Third Times the Charm

I've been trying to put the Teddy Bear Quilter BOM blocks together so that I can write the pattern for the setting which will be released at the same time as the 5th and final block of this series.

And I went into the process of making the setting blocks needed with a color idea in my mind - big mistake!  The setting blocks are 6" pieced blocks that are floated in the background fabric.  There will be 4 different block patterns used to make these.   The fabric picture in my mind was a background fabric that blended with three of the blocks and then a fabric that was a little darker so that the viewer could just see the pieced block.

First two times (yes twice!) the blocks just didn't fit what was needed to finish off the wall-hanging.

First try - had the pieced block totally blending into the fabric I was using for the background.   Definitely not the look I was going for.  And to add insult to injury as it were, one of the fabrics was not cooperative because there were lots of skipped stitches in these blocks.

Decision was to not use these in this project.  Probably will end up using them as a background for an applique block at some point.

Second try was a little better, but eventually I decided not much.  Background here was a batik white with some blue in it.  Second fabric a blue/aqua/purple batik.   

While I can see the pieced block better here, and the pieced part does float like I want it to, the background just doesn't look right with the background fabrics of the BOM blocks.  So these too will be used in a different project in the future.










Third round of fabrics - Got the cream TOT batik yesterday afternoon on the way home from work.   The other three are from my stash of batik scraps. 

Top right is similar to one block background, and the gold is similar to the bear fabrics.  So while they look good with the background fabric I've decided to not use them.

I will be using the bottom right fabric in the pieced portion of the setting blocks.  It truly is a scrap that I found somewhere and is a funky shape and all I've got of it, so I'll have to be careful when cutting the pieces I need out of it for the blocks.

Gratitudes:

1. Having a working washer and dryer at home

2. For a long holiday weekend!

Upcoming Row Along Blog Hop: My Happy Place

Starting September 4th will be the fourth Row Along blog hop that Marian at Seams  To Be Sew has hosted.  This year there are 42 designers that are designing rows that will debut in the Row Along blog hop.

Last years theme was "Christmas Carols" and I chose to interpret "We Three Kings" in my Row.  If interested you can find the pattern for that row for sale here in my Craftsy shop.


The theme this year is "My Happy Place" and I enjoyed designing a row for it.

The format for the Row Along blog hop is much the same as last year.  Rows from multiple designers will be showcased on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting September 4th and going through October 4th.   There will be a Show-n-Tell of completed rows on October 9th.  Each designer will share their pattern for free in a PDF downloadable format and there will be a giveaway specific to their day as well.

As a reminder - designers will be sharing their row pattern for free for a week past their blog posting date.   Some will have it for sale after that time, but not necessarily all.  So be sure to follow along closely and get those patterns that you like while they are available.  And don't forget to leave a comment if you like the patterns or just to say hello.   All of the designers love to hear from people who read their posts and 'buy' their patterns.

The list below gives the participating designers and links to their blogs.  Get ready to have fun starting next week!

Thursday September 6, 2018
Pretty Piney | Ms P Designs USA | Creatin’ in the Sticks
Freemotion by the River | Any Pattern

Tuesday September 11, 2018
Barbara Dieges | Upstairs Hobby Room
Quilt Art | UlaSewing / SzycieUli

Thursday September 13, 2018
Pumpkin Patch BC | Sew Incredibly Crazy
A Quilting Chick | Patchwork Breeze

Tuesday September 18, 2018
Just Let Me Quilt | Elizabeth Coughlin Designs | Quilt Fabrication
Renee’s Quilting Addiction | Made By Marney

Thursday September 20, 2018
Clever Chameleon | Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design
Cynthia’s Creating Ark | Seams To Be Sew

Tuesday September 25, 2018
Songbird Designs/Brenda’s Blog | Powered By Quilting | Kissed Quilts
Happy Sewing Room | Sew Joy Creations

Thursday September 27, 2018
BobbininQuilts | Daydreams of Quilts | The Quilted Snail | Scrapdash

Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Words & Stitches | True Blue Quilts | Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse
Meanderings Along Lizard Creek | Creativeblonde

Thursday, October 4, 2018
Quilt In Piece | Jaded Spade Creations | Mountain Meadow Designs
Masterpiece Quilting | Pamela Quilts

Gratitudes:

1. Found the right color of fabric I need for swap blocks.....who knew that a light blush pink could be so hard to find.

2. For the three months that I've been in the house and having found most of my missing stuff.....

A Finish!

I put the finishing stitches in the binding on this critter last night.

Details -

59 different fabrics

Blocks were from a swap back in 2014.

Red E beads were used for the tops of the pins in the pin cushions

Backing fabric is an older Hoffman print that was in my stash.  Binding is a remnant I picked up at some point.

