Pushing and pulling.......

I was pushing the lawn  mower and pulling weeds for several hours yesterday.  It was another beautiful low humidity day.  That is all changing today, muggy and rainy.

When I came in I needed to pull fabrics from my flannel bins for a quilt similar to the one on the chair.  I'm selling these fabrics to a friend and will be cutting the kit for her. 

Some of the NO REPLY commenters leave me the nicest comments and I can't reply to them to thank them......so this is a group thank you to all of you kind people who say such nice things.

A finish.............

I finished the hand stitching on the binding of the Marcia Derse Stack and Slash quilt last night.  It is 53" x 67".  

I have another quilt started with Marcia's fabrics that I will be showing soon.

I was able to get one of Marcia's fabrics at a really good sale for the back of the quilt.

Another quilted..........

I loaded the smaller of the two Laurel Burch Stack and Slash quilts and quilted it last night.  The bright magenta backing fabric is a flannel Laurel Burch print.

I did this one in vertical wavy lines with a loop now and then.

Earlier in the afternoon I put the colorwash of squares (that was clipped together) up on a design wall.  This will be the before photo.  I will start tweaking it today.  It needs the right side row moved out one space and some lighter values put in between.  Also it could use at least one more row on the bottom.  Maybe it will get 5 or 6 rows on the bottom by the time I am done with it.

I just had to show you the cluster of orange cactus blooms.

Progress with orphan blocks.............

This is where I am on the batik orphan block quilt.  I have sewn the top section starting with the Northwind blocks near the left side down through the X and + blocks across the middle.  That section is 46" x 42".  

I need to add a strip to each of the log cabin blocks on the lower left to make them into 8" blocks in one direction and maybe some will get 2 strips to make that edge fit.

I went through my batik pieces and parts drawer to see if there was anything else that should go in the orphan quilt.

This is the only group that might make it, especially the strips of triangles, maybe as a spacer strip.

Here were some fun pieces I found that might make it into a wonky wallhanging.

Last night I got the backing for the other flannel quilt sewn and loaded the backing and batting on the longarm.  I hope to quilt it today.

Below are the portrait photos of the 30s Stack and Slash baby quilt.
 

 

Finally.......some quilting........

I found backing fabric for the 2 flannel Stack and Slash quilts and got one of them pieced and quilted the quilt.

These are the 2 fabrics that are on the back.

It is now waiting on the cutting table for a binding.

Then I loaded the 30s repro fabric Stack and Slash and quilted it.

I cut the binding from the leftover backing fabric and sewed it on all by machine.  I used a narrow zig zag to stitch it down.  That makes a softer finish than a straight stitch.  I'll take its portrait photo today.  I hope I can stay on a roll and get the other backing pieced and binding cut for both flannel quilts.  The end of the month deadline is right around the corner.

Working on lots of things............

I played with my batik orphan blocks on graph paper yesterday.  Since this doesn't include color I have no idea if the layout will work.  This is using mostly edge to edge blocks.  If it doesn't work when I put them up on the design wall I'll go to plan B with lots of spacers.

I sewed the second Laurel Burch baby quilt together.  The one on the left is 39.5" x 52" and on the right, 54" square.  The big one would be big enough for 2 babies to play on.



I spent a considerable amount of time in the basement yesterday going through all of the stuff that was behind 2 design walls.  I took the two 1" styrofoam 4' x 7' boards to my workshop Saturday and now they are going to go into my main floor studio.  I will replace them with two 1.5" boards in the basement.

I have lots of blooms in my winter garden right now.  This is 2 plants side by side.  The one on the right is the peach/orange.  I have 2 plants in that color now and the other one is loaded with buds.

This is the same one that had blooms at Christmas.  I still have several plants that haven't bloomed yet and almost all of the early bloomers are setting buds again.  There is no rhyme or reason to their blooming.

More blocks............

I got the last set of Stack and Slash blocks sewn last night and put them up on the design wall.   I'll decide this morning if this is the final layout.  I will show the 2 Laurel Burch baby quilts together soon.  This one is darker than the first one.

I was so happy her signature on the fabric ended up in a prominent place on two of the blocks.

Today I need to vacuum the basement and then decide what to quilt next.

Workshop results...........

There were 15 participants in the Slack and Slash workshop yesterday.  Here they each have one of their blocks.  There was a nice variety of fabrics being used.

 I forgot my camera and had to depend on my cell phone camera.  I am used to a heavier camera and only got a few good photos with the cell phone.

Last night I sewed the crosswise seams on the 30s repro top  and also sewed the first of 2 Laurel Burch baby quilt tops.

Ready for the workshop.......

I sewed the 30's repro blocks yesterday and then sewed them in rows one way to show the method of rows held together by connecting threads.  It will also show the workshop attendees the pressing sequence.  I'm all packed and ready for the workshop.  I haven't taught away from my house for awhile so I hope I don't forget anything.

2 quilts........

