Rustic Stars

Finally finished!

Last year, at Thanksgiving, my husband's aunt, Nancy, let me know that she has plans to redecorate her bedroom.  She wanted to do it in Americana and she would really love to have a new "bedspread."  She mentioned how nice the one I made for her sister (my mother-in-law) was (hint, hint, hint.....).  Last month, my mother-in-law let me know that Nancy had taken down all of her 90's stick on wall borders and began painting that bedroom (again...hint, hint...).  Well, I guess they were letting me know that I had procrastinated long enough.  It was time to start working on Nancy's quilt.

I always planned to give it to her for Christmas this year.  This was a pattern that my old sewing circle picked to work on together in January and I really wanted to do it.  I thought about beginning to work on it every month since then...I just never did!  I decided to gather up all of the fabrics and take it to my in-laws house over Thanksgiving this year.  I figured that if I just got it cut out, I'd start sewing as soon as I got home...and it worked!  It was done a week later...just in time for Christmas!

This was a fun pattern and the only changes I made to it were:

• adding an extra row of stars (I needed about 12" more in length to fit Nancy's bed)
• using fusible stabilizer under the star points (I wasn't sure how Nancy would feel about alot of fraying, so the Wonder Under will keep it from being to frayed).  BTW, this Hunter's Star pattern is super easy as all of the start points are top stitched instead of pieced!

Rustic Stars
94x72"
Pattern Designer:  Lynne Hagmeier (American Patchwork & Quilting - Oct. 2014)

Quilting:  Freehand Meander (avoiding the bulk of those star points)

Quilting Thread:  Federal (Glide)

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Sunflower Song Duo

Busy days lately, but I thought it's about time I begin sharing some of the projects I've been finishing up over the last few months!  Today, these are a couple of small wall hangings I made for display at Jackman's Fabrics...

This is Sunflower Trio and the details are all below.  The ladies at the store really challenged me with this one as applique is not really in my repertoire, but I followed the directions (step-by-step exactly) for the raw edge applique and it seemed to work...well!  I really worried that I couldn't make a display worthy quilt, but I've pleased to say "I did it!"

Pattern:  Sunflower Trio

Designer:  Lynne Hagmeier (Kansas Troubles Quilters)

Size: 34x38"
Featured Fabric Line: Sunflower Song (Kansas Troubles)
Quilt Panto:  Flirtatious LG by Irene Steele

Quilting Thread:  Star Multi-Color

This one is Rising Sun, another applique project I was hesitant to take on for store display.  {Doesn't our pond look so pretty this time of year???}  Again, I followed the pattern directions and was able to accomplish a pretty decent hand turned applique.  My only regret is that my "V-points" aren't great, but I'll research a bit more about tackling them and hopefully do better next time.  Yes, I'm even willing to try again!  I found it really interesting to learn two different applique techniques on these two separate projects...another technique tried!  

Pattern:  Rising Sun

Designer:  Barabara Cherniwchan (Coach House Designs)

Size: 16x52"

Featured Fabric Line: Sunflower Song (Kansas Troubles)
Quilting:  freehand echo
Quilting Thread:  Aurifil Mako NE 50/2

Disclosure: I received supplies to make this project from Jackman's Fabrics in Fairview Heights, IL.  The quilt will be hung as a shop sample in their store to promote sale of both the pattern and fabric lines,  In exchange, the quilt will be returned to me at the end of the promotion.  They did not require me to write a positive review of any of the products.  The opinions I have expressed are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Desert Sky

After taking this Judy Niemeyer, Desert Sky, class a few months ago, I knew I had to add this quilt to the UFO list or I would avoid getting back to it.  I seem to always send the "techniquey" projects to the "to do later" pile!  I'm so happy to have it completed!!!

The original pattern was pretty small and I really wanted to build it up to at least a throw size (without having to paper piece any more of those curve blocks).  I added the 2 yellow borders and the outer mottled batik to create a little extra length and width.

