Bye-bye Kindergarten

Today was DD's last day of Kindergarten.  It was a delightful ceremony in her classroom and already DD is watching the DVD the teacher made of the class.  Yes, that is what I said.  Please explain to me how the private school she was in last year made me pay for everything, and the public school she is in now is so much different?

We had a nice lunch out afterwards and DD was able to come home and see her new quilt decked out on her bed complete with new sheets.  This is the Tennessee Waltz Quilt that I recently finished, I washed it and saved it until she boarded the bus this morning before changing to her new sheets and new quilt.

Today was also the day she got my little quilted basket tote, which I had added hand sewn goodies for her American Girl Doll Kailey.  While I know this picture is crazy out of focus I actually like how well it illustrates our crazy world wind morning.  Look at that face next to her quilt below.  I can tell she's just thrilled over my efforts, can't you?  LOL.


Just in the past month ago things have really started clicking for DD in the reading department, so I began looking around for options to keep her sharp this summer.  I'm happy to say I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. Time4Learning can be used for homeschool, afterschool and summer skill sharpening. Be sure to come back and read about my experience.

Patisserie; My Tennessee Waltz Finished!

Finished, Huzzah, Done.  Down your glasses and throw them into the fireplace, this quilt is done!  This twin sized quilt all started from that one pretty white print and everything followed from there.  This quilt is so bright I went with a light weight batting so that my daughter can have it on her bed whenever it pleases her.  Judging from the smile on her face, that took several pictures to capture, I think it will be seeing a lot of use.  It is a Twin long, in case she still loves in enough in her college days to take it with her.  But you don't get to see that picture because silly me deleted the pictures before checking to make certain they'd downloaded properly and all these were taken after she'd gone to bed.

My spouse made the templates for this fight star and I think I'd be happy to make it again.  Especially as my templates are acrylic, so I've put them away with my others if the mood ever strikes me.  As you can see this pairs amazingly well with the snowball blocks.

So what do you do when the threads are stuffed into the quilt and everything is done?  Well as this is that yuckie fusible batting I'll be washing it and then putting it on the bed of course.

While taking the retakes I kept hearing this noise on and on it went.  I was watching a male cardinal so I wondered if perhaps he was just telling me how his day was worse than me accidentally deleting a couple of pictures when all the sudden a blur of brown flew right at him.  Nothing like a little one to turn the moment around.  In a flash the baby flew to the nearby palm tree and DH snapped their picture.  What a cute family.

Sometimes when I post my completed quilts you ask me where is Tiny?  Well she's right here.  Even though she'd already been through this once about 45 minutes earlier she was more than willing to re-smell the same spot as before.  I thought it was funny because she looked at it like "Why does this smell like me?"  Maybe because you spent a month napping on it?  Now what would be a blog post with Tiny in it without at least saying something about Sunny.  Well earlier today he remembered that he likes to sleep on the back of my chair sometimes.  So he got up there looked around like "now what" as the chair was steadily rocking.  Sure looks like he figured it out.  Or perhaps since this is Sunny we're talking about, maybe he just got to tired to think about it anymore and sat down like Winnie the Pooh.

Tropical Waves Top Complete

Last night after DD was in bed, my husband went off to the sewing room to detox.  LOL, now what was he doing in there?  Playing computer games, but this way was more fun to say.  So while he did a bit of that (I got him hooked on the game, so no love loss there) I decided to add the borders to Tropical Waves.  The top is all done and the final size on the top is around 54"x94" so that's a pretty decent twin size.

What do you think? I took the pictures for you first thing this morning.  Tiny looks really settled, but in truth I only spread the top out long enough to take the picture, so she only just got up there.  I think I'm leaning towards a single piece of fabric for the back.  Perhaps a batik with purple and teal, perhaps something simple, none to fussy.

I once found the perfect water fabric, Atlantis by Sentimental Studios for Moda in blue.  I bought seven yards when I found it to use for my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt, and I wish I'd bought every last piece they had.  I'm always thinking of quilts that could use such a pretty fabric for the back.  Oh well I'm certain the right fabric for this one is out there too, the joy of course comes in finding it.

