February Bulletin Board.

Here it is Monday and I have not done one bit of sewing on the piano key borders. I think I was too optimistic to think I would get anything done this week.

I did clean up my desk and cutting table and vacuumed the floor and I was amazed that I can pick up straight pins with my long handled grasping tool. I could see there were a lot of pins and I didn't want to bend over to reach for them. Age is putting limits on what is comfortable for me to do.
While I was putting away the last of the Christmas things from my design walls and bulletin boards, I came across some of my quilted hearts and put them on one of the bulletin boards.
 I like to have some of the things out that usually reside in the closet,

The heart quilt is made with uneven Log Cabin blocks from the book "Log Cabin in the Round" by Barb Schaffield and Beth Vickery.  The little house square in the center was from Beth Shibley of Love Laugh Quilt blogspot. She sent then to everyone who participated in her Neighborhood Block Party", The quilt is 22 inches W and 18 inches H. The crazy pieced hearts are valentines  leftover  from the ones I sent to friends. The black and white square is a participant patch made by Lori one of the Basement Divas for the annual Jellyroll Race. The pink square doesn't really show up well in a photo; it was an experiment using red ink to draw a zen tangle inspired heart on a pink fabric. I layered it up and quilted it with red thread on the longer lines. The photo is enhanced but the color isn't really true. It does show up more "in person". Not every experiment turns out to be something to pursue but some of them are worth keeping just  because.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

February is a pretty easy month for decorating my sewing room. I seem to have a lot of hearts.

This is the narrow design board on the wall adjacent to my bigger design wall. 

The red heart "log cabin in the round" quilt is about 15 inches square and has, at the center, a little house square that Beth Shibley sent to everyone the first time I participated in her Neighborhood Block Party.

The 2 black and white "broken hearts" are my 2 different ways to interpret Zentangle inspired hearts. One in patterned fabric and the other drawn on cloth with a Pigma pen and quilted with black thread. I used the same heart shape for both.

The pink square was drawn with a red pen and quilted on the lines with red thread. I'm not sure why I used pink fabric; all I can say is that it was when I was experimenting. 

The 3 improv patchwork hearts were left over Valentines that "didn't make the cut"when I sent  them to my friends one year.

The Black and white square with the red heart is a participant's square from one of the Basement Divas Annual Jelly Roll Races. It has the signatures from all participants on the back.

 This little 12 inch square is another zentangle inspired heart that I drew and then copied  on my all in one  HP printer/scanner and changed the color in my photo program and then printed on fabric and stitched with blue thread. I'm not sure if I made it blue to use with the yellow and blue fabric or if  used the yellow and blue fabric  to go with the blue heart.









I made this 36 inch square color wash heart along time ago when I made a lot of color wash quilts. I used to hang it in the living room from January until Memorial Day when I changed out all my quilts for red, white and blue until Labor Day. For 3 years, I didn't have an available wall to hang it. Since our last move it hangs over our bed, where it  compliments the colors in the bedspread and quilt on the bed and the curtains.
I didn't plan it that way and it was only after I hung the quilt that I realized how good it all looked together.

I took all  these photos with my new camera that arrived on Monday. It is  supposed to have an image stabilization feature for people with shaky hands. I'm not sure how well that works or it it is something for which I have a setting. I will have to spend some time with the manual. I am just happy to have a camera that takes a picture when I push the button.

Table topper? Wall hanging ? Banner?

Yesterday was another stay at home snow day for us. My Bernina is still not home so I can't get started on any quilting. It has been a long time since I made anything new for February decor.  Hmmm.... maybe a table topper or maybe a wall hanging. No, not a wall hanging I have a color wash wall hanging that I like. Maybe a banner, a heart banner, a made fabric heart banner, something quick, easy, whimsical, something not too serious.

So yesterday while the snow came down this is what I made from red, pink and white scraps and strips. They were easy and not too serious but they were not fast. I never seem to accomplish fast. When I am making something to cut into squares I don't use a foundation but for something that is going to be a specific shape, like a heart, I used a fabric foundation and after adding each strip, I trimmed it back to it the foundation. I also folded the foundation back and trimmed the seam to 1/4 inch. The foundation is a little over size but not so much the I don't see pretty much the way the whole thing will look when it is trimmed.

Is that compulsive? Well maybe but I like to think of it as intentional. OK maybe that is just another way to say compulsive. Now I have to decide on table topper or banner. If I make a banner I just have to fuse something on the back, trim them, and string them together.


Yesterday I got a surprise package in the mail. There was one 2 1/2 inch strip of fabric from Connecting Threads in this box, along with a letter of explanation.
About 2 weeks ago, I had ordered 2 Jelly Rolls one red and one blue. They discovered the blue rolls that they sent out to customers were missing 1 strip. They determine which strip they missed and sent them to their customers. I think that is pretty amazing.
When  I ordered them, I knew the  fabric rolls had unequal numbers of strips, one was 18 and one was 20 and I never counted them and never really missed one.  I sorted the strips in the order that I wanted to sew them together (for the Diva's annual Jellyroll Race) and I thought " I wish there was one white background with blue like that white and red one". Guess what? That was the one they sent.
Here are my strips all sorted in order and rolled up to get them out of the way. They are all ready to unroll and start sewing them end to end for another red, white and blue Jellyroll Race quilt.

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