Stars with Stripes For Me.

I bought some fabulous navy blue fabric with white stars.  I I've been wanting to make a door hanging and thought these stars would make for something fun for Flag day and the Fourth of July.

I cut out 3.5 inch stripes from the navy fabric.  Then I made a nine patch block from two different kinds of red material.  I sewed the elements together and was quite pleased with the look.

To quilt this door hanging, I decided I would try my hand at free-motion quilting.  I've done it in a class, I've tried it on my new machine, but had never really done it before.  How can a girl learn to do something, if she doesn't try?  (You don't have to answer it, it was sort of rhetorical...)

This was my attempt. This looks pretty good.  Then I got a little cocky and kept at it.  There was no place to put the needle and I panicked.  You can't see that here...if you look at other pictures, you'll see what I mean.

I decided to sew in the ditch for the starry stripes.  I added a red border and machine stitched the binding.  What?  Yes, I did.  I consider this a learning experience...and I wanted to learn what a machine binding was like... It's just as bad as everyone says it is.  But all in all, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

I learned how to add tabs on the back for hanging.  So, the thing I learned with that exercise is the tab should go on before the binding.  That's okay, this is a learning experience.

I could count the number of things that are wrong with this finished project.  Instead I'm going to count the things I did right.  I love it.  I think it's a fun design...it's my design.  If I were to show you the back, you'd be horrified.  But that's a lesson for another project.  Enjoy.  I am.

Amish with a Twist: Sawtooth Star

I guess I thought I was showing each block as I did them... turns out i haven't been. I'll work on it.  Today we worked on half-square triangle.  I think one can never practice half=square triangles enough.  This block is a four-patch constuction with two half square triangles.  Do you see it?

My First Color Wheel

I took a class at Acorn Quilts in Rockford.  Have you ever been there?  It is a beautiful store.  The class room is a little small, but this was mostly lecture so it was fine for the eight of us who took the Color Theory class.  We learned how to read the wheel, the subtle differences in the tertiary colors (red-orange vs. yellow orange). Then we looked at paint chips and made mini wheels.  Paint chips are hard.  The color variants are so slight, it takes a good eye.

The instructor talked to us about reading our stash of fabrics and building up in the areas we are lacking.  The most fun was letting us go out into the store and grab bolts of fabric and making our ideal color wheel.  We had homework: to find the colors in our stash and make a wheel.  I'm proud to say I had at least one of every color but yellow.  No true yellow.  Entirely too much pink and blue and brown.  But, can you have too much blue fabric?  Hmmm... let me think about that.

There's more to do for homework... I'll share that later.    But... here it is, my first color wheel.  I enjoyed the process very much and will be pursuing other color wheels in my future.

Also, I can't really sew in a circle.
I'll need to work on that...

Status Report

I'm a sewing machine... wait. That doesn't sound right. I'm a sewing maniac. Yes, much more accurate. As time allows, Sharon tries to quilt, quilt, quilt. Well, piece really.

In February I went a little fabric shopping crazy. Kah-ray-zee. On my blog feed I've been seeing future projects and wanted to get the fabric before it sold out. So I bought fabric.

I've also been working on my BOM project. I'm a little behind: the project gives me three blocks to complete a month. I did January in time, but I've only done one block for February. It was practicing half square triangles. You remember half-square triangles from my Basics class, right?  When you put four half square triangles together you get a windmill.  Well, my BOM for February is focusing on half-square triangles.  I was going to finish my February projects this weekend.

Then it snowed.  It snowed nine inches and I was home and needed something to do.  So I started one of those rainy day projects.  This project was one of the first projects I wanted to complete when I decided that quilting was for me.  So I got the fabric that I purchased in my February Fabric Frenzie, and started.

Did you guess? Yes!  It involves, almost exclusively, half-square triangles.  100 of them so far.

there are 19 windmills

There are 24 large half square triangles

there are 100 half square triangle in all.  I love the color combinations.

Now what?  Well, I need a place to put everything together.  Placing my squares in the order i want them on the ground isn't conducive to my sad knees.  I need a large table top.  Also, the fabric isn't ready for purchase.  I've learned that pre-cuts are sold before the yardage (marketing geniuses at work).  

Also, I won a blog challenge:

... hey that's me!

.... and I want to buy the border, binding, and backing for this quilt with this gift!

It's so exciting, isn't it?

Triple Dip with a Extra Bit... Runner for the TV table

In the summer of 2011, when I was first discovering what it meant to quilt, I went on a summer-long shop hop.  During the shop hop I found oodles of fat quarters from the French Laundry line.  I bought them, thinking I would do something with it for our family room. 

Before I took my Basics Class, I attempted to make a quilt using these fat quarters.  It was disastrous.  No, it was.  I threw the thing away and signed up for the class.  Since then, the smaller stash of fq's sat there taunting me.  Then I bought this itty bitty pattern called Triple Dip.

The Tv table before the runner... and minus all that dust.
On screen: Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier

But it was too itty bitty.  39" in length is fine, but 13" width was too skinny.  So add two rows.  Easy? Not easy. Mental math was never my strong suit.  It really isn't.  But, I remember 5th grade math. If you can't figure it out in your brain, draw a picture.  This is the sketch I created on my iPad.  It helped me understand how many squares I'd need.  

My sketch

And the runner!  I like how it turned out...

Oh lordy, quarter square triangles!  You can see from this bird's eye view, that qst's aren't my best block... 

I love the back.  And look, fairly straight lines.  

So... I should tell you the thread story.  My hubba-hubba (my online name for my spousal unit) was out doing errands one cold February Sunday.  He took my car.  I wanted to work on projects and didn't want to schlep out and go back to where the hubba-hubba had just been. So I asked him for a favor.  Would he go to the quilt store and pick up some thread for me so I could quilt this runner?  (He was a block away.) He would, but I needed to call the quilt store and get the product.  I called them: I was looking for Aurafil in brick red. I explained I was working with a French Laundry red fabric.  They were familiar with it but wanted a picture.   I promised to send a picture to the hubba-hubba's phone.  When he came home, it was perfect. He said that five people were anxiously awaiting the picture and all conquered with the choice.  It was a perfect match... so much that I had a devil of a time with finding the thread as I was sewing the binding.

and my made-by tag. 

and the finished look:

On screen: The Lavender Hill Mob with Alec Guinness

Amish With a Twist: Rail Fence

I finished  my first block for my block of the month project.  The colors are bright and cheery.  Looking forward to this coming together.  Compare it to my first rail fence...  Reading that entry I see that the sewing was left difficult this time around.  My 1/4 inch seam has improved greatly.

Amish with a Twist: Block of the Month Project

The first time I saw the quilt pattern Amish with a Twist. I wanted to make it. I love the big, bold graphic colors.  The quilt top was just hanging in a store.  I didn't know anything about it, I just knew I needed it.

I went back to that quilt shop and it was gone.  I had a little panic, but found it as a  kit.  I was still taking my basics class and knew I wasn't ready for it.  Not then anyway.

While I was looking for a new project to start, I searched Block of the Month projects. I wanted to start a block of the month project to get in the groove of having projects in various stages of completion.  We'll see if I can stay organized ...

In my search, Amish with a Twist came popping up.  It was fresh and new about two years ago, but there are still several online shops that still offer it.  I elected to do the original black pattern, though there were other options (I really like the grey one...).

There are twelve blocks plus sashing and a lesson in applique separated in five parts.

Amish with a Twist

My first month's packet came last weekend. In the packet were the first three blocks and the fabric.  I started my first project: rail fence.

Here are the little strips all lined up and ready to sew...

I'll post a picture of the completed square.