I'm finally posting what I did last night!!

Alright, where to start? Last night (Fri. Aug. 17th) was the August Friday Night Sew-In, AND the deadline to finish one of my current projects. When I signed up for this month's FNSI, I was asked to indicate what I was hoping to accomplish, and I commented that I had lots of things to work on, including my Quilt of Valor mystery quilt.... A while back, I saw a picture of a great quilt - and I tried and tried to find out what the pattern was, so that I could make it. I finally found out that it was a QOV quilt, one of many that had been offered online as a mystery quilt. One thing led to another, and I ended up signing on to make a QOV. This is the second one that I've done this year (One of these days I'll share the other one here). So, I'll start with my mystery quilt - we had 2 weeks to complete the last step, and I really needed every minute of it. I'm still working through my mom's death, and, with a few family members, helping dad through it as well, so planning sewing time has been kind of hit and miss. Added to that is the christening of the baby of one of my son's friends - and we can't go to that without a gift!

SO, it was finally Friday night - and I grabbed my mystery quilt, and some fabrics for baby Ava's quilt. I had the body of the mystery quilt done, although I made it a bit bigger; I needed to make up the border and attach it. To make the star points for the quilt, we had the option of using whatever method we chose, and I picked the method that yields bonus triangle units. I later took those off-cuts, and joined them for the border (and I threw in a surprise or two!) I can check that project off the to-do list (now I have a few weeks to get it quilted....). The other project is an "I Spy" quilt for baby Ava. She's a bit too young to fully appreciate it now, but it will make a great gift in the years ahead, as she realizes all the different things that she can find. An I Spy quilt usually has all sorts of images on it - some have doubles of every image, some only one. The game can be as simple or complicated as the player (or parent) makes it. I chose to make each picture different, but many of them are themed ( for example, a number of blocks have stars; others have animals) - so at first she can find all the blocks with animals; as she grows older, it can be narrowed down to black and white animals (cows, zebras, pandas, etc.). And, it can be passed down from one child to the next. I spent a large part of my time last evening cutting images for the quilt, and also strips for the "checkerboard" that separated the blocks from each other. The pattern is based on the one on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site. I only managed to sew a few of the offset checkered squares - more strips have been sewn, but assembling them is my job for Monday - did I mention that I need to have the quilt done so I can give it to her parents on Sunday? Guess there won't be any sleeping in next week! Here's a picture of some of the featured pictures, and also the checkered squares that will keep them apart.

Well, it looks like this is going to be a busy week! Thanks for your encouragement and comments.

Little quilts!

Every summer, I make myself a new miniature quilt. It's something that I've done about 6 or 7 times now, and I really enjoy making them. Making a tiny quilt like this is a lot of fun, and you get to see if you're going to like the quilt before you actually have to commit to making the full-sized version of it. Part of the challenge is making each of the sides shorter than 12"! I spent an afternoon at Cathy's house for a sewing afternoon again last week, and one of the things that I worked on was this little mini quilt:

The pieced blocks are "Darting Birds" blocks, and all of the pieces for the 5 pieced blocks came from the off-cuts from a Quilts of Valor quilt that I'm working on (I'll post a picture of it in the next day or two...) The other thing that I worked on was cutting blocks for a baby quilt that I wanted to make. I saw a picture of the quilt online, and studied it for a few minutes, until I thought that I could figure out how to make the quilt. (It was actually a silly thing to do, because the instructions were included with the picture - I just hadn't noticed them). I got the top completely pieced in a day and a half, which isn't a big deal, because the quilt is only crib-sized. I don't really need it right now, but it's probably a good idea to have one done, just in case I need a baby quilt for a gift some day. It's completely put together; just needs to be layered, quilted and bound. (I just now noticed 2 of the same block positioned with just one block between them - so, once this post goes up, I'll be grabbing the seam ripper...) Argh!

This coming Friday evening is August's "Friday Night Sew-In" - and, as always, I have more than enough PhD's* to choose from! You'll have to check back here Sat. evening to see which one I worked on! (*Projects Half-Done)

Does anyone like making sympathy cards???

I know that I sure don't! (although when you're on the receiving end, it's nice to know that someone cares...). We've just had 2 deaths in a week in our church family, which meant that I needed to come up with a few new cards. It helps that I just got the new Serene Silhouettes stamp set from Stampin' Up. The other SU set that I love is Thoughts and Prayers - it's so appropriate for a number of occasions. I go back to it for sympathy cards over and over - and there are so many different ways to use it. So... here are the 2 cards that came out of that card-making session - first the Thoughts and Prayers card:

I used a striped designer paper and some cardstock that I punched with a scalloped edge - add that to the stamped design and sentiment, round off the bottom corners, and it's done. The second card used the Serene Silhouettes stamp - I used my markers to colour the image, using the green ink to match the cardstock. I embossed the outer edge of the card, and stamped a vanilla panel with the French Script background stamp (using Sahara Sand ink). I mounted the small image on another piece of green C/S, added brads to the top corners, and mounted it on the center of the card. This is what it looked like:

Thanks for stopping in!

