Sister's Choice Quilts

And So It Begins...

Well, this is a first.  We have our Christmas tree up and it isn't even Thanksgiving.  My husband bought a new faux tree this year, and since the boxes were sitting right in front of our front door where the UPS man left them, my husband decided to go ahead and set it up.  And it is beautiful.  I probably would have gone with colored lights, but he wanted white, so there we are.  We won't get the ornaments on until Thanksgiving weekend, so for now I will just enjoy the blazing splendor of all those 1000 lights!

I got these two fun little table toppers off to my quilter in North Carolina on Friday.  I will be so excited to get them into my holiday decor!  I love the fabric collections I used (Sweetwater's Cookie Exchange and Hometown Christmas).  I don't think it is even that obvious that I used the same fabrics in both little quilts.  They are crisp and modern and cheerful, just what I wanted.

Busy week this week.  And that is an understatement.  I somehow thought it would be a good idea to invite a friend and her daughter and twin grand daughters over for a tea party on Tuesday!  And it is a good idea, but I just wasn't thinking about the volume of cooking I'd be doing in this week, with Thanksgiving on Thursday.  Guess no sewing is going to happen, but I will let you know how my tea party fixings go.  I plan to make Madeleines, scones and little tea sandwiches.  Oh, and my famous pound cake.  Sara is coming early from work along with Eva, so there will be seven of us.

I plan to dust off the Royal Albert Old Country Roses and bring out my best lace table cloth.

I am going to try to make a centerpiece that has these reds and golds in it.  And of course use it for Thanksgiving too.  I will let you know how that goes!  I wish I could find a white pumpkin to hollow out and arrange red and gold mums and roses in, but I doubt I will be able to find any such thing at this point.  I'll let you know on Wednesday if I pulled it off!

I know you all must be busy this week too, with cooking and planning and list making.  Make it a good one!

A Small Fall Project

Last week I had the urge to start up a seasonal project, and began a search through my stash for some fall hued fabrics.  Since Fall is my favorite time to decorate, I found many pieces that were perfect for what I had in mind.  Clearly, I have a habit of buying fall colored fabric!

I have so many books on my sewing room bookshelves, some of which have never been used.  This Maple Leaf Quilts book was one of them, and I am so glad I pulled it down for a closer look.  Sadly, the book is out of print, but I believe you can find a used copy on Amazon or at a used book store.  Anyway, the projects all feature the maple leaf quilt block, and I loved the "blended" look the block has when fabrics with low contrast are combined.  These projects lend themselves particularly well to batiks, with their jewel like colors.  

The Folded Corner Clipper tool works very well with the maple leaf block, and gave me very accurate results.  I made twelve six inch maple leaf blocks for my runner, which is an adaptation of one of the larger projects in the book

I ended up not going with much of a blended effect after all, but am still pleased with the little table runner.  I have already sent it off to my quilter and look forward to putting it out when we return from our trip in early October.  I may revisit this block again and do a batik version!

Hope the week is going well for all of you.

Liberty Road

I started a couple of new projects over the weekend.  This is a block from a Minick and Simpson pattern called Liberty Road.  In the pattern version, they made the quilt from their Charlevoix fabric collection, but I missed out on that one.  I am using Ann's Arbor for my version, which is a very similar collection color-wise:  reds, dark blues, light blues, yellows and creams.

The Liberty Road pattern:

I love the flag block, but don't really want a 43 x 49" quilt.  Better for me would be to make a table runner consisting of three flags, and a border.  I have a table in my foyer that takes a long narrow table runner, and I am thinking something sort of patriotic themed would take me from May through September. I have enough fabric to make several of these table runners, and would keep one and will gift the others.  I love the addition of yellow in this collection.

My second project is very springy and involves the Pepper and Flax collection by the talented Corey Yoder.  More on that later.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Our weather has turned beautifully warm (80s) and it is hard to stay indoors!