Desert Sky

68x75"
Pattern Designer:  Judy Neimeyer

Panto:  Fire Lily (Patricia Ritter)

Thread:  Aurifil Variegated Col. 5512

Q4 (Oct-Dec 15) List: 

4/15 completions

1.   String Spools

2.  Buttermilk Basin Wool Applique

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  A Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Elizabeth's Prairie Garden 

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  A Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Desert Sky

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Road to STL

15.  Little House on the Prairie Quilt

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

UFO Goals - November

The Desert Sky top is ready to be quilted, so that's going to be top priority this month!

I'd like to make at least one baby quilt to donate for Soldier Babies.

When those are done, 4-Patch Revisited will take center stage because it would be nice to at least have that top done when Bonnie Hunter releases her first clues for this year's mystery, Allietare!

Q4 (Oct-Dec 15) List: 

3/15 completions

1.   String Spools

2.  Buttermilk Basin Wool Applique

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  A Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Elizabeth's Prairie Garden 

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  A Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Desert Sky

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Road to STL

15.  Little House on the Prairie Quilt

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Pinwheel & October Finishes

Finally finished Pinwheel, the secondary project that was made after my class with Pat Speth!  This quilt is made with bonus units from the Labor Day Madness pattern.

Remember I mentioned that I didn't really want 2 quilts from the exact same fabric line?  Well, I talked my friend Debbie into doing these quilts with me and we swapped bonus units...and I totally lucked out because I LOVE the fabrics she chose!!!!

 Fun and easy quilting with the perfect shade of purple thread!

And best of all, I was able to use up the leftover hunks of fabric on the backing...hardly anything leftover...just a few scraps for the scrap bins!

Pinwheel
84x65"
Pattern Designer:  Pat Speth (Nickel Quilts)

Primary Fabric Line:  Enchanted Pond by Holly Taylor (Moda)
Panto:  Flirtatious LG (Irene Steele)

Quilting Thread:  Iris (Glide)

Here's more about my Labor Day Madness quilt that I finished earlier this month!

 Elizabeth's Prairie Garden  was also finished this month!

Q4 (Oct-Dec 15) List: 

3/15 completions

1.   String Spools

2.  Buttermilk Basin Wool Applique

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  A Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Elizabeth's Prairie Garden 

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  A Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Desert Sky

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Road to STL

15.  Little House on the Prairie Quilt

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Labor Day Madness

Pat Speth's book, Nickel Quilts, was one of the very first quilt books in my collection.  I've had it for years and when the opportunity arose to take a class with her using designs from that book, I jumped at it! 

This is Labor Day Madness, tomorrow I'll show you Pinwheel.  Why do I tell you that now?  Well, these quilts have something in common...the units are made at the same time...left facing units are used in one quilt and the right facing units are used in the other!

I didn't particularly want 2 quilts made in the same fabrics, so I talked my friend Debbie into making the same quilts - and we traded units, so the quilt I show you tomorrow will have different fabrics!

Pat Speth Signed my label!!!

These are really fun quilts to make...if you haven't made any of Pat's designs before, I think you'll really love them!  I've now made 4 (and 3 of them used these combination units)!

Labor Day Madness
70 1/2 x 89"
Pattern Designer:  Pat Speth (Nickel Quilts)

Primary Fabric Lines: Lucy's Crab Shack & Reunion (Moda)
Panto:  Tickle (Beany Girl Designs)

Quilting Thread:  Willow (Glide)

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Elizabeth's Prairie Garden

Our Prairie Women's Sewing Circle continues, but I've been going back and working on projects that I never completed as we covered them.  This quilt, Elizabeth's Prairie Garden, became a long-term project.  

It's almost all done by hand, during evening tv time.  This was also my first "hexie" project...and my first wool applique project...and I'm hooked!  I did end up adding the borders and binding by machine (binding stitched by hand on the back), but I really enjoyed getting back to hand quilting - I haven't done any since I got my longarm 3 years ago!

