A Little Quilt Humor

If only I had a machine in my cubicle ...

One Last Project Tonight ...

I got one last project done tonight.  I finish my new pincushion. Meet Poor Lil' Punky.

Poor Little Punky

This pattern is by Julie Letvin.  It appeared in the Simple Quilts & Sewing: Winter 2012 issue.  But I just found it online here: http://www.quiltmag.com/resources/simple-quilts-fall-2012-%E2%80%93-poor-lil-punky/ if you are interested in making one.  I bought a kit from Julie's website. Dale bought me 25 lbs of crushed walnut shells at Harbor Freight to fill it with.  25 lbs .... that's a BUNCH of crushed walnuts!!  I guess I'll be making a few pin cushions!

Vintage Rouge

I've been doing the Vintage Rouge BOM in the form of class at Quilts by Phylis.  Jody Postalwait is teaching the class.  I'm probably the worst student in there.  I had my "homework" done for the first class but since then I haven't been prepared at all. 

Here's what the quilt looks like:

Vintage Rouge

Today I worked a little on getting caught up.  I prepared the embroidery blocks to take with me on a work trip this week and cut all the pieces to assemble those blocks in class this coming weekend.  I also did the center block and the 4 pieced blocks.  I'm hoping Friday to get the outer pinwheels done and maybe some of the applique if I get ultra ambitious.  I already had all of the "T" blocks done that form the stripe pattern.  I might finish it before Christmas ..... maybe.

Vintage Rouge in Progress

I got a little side tracked in all this and whipped up this little guy for my miniature quilt rack.  I just need to quilt it, bind it and sew a little button on for Tom's eye.  It won't take long.  Hopefully it will be done this coming weekend.  I found the pattern here:  http://www.thebeadlink.com/craftzone/turkey1.html.

Tom Turkey Mini Quilt

 

Easy Street

I've been busy today working on decluttering and organizing my sewing room.  I have a LOT of stuff.  I have more stuff than I have time to sew actually, but I'll sure try to sew it all .... some day!

And you know because I have so much I thought what the heck .... let's do one more quilt.  So I've decided I'm going to do Bonnie Hunter's next Mystery Quilt called "Easy Street".

Here's what I've pulled together to use:

Easy Street Fabrics

I can't wait to get started after Thanksgiving!!

While I was shopping, I found this adorable little print:

This will become a valance for my bathroom.  It will be cute for fall!

Finished Tops

I've finished a couple full size quilts here lately and have been remiss about keeping up here.  I think I'm making progress though this week getting caught up with posts about my projects.  First I finished the Spiced Apple Quilt and it is off being quilted at Quilts by Phyllis.

Spiced Apples

This was a really fun quilt to make and I think it turned out fairly well.  I loved the reds in this quilt!

The next one I finished was the Carpenter's Star quilt that I started in class.  This was a super easy quilt to make and it turned out really nice. It's also at Phyllis' being quilted. 

Carpenter's Star

And last but not least one of my Simply Charming Quilts.  This one is Julianna's Jewels.  And guess what?  It's off being quilted as well.  I'm thinking that's going to be one heck of quilting bill when I go to pick it up because if my memory serves me right, there's one more little quilt there too: my Blessing Baskets small quilt. I failed to take a picture of it, so we'll have to wait for it to come back from the quilter.

Julianna's Jewels

Because I Just Can't Have Too Many BOM

Like the title to this post implies .... I'm a sucker for a Block of the Month program.  And feeding that addiction is this cute BOM entitled "Cottage Sampler".  It's done mostly with Moda's Etchings line.  So far, I've completed the blocks for Months One and Two which are actually Blocks 2 and 9.  I'm not sure why on earth they decided to make it that confusing.  Month One should be Block One.  But anyway .... here's my first two:

Month 1 Block #2 - Star in the Cabin

Month 2 Block #9 - All Heart

These blocks are all different sizes.  I think it's pretty darn cute. 

Simply Charming Small Quilts

I've been trying to get caught up on my Simply Charming small quilt of the month.  Last weekend I finished one called Columbia's Vintage Charm:

Columbia's Vintage Charm

I love making these little quilts, but I have to say the little pieces prove to be a challenge sometimes.  The seams get thick and become hard to manage and just plain bulky.  So this morning I was starting on one called Worn Old Clothes and I read a tip by the author Tara Lynn Darr.  She suggested ironing the seams open when using these little pieces in order to reduce the bulk.  I was a little reluctant, because I like the way you can lock seams together to match up rows if they are pressed in opposite directions, but I gave it a shot.  

Here's the results so far:

Back of Worn Old Clothes - Seams Open

It works!!  And it wasn't all that bad matching things up.  I just used a few more pins than usual. And I think it looks so much neater than the other way:

Back of Columbia's Vintage Charm - Seams to the Side

 

 

So I've acquired a new technique today for piecing these little quilts.  I'm excited to try it on some more.  I've got 4 more rows to sew on Worn Old Clothes, but here's a little sneak peak of what I've got so far:

Worn Old Clothes in Progress