Design Wall Monday--10/31/16 Happy Halloween

Design Wall Monday again.  Well, another week passed quickly, with not too much time in the sewing room.  However, some of it was spent with my grown niece, Emma, making Thomas. 

The photo is a bit overexposed, but you can tell what a sophisticated turkey he is.  Emma picked through my precut scraps and we pulled larger pieces and fat quarters for more choices.  Though I gave away the pattern for this mini quilt a few years ago, I had the one I made for  myself to go by.  Emma enjoyed using the Accuquilt GO cutter to chop up the scraps to the 2.5 width, then we crosscut them with the cutter for squares.  It was a fun couple of hours.  Thomas now has a pieced backing and I'll get the quilting done soon and have Emma choose her binding fabric. 

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

 

 I kept the GO cutter out to lower the volume of this scrap bin. 

 So great to get a new pile of light scraps in the 2.5" precut drawer.

 

Other tasks last week included getting a new kitchen faucet, thanks to son Nick,  a plumber who got us a great overstock deal AND installed it, and DH Grant who put up these pretty new patio lights.  We had our house painted this gray blue-green a couple of months ago and the 25+ year old builder grade lights had to go. The first two new lights went up just fine but the third one had to be partially disassembled to change the too-long mounting screws.  Naturally there was a trip to the Home Center involved to complete the project, but only to buy clear caulk to seal the backplates from rain.  We actually did get some of that wet stuff here in SoCalif, just about 1/2 inch to kick off our rainy season, enough to ease the fire danger some.  Fingers crossed there will be more rain in the next 3-5 months.

Our Halloween was pretty light, only about 80 trick or treaters--in the past we have had a few hundred, but that's to be expected on a school night.   We played favorites with the grandsons to close out the evening.

Cove requested to be a ghost and Mama made him this costume from some gauze, draping it over his cute leggings and long sleeved shirt.  Clever and simple, perfect for a 2 3/4 year old.  Baby brother Hunter sported some bones :)   Too cute!

Design Wall Monday 10/24/16

On my design surface is the Starcrossed quilt (pattern by Corey Yoder in APQ mag April 2016) I've been working on for DD Erica.    All the pieces are now cut for the two different blocks I'm making, 10 of each, and subsections ready to go.

The plum print on the lower left is a shot cotton in plum and black with a gold ginkgo print.  Unfortunately I don't recall the maker, and my local fabric store doesn't have point-of-sale info on their receipts.  Next trip I'll check the bolt!

Photographing purples is sure a challenge, especially at night!  The leaves are not large but the spray is so pretty.  I love ginkgo trees and leaves, and we have quite a few in our neighborhood. 

This closeup shows the shot cotton base in the 4.5" square I cut for a feature block. 

Unpicking of the inner corner chain was necessary to add the ginkgo print for this cross block; it is kind of a signature thing I often do, one block different as the "heart" of  my quilts.  I'll be happily piecing and pressing away on these big blocks for the next week when I have time. 

Last week our MQG had a sew-in for philanthropy.  I'm so glad my suggestion to have weeknight sew-ins has worked out--the Masonic Lodge building manager is very generous in letting us come in when the room is not being used for one of their events.  We worked on assembling some donated blocks and I had help from two members in marking and sewing pieces for houndstooth block kits I had cut from fabric purchased by the board.  

The Guild president picked this blue and gray and I think it looks great so far.  All the pieced blocks got made and I managed to get a few squared up to demonstrate the layout.  For the guild blocks, I started with 10" and 5" squares for the pieced blocks so precuts could be used.  The solid alternate block is 9.5".  It is really simple construction and there are so many ways to change it up.  I have another kit to sew up as well before handing off to another guild member at the next sew-in in a few weeks. 

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

On my design surface today is a new project, since UFOs closed up in boxes can't speak!

This is the first block for a couch quilt for DD Erica.  She wanted something simple to go with a gorgeous Persian rug.  I used my GO! Cutter and 2.5" strip die a lot for this project.

 

For the cross blocks, I pulled from stash this gorgeous hand-dyed yard of fabric I have been hoarding.  This is a Ricky Tims fabric purchased at one of his seminars I went to with my sister in 2006--so it is well aged and I'm happy to have it stay in the family, lol. 

 

 

Erica liked this quilt by Corey Yoder from the April 2016 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting, but she wanted it to be less busy.  I modified the star block to a simple chain for the alternate block.

The green is a Dimples fabric DD Erica chose.  Backing and binding fabric is a gorgeous plum with a printed spray of ginkgo leaves in gold--I don't have a pic of that yet.   I've had many hours of happy cutting and piecing so far, although I did spend several hours mistakenly making star point sections for the green chain block :(  However, all was not lost; I whacked off 2.5 x 4.5" strips of the background Kona cotton from them to use for the corner chain sections.  Nine more blocks to go of each color before setting together for the smaller size quilt I'm making from the pattern.  I have something special planned for one block.     

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

And now for some baby spam....

 

  

Grandson Hunter is closing in on 8 months and is army crawling everywhere, likes to jump when you hold him and is a smiley happy boy (--except when he's not, his Mama says!).  This was his first bath in the big tub. 

Grandson and big brother Cove looks giant in this pic, but is 2 years almost 8 months, potty-trained already, and still as busy and chatty as ever.  We're always happy to spend time with these little loves and are ever grateful they live close by. 

Speeding By

Time is the thing that is speeding by--here it is already mid October.  Glad this is a long month! 

 I waited until the first day of Fall before setting out any decorations.  These pumpkins made from an APQ magazine pattern so many years ago still make me happy. 

I love decorating this shelf at the end of my kitchen cupboard as I have no wall space at all.  I ran right out when the Pioneer Woman's new line debuted recently to get the measuring cup set, though I see by the reviews I just looked up that I may have gotten gypped out of the measuring bowls supposedly included in a set.  Hmm, will have to check my receipt.

Finished piecing the Geese quilt top a couple of weeks ago.  I'd like to use stash for the backing and am pondering a quilting plan.  I adore how Rita of Red Pepper Quilts always does a lot of ditch stitching and I'm thinking that would be a good way to go. 

Our guild is working on charity quilts and I am making up a couple of kits of houndstooth blocks.  These will start from 10" and 5" squares so are easy to cut and piece from precuts if desired.  We'll have a sew-in soon and I'll need to get some more cutting done.  I've been re-elected to be Secretary next year and my sister Kathy and another member will be sharing the communications job.  It's been a bit of a rough year for our little guild but we're planning more fun activities to get members more involved.  Here's a picture of our Opportunity Quilt--Kathy and I sold tickets at a local show recently and it was very well received.  

Modern take on a Sawtooth Star block.  I ended up making about 7 blocks total for this quilt, which  we will give to the winner drawn next February.  We're already encouraging members to start on ideas for the next Opportunity Quilt. Now off to bed, tomorrow's going to be very busy at work with three hospital follow ups and three physicals scheduled in the morning alone!