After mentioning to several people that I didn't want to add any different fabrics into this 2 color quilt, I realized I don't even have enough of the dark zebra fabric left for binding so I went to my stash. I found 4 pieces that are pretty close to the background color. I think I had 2.5 yards of the darker fabric to start with and I have a 3/8 yard piece left plus several small pieces.
I waited all day for a repairman that never came. I didn't want to be in the basement because my doorbell sounds tinny and not very loud (another repairman to call). He said he would call before he comes but the last 2 times he said that and didn't call first. So....I quilted and bound 2 more mug rugs. I had loaded a quilt on my frame 2 days ago and really wanted to be quilting it.
The pink and white blossoms were just begging to be photographed.
The last bloom on this red plant. I have another red plant that has a bunch of new buds.
I pieced the two combinations that I cut on Monday and added them to the mix.
This will be the next combination that I cut. I hope that diagonal stripe looks good in a wedge. The fabric on the left is #02 in the Kaffe collection. I'm not sure what year he had his first fabric printed. The first time this one appeared in a book was in 2000.
I finished three mug rugs.
One of my baby cacti has a bud on it. These are all pieces that broke off the big plants and I rooted them last year. This might be white or pale pink.
If it is white it came from this one which has a very pale pink tint to the middle part but is luminous white otherwise.
Here is the quilt top I made with the Alexander Henry zebra print. It's only a fluke that the zebras ended up in rows across the quilt. I didn't plan that.
It may just look like a quilt block but........
this is the quilt in the book and it is 91" square! Yes, it is called Mega Churn Dash.
I'm not sure what I'll do for the border because I only have a limited amount of the dark print left.
This is the new book that it is in, just released by C&T Publishing, one of their Stash Books.
It is by none other than Kathy Doughty of "Fractured" fame (from her last book) and there is one fractured quilt in this book too. I removed my post-it note on the cover to take this photo. I have 6 quilts chosen (out of 15) that I might make.
Check your local quilt shop to see if they have it in yet.
I have started a second quilt already. Kathy used vintage fabrics for the one in the book but I wanted to use my Kaffe and Brandon fabrics.
Here are two new combinations I cut last night. I'm using some of Kaffe's very early fabrics as well as some recent ones.
It does require using a template to cut the pieces and I haven't sliced an edge off the paper template yet. I'm taking my time with the cutting.
The quilt in the book has 20 blocks but I think I'll stop at 12 so I can move on to the next quilt. I also haven't chosen a fabric for the center circles yet. I'll wait until I have more blocks made.
I used these 2 fabrics two days ago for the project I can't show yet. The print on the left is a 1993 Alexander Henry print just waiting for the right quilt. Stash...it's a wonderful thing.
Hoffman has released the new spring batiks and this is the one new pattern that I just love. I didn't like the colors of a lot of their new patterns but this one had some beauties.
I'm working on a couple new projects from a book that hasn't been released yet so I'll be showing them soon.
The Neapolitan quilt is 46" wide so I will have to piece the back. have a large piece of the fabric on the left and will piece the one on the right to make it wide enough.
I would have loved to use this backing because it is 50" wide but it just wouldn't make the quilt as elegant as the 2 fabrics that are pieced into the quilt top.
And now to the winner of a Hamilton Beach iron, Mr. Random Number Generator chose number 10 which is Stoney. Congratulations! I will send you an email this morning and you can reply with your mailing address. Thanks everyone for entering the drawing.
This is the only spring color in my area. The wind was strong, the temperature 32...not pleasant. My friends picked me up and we went out to lunch and stopped for errands. I'm choosing fabrics for backings and new projects but nothing to show yet.
My arm is feeling better but not healed. I had X-rays so I know there is nothing broken. I can't vacuum for a few more days......darn!
I got the third quilt back made yesterday for the next batch of quilts to be quilted. On the 3 flannel ones I have used one large yardage piece from top to bottom and then added blocks of leftover pieces of flannel that were used on the quilt top as a side panel added on.
