Category Archives: Quilts

What’s On My Design Wall

January 26, 2015 12:45 am ⋅ Pam

This week all I’ve accomplished with needle and thread is 3 new stars (which still need pressing). What can I say? Tuesday afternoon I started tearing the office space apart in preparation for a “new desk”. Well, that and to clean up some broken glass.

I think I’ve finally got all of the glass up and the computers are hooked back up. But there are still boxes to unpack and stuff to put away. There are boxes are piled up in front of the design wall

and on the cart.

Flat surfaces are piled high.

But the quilting books are now on the bookshelf that I swapped out. The wall hanging will need to be moved.

Others hung back up.

I can however say with certainty neither the ironing or cutting boards are piled with stuff. The only decision I have to make now is if this new arrangement is going to work for me. I’ll try it out for a week and in the meantime, put what I can away.

Hopefully there will be better eye candy through some of the other links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

Prepping Stars

January 23, 2015 12:18 am ⋅ Pam

Earlier this week the modem took a nose dive off the bookshelf and fell on a just emptied glass, breaking it. Why is this important? Because it means I’ve torn my office/sewing room apart to get behind the desks to clean up the bits and pieces. But moving the big desk will be easier with two people – especially since I want to switch some furniture out, so the final push won’t happen until this weekend. Meanwhile, I can’t get to the sewing machine so I’ve been working on my Star-a-Day blocks.

Tonight, instead of stitching a block, I prepped stars. This is some of the fabric I picked back in November. I finally sat still long enough to trace the pieces off and cut them out. I need to find my alternate square fabric and cut a few squares, but all the star pieces are ready now for 9 more blocks. At the moment I have 73 stars made.

Posted in: Star-A-Day

Another UFO Bites the Dust

January 20, 2015 2:46 am ⋅ Pam

Last year I was making black and white 4-patches with the intention of making Bricks & Stepping Stones, but then there was quilt-a-long for Jared Takes A Wife and I repurposed the 4-patches.

I quilted this with the panto “Floral Meander” using Transitions Variegated thread #41062 – Primary Explosion in the top and a burgundy bobbin thread. The batting is Hobb’s Tuscany Collection.

The quilt is bound with Susie’s Magic Binding – the same green as the sashing with a touch of the pink showing.

After washing the quilt measures 65″ x 77″.

While I was at it I also made a pillowcase.

I’ll link this finish up to:

UFO Parade over at Aunt Marti’s 52 Quilts
UFO Busting at Field Trips in Fiber
1st Quarter finish in the 2015 Finish-A-Long (1st qtr goals)

Now on to those stars!

Posted in: Finish-A-Long - 2015, Jared Takes a Wife, UFO Busting - 2015, UFO Parade - 2015, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

January 19, 2015 6:32 am ⋅ Pam

Yesterday I put my Star-A-Day blocks up on the wall just so it wouldn’t be empty this week. Not that I didn’t work on other things last week (Scrappy Trips and “matching” pillowcase). Since the first of the month I’ve completed 8 new stars. I think I need to kick it in gear since I would like to make about 45 this month.

On the ironing board is Jared Takes A Wife. I’m off to quilt it later this morning.

The Christmas BOM is the big news. Saturday I got the borders on the quilt! I’ve found the backing fabric in my stash. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to quilt it and what color thread to use. Needless to say, this quilt top is going to have to age a bit.

See what others have been up to by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: Christmas BOM, goals, Jared Takes a Wife, Stash Busting Report, UFOs

A Treadle Project

January 16, 2015 11:54 am ⋅ Pam

Scrappy Trips was completely made on my treadle machine “Miss Florence Jane“. Everything from piecing the blocks, assembling the quilt top, piecing the quilt backing, the quilting itself, piecing the binding and attaching the binding – both front and back to the quilt was done on the treadle. The only thing I didn’t do on the treadle was stitch the label down. I did that by hand.

I used Scrappy Trips, a Bonnie Hunter pattern for the blocks, and then set them as one big trip.

The quilt tops was started April 4, 2013 and I finished the top January 11, 2014. I started the quilting on January 10, 2015 and put the last stitch in the label on January 15, 2015.

The washed quilt measures 68″ x 90″. I used Hobb’s Heirloom Natural Cotton Batting. I used a khaki colored thread on the top and a white thread in the bobbin. The binding is red with a gold flange. I used Susie’s Magic Binding. The backing was pieced from two 60″ wide lengths of this Kansas City Chiefs fabric which came from Mom.

