25 x 25 Challenge and Scrappy Mountains

Dear Readers,

Julia Graber, incoming Mississippi Quilt Association (MQA), issued a challenge to make a 25 x 25 in quilt for our 25th Anniversary.  I had some tumblers cut out so I made that up into a quilt top.  Once I get it quilted, I will trim the borders to make the quilt 25 x 25.  That will make them different widths on the top / bottom and sides, but that will be OK.  Here is a link to Bonnie Hunter's page about tumblers. 

 I also got the borders on a scrappy mountain quilt I have been working on after a long search for my tape measure.  It was right where it was supposed to be, but I just wasn't seeing it.  Don't you hate that?  Here are two different shots of it.  This is another free Bonnie Hunter pattern.  Click here to link to the page.

I have two of the Allietare quilt blocks, but when I was working on them I was having a dyslexic day and had to rip the star block apart twice!!  So it is going to have to wait till I am not tired.

Here are my two blocks!  I am excited to get back to that!  Time to get ready for work!

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

Allietare Mystery update

Dear readers,

Not as much done as I would like but maybe by tomorrow I will make some more progress.  

All of clue one is pressed and dog ears trimmed. 

Still have about a fourth of clue 4 to do and some of clue five is done.  

There is more of this done than I photographed but I didn't take time to lay it all out.  

I had a wonderful visit with Celeste. We had some adventures, ate at some good restaurants and just enjoyed each other and her beautiful Colorado. 

Now I am sitting in the airport in Houston writing this.  Wishing MSU best of luck in the bowl game.  

Back to Bonnie

Sew hope all my readers had a wonderful Christmas  and have a happy new year.  

Terry

Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Dear Readers,

I decided to pull the trigger and go forward with the mystery quilt, but I am way behind.  I have been working on cutting up the clues as Bonnie releases them, but I have not had a chance to sit down at the machine in days, other than to do some Christmas happys.

So here is a picture of what I have accomplished.  I am using the green as my grey in order to a have a Christmas quilt.

I have everything cut except for the random neutrals for the last clue, but I thought I would wait till I got the 4 patches made and use the leftovers for that.
If you want to join in the fun, here is a link to Bonnies main mystery page.  This will only be good while the mystery is going on.

Here is a link back to the clue four page link page.  If I understand correctly, this will work even after the mystery ends.

I may up date this post as I get my Christmas cooking done!

Update #1

Clue 1 & 2 done (mostly)!  Clue one still needs the paper removed and pressing. 

Update #2

Clue 3 done.  I will work on clue four tomorrow. All sewed out today. 

Update #3

I did not catch all the way up.  I got seven sets done!!  But the others are kitted up and in my suitcase. I am on my way to Denver to make memories with my girl. If I have time to sew I will otherwise I will work on it when I get home. I still haven't pulled the paper off of clue one. But thought that might be a good airport activity!  I am fitting it in inbetween my life!!

 

Merry Christmas all!!

Will's guest room

Dear readers,

Got the binding on in time for Christmas.  I was giving it to Will on Friday as he will be heading to New York to spend Christmas with his father and his family for Christmas.  I am going to have to work on finding a good way to photograph quilts in Winona.  In Columbus I would hang them from the dog run on the front porch and they could hang over the edge of the porch if they were longer...but my house here is on a slab so it does not have that hanging space.  It was not light enough before leaving for work, so that left me photographing it in bright sun in the afternoon.  The fence on the other side has shrubs all along it so it is not a good option.  Thought that the bright sun washed it out a bit.

 So then I tried to photo graph it on my deck outside the master bedroom as it was somewhat shaded, but that made it turn blueish.

Here it is on Will's guest room bed!  He is happy with the way it looks in his guest room.  

Will always likes to help my name my quilts and he came up with the name, Threads of Love...so that is what I named this one.  I always like to put a verse on the label too and he helps with that also.   If you want to read about the making of this quilt, I wrote about it in this post.  

Working on kitting up the mystery quilt, almost have the first three clues cut.  Soon I will start sewing...I hope!

Merry Christmas!  Sew long!

Terry

Easy Street Finish

Hey Readers,

Hope you are enjoying this Christmas season.  It has been busy as we tie up the end of a school semester and get ready for Christmas.  I did have a finish of Easy Street right before Thanksgiving, but have not had a chance to post a photo.  I named this quilt Chaos.

A lot of times I figure out the binding when I finish the quilt so I wind in tissue rolls to store it till I get the quilt quilted.  So it kept getting twisted when I had the roll in my lap as it was pulling off of the end of the roll.  So first I tried putting it on one command strip, under the sewing table.  That worked ok, but it did not pull very easily.  So I added another command strip and that worked like a charm.

My family was in for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It was so good to all be together.

 With this arrangement it pulls easily and does not twist up.

We had our annual Christmas party the first Saturday in December.  It is always so good to get together with this group of ladies.  They are so inspirational!

Hopefully I will finish binding a couple of other quilts and post photos of them shortly.

Sew on!!

Terry