Stitching in the Barn

I planned to take some time off the internet, about a week, to finish up a quilt I was close to completing. I got a lot of work done on it and then I got sick. I'm not as sick as I was but now I have a headache that is  the worst I've ever had. The light from the monitor is bothering my eyes so I'm just putting this up here quickly and hopefully I'll get back next week. I had this little quilt me, my daughter and my MIL made together but I knew I still wanted more quilting on it and I finally got it finished.  The quilting in the border isn't so great but sometimes you just have to call something done and hang it up. The quilt I'm trying to get finished is this flannel rail fence. It was previously in 4 sections with only 3 rails unquilted. I've finished the quilting, joined the 4 sections together and added the first border. I was literally in the middle of adding the last border, I already had 2 sides down, when I got suddenly sick, ve...

I've known about this quilt forever. I originally read about it on the Quilting Board way before I'd seen the Jelly Roll Race or the 1600 inch quilt. You can find the original post here: http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/super-fast-jelly-roll-quilt-t44258.html   I recommend you wade through it because there are a lot of nice examples. On page 7 is a picture tutorial and somewhere in there is a discussion of making different sizes and using different widths. She used to have a PDF printout for free but you could just print the first page.  Anyways, I used my JoAnn's, 20 strip jelly roll to try this out.  I wanted to also separate the strips by piecing squares in between them. I really like that look for this quilt so I chose a crazy scrap I had laying around and cut twenty 2 1/2 inch squares. The jelly roll had only ten different fabrics, 2 strips of each, so I pieced squares on one end of each strip. I should clarify, you need to piece strips ...

(If you're here from Sew Many Ways FAFF , welcome! If you want to follow me, I'll follow you back.) I received three postcards from my swap.  These are so awesome! I used clips to attach them to my design wall next to my machine right away. I think I'm going to hang a ribbon bunting to pin these onto. I've got these cute mini plastic clothespins I bought ages ago to hang them with. The pretty pink and green one with the embroidery came all the way from Australia! I'm really excited about these and about making more for the next swap.

(If you're here from Sew Many Ways FAFF , welcome! If you want to follow me, I'll follow you back.)   So with my top done I decided to use flannel for the batting this time. I basted it on with good old Aquanet hairspray, unscented. I then quilted each hexagon in a different motif. I just made some up while others were inspired by free motion quilt-a-longs online. Then came the hard part, cutting it in half to get two postcards.  This was pretty tough. I realized I should have made it longer in the middle than the ends. I cut it fairly close. I first drew on a 4" x 6" rectangle to get the best parts in then I trimmed them up. Since I'm new to this, I experimented on the finishing by doing binding on one. I made it with my 1/2 inch single fold bias tape maker. I pinned it around the edge and stitched it on by machine through all the layers. The other one was finished with a zigzag stitch around the edges. I liked both finishes but the st...

I sent out my fabric postcards last week for the swap. I made two more for a total of three so I should get three back. I used these postcards to try out a no mark method of sewing hexagons together that Jacquie over at Tallgrass Prairie Studio posted. It made sewing hexagons super simple and fast. I started with my Bits & Bobbins scraps and cut some hexagons with the small hex template from Marti Michell. I used set H template 52a which makes a 1.5 inch finished hexagon.  First I sewed a strip of them straight across. This actually already has two strips pieced together and I'm in the middle of the third but the idea is the same. The previous stitching lines make the 1/4 inch from the end marks, as long as they are accurate. You're basically stitching the seams in order starting on the side touching the previous piecing on the top or left then to the next counter-clockwise until it's attached. Above, the light blu...

I  saw a mini QR code quilt at the quilt show last weekend and I just saw another on the web. The first went to a page with a message for her husband, we didn't test it however. The second was supposed to have a message concealed but not a URL address. I got curious and googled "can I get a QR code?". After looking at the first few choices, I saw an article from the NY Times . Since that seems more reliable than a service trying to sell you something, I clicked there. It turns out that the Google URL shortener will make one for your site. I copy and pasted in my web address to get my short URL ( http://goo.gl/7RTtk ) then clicked details. On the details page is a QR code for your shortened URL Since I have a mobile template for my blog in addition to a web template, this should bring up my site on a smartphone in a mobile format. I'll have to test it tonight when my husband gets home. It's funny but when I upgraded my phone, I didn't want a smartph...

