Sunday, August 31, 2014

Is Summer Over Already?



We are enjoying a fun weekend with family in town!  We had one more party at our house for the newlyweds.  I had to share a picture of the beautiful center pieces.  I love the way they turned out and no I didn't arrange them, a florist did.  I wish I could do so well! They really smell good too!


The Italian Cream Sodas were a huge hit.  They are SO tasty!  We have been drinking them all day today too.... Yum....

My soda mixers dressed the part!  My son took his job very seriously and, I am told, tied his bow tie on the first try :)


Saturday, August 30, 2014

August's Modern Quilt Blocks


And here are the Tula Pink blocks for the month of August.  These really are fun to make.  Picking out the fabric is the hardest part of making them - for me!  Good practice though :)

Now I am all caught up and ready for September's minis, modern quilt blocks and the TQS block.  Who knows, maybe I will find some time to work on my Postage Stamp quilt or some other UFO as well!






Friday, August 29, 2014

July's Modern Quilt Blocks

Here are my Tula Pink Modern Quilt blocks for the month of July!  Yeah - I got them done!  I am trying very hard to have more contrast in my color choices.  I think they're getting a little better....
My Rowenta iron has sprung a leak or something.  Ricky Tims once said he uses a dry iron and a squirt bottle because his iron is always "incontinent".  Well, mine is definitely having problems.  I do like using steam because I get things pressed really flat that way - but this spitting and leaking all over is getting rather annoying - not to mention the water is hot!  Ah well, I will figure it out later :)  Have a nice weekend!!




Thursday, August 28, 2014

Machine Embroidery

My friend Pam made this adorable baby quilt using her embroidery machine and the embroidery appliqué technique.  She did such a beautiful job!  Some lucky baby and baby's family are going to love this quilt.  We were talking about how cute the motifs would be on blankets, bibs, or putting the rubber duckies on a baby towel. A LOT of cute gift ideas.
I have never tried machine embroidery.  I'm impressed with all that Pam does with her machine.  It has always looked very complicated to me!  I guess it's just like anything else - practice makes perfect :)
I've been working on my Tula Pink Modern quilt blocks which I will share in the next couple of days.  I've been trying to be extra careful with pressing - doing a little bit of finger pressing first, so as not to distort the seams.  I think it's helping!  I know, it only took me 20 years to learn that....
I am still struggling a bit with picking colors for these blocks.  I like the fabrics I pick out, until I get them cut and sewn into the block - then sometimes - not so much.  I did throw one away this time and started over.  I will share them mañana :)

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A-Z! Well Almost!

I am FINALLY caught up on the TQS block of the month.  Both of them!  Half-sized!  Yeah!  Just in time for another month to start.... Ah well, it feels good to be "caught up" for a few days anyway.  These are the blocks for July and August.  July was T, Q and V, and August was U, W and X.  I put my ruler in the picture so you can see that this whole section only measures about 12 inches by 12 inches.  There are some itty,  bitty, teeny, tiny pieces in these blocks!  The appliqué is pretty small as well.  So, as you can imagine, there are a LOT of seams on the backs of these.  I think when I finally get the whole top pieced together that it will be able to stand up by itself, it will be so thick with seams.  Quilting?  Who needs quilting?  That is my biggest puzzle at the moment - HOW am I going to quilt it?  I think I will wait and worry about that later.... Right now, I am off to make some Tula Pink blocks :) NOT half-sized.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

September Minis


I finished up my monthly minis for September just in time to give them to my daughters this weekend.  They are all hand appliquéd, which seriously is easier for me to do than machine appliqué.  I guess I'm weird.  I enjoy it too though and that makes a big difference.
Now that I have a daughter-in-law I will have to think of some wall hangings to make for her.  They will have to be different though because I don't want to do these for a third time - it's time to move on to something else :)
These wall hangings look very fall-like.  We better get out and enjoy the rest of our summer - fall will be here before we know it!

Monday, August 25, 2014

Sandra Starley

Sandra Starley, the speaker at the Colorado Quilt Council meeting Saturday, is an AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser, Antique Quilt Lecturer, Teacher, Designer, and Author from Moab, Utah.

She brought many, many antique quilts to show and talk about.  I took pictures of several but was having a hard time getting great pictures from where I was standing.  Finally I started talking pictures as they lay on the tables before the "holders" picked them up to show.
She tried to show different quilts of the same style together, such as these two hexagon quilts.  Most of the quilts she showed were made in the 1800's.







These two quilts are also the same block pattern, just put together differently and using different fabrics makes them look totally different!



She said this isn't a "Lone Star" because it's not "alone".











Some of the colors in the Lone Star below match too closely and therefore and fade into the background.



Grandmother's Flower Garden made in the early 1900's and set with the diamond shaped hexagon blocks in between.  The quilt below has a similar look with hexagons in a diamond shape.