 

Endearments

I can't tell you how much I love this little quilt!!  It is "Endearments" by Betsy Chutchian, made with her fabric collection Rachel Remembered.  The finished quilt measures 29 3/8" square, and has a Memorial Day/Fourth of July vibe to it.  I can see keeping this out on my dining table from May through September.

I have been sticking to my plan to finish up a few things before moving on to something new.  

I got the outer border on Windmills.  (Pattern by Bonnie Blue, fabric Rachel Remembered by Betsy Chutchian). I skipped the narrow red containment border and just went with the one wider border in a solid brown.  I am super happy with this one as well.  I will be sending both of these quilts to my quilter, maybe even today!

To be honest, a new project is calling to me.  Rather loudly.

This beautiful collection by Corey Yoder (Coriander Quilts) is called Pepper and Flax.  The pattern is "9th and Vine".  How springy is that?  I'll see if I can finish up one or two more projects this weekend, then we shall see...

Have a glorious weekend everyone!

State Fair

I've been working on a couple of springy table runners this past week.  I shared Tootsie Pops with you, which is super cute, but I wanted another runner that showed off more of that beautiful Lilac Hill fabric I had been hoarding.

An old Schnibbles pattern called State Fair came to mind, and I decided that would be a good choice for what I had in mind.  I tweaked the pattern to make 21 blocks set in a rectangular format, 21 x 42", a good size for my oval dining table.  The blocks are super fun to make--a great method of making larger odd sized blocks that are trimmed down to a perfect 5 1/2 inch size.  And when you have a gorgeous bundle of fabrics, it is a joy to pick and choose which fabrics you want in each block.

I still have to sew on the binding, but later in the week I will take a picture of the finished results on my dining table.  Just in time for Easter, right?

And I have this much fabric left.  Little Bear says I should just go ahead and make a quilt with it.

Waste Not, Want Not

I did.  I cut this quilt up into a rectangular table runner.  I just took a deep breath and let the rotary cutter do its thing.  If you are just joining in, this is what I had to start with:

The quilt is made up of seven rather complicated, labor intensive blocks, which are sewn together as shown just above, then trimmed down to the size shown in the first photo.  I know.  When I realized what I was supposed to do, I was muttering "Seriously? That is insane." to myself and wondering if I could really do it.  It seemed such a waste to discard the equivalent of two entire blocks, or over 25% of the total quilt.

So I made something with those four leftover triangles!

It took some thinking, but I was determined not to let that work go to waste.  

So I made a zippy bag.  Once I sewed the triangles together, I had two blocks that measured 9 1/2".  I lined the blocks with batting and a contrasting inner fabric, and put in a zipper.  I then sewed up the sides and bottom and squared off the base so it would stand up on its own.  It just goes to show you, you can made a zippy bag any size and pretty much out of anything.  It is a good size for traveling, and will be perfect for holding cosmetics and other toiletries.

And by the way, I love my table runner after all!

(Details:  Pattern is Pie Birds by Kim Diehl, found in The Big Book of Table Toppers by Karen M. Burns).

Pie Birds

This is the first completed block in a Kim Diehl table runner that is made up of seven of these little guys.  It took quite some time to put it together, as each of those block triangles is actually two folded corner triangle units sewn together.  You do the sew and flip method with the black fabric on all the colored strips and then sew the smaller strip units together to make longer ones.  Lots of points and seams to line up, but the super scrappy effect is worth the bother.

34 different fabrics in each block, if you don't repeat any (I'm trying not to, but it's hard).  65 total pieces in each block.

In honor of my year to "Use It Up", I pulled fabrics from my Kim Diehl storage box.  I have so many scraps leftover from her Simple Whatnots projects that I could construct about twenty more Kim Diehl projects out of the leftovers alone.

Pattern is in the book "The Big Book of Table Toppers" by Karen M. Burns.

If you are wondering about the title of this post, "Pie Birds", that is the name she gave this little quilt.  It made no sense to me either until I really looked at the block from a distance.  The little black triangles are blackbirds baked in a pie!  See it?  How cute is that.

