Tablerunner.........

I finished the hand stitching on the binding of this tablerunner last night.  It is 11.5" x 33.5".

The back and binding are the same fabric.  It is made with the leftover blocks from the quilts below, both started in 2009.

This one is a remake of the one that I made in 1991 and that was published in "Strips that Sizzle" by Margaret J. Miller.  I sold the original and hoped to make another as good as it was.  I want to finish this wallanging this year and hang it in my living room or dining room.
 

This small quilt was made with more of the blocks.  The color is truer in this photo.  This particular star design takes more dark blocks than light ones so that is why the tablerunner is made of all light blocks, the leftovers.  This wallhanging was finished in 2013 and is for sale on my Wandaful Quilts blog.

Final finishes for 2016..........

I will post the three finishes in the order that I put the bindings on.  This Stonehenge fabric quilt goes by more than one name.  It is a pattern that is sold but the directions were also in a QUILT magazine with the same exact size pieces but with a different name.  It ended up approximately 62" x 80" when finished.

I used the same fabric for both backing and binding.  I'm really happy with this one.  I know I need to do another pattern with the Stonehenge fabrics in 2017.

The zig zag quilt was the next one I did the binding on.  I used a back with scattered white dots for the binding.

I put a really soft flannel on the back.  It is 47" x 59".

This last one got its binding finished at 10:30 p.m.

I used the same backing that I put on the pink 16 patch quilt last month.  I showed the binding fabric on my post yesterday.  It is 38.5" x 56".

Instead of posting at 5 a.m. I'm going ahead and posting this just before midnight on the last day of 2016.  I will be working on a recap of 2016 to post next.  It will take awhile to make the collages of all of the finished tops and finished quilts.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Quilting and blooms..........

My two friends came over to sew yesterday and I spent most of the time finding backings for quilts that I want to finish this week and next week.  This was the simplest one to do next because it is only 40" wide so I didn't need to piece the back.

I used the same pink print that I used on my pink 16 patch.  I have enough left to do binding but I think I will go darker with it and use one of the reds that are in the blocks.

So....that is two that are waiting for binding.  They will probably be machine finished bindings.

The Amaryllis is blooming and it is a really rich red.  So far it has been standing up straight with no sign of tipping.

I don't know if the 2 small buds will bloom but if they do it will be 6 blooms on one stalk.  There are usually 4 and one time I had 5 on one.

Rainy day...........

Yesterday was a rainy day with intervals of sunshine.  It was a good day to stay inside and sew.  I got this top sewn together and now have to decide if I'm adding a border.  It is 39.5" x 56.5".  I can just finish it as a small lap or couch quilt and move on.

When the art quilters were here we talked about doing another Strips 'n Curves template quilt.  This is one of the other templates, not the set we have used before.

In the drawer with the templates I had this block already sewn and parts for 4 more.  This is really square, the photo is at an angle.

Last night I cut more sections from one fabric (not strip pieced) and sewed the blocks and then sewed all four together.  I know already that I don't want to work with this shape on a larger project.

Pink and green...........

The art quilters came yesterday, we had a great time and ate lots of cookies.

Last night I sewed on this Strips that Sizzle quilt.  I have one more row to add on.

It turned colder and rained in the early evening.  I was hoping to do some planting today but it sounds like off and on rain for a couple days.  That means more sewing time. 

Thanks everyone for your comments yesterday about my Mother's day gift red door.  I know it will make me smile every time I look at it.

Design wall time............

I decided to empty another box in the basement last night.  In it were two groups of Strips that Sizzle blocks.  I put these up on the design wall, 2 pink edges, 2 green edges but it was too predictable.

I turned some blocks a half turn and came up with this.  There were 74  blocks in this color range and this layout uses 70 of them and will make a quilt about 40 x 56".  I think I made the blocks in 2009 so they are ripe enough to use.  There are 84 blocks of the other color combination in the box.




 

There was only one TV show to watch last night so I started sewing the colorwash quilt.

I mowed the grass late afternoon yesterday while it was still cool.  I'm happy for all of the rain lately and today I hope to do some digging.

box of blocks...........

I needed a little springtime in the basement.  With temperatures going below 0 again last night it feels like winter will never end.
I was emptying some boxes and one of them was Strips that Sizzle blocks from 2009.  I just did a quick layout and then went back to my posts in 2009 to see some other layouts.  Here is one and another with these blocks.  Here is one more layout.  There are some pink and green blocks too and I put them together in several layouts here.  I also tried a vertical zig zag layout.  I'm not crazy about this on point layout so I'll probably go back to one of the ones I previously tried in 2009 and get the blocks sewn into a top = one empty box.

Some finishes.........

"Circling Around" is finished.  I did use the border fabric for the binding since I didn't want any distraction at the edge of the quilt.

I also finished the binding on "Fractured Star".  All that was holding me up on these two was the printing of the labels.  I could fit 6 on a sheet of printer fabric and I only had 5 typed into a document.  I finally figured out the 6th one and got it done yesterday afternoon.  Two are completely finished out of the 6 I need to finish.  Two more are quilted however I may add a little more quilting to one of them.

I cut out 46 little gowns and 23 blankets for the preemie project at church.  We meet today for the first time this year.  It is easier to cut them at home on my large cutting table than on the smaller surface at the church.  The hospital said they would like 2 gowns in each layette now.  With double the work for each layette I'm afraid we will produce less total layettes now.  We only have 3 ladies who do the sewing.  The rest of them knit the hats and afghans that go into the layette.

