A Lori Smith mini quilt

I'm still in recovery and I so much need to sew!  I've been in the sewing room the last couple of days, and everything I pick up just seems too overwhelming.  So I've decided to do a little mini quilt from Lori Smith, called Josephine's Pride, in one of her fit-to-frame collections.  I used to sew a lot of mini quilts and wallhangings, then somehow got caught up in lots of lap and bed sized quilts.  I'm going to see if I can get this done this weekend.

Here's my cutting table after prepping the flying geese blocks that make up the sawtooth stars.  I'm using repro scraps leftover from another quilt.

When I'm sewing small pieces, especially ones cut on the bias, I find I can get more accuracy and control by using my regular sewing foot, and moving the needle over to an accurate quarter inch.  I have this spot written down!  If you can do this on your machine, give it a try.

Now that my little flying geese are done, and I managed to get matching fabrics on each point, there's a little spring in my step already!

Egg Money Quilt

I found my bits and pieces of Eleanor Burns' Egg Money quilts and realized there wasn't much sewing left to put the top together.  The red background made it hard to get a good picture!

some hand-sewing done this week

The October little stitchies block done -

And, the second block of Pushin Up Spring (available from Connie at Apple Blossom Quilts)

The flu sure seems to be good for one thing - lots of couch time for applique and stitching! 

A Baltimore Album?

I'm recovering from a flu, which came on the heels of a cold, which came after a throat infection - yep, I've been sick the whole month of October.  Ugghh.  It looks like it could be a looong winter.  I'm in major recovery mode - I have to get rid of these germs, and gain my strength back, for my son's wedding in just about a month.

So I've been on the couch, doing bits of handwork.  And browsing quilty sites on the web.  There's a new book, called a Baltimore Album, by Marsha Radtke.  This is the kind of quilt that I have always dreamed of doing - lots of fancy complicated applique.

I'm pretty confident that I have the skills to do this - but here's my problem with all large applique quilts, especially one that requires so much work.  What would I do with it when its done?!  I keep thinking that I would not want to put it into use, as a bed cover, because it wouldn't hold up.  And its too big for a wall - especially the walls in my house!  Could I launder it as easily as I wash all my other quilts - I do believe that quilts should be able to washed, handled daily, and loved, despite whatever work and effort went into them - that's a quilt's purpose!

Or can I just look at this type of quilt as the purpose is to give me the challenge of completing something like this, and learning new skills along the way.  But still, I wouldn't want it to sit in a cupboard when its done.  What do you think?

What I didn't do this weeknd - Little Stitchies block of the month

My computer crashed early on Saturday morning - I was minding my own business, browsing the web or something (I was so shocked at what happened next, that I don't really remember what I was doing).  The computer turned itself off, restarted, then said "can't start because of missing boot....blah blah blah.  Panic.  Restarted and restarted and restarted.  Finally pushed F11 for system recovery - bam!  - disk drive is reformatted and chaos ensues.  End of the story, I finally got my email back; got my internet settings back; and some other stuff - should be happy at that, right?  But due to my own stupidity, I forgot to tell the back up program that I moved all my sewing and quilting files to the desktop - they weren't backed up!!  Everything related to my studio, since Aug/08, is gone gone gone.  All the b.o.m.s, all the free patterns, all the emails, notes, etc. gone.   The best thing that happened all weekend, is that when I *did* get my email up and running, the first email to grab my attention was simply titled "Smile" - from a good friend - who know nothing about the computer crash -  is she psychic?

Well, as they say, don't cry over spilled milk.  Or spilled bytes, ha ha.

Here's some pics of a wonderful new block of the month program that recently started at Sew Sisters quilt shop.  Its called Little Stitchies, designed by Bare Roots stitchery,.  Was I ever surprised to receive my "start up kit" and first month's block.  Look at the storage case!  And all the goodies - scissors, floss cards, floss, needles - was in that storage case as the start up kit.  And then the b.o.m. itself - a little encouraging note, a seasonal poem, terrific fabrics, and a clear pattern. 

This is what I have done so far, there will be three fabric "frames" to complete the block, the middle one stitched with a vine, leaves, and I think pumpkins.  When I trace any stitchery. I use the basic red transfer pencil by Dritz - just make sure to mirror image the block, either my scanning/photcopying, or tracing it first with a black marker from the back side of the pattern.  Then trace the design with the red transfer pencil to trace the design on to a clean piece of paper, and iron set it on to the block fabric. The red transfer pencil washes out easily, just a little cold water rinse in the sink once your block is done, let it dry, and press.

Magic Vine applique block preparation

Over the years I have experimented with and learned many different methods of applique -  it sure has come in handy to know a variety of techniques.  For this project I use needleturn, prepared edge with starch, and bias strips with fusbile.


 For the flower , I make quick and temporary templates for needleturn. I trace individual pattern pieces on to one layer of freezer paper, cut out on the lines, and iron it to the *front* of the fabric.  Then just trace with a pencil or anything - you can make the line as thick or permanent as you like, because the line will disappear as you are folding it under the piece while appliqueing.  I almost always remove the freezer paper before sewing, but some prefer to leave it on as guide for the stitching line (instead of, or as well as, the traced line).


