January Wayward Girls

I looked through some of my photos and realized I didn't post our January Wayward Girls projects. The first quilt (above) is Carol's project--our first Thimbleberries project for 2013. We are working our way through their book "Pint Sized Projects." This of course, is the Bear Paw.

This is Pam's little Valentine quilt, from the book "Pinwheel Party." She's quilted it since then, I must get a picture of it for you.

Carol's January quilt (above) for our Civil War Sewing Circle. And below, Carol's "sunflower" blocks for our February Thimbleberries quilt.

I was able to complete 3 of my Bear Paw blocks. And below, my first finish of the year, a baby quilt for my new grandson Kian, born January 5, 9 lbs. 2 oz. Mom, Dad, and baby are doing fine! The very light background is a blue and white toile from Bunny Hill. And that peachy/orange color is actually yellow. Sorry about the bad lighting!

And here is our little darling! He is such a good baby. He only cries when he is hungry. I can't wait to see him again! Aren't babies just the most wonderful thing ever!

Till next time, keep stitchin!
Mary

Design Wall-Kian's Baby Quilt

Here's what my design wall has on it today! I am making a baby quilt for an expected grandson due in January. I better get busy! I've made this design before, and it is perfect for a baby quilt. It comes from the Country Threads book "Charm School." The quilt is called Only Babies Eat With Their Fingers, and it's made (as all the quilts are in their 2 Charm School books) using 5 inch charm squares. I purchased 3 charm square bundles and some yardage of Bunny Hill's line called "Ooh-La-La." (If my LQS doesn't carry what I want, I can usually find it at http://fatquartershop.com) .

The charm pack has pink, blue, and greys in it. I've added some soft green and yellow. Yes, this is a soft yellow, I don't know why it looks so "gold" in the photo. I'm photographically challenged.

Don't you love the toile fabric? It has little sheep, a barn, and the pastoral scenes found in toile fabrics. There was an equal amount of pinks and blues in the charm pack, but I'm using just a few pinks as this is (supposed to be) a little boy.

Here's how to make the hourglass block:  Start with 2 dark and 2 light fabrics cut at 5 inches square. Draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the light background fabric, sew a "scant" 1/4 inch from the line on both sides. (When I measure the distance between my sewing lines, I have 3/8 inch, rather than 1/2 inch.) Cut the square apart on the pencil line, press fabric to the darker fabric.

Now put the blocks right side together, the dark triangle directly opposite the light triangle. Draw another diagonal pencil line, sew on both sides of it--again a scant 1/4"--cut on the line, and press this seam open.

I always trim my blocks before setting them together. These are trimmed to 4.25 inches. When sewn together they will finish at 3.75 inches.

Obviously, I'm taking a sewing break to blog for a bit, Perry Mason is on, and they just had a fabulous quilt on the wall! It was an applique quilt in red/bright royal blue/yellow. The episode is called "The Case of the Grimacing Governor." Wish I had a pix of that quilt! I googled applique quilt but oh my, that could really take you down a rabbit trail!

Till next time, keep stitchin!

Mary

The Wayward Girls

The Wayward Girls met Saturday, July 7, and had a great time as usual. My sewing room is on the 2nd floor, it's been having a very hard time staying cool in the 100-105 degrees days we've been having. So we sewed in the dining room on the 1st floor, which I think worked out very well. 

Pam worked on several projects, and since she couldn't operate her sewing machine (she fell and broke several toes on her right foot this week), she brought along some hand work. First up was to finish the binding on the summer Thimbleberries quilt, Little Garden (above). Pam substituted different fabrics as part of the pinwheel blocks in the center of the quilt.

Then she worked on a baby quilt that will have little smocked dresses on it (sorry, no photo). Pam is teaching herself to smock--I haven't smocked in over 40 years, so I wasn't any help. She is also making a baby quilt with these darling bears, Ben and Emma is it's name; the pattern is from a 2000 Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. How cute is that!

Carol brought several projects, first off was a table runner using fabrics from a collection called "Downtown." Very New York or Chicago, don't you think!