At the sew-in I cut the pieces for a 1930s reproduction fabric Stack and Slash baby quilt.  Later in the day I got the first round of sewing done.  I need to have 3 quilts in progress for demo purposes at the workshop tomorrow.

Last night I sewed the second flannel top together.  Now I need to turn on the iron and press both projects.

Play day........

My two quilting friends came over yesterday and I worked on a couple projects.  Here are 3 of the 12 Laurel Burch Stack and Slash blocks that I will use for the layout demonstration when I do the workshop.

I asked my friends' advice on the borders of the medallion.  We unanimously agreed that I needed to trim the spiky borders by 1/4" on both sides which meant the light outside border strips on the corner paws could be cut down to 1/2" finished.  I trimmed them while they were here and sewed them on last night.  The outside border is still just pinned in place.

While the washing machine was running I decided to clean out a box on a top shelf.  There is one bag of flannel scraps, mostly long ones anywhere from 3/4" to 2 1/2" wide, crooked cuts, not straight strips.  I was going to toss them into the dog bed scrap bag but thought I would offer them to any local person who could come and pick them up.

There is also a bag of homespun scraps, same thing 3/4" to 2 1/2" wide, crooked cuts, not perfect cut strips.  Again if there is anyone local who reads my blog and want them they are free for the taking.  If no one wants them they will end up in the dog bed scrap bag.

 Also in the box was this tablerunner that I made for my mother back in the early 1980s.  It isn't quite as bright as it looks here.  The blues have mostly faded.  That is typical of that age blue fabrics.  I made this to see I liked making this pattern.  Well, this is the only double wedding ring thing I ever made so I think the answer was no, I didn't want to make a quilt of this pattern.  Now I am much more experienced in sewing curves so maybe I could master it but I have too many other quilts on the 'want to do' list that look like more fun.

Many projects.........

I couldn't decide what I wanted to work on yesterday so I started basting this quilt and am about half done.  I have another already basted.   I never fold the quilt after I baste it so I need to start quilting on one of them soon.

Last night I was ready to sew while I watched TV so I sewed the 16 blocks for one of the Stack and Slash quilts.

Then I sewed a bunch of the spiky pieces for the medallion quilt.  All of these need pressing and then they will be trimmed to the right size.

After Christmas I bought an Amaryllis that was marked down to $3.  The blooms on the first stalk are opening and the second stalk continues to get taller.  This is the only bloom in the house right now.  I have several large buds on 2 cacti so they should be blooming in a few days.

Cutting........

I had my Laurel Burch 1/4 yard pieces all pressed and ready to take to the twice monthly sew-in at 10:30 a.m.  My car wouldn't start.  I called my mechanic and he listened over the phone to the sound it was making and said it probably was the battery so call my road assistance company.  It took 2 hours for someone to get here to jump the battery and start the car and then I took it to the mechanic to have the battery checked.  It turned out that the alternator was bad and was draining the battery.  Since it was a fairly new alternator it was under warranty and didn't cost me anything for the repair.  Did I mention 2 1/2 hours sitting and waiting for them to charge my battery?  Luckily I had grabbed a good book on the way out the door.  I got home at almost 5 p.m.

I did the cutting for 2 kids' quilts last night and paired the fabrics for sewing.  They are more Stack and Slash quilts (see label list on right side bar) since I will be doing a workshop soon and need some quilts in progress to show the steps.  This is how I pair the fabrics.

In my tutorial from November 2011 I linked to Lynne's tutorial that she calls Slashed Squares.  I have changed the title of mine to Stack and Slash because I do the slicing of the squares as a group of 4 and then shuffle the pieces to sew 4 blocks at a time for speed in a workshop (see my tutorial).  Click on the link above to see Lynne's new Slashed Squares project.  In this post she explains how she chooses her fabrics.
 

Marcia Derse fabric...........

I finished this Stack and Slash quilt top on Saturday but wanted to show it to the art quilters before I put it on the blog.  I love this Marcia Derse fabric.  This is my subdued group of it so I will be making another quilt with the more intense colors soon.

Finish #4.............

I finished the hand sewing on the binding late yesterday afternoon on this Stack and Slash quilt, the 4th finish in 10 days!  It is 62" x 76".

I am going to try to remember to show the backing on every quilt this year.  That is as far as I will go with New Year's resolutions.

Here is a better shot of the quilting.  The wavy lines go the long way on the quilt, top to bottom.

I had the most wonderful day yesterday.  A friend who I used to see a lot in the 1990s and her husband who I met on Bee night at her house over 20 years ago drove out to Sandwich.  It was so good to see them again.  I showed her lots of quilts and my work spaces.  She brought 2 quilts to show me too, one of them is here.  She also brought me this box of candy.  It is the most delicious chocolate I have had in a long time.  I started on the ones with the crunchy dots and then I noticed another layer underneath with letters on top of each piece.  There is a little guide inserted in the box to tell what flavor each letter represents.  I love that, no surprises!