Strip pieced rectangles.....

This is getting easier the more rectangles I make.  I have 6 more designed and ready to sew.  I think my quilt will be more colorful than the one in the book because the red triangles in the book have a lot of dark fabrics with brown and purple in them and I have stayed with reds and pinks.  I have enough strips cut though that I can make some darker red rectangles too and then I would have my choice when I start laying out the quilt.  I am going to start cutting the rectangles into triangles today to see where any difficulties may occur.  One of the measurements has 5/16ths in it so I'll see how accurate I can be.

Rectangles, sewn and designed

I have sewn the first 2 rectangles for this quilt.  I need to make 4 rectangles of each of these colors.

I have designed 2 purple ones but didn't have the energy to sew them last night.

This is the first light one I have designed.  I need to cut a lot more light fabrics before I can make 4 different color groups.  I need to be a couple steps ahead of my students that are coming next Saturday but I don't have to have the whole quilt sewn.

2011 Journal Quilt 10

Once again I am using a block from the past.  In 1991 (wow, 20 years ago, time flies) I started teaching colorwash classes.  I always took samples of colorwash made with different size squares so everyone could see they weren't locked into 1.5",

2" or 2.5" squares.  This sample, the 16 squares in the center, used 2" squares.  I also have a sample made of 1.5" squares and one made with 1" squares.  In all of my larger colorwash pieces I use 2.5" squares.  See a lot of my colorwash quilts here.

Still cutting.......

I taught a finishing class yesterday so I took along a lot of small pieces of Kaffe Fassett fabric to cut into strips for this project.  I started laying out 2 of the rectangles last night but I can see I have a lot more cutting to do.  There are 4 rectangles of each color group and there are 4 color groups in each light and dark.

I did a lot of cutting a couple weeks ago and more cutting yesterday and even though this looks like a lot, it isn't nearly enough.  There are 2-6 pieces in each pile plus the ones on the trays haven't been cut into 11" lengths yet.  It's a good thing I have another week before I teach the class.

I haven't shown my little entertainers lately.  I looked out the front window and saw this little guy perched on the remains of a bush that I cut down about 5 years ago.  I don't see the squirrels this near to the front of  my house very often.  They like the backyard where the bird feeders are.

I'm a winner again!

A couple weeks ago the Dye Candy blog had a give away and I won!  The link will take you to her etsy shop with all of the fabulous hand dyed fabric.  The prize was $25 off an order so I placed an order for these 3 pieces of snow dyed fabric. 

She sent me one of her wonderful miniature pieced block pins also.  It was a great mail day!!!

Preparing for classes again.....

The Turning Twenty series has stayed pretty popular because it uses 20 fat quarters, and so many people have collected fat quarters over the years.  I am teaching this one at Quilter's Heart here in Sandwich, IL so I went to the store and chose the fabric so the owner could make some kits too.

There are 2 layouts in the book "Turning Twenty Just got Better" that use the same blocks.  This is just blocks on the wall and neither has their border up there with them.  I have another group of fabric chosen which I will make a sample from too and I will end up with both layouts sewn.  The class is on the 31st of March.

I have a group interested in making this quilt too so I have a date set for it this month.  It is one of my favorites in Kaffe Fassett's book, "Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts".  This is one I started cutting for over a week ago and I have a lot more to cut.


I sold all of the notebooks with quilted journal covers and the bag yesterday so I won't be listing any on my other blog.  I hope to make some more soon though.

Fun day for all.........

I sold a kit for a Kaffe Fassett fabric Trip Around the World to one of the art quilters in November.  It is king size.  I think it turned out great.

This is the photo I posted back in November when I just finished cutting the kit.

After standing all day I was way too tired to get into a big project so I sewed one more round on the log cabin blocks.  I have several blocks leftover from the 2 quilts I made last year so I am making more to go with them.

I always give the art quilters first chance to purchase my journal covers and totes, and these are the ones leftover if anyone is interested in purchasing one.  The spiral notebooks are the 5" x 7" size.  I will list them on my Wandaful blog unless I sell them before I have time to do that.  email me with the link on my right sidebar if you want more information.