use it for quilting. The old makeup bag with the tools and the quilt fit in there perfectly. And it is all lined in a silky fabric so things slide in and out with ease.

 Poor thing is a bit wrinkled...the center is from one charm pack. I used Kona Snow as the background and used Bonnie's measurements for the Cheddar Bowtie Leader & Enders project. My Cheddar Bowties are ready for assembly. But this one came first.

The design is very hard to see but there are delicate scrolled feathers marked. I do prefer straight line quilting to all those short curves that this one involves.

I had this shelving unit in my quilt room. I had to move it out because the chrome shelving unit I bought at a yard sale was too tall to fit under the shelf that spans the entire room. What a juggling match to move all those things but I am very pleased with the final result.
I decided whatever did not fit back on that shelf would be donated to Project Linus. It was hard to part with perfectly good fabric. But I have way too much inventory to even SEE what I do have!!

 Look at all the neutral batiks I found!!! WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!


Neutrals and browns...yummy fabrics!!!
XOXOXOXO Subee

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

I am done with Thangles.

I am done with Thangles. Guess I could call it the summer of the Thangles. The process is super easy to sew. The results are dead on...but then so are my HST I make using the EZ Angle ruler.
The reason I am done with the Thangles is the paper removal process. I mean geezzzz...after pinning the fabric to the paper and sewing and then cutting apart and then removing the paper and then the pressing...it takes too much time!! But of course it did not help that I had 648 of these to do. I should have broke it up into small chunks.  But I also wanted a real good mix of the colors.

I decided to make the Medallion Quilt instead. It is in the book entitled:
 Friendship Triangles authored by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts.
(http://www.laundrybasketquilts.com)
It is so much more simple to put together then the Constellation Throw pattern. Here are only 8 rows of the 14 needed to show you.
I really like the random blue and green and red that pop up occasionally.
Scrappy is great!!! And I only need 420 units instead of 576. So I still will have some "seed" for another small project.


The quilt I was going to make did not happen. I had issues with the unit layouts. Even after I resorted to my graph paper and trying to draw out the pattern. I really wanted to make the Constellation Throw. But stopped after 4 block quarters.
I have them sewn together and will make a place mat or something from it. I do love the colors.



 Nice full basket of HST
 I do the Thangles in chain piecing. It is really a lot of fun. I really like lining things up and keeping all the color together.
Also I have moved my sewing area back around so I am sitting straight on to the picture window again. I have so much more room it seems.

 And use an open toed foot if you have one. It makes the lines easier to see.
I had a fellow quilter friend make me an ironing pad for the TV tray. Love it!! And I am no longer putting water in my irons. Bonnie Hunter is so right. A spritz of water on stubborn fabric wrinkles works great!!!
XOXOXOXO
Subee