Whoop Whoop! 10/21/11 and Pattern

WHAT?  It's Friday?!  When I was a career woman, Friday could not sneak up on me.  In retirement, it's totally different.  Or, I should say, the same!  Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  So Whoop Whoop! Friday came unannounced.  But I do have something to be glad for -- I finished quilting a Christmas gift -- YAY!!!  And I typed up the instructions for it, as well.  One problem, though, is I can't seem to scan it in order to include the piecing diagram. So here are the directions, you'll have to look at the picture of the quilt to see how it's pieced.

 ANOTHER FIVE-YARD QUILT

60” Square

(takes five one-yard cuts of coordinating fabrics)

#1 - Large scale focus fabric

#2 - Small print that surrounds focus

#3 - Four-patches and binding

#4 - Four-patches and first small border

#5 - Medium scale focus for center of blocks and outer border

Plus 4 yards for backing.

BLOCK ONE

Fabric #1 - Cut 3 strips 6 ½” wide

Subcut into 18 ea 6 ½” squares

Fabric #2 - Cut 18 strips 1 ½” wide

Subcut into 36 ea 1 ½” x 6 ½” rectangles 

and 36 ea 1 ½” x 8 ½” rectangles

Sew 6 ½” strips on two opposite sides of the 6 ½” square.  Sew 8 ½” strips to the other two sides.

BLOCK TWO

Fabrics #3 and #4 - Cut 3 strips 4 ½” wide

Cut 3 strips 4 ½” wide

Sew a 4 ½” strip from each together.  You will have 3 strip sets that you will then subcut every 3”, this is Set 1.

Sew a 2” wide strip from each together.  You will have 3 strip sets that you will then subcut every 3”, this is Set 2. 

Fabric #5 - Cut 2 strips 3 ½” wide

Cut into 18 ea 3 ½” squares

Arrange and sew as in diagrams for Block A and Block B.  Then sew the top, alternating Blocks A and Block B in a 6 by 6 design. 

Add borders. 

BORDER 1

Fabric #4 - Cut 5 strips 2” wide

BORDER 2 

Fabric #5 - Cut 6 strips 4 ½” wide

BINDING

Fabric #3 - cut 6 strips 2 ½” wide

This quilt has been thoroughly belly-tested by my in-house quilt inspector, Annabella.  

Now, go to Sarah's website for more Whoop Whoop! :-D

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-lazy-week.html

Accomplishments!

I had a busy week, and got some things done!  Not like some of you overachievers, who manage to quilt four quilts, make seven tops, till the garden, do Fall cleaning -- no, I'm not a bit envious and I'm not trying to be snarky.  I'm just in awe of those who get so much done.  But the little bit I managed is happy for me :-)

I finished quilting a top for a friend who is making TWENTY quilts for a homeless shelter!  Now, she's one of those overachievers I mentioned.  I offered to quilt some, and so far have finished a grand total of TWO :-/  Oh well, here's the second one (back and front):

She sent me a low-loft batting, but it really puffed up to look like trapunto, so I didn't quilt anything in the green parts.

The tool apron!  This was what I'd call a prototype, which means I plan to make at least one more, right?  Well, if I do, there are a couple of things I'd tweak, but not much.  This may be just fine. It's loaded up with my Zune (the earbuds go through the back of the pocket and out through a hole in the top of the apron; here, they're draped around the strap), glasses, tweezers and seam ripper, tape measure, scissors (both large, in a pocket, and snips hooked onto the tab on top), etc.  That nasty looking bit on top is the piece of batting with threads I've snipped.

On Friday, a couple of us got together here for lunch and a bit of stitching. I'd wanted to try the "jelly roll races" quilt, which was enormously fun!!!  We gathered about 10 a.m., and finished around 2, with breaks for fixing lunch and eating.  So, I'd guess-timate it took me about 3 hours.  The first part took longest because I pressed seams open and snipped the triangles from the mitered joins.  This is a great project for a stitch-in, for making comfort quilts, or just mindless sewing!

