Category Archives: Quilts

What’s On My Design Wall

September 29, 2014 8:22 am ⋅ Pam

My Star-A-Day project is on the wall today. I’ve been pushing myself to get ‘caught up’ on the stars and last night I finished the 28th star and I was able to assemble the section. Spending so much time on this quilt to get it going has meant I’ve not worked on anything else. Now that I’ve I’m only working on a single star a day and it has ‘clicked’ and a star is not taking me 2 hours to make, I should have time to work on my other projects. But first I’ll select the fabrics for the next two weeks of stars.

Check out what others have on their design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

The Stars Have a Setting Fabric

September 23, 2014 5:15 pm ⋅ Pam

This morning I received an e-mail from the LQS. For Day #1 of their Customer Appreciation Week they were offering 40% off of any one cut of fabric. Very seldom does everything line up — a great sale, the need for a large length of fabric, budget and time. I ran to the shop during lunch hoping I’d find something that I liked as well as what I showed yesterday or better yet that I’d like even better.

I did.

This is an older April Cornell fabric from the Nostalgia line – pattern # 35122. The creamy soft (very soft) yellow works well with all of the existing star backgrounds and the soft blue print gives just enough interest to the setting squares without becoming the focus point. I love that it is going to give a soft look to the quilt.

Yes, two more stars are done. I sat in a different chair (no arms), had a bright light and possibly most importantly, wasn’t distracted by the TV. The stars went together much faster. So, I might just catch up by the end of the week and then can start working on other things after making a star.

Posted in: Star-A-Day

What’s On My Design Wall

September 22, 2014 12:06 am ⋅ Pam

16 of the 3″ (finished) stars. I’m considering the fabric I have them laying on as my setting fabric. I only bought a FQ over the weekend since I wasn’t certain about it, but I think it plays nicely with the star backgrounds I’ve used so far.

Over the weekend I traced off enough stars for the rest of the month. Now if I can come to some sort of balance between piecing a star and working at the machine. Maybe if I had a book to listen to…

See what others are working on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

More Stars

September 17, 2014 12:45 pm ⋅ Pam

Two stars are from Monday, the blue one is from yesterday. I’m partway through another star, but got distracted by going and getting this sewing rocker.

Well there was also the distraction of thinking I had to replace a zipper in a formal dress by Saturday. After getting the young lady to try on the borrowed dress, it became apparent that the zipper was the least of the problems and another dress is needed.

Additionally, I ripped out the stitching where I attempted to machine stitch the binding down on the DWR. It still hasn’t made it into the sewing machine. Maybe tonight.

Posted in: dwr, Star-A-Day

What’s On My Design Wall

September 15, 2014 7:58 am ⋅ Pam

And then there were six. These are the first of 365 3″ finished LeMoyne stars I need for the Star-a-Day quilt by Karen Styles.

The idea is to stitch one star a day and at the end of the year you’ll have enough stars to make an 81″ x 81″ quilt. The designer recommends that the quilt be assembled in sections as you go along so you don’t end up with a pile of stars at the end of the year. I need a few more stars before I try to assemble my first section.

As for piecing them one a day, I can see an advantage to that – I did three last night and I can feel it in my wrist. Given that I need to also be working on the DWR binding, I need to pace myself.

As for the DWR, I need to get it back to the sewing machine. There’s a section which I need to re-stitch. It won’t take long, but it does require swapping the pressure foot on the machine and changing thread. I guess I’ll do that after work today. That is after I stitch a few more of these blocks. There are six laying on my sewing table ready for me to stitch the 2nd strip to them and a whole stack that need both strips.

See what other’s are working on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Posted in: designwall, Star-A-Day

Star-a-Day?

September 13, 2014 10:45 pm ⋅ Pam

I’m not sure I can call this a Star-a-Day — yet. The top left star is #1. It measures about 3″ instead of the 3-1/2″ it should measure. It took me nearly a week to get it finished. Hand piecing is right up there with applique. Which of course explains why I’m trying to embark on making 365 stars by hand.

Star #2 is the turquoise and brown. I started working on it before I finished the first one and it’s just not going together well. It will have to be taken apart and made over again.

Star #3 – the lime, blue & pink one. Well, this is about the 3rd time I’ve put it together. I discovered starching the fabric really well before tracing the templates makes it much easier to line the pieces up. However, my thread (a silk thread I use for applique) kept pulling out so I set it aside to work on star #4.

Star #4, the one with the lady bugs, I finished earlier this evening. It’s not quite 3-1/2″ but it’s close enough and I switched threads. Once I finished it I ripped out the stitches on star #3 and started over. It wasn’t until I tied off the end of my thread that I noticed I have a couple of pieces in the wrong place. My husband suggested it was a design element. Nope, simply the lack of concentration.