This quilt and the one below are also made using the same block pattern but put together differently.  I really love the browns and blue colors in the quilt below.  It was one of my favorites.




A blue and white quilt made with the uneven nine-patch block, and the quilt below is the uneven nine-patch block set on point.  The one below was probably my favorite of all the ones shown - that's why there are two pictures of it :)



It was a fun and interesting lecture!  I don't know about you but I sure appreciate these ladies (and gentlemen) that made these gorgeous quilts over 100 years ago, without rotary cutters and mats and some even without sewing machines!  Wow! - is all I can say.
And I hope 100 years from now, someone is showing my quilts at a quilt meeting and lecturing about how I made them with just a rotary cutter and sewing machine - without all of the new fancy equipment that they will have in 2114 :)  Label your quilts!  You will want credit for your work!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

CQC Show and Tell


As with any gathering of quilters, there was a show and tell at the CQC meeting yesterday.  Here are a few quilts that were shown.

This is a beautiful Baltimore Album style quilt.


The woman who showed this one said that she started out making the hexagons, in the center, in a class and couldn't bring herself to make anymore.  She found some orphan blocks in her stash in the same 30's style prints and made this really cute table topper.


A beautiful wool quilt, all hand made.


This cute crazy cat quilt is a lot of fun!


Since the program was on antique quilts, this woman brought a couple to share.

A nice strippy quilt with some machine embroidery.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Raffle Quilts

I went to the Colorado Quilt Council (Colorado's state guild) meeting today in beautiful Palisade.  It was a nice meeting and it was fun to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen for awhile.  There were three raffle quilts on display.  Many guilds make quilts to raffle off to make money to help run their guild, or sometimes for a charitable cause.  It always seems rather ironic to me, to try and sell the chance to win a quilt to a room full of quilters.  Really probably the last thing I need in my house is another quilt! (My husband would probably agree ...)  However these are gorgeous quilts and who could pass up the chance to win one of them for $1?  You cannot even buy a fat quarter for a dollar.  So we support one another's guilds by buying raffle tickets.  I really don't know what I would do though, if I ever won one.
CWQG is in the process of making one to debut at the local quilt show next Spring.  As members we all get 20 tickets to sell.  I usually buy them and put several of my family and
friends names on the tickets stubs.  I usually forget to tell them that I did that though, so I could really have some surprised family members if they ever get a call informing them that they won a quilt :)

The quilt above is being raffled by the S&B Quilters from Hotchkiss, CO and the one to the right is the raffle quilt for CQC - the state guild - this year.  I have a "chance" to win both of these :)

This raffle quilt belongs to the Glenwood Springs guild.  It's called Amish with a Twist!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Do-Overs

Here are the cushions we picked for the sunroom. They turned out great.  I love the other fabric as well, but it seemed a little dark for the lightness of the room so we opted for this one instead.  To the person, and you know who you are, who commented and really liked the other fabric. I still have some of the fabric and am planning on making you something out of it :)

I have been working on the TQS blocks of the month (half-size) and what a challenge these have been for July and August!

This one is the Union Square (I still need to appliqué the letter "u" on the right side.)  This block finishes at three inches.  I was pretty hesitant to even tackle it and tried to find another quilt block that starts with the letter "u", but I could only find "Umbrella Sue" and that doesn't really fit with this quilt.  So I decided to paper piece it and it worked!  Those half-square triangle blocks are 1/2 inch!

I paper pieced the Windmill block too, and it wasn't nearly as complicated as the Union Square block.  The only thing I did wrong though, was that I forgot to reverse the pattern when I made the freezer paper foundations, so my windmill is blowing counter clockwise.  I decided I could live with that and did not make these blocks over.

X Marks the Block - I did completely make this block over.  I redrafted the block on graph paper so I could paper piece.  No need to reverse this one because it was symmetrical, but I didn't take into account the small green border and four blue cornerstones surrounding the "x", so my "x" was way too big the first time around (even though it is only three inches!)  I thought about just using it this way and not adding the green border but it bugged me .... so I made both blocks over again.  In the new, correct block, those four paper pieced sections that make up the "x" finish at one inch.  Phew!  Now on to the teeny tiny appliquéd letters!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Sunroom Complete

The Sunroom is finished!  The final inspection was yesterday, they tidied up the landscaping yesterday, the port-a-potty has been hauled away - Wow!  It's kind of hard to believe that after 2 1/2 months it's all done!  I have kind of gotten used to random people coming in and out of the yard and/or house all day and not knowing whether or not I will be able to get my car out of the garage, or back in....
Everyone has been so kind though, and helpful and overall it was a great experience and I am sure we will enjoy this room and it will have been worth all the effort.  There is still no furniture in the room.  I may have to post a couple more pictures when we get the cushions and some furnishings :)

In the meantime, I need to work on some projects!  I just about have the monthly minis finished for my daughters.  I'm just trying to get caught up on some things.  Maybe I should make a list of all of the UFOs I have and prioritize them....