2 buttons


Gratitudes:
1. No storm is predicted today

2. For progress in getting things done

Goals For the Next Couple of Weeks

Lots going on these days that I need to keep focused on getting done, and these break down into several categories.   Will I get them all done probably not, I can but try.  =)




Blog / General -
-- "My Happy Place" Row Along - scheduled date is around the 20-something of September Prep and schedule post
-- My introduction and "story" for Benita Skinner of Victoriana Quilt Designs "Meet and Greet" Blog hop in September.  Her blog can be found here.  This is due sometime in September (don't know date yet), but I want to have it ready to go. Prep and schedule post
-- My post for an Art Quilt Blog Hop that will take place in November - this is a ways off, but I want to dig out the quilt I'm going to feature and get some good pics of it in preparation for the hop.
-- Remember that I'm meeting friends on Saturday morning for a time of fellowship, antique shopping, and lunch


Pattern Designing:
-- Teddy Bear Quilter #5, BOM for Sept. - This needs to be designed and the sample block made.
-- Write pattern for TBQ #5 and send for review
-- Complete pattern for "My Happy Place"


Quilting -
-- Get baby quilt on frame quilted and binding onto it
-- Finish sewing the binding down on the quilting wall hanging. - completed
-- Sew binding down on "My Happy Place" sample - completed
-- Make filler strip for Scrappy teddy bears


Commissioned/For Sale Work:
-- Get quilt onto Frame (Ruthie's) and quilted
-- Make credit card holders for two sale passport holders
-- Start work on three commissioned passport holders

House:
-- Get towel holder up in master bath
-- complete caulking around fixtures in bath's
-- clean washer
-- clean up dead branches in back yard
-- Get yard mowed

Gratitudes:
1. Having plenty of things to keep me busy

2. Having a house to work on even when I'd rather be quilting

A Finish And Going To Extremes

Finished this UFO this weekend.  And it's off in the mail this afternoon to it's new home. 

Stats -
41" square

60+ different fabrics

This was the 2nd project made from bonus triangles and scraps from a wedding quilt made several yrs ago.

Finished off these 9 blocks.  They finished out at 15" because that is the size ruler that I have.   The teddy bears are from a panel that I won from a blog posting.  The fabrics used to bring them all up to a common size are all scraps and used most of the light blues that I had in my scraps.   Trimmings off each block were used to make other blocks so very little went into the trash as I worked.

Light blue is definitely something I don't have a lot of, and what is left is almost totally in the turquoise range now. 

I will be adding a narrow sashing between the blocks in a medium blue I think.  Probably cut at either 1.25" or 1.5".  Then I have one panel  to make to go between two of the rows with some applique on it before i start putting it together.   I'm planning on a small border of the same fabric as the whatever I use for the sashing.

And for a complete change of scale. I made these quarter-square triangle blocks from bonus WOW triangles and blue scraps.   These are 1.5" unfinished and will be featured in the next teddy bear BOM.   Any guesses as to what she'll be doing?

I also managed to get the binding sewn onto two other  projects but no pics of them.

Gratitudes:
1. For my face not hurting now that the storm front going through the area yesterday..

2. For the rain from the storms over the weekend

August Block of the month - Jane and Ann

Meet Jane and Ann who are showing the quilt that they finished during the quilt retreat.

You can find the pattern here on Craftsy.

Enjoy the block!


Gratitudes:
1. Progress in getting things done today.

2. Payday came!

New Goodies

My prize from Aurifil's blog posting a couple of weeks ago came yesterday.    A wonderful set of embroidery floss that I'm looking forward to using.   You can read more about what all Aurifil is doing on their blog here.

And then I picked up the fabric that I had won for turning in my row-by-row quilt this year.   I got to pick the FQ's or yardage that I wanted.   And ended up with 5 half-yard pieces and 15 FQ's.

Most of them will either end up in the scrappy quilts or as backgrounds for my block-of-the-month designs.  But there is one that will end up in a future F2F swap block.

And for using the store's row in my quilt, I received this layer cake from the Moda Quilt for a Cause: Sunshine line.  The fabrics that were included in this line can be seen at this link.


Gratitudes:

1. Traffic was flowing really well this morning.

2.  I woke up feeling good today - maybe I'm caught up with sleep again.

Scrap Happy August

With my long-arm set up and working I've been able to start finishing off UFO's including this scrappy quilt. 

Specs:
-- 41-42" square
-- Second quilt made with bonus triangles from a wedding quilt made about 4 yrs ago. 
-- approximately 60 different fabrics in it

And it has been sold already.


To see what everyone else has been doing this month with scraps check out the following blogs:

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley and Dawn

Gratitudes:

1. for a peaceful day, even if I overslept and didn't make it to church on Sunday

2. for friends who care enough to check on me when I don't show up somewhere I normally would be.

Winnng and a new beginning

2 wks ago I won this partial panel from Melissa who blocks at Pack Rat With a Plan.     I'd swear I had this one in the past, and who knows I may still have it hidden somewhere. 

