I got some work done!!

Yes indeed! I worked all afternoon yesterday and prepped all the pieces for my next quilt with the pennies that I showed you yesterday!! Now I am excited to stitch!

Here's another sneak peak of what will be in the borders! I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait to stitch! This quilt is inspired by some rugs in my bedroom area. I will put this on the bed as a topper. A topper is a good way to have a new bed quilt without so much work. I'll explain more about this later. Look for this to come soon! I have 4 new designs that will be focused around this idea.

A few have commented about my use of cottons and wools. I love to mix the two together. It adds lots of contrast and interest to the lovely wools.

I'm going to send you to a few other blogs to read about the road trip a few of us bloggers took together recently! First, a Big Shout Out of Thanks to Kathy who gave us each a darling little quilt for a mug rug, a chalk pencil and some thread.

The rest of us exchanged goodies in February when we met for the first time! Blogging friend are so great!! Which makes me just want to call them and get together again!! Not for the gift, but because we just had so much fun together!

This time, We went to The Woolen Needle in Williamsburg, IA first. I was overwhelmed with the beautiful goods in this store! I could have stayed all day...I snatched the next two pictures from Kathy's blog, Kindred Quilts

That's Julie and I studying some beautiful wools...mmm...such beautiful wools! I didn't even get to the other half of the store!! Haha

Then we went to Hills, IA to visit the store Inspirations. It is inspiring indeed!!

So many samples and beautiful fabrics! The owner of this store offers wonder plaids along with many reproduction fabrics. You know how I love plaids mixed with repros and wools!

We had some great show and tell and lots of laughs. You can read more about our Roadtrip together on the other gal's blogs! Carolyn of Lee Prairie Designs, Julie of Me and My Stitches, and Kathy of Kindred Quilts. They've all posted some wonderful pictures, so check them out!! I know we all look forward to getting together again very soon!! Thanks girls for a wonderful time!

Take care,

Missie

 

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Secret Pal Fun!

One of the small groups that I am in is called "Rather Bees", short for "I'd Rather Be Quilting", shortened more to "Bees". This group has been around for over 20 years and it is still going strong! We have about 21 members when we all show up, and the regulars are about 6-16. It's a fun group. We take over someone's house each Tuesday night and have fun visiting and stitching. Those who want to participate draw names for Secret Pals and we leave secret gifts for our pal now and then throughout the year. We also celebrate the Zero Birthdays big in this group!

Well, this January, I turned one of those big Zero birthdays and my pal asked each member of the group to bring a card along with a few fat quarters and 4 1/2" cut squares. I opened each card and stash of fabric with joy and at the end, one of the girls said she was to gather them all back and my secret pal would take it from there...well, at our Valentine's party about 3 weeks later, this is what I received! Drumroll please..............

It is big enough to cover the top of my king sized bed! WOW! What a thrill ! Thanks Secret Pal, whoever you are! In the package was the scraps and a rhyme that basically said since I like to do appliqué so much, she couldn't wait to see what I designed for the borders! What fun... By the next week I had several borders sketched off, taking ideas from some of my favorite books. We all took a vote and the border shown below in the book, Stars All Around Us, by Cherrie Ralston, won hands down! You can see my sketches and directions for the pieced top, Scrappy Hourglass, from the magazine Sew Scrappy: Quilts for Fabric Lovers, Vol 2. To make things a bit more special, I found out my good friend, Mary Helen Schiltz was a contributing editor for this magazine. But I know she is not my Secret Pal, so I am still trying to figure that out...

Since I have finished all my current projects, I decided it was time to get started on these borders. First I need to make enough hourglass blocks to add 24" to the quilt length so that it can be tucked under my mattress. So I went digging in my stash for a bit more fabric... Ooops! There was an avalanche!

 

Soooo, I did a little organizing after digging deeper and choosing the fabrics I needed! LOL

 

This Pattern calls for you to lay the light and dark squares together and draw a line down the center. Ask any quilter who knows me and they can tell you that I always say I am not a piecer! I look for shortcuts anywhere that I can find them. See below for the shortcut to avoid drawing that line. I used a small ruler laid from corner to corner and kept the point lined up with the ruler as I stitched.

 

So far it is working good! I will keep you posted as I go along. I'll stitch these 192 blocks for a while and try to get started on the appliqué to work on now that football season has begun! It's great bonding time with the hubs. Once I get started on the appliqué, I will show you what I get accomplished.

Have a great evening, & take care,

Missie

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A Warm Welcome...

My small quilt for this year, A Warm Welcome, is coming right along! I figured out how I wanted to finish it, so got the little border on and now it's ready for quilting! It is a very simple border. I will show you how finishing the edges will work in a few days when the quilting is done...

I may decide to do this as the inner portion of a larger quilt...this would be a nice medallion center...hmmm, interesting thought! This one needs to be finished though, so a larger quilt will come later!  Come back soon for the finishing process..

Take care,

Missie

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Show and Tell...

 

This quilt was so much fun to make. The sampler blocks were done using Penny Harren's method of piecing. I love Appliqué and was in the process of finding a good way to make a sampler by hand, when Penny came to teach at our guild.

I tried traditional piecing by hand where you draw the lines with a template. I learned to make quilts using this technique, but found I was not enjoying it this time around! Then I made my own templates for each block using the English Paper Piecing method. I liked this way since I do enjoy English Paper Piecing. BUT once I learned to Piece the way Penny taught us, I really enjoyed making all of these blocks. They are 6" in size.

My quilting friends know that I always say I am NOT a "Piecer" since Appliqué is my favorite. Now that I have made all of these blocks and set them in a midst of pieced stars, I can't really say that any longer! The center is adapted from a book called "Folk Art Flowers" by The Buggy Barn, the blocks are from Penny Harrin's 1st and 2nd "Pieced Appliqué" books. I designed the setting with the pieced stars and the applique borders(which went a lot quicker than the setting strips! After all, I am NOT a Piecer... LOL ). The name of the quilt is "One Star Too Many" because I thought I'd NEVER finish all those sashing stars!!

One more "tell" about his quilt...I ran out of the background fabric with a few sashing strips left to make. Talk about panic..oh my! I went online and did a search from the selvage by name and numbers and finally found a piece 5/8th of a yard! If I had not found that background available I may still have a pile of blocks and sashing in my sewing room! Three cheers for keeping the salvages with numbers!

Have any of you run out of a major fabric in the middle of a project? If so, how did you handle it?? Tell me the story!!