Design Wall Monday-A Grand Illusion

The Mystery has begun.  Saturday and Sunday the sewing room was bustling.  My stash of turquoise is dismal, so in its place is blues.  Hopefully these are light enough to not compete with the greens later.  The color pops nicely especially with the black.

The stack on the left still need to have black added.  Thinking a fabric run is in order.  The black supply is dwindling.

 

There are quite a few peachy ones in the group of pinks.   

 

Which yellow do you like?

 

Our other big news! MJJR has her drivers license. It is just a little sad when your baby doesn’t need you to haul her EVERYWHERE.  We now have a parking lot in the driveway…..Friends come over……a mess.  Must have patience.  Our driveway was never friendly when it had 2 cars, now.  UUGH.   A few years back we hosted the Homecoming primping session…..car paint transfer occurred.

Well check out what’s up. Judy L’s Design Wall Monday & Grand Illusion Link Up.

They Mystery Begins

The Grand Illusion Mystery begins soon.  Bonnie Hunter is starting the mystery on Black Friday.  I plan to take the leap. Most of my quilts are inspired from a pattern but have a twist to make them original, so I haven't wanted to make a quilt knowing so many quilts will be so similar.  What changed? The inspiration.  My family has been to Mackinac Island.  (2002)



My husband and I drove the 5 mile bridge over the Straits of Mackinac at least 8 times a year for 5 years. 



The mainland town of St. Ignace was the pit stop we would make on our 10 hour journey to and from college. This area of the country is very scenic.

This pic is over 12 years old.  This is the Lake Michigan side.  Lola in the back, MJJR next to dad.

A bridge over a creek leading to Lake Michigan along Rte. 2

In the Upper part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula are some beautiful sights.

This is the view from my old apartment.  That is a ski hill.

This is an old Copper Mining Building. Also view from my apartment.

 The sentimental inspiration for this quilt along with the beauty of Bonnie's Quilt inspired me to say yes this year. 

 Please leave a comment if you have participated in the past.  Why did you participate? Your experiences?  Deadlines?  Keeping Up?  Did you alter the pattern?  Commitment is scary!

The original colors are bright green, the lighter turquoises, the brighter pinks and the lighter yellows.  My stash is lacking in some of these colors.  The color scheme may be altered....scary.   My motto is use what you have....buy only what you truly need. 



Keep Quilting,
Just Another Quilter

Christmas Traditions Quilt

Our Christmas Traditions is quickly approaching. Our group of church ladies have met a few times and put together this quilt. We took the leftovers from a project for the local library and put the center "square in a square" portion together. This project pulls stash fabric from many quilters and helps keep the price down. We did purchase the outer border fabric. The quilt was machine quilted on a Juki TL-98.

 

The event has handmade candies, pies, cookies, homegrown canned jellies and salsas. This year I get to oversee the silent auction room. 

Stop over to Freemotion by the River and see all the designs. 

Just Another Quilter

Design Wall Monday-November 10th

The latest endeavor into the 5" squares....
  We exchanged 5" black/dark grey squares back in July.  Often I need a little time to make some decisions.  This time the inspiration came from a quick quilt another guild member made and an idea that keeps popping into the creative ways.



My original plan was to end at the black border.  The quilt would measure about 50" x 50".  It would be an appropriate size for a donation quilt to Margaret's Hope Chest.  I have donated to this group before.  There are other quilts in the pipeline and I would like to make the donation to Margaret's Hope Chest in February.  Sooo there is time.
NOW......this quilt could be sent along with another quilt to 2 beautiful great nieces for Christmas.  If a border print is added the quilts will be the same size.  Check out the other quilt, a torquoise beauty here.

Which fabric do you like?  I am leaning toward the dots on the left side...which are different from the bottom.  Or shall I call it good and save it for February?

Both nieces are not yet school age....and DH did some early Christmas shopping so the Long Arm (yes, he wore me down and I finally agreed) arrives tomorrow.  !!!   EEK!  That means it shouldn't be too bad to get another top together.  The 5" exchange this month was pastel.  These would make a great uplifting quilt for Margaret's Hope Chest.

Linking up to Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.  Check out more Design Walls.

Just Another Quilter

A Spooktacular Finish it up Friday

It is a typical fall morning with a cool breeze pulling the last of the bright leaves off the trees.  It is to be cold tonight for the trick or treaters.  We never get to many trick or treaters. Many more nearby streets have more houses without the long walk. I picked up some candy yesterday and will be sending it to work with DH. The problem is he is off next week.....I hope there is some left when he goes back.

  This week the Sunday Morning quilt has binding and looks great. When I picked up the quilt to bring it back inside.....remembered the pinned dark orange piece......this was to remind me that I missed a small section of quilting.  It will take only 1 minute.