The first step in putting these bears into a quilt was to cut the bears apart.  That gave me 10 of them, I'll use 9 of them (the 5 large and 4 of the small ones) in the finished quilt. 















My current plan is to work with the bears in a free-form, scrappy log cabin type of block.  Because of the way the panel was printed, the sides of the bears aren't straight as cut.  So a touch of the bears might end up cut off with the sewing.  I'm planning on making a dent in the lighter colored blues that I have in my scrap stash.   Might go into the medium blues depending on how far the lights go (not a lot of them) or see what I've got in the way of light colored FQ's.

I'm planning on trimming the blocks to a consistent size using my 15" ruler.    The block on the right is the first finished block and gives the idea what I'm looking to do with all of them.

Gratitudes:
1. For other bloggers who share their stash.

2. for having a stash of scraps to play with as I work on various quilts.

Fixing Wonky Orphan Half-Square Triangle Blocks

I'm sure that most quilters every once in a while (surely not too often!) have blocks that just didn't quite turn out like they were supposed to.  I'll be the first to admit that not all of my blocks work quite right at times.

An example I'm not sure where these came from but these HST's have been floating around in my stash for a while.  These blocks started with the batik triangles that I had found in a scrap bin at some store once upon a time.   I then had made the HST's from them. 

However, when I laid them on top of the white fabric to sew them together had not left enough room between them for a correctly sized seam.  This is just one of the blocks and the narrow part of the seam allowance there is a scant 1/8th inch......and there were several that were literally only a few threads in width.  Definitely
not a good idea for use in a quilt!

In addition, some of my seams were a tad crooked....oops.....

So to make these usable for a quilt project, I first took an envelope and used it for a straight edge. 

Once I had it lined up, then I drew a line in so I could have something to stitch by.

Next up was restitching the seam line further over and making sure it was straight.

Once done with the stitching, I then trimmed the blocks to an unfinished size of 3 inches and pressed them open.  You can read more about how I  make my scrappy HST blocks in this post.

I then put them together into this snack along with one little block that has a quilty saying on it.

This is a funky picture because it looks like the mat isn't the same size on each and it really is because I trimmed it to size.



Gratitudes:

1. Had a nice quiet BD yesterday.

2. My long-arm is still working fine, even if the thread is being a pill.  Thankful that new thread isn't outrageously priced as I work to get the row-by-row quilt quilted.

Wrapping up the Week.

Busy week last week.  Worked from home for 4 days which takes a lot more concentration because it's easy to get distracted by all the 'fun' stuff here.   On the other hand, I did get a lot done while waiting for the computer to process things.  =)

The biggest thing accomplished this week was getting my quilt frame set up correctly.   I'm so happy to have it back up and usable for the first time in 3 years.   And even happier that my machine is behaving nicely.

First quilt that went on for me to practice on was this UFO made from swap blocks.  Checking back in my pictures swap was late 2014.  It's now waiting on binding.

Second quilt on the frame was this UFO quilt top.  Quilted in a meander pattern, this one has been sold.

I also put together three snack mats, all of which still need to be quilted.  The first used a UFO piece of cross-stitch for a focal point.   Green fabric and the lime green pleated trims were both remnants and worked perfectly for this.











Another piece of cross-stitch formed the start of this snack mat.  The cross-stitch was done on my road trip taken back in 2016 and started about the point where I visited my friend Susan.   I have a piece of hand-dyed aida from her to make another on using this pattern.  The green fabric was a remnant picked up this year, and the cream fabric with the dandelions on it was bought back in 2016 when I was row-hopping.








This snack mat started with some UFO HST's.   And even tho the pic makes it look wonky, it really is straighter than the pic shoes.

All three snack mats will be listed for sale when they are finished.

I also managed to design and then finished the four spool blocks that I need for the setting I've designed for my Quilting Bears mini-BOM this year.  I plan to release the setting at the same time as I release the August BOM.   There will be one more quilting bear to come in September and then this series will be done.

And finally, I had to stop by Joann's to get something I needed for a project and saw this piece of drapery fabric in the remnant bins.  I couldn't resist getting it (half off of the 50% off sale price).  It is heavier weight than the quilting cottons I've been working with but I think it'll work in the passport wallets.   If not then I'll use it to make travel pouch's or something along those lines for sale.

Gratitudes:

1. The start of a new decade for me today, been a good one so far.  Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

2. For help in getting the cord swapped out on the dryer.

She works!

My critter is running smoothly even after almost 3 years in storage...........woohoo......

First up is this UFO top that I decided to quilt in order to test it out and see if the machine was working w/o problems. 

It is made from blocks from a long ago swap, maybe 5 or so years ago.   The top was put together last year. 

It will eventually hang in my fabric room when I'm finished with it.

Gratitudes:
1. The machine is working without any problems.

2. A friend found what I've been wanting for shelves at a great price.  =)