I even started a new project!  I just stuck these on my design wall so I could take a picture.  It's going to have sashing between, and there will be more green and aqua boxes.  I think there will be 16, total.  Another fun pattern ("Flurry" by Kate Spain), very quick to put together.  I found some of her "falalalala" print that I may use for borders, but it's just green and red so might not go as well as I'd hoped.  We'll see.

And here's today's Annie sighting.  I had to put a new basket by my sewing machine -- the old one was too big and took up space on the sewing table.  This one fits perfectly on the top of the drawer section.  It looks too small for her, but believe me, she's been curled up small enough to fit into just half of that basket!  How convenient the designers of the basket left earholes so her hair wouldn't get that "bedhead" look :-D

Design Wall Monday 9/19

If you read blog on 8/29, I said I had settled on making a version of Cinco de Mayo.  I even pulled the fabrics for it.  Yeah, about that...  Instead of Cinco, I decided on Fiesta! by Possibilities.  Cinco is the same blocks throughout, just changing the fabrics.  With Fiesta!, there are six different blocks, and you make several versions of them.  I'm liking that idea a lot.  The picture shows each of the six, which makes an interesting variety.  So that's the direction I'm going.  At least, today :-)

While I was on blogging vacation (since the 29th!) I quilted a quilt for a friend, but since it was virtually the same as the last one, I didn't take a picture.  Simple meandering, which, of course, was perfect for fabric with a camo design!  

I have another comfort quilt loaded right now, but for some reason, the tension keeps getting quirky.  I've tried a few things, even called HQ (which has wonderful customer service -- the tech called me back within 10 minutes!) and it's better.  So I have to work on that this weekend.  There's another one just like it next in line, but I don't think I'll do as much quilting on it.  I'm doing a quilting pattern that Diane Gaudynski calls headbands, and it takes a long time!!  Hard to see, but the green parts look trapunto'd because I've stitched around the inside and outside of it.  Kinda cool!  

Annabella's favorite thing in the whole world is playing in quilts!  Not so much fun when the bed is completely made, with everything flat and smooth.  But when it's all bunched up from sleeping under, taking a nap, or, as here, undone to wash sheets,  Annie goes bonkers!  She gets her mousie and she leaps around, digs under, grabs for meese under the folds, and has lots of quilt to get a toe-hold in order to zoom around on the bed!!  She's so silly.

This Week -- Whoop!

This week (see my post of the 22nd) I made a block for our guild's president, quilted a top and resumed work on a Christmas quilt .  Which got no further :-/  Because I dragged out this tote -- yummmmm.  

In this tote, I have my collected bits and pieces of hand-dyes and not-exactly-hand-dyes but that will go with this project.  I've wanted to make a Ricky Tims' Rhapsody quilt ever since I first saw his Fire Dragon quilt.  Oooooo, it's totally DRAMA!

And I started quilting this comfort quilt that a friend made to be donated via one of the local guilds.  It may be a veteran's quilt, and with these colors, I decided to do some geometric ruler work throughout the center, with wavy designs on the borders.  More details later :-)

All of which caused Annabella to crash on top of my Kaffe Fassett quilt, zzzzzzz.

Suddenly, I'm seeing trees turning color!  And while the temps don't agree, I'm thinking autumn.  My favorite season!  What's yours?  And do you make quilts to celebrate the seasons?

Go here to see what some fab quilters have been up to: http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2011/08/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-tis-season.html

Pitchin' a Hissy!

This was an unusually productive weekend, and boy does that feel good!  Seems so often I wind up piddling away the day. Piddling?  Yes!  That reminds me to tell you about a book I'm "reading" via my MP3 player -- it's called "Hissy Fit" by Mary Kay Andrews.  It sounded like something fun to listen to, a change of pace from my usual mysteries.  And I love hearing the book because the reader uses a wonderful Georgia accent, and with the fun expressions, I found myself "tawkin' Suthen" again!!  In a darlin' little local boutique, I saw a sign that said something about getting results by pitchin' a hissy fit.  Anyway, I surely do recommend this book!  (I grabbed the picture from Amazon, btw.)

