Guild Challenge

Hey all,

It is almost Christmas!!  I am excited because today my son arrives and tomorrow my daughter arrives.  We are so excited.  Have a good bit on the 'to do' list, but wanted to write this post so I would be up to date on what I have been working on.

I have finished the Black and White plus one guild challenge from Mountain Quiltfest.  The challenge is to create a quilt with a perimeter less than 160 inches that is comprised of only black and white fabrics and one other fabric, I think I remember that the other fabric had to read as a solid.

Matt and Taylor's baby quilt 60 x 60

I really liked the quilt that I did for Matt and Taylor's baby and had enough of that fabric to make another, only revised to be smaller.  Their quilt was about 60 inches square and this quilt needed to be
a max of 40 on each side.  So I revised how I made the stars, shrunk the sashing and border....I was also not in love with the center square on Matt and Taylor's quilt.  So I was talking to Will, my son, on the phone and asked what he thought.  We were tossing ideas back and forth and he said something about a setting sun, and that made me think of the moon over a mountain block.

Shadows of Kilimanjaro 37 x 37

I took a free motion quilting class on craftsy.com by Leah Day, so I decided to do various quilting designs in each of the orange blocks.  I was thinking, pick ones that are organic looking, that would remind people of nature.

I did bamboo on this one.

A vine with long fronds.

 A lotus looking pod.

 Pebbles.

 Flowing water.

Flowers.

Curly vines.

 I also quilted each of the animal blocks and the mountain and the sun.  I decided not to quilt the white areas, so I just need to put on a label and a hanging sleeve.

I hope each of you has an amazing Christmas and remembers that we celebrate this season because Christ died on the cross for our sins and this gift that God gave us is the ultimate gift of salvation and it is worth celebrating the birth of the Christ child.

Merry Christmas.

Terry

Rocky Mountain Dreams

Dear Readers,

Hey all I know it so I missed posting last week, but I wanted to get a post in this week for sure. I finally finished the Rocky Mountain dreams quilt. 

You may remember I was working on it around Thanksgiving time.  I picked blues to represent the sky, browns, reds and greens to represent the colors of the mountains.  The pattern is Scrappy Mountain Magestries by Bonnie K. Hunter.  Click here for a link to her pattern.  I finished machine quilting, bound, and labeled. I used some of the walking foot techniques I learned in my Craftsy class from Jacquie Gering. Click here to read about that class.  Since I named the quilt Rocky Mountain Dreams I decided to quilt it like a topographical map.  

Yesterday my guild, The Possum Town Quilters, had a sit-n-sew day. We were very productive.  We got the middle of two quilts done.  They should have something on the blog about it soon. Click one link at the right to read about it.  It was a really nice day and lots of fun to work on joint projects with a big group. 

Then I got a pedicure and had dinner with two other friends. 

Get out and make something.  It makes you feel good. 

Sew long. 

Terry

Two small finishes! (Almost)

Dear Readers,

I had two small finishes this week...well they are all finished except writing out the label.

I finished another one of the small tops that I was practicing a quilting technique I saw on the craftsy class by Jacquie Gering.  Still need a name for this one.

I used the Bernina to do a serpentine stitch in horizontal rows.

The second finish was my MQA challenge.  I had already cut a bunch of tumblers in various sizes to do Bonnie Hunter's leader ender for this year.  So I used them and made my 25 by 25 inch quilt to meet that challenge.  I have also been taking the Leah Day free motion class from Craftsy so I did a different free motion quilting design on each of the neutral tumblers.  I believe I am going to call this "Thimbles".

Working on binding the antique top and quilting the scrappy mountains.  I decided to quilt it to kind of look like a topographical map.  So that meant walking foot work across the quilt.  I am having some issues with rippling...maybe the tension is too much on the presser foot. Not sure.  Maybe a good pressing when done will take care of it. We will see.

Got to get ready for Sunday School now.

Sew you later.

Terry

Sewing table minor upgrade

Dear Readers,

I have finally finished all the parts to the Winter Bonnie Hunter Mystery, but I don't have any blocks put together yet.

I have also just completed a minor improvement to my sewing table.  I have had problems when sewing a bigger item like drapes that it catches other tools on the table and pushes them over the edge.  In addition, I have been taking an online class by Leah Day on Craftsy on free motion quilting on your home machine.  She was saying your sewing table should be up against a wall to keep the quilt from falling off the edge of the table and jerking on the needle.

