Each one teach one!

A friend who had been missing from my life for 30+ years returned to Indiana last year after her husband died.
She has always been a seamstress. Has worked in very high end fashion stores doing alterations. She showed some interest last year in quilting. Then the "bug" bit her bad a few months ago. I started gifting her all my little triangles and leftover blocks. She has been on a roll making quilts from these fabrics.

A totally wonderful quilt made from black and white fabrics. See the staircase on the lower right side? My hubby really likes this one.

Not only is she piecing blocks but she is also doing paper piecing with the little leftovers. This little bit is just the start of a quilt for one of her doll collections. The block is 4" small!!!!

Lucky Lucy keeps making friends with all the big kitties. Here she is sharing my sewing chair with the alpha cat Macy. I cannot believe it. Macy is so contrary. She wants to be the only cat in the house. But Lucky has won her over too. Look out Macy. Lucky wants the #1 spot!

I did the last swap in the quilting room. I was not sure how Lucky would be with the baskets. She is quite a rambunctious kitten. I did not want her to tip over the baskets and have me pulling my hair out.

Maggie Mae sucking heat from a lamp over the ironing board.

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My Log Cabin quilt is on my bed!!!!!!

Sunny day.
Clean sheets.
Curious cat (MaggieMae).
I am so glad I have my Log Cabin quilt on my bed. I made very scrappy binding from all the neutrals in the quilt.
Hubby really likes the size of this monster. 144" X 115"
We only have a queen size bed. It has plenty of room for two humans and four cats. When we are all under there is still quilt hanging over. Perfect!!!!

I actually gave myself two quilts this month. And both are designs by Edtya Sitar of http://www.laundrybasketquilts.com

I really love her color choices...browns...tans...creams...yummmmmmm

I used Minkee for the backing on the smaller quilt. I cannot wait to snuggle under it while hand piecing. The kitties have not found it yet. I have it over the back of a wooden rocking chair. One area they cannot balance on. HA!

Must sew...must sew on something...so I made 100 4 1/2" paper pieced blocks. I also made some border blocks. More like a piano key border. I just wanted to see what they looked and felt like.  (They are in the last photo in this post.)
I like them so will make a bagillion more.
I was saying to DH that even after making 100+ blocks my string supply did not look to have went down at all. He said that is a good thing. My supply is never ending!!! What an understanding Hubby!

All ready to begin sewing. Baskets, papers, lights and strings!

A new quilting t-shirt. Gosh this is so true!!!!

And I just had to try a couple Moth in the Window blocks designed by Our Bonnie Hunter. (http://www.quiltville.com)
I used shirts from my dear departed mother-in-law and son-in-law. They look perfect together. I will make a bunch more and use them to make a baby quilt for DGD who is pregnant and due in June. I have time....but they all keep making babies!!!!!! I am not going to be able to keep up someday!

Here are the border blocks on the left. They are 4 1/2" high and not all the same length. I did try to add some larger pieces on the edges so that when joining them I can adjust the seam to make the border fit better.

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Tulip Fields is all done!

All done. Labeled,quilted and bound.
It took me three days to machine quilt it. It is only 64" square. But there are many seams and I wanted to make sure the string piecing had plenty of quilting to keep it intact. DD#1 washes her quilts a lot! This will be her Christmas present.

I cannot thank Our Bonnie Hunter (www.quiltville.com) enough for this beautiful pattern. It can be found in her newest book entitled String Fling.

Our Macy Gray is a sleeping spot stealer. She intimidates through glances and getting way too close for comfort. If she would just lay down next to her victims she could gather their heat too. But no.....

She wants it all!!!!

Poor MaggieMae.

She no longer has her heavy fur coat.

And my gigantic Log Cabin quilt is back from the long arm quilter and is all bound. I am waiting to put it on my bed. I want to take it to the next guild meeting for Show & Tell.

290 blocks should be enough!

OKAY...I see I have the wrong date on my slip of paper. But I was blown away when I did a final count on the Roman stripe blocks. 290 of these beauties!!! I must have forgotten to double the quantities when I cut them in half.
I hang my head in shame. But they are all pinned into groups of ten per Our Bonnie Hunter. I will decide what I am making with them some time in the future.
Meanwhile....