And listening to the book had me in such a good mood, I got busy in the sewing room. First thing, I cleaned up my sewing that I had royally messed up with threads, scraps, rulers, templates, books, etc. while I was finishing my last quilt. Then I got to work!  

My friend had made a Turning Twenty quilt for a guy who specifically requested camo fabric and browns.  So, of course, for the quilting she suggested a meander, which worked out perfectly!!  I hope she's happy with it, I am!  

In our quilt guild every year, we ask our president to suggest colors/patterns that she likes, and the membership makes blocks for her as a thank you.  This year the president asked for any pattern, using white and blues.  This block is called "Card Basket" that I used from Quilters Cache.  Are you familiar with that website?  She has blocks listed by size or by name, and I've never seen another site where you can find them all!  And she has the directions for them all here:  www.quilterscache.com  Be prepared to spend much time browsing!

This panel, "12 Days of Christmas" by Nancy Halvorsen, Benartex, has been aging in my UFO tote bin  shelf  closet for awhile, and I realized it's time to start making Christmas gifts!  So far, I added 5" blocks all around, a stripe border, and now I have these squares cut to make either half-squares or hourglass blocks for the next round.  Shhh, don't show this to anyone, tho, it's gonna be a gift :-) 

We will have had Annabella the Ragdoll for one year on 9/11, and she's about 20 months old.  We were told she'd continue to grow for 3-4 years, and her coloring would continue to darken during that time. Looking at a video taken about a month after we got her, she's changed quite a bit.  She didn't have a ruff around her neck, or the thick pantaloons that she has now, and she has darkened a little.  We're so happy we have her in our life!

Sunkissed Finished! Whoop!

And it's a quilt!  YAY!  I soooo love the Sunkissed line -- I bought a Fat Eighths bundle the minute it came out, and have been playing with making the blocks, undecided where I was going with it.  I used the most delicious shade of buttery yellow for the background. The sashing is a slightly orange-y yellow with light orange dots.  The borders are a light yellow batik, the look washed out in the photos, but they're nearly the same color as the background. 

From a panto set, I traced the corner blocks.  Then I did a panto on all four borders and used a large stipple to fill the blanks.  There was a lot of ruler work, and free motion in the blocks.  I do love this quilt -- the colors are my favorite, and I used a Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% batting which makes it soooooo soft and snuggly.  I haven't washed it cuz I was eager to get it on the bed!   


You need to go to Sarah's website: http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ every Friday to see the happy finishes of other quilters, too!

After all was done, and I was going into the sewing room to clean up the mess, here's what I saw :-D  Annie was lying on the end of the ironing board, patiently waiting for some attention.  Amazing how she finds just the right height to be that makes it convenient to pet her -- isn't she thoughtful?

Progress on Sunkissed -- Whoop Whoop!

Sunkissed is a quilt I'm making for ME! For MY bed! It's the yummiest colors on this planet!  But I'm taking my time, SITD (stitching-in-the-ditch) to stabilize it before beginning the quilt. I've drawn patterns for the sashing and corners onto tracing paper. 

And today I sewed one border using a pantograph.  Since the whole quilt is SITD, I can turn the quilt sideways to use the panto on the borders.  I stitched the panto up to the corners, then used the drawings above in the corner blocks, then I echoed and stippled the empty spaces.  I used matching thread so mistakes wouldn't show, but it's so pretty, I wish I'd used thread that was slightly more contrasting. Maybe I'll go back and do some hyperquilting, a la Patsy Thompson.  