I have just finished setting up my sewing room this summer, and did not want to rearrange, so I came up with an idea to stop that without moving my furniture around.

I bought a 1 x 10 board and made a small "wall" for the table.  I drilled a hole in the center of the board about an inch and a half from the edge and through the lip of the formica table, put a bolt and wing nut through.  Then I leveled the board and drilled a hole on each end and put bolts through those holes.  Then I took the board off, using the same center hole put the board on with the larger part up.  then I drilled two more holes for securing the board when in that position.  This forms the "wall" when free motion quilting.

Sew long,

Terry

Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month quilt finished!

Dear Readers,

I finished a quilt that I have wanted to finish for quite some time.  It was the craftsy block of the month quilt I made for my bedroom.

My mother, Rebecca Turnage, was an artist, an art teacher, wife, mother, and fun lady.  She did a series of paintings using paper towels and watercolors.  I have hung a bunch of these in my bed room.  Several years ago, I was the president of the Possum Town Quilters.  Boy that seems to be a life time ago.  Well part of our goals was to mentor new quilters.  I thought the craftsy block of the month quilt class by Amy Gibson would be a great place to start.  They would do lots of different blocks and see lots of techniques.  Of course I did the blocks too.  Well when the year was up, (a year in which I changed jobs and moved)  I wanted the quilt to be a bit bigger, and there were a couple of blocks I wanted to change out, so I set the project aside.  I was in the midst of a renovation and was teaching calculus for the first time.

Anyway this year, I finally got my sewing area set up and it has been such a blessing.  I love coming in here in the evening and usually accomplish something almost every day.

I used this painting as my inspiration for the colors.  I designed the center block to reflect this painting.

By the way it was quilted by Betty Lewis of Louisville, MS.

 Here it is on my bed, don't you think it brightens up the room?

the back

the label

 The whole thing!

This makes we want to start the upholstery project...I have a chair I am planning to do in burnt orange.  To go in my bedroom.  I also want to redo the pad on the chest at the foot of the bed.

Sew on!

Terry

Mini quilts finished

Dear readers,

I have finished the little mini quilts that I started for the practice for quilting.  I did the micro quilting on the first one.  Cross hatching on the second one.  And a radiant look on the third one.  For the spools I did free motion circles on the lights, and used my walking foot to stitch in the ditch for the inner part and did gentle curve in the border.

Still working on names ....

Terry

Mini Quilts and a Craftsy Class

Dear Readers,

Our guild, Possum Town Quilters, is going to host the Mississippi Quilting Association next year and we are considering different fund raisers.  One is to have a silent auction of mini quilts that people can hang as art pieces or use on a table.  I also signed up to take a machine quilting with your walking foot class from Craftsy.com taught by Jacquie Gering.  So I decided to combine the goals of making something for the guild, trying the techniques that Jacquie was teaching, and learning to use my new Juki.

So last week I made a mini tumbler quilt and I took my scraps from the quilt I made for my son and sewed them together to make 3 other mini quilts.

So I put the Juki back out and started micro quilting this morning.  About an hour and half in it started making a noise then locked up.  So I have a trip to Meridian in my future.  Ugh.  They got on the phone with me and we tried for about a half hour to get it going but determined that it was not something I could fix.  I hope it is an easy fix.

So frustrated.  So I put it aside and got the Bernina back out and finished it up and trimmed it.  I still need to bind and name it, but I did the micro quilting.  Not sure it was the best choice for this project but I needed to practice it.  It makes a quilt really stiff so it is only a technique I would want to use on a wall hanging.  I used a variegated thread for the quilting. The colors in it go from brown to cream although it looks white in the photo.

If you have any suggestions for a name let me know.  I will probably bind in red or blue.  

Have a great weekend!!  

Terry

Freedom from Cancer Quilt Workshop

Hey all,

Today a large group of the Possum Town Quilters got together and worked on blocks for the Freedom from Cancer quilt that we will be donating to the Lowndes County Relay for Life group.  We were making two of the blocks from Amy Gibson's class on Block of the Month from Craftsy.com.  We had decided to buy pizza for lunch, so no one would need to prepare lunch for everyone.  We had about 22 people show up.  The challenge committee was working on the opportunity quilt we donate to the Arts Center for our "rent".  Lots of progress was made on both.  We only need a few more blocks on the Relay for Life quilt and the challenge quilt was in the beginning stages of assembly.  Woooooot!!

So proud of how hard everyone worked.  So without further ado pictures from the day.

Mary Anne, Sandi, Lory, and Linda working on blocks.