Sunday Morning
Started April 2014-Finished October 2014

This quilt is based on the Avignon Picnic Quilt found on Moda Bake Shop. 

Stop over to Crazy Mom Quilts and look at other finishes.

I am off to find the last 2 kits for the guilds raffle blocks. They are due Tuesday. The background fabric is misplaced........cleaned out the car today, removed a lot from the sew room yesterday. Where would you look next?  It is not in 3 of my favorite bags!

Monday's Designs-September 22, 2014

"A Star in the Sky" is now in the top stage. The top has been set aside and "Sunday Morning" is now the focus. The quilt was layered up last month. Yesterday the quilting was started. It always takes some time for the quilt to talk when quilting is the topic.

The quilting chosen came from a recent library check out.  The library is a great source for both inspiration and knowledge.

This CD-ROM "Helen's Mix & Match Quilting Patterns" has lots of great shapes.  You can see the shape chosen. There are 5 or 6 different sizes of each shape that can be printed out. Traced onto card stock this can be flipped, mirrored and used partially in the areas needed. 

Here you can see that the shape is mirrored and a simple tic-tac-toe pattern connects the 2 patterns together.  

Here is the part that connects the two units together on the outside of the "block". A drink coaster worked  great for the arches and a few circles and teardrops fill the space nicely.  After setting this aside for a few weeks, it is time to get cracking and finish something. I also love how the quilting is going to be even across the space without heavy thread build up in areas.  This area above is the most dense area.  It won't feel like you are sitting on a rock due to the quilting and seams.

Go check out what others are working on....Judy L. has the list.

Finish It Up Friday-September 19th

It was time to set down and figure out the corners of A Star in the Sky.  Yep…figured it out.  The 2 1/2” strips making up the border came out evenly but with 28 strips…one side had a strip with a white end and the other side a solid strip.  Corners…ugh.  I decided to have the corners be the same so one side has solid stripes with the white four patch touching the inner border.  The other side has the sides ending in the stripe ending with a light square.  The four patch in the corner is on the outside.  If it was next to the inner border it would get lost.

Didn’t turn out too bad.  The colors look so much better outside in the fall sun.

Morning in corn country.  This wasn’t always beautiful in my mind.  It took a few years being SURROUNDED by corn to appreciate the beauty.

Check out more “Finishes” over at “Crazy Mom Quilts”


Just Another Quilter

A Star in the Sky

Our house has been busy.  We have tackled sickness, taken vacations, moved children and had visitors.  The garden produced great this year, leading to canning and freezing.  I have managed to sew and keep up on blogs. 


The latest project is form fabric DH brough back from a trip to Chicago.  These fabrics were set aside while working on Batik Brown Quilt.  These didn't quite fit into a quilt headed to California with a new college man.

This quilt is made from a cake layer and is based on the Moda Bake Shop Anasazi Medallion Quilt.
 

Tuesday Linky Party

Just made it back from my 2 mile walk. I need to move more in my life.  Finished a couple quilts this month.

The first quilt was made from fabric purchased in New York. The quilting looks great. It is always amazing what a little planning can accomplish.

The second quilt is a quick one. The directions can be found here. This is going to a new neighbor with a new baby.

Check out what others are doing at Connie's Blog. 

Mostly finished

Turquoise Falls is just about done. The binding is on and just has 2 more sides left to stitch down.  I brought it with me today while waiting at the doctors office.

We have a family of ducks that have been around for a couple weeks now. Mom likes to show them how to turn upside down and find something to eat underwater. Sadly, when I walk out on the deck to watch them, it scares them and they are off again.  

A Little Quiltin' Goin' On

This is the current project. The fabric for Turquoise Falls was purchased on a trip we went on several years ago to upstate New York. We stayed in a hotel across from a Joann Fabrics. We were in Rochester and traveled to Buffalo and to Niagara Falls.  The charm & fat quarter pack came in under $15.  

Turquoise Falls
Top done 2012

Here is the quilt pattern that is going in the quilt blocks.  The color is off.  The flower print is a beautiful celery green.  It is coming along nicely. It has been awhile since the last finish. It feels pretty good.
                                

Our family enjoys putting puzzles together.  These fish were found in the basement still sealed. I am not sure how that happened. We have several "under the sea" puzzles. Many are "glitter or glow". Young girls love to do these. Lola and MJJR think this one is too easy. Had it been started in the morning it would be done in one day.
Every summer we pull out a puzzle.  We keep one going all summer. It helps keep them away from the television. Here is the first finish of the summer.
                         

Working Away

     Our guild has what they call a "Quilt Getaway" once a month.  We take over a local historical building for the weekend.  The building gets used and we get free space to sew.  It is rather nice.  Laundry dishes and yard work aren't calling, so you make progress.  Here is my progress on the most recent project, a twist on Bonnie Hunter's Rick Rack Nines.   You can see Monday when the picture was taken was a beautiful day.  Today...a little dreary.