Elizabeth's Prairie Garden
Prairie Women's Sewing Circle - Journey #3, Gathering #3
27x29"
Pattern Designer:  Pam Buda
Hand Quilted

Hand Wool Applique

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

New Project

I'm working on a new project!  Here's my background...and when you have a nice big neutral background, guess what comes next.  Yep, APPLIQUE!  

Here's the pattern, it's "Sunny Trio" designed by Lynn Hagmeier.  I don't do very much applique, so it's a bit intimidating.  I'll be using the fusible method on this little project, following the directions VERY closely!

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Design Wall Monday - 10/12

Here's what's up on my design wall today...

Desert Sky - I just took a class on this Judy Niemeyer paper piecing pattern.  During class, I made 4 blocks and by the end of the day, I had 9/36 blocks completed.  Hoping to get a few more done this week.

Farmer's Wife - The first 6 blocks are up on the design wall.  I'm hoping to complete at least 3-4 blocks a week on this project.  No hurry, but I'd like to see it completed in my lifetime :)

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Q4 2015 & October Goals

First goal...blog more often!  I'm going to try to make it a point to blog at least twice a week.  Checking my sidebar, I've not done that for the past several month and I'm going to do better!  in addition, my October quilty priority is to finish up Labor Day Madness quilt I began at my quilt away retreat back  in May!

So, for last quarter, here's how I did...5/15.  I'm happy with that, especially since we had such a busy summer and early autumn!  The good news is...3 on that list just need quilting and binding, so I'll be able to count them as finished early this quarter!

Q3 (Jul-Sep 15) List:

1.  Women of the Bible

2.  Barn Quilt (Farm Girl Fun)

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Chicks Quilt (Farm Girl Sampler)

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Collaboration Celebration (Ring Around the Hexies)

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Road to STL

15.  Little House on the Prairie Quilt

Q2 (Apr-Jun 15) List:

1.  Lozenges

2.  Silent Auction Table Project (for mom)

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Thai Ostrich Quilt

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Collaboration Celebration

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Ye Olde Schoolhouse (PWSC j4g1)

15.  Orange Crush

Q1 (Jan-Mar 15) List:

1.  RWB Charming Stars

2.  RWB Irish Chain

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Suki Dog Quilt

5.  Baylee Dog Quilt

6.  Easter Basket Wall Hanging

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  Kayla's Basket Weave Quilt

9.  Grand Illusion

10. A Prairie Women project

Here are my new goals for this quarter...many, of course, were just shifted from the Q3 list since I didn't end up working on them.  I really have the bug to get into some holiday quilting as well, so I may have to throw in another NEW project somewhere!

Q4 (Oct-Dec 15) List:

1.   String Spools

2.  Buttermilk Basin Wool Applique

3.  4-Patch Revisited

4.  Crumb Along

5.  A Wounded Warrior Quilt

6.  Elizabeth's Prairie Garden

7.  Rustic Stars

8.  A Soldier Baby Quilt

9.  A Prairie Women project

10.  Desert Sky

11.  Pinwheel

12.  Labor Day Madness

13.  Fan Baby

14.  Road to STL

15.  Little House on the Prairie Quilt

Ok, wish me luck!  First up are my Labor Day Madness and Pinwheel quilts.  They will be my primary October goals and both just need to be quilted and bound.  Additionally, Elizabeth's Prairie Garden (my handwork project) only needs a few wool applique flowers added and I can call it a finish.   That should give me a good jump start!

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Design Wall Monday 10/5

Here are a few of the projects that are up on my design wall today!

These are the first 6 blocks of Buttermilk Basin's BOM.  I've got a few more cut out and ready for the hand stitching, but I'm currently working on finishing up my Elizabeth's Prairie Garden hexie project during TV time.  These are on hold for the time being, but I'm sure I'll be picking them up again later this week! 

 Here are the first 4 blocks for our current Wounded Warrior Quilt.  I made 2 and Janet made 2.  We'll be collecting more of these later this week - I can't wait to see these blocks all together!