Here you can see where I drew the pattern on the corner using the Pilot FriXion pen.  Have you heard of it? Amazing!  After the scary experience I had with my Pinwheels (the blue washout marker didn't, until I washed the whole quilt in a cold rinse cycle!!)  I decided to try the FriXion.  You just draw on your quilt, and it's like a ballpoint, smooth, sharp, fine and comes in red, black and blue.  Then to remove it, you run an iron over it, and voila', it's clean!  Really!  It works!  It's advertised as an Erasable Gel Pen, and it does erase from paper.

Next, I'll be quilting the blocks -- pinwheel centers circled by flying geese. I intend to take my time, and it will certainly take time!  But so far, so good :-)  Doing all kinds of research online, reading books watching DVDs and YouTube, I've learned lots of little tricks.  I couldn't tell you where I learned about the FriXion pen, or this tip -- using a pants hangar and curtain rod on the clamp ends of the quilt.  The pants hangar wasn't complete tight all across, so I inserted a strip of the shelf lining stuff that's rubbery and knobbly, and it holds it firmly all the way across.  The curtain rod holds the clamp from drooping and pulling the edge of the quilt downward.

Here's a picture of the edge of a quilt I finished for the other bed, using a panto. I'm thrilled with how it came out.  The photo doesn't do the colors justice, just know it's yumm-o, too!  This one's 92"x98", and I was able to do it on my 10' frame with room to spare -- hoorah!

Annabella was exhausted by all the quilting going on, so after a hard game of feather-chasing, it was a long nap for her!

For other Whoop Whoop! accomplishments, go to Sarah's blog: http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2011/08/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-sometimes-you.html

Yeah, Kinda Like That!

Whew, that's how I'm feeling these days!  Too hot, too hot.  There's no way I could survive in Texas anymore.  Texas?  Not just Texas, it's everywhere!  I heard it was 100 degrees in Central Park, in New York!  And yet, I have friends honeymooning in Bend, Oregon, where it's been in the 60s during the day and 40s at night.  That sounds so good!


Somewhere in the Wonderful World of the Blogosphere, I saw a picture of just the corner of a quilt.  For some reason, the idea stayed in my mind, and a few days ago I started playing with bits and pieces on the design wall. As you can see, it's all thrown up there, and then it's like a jigsaw puzzle, moving parts here and there, trying out this and that.  I have just one block sewn together, but since this is just a work in progress, it may be re-done, too.

I do have a little quilt on the Avante, in progress.  The focus fabric is a wonderful, funky print of women in their 70s-style outfits, very hip ;-D  The inspiration for the pattern is from a book called "9-Patch Pizzazz" where you use larger pieces of the focus fabric surrounded by smaller blocks.  Sorta like the "Just Can't Cut It" book.  

So there it is, a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  

Design Wall Monday 4/18

Annabella is very excited this is Design Wall Monday.  Oh, wait.  No, she's excited to find a sun spot this morning!

What the heck do you do with five one-yard pieces? I bought this bundle of early Robyn Pandolph several years ago at the Nashville AQS Show.  Waaaaah, I miss having it in Nashville!  Oh, sorry.  So I had this fabric, but had no clue what I'd do with it.  I belonged to an online group and put out a call, and one of the ladies came through for me.  She sent me a copy of a pattern she'd made.  It was almost illegible, very dark photocopy, with lots of "notes to self."  But I had a blast making this top!  It was easy and fun to make.  Auditioning borders now, I have very little fabric left, so we'll see how that goes.  It may be scrappy.  

Glamor Shots!

Hello!  I'm Annabella, and I'm a Ragdoll.  My Mom brushed me this afternoon, so I allowed a photo shoot to share my beautiful self with you.  Wait a minute -- here's a hair out of place, oh dear!!!

Here's my story, I'm not ashamed to share that I had a less-than-glamorous beginning.  Although I'm a purebred Ragdoll, my breeder decided to retire, and sent me, with other family members, to a cat shelter for adoption.  But!  Happy day!  I was discovered!  My new Mom and Dad found me, and picked me out of the hundred or so others miscellaneous kitties in the shelter, and brought me home. A terrible case of ear mites prevented me from being very glamorous at first.  And I was so shy and a genuine scaredy-cat, I just knew I'd be tossed out on my fuzzy butt.