     I managed to sneak away from reality for about 4-5 hours on Sunday.  What reality did I leave behind...a broken water softner (after 2 days with no softner and our showers will be orange, we had a whole weekend), a new car that needed some paint touch ups.  It was finally ready and picked up Tuesday, more than a week later.  The 10 yr. old SUV returned to the shop, back in after the engine light came on 2 hours after we picked it up. We finally are no longer shuffling to get everyone where they need to be. We had a car whose engine light was on for a couple years, but this time the error says that the engine is misfiring and the car will blow up.  They just put a new harmonic balance on so it probably is the old engine not playing nicely with the new part.  We also had to tear apart the air conditioner due to all the cottonwood fuzz from the neighbors trees clogging the unit, the unit is only 8 months old. 

     So after Sunday, the air conditioner is good.  The hot water tank and water softener are new. The new vehicle is in our possession.  We have enough vehicles to maneuver ourselves around now.  DH has no cavities.  My task for today--take MJJR to find a swimsuit (just what every 15 yr. old tomboy wants to do--or every female above the age of 10).

     Having my quilt mojo back, many of the UFO's are being worked on so stop back in and check out the quilting progress of Turquoise Falls.

Design Wall Monday

Design Wall Monday

I have been working on a scrap project for the last couple weeks.  The pattern starts as Bonnie Hunter's Rick Rack Nine's.  I decided to make the rows and finished the nine patches to a point.  Instead of having the rows interact mine will stand alone with lots of side set-in triangles. The "cheddar" batik will be the set-in triangles, if there is enough fabric. We were recently given a "cheddar" challenge and this will fit.  Some strip will fit between the rows. I will be asking for advice when the time comes. Only 12 more nine patches to go.

Check out other Design Walls.  Judy L. has the list.

A Charming Pack of a Quilt

On Sunday…it was time to tackle a quilt.  My knitting project has been in the fore front and quilting has taken backstage.  With the 5" squares going back to guild members on Tuesday (today), ideas for the current swap of fabrics was needed.  What to do with 5" neutral charms. 

Now….Tuesday isn't far away from Sunday.  So, I was looking for something that is useful and attractive.  Initially I chose Rick Rack Nines from Bonnie Hunter's "Leaders and Enders" book.  After making about 12 nine-patches, it dawned on me that this pattern didn't use very many of the 5" charms with lots of sewing in between.  That was not my GOAL.  Let's use up this fabric swap. 

Bonnie's Rick Rack Nines

Swap to a new pattern….what to choose.  Out comes the Ipad.  Instead of printing out every pattern that "needs" to become a quilt, I save the patterns by choosing "Opening in Ibooks".  So after looking through the stash of quilts found Arignon Picnic over at Moda BakeShop.   The original pattern has great diagrams, so stop over and check it out.

Here are how the pattern was modified to work with my fat quarter bundle and 5" charms.

The size of the final shape is 2 1/2" x 4 1/2".  The 5" charm is combined with a 4 1/2" x 5" piece.  Here is how to get there.
The fabric is from a fat quarter bundle.  To utilize the fabric wisely…Cut a 4 1/2" by 22" strip.

Subcut the strip every 5" for 4 units 4 1/2" x 5".  The remaining bit of fabric…cut it up…2" squares for 9 patch leader and ender project??

Here you can see the 5" neutral charm with the 4 1/2' x 5"

Sew down both sides.
Trim of the charm square to 4 1/2" x 5"
Cut the unit in half to make 2- 2 1/2" by 4 1/2" segments

Open  and Press.  There are no great pressing directions for this quilt.  Here I pressed to the dark.

There are two blocks to make.  Check out the original pattern for better instructions.  There are 2 blocks.  This is what the pattern calls the "S block".  See the "s"?

This is the "Z block".  See the "z"?

The pattern comes about by pairing these 2 blocks together.  One row alternates the blocks…the next row alternates the same blocks ALL UPSIDE DOWN.  Check out the pattern again for better instructions. 
Surprisingly, after 10pm only a few blocks incorrectly orientated were found.  They were quickly fixed and the quilt went together in less than 3 days.  Borders will probably be added later to my version.  The original has no borders but has another 2 rows of blocks to make the quilt wider.  
                                                   Windy out there today.

Stop over and check out what others are doing today at Connie's Freemotion by the River.
Happy Quilting,
Just Another Quilter

Dyeing Away

Things are either very quiet or swamped here.  Right now....Lets just say the gators are moving in.  Games out of town, Lola home from school, DH with some very hard days at work, and chauffeuring myself and MJJR all over.


