It was a great class

The students really got into the designing part of the class. Here are 2 layouts of each student's blocks.

They chose the layout they liked best as the final one. We just played with 16 blocks in the beginning so everyone could do the same layout at the same time. Most of the layouts are diagrammed in the book (Strips that Sizzle) and we just had to follow them.

Today a friend is coming over to use my big tables to baste a quilt and I am planning on getting some cutting done.

Final layouts for purple and yellow

This is the same layout as my quilt that was in "Strips that Sizzle", the quilt that I sold. I haven't found the setting triangle fabric yet and that may take awhile. Here are the leftover blocks. I sewed the star quilt top last night. Pictured below it are the remaining blocks. The star takes more dark blocks than light ones, and the sewing technique produces an equal amount of each.

I purchased the newest Kaffe book last week. I didn't get a chance to look at it until the weekend.

I am so in love with this log cabin quilt made with all of his fabrics. I know I will have to make my version of it. Today is part 2 of the Strips that Sizzle class at the quilt shop. I hope they have made lots of blocks to play with in the layouts.

A few more layouts

I took my book down to the basement with me this time to remind me of some more ways to lay out the blocks. I think the dominant color here is purple because I see purple pinwheels when I first look at it. Blocks of color.

Center square with vibrating rounds.

I rotated a few of the corner blocks to get the bands across the corners.

Just like a log cabin barn raising pattern. We had severe weather warnings last evening but the storms passed quickly and we got rain and the tornado warnings were south and east of us. Severe storms are the ones that usually produce migraines so I hope I'm lucky this time and don't get one.

green/purple fun

I couldn't wait to piece some of the strip sets and make some blocks with this combination. I sewed all of the lighter combinations so there isn't very much of the darkest green in here yet. I didn't have quite enough blocks to finish this layout. I didn't have the book down in the basement by my design wall so I just tried some layouts that were fresh in my memory from the purple/yellow batch.

It is quite light and bright with only a few of the darkest greens.

I know I will have to make one in the zig zag pattern but I might wait and make it out of all of the leftover blocks from both groups. Someone reminded me that I have the On Demand feature with the digital box from Comcast so I checked it out and one of the shows I missed seeing was on the list so I watched it while piecing the blocks. I was surprised how many shows I normally watch that aren't on their list though. I will still have to catch them on my computer until I can figure out the VCR problem.

Strips cut and sorted

I cut all of my green fabrics for the next Strips that Sizzle and sorted both colors into sets ready to sew. There were 3 new shows on TV to watch so I got a lot done.I sewed the Disappearing 9 Patch blocks into a 44" square to hang at the store to advertise the class next month.

My fall garden is pretty weedy but very colorful too. The purple asters come up as volunteers all through the garden and I pulled out at least a dozen throughout the summer. The volunteers are sometimes a different color so I have 3 colors this year. The sedum is really pretty right now too. I am glad I took a zillion pictures of the butterflies on them last year because this year I have only seen one butterfly near them.

This plant is another volunteer. I may have dug it out of the other garden last year and planted it here but I don't remember. It is as big as a bush and very colorful. You can see the neighbor's burning bush starting to turn in the background. Mine are still green.

This is the sedum in one of the little flower beds. It is such a brilliant color this year.
We had a little rain yesterday but the ground is still hard to dig in. We have had very little rain for over 3 weeks so I'm hoping we get more tomorrow like they are predicting.

Not my usual kind of fabric

I am going to teach the disappearing 9 patch class at the sewing machine store next month so I needed to get a sample made. I have had these Moda fabrics for about 10 years and decided to use them on this project. This is 4 blocks just laying on my cutting mat. I have 16 blocks sewn to hang as a display and I will add more after I demonstrate on them in class.Now that all of the season premiers are on I have 2 hours of sewing time and pressing time while watching them. I still haven't figured out how to record on my VCR since Comcast kindly gave me the free digital boxes that I would need to view channels I am already paying for. Do you hear the sarcasm (and the frustration)? I no longer have HD channels which I had before I hooked up the digital box. That will be an extra $9 a month please. I can play VCR tapes but I haven't had any luck trying to record after about 4 combinations of things that I have tried.

Final strips sewn

I didn't get very far on cleaning the messy bedroom yesterday. The pastor of my church called and said she was going to be in town and wondered if she could stop for a few minutes. I did a quick pick up of the main rooms in the house since she had never been here before and I only have one chance to make a first impression.

Last night while I watched a couple season premieres I finished sewing the purple and yellow strip sets. I can go ahead and plan my quilt now because I will use the purple and green combination for the class in Oct.
Here is one last picture of the finch. He had just picked a seed out and you can see it in his mouth.

I hope to finish working on the bedroom today. I got most of the summer and winter clothes exchanged yesterday and filled a couple bags to donate.

A good time was had by all

The class went well and everyone is excited to play with their block layouts next Tues. Notice the different angles of the 3-D by rotating the block in the last group.We had time to try the flying geese layout. One student moved to the Sat. class in Oct. and one left early so I only got pictures of 3 students' work.

I have the other half of the purple strips left and think I will use a bright green with them.

Here is one more picture of Mr. Finch posing for me. I would think that would hurt his feet to stand on those sharp seeds.

Today I need to tackle the dump-all bedroom. I have kept the guest bedroom nice and neat and it is mine that is a pit. It isn't a fun job but it has to be done.

My favorite layout and others

This star is my all time favorite layout for Strips that Sizzle and I have made it twice, seen on this post. I used leftover blocks on the one with green in it. If I have enough leftovers this time I'm sure I'll make another of them.


The one below is another similar to one yesterday where you see pinwheels. I can see I have 2 blocks in the wrong position in this one.

The next one has alternating rows of light and dark blocks.

The next one is another of my favorites. This is the same layout as THIS QUILT except I used 3 colors in that one and only 2 in the current one. I really like this one too.

This circle top is finished and it looks much better sewn together. Click on the picture for a better look at the fabrics. A friend decided she should rescue this one and not let a baby spit up on it so I sold it to her and will ship it to her today.

I started this Halloween circle quilt before my art quilters came last week so I would have one ready to show them a no pin method of marking and sewing it. I folded the pieces in half and made a tiny clip out to mark centers and then didn't need pins. I have one more block to sew together and then I can finish it. There are 2 one way fabrics in this and that made it a real challenge to design.Today is the first half of the Strips That Sizzle class. It is going to be so much fun.

Finch food

This finch was right outside my kitchen window on the coneflowers. Here his little head is bobbing into the seeds.

One of my students hired me to shop for her fabrics and cut them for her for the class tomorrow. I have already grouped some of the hot pinks for her.

Now I must finish packing my things for the class.

More layouts

I only have 36 blocks to play with for these layouts. I sewed some more blocks later last night. This first one has diagonals all coming from the center. I didn't have enough dark blocks to finsh the outside edge. This next one looks like flying geese.

Here are groups of 4 light blocks and 4 dark blocks alternated.

The next one has squares of half purple, half yellow, some with horizontal stripes and some squares with vertical stripes. OR you might see pinwheels instead.

The one below is the same as the one above only the middle 2 rows are offset by one square. Now you have horizontal striped squares with rows of vertical striped zig zag above and below.

And that's not all, more tomorrow.

If you live close by, there are still openings in the Sat. class in Oct.

I have 36 blocks done

I played a little with layouts. The first one really has a 3-D effect.This second one is just alternating the light and dark blocks.

This third one is the layout that my quilt in the book had. There were dark setting triangles around that one so this looks really light with the flannel wall behind it.

It is fun when the students start playing with their blocks because not every group of fabrics look great in the same layout. The class is on Tuesday so I am ready.