Last, but not least, I finally decided to jump in on making a Farmer's Wife 1920s quilt.  Since the 1930s BOM is in full swing, I probably should have begun with that one, but...I already have this book, so I'll work on the 1920s instead with my Civil War fabrics.  I still need to do a bit of squaring up and the hand applique of the basket handle!

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Women of the Bible

The label says I finished my Women of the Bible Quilt last month, but I did forget to post it.  Yikes!  Like I said, it's been a busy summer and it's beginning to become a busy autumn, too!  Oh well...

Here it is...all finished!  It's been on our bed since it's been done, but we got another hot spell, so it's off again.  I never did get any good pictures of this quilt (see the last photo - that was the best from the first set), so since today was an overcast day, I ran it outside to get a full view pic (this one is pretty true to color).

This is a close up of the pieced backing.  The white background fabric on the right was my inspiration fabric.  I thought I was going to use it as a border at the end, but I don't seem to like white/light borders for some reason, so it ended up on the back with that cute little country church piece I found at the Thread Peddler in Waynesville, MO.  I couldn't resist - it was just too cute - and it fit the theme!  Anyway, that white inspiration fabric is where this unlikely color scheme came from!

...and of course, don't forget a label...

Ring Around The Hexies

90x110"

Pattern Designer:  Stitchin' Tree Quilts

Panto:  Cotton Candy (SQS)

Block of the Week (presented by Hoppin' Bobbin)

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Farm Girl Fun

As promised, I'm posting my Farm Girl Fun quilt I finished a couple of months ago (or was it last month - I can't remember).  Laura (at Jackman's Fabrics) saw a similar quilt on Pinterest (posted on Flicker by Jabeybaby) and asked me if I could make something like it for display in the store.  Of course I said "sure" and set about designing something similar, with more balance and adding lots of those cute "crops blocks"! 

I even wrote out a freebie project sheet for Jackman's with a block layout that could be used in conjunction with Lori Holt's book Farm Girl Vintage to make Farm Girl Fun.   

This book is hot, hot, hot, I tell ya!  Everyone in the quilting world wants it and wants to make a quilt in it - it's becoming quite the craze!!!

Pattern:  Farm Girl Fun
Designer:  Heather Gunter (with block patterns from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage)
Size: 54x66"
Featured Fabric Line: Modern Minis (Lori Holt)
Supporting Fabrics:   Misc. 30s Repros and Moda designs
Backing Fabric:  108" Quilt Back by Whistler Studios (Wyndham Fabrics)
Quilt Panto:  Linda's Daisy by Denise Schillinger
Quilting Thread:  Madeira AeroQuilt

Disclosure: I received supplies to make this project from Jackman's Fabrics in Fairview Heights, IL.  The quilt will be hung as a shop sample in their store to promote sale of both the pattern and fabric lines,  In exchange, the quilt will be returned to me at the end of the promotion.  They did not require me to write a positive review of any of the products.  The opinions I have expressed are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Wounded Warrior Quilts

It's time again to share some quilts The Pedal Pushers of the St. Louis Metro area of IL are sending down to the Wounded Warriors at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.

This quilt top was donated by Susan.  She had these blocks from a shop hop several years ago and never did anything with them.  She decided it was time and whipped up the top to donate to the Wounded Warriors.  What a great idea - it's perfect!  Thanks Susan!

This quilt top was a Pedal Pushers group effort.  We collect 12" blocks each month and when we have enough, we make a quilt top.  It was my turn to assemble a top this time, but instead of adding sashings, I added an thin inner border and a nice big chunky outer border!  Something a bit different than what we usually do - and probably a bit faster, too! 

This is the fun backing that was donated by Susan for both quilts - it was an extra wide back and that's so nice to work with instead of piecing fabric together.  I quilted both quilts with stars and loops (Susan's) and a large meander (mine) - and I finally got brave enough to do a deco stitch machine binding - usually I tack the back by hand!

We're always looking for more blocks/backings to add to our quilts for Wounded Warriors and Soldier Babies.  If you have any orphan blocks laying around that you'd like to donate, just let me know...we'd love to work them in to our donation quilts!!!

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!