{Post #100} Buckeye Queen Finished!

I posted this on my regular blog, shelbystitcher.blogspot.com as well.  My sister doesn't know it is for her.  I am letting her think I made it for a friend.  If the truth be known, I think she's my only real friend.  We don't talk much because we're both so busy, but that's OK.  When we talk, we talk LONG!!  Love her so much!

This quilt turned out so well.  I had a bunch of scrap bindings to use up that were already sewn end-to-end, so I just used that.  Where it looks like there is binding in the pictures is where the gold fabric is, which blends into our kitchen floor.

Spend the AM making buckeyes (because of the Buckeye Queen) and M & M Pretzel Treats for holiday time.

Yea, just a little OCD here.  A row of greens then a row of reds...hahahahaha...

{Post #99} Machine Quilting Finished for Buckeye Queen

I finished the machine quilting on this tonight.  It only took a couple of hours.  I used a swirl pattern, and it moved right along.  I had a tension issue that meant some unsewing, but it was not too bad.  I love it!

I want to start the binding, but will wait until tomorrow.  Did all our laundry today and want to get it put away like a good girl.  Hee hee.

This pattern is called Buckeye Queen.  It's because the designer's sister used to make all in her family Buckeye candies for Christmas.  One never knows where a name comes from, huh?

I used navy blue quilting thread since MOST of the quilt is very dark.  One of these is in my future for myself made out of shirts.

{Post #98} Buckeye Queen Center Finished

Here it is, ready to quilt.  I really, really, like everything about this quilt.  

My quilting fabric selections are not pondered over for hours.  I usually just grab something and sew it on.  Well, I noticed that the green in the outer border was the same exact shade as the inner border.  It was serendipity.

Will commence the quilting and binding in a few days most likely.

{Post #97} Buckeye Queen Just Needs Outer Border

This only needs an outer border for the piecing to be finished.  What color?  My sister favors blues and browns, so it will likely be one of those two.  I think this is about 60" x 54" right now.

{Post #96} Loving This

Can hardly wait to make myself one of these out of shirts!  I have to put the thin border on the last two sides.  The HSTs are just sitting there.  I happen to have enough to fit on one side finished.

{Post #95} Buckeye Queen 15 Blocks Strong

My parents will be here in about 18 days.  I have this crazy goal of finishing this before they get here so they can take it to my sister on their way home.  This is 3 rows with the vertical seams sewn together.  I really like this, and just took the plunge.  I decided to make the HST border instead of wimping out and doing a solid piece of fabric.  I cut down the triangles cut off to piece in the pinwheels and only had to add a handful of other scraps to make enough.  

We are having company tonight, so I have to get some cleaning done in our guest room.  Will be working on this as I have time.  Flying along so far.

{Post #94} Buckeye Queen

This pattern is called Buckeye Queen.  I saw one on Pinterest.  My sister did, too.  She said "I'll take one of these" when she saw it.  So I cut one out yesterday AM and am plugging away at it now.  This is just pieces and parts laying on my design wall.

I randomly cut out the large squares, then the smaller ones for the pinwheels on point.  I pinned the color for the pinwheels onto the intersections so I could spread them out.  The left 2 vertical rows are completely sewn, but not sewn to each other.

I bought multiple packages of ground chicken and chicken breasts yesterday.  Now they're all cooked up and ready for the freezer.  I need to go package them.

I like this quilt pattern a lot.  I am eager to sew the center together.  The next border is thin, one fabric, then a HST border, then a wider one to finish it off.  I'd like to make one for myself out of men's shirts.

TTFN

{Post #93} Emily Again

I am making another secret project for Emily.  She is my only married child (out of 8).  My son has his own place, but he doesn't like quilts (maybe he's not really mine?).

I am going to print "It's the most wonderful time of the year" on this and add a little Christmas tree and a stocking.  The pattern says to embroider it, but I think printing with a textile marker will suffice.  

There is a movie by the same name, and it's one of Emily's favorites.  I am giving her the movie with the quilt. 

This measures 16-1/2" x 19".  Will be bound in the candy cane fabric.  This is supposed to be a pillow, but her husband hates throw pillows.  <sigh>

{Post #92} Progress on Replacing Boo Boo Blocks

Making wonderful progress on the wedding quilt!  I sewed in 3 pictures and removed the scribbled blocks and moved one of the pink blocks.  I am really liking this.  I debated whether to use black and white pictures or color.  I opted to go with color, and I think it adds to the quilt overall.