Her second project was from Jo Morton's Little Women Group 11. It's called Raspberry Swirl, but we named it Licorice and Orange. The block is called "Turkey Tracks" and Carol beautifully paper-pieced them. I can just see this in a Halloween display with a cute pumpkin or black cat, can't you!

My first project was to finish setting the 4 quadrants of Blue Ridge Beauty together. It went together faster than I expected--I was finished with it before the girls even got here! It's 80x80 inches and I think it's done--no borders. This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern, made with mostly scraps.

Here is a photo of Pam's Red Ridge Beauty. After I saw her quilt, I took my blue and white quilt totally apart (it was set differently) and put it together like hers since I liked it so much. Pam is such a sweetie--she's already sent her quilt off to her sister-in-law.

Then I had to get caught up with my Thimbleberries Little Garden. I substituted a different fabric for the light floral backround in the pinwheel blocks, not wanting to use the pink rosebuds fabric.

--

I pressed on and finished the top! That's always a good feeling. I really do like the little picket fence border. I'm going to send this to my favorite longarm quilter, Joyce and get it done! (That's me peeking out from behind the quilt.)

I also cut borders for my granddaughter's quilt and will post a photo of that shortly. The borders are a bright pink print with birds and hearts in the design.

It was kind of comical when the girls arrived about 9:15 a.m. The crew was here to powerwash the house and deck and their vehicle and hoses took up the entire driveway. Then because of the 4th of July holiday the garbage collector showed up just as Pam and Carol drove into the circle. There isn't really much parking space on our circle! So we played musical cars and got that issue resolved.

You know how you sit and chat with your best girlfriends and someone says something that just tickles you? We had a dear friend from our quilting group move--quite suddenly--out of state. Houses are selling very slowly around here, but Marla's sold in 3 weeks. The joke was, Marla moved so quickly, you'd think she was in the Witness Protection Program.  I think we've all been watching too many NCIS episodes ;-)

We had lunch at Mexico Restaurant. Last month we had gone to Crazy Greek's. So it's been 2 months since I've eaten at Mexico Restaurant--everthing really tasted so very good. Blackened Tilapia, Chicken Fajitas, Sopapillas, and Fresh Guacamole. Always ask for fresh-made guacamole--it is fabulous! And we order our sopapillas with honey, ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzled on them. So yummy!

Till next time, keep stitchin'!

Mary

Little Garden by Thimbleberries

 I'm working on the Thimbleberries quarterly quilt called "Little Garden." I decided to change out the light background fabric featured in the pinwheels. The kit fabric had tiny pink and green rosebuds on it, and I found a background fabric with blue and green flowers in it that I liked better. As this will be a summer wallhanging I didn't want pink in mine.

Before our next meeting we are supposed to have the dark blue inner border and the white picket fence border sewn on. I have my assignment for the month!

This is a picture of the completed quilt. I do enjoy a good Thimbleberries pattern, the directions are very well done and they tell you at each step what size your project should measure. And on a bright note, I took my spring Thimbleberries project--"Love Me Tender" to Joyce, my quilter, Saturday. She quilted the shop sample with a beautiful swirled heart pattern, and I asked her to do the same to mine. Hopefully I will have that in a few weeks. When I dropped off my top she had a quilt in the machine with horses on it. Very interesting! She was quilting a lasso pattern onto the quilt. Joyce is very creative and does such a nice job.

Here is the baby quilt I picked up from the quilters yesterday. It is a "bow-twist" block. You can attach baby rattles or toys to the little twisty parts as they are only tacked down at the corners. Joyce quilted a frog on a lilly pad design. Isn't it cute! My little great-nephew will be 6 months old if I don't get this in the mail soon. (That's what happens when mom delivers early, and the sew-er and the quilter have life get in the way!) This color-way is a real change for me, as I prefer to sew with Civil War reproduction fabrics. It was quite fun to make!

Design wall tomorrow...I have 2 different things on the design wall, so will show you both projects. Until then, keep stitchin'! 

Mary