What's Up?

It's been over a year since I last posted...would rather sew than post in my spare time. But here is what I have been up to...

Sew Sampler Box Barn Quilt in progress. Started receiving FQS Sew Sampler Box this year and I am loving getting the surprise every month in the mail.

Swoon 16 king size quilt in progress using Lori Holt's Autumn Love fabric. My fall quilt for my bed (Thimbleberries Quilted Garden) is showing a lot of wear and tear lately so I need to replace it and I liking the swoon quilt.

I am doing 36 of the swoon 16 blocks and it will look something like this.

Here's a close up of a swoon block. Each block will feature a different autumn love print.

Lori Holt's Bloom quilt.

New studio pics....

I had my DH make me a peg board wall...love!!!

added 2 $30 white Walmart bookcases.

Packed with lots of cool stuff.

See the pink rug? Love this new addition!

I also finally got around to making my Quilt Diva quilt (it still needs quilting and buttons).

I put back up my Quilted design wall...

Goes so nicely with my area rug ;)

This Lori Holt min quilt also needs to be quilted...

Zipper Bags to hold Lori Holt's Sew Simple Shapes...

So my son moved back home a few months ago so he could save money and go back to school, which is a good thing and he's getting straight A's. But with this change DH gave up his office which was actually a downstairs bedroom. I gave up my office/sewing room space to him and took over the dining room space as my new sewing room (My longarm is still in the one car garage quilt studio).

I like my new space a lot...see above pics :) 

I also have been on a huge Lori Holt binge lately...so far I have made several of her sew along quilts. I have done Bloom, Cozy Christmas and I have the fabrics to make Sweetie Pie, Be Happy, Let's Bake and I am currently following along with her Autumn Love sew along and I pre-ordered Farm Sweet Farm. I am also patiently waiting for Lori's Vintage Christmas Book to be shipped and will be buying more Cozy Christmas fabrics over the next few months. 

Current Projects or better Known as "Squirrel" Moments

You know you're in your happy place when you have quilted more in the past couple of months than you have in the previous year!

It's always good to rediscover your WIP/ UFO's and your stash. After all you did buy or start them because you did at one time love it...looking through the past can rekindle the passion for that project left undone or fabric unused. And boy do I have a lot of UFO's! But That will be another post, LOL

The following pics are my current projects that I am working on

 

In the basket is Bonnie Hunter's newest leader and ender challenge which is called "Checkerboard Rail Fence" I have made quite a bit of progress on this one already...it goes together really fast.

  

This is another Bonnie Hunter quilt called "Lazy Sunday" from her book "More Adventures With Leaders and Enders". I actually had all the blocks pieced before we left TX with the intentions of finishing the quilt once back in AZ, HOWEVER......when it came time to put it altogether my blocks were off by 1/2"!!! some how my seam guide got out of line back in TX. This is why you should always recheck your seam guide from time to time. Any ways couldn't just use the blocks as is since there is a pieced outer border on this quilt. So I had to rip out all the seams and start over.   

 

While all of this is going on I decided it was long over do to put those bonus triangle units to good use... so went to Bonnie Hunter's blog to search her free patterns to see what I could fine to use these units. I decided to go with "Emery's Stars"  

 

Here is a pic of one of the blocks, finishes at 6" square in a baby quilt.

 

and here is a pic of me putting together "Lazy Sunday" once I resewed the blocks with the proper seam allowance. Currently the whole quilt center is pieced and is awaiting the inner border and the outer pieced border to be sewn on.   

 

Remember this one? Hocuspocusville! I pulled it out to work on it. All of the embroideries have been done for well over a year now, just need to push it past the finish line. 

 

 

So I pieced the embroidery blocks together and added the outer border.

 

 

I even added the decorative feather stitch in purple between the blocks. I now know why the designer decided to add the black ric rac around the center of the quilt...since the center is on point the pattern over sized the setting triangles and corner triangles...so when you go to trim down the center to fit the  embroideries you end up having to cut off your points :( to get it to the proper size. I'm sure with time an patience someone could re draft the center to fit properly but hey this has been a UFO for way too long now and I want it finished! Waiting for some cooler temps to put it on the long arm to finish it off...maybe in time for Halloween 2017...fingers crossed.