My Log Cabin quilt came home yesterday. Lisa Olinger did a magnificent job quilting feathers in both the light and the dark areas. The feathers go in opposite directions too. Lisa also told me that this was the largest quilt she has ever done. It measures 144" X 115". And I also have the correct amount of Log Cabin blocks to make another one equally as big. I know I am an overachiever.

I have a bunch of that black popcorn. It is called Black Pearl I think. Anyway...I do not care for it and have 4 bags in the freezer. DH used his air popper and we filled these three bags. I assumed the squirrels and birds would like air popped popcorn. No fats...no salt...
No one wants it. A few squirrels have nibbled on it. The Blue Jays lit and then flew away. The Sparrows just stare at me through the window...geezzz...maybe when the snow is a foot deep they will learn to like it.
They are spoiled with raw peanuts and black oil sunflower seeds.

We could not have wished for better weather for the final open stage at New Haven's Schnelker Park Gazebo. It was 78 and sunny. But the wind was really strong. We had a fair turnout. There were two hot food trucks there. And face painting and toss games for the children.
Part of me is giddy with joy of not having to be there every week. And another part of me is sad because I really enjoyed the time spent with James.
I will really miss this beautiful tree...I will have to come and visit it at the park.

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Little Pyramids Table Topper by Edyta Sitar

Our guild is planning on doing a Friendship Triangle exchange as found in Edyta Sitar's book of the same title. Three of us are planning on getting the "fires" started by having a quilt made or at least begun to show what we want to do!!

 I had made all those Thangles a few weeks back with a common batik background and used every batik strip I had received in a Yahoo swap last year! I have the little center area all done. It only took one afternoon!!!

 I was a bit anal about my triangles...meaning NO REPEATS!!! And I had enough made that I just clipped one triangle off the Thangle unit and set that unit aside.
The end result is pretty but I need to make another one with more darks and less mediums. Do you all know that we quilters tend to buy mediums more than any other shade??? I really do try not to anymore. Another lesson learned from watching TV quilt shows.

 My work area stayed pretty neat while I worked. Yes, I hoard telephone books now. I really love making string blocks. And when I just want some mindless sewing to do, I make some string blocks. Just for fun!!!

 It made the assembly a bit slower but I trimmed the dogears off and removed the papers one HST at a time. Again, me being anal about where a fabric was going. The topper has eleven rows of eleven HST's. So I just did each row as I went. It worked for me.

 I quilted this little beauty after I finished quilting the Cinnamon Triangle quilt. This was another quilt inspired by Edyta Sitar.  It is 34" square.

 And here are the two tiny beauties together. Yes, there are string blocks in the corners. I am finding all kinds of places for my growing collections!

 Cinnamon Triangles is all done. It is quilted, labeled and bound.

 I am pretty sure I will be giving this to GD #1 for her November BD. But until I decide on that for sure I will just slip this one away for future determination.

21 baskets all waiting to be put into their envelopes and mailed back to the swappers. DH took me to the PO on Tuesday. I had four heavy canvas bags. He really made that trip so easy on me. Thanks James!!!
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My big log cabin inspired by Edyta Sitar

Finally the log cabin inspired by Edyta Sitar is now a flimsy!!!

320 blocks

lots of browns and tans with batik pink centers.

115" X 144"

and...

 Pearl approved!!!

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Log Cabin quilt with 1" strips

Here is my Edyta Sitar inspired Log Cabin quilt. I made this with 1" strips. So after both sides are sewn there is only 1/2" showing! The blocks in the corner are just some string pieced blocks. The border fabric was a leftover from eons ago. I found it in the bottom of a basket where it must have been waiting for 10+ years!

The quilt is a sweet 24" square. A perfect size for a kitty!

 I quilted each and every log. Despite it's small size it seemed to take forever to quilt it. But when I was done I was more than pleased with the end results.

 Pearl approved!!!

 A sewing machine cover???? front view

 A sewing machine cover? back view

  And here is the result of my Thangles journey. These are all batiks. I actually used every single pin in that pin cushion when prepping these for sewing!!!
I am now working on some Reproduction fabrics with varied backgrounds. After sewing just one line on the paper I am not too pleased with how these fabrics are behaving. They were pressed prior to sewing so there should be no stretching involved. Perhaps I had the stitch length too short. But the Batiks behaved well with that same setting.
I will let you all know the results of some tweaking the settings.