I’ll link this finish up to:

UFO Parade over at Aunt Marti’s 52 Quilts
UFO Busting at Field Trips in Fiber
1st Quarter finish in the 2015 Finish-A-Long (1st Qtr Goals)

Posted in: Finish-A-Long - 2015, Scrappy Trips, treadle, UFO Busting - 2015, UFO Parade - 2015, UFOs

Magic Binding

January 14, 2015 10:57 pm ⋅ Pam

I love Susie’s Magic Binding. But getting it (or suspect any binding) onto this quilt is an exercise in coordination and strength. The quilt is 70″ x 90″ and rather heavy. Trying to keep it from getting hung up on the sewing table while treadling and keeping an even seam width is trying. I’ve got a little across the short edge stitched to the quilt plus one long side. But I couldn’t resist seeing how the binding is going to look after I get it stitched down. Perhaps I’ll get the rest of the way around the quilt tomorrow.

Posted in: Scrappy Trips, treadle

Time to Decide on the Borders

January 7, 2015 6:04 pm ⋅ Pam

I took some liberties with the snowmen and declared the block finished. Now the center of the quilt is done and it’s time to figure out what to do about the border.

Right now the top measures roughly 48″ x 64″, which I suppose is a good size for a throw, but I have another Christmas quilt top that is 51″ x 59″, so I think I want it larger. The pattern was shown in three sizes:

Small – 58″ x 74″ with a 1-1/2″ white spacer border followed by a 3-1/2″ border from what appears to be a woven plaid and heart
Full – 70″ x 86″ which then adds a 6″ white border with appliqued holly leaves, stars and hearts
Queen – 86″ x 102″ same as above with a final 8″ border in a green gingham

The small size is roughly where I’d like to finish up — maybe a bit bigger at 60 x 76 — so perhaps the 1-1/2″ spacer and then a 4-1/2″ print — but which one?

Maybe I need to see what I can find in my stash for the spacer and go from there.

Posted in: Christmas BOM

The Christmas BOM

January 7, 2015 12:33 am ⋅ Pam

Earlier this week Shelly over at Prairie Moon Quilts issued a Procrastination Challenge. Pick something you’ve been putting off and move forward with it. Well, this quilt fits the bill. Currently it is my oldest UFO. It’s been on my list to work on for at least two years. A couple of years ago I made significant progress on it and then there were two blocks left to do — Santa in his sleigh and the snowmen family. As you can see the sleigh is completed. The snowmen family still needs a bit of hand work done on it.

Although this quilt is on my list to work on this year, it wasn’t what I was planning on doing first. I’ll give it until this weekend, then get onto those things I need to get done this month. But even if I don’t get the top finished this week, it has been “moved forward”. Thanks, Shelly.

Posted in: Christmas BOM, goals

What’s On My Design Wall

January 5, 2015 1:20 am ⋅ Pam

This is what’s off my design wall today. This version is “Jewels in the Night”. I’m going to call the pattern Diamond Rails. The first version can be seen HERE.

The quilt measures 62″ X 77″ after washing. The top fabrics are all batiks from Connecting Threads.

The backing is a wide batik I purchased last weekend.

The batting is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 in black and I used Fil-Tec T-40 Cotton Poly Corespun Black thread on the top and Superior SuperBob in black on the bottom — just over 1 M-Style bobbin.

The quilting pattern is the pantograph “Popcorn”.

While I was at it I made a pillowcase.

Check out what other’s have worked on this first week of 2015 over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Jewels in the Night

Life Happens

November 19, 2014 5:30 pm ⋅ Pam

I feel like I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I haven’t, it’s just that “Life Happens”. I tend to keep everything (especially my quilting) going through crises real or imagined and then collapse when it’s all over. The past couple of months have been a whirlwind and it has caught up with me. Two new cats, two trips, in between DH in the hospital for 3 days (thank goodness(?!) it was during my vacation) with a cat bite and mi$cellaneou$ car/home/yard maintenance that had to be done NOW.

So, I’m slowly getting my act together. The living room got a once over after watching a video of the cats jumping at a feather toy. I’m sitting down and working on the DWR – I’ve got about 5-1/2 rings left to bind, then I’ll add a label, photograph the quilt, wash it and photograph it again. (I’m terrified of the reds bleeding, but I really need to clean it before we sleep under it on a regular basis). Gracie was helping out a couple of nights ago. Last night Butterscotch was keeping an eye on me.

Earlier this week I’ve finished a few more of the batik blocks – I had pinned the strips to the center before the last trip so this required no brain. There are 14 more blocks to finish.