All of the stem leaves are the same, so I made a permanent template with two layers of freezer paper - sometimes I use template plastic, or laminate paper for the same job.  Then just trace around it onto the right side of the fabric.

The overlap leaf has to be inserted into the flower, but not completely stitched down until the blocks are joined into their vine.  So for the overlap leaf, I have used turned edge with starch - I made a template of two layers of freezer paper, that will last for a lot of leaves, iron it to the *back* of the fabric, and after applying starch (I use Best Press), fold the raw edges over the leaf with a hot iron.  I leave the top point kind of jutting out, as I'll tuck it in later when stitching down the leaf. 

The stems are made with a 1/4" clover bias maker (cut your bais strips 5/8" wide).  After forming these stems, I apply strips of fusible web, either from the pre-made 1/4" roll of steam a seam or from scraps of fusible web left over from other projects.

For the layout on the block, I lay the background fabric over the block drawing, and sketch a light penicl line where the stem is to go.  Fuse that in to place.  Then, I again lay the background fabric over the block drawing and place the remaining pieces, or I just place them where I think they should be.  I use little drops of glue (I prefer Appli-Glue, for its user-friendly applicator) to hold the pieces in place.

Magic Vine (and new camera)

My husband came home last evening with a new camera for me!  Isn't he wonderful - but it may  have been self-preservation as well, I have been talking non-stop about the whereabouts of the camera, and how much I have become dependent on it.

Betweens left a comment about the Magic Vine blocks.  I'll post some pictures today of the methods I used for this pattern; and my new magic vine blocks (have you noticed that the fabric for Pushin' Up Spring are the same as those in the first magic vine flowers - I "re-assigned" that fabric).

Still no way to share pictures

Its become obvious to me, well, I guess it was obvious anyway, that without a digital camera to post pictures, it's awfully hard to document quiltmaking progress!

I rummaged through our electronics drawers - a drawer that some of you might have - full of manuals,  installation disks, usb cords, dead and no longer used bits of hardware and software.  I found our  first digital camera, bought about 10 years ago.  We thought it was the greatest!  But now it seems huge, and it is twice (at least) the weight of newer models, its has 1.3 megapixels!!!  Woooowwww!!  And that cost us hundreds of dollars at the time.  Well I took a  picture of some work in progress, all the while trying to remember why we stored it - there was something wrong with it, but I don't remember what.  Now years have gone by, and the 32 mb flash card that stores the picture does not fit into my laptop, nor does it go into a portable card reader that I have.  I managed to dig out the USB cord for it, to plug it into the laptop, but after numerous attempts - it refused to connect to the laptop - despite a round of camera on-off, unplugging and plugging in - the cord fell apart - the piece that connects to the camera is now in my hand, with bare wires sticking out of the actual cord. 

A new camera is a definite must! 

No pictures

I'd be happiIly sharing pictures of some more work I've done recenty, excpet that my camera has gone missing -  I always have the cord attached to it, the one that connects it to the computer, and that makes it easier for me to find.  Yesterday I found the cord, where the camera usually sits, but no camera!  My family members swear innocence.  My dogs, I'm not so sure.  Me, well, yep it could have been me.  But I can't understand why part of it would be left behind - a game of Clue with my camera.

More Applique and Stash Scavenging

Let me see if I can re-trace the steps some of my fabric bundles have travelled in the past few weeks. I often put my fabric into sets - if its obvious they go together to make something - those sets then get shuffled about and experimented with.

Some thimbleberries fat quarters came into the studio, for some certain reason - can't remember what now!  They were tried out for a Lori Smith applique, a sixteen-baskets applique, and finally the magic vine applique...maybe some piecing projects in between.  Finally they happily landed on the Pushin Up Spring design.

For the Magic Vine, the thimbleberries set was replaced by some assorted fabrics - I had posted a picture of these a few days ago.  Tried out those fabrics, but blah - didn't like the white background, couldn't find a cream or any other colour background in my stash.

Then I spied my pile of batiks and hand dyes - not a huge pile - but enough certainly to do something with.  Out went the assorted fabrics, in went the batiks, on black.  Well, this was okay - but I felt that the simplicity of the magic vine designs, needed some kind of busy print or something.  And niggling in the back of my mind was a very nice assortment of white on black, that would go nicely with those hand dyes and blacks....

next thing you know, I've got out my Bountiful Baskets pattern from the Rabbit Factory - and voila!

And, digging through my baggies of fabric set scraps, I found enough of mostly a line called  Summer's Baskets of Flowers to make the Magic Vine.

So, some successfull stash scavenging, lots of handwork to look forward to, no buying new fabric - yet - and one fabric set left over!  Pretty good work for a week when I've been recovering from a nasty throat infection and cold.

Pushin' up Spring

It's October - already! - and I'm working on an applique mystery quilt called Pushin' Up Spring.  This should bring bright thoughts throughout the winter.  This free applique quilt is designed by Connie Sue at Apple Blossom Quilts.  Sign up for the newsletter - quick! - and on the 15 th of each month, she'll send out a new installment.  I'm looking forward to seeing her other signs of Spring.  This is a large block with very easy applique - great especially for beginners.