 I am the Hostess for the blue 2 1/2" swap on the Yahoo groups connected with Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville group. Here is the result of major pressing,cutting and packaging. A good collection of washed blue scraps and of course some blue strings for my collection!!!! WHOOHOOO!!

 I enjoy watching the Smithsonian channel. And so does MaggieMae. Honest, I found this show through the guide today. We have watched it maybe 3 or 4 times. As soon as I change the channel, here comes MaggieMae. She loves King Fishers! It must be their song on the soundtrack. She tries to get inside the TV!!! I pray that she does not knock the TV off the stand. I really like the fact that TVs are lighter. But it does make them much more of a tip danger for children and pets.

This is Macy's favorite place to nap. She has it sooooo rough!!!!

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Pfefferneuse failure!!!!

There are times when the pieces of a planned quilt have a life all their own. And the best laid plans of mice and men  quilters must go with the flow.
I could not use Bonnie Hunter's layout from her newest book entitled String Fling. 


No matter how hard I tried the layout just did not sing to me. DH and I decided on this layout. And of course I now have lots of extra units leftover. There are lots of seams to sew over. I do not think my DSM can handle quilting this. I sure need a long arm quilting machine.

This smaller quilt is a sweet 43" square before the final borders.

Despite failing to make the actual Pfefferneuse quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter, I am very pleased with what I do have done.

And my huge Log Cabin quilt is still in sections. (on the left) I will get to it sometime. I have had a great weekend sewing. I sure lost 4+ days last weekend when we had no power and then doing the throw away of food. GRRRRR! I need to really make a big grocery run now that the power has been restored all around the area. It will take me months to get things built back up again. Sigh!
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The freedom of designing your own creation!

I had a designing moment in the middle of sewing the huge Log Cabin quilt. Since I needed to make 29 more dark/light blocks before continuing I decided to make a few 4" Log Cabin between them. As a result I created two real small quilt tops.

I had these leftover cat border units from a pillow top fabric from eons ago. It fit this little Log Cabin top perfectly. Well...after I added some spacer strips to it. The selvages on the stripe fabric will get cut off. And I made 4 little brown string blocks for the corner. I love string blocks!!!
Do you all know that Our Bonnie Hunter of www.quiltville.com has another great book coming out in July 2012? It is called String Fling. Right up my alley!!!!
I pre-ordered it already and I advise you all to do the same!!!

 I have not decided on a border yet for this little mini. I have been watching the Harry Potter DVD's as I have been sewing. Somehow I need to link that memory to these little minis. They will be for my precious kitties to use of course!!!

 Here is my diagram for the big Log Cabin quilt. I have to credit Edyta Sitar for the coloring of my blocks. It seems I have been collecting all her colors most of my quilting life!!!!
I am checking off each unit as I make them. It is gonna be a long haul. I will never be able to quilt this one on my own. I will have to have Lisa Olinger (my long armer) quilt this giant. And I will also have to piece the batting for the length.
Sigh! But the result will be fantastic!!!

 I bought all the stuff to make my own stiletto. But did find my porcupine quill stiletto from my dress making days. It works great!!!! I cannot imagine what this creature would look like closeup with these heavy quills!!!!

 One of my Mom's bowls that I use for small pieces. That way she is sewing with me even though she has passed away. I have the little 1" Log Cabin centers in the bowl.

 And here they are stretching across the sewing table. I cannot imagine ever sewing in the cramped sewing room I used to use. This table has spoiled me. It is the small Quilters' Dream table. It is on wheels and very easy to move around.

 My Macy Gray loves to watch her world upside down. She has it so rough!!!!

 And every time I get up from the sewing machine for a stretch Bess plops herself down on my chair. I am thinking it is the kitty version of Our Bonnie Hunter's Florabunda that she loves.

And MaggieMae's fur is growing out sooooo fast. I must schedule a cut for her soon BEFORE she begins to tangle. Getting an appointment at the groomers is worse than getting a doctor's appointment. She is a good groomer and is booked out a long way!!!! Maybe she could fix my own haircut I tried to do......
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