December Update

Gosh, I'm not posting much, am I? I'll try to start doing better, I promise. ;) I've been busy, though! Here's the Carolina Christmas logo I just finished for Bonnie at Quiltville:


I've also put this logo on different items in the Zazzle account, if anyone wants to show their support for Bonnie and advertise for Quiltville.

Here's what I've been working on in the evenings after work. First, the finished Autumn table runner, at the completed top stage:



When we used it on the table at Thanksgiving, Mom decided that it would look better just a little longer, so I added another couple of rows of blocks on each end. I'm glad I hadn't backed it and quilted it yet!

And this is the Block of the Month row by row quilt I've been doing for the last year, finally all sewn together. It was just a little too tall to hang on the library shelves, so you can't get the full effect of the row of maple leaf blocks across the bottom:



Two final borders on this and I'll be done. I can't decide if I want a 1 inch brown, then a 3 inch green, or a 1 inch green and a 3 inch brown. :D If anyone's interested in seeing all the instructions for the blocks we used for the rows, they're all on the quilt guild's website: www.ucquilts.com

And finally, the pinwheel blocks you saw the EQ design for:


I've decided that I've definitely met and exceeded my scrappy comfort level with this quilt. Color controlled scrappy like the brown/cream/green row quilt = good. A billion different colors of calicoes put together like this one = bad. That triple-scrappy sashing between the blocks is too, too much scrappiness. It does look old-fashioned, but the end result is too busy.

I'm now planning to unsew and rip out the sashings you see there and use a fabric that reads as solid instead, maybe a blue or a dark green. I can always cut up the 1 inch sashing strips into segments for 9 patch blocks, maybe even use them between some solid borders for this quilt. I've got 17 blocks finished. I can't decide if I want to make it a 4x4 layout and have one block left over for the back, OR a 3 x 4 layout and have 5 left over for a whole row on the back, OR make three more pinwheels and do a 4x5 layout. Decisions, decisions!

Another Quilt Finished!

A couple of months ago, my guild had a UFO challenge - and it provided the impetus for me to finish the blue/purple pinwheels quilt you saw a few posts down, and this one, also, that I'm finally getting pix of up on my blog.

Fans of Bonnie Hunter will recognize it as her Carolina Crossroads mystery, with sashing. I've had this one as a completed top, tucked away with it's backing, for a long time, awaiting quilting. I didn't add a border. As you can see with it hanging on a fence, it's 72 inches square (six feet). That's a good size for a card table cover - a 4 foot square table with 2 feet of tablecloth drop on all sides. I suspect I'll use it mostly at the library, under displays of Christmas books.


Most importantly for me, as you'll see on the closeup picture below, it really allowed me to make a dent in all the Christmas fabrics I have somehow collected.


Mary S., in Missouri, did the all-over stipple for me, and did a great job, too. ;) I knew it didn't need anything intricate, as busy as the top was. And yes, those nine patches are made with 1½ strips, to finish at three inches. Even the backing is Christmas fabric.

Quiltville Mystery Top Finished

Here we go, center section of top all finished:



Right now, it measures almost 71 x 71 with no borders. I can't decide if I want to add a skinny red border, then a green border or just go on and add the green border - I don't really need it much bigger, it's going to be a holiday table topper. I do want to put at least a one inch border on there to collect all those seams on the edge, it'll make it so much easier to bind.

Not many people have been opting to do sashing, but I'm glad I did!

Quiltville Mystery Corner

The progress so far - I had to make the sashing scrappy... well, I didn't have to but was determined to use the red Christmas fabric up instead of cutting into my red not-holiday yardage.



Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend!

Quiltville Mystery revealed!

Well, she posted the last clue tonight... and wow, it's pretty! I'm glad I started the mystery. :)

I like to do things a bit different though, so I think I'm going to try my Christmas fabric version with some red sashing between the blocks:



It'll be the same 1½ inch strips that we cut for the rail fence and nine-patch blocks, so it'll fit right in. And I'll make my borders a bit smaller, so this quilt will finish at almost 76 inches square instead of 80, just a tad smaller. :)

Now I can't wait to get this all sewn together!

Mystery Part 6 and Incubator Blankets

Well, step six of the Quiltville mystery is done, 16 Ohio star blocks with nine-patch corners. Mine have different green middles, but I thought this one was 'specially cute with the Santa face looking out the side. :)


We also had to do 16 half Ohio star blocks and four ¼ Ohio star blocks. Given these instructions, I've pretty much got the layout figured out, but Bonnie asked us not to reveal it, so I'm keeping mum.