I ordered the FQ I needed for the binding for Patisserie, would you believe they told me 4-14 days?  That seems a bit wide open.  No matter I have plenty to do in the sewing room until my package arrives.  What are you working on right now?  I was shocked yesterday when I visited fellow blogger Penny's Blog, and discovered the Quilt Festival is next week.  Wow that was quick.  Last year I really really wanted to make it through the entire list, but I didn't, some people may have and all the more applause to them.  We'll see what this new festival yields, some pretty quilts at the very least of that I'm certain.

Say What?!?!?!

Out of binding?

Today I finished up the quilting on my daughter's Tennessee Waltz Quilt, which I often have called Patisserie as that is the name of the fabric that inspired me to make the quilt.  It has been a difficult road to this point so I was thrilled to find the end of the road in sight, when a new speed bump jumped in my way.  I didn't make enough binding.  Okay I did - I made more than enough, but I also made a very special Christmas present for a friend and as my already made binding matched so well I used a piece of that to bind the Christmas Present and now I'm short binding on this.

Quilted the Love right into the Quilt

So in my stash I have a 3" x 6" leftover piece of the binding fabric.  As I have 60" more to go...  So the question becomes do I order a FQ of the fabric and hope after all these months the dye lot is the same - haha.  Do I try for something else in my stash?  I have a pinkish purple batik that doesn't match as well as some blue that I might sacrifice...  Oh the trauma!

Hearts and Stars Quilting

Now I just realized I didn't tell you how I decided to quilt this quilt.  The suggestions everyone made were wonderful and I tried to include everyone's.  I thought Sue's suggestion about shooting stars was great but I couldn't master drawing shoot stars (there was always trouble with the tails) So instead I stitched the words "Shooting Star"  In fact the quilting is mostly words, I used it like a note putting in all the things I'd want her to know about herself.  Some words that made the quilt were Sweet, Tender, Compassionate, Smart, Creative along with her name.  Sort of a moral booster from me.

Quilted in Quilt Label

This quilt is two sided and I didn't make a label so I stitched the Made by information right into the quilting.  Now while you could possibly quilt a quilt using words alone I thought it best to add a bit of filler, so I added loops, stars, and hearts.  By the time I was wrapping up the quilting the hearts were coming much more naturally.  You see I make a heart by drawing one side and then lifting the pen to draw the second side.  You don't have that option when sewing.  The heart has to be formed with a single line, period. For me that means start at the bottom come up loop around and then back down to the point.  I'd read weighting one side of the heart a tad bit heavier aka bigger, helps, but I haven't found that to be true yet.

When making stars I tried to see them either alone or in groups of three when ever possible so it's one  star for each human member of our immediate family.  I also made a few triple hearts that all connected at the base and one or two that the hearts nested within each other.  That's the challenge, because you have to keep your shapes balanced while leaving room for growth.  I'd say plain echos are easier.  

Trimming up the Quilt

How do you trim your quilts?  I trim mine to the front piece of fabric and go back and check the back to see if I need to true it up again (when the back perhaps wasn't as big as it should have been.  It works for me.  I just sit with my scissors and carefully cut.  What works for you?  Any particular way?  Perhaps your big and brave and use a rotary cutter?  Perhaps you know some showmanship tip?

If your wanting a closer look at any of my pictures remember you can always click the image to see it larger.

 While I think about my binding issue I'm going to tuck all the little threads you just saw into the quilt, until next time, Happy Stitching!

Small Block Meets Tiny Quilt

3.5" Quilt -Coaster

After another debacle with the Patisserie Quilt, I started working on the 3.5" blocks for the Dresden Plate Quilt Border.  The first one I made was to small by a hair so I boosted my triangle size then I really got down to work.  While I made all 8 bitty blocks I thought about that one loner.  What to do with it?  Especially as my desire to make tiny blocks is non existant.  So then when I was wrapping everything up I realized I'd made a second extra, why not make a tiny quilt aka a coaster with them?  So here it is, the smallest quilt I've ever made. I'm planning on leaving it on DH's night stand and seeing what happens.  He really does need a coaster there.