One of our church members is a pastor in Japan.  He wrote a Japanese greeting on his square.  I wonder what it says?

The top left picture on this next block is the bride and her daddy at rehearsal.  I love both of their expressions.  The bottom right picture is their best man and maid of honor, who are siblings.

A relocated pink block and another picture...from their engagement photos.  I have my resources!

{Post #91} Wedding Quilt

Here is the wedding quilt with signatures and well wishes.  I think most of the people at the wedding got to sign it.  Some got a little too exuberant:

The whole top laid on my bed:

I will separate these two pink sentiments:

Here are two pages of pictures I printed on "Printed Treasures" (by Milliken) which was one of the original fabric sheets for inkjet printers.  I have probably had them for 10 years.  Here they are printed on the fabric.

There are about 40 blank squares right now.  I am going to cut these apart and place them randomly around the quilt top.  I am also going to remove the scribbled ones and separate the pink ones.  It will involve quite a bit of ripping out and resewing, but that's what I do.

{Post #90} Ribbon Machine Quilting

I am on the last row of stars on the machine quilting for my Charming Stars quilt.  Here is what inspired the design in the sashing and around the stars.  It's from the quilt show on 6.13.13.  I don't like the quilt or the colors, but the quilting was an inspiration!

Makes a very soft and supple quilt.  :)

{Post #89} Quilting on Charming Stars

Here is the beginning of my Charming Stars quilting.  I have done nearly two rows out of the four.  I will go back at the end and do all the inner and outer border quilting.  It's too much back and forth to do it as I roll it up.  

My design is simple.  I like quilts to be supple.  Yesterday I went to a quilt show in a tiny town west of here.  Most of the quilts were STIFF with dense quilting that was magnificent.  So magnificent that the piecing and pattern were overlooked.  I like to showcase the fabrics and pattern.

Here is the design I'm doing in all the blocks.  My formerly drawn pattern has now translated to fabric.  I am doing a ribbon meander around each star with ribbons in the sashing as well.

I will see my sister next month, so I figured I better get crackin' on this.  I did a hooked feather in the outer border. I REALLY like those.  Very easy and so impressive looking.  I did one on here:

{Post #88} Quilt Center Finished for Latest Surprise

I made my outer border 5" unfinished instead of 2-1/2" like the pattern suggested, so my quilt top is a teensy bit bigger than the original, finishing at 77" square.  Here is it.  Hope to start quilting soon:

{Post #87} Webbing the Top

I had a bunch of questions about webbing a quilt top.  It is one of the many things I learned from Bonnie Hunter at quiltville.com.  It is a means of picking up one's quilt pieces from the design wall or floor and having them in one stack. It keeps them from getting turned around or mixed up while sewing them together.  After the horizontal rows are sewn, they are attached to the next row down with a couple threads, making it even more difficult to mix them up.  Bonnie's page here explains it perfectly:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/search?q=webbing

I have just two more rows to sew on the center of the quilt, then the cream and the outermost border.

I am also showing the design I intend to quilt in the sawtooth stars.  I have a sashing design picked out and will likely just meander in the star backgrounds.

{Post #86} Charming Stars Webbed

Got this top webbed this morning.  My dear husband has been ill all week (sinus/allergy stuff).  We've been off our usual game.  After the supreme busy-ness of last week, it's been kind of nice to slow down.  Trouble is, we have all but stopped.  I just now realized (at 2:10 PM) that I have not eaten one bite of food all day.  I had a cup of water!  <sigh>

Anyway, here's the Charming Stars quilt webbed.  What that means is that the seams in each row are sewn and the rows are webbed together.  

There will be a cream outer border, then a brown one to match the cornerstones.  I just hit upon a quilting idea for the sawtooth stars.  Look at my Pinterest board for machine quilting.  It's the design in the exquisite Caribbean blue stars.

{Post #85}

This AM, after a long break, I sewed a little (OK--a lot).  I was downstairs doing laundry all morning, so I sewed some, too.

I am making this quilt for my sister... http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/10/charming-stars-quilt.html.