I’ve been told it takes about 10 stars to get in the groove. I wonder if doing stars over counts.

Posted in: hand work, Star-A-Day ⋅ Tagged: Star-a-Day

Chain of Stars

August 2, 2014 10:57 pm ⋅ Pam

Back in January I posted a pink and black pillowcase and said it went with Deadline IV. This is the quilt – my pink and black Chain of Stars. It is in this month’s issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine.

Posted in: Chain of Stars

What Happens at Retreat…

June 24, 2014 1:45 am ⋅ Pam

There’s a saying “What Happens at Retreat Stays at Retreat”. Due to the projects I was working on I can’t show anything yet. But it was all not sewing. There was the shopping.

Starting at the bottom center and working clockwise: Several Kansas Troubles Patterns, a 20 piece charm pack of KTQ lights, a spool of thread that works well with KTQ fabrics, 9 – F8 of KTQ fabrics a stack of KTQ scraps, Perfect Circles (the smaller ones), a light FQ, backing for a secret project, a yard of a cool cat/music fabric, a FQ of a music/Halloween fabric, fabric that I’m not using for the secret project and fabric to make a tie for my husband. I just realized that I don’t have the ruler that I bought in the picture. Oh well.

I sewed, completing a quilt top start to finish with only one sewing mistake and one cutting error. Then I started working on Jared Takes a Wife with the intention of finishing it. Either I can’t count, or I simply didn’t finish cutting the cornerstones for the quilt because I came up 10 short. As I worked on these two projects my leader/ender was the 4-patches for the border of Candy Sunflower Seeds. By the time I realized I couldn’t finish JTAW, I was too tired to think through finishing Candy Sunflower Seeds.

So naturally, I pulled out my applique project. It was pretty straight forward. Cut along the dotted line – so to speak – and then fuse into place. At that point I called it a night. The next morning, I figured out the cutting plan for the quilt which will be my next leader/ender project and then stitched one length of thread on the red work snowmen.

After I pulled out the machine today, I had to give the machine a bit of a cleaning…

It was a bit fuzzy. This is what I pulled out of the machine before I started sewing on the binding to my latest finish:

Stay tuned to see my latest finish in the next post.

Posted in: Candy Sunflower Seeds, Jared Takes a Wife, red work, retreat, scraps, shopping

Quilting Plans for June

June 3, 2014 10:48 pm ⋅ Pam

When it comes to quilting, I always think I can get more done than I can in the amount of time I have available. This month will probably prove the point. Of these 5 projects I want to completely finish 2 of them and get the other 3 tops made.

Top left – Jared Takes a Wife. Two seams on each block and then a simple set with sashing and cornerstones. Middle left – Orca Bay. I think I have all the pieces sew for the center of the quilt – I still need to finish piecing the border. Bottom left – Eeyore. Still in pieces.

Top Right – Scrappy Trips Around the World – I’m planning on quilting this on the treadle. I brought the backing fabric up from the basement this morning. Bottom Right – Candy Sunflower Seeds. It has a pieced border which I’ve been working on as my leader/ender.

If I only focus on these 5 quilts, it could happen. I leave for a quilt retreat in two weeks. My plan is to focus on Eeyore and hopefully finish him. Then at the retreat I should be able to finish the 3 quilt tops. (That is if I don’t take all the projects I have stacked on the ironing board to take with me – 3 new quilts and 2 to finish.) Which means I’ll have a week and a half to get Scrappy Trips quilted.

Posted in: Candy Sunflower Seeds, goals, Jared Takes a Wife, Orca Bay, retreat, Scrappy Trips, UFOs

What’s On My Design Wall

May 26, 2014 9:04 am ⋅ Pam

First off, I finished the quilting and binding on this quilt for Sydney. She pieced the top. It measures about 51″ square. I think she’s giving it to her cousin.

As for my own quilts…

All the green star points have been sewn, so into pairs and then I can start piecing the blocks.

I cut the squares for the replacement 4-patches for this UFO. The original 4-patches are bright white and the blocks are off white/cream. I’ve got 6 different light fabrics to use in the border. These are going to be my leader/enders at the retreat this weekend.

My projects are packed – Orca Bay (Bonnie Hunter, String Fling) is in the box — ooh I need to go find my Flying Geese Ruler for “squaring” the geese and put them in the box with the rest of the rulers I’m taking with me (12-1/2″ square, 6″ x 12″, Easy Angle and Companion Angle).

Under the box is the box with Jared Takes a Wife and the zipper bag with Candy Sunflower Seeds (The Chain Event by Dorothy Young). In the flat zip bag is the fabric and instructions for my “August C” done in black and batiks.

The plan for today is to make progress on Eeyore. I’d really like to have the applique done by before I go to the retreat. We’ll see if that happens.