And any other craftiness I can come up with!
Look what I won last week! I retweeted something from Quilter’s Newsletter and won these two magazines – Best Weekend Quilts and Best Fat Quarter Quilts. Can’t wait to see if there’s something in these that I can use my fat quarters from the Guild exchange! I don’t usually win giveaways, but it seems no one wanted to win on twitter! 🙂 I’ll keep entering giveaways and at some point I have to win more!
Well I was able to get 2 diamonds finished this week. I have my baggies ready for the next 3, and need to get working on basting them and putting the diamond together. I was going to work on hand quilting my first hexagon quilt so I could put it in the guild quilt show, but with everything going on this summer, I know I just don’t have the time. I’d rather concentrate on finishing hexagon diamonds and get it quilted for the show. I took a break yesterday though and decided to do something different. I pulled out my Cleveland Cavaliers cross stitch piece and worked on it for awhile. I haven’t worked on it since January, but it was quite easy to pick it back up and work on it. There’s a total of 15 pages and I had finished 1 in January. So I started working on page 7, there’s a lot of solid color so I figured it’d be easy! So when I need a break from the hexagons, I’ll work on my cross stitch. Hope to have more diamonds finished this week so I can put it all together this weekend.
Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes
So one of the days last weekend while Alex was napping and the hubby was spending time with his friend I decided to watch some TV and work on my hand quilting. I had mentioned earlier in the month that I bought some 1/4″ tape for hand quilting. Oh my do I like it! I still need to work on keeping close to the tape and not veering off. It is SO much easier than drawing all the lines. I really would like to finish this before I start working on my hexagon quilt, but I am willing to set this aside to start working on the other one. Mainly because I put it on my list for the guild quilt show in October, so I need to get working on it!!!
I went to Anna’s this week and got almost all of the fat quarters I need for the fat quarter exchange. I need to get 1 more still, and it’s hard because not everyone has music themed fat quarters! There’s 1 shop close to the house that I can check, but I really don’t like shopping there because of how they make customers feel. I’ve talked with others that have the same opinion of them. No, I will not mention the name of the shop, everyone should make their own decisions!
Gotta run time to clean up toys so I can spend the evening working on hexagons after Alex goes to bed!
I know I shouldn’t be spending money on fabric and notions, but sometimes you just can’t help it ya know? I needed batting for a couple of quilts so I went to Joann’s last week. I need some more pins for hexagons, so I can prep more for basting. I think I’ve figured out what blocks I want to do for the guild block exchange and I needed a 3″ finished half square triangle die. Unfortunately I’m a dope and forgot that I already had that die, now I need to take this one back. You know how when you have a 60% off coupon, you HAVE to use it? Well that’s why I bought the jelly roll, absolutely no clue what I’ll do with it, but I loved the pattern!
I’m also participating in the fat quarter exchange at guild and they are due at our next meeting. So Alex and I went the other day to Olla Mae’s, which happens to be closing by the end of June!, and I got almost all of the 26 fat quarters I need. Of course I bought a few things for myself too! The aqua-ish fabric is for the block exchange, I just need a few more fabrics and I can wash it all and start working on blocks! They aren’t due until September, but as the coordinator I want to have them done early.
I’ve spent the last few days working diligently on the final cross stitch project for my cousin’s twins. Now I need to wash them and get the sewed into wall hangings before the party on June 8th. Shouldn’t take too long, so I’m not worried. But that means I can now start working on my hexagons again. Got the first round completed last night on one of them, hopefully I can finish that diamond tonight. Then I’ve only got 1 more and I can add the next row to the mother ship.
Hopefully be back soon with an update on the hexagon diamonds quilt!
Well I managed to get 2 more diamonds completed the last few days. I finished the blue one during the guild meeting Tuesday and the pink one last night after we got home from camping. Two more diamonds and I can put the next row together. Unfortunately I need to put this aside for a little while so I can finish a cross stitch piece that is a present. I had started 2 pieces for my cousins twin for Christmas and just ran out of time to complete them. I have 1 more part to finish on the second piece and then I can put them both together.
I passed out the challenge fabric for the block exchange at our guild meeting last week, and now I need to figure out what my 2 blocks are going to be. I can’t get additional fabrics until I pick my blocks though. I also need to go shopping to get some fat quarters for the fat quarter exchange. They are due at our June meeting, so I need to get busy!
I am planning on going to Joann’s tomorrow to get some batting so I can finish some quilts. I’d like to work on the red, white and blue quilt for donation at guild. I also want to get my first hexagon quilt ready to be hand quilted. I’ve committed to putting it in our quilt show in October, so I need to get started working on it! I’ll finish the test piece once the hexagon one is done.
We had a speaker at guild last week that owns a quilt shop, Quilts & Sew Forth. Of course they brought products to sell. I don’t usually find anything that I want to buy, but I saw that they had a charm pack of Fossil Fern. 100 charms for $27!! I could not pass up that deal!!! Don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but it’s sitting here and ready to use for something!
I was blog surfing the other day and found one that was using 1/4″ tape for quilting lines. I had asked where she found it because that is really what I’d like to use for my hand quilting since it’s easier than marking all those lines! My shipment came today from Connecting Threads and of course I had to add some items to the order since the tape was pretty cheap. I ordered 2 packs of 4 different charm packs to try their fabric. Each set should be enough to do hexagons, or triangles, or some size squares with. Not that I’ll be doing anything soon, but at least they are here and ready for me when I have time. Of course what do I see at Walmart today? The same quilters tape!! Oh well, I can always get it there when I run out of the 2 I just got today.