No reply........how many ways can I say it? In the first 4 hours yesterday there were 13 no reply commenters (who didn't add their email address in their comment) hoping to win the iron. I stopped counting there because there were so many more......Here are the ones from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.: KimP, Miss Sherry, Sarah, Quilt for fun, Marti Dyer Allison, Christine, Janet Avery, Bunny, Cathy Lohwater, Debbie, Cynthia Meredith, Anonymous, and Eileen Kane. If you have a Google+ account I don't know how to help you but if you have a Google Blogger acct. you can click on my email link on my right side bar or the email link in my profile and let me help you get your settings right. You also have a chance to go back and leave another comment with your email address in it (using AT instead of @ and DOT instead of .) if you don't know how to get into and change your account settings.
Occasionally I am contacted by a company to see if I would like to review their product on my blog. Sometimes it is a product I don't even use, but this time it caught my attention. My favorite iron of all times was a Hamilton Beach and I had it for over 8 years before it bit the dust. It still steamed up until the day it died.
I have never been a fan of soleplates with a coating but this one caught my attention. It sounded like a more durable and slick coating than most irons offer.
They are really standing behind this one. Here is a link to the info about this iron on their website.
I am happy to say the little water compartment door stays open instead of flopping down as you are filling it. Little things like that make me happy.
It is easy to see the water level which is a must for me. My previous irons had me guessing all the time.
It has an automatic shut off, with a little beeping sound. If you hold it too long in the down position it will also beep (and eventually shut off). Of course that is a safety feature in case you left the iron in that position accidentally.
My first thought was "It's so big, it must be heavy" but the bottom part is the retractable cord compartment so it doesn't add any weight. After using the iron for a month I found that it is heavy enough that I don't have to add any extra pressure to the iron to get out fold marks from my stash fabrics but not so heavy that it is uncomfortable using it. It glides SO smoothly across the fabric. The steam? It has lots of steam and I love a steam iron. Only a few things need a dry iron. I recommend this one if you like lots of steam.
I read all of the instructions that came with the iron. Do you do that? Or do you just pull it out and use it? How many of you empty the water when you shut off the iron? I never did in the past but I am doing it with this one.
Now for the giveaway- Hamilton Beach will send one of these irons to one of my readers. Warning!! If you are a no reply blogger, you are automatically removed from the list. That is all of you with Blogger accounts that haven't enabled your email, 90% of Google+ are no reply. If you don't know, you can add your email in your comment with the word AT instead of @ and the word DOT instead of . I will pick the winner with the random number generator at 11:30 p.m. CST Saturday night 2/22.
Here is the rest of the flannel fabrics that I need to use up but probably not this winter. I used 24 yards of flannel with the first 3 quilts, the two Stack and Slash and the Twisted Rail. I haven't figured out how much was used in the Windy City quilt yet.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes yesterday about my fall on the ice. My driveway has been clear between each snow storm and when new snow falls it is dry underneath so when I shovel it, it is dry to walk on. Monday however I chose to walk along the edge of the driveway and it is the edge that doesn't get sun. There is a snow bank about 15" tall next to it and that creates a shadow and that is where the ice was. I have had very little ice on the driveway all winter so I wasn't expecting it. I have more range of movement but still sore. We finally are above freezing for a few days so the snow level will finally go down a little.
Tomorrow I will be reviewing a new iron and there will be a giveaway so stay tuned.
I have been so careful all winter to not slip and fall but the ice won yesterday. I landed on my shoulder and then my hip. I didn't hear anything crack so I started ice packs right away. Of course it is my right arm and I'm right handed so I had to do easy things yesterday. I pulled out the box of Kaffe scraps so I could sort them.
I brought my computer into the studio and hooked it up to the TV with my HDMI cable and watched a few episodes of the Quilt Show while I was sorting.
I really pushed myself to finish this Windy City quilt top. The pattern for this quilt is in a 1990 book, "Scrap Happy - Quick-Pieced Scrap Quilts" by Sally Schneider. I made the first one from this pattern about 18 years ago with floral fabrics. I made the first flannel one about 15 years ago. I made flannel quilts for everyone in my family for Christmas that year. I had some blocks left over from it and over the years made a few more blocks. This year I made up my mind to make the rest of the blocks and finish it. I'll look for fabric for the back today. It is 59.5" x 76".
I put the last four blocks up on the design wall for Neapolitan, decided I didn't need to move any blocks and sewed the top together. It is 45" x 52.5" right now. I might try auditioning borders but I don't think I have anything I would like with it so it probably will just be a small quilt.