3.5" Snowball Blocks for Border

The snowball blocks themselves actually turned out really well.  Being a bit oversized allowed me to square them up at 1/4" offsets from the points of the center fabric, which was better than trying to guess at an edge.  See I even added a pack of needles for reference.  Boy I hope they look good with those 18" Dresden Plate Blocks!  I haven't squared up the main quilt yet and for that matter my folded border will need ironed with whatever new iron I pick before I can progress very far with these.  I thought I might go ahead and sew a block to one end of each of the lighting bolt fabric strips, as it seems like it will save time later.

Quilt Love.

On a different note, remember your visit to my sewing room yesterday?  When you came face to face with a glaring Tiny?  Well I thought I'd post this picture to balance the other one out.  Now tell me how can you scat a cat clearly so relaxed!  I wish I could sleep that good!  And for the record she knows we can't resist her beautiful white belly and uses it against us regularly.

Were you wondering about Patisserie?  Well this is it's current fight.  The fusible didn't hold here and ended up with the quilt back sewed to itself.  Luckily the stitches picked out without to much trouble.

Fusible Batting, Right.

Not Thrilled... Fusible Batting Review

In my last post I told you I'd review the batting I'd purchased for My Tennessee Waltz Patisserie Quilt.  Now let me preface this:  I contacted the company and they told me it's defective batting.  Now while that may be true I thought I'd post a quick note.

This was Fusible Batting, the directions say to layer together all three layers and then iron them together.  Simple right?  While fighting this product my DH said "if it sounds easy; it's to good to be true" and surely in this case he's right.  I would highly recommend anyone wanting to try Fusible Batting, to buy the smallest amount possible and use it with a small project.  I don't mean a twin sized quilt like Patisserie, I mean itsy bitsy, like a tiny wall hanging.  If it works for you okay, then try it in a slightly larger size. Work your way up to a crib size.  This product was so bad that my heart goes out to anyone using this product on their first quilt thinking they'll try the easy way first.  

Now that my quilt is fused - sort of.  I have no choice but to continue with it.  So as I blunder, complain, and cry I know you'll be here to get me through it.  Because we know it's going to be a beautiful quilt when it's done...

As always I welcome those with an alternative viewpoint to post a response, after all perhaps you've found a source that wasn't defective...

Out with the Old and Shop for the New

What a face in the Quilt Tent!

Last night DH basted the Patisserie Quilt for me. Later I'll post about the batting I used, but not today. While he was working the iron I love to hate gave up the ghost. I knew it was a goner when the timer which hasn't worked in over a year shut off. Sure enough, it was never to come on again. Luckily I have some amazing neighbors and a quick phone call and a trip out into the rain had a loaner iron in my hand for the night.

Basting Tennessee Waltz Patisserie Quilt 

That drat iron! It had a non-stick sole plate, so as the coating started to wear off it began leaving marks. You could never tell quite when it would mess; but it always would. Not often enough to land it in the trash, but I'd guess at least once per project.  It's favorite thing to do was to pee hot water all over me. I sit to iron so that means burning hot liquid on my legs. Truly not pleasant. But no matter what how crazy it made me it kept working and so did I. Of course until now.

In case you were wondering, my new sewing area is right where this quilt is laid out, so rather than set up the sewing machine to take it down, I switched away from the Dresden for now.  It's only for a little while.  Today I've been marking the snowball blocks with the quilting pattern I'm using.  I'm more than halfway and my hand is thankful!  I'd like to freemotion between the snowballs but I'm not sure what design; I saw a double heart that might work....  Any suggestions?

It is pouring down rain here.  So hopefully it's warm and dry where ever you might be.

Nothing Left but to Quilt the Quilt

Patisserie Quilt Back Side View

To hopefully make up for the small pictures in today's post I added this nice big one of the piano key border. Oh yes and that pink thing in the upper corner is DD's PJ shirt, she only missed the basket by about a foot or so and here that counts as good enough.

