Picture Day

Today's post will have lots of pictures of the projects I have gotten done, but unable to get pictures.

This was a UFO BOM from 2009, I had the 13 blocks done, plus the medallion pieced center (the pattern has an appliquéd center, but I chose to do the pieced center)

Here is a peek of the folded quilt top and the backing.  It is off to the quilter tomorrow.  

The whole quilt was made using the line called Williams Inn by Nancy Halverson 

The town I live in is fairly small, about 150,000 people, and so our resources are sometimes pretty slim, and there is always a place to be charitable.  We have a small hospice center that has a christmas ornament auction for it's annual fund raising.  They put an add in our local paper asking all quilters to make and donate quilted christmas ornaments for this years auction.  I wanted to make ten, but time got away from me, so I only ended up getting six completed.  They were hoping to get about 500 donated, so I am hoping there are other quilters in our small town that will step up and help them out.

I bought this pre-printed fabric apron pattern quite a few year back.  I wanted / needed a new apron (and yes I use one when I cook, it saves lots of food spots on my clothes), particularly a full body one.

Here is the finished product.  Almost too cute and pretty to use.

Close up of one of the two pockets.  Yes the lace edging was included in the pattern package.

Close up to the bottom ruffled edge.

Finally, this is the "Leftover Quilt" that I made with the scraps leftover from the basket quilt BOM that I wrote about here.  I made a simple nine-patch, and did some even simpler quilting.

I bound it with the same muslin that I used in the quilt.  I found it gave it an older simple look that I really like.  

The backing is also from Moda like the prints used in the blocks, just not from the same designer, but it has most of the colors from the front, and blends really well.  The added bonus is that I picked up this backing at a garage sale for $3.00.  So the whole quilt is nothing but gathered bits and pieces of scraps. 

This is about the best I could do for a full view picture of the quilt.  It quilted up nicely, lays and folds beautiful.  I haven't even washed it yet and it is soft and molds to you when used.  

My new motto:  Simple is better!

Warmest...

A Little of This and A Lot of That

First up is a lot of that, yes, more of those pesky little Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks.  Remember the sew-a-long is releasing two blocks a week, but I am trying to do more than that, so I can be done with this project.

The biggest reason for wanting to get done with this project is I have become to really dislike the technique of making them.  I swear and promise, I have done everything in my power to like this Paper Piecing way of making blocks, but it is just not coming to attrition.  I still have all the same complaints that I have written about before, the waste of fabric, the time it takes to make a block, and the difficulty I am having making the paper pricing to work.  The learning curve should be over by now, as I am a fifth of the way done with the project, and it still is difficult.  Blocks are taking three to four hours to complete, I spend more time ripping out the pieces over and over again, and thinking opposite and backwards in laying down the fabric before sewing is not how my brain works.

I enjoy quilting too much to be spending this torturous time and effort on this project, or paper piecing ever again.  But, if anything, I will see this project through to the end and to do so, I will have to do several blocks a week.  

The weather has been so overcast here, so much so, that I haven't been able to take pics of the other projects I have completed.  I have done an apron, another completion of a UFO BOM that I started back in 2009, and quilt block Christmas ornaments for a charity.  Hopefully in the next few days I can get pictures of these and get them posted.

Warmest...

Leftovers and More

I had lots of leftover fabric from the basket quilt from my last post.  I decided to stitch it up into a nine patch scrappy.  It is under my needle getting quilted this week.  

I have also kept up on the weekly blocks from the Farmer's Wife 30's Sampler quilt along.

Not sure if any of you remember last year when I participated in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Grand Illusion, but it was so much fun, that I decided to participate in this year's mystery quilt.

This year's mystery quilt is called Allietare, based on her tour she went on in Italy earlier this year. if interested, click on the highlighted Allietare and it will take you to her blog and you can find out all the details.

Again, this year, I am determined to use up fabric found in my stash.  But looking into my stash,  I found that I didn't have some of the colors Bonnie recommended (see the paint cards in the picture).  So, I pulled full yardage pieces (as opposed to scraps or fat quarters) and ended up pulling some Moda Fig Tree pieces from various collections.  What is nice with Moda's lines of fabric, that even if it is from several collections, the colors and patterns will generally match and go together just fine.  So this will be more of a matched mystery quilt instead of a scrappy one.  If interested in viewing what other quilters are pulling from their stash and their scraps, you can see lots of pictures on Bonnie's Quiltville Face Book page. The actual clues and sewing doesn't begin until the day after Thanksgiving, and the revel on New Year's day.  I will be posting the progress when the fun begins.

Warmest...