Bloggers Quilt Festival

 It's time the fall Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.
This is one of the few quilts I finished this year; getting ready to move took up a lot of my time.  It i entered in the Scrappy Quilt category
This quilt is make from blocks that my friends in the Friendship block exchange group made for me.  I asked for Anvil blocks made with "made fabric"for the center square and the half square triangles could be made fabric or not. I asked for yellow or orange for the backgrounds.  Victoria (Bumblebeans) had requested that her followers make  anvil blocks with a blue background which she makes into quilts for people recently diagnosed with cancer. My friends made one block with the blue background and one block for me with yellow/orange background to make a quilt for myself.  I think I sent 12 blocks to Victoria and I had 12 blocks for my quilt from my friends and I made the rest.
The blocks are 12 inches and the half square triangles in the borders are 3 inches.

 I used one anvil block and some "made fabric" squares along with a piece of floral fabric that I had to stretch the backing fabric of which I had not enough.







Below are 2 close up shots showing the all over quilting with rows of the Bernina # 4 stitch. This was the first time I used this stitch for spaced rows and I like the look and I will use it again.









If you want to know more you can click on "anvil blocks".
Be sure to check out the other quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival and be sure to visit all the categories.

Tree Skirt Progress

I am making progress on the tree skirt. All of the sections of 5 charm squares are sewed together and ready to be cut in wedges. I have them pinned in order on a design board. I had sorted the charms and laid them out in the order that  I thought I would lay out the large wedges and then I will place the narrow wedges where they look best.  I will make changes as I go along but this is a starting point. Annie from Freezeframe has a nice tutorial explaining how to get two 9 degree wedges from a 5 inch strip of charm squares. This is the third tree skirt from her tutorial and it goes together easily.


The only problem I had this morning was with these two.  When I got up to pin a strip on the design board the cat came in and sat on my our sewing chair. I moved her off, under protest, and when I turned my back she got back, not once but twice more. I gave up and moved the chair over and took the design board off the other chair where it was propped. While I was doing that the dog came in and plopped down under my sewing table. We finally got ourselves sorted out and I was able to finish the strips.

The animals sure make life interesting; 

Jack says they own me.

Who would have thought it?

Scraps

I an linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday It is a monthly linkup of scrap quilts, old or new or in progress.You can read about it by clicking on the link and view the quilts and if you want link up your own scrap quilt.

I admire quilts with 2 colors or 2 fabrics or a limited number of fabrics  but it is hard for me to stick with that kind of quilt if it is of any size. For me there can never be too many colors or fabrics.

My quilt is from 2005 and I made it as an "in progress" sample for a quilt in sections class I was teaching.
I worked out a method for randomizing my scraps so each colored strip appeared on the opposite side of the braid each time it was used. I used an odd number of color families, 5 for this quilt,  and I made stacks of each fabric. I had stacks everywhere in the sewing room. They were all lined up on my sewing tables, desk, ironing boards and every horizontal surface. Then I went around the room and I picked them up in order of red, blue, green, yellow, and orange to make working stacks. I also had a stack of "wild card strips, fabrics that didn't fit a color category to add at times when the next fabric on the stack didn't have enough contrast.  Working this way I did not have to make choices for each strip. I worked on 3 chevron strips at a time to avoid getting up to press after each addition.

My borders and vertical are not pieced but are irregular striped fabric. The binding was pieced and I rounded the corners of the quilt to avoid seams falling at the corners.

Be sure and check out the other scrap quilts, better yet, link up to one of your own and join the fun.

Inspiration?

It is really bad when I have no pictures of anything quilty to post about. I am stitching straight lines on the MEH project and one photo looks like another.

However... I think I might work this pattern up in EQ and give it a try. This is a Kleenex box that was in a large Kleenex package in assorted patterns. I noticed just now as I am sitting here that where the ends of the box are folded to make the box square the pattern is perfectly matched. I like the colors and I think I can come up with an easy pattern. Could this be desperation because I've had nothing much for a long time to post about quilting?

I am finding inspiration here in our new location, though I am not sure I can interpret it in a quilt.
 These first 2 photos are both shots of the same view from the front side of the house. It was a foggy morning last week  and the angle of the sun gave  a golden glow to the fog. Of course it is impossible to capture that exactly.



This photo was taken on the other side of the house in August about 7:45PM. I have always loved the way the sun shines in the windows or filters through the trees at that time of day when the sun is low in the sky. This too gave the air a golden glow.  I came across these photos when I was looking for birthday party pictures to put in a digital album. I also found this one below.

These are the animals who have trained me as a companion. When I got up very early one morning they came in the sewing room to keep me company. The dog just went to sleep in  the corner but the cat sat on my sewing chair and talked to me. This has now become their habit. Kitty frequently looks me up and talks to me. I thought she was saying meow but I have learned her language and I have come to understand that she is saying nnnow. Meaning she wants to eat NOW or she wants to go out NOW or she wants me to sit down in the recliner and provide a lap for her to sit on NOW whereupon she will allow me to pet her.

Being a companion has it's perks; kitty provides some extra warmth when I am cold and walking the dog adds about 4800 steps of good exercise.

MEH Challenge and Birthdays

I am slowly making some progress on the Mary Ellen Hopkins Diva challenge. I work a little and stop and think a little. now that I have finally decided how I will quilt the octagon spaces it should move along faster. I am going to quilt through them as though they were 9 patches. I am not going to quilt across the strips that l want to look as though they are on top of the strips they cross. That means a lot of stops and starts. I looked at Mary Ellen's quilts in the book I have and it appears that most or all of them that straight or diagonal allover grids; that would have been easier but it is what it is now.

I am sure I am not alone in second guessing as there are always more than one way to do something and not every options appears to us before we start. I have to remember that though I can see a better option after I have finished (or gotten half way through) I have never felt I ruined a quilt with my quilting.









Fall is the time for great grand child birthdays. This one below was 3 weeks ago. The tall boy in the back row is a friend and the other 5 are my great grands. It is really hard to get a photo with everyone looking decent. There is always someone moving or clowning around. The birthday boy here is in the orange and brown shirt. The birthday theme was ninja turtles. You can see the celebration tablecloth  that I  made from hand dyed fabric that I almost threw away. It came through the party without mishap (big surprise).
The blond boy in the lower left corner has a July birthday and we usually have a big family outdoor party at their house,  This year his dad was recovering from a tib/fib leg fracture with no weight bearing and grandma and grandpa (my daughter and son in law) were
 spending every minute getting ready for our move out here so.... no big party this year for David. He did get his presents though and some arrived at his cousin's birthday party, he seemed happy with that.


 This was the second fall birthday last weekend, same 5 ggkids and same place, same celebration table cloth. This is the oldest great grand, he is 12 this year. His cake was his choice, over the top chocolate brownie cake with chocolate frosting and slathered with M&M's. I forced myself to eat one piece I had to have ice cream with it in order to tone down the chocolate.
Next week will be another birthday party and then no parties till November. We always celebrate the only girl party at Thanksgiving; I don't think she minds.

I have decided that I am going to make a Birthday Quilt to replace that rather lame Happy Birthday banner. Maybe I will make it so we can change out the name for each birthday.

In December I will have a BIG birthday. 

Would it be alright 

to have the birthday quilt 

for the first time 

on my birthday?

Would that seem  

like I was making myself 

TOO IMPORTANT.