Here is the piano key border I threw together this afternoon.  I went with 3.5" strips and then when I demoed them together I found I liked the white and pink fabric a bit thinner to keep the colors balanced.  I pieced these strips as 10" long by 3.5" except for the pink and white which I cut up the center of the strip; after I'd sewed together all my repeats I carefully laid it out and cut it in half.

Adding it on was no big deal, but 93"+ is really long so I pinned everything first.  I must admit I'm in a little bit of a shock that the quilt is to this point already.

Top of Patisserie Waltz

Back side of Patisserie

On the left you will see the front of the Patisserie Tennessee Waltz Quilt and on the right is the back.  I'm not thrilled I had to make the pictures small for you to see them side by side this way, but as always you can click on any of my images to see them in more detail.  Do these two sides look very different to you?  I look at the right one and then the left one and my brain hesitates for a moment as though it's odd two different quilts could be created from the same fabrics, but it's true of course.  That's what makes quilts so unique and special to those that make and those that are lucky enough to receive them.

So what's left?  Well I talked my daughter into letting this be a light weight quilt as it reminds me of Spring (I tried to tell DH that DD wanted it to be a light weight quilt but he caught my slight fib - so I figured you would too).  That sadly means no Warm and White because one layer of that here in Florida and it's a winter quilt, but it does mean I'm open to suggestions.  What battings other than polyester and needled cotton have you tried and what did you think of them?  Nearly two years ago I made a nice big bed quilt using Dream Angel Batting but spray basting it on was rather like being a fly caught on fly paper and each spot where you stuck the batting clung to the shape of you instead of nice and flat.  It did have a nice drape and didn't seem to heavy though.  I'd like it to be nice a breathable, but with enough loft to really feel all the time and love I'm putting into it.

Patisserie Back is Nearly There

Patisserie Quilt Back Nearly Completed

Today I worked on the back of the Patisserie Tennessee Waltz Quilt.  This side is much brighter showcasing the other fabrics in the quilt while the Patisserie fabric recedes a bit.  At least that's what I see.  From the picture to the left you are missing the top Ohio Star Variant.  It's hard to take a picture of something that is 95" long!  So it goes Ohio Star Variation, the teal one I really like, two Ohio Star Variants, one Fight Block, and then the last Ohio Star Variation.

After the six blocks up the middle were completed I added strips to either side keeping things nice a simple as it is just the back.  As it is now the back is about 7" narrower than the front so about 10" shorter than I'd like it to be.  To bring it up to size I'm planning on taking my scraps and making two rows of piano keys about 5" wide thereby I'll have one for each long strip.  We'll have to see how that goes over time.

I did demo my on hand fabrics for the sashing strips and this pink really took the cake.  It looks like random dots in the row below but it is really little dots that make stripes.  I was quite happy that all the strips were cut from the fabric the same way so they sort of run together with the line of the blocks.

My Spontaneous Star

Above is the spontaneous block.  I had run out of the Patisserie scraps that I had cut for the top and didn't have any idea what I would do in order to make the second Fight Star, that's when I saw them - leftover pieces from the ribbon border.  At first I tried them where the green touched the pink center all around setting the pink center off with a teal diamond and that was nice but when I spun around those little leftover blocks the entire thing showed a spin that I really liked the look of.

Batik Binding

While I was working I also cut, sewed, and ironed my binding so it will be all ready for when I need it.  Of course I didn't think to take the picture of it until after the sun went down!  You know it's silly; I really dug in my feet over making any binding at all but while I was actually doing the job it was so redundant that it was honestly soothing.  The longest part of the job is the pressing and who doesn't long to do that?  LOL!  Right, I know we'll all have an anti ironing party and it will be required that we all wear wrinkled clothes to attend.  Oh the horror!  Hey isn't it the anti-ironing party that campaigned for the "Wrinkled Releaser Setting" for all dryers?