 

And then there is quilts that have been tugging at your heart since the first time you saw them...this is one of them. The first year I started long arming for the public one of my customers brought me the "Jewel of the Prairie" quilt that was featured in a 2005 Fons & Porter magazine. It is a Judy Martin quilt design based off of her Shakespeare in the Park Quilt. Over the past 12 years I have been wanting to make this quilt...have purchased fat quarters multiple times only to use the fat quarters in other projects. So this past month I decided why not, now is as good as time as any to get this puppy started...I ended up cutting for 2 WHOLE days!!! I hate the old school cutting directions for triangles and corner triangles that magazines use for the patterns. Thinking back it would have been a lot easier if I would have consulted a conversion chart to see what the finished unit size was suppose to end up as. If I did then I could have easily have used modern tools such as the easy angle/ companion angle rulers or even my Accuquilt Go (I have all of the die shapes needed except for the 6" finish shapes). Oh well live and learn.   

  

If you are familiar with this pattern you will understand why it has taken me so long to jump into this quilt project. It is very INTIMIDATING! with all of the cutting, not knowing finished unit sizes or how the pieces were going to fit together when you are cutting it all out...should be interesting! 

 

This is block one, I needed 28 that finishes at 6"  oh and if you're wondering I'm naming this quilt "Jewel of the Southwest" since I am using southwest desert colors.  

 

 

Then last but not least I was inspired to start a string spider web quilt, Bonnie Hunter has a great tutorial on how to do one under her free patterns tab on her blog. Since I have a lot  of Halloween fabrics (love all the bright colors) it was a no brainier to put the 2 together. My game plan is to make a king sized quilt so I can have it on my bed for the month of October (maybe not this October though, lol).

 

The orange that I am using is a Kona solid and the color is called "Goldfish" I have a whole bolt of it (bought it to use for cheddar quilts) in the future...   

Play Time

I"m having fun playing with fabric! I have several projects that I am currently jumping around on lately.

 

This is what my design wall currently looks like. Top left are my wild and goosey blocks. Middle left is my Orca Bay blocks, bottom left is a UFO called Glory in Scraps (need to make another 11 blocks then add some borders). Top right is My Smith Mtn. Morning quilt blocks, & bottom right is a granny square block.

  

Yellow-orange string blocks 

 

and purple string blocks

 

They will be put together with these Ohio star blocks. The quilt pattern is called Orca Bay and is in Bonnie K. Hunter's String Fling book. I decided I wanted my quilt to be more like a sunset when finished so I pulled lots of yellow, oranges, pinks, purples etc...in my string blocks. I can't wait to see how this one will come out.

 

I love doing string blocks!

 

This quilt pattern is called Smith Mtn. Morning and is in Bonnie K Hunter's Scraps & Shirttails 2 book. I am making this king sized for one of my "Besties" who currently lives in Texas.

 

This is one of 16 granny square blocks I am doing for a baby quilt. The pattern is called granny squares by Lissa Alexander and was in the October 2010 American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine but you can purchase the pattern HERE

I have been wanting to make this pattern for some time now. It uses 1 1/2" strips instead of 2 1/2" strips like the other granny square patterns that I have seen.  

  

I want to finish this UFO by 4th of July, this year ;0)

 

and last but not least is my leader/ ender project which will end up being another Bonnie K Hunter patterns called Blue Ridge Beauty and can be found in her book Leaders and Enders (the first book). I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!!!  

Clearing the Decks

Or better known as clearing the table! Every so often the rush of customer quilts slows down enough that I am able to quilt my own quilts and the past couple of weeks I have been doing just that :)

Here are a few that have been done so far...

 

I call this "Pure Mood Swings", Pure is the name of the fabric line used and Mood Swings is the name of the quilt pattern.

 

I quilted a panto called Turbalance (2)

 

This one is the Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Fall Mystery quilt called Grand Illusion 

 

I chose the panto Slick for this one

 

This one was the very first mystery Bonnie Hunter did on her Blog called Carolina Crossroads the pattern can now be found in her Scraps and Shirttails book 1

 

I quilted a panto called Starletts on it

 

This quilt was another Mystery quilt of Bonnie Hunter called Orange Crush

 

I chose a panto called Sweet Indigo on it

 

If you quilt it you need to bind it...these are the bindings I have prepped for the quilts I have been quilting

 

these need the bindings machine stitched to the top of the quilts

 

then they will sit until I get around to hand stitching the binding down to the back of the quilts

 

This is all that there is left of my own stuff that have been piling up for years waiting to be quilted.

All there is left to do is 7 lap quilts and the rest are table runners or mini quilts.  Hoping to finish these off in the next couple of weeks!!!