I also pieced a back for this quilt. I had 3 long pieces that were 18-24" wide that I sewed side by side. The strips will go top to bottom on the back of the quilt.
The cactus plant that came from my mother-in-law's plant finally bloomed. They are petite blooms compared to some of the others.
The sun was coming in the window by this plant and made the flower translucent. This plant has the largest flowers of all of them.
I made the final decision on the fabric for the setting triangles and got it pressed and cut. I have all of the side triangles sewn on and just the corners left to do after I sew the rows together. I also pieced a back for another of the flannel quilts.
We got a little more snow last night and now they are predicting up to 5" on Monday. Then...finally....we get the warm up to melt some of it.
I can't have a post without a photo so here is the total of my sewing yesterday. When I was loading the photo it looked like slices of triple layer cake with thick frosting between the layers. The name of the quilt will be Neapolitan though. It is so much like the ice cream.
Yesterday morning I gave a private lesson to a friend and in the afternoon another friend and I went to see the movie "The Monuments Men". I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was very small child when World War 2 ended and my parents never talked about it so I learned a lot from this movie. History was never my favorite subject in school either so what I should have absorbed then........well I didn't absorb it.
Yesterday was a sewing day with friends. This is the project that I have taken along the last two times we met. I have always wanted to do a pink and brown quilt and never could find the perfect combination. One day I was working with a pink batik and I decided to shop my stash for more pinks similar to it.
Three of the pinks are batiks and the two browns are batiks. The 2 lightest fabrics near the top of this photo are regular quilting cottons. My favorite fabric is the large floral batik in the center. I need to make four more blocks to complete this small quilt so I cut them last night from the scraps.
More pink goodness! I started two dishcloths in pink. Both are ready to start decreasing to create the square. On the left are the pieces for the last four blocks of the quilt.
I have a few readers who love pink as much as I do so this post is dedicated to them!
I worked on the binding of the Stack and Slash flannel quilt while I watched the Olympics last night.
I used one of the lighter weight flannels for the binding and I used a very narrow zig zag to finish it because that is softer than a straight stitch.
This is the sewing sequence for the Windy City flannel quilt. The single row hasn't been sewn yet. I still haven't looked for a setting triangle fabric. Maybe I'll do that today.
I thought up every excuse possible of why not to go to the basement and quilt this quilt. Finally at 8 p.m. I ran out of excuses and quilted it. It took me 9 hours of excuses and only one hour of quilting. You can probably tell that this isn't my favorite part. Choosing the fabrics is one of the favorite parts and piecing it to see how the fabric choices work is the next most favorite part. I need to finish them myself though.
I had to piece a panel from a few of the fabrics that are on the front to add to a full width piece to make the backing wide enough. The quilt is so soft and cozy. I got it trimmed so I can cut the binding today and get it sewn on.
I have a hard time getting motivated to do anything right after I have finished a project so yesterday I read a lot, knitted some, and finally in the evening I put the Windy City flannel blocks up on my design wall. I need to choose setting triangle fabric next.
I also loaded this flannel quilt onto the longarm. Hopefully I will quilt it today and then sew the backing together for the next flannel quilt.
I have 3 red cacti plants and one is blooming, one has a few buds and the third is doing nothing.
There are two 2 tone blooms now and quite a few more buds. I really don't notice the winter weather so much in a warm house with lots of blooming going on. It was -18 degrees just before midnight last night.
I did it! Final decisions, and the top sewn together. I made one new block yesterday morning and then moved a couple other blocks to new positions and was finally happy. I'm guessing that there are probably 100+ different batiks in this. The color is a little off in this photo and the oranges and bright pinks aren't as neon in real life.
For the new readers of my blog, I am always mentioning clean up cuts. I explained them way back here in 2007, a month after I started my blog. I don't cut the 1.5" and 2" strips any more though because I have enough bins full of them. Anyway, my point is that using clean up cuts- they are crooked, angled, different widths - adds to the wonkiness of the blocks as you can see in this close up. The colors are truer in this photo.
I finished this top also. It was a challenge for me to make a successful pastel quilt. I work with pastels all the time but usually am adding them into more saturated color fabric groupings. I must admit though that this is a lively group of pastels!