Super cute, but just wait.  This quilt was one of the wackiest I have ever made.  Here is how you sew the thing together:

So, where are we going with this?  Well, this quilt needs to be trimmed up.  Keep in mind, each block has 65 pieces.  Seven blocks x 65 = 455.  Four hundred and fifty five little pieces that took FOREVER to line up perfectly with no points cut off, every seam intersection perfect.  And here is what I am supposed to do:

Cut the sides off.  (Sound of Nicole sobbing...)

To be continued.

 

Pinwheel Puzzle

My little Pinwheel Puzzle quilt is finished.  I think I will put this one on the coffee table in my living room for a more toned down St. Patrick's Day accent.  In fact, I could live with these colors all year long in my house.  The pattern is an old one by Teri Atkinson, and her instructions for this rather tricky layout were very clear and precise.  Each block incorporates fabrics from the neighboring blocks, so one has to keep one's wits about one during construction and assembly.  The small size of the quilt and my design wall were helpful also.

This little quilt measures 16 x 44, which is also the perfect size for a rectangular dining table.

I quilted it with what I call the "Wiggle Stitch", which is #4 on both my Berninas.  I lengthened the stitch length to 2.50.  It is a very forgiving stitch for quilting and makes a nice jigsaw puzzle shape.  My quilting lines are about one inch apart.

Do you find it difficult to find green objects to decorate with?  I have the worst time.  You would think I would at least have more green books I could pull out and use as color accents, but publishers must think a green cover on a book is the kiss of death.  These were the only green things I could find to put out!  Also, have you noticed that greens clash with each other as bad as blues do?  There sure are a lot of shades, and most of them look awful next to the others.  Mother Nature makes it work, but I fail.

Now, to get back to Courthouse Steps.  I seem to be doing anything and everything to procrastinate working on those blocks.  I have about a dozen or so more to make, so I do not know what my problem is.  I am going to have to exercise some will power and just get it done!

 

Friday Finish--Raspberry Cocoa

Here is a fun Friday Finish.  This is a little mini quilt called Raspberry Cocoa, designed by Kim Diehl for one of her more recent Simple What Nots Club offerings.  I wasn't a member of the club in the past couple of years, but managed to buy the kit from someone on Etsy.  (It is amazing what you can find if you search!)  The colors are pretty much true in the photo--a bright raspberry pink and a warm cocoa brown.  I was taken by the fun variation on the classic Bear Paw block.

The "paw" is made up of a 3 1/2" half square triangle that you then sew a 1 1/2" square diagonally on the tip of the brown triangle.  I used my Folded Corner Clipper Ruler for that little step with good results.  If you haven't tried this tool for your diagonal corners, you might consider it.  There are tutorials on how to use it on YouTube, which demonstrate better than I can explain.  An Easy Angle ruler would work for this as well.

I found it a bit of a challenge to keep things straight with this quilt, but when I measure it, it is a perfect 27 1/2" square, just like the pattern says it should be.  

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, whether you are sewing, spending time with your loved ones, or just hanging out!

Scarlet Stars with a Border

I have been putting off quilting my Scarlet Stars mini quilt because it just didn't seem finished to me.  The pattern is a terrific one designed by Kim Diehl as a part of her Simple What Nots Club.  This is what I had when I finished the pattern:

However, I felt that it needed something more--a border.  I had more of one of the red fabrics used in the blocks, so I cut three inch strips and added a border.  I think it completed the quilt, and I liked it much better with the addition.  The quilt now finishes at 21" square, and is the perfect size for a lamp table, or to place a plant or candle arrangement on top of.

After adding the border, I quilted it with a half inch cross hatch design.  I was worried that the quilting was too close together, but maybe there isn't any such thing. I saw in a You Tube tutorial by Jacquie Gehring that the closer your quilting lines the more forgiving they are.  It is counter intuitive, for sure, but it seems to be true.  I used my walking foot and checked my lines for half inch accuracy every four or five lines to even things up and it seemed to work great.  It came out satisfyingly straight.

I was very pleased with the result, and have added one more red and white quilt to my February decorating scheme.  Time to start planning some green projects for March, right?