Last year I was participating in a BOM over at Live Journal. Of course, this is hard to keep up with when you're taking a quilting hiatus. Taking the time cutting out all the pieces at once and kitting them helped finish them much faster since I could just sew up a couple of seams when I had a chance. Last weekend I finished sewing the last two blocks! The other one I forgot to get an individual picture of but it's the upper right Mardi Gras colored block in the group. These are big 16.5 inch blocks. I've finally taken them down off my design wall after being up there for about a year. This isn't their final setting. I think I'm going to add a 2 inch white border around each block and them finish them as a quilt-as-you-go project during the summer. It should finish about 60" X 80". Finally, another step closer to being done but it's going on the back burner for now.

I had a fun and busy weekend. Saturday, me and the husband went to the Dallas Quilt Show . There were many amazing quilts. The artistry and craftsmanship was a big step up from the last one I went to . Unfortunately, I can't post photos but there are a couple at the link. I came away with a lot of inspiration and motivation. We also saw a quilt my husband would like me to make for the bed. It was a lovely french braid quilt with Poppy fabric and black and white prints. So I'm scrapping all my other ideas and I'm going to focus on that one. We were both completely quilted out by the end.  I did find and buy this Our Lady of Guadalupe fabric panel. It's folded in half, the other half is the same. Sorry for the blurry picture. I'm sure I'll post clearer ones some other time. I'm not sure if I want to make one quilt or 8 individual wall quilts for my friends and family. I had a pattern for a rose that would go great with it but I couldn't find it....

My new washing machine came in yesterday morning.  (picture from Google) It's pretty freaking amazing to watch but I had stuff to do for the first part of the day so I couldn't really get cozy with it until the afternoon. I did the trial load with exactly 6 lbs. of laundry like the manual suggested. It was just a rinse and spin so after it finished I loaded it with more towels and set it to go. It was amazing to watch it work. It is a modern marvel of robotic engineering. It weighed the load, checked the balance and redistributed it before it began. I accidentally set it to heavy soil and it beat the snot out of it! OK, not really, but it did agitate better than any washer I had seen before and I thought my old one did a really good job of agitating the laundry. It spun it fairly dry also. The downside was that it first estimated it would take 72 minutes but actually took more like 80 minutes. The long load times will take a bit to get used to. My husband thinks...

I went to my mailbox and found my prize waiting for me, to my surprise. I never got an email or anything but I'm not complaining. Connecting Threads sent me the Fauna collection of thread. This collection and several spools from it were on my wishlist. How can you pass up thread with names like Milk Chocolate and Latte. They are scrumptious in person and I'm thinking up coffee or cocoa ideas for a mini quilt to try them out. The light colored ones are needed for piecing. They're the perfect shade to blend in to many colors. I do have a small wallhanging that I wanted to put more quilting on that these colors would go perfectly with so that's probably going to be the first thing I do with these threads. I also need to go pick up a new tackle box to keep them in since the last one I bought was filled immediately from my last order of thread from Connecting Threads . I've also joined their site and Perfect Points Quilt a Long.   The first official Q...

I started sewing about 11 years ago before the birth of my son in 2000. I don't remember why except that I wanted to make him clothes. One of the first things I made was this mouse for my then 7 year old daughter. I don't even know where I got the pattern from. Very likely, it was from a book in the library. It's so funny now looking back at it. She still had it in her closet among all her other stuffed animals that I suggested we finally clear out. It looks more like a rat than a mouse and it always gives us a chuckle to see it. It's amazing to consider a few years later I made this dog for my son when he was in his "Clifford the Big Red Dog" phase. He took me like 21 total hours to make. I was curious so I kept track of the time. After that one, I never made another and I've rarely made a stuffed animal since then. I reorganized my sewing space last weekend. I didn't really clean it, there was nothing to throw out. I tried to ma...