We don't get very many pretty sunrises or sunsets and being in town it is hard to capture them in a photo.  You can see we didn't get the snow that was predicted.  Chicago has gone 324 days in a row without a day of 1" or more of snow.  We haven't even had an inch total out here in the boonies with all of the storms so far this season.

Odds and ends.....

While I was finishing the clean up in the basement I found the 2 sets of blocks that I had designed into table runners.  I figured I should sew them now while the blocks were still in order instead of having to design them again later.  Yesterday morning I baked 2 batches of cookies for the art quilters group today.  I mixed both batches of dough on Saturday night and then got up on a cool Sunday morning and baked all of them.

I sewed a few of the dotty blocks too when I was stacking them to move them.  It is supposed to be in the mid 80s again today with low humidity.  It feels almost like a normal summer for a couple days anyway.

Playing with blocks.......

I got 25 fabrics cut yesterday for the kits and then I needed to do something else.  I knew I had a bin of Strips that Sizzle blocks from a couple years ago to play with.  These 2 groups only had 12 blocks each so they will probably become table runners.

These 2 groups have more blocks, probably enough for lap size quilts.  Here is a link to some layouts I tried with the 2 groups together in the same quilt.  If you want to see more play with the blocks and students' blocks, click on Strips that Sizzle on my Label list on the right sidebar.

A better day

It sure felt good to have no sign of a headache yesterday. I got all of the setting triangles sewn onto Fractured Pansies 2. I did have to piece the 4 corner triangles but I don't think it shows very much. Since the purple print is a sateen it ravels like crazy so I need to get this one basted soon. I also got the binding done on the one I posted on Sunday. Here you can see the 2 different binding fabrics. On the top layer both of them are there. One is the same as the border fabric and the other has random lines going in all different directions. I doubt anyone would even notice the binding at a first glance.

I also sewed together the 3 blocks I showed a couple weeks ago and put a border around them for a good sized table runner.

It sounds like we have a couple more cold days and then the warm up to the mid 60's for the weekend. I still haven't done any clean up of my gardens. I hired my grandson to bring in my hose carts, trim my spirea bushes (and clean up the mess) and put on 3 storm windows late last week. Now I need to get out there and cut down all of the asters so I don't have a hundred volunteer plants next year.

Setting triangle audition

This is the fabric I want to use for the setting triangle for this Strips That Sizzle quilt. I only have 3/4 yard of it so I am going to figure out today whether I have enough of it. Here is a closer picture of it. What you can't see here is the sheen. It is a sateen fabric that is more than 10 years old.

We had rain almost all day yesterday. I had to drive to church (23 miles) for our sewing circle to work on the preemie layettes for the hospital. Afterwards I went to Farm and Fleet looking for a shirt for my dad. He likes snaps instead of buttons and they carry the western style there. I only found about 6 size Med. shirts to decide between. They had lots of Large Tall, XL, XXL, 2 XL and most all tall. (My dad is 5'8" tall and weighs less than 150 pounds.) I haven't been able to find shirts with snaps anywhere else this year. Last year W*lmart had them. Now I have to hope he will like the one I picked out. He doesn't like bright colors or stripes so that eliminated 3 of the 6.

Students' layouts

Here are some of the layouts that were tried at the class yesterday. This first student is making a queen sized quilt so there wasn't room to layout the whole quilt. Her daughter will help her make the final decision.Oops! the top right corner in the picture below is turned the wrong way. I didn't catch that before I took a picture.

This red, white and blue one was one of many layouts she tried and I didn't get a picture of her final layout, the star. She got her top all sewn together in class. Below are just some of her light blocks.

The rose and green is coming along nicely. She has a lot more strip sets to sew.

While I was helping some of the other students, the turquoise/orange lady played with several layouts. She liked my red/blue one and wanted to try a similar style.

She liked the star too but didn't have enough blocks. I suggested filling in the blanks with her turquoise large print that is in the strips.

This layout is like my purple/yellow one that was in the book (Fractured Pansies). The fifth student was babysitting and couldn't make it to class. I hope I get to see hers when she finishes it.

Class today and color in the yard

The last class of Strips that Sizzle (Margaret J. Miller) is today at the quilt shop in town. I did one more layout to show them. I hope they have a lot of blocks made to play with.My burning bush is the prettiest red. It was still drizzling when I took this (1.75" rain in 2 days). Last year's picture was taken with the sun shining on it but I wasn't sure the leaves would still be there by the time we get a sunny day this year. They said on the news we have had some rain on 17 of the last 23 days. Most of it was light rain.

the lightest color hostas all turned a deep gold this year as they started dying. I think we usually get a heavy frost and are just gone and they have had a longer dying season this year.

There is warmer weather coming back the middle of next week. Maybe I can get a little outside work done, like bringing in the hoses and moving all of the porch pots.

Student's blocks

Yesterday was class 1 of the second group of students for Margaret J. Miller's method, Strips that Sizzle.

They all had good color choices and good value ranges. I had them group fabrics and sew enough to get at least 6 blocks so we could play with layouts before they left. They have a lot of sewing to do before next week to get as many blocks done as they can so we can just have design time and maybe sewing their piece together next week.