FINISHED!

I FINALLY finished my Disappearing 9-Patch variation quilt! Just before my mother passed away, she blessed each of us with a cheque - we were to use it for something that would remind us of her. My first thought was of mom's giving - she graciously and generously gave of her time and talents. I have a few quilts that will be going to new homes sometime soon, but I needed to quilt them before I could give them away. I'm having more and more trouble trying to quilt anything larger than a table runner on my Janome, so I checked out "the competition" - and I found a great offer from Pfaff. Pfaff is celebrating their 150th anniversary this year, and have brought out 2 special models. I bought the Expression 150, and initiated it on this quilt. I had seen pictures of a spiky quilt pattern that alternates from "up and down" to "side to side" as you progress from one block to the next, and I used it for my first quilting project. I'm pretty happy with the results! (I even made and applied a quilt label!) The quilt was completed in time to present to the new owners of the quilt - the family that our son is living with. They have been over-the-top with their generosity - giving our son a place to live while he did his internship; he's still living with them 7 months later! Also, they sent all sorts of edible goodies after mom's death - and Rachel knows how to prepare food! Our son had been asked to preach in his "home" church today; he invited us to share the experience with him, so we did! It also gave us the perfect opportunity to hand over the quilt to the Guthrie family! Have a quick peek at the completed project:(a general pic of the quilt, and then a closer look at the quilting)

Another start!

Yes, I do have finishes too - it's just that there seem to be so many more starts.... and I sometimes forget to post the completed quilt. I'll try to change that. A while back, as I was reading the blog of another quilter*, I realized that some of the things she was chatting about sounded VERY familiar. I contacted her, and sure enough - Cathy lives in the city nearest me, and we have a LOT in common! Trying to make a long story short, we agreed to meet one day; we did, and hit it off almost immediately. Four hours passed VERY quickly; at the end of the afternoon, Cathy proposed we get together for a sewing day - so, this past Tuesday, I ventured into the city, and spent a very enjoyable few hours sewing with her! I thought that it would probably be easier to take a new quilting project with me; so, I gathered up my my new Schnibbles pattern; the 2 Vintage Modern layer cakes called for in the pattern; I cut them, and my B/G fabric as directed, and headed off. I managed to get most of the 9-patch blocks put together, pressed, and ready to add the triangles. Needless to say, Cathy and I spent a fair bit of time chatting too, but we each managed to achieve a fair bit of our projects.

Yesterday, I started adding the top and bottom triangles, and am now working on adding the side triangles. A bit of a trim will be needed, and then the fun of laying these big blocks out will begin!

Check back here soon - I just might have some surprises to show you! *I'd include the link to Cathy's blog, but I still can't figure out how to do it. Where are my kids when I need them? LOL

...and it's finished!

I was hoping to get the quilt top done today, and I managed to accomplish that goal! Thanks to my hubby, who cooked dinner for us so that I could stay at the machine... I'm not sure where I'm going to go with it from here - I have a lot of the cream blocks yet, so I may cut them in half and sew them together to make a frame around the quilt. If there are enough of them, I may just leave them whole. Of course, I'll have to find them back first! At any rate, I'm sure you're anxiously awaiting the pic, and here it is:

How can it be July 14th already??

Boy, time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?! It even seems to fly when you aren't having fun - ask me how I know... Yesterday was Friday Night Sew-In night - and I was ready for it! I haven't had a chance to do any sewing this week, and I had a quilt project that I was excited about working on. I found a tutorial online for a disappearing 9-patch variation: http://mypatchwork.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/disappearing-9-patch-variation-block-with-charm-squares/ and I had 3 charm packs of Reunion by Sweetwater to use for the blocks, along with a cream-coloured Kona fabric. I got a fair bit accomplished; the blocks are all assembled and pressed, and I laid them out on the floor to figure out the placement. The problem that you run into when doing scrappy blocks is the final layout - you "can't" have two similar blocks beside each other, and, when there is a definite "up" and "down" to some of the blocks, you can't just turn them 180°...

I thought I finally had the blocks ready to sew - I picked up 2 at a time, sewed them together, picked up the next two - you get the picture. I had 4 of the 5 rows assembled - and then I found 2 blocks sewn together that should NOT be beside each other. How did I not see that when I laid them out? The fact that it was after midnight might have something to do with it... So, that was the end of that! I don't know if I have to re-do just that row, or if a bigger tear-out is the answer - but I have all afternoon to sort that out. Hope everyone else that signed up for the sew-in had a better evening than mine ended up being!