My beautiful, soulful blue eyes had already enchanted my new parents.  And I was so pitiful!  So they were very gentle and quiet around me.  Soon I came out of my shell, a little at a time.  Sigh.  It was a magical time for me.  

I don't even like to think of my past.  But sometimes, I do reflect on how it might have gone.  Wrong.  Terribly wrong.  Today, however, I'm sweet and loving and humble.  But I'm also a diva and run to greet people who come to the door, because they're here to pay tribute to my magnificent beauty.  Of course.  Why else would they show up?


My primary job is to be a companion to my Mom whenever she's in her sewing room, or a lap cat when she's watching TV.  I help Dad make the bed, and do my floppy cat roly-poly routine when it's made so he can rub my tummy.  I love my job!


Come by and see me any time.  I can be persuaded to be petted and admired.  

Whoop Whoop! 3/18

Yes! Finally coming together, the top is sewn, and the spludges of color are fabrics I'm auditioning for the appliques. Not sure where I'm going with that.  Any ideas?  Leaves, stems, flowers and stars.  Should I continue with the colors I've used in the piecing, or go with other colors?  The ones in the picture are pinks and fuschias with aqua together with the green for leaves and stems.  

And I'm beginning to think about quilting this baby.  I know there are those of you who plan the quilting before they ever start creating the quilt.  Not me.  Since most of my quilts never leave the house, I just make it up as I go along.  But I'd like this one to be special.  How would you quilt it?  

Whoop Whoop!  Something to show on a Friday, yay!!  And Annie's ready to take it on the road:

Sunkissed Buttercups and Tulips, Oh My!

SCORE!!!  I fell in love with the Moda Sunkissed line by Sweetwater when I first saw it online several weeks ago.  I found a  fat eighths bundle, and snarfed it up and stuffed it into the bottom of my shopping bag.  

SCORE AGAIN!!  And then I found the Moda Buttercup line by Joanna Figueroa that has had me drooling on my keyboard when I saw it online.  Bought a layer cake, and added another layer in my shopping bag.

SCORE SCORE SCORE SCORE!!!!  (Is this beginning to sound like a video game?)  I've been collecting bits and pieces of fabric for a QIMM (Quilt in My Mind).  I was inspired by the yummy Philip Jacobs Tulip print in the front.  The four that are fanned on the right are the ones I found and piled on top of the others in my bag.  


Not to mention the scrump-o aqua batik I found, the pink-y/peach-y yard and a couple of light greenish/blue prints to go with some "modern" fabrics I've been gathering.  And one or two (ha!) other bits I NEEDED!  My shopping bag was awfully heavy before very long.  Must have been the very heavy Marti Michell Log Cabin ruler, right?!  And that didn't even include the half dozen or so books I bought!


Where did I find this wonderful bonanza?  At the Pigeon Forge (TN) Mountain Quiltfest.  It's really one of my fave quilt shows, small enough to see all the amazing quilts, shop lots and lots of vendors, in a town where there are lots of places to eat, things to see, wonderful views of the Great Smoky Mountains.  And all that topped off by being with six great friends in a really nice condo, where we laughed and yakked and did show and tell. 


Most of them went to the dinner/lecture by Bonnie Hunter, and they just raved about her.  One took a class by Bonnie, the Scrappy Queen!  I hope she'll be back, because I definitely want to take her class.  Some of us went to see Darlene Zimmerman's dinner/lecture, called "From Ho-Hum to Wow!"  Very good lecture, she gave lots of options for dolling up your quilts, including settings and borders.  I highly recommend it.   

Annie liked the Buttercup wrapping the best :-) Gotta run!  Laundry and stash arranging awaits, so I'll see you all later!