I managed to get another diamond completed and I have the next 4 prepped and ready to go. I’m hoping to get some work done on them this weekend since we’ll be camping and I won’t be able to watch much tv! I really like the colors in this one, I love the orange!!
I need to go and get the fabric for the block exchange split up and ready for the meeting tomorrow. Need to get everyone working on their blocks! I need to go shopping for some coordinating fabrics, plus fat quarters for the exchange, those are due in June.
Well I did it, I finished the top today! I love how it looks and I love that it took me only a hour or so to cut the whole thing out. The possibilities are endless with this block, so many settings. I think I’m going to donate this for community service for our guild, I’m waiting for word on what size they need. That way I can decide if I’m putting a border on it or not. If not, then I’ve also found the backing already. This was totally made from scraps and I’m happy that I have another way to use scraps up – that doesn’t use 2.5″ squares 🙂 I am really glad that I bought my Go and that they are coming out with dies that allow you to cut out more pieces at a time.
Some how when I was cutting out the blue triangles I ended up with an extra one. As I was figuring out where to put it, I thought about the chisel die I have. Guess what, the 3″ finished triangle fits perfectly on the chisel piece! Oh man is my mind churning with ideas! I can see a quilt with all scraps, a 2 color, again the possibilities are ENDLESS!
I need to stop thinking about these for awhile though, I need to design and make the quilt for Alex for the RV, plus I have a few I should get quilted before I start making more tops.
Yep I did it, I finished my Wiggly Whimsy top! I ended up taking 2 different seams out and reattaching them. Still have a couple of small puckers in one of the seams, but it won’t be noticable once it’s quilted. Now I need to find a backing and get some batting so I can get it quilted.
I mentioned the other day that I had spent a little money to get some Accuquilt Go dies that I’ve been wanting. I got the 3″ finished half-square triangle to go with my signature die and a 2″ finished half-square triangle to go with my 2″ finished squares. Anyway, they arrived today! I’ve already started playing with the 3″ HST and signature block dies. I designed a quilt the other day in 2 colors in EQ and today while driving home from lunch started to think of colors I could use. Top colorway? Red, white and blue! I figured I had enough red and blue scraps for the triangles and I was pretty sure I had white I could use for the signature part of the block. I’ve already got 4 blocks done, took me maybe 10 minutes to cut and sew them together! I LOVE how the dog ears are cut off when you use the dies. Everything fits together so nicely and there is no guessing at all! I think I’ll work on cutting as much of this out as I can today and maybe put it together tomorrow. It will finish around 29″x33″ as it is designed right now, I haven’t thought about a border yet and I can always make more blocks and make it larger. We’ll see what I decide. Oh! I also bought the Lil’ Twister template, I love the look of these quilts and I might be able to use a bunch of scraps to make up some easy quilts. Hope to play with this soon too!
So I’ve talked 5 brave souls at guild to do a block exchange. Because none of the quilt shops in our area have the focus fabric that I wanted to use, I placed an order with Hancocks of Paducah and got enough for everyone (they are paying for their yardage!). I really like the fabric and it’s just enough out of my comfort zone that it will be interesting to see what everyone does with it. Since there are only a total of 6 people (that’s including me) if everyone does 2 12″ finished blocks it will be a decent sized quilt – around 38″ x 50″, if it’s on point it’s around 40″ square. Now I need to go shopping for some additional fabrics and do some designing to figure out what blocks I want to make. I’m thinking one simple and one that is a little more complicated.
Well, I want to get back to playing with my new dies, so I’ll be back soon with an update!
I have been trying to work on projects again now that everyone is on the mend. I spent the afternoon putting binding on some baby quilts for the guild. These are just pre-quilted pieces of fabric that needed binding so I said I’d take 2. Granted I brought these home in February and should have finished them already, but that’s ok. Binding is now attached to 1 side, and I’ll work on sewing it to the back this weekend during all the family travels for Easter. I can return these in April so they can be donated to one of the charities we support.
I’ve gotten another hexagon diamond done this weekend, I have 3 more and I can start adding the next row. Hoping to have another overall picture by Monday, but I’m not counting on it! I am planning on working on another diamond tonight, might be able to get it done while I watch tv.
I did manage to get all the squares put together into sets on Sunday afternoon. So next time I can sit down and work on Wiggly Whimsy I can attach the rectangles on all of them. I love that this is a SAL, however these rows go together so fast I just can’t wait until the next month to work on it. So I’m thinking I’ll just work on it in batches when I can and see when I get it done.
We had our taxes done last night and are getting a refund. Hubby said I can get a Mac mini since my PC is getting older and having issues. Instead of reformatting everything I’d much rather get something new. I think we are ordering it tonight, I hope it gets here fast!!!
After this month’s guild meeting I was talking with some women about projects. One mentioned hand quilting a quilt and I mentioned that I wanted to learn. She said she’d teach me! Sue came over this week and showed me what to do, and said it was the fastest she’s ever seen someone pick it up. I’ve now finished my first practice piece, I just need to fold over the edges and whip stitch it closed. I can see in some places where the stitches are quite uneven and large, but over I think it looks pretty good. Since it’s so small I don’t know what I’ll do with it, probably put it under a vase somewhere. I’ve already got the next practice piece in the hoop (although I need to buy one of my own!) and plan on starting it tonight. I want to get as much practice in before I start working on the hexagon quilt. I’m so excited that I’ve learned how to hand quilt, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.
I’m still working on hexagon diamonds, when my fingers hurt from quilting I switch to hexagons. I only have a handful of the half diamonds to finish and I can start working on the full diamonds again. If I have the hexagons for the half diamonds basted it only takes me about an hour to put them together. Takes a bit longer for the full diamond. Hope to be back soon with more pictures.