My guild picks a different charity project each year - this year it's to make incubator blankets for the local children's hospital. It's a super place to use up orphan blocks, as blankets only have to finish at 24 x 24. I've had these teeny half nine patch blocks sitting in a box for 3 years now, 12 light and 16 dark. Too many of them to throw away, and not enough of them to do anything with.

BUT, pairing the light ones with a pink hst, and the dark ones with a blue hst, I've been able to make two incubator blankets. A couple of borders and I'll be ready to go:


Not sure what color to border the blue one with yet... I have more blue for an outer border, but what for an inner border?

Heart Block and Quiltville Mystery

Well, here's my guild's block of the month for January. I try to anticipate the holidays, so, yes, we're doing hearts already. Here's the guild's web page I made with the heart block instructions - if you see any errors, please let me know.


Finally, I've gotten all 100 hourglass blocks done for the Quiltville mystery. Each block has 4 different fabrics in it, though you can't tell it here, the flash makes it difficult to see the white patterns on the white.

Of course, while I had these red fabrics out for the heart, I couldn't resist cutting a few strips from them to add to my mystery hourglasses. I used Omnigrid's triangle #98 for the first time (although I've had the ruler forever, this was the first time I've used it for what it was designed to be used for.)



I can't wait for Thursday to see how we're going to arrange these bits into blocks. I've played with it on EQ, but my designs never work out into groups that would call for the right numbers of blocks... :D

Blocks and blockhead

First the blockhead... he KNOWS he's not supposed to be on this shelf, but the new cat tree puts it within climbing distance. Today he knocked off the stuffed siamese on the corner and sat there himself. He reminds me of the Sesame Street song: One of these things is not like the other... one of these things just doesn't belong...


I've been collecting siamese cats for about ten years now. The breakable ones and the ones I don't want to become cat toys are inside the doors, the ones on top were all gifts. :)

And I've just finished step four of Bonnie's Quiltville mystery, 40 triangular green/white units:

More 9 Patch Blocks and a Mug

Here's another 80 of these little 3½ inch square 9 patch blocks for step 3 of the Quiltville Mystery quilt - she says we're done with the 9 patches now... :) Although I don't really mind, aren't they cute? I really admire quilts that have a lot of little pieces, and doing a hundred baby blocks every week is a painless way to do it.


They'll look better when they're pressed, but I'll wait for instructions on whether to press those last two seams to the inside or outside.
I've also taken an idea I saw on Tazzie's blog for a nice little Christmas gift. Do you recognize the little 1½ inch squares of Christmas fabric from anywhere?


Mine won't be as beautifully packaged as Tazzie's are, but I did borrow her idea about putting a square of cardboard under the mug mat before I put the mug on top and wrapped them both in cellophane. I also got one of those big containers of loose hot chocolate, put three heaping tablespoonfuls in a baggie, added some mini marshmallows and tied the little bag of 'gourmet mix' on the outside of the gift. The purple candy in the mug is coffee flavored, if they want to add one to the hot chocolate, that might be interesting... :)

Another idea is to take a plastic spoon, melt some chocolate, and dip the spoon several times, letting it cool between dips, so you have kind of a chocolate lollypop spoon to stir your hot chocolate with. You wrap that in plastic, tie some curly ribbon around the 'throat' of the spoon, and stand it chocolate side up in the mug you're giving. It'd be a pain to just make one though - be better if you were giving several of these as gifts.

More Quiltville Mystery blocks

Here's my finished step 2 of the mystery, 100 nine patch blocks with three light corners, four dark sides, and one corner the accent color. I also cut the spacer blocks you see off to the right side, a stack of white and green 3½ inch squares.


And here's my nosy 'helper' trying to see why I spread out all these nice soft stacks of ten blocks... is it a kitty napping-place perhaps? Did I bury any mousies under there?


Decided that I didn't want only white-on-white for the white squares, but scrappier whites, so I went digging in my FQ piles and drawers. I found some fabrics that hadn't made my 'Christmas' collection, but could go nicely in a holiday themed quilt. Then I went out and bought the red and green on white snowflakes, found some precut strips that I picked all the white or cream bits out of, so now I have some snowflakes, some white on white, some snow covered trees with teeny redbirds, white with small gold metallic stars, and last, added in the two Christmas themed FQ's on white I wasn't going to use because I only had two.

Ready for the next step! Wonder what this quilt's going to look like?