On April 4^th, the local library had a serial dilution dyeing class.  This library has different dyeing classes including: ice dyeing, painting or stamping, texturizing, and the serial dilution dyeing.  This was my first experience with the serial dilution dyeing.  I have taken the other classes before.
The biggest issue with hand dyed fabric is bleeding.  The dyes need to be intense to get the beautiful colors, but must be fully set and rinsed out to not leach dye onto the nearby fabrics.  Remember my bleeding experience.  Don't want to relive that one!


So it was time to set those dyes.  It should be said that during my "bleeding experience" a product line was discussed.  Synthrapol is a product to remove dyes that have bled.  Retayne is a product to set dyes to keep them from bleeding.  These products were not used in the "bleeding experience".  
So back to my current hand dyed fabric.  There is 30 bags of the serial dilutions and another 10 or so bags of "why not try that".

I started with 5 bags of the serial dilutions by rinsing out the fabric with cold water and placing them back in the same bag with white vinegar.  Then I stopped…out of white vinegar.  Went to Sam's Club…bought 2 gallons of white vinegar ($3.56).  Next day, rinsed out more and loaded up a total of 15 of the serial dilutions with vinegar.  Headed over to the LQS and purchased a small bottle of Retayne for $3.  The bottle of Retayne states "drain excess dye and add to fabric".  Well, blew that didn't I.  Soooo. Rinsed vinegar out and soaked fabric of similar colors in a bucket of water and Retayne.  Rinsed out the Retayne and hung them out to dry.  Here is the first set.

The next set is from those after the Retayne was purchased.  The fabric was squeezed out and placed in a bucket of water and Retayne, with like colors together.  It is funny, the water/Retayne starts to turn opaque as you add the fabric to it.  Some of the color leaves but most of it stays.  After the Retayne soak, the fabric was placed back in the bag with vinegar.  The next day….rinsed and hung out to dry.

Hanging the small pieces of fabric on the pea pod trellis worked great.  The peas are planted and are just starting to break the surface.  Mind you, it snowed today.  What month is this anyway???  April (snow) showers, will it ever bring May's flowers. 
These fabrics are hoping to combine with the fabric exchange neutrals.  My inspiration.  Baby Waves by Kaye Wood.
Thanks for stopping by.  Check out others at Freemotion by the River.
Just Another Quilter

On the Needles

My knitting obsession started when Judy L. at the Patchwork Times, generally a quilting site, kept posting pictures of her socks.  These were some of the coolest socks.  As I had learned how to knit as a child (and hated every minute of it) I knew that at some point I would attempt my own pair of socks.  The time came when I was off to help my dad recover from hip surgery.  A quilting project was much bigger than I wanted.  A couple books checked out from the library followed by a stop at a yarn store and I left for my journey home.  A few dishcloths were made the first couple days.  After I was sure I could knit & purl, the socks were started.  When it was time to "turn the heel" I found our local library had a knitting group.  Now a regular member, MJJR also enjoys going to the group and working on her homework while we visit and knit.  In the last 2 1/2 years: 4 pairs of socks, a tank top, boot liners and a winter outer cowl (which I promptly lost) have been completed.
This project, Clapotis, was started on March 12th.  My gauge is off just a bit and it isn't as wide as I had hoped.  Maybe an edging is needed.  Currently three more dropped stitch repeats were added past the pattern requirements.  It is supposed to measure 21" x 55".

  Lola is making the trip home from college for the weekend.  MJJR has a last minute basketball tournament out of town.  DH…working. : (   Lola is home for good at the beginning of next month.  Yeah!  She doesn't really come home to see us….the boyfriend is also home from college for the weekend.
Come back and check out the results of the fabric dyeing class from last week.  Also stop over to Patchwork Times and see what others have on their needles.
Just Another Quilter

A Recent Class

Last week the local library gave a fabric dyeing class.  We had a good time.  The library has many very artistic employees.  This means very artistic programs for patrons. 
We are given 3 dyes.  We mix the dyes according to directions.  These serial dilutions have the colors going from 100% of one dye to 100% of the next dye.  There is 30 different combinations.

The dyes are added to the fabric and sit for 24 hours.  The complete directions were on the board.
The colorways available to choose were: Tutti Frutti, Sea & Sky, Fall, Earthy Tones just to name a few.  I went with the Sea & Sky.  Before anyone asks….brand of dye is unknown….it is a powder that is already made up into into a liquid filling a quart mason jars.

Picked up some Retain yesterday.  It says to use it before you originally rinse out the dye.  These are soaking in vinegar trying to hold more of the dye.  Hopefully all will be rinsed, "Retained" and dried.   
I am hoping to make "Baby Waves" by Kaye Wood out of my Neutral swap fabric and these hand dyed fabrics if they ever stop running.
Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion on the River highlights what others are up to.
Just Another Quilter