Here's my rendition.  All Thimbleberries for the colors, of course.  The cream is a Moda print I purchased from her years ago.  Hope she likes it.  When I pinned the pattern on Pinterest, she commented "I'll take one of these."  So I am making her one.

The picture shows a sawtooth star of a slightly smaller size that I'm working on from all shirts.  It's on my regular blog, www.shelbystitcher.blogspot.com.  

I have all the units pieced, just sewing the stars together now.  The charming stars blocks are 15" square.

{Post #84} Secret Sister Plans

I go to all lengths of creativity for my secret sister.  I don't know why I put out all kinds of effort for nice presentation, etc., but I do.

Here are two gifts I'm giving her tomorrow night at church (secretly, of course).

This subway Easter art was a freebie on the internet.  I had an 8" x 10" picture of it printed and framed it in a $2 white frame.

The mugs were a little over $1 each.  I marked them with Sharpie and will bake them tomorrow to make them permanent.  I plan to fill these with jelly beans and a small chocolate bunny each with a sign that says "Some bunny has been praying for you."  Corny, I know!

{Post #83} Materials for New Project

While in FL for the recent birth of my grandson (last week), I made two trips to A & E Pharmacy.  My friend, Ruth, told me about it.  <insert whispering voice> "It's not just a pharmacy!"  When you go in the store and turn left, you are in a well-stocked quilt shop.

I got this pattern and fabrics to make my dad a quilt for his birthday/Christmas (they're only 4 days apart).  The fish fly fabric caught my eye, then I saw the green one with hooks to use for borders and binding.  Ironically, the store had hundreds of bolts of fabrics.  The green is one of only 3 bolts of Thimbleberries there.  Figures!

The quilt pattern is so simple that I hesitated to buy a pattern.  But it does save from recalculating the sizes of the HSTs, borders, etc.  It looks like it will be quick!  I don't have the pattern in front of me, but it's a generous twin-sized pattern, 68" x 90-some.

Skip on over to my regular blog (www.shelbystitcher.blogspot.com) to see the rest of my purchases.

{Post #82} Scrappy String Selvage Spiderweb Quilt Finished

Just got this out of the dryer.  It has a label and everything!!  This is for my eldest daughter, Elisabeth, up in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin.  It measures about 80" square.

{Post #81} Grandson's Quilt Top Finished

Got my grandson's quilt top finished this AM.  Then I used some of the scraps to piece a few 4-patch Kaleidoscope blocks (long enough for a strip) for the back.  The scraps were all wonky-shaped, so the blocks were made from all the 3" squares I could cut out.  There were not as many as I thought there would be.

Here is the whole quilt top, with borders:

And some of the 4-patches; the strip will measure 5" wide when sewn into the backing:

{Post #80} Baby Quilt for Keith

Yesterday AM I started my grandson-yet-to-be-born's baby quilt.  The baby's name is Keith.  

I have always loved kaleidoscope/stack 'n whack quilts.  I just forgot how much.

I should have taken a picture of the original print, before I cut it up into bits.  Yesterday I went to get more for the borders because I did not have enough.  The print is soooo large that I had to waste a lot more of it to get the motifs I needed.  Fortunately, they did have the same animals in the same colors in a smaller print.  Crisis averted.

Here are my blocks so far.  The ones on the green cutting mat are pieced into half blocks.  The ones on the striped ironing board cover are just lying there...the motive and 2 corner trianges are sewn on, but the blocks are not pieced at all.  

Her nursery theme is tigers.

I dare you to pick ONE favorite!

{Post #79} Green and Brown Little ZZ

Here is what I first considered making for my mother.  It lacked the pizzazz I was looking for, so I went with the vertical wall hanging on my previous post.

This is not quilted or bound yet.  Don't know where it will find a home eventually.

{Post #78} Mom's Christmas Gift

This is a vertical wall hanging I'm making for my mom for Christmas.  2012.  My parents won't be here until sometime later this month.  That gives me time to get her gift finished!  I am not behind, mind you...I just hadn't decided what to make her until a few days ago.

Here is a pic of the whole thing with the top and right borders quilted, then a couple close-ups.  I am doing more custom quilting as I go, so this one is loaded with it.  I matched the thread color to the fabric I was quilting on, so that is new to me, too.

We are making a long car trip Friday thru Sunday, so I want to get the binding and hanging sleeve on this so I can do the hand sewing while we are traveling.