Group shot!!

Diane, CC, and JoAnne

Brenda was working on the challenge quilt for the RAC.

Linda and Carol working hard.

Ebba was ironing and arranging the blocks  on the wall so we could keep track of how many more we needed.

Julia and Emily (not pictured) were working on the challenge quilt too!

And by the end of the day, we had most of the blocks made.   Several ladies agreed to make a few at home.  Please email me and let me know how many of what you are making so I can make sure we have enough of the right blocks.  If we have extra that is ok they can go with Annette's blocks for the quilt of valor.   ;-) We also got the back pieced and ready to go.  So at our next meeting, I propose that after lunch we team sew the rows together, add the border and be done!

Freedom from Cancer Quilt Plans

Possum Town Quilters,

This Saturday (September 15) is our regular guild meeting.  While we will not start this project till our regular sit and sew day at the end of the month, I thought I would blog about the plans so if any can't make the sit and sew and would like to participate, they could drop off their pieces.

We are going to make the blocks from the June Craftsy block of the month. Setting them without sashing as a two block quilt.  I drew out 9 blocks so you could get an idea of what it would look like.

We are going to use Red White and Blue fabrics in tone-on-tone prints.  We want to try to use red, white and blues that are similar in color to the flag.   Whites need to read as a white from a distance.  Small polka dot or star on that in red or blue would not matter.

I am envisioning this very scrappy.  So my thought is that if we each bring a fat quarter or two or 4 blocks cut out, then we can mix and match pieces so each block is really scrappy.    I also was thinking a pieced border would be neat.

So I am thinking it will be 7 X 8 12 inch blocks with a 2 inch inner border and a pieced border of 4 inch blocks (finished).  So that will make a finished quilt of 96 x 108.  Between a queen comforter and spread.

Watana has generously agreed to quilt this.  And drum roll, if we make enough blocks for a quilt of valor too...Mary Anne has said she would quilt that.  So here is what I am asking you to do, Cut your material before you come.  If you cannot come, you could help by cutting your blocks, making your half square triangles and Greek cross units and bring them to our meeting or get them to one of our members before the next meeting.

To make the two blocks we are going to:
For the 4 blue/white and 4 red/white 1/2 square triangles.
Cut:
2 blue 5 inch squares
4 white 5 inch squares  
2 red 5 inch squares

Draw a line down the middle of the white squares and pair with blue and pair with red squares then sew 1/4 inch on either side.  Cut on the line and press open.  Square up to 4 1/2 inches each.  This should yeild 4 blue/white 1/2 square triangles and 4 red/white 1/2 square triangles.

Then cut:
 5 blue 4 1/2 inch squares
 2 red 4 1/2 inch squares
 2 white 4 1/2 inch squares
These will be used as 4 1/2 inch squares.

Finally for the Greek Cross units cut
one red 2  x 18 inch strip
one white 3  x 18 inch strip
sew together on the long sides and cut into 4 1/2 inch pieces.

That will be enough for two blocks and one block each of red, white and blue for the border.  If want to cut enough for four blocks you can cut one less red white and blue block.   So I am asking for two blocks for the freedom from cancer quilt, and if you feel moved two more for the quilts of valor quilts.

I am excited.

April Block of the Month

This month the technique that Amy Gibson taught on Craftsy.com was English paper piecing.  Which is a lot of hand work....and you all already know that is not normally my thing.  I must admit, I did enjoy making hexies and joining them up.  I used Bonnie Hunter's hexie technique on the small hexies and the one Amy taught on the larger ones.

But to help the whole process along, Annette Pennington, who is also doing the challenge, sent this link to Snippets and Blabbery   If you look on the right side there is a link for hexagon templates.  Yay. I used those for the 3/4 inch hexies.  Still needed a template for 1.25 hexies so I found another hexie graph paper here.  That is what I used for the medium sized hexies.  There was only one large hexie needed so I used the one from the course instructions.

For the first block I did not arrange the hexies as Amy had suggested.  Amy had you putting a double row down one side.  I felt the background was too big.  So I made mine into a flower shape and then cut the background down from the 12.5 size and added a small blue border to make it 12.5.  Some of the paintings in the room have light blue mats around the edge.

The second block I did how Amy suggested, except that she had white as the sky area.  I am not sure I like this, I am thinking of trying to do something free form with rectangles to mimic the paintings.  This may end up on the back!

I still have to go back and do the second string block from last month.  Maybe next weekend!