The Back Figured

Yes, I did it I figured out all of the math for the back and the binding and it's going to be just right. 

The Back?

So this afternoon I was working on layout ideas for the back of the Patisserie Quilt.  I have to hand it to people who regularly have not only enough fabric to make a back (without having bought extra in anticipation) but who are able to take those oddly sized random extra pieces and put it together to make a beautifully planned and executed back.  Currently I do indeed have a layout that does just those things.  It will require me to make a total of 6 - 12" blocks.  Four of which will be Ohio Stars made from the leftover HST's that I had from the Snowball blocks on the front.  I'm thinking the other two will be another two Tennessee Waltz Stars aka the Fight Block that figure so dominantly on the front.

Of course what I didn't bother to remove the binding allowances from my leftover fabric calculations...  Oh yes, I was so busy matching that I forgot the BINDING!  So now I'm going to go back over my numbers to see if I can find a fabric that has enough yardage to be the binding without sacrificing the plans for the back.  I know what a way to pick the binding!  And after all your kind recommendations too...  Okay, alright, I demo the binding and then I'll refigure my measurements for the back.  Shoot, I think keeping all that has to be done in my head while keeping my on hand yardage in mind asks a lot of any quilter.

Ribbon Border Part 2 * Added *

Today I worked on the ribbon border for the Patisserie Waltz Quilt.  The entire time I kept feeling like I needed to hurry and hold my breath par chance something happen aka go wrong.  This fabric has been wonderful to work with and the entire quilt has gone together much easier than I'd even dared to hope for.  So I felt like the Meerkats in the Lion King Movies.  "Scurry... Sniff...Flinch!"

I'm planning on checking the measurements on this Twin Sized top just to see where it's at as I'm trying to figure out if it needs another border or not.

What do you think of the teal in the ribbon border?  I look at it and my eyes say "okay you're there...  now what?"  I don't know if the correct answer is the use it in the binding or if that will be to much at the edges.  I considered for a micro-second using teal thread to quilt it, but I rejected the idea quickly over quilting with white thread because as you know I really love that Patisserie Fabric aka the white patterned one.  LOL.

Ribbon Border Part 1

Between my ankle and some illness that made me want to sleep 24-7 it's taken a bit of time for me to get back to my sewing machine.  Yesterday I did that Jean's repair you saw in my tutorial as well as a pair of shorts for my daughter.  The shorts I fixed by doing a little satin stitch and covering the satin repair with a patch so the stitches will be fine even if she plays with the patch.  I'm glad I took it easy my first day back to the machine because today I made 74 of the blocks you see above.  They are the blocks I will be needing for the Patisserie Quilt's Ribbon Border.

Of course after I made all 74 of them I discovered I only needed 66, but it's always better to have a couple of extra's just in case or at least that's what I'm telling myself.  This block is a real pain in the rear.  I thought I could sew the squares of teal and Patisserie together and then cut them apart and do the same adding the purple but doing so yielded half my blocks with the green on the wrong side so I had to go back and cut them apart.  Working with tiny triangles is not my idea of perfect, but laying them out together and then pedal to the metal sewing really helped speed things through.  Then I pressed all of my little lovelies open.  They await another day to be trimmed to 4.5".

Oh trust me I would have done that already, but lifting my iron 148 times first to iron down the small two triangles and then to iron down the larger purple triangle later had my hand a bit unhappy.  What sort of iron do you have?  I have dreams of finding an elusive stainless steel sole plate on a lightweight iron.  Oh now that would be the ticket wouldn't it?

Scuffy

When I was in high school (and I'm not saying how long ago that was)....  I had an amazing teacher.  My graduating class nicknamed her Scuffy (and I'm not telling you why either).  She to this day, so I hear, teaching with a passion that one would hope to ignite even the most electronically inundated mind.  I adored her and in the history of all of my teachers she was by far my favorite. 

Today I am Scuffy, not because I inspire classrooms full of children (though hopefully I'll be doing a bit of that this November for the Great American Teach-In but more about my plans for that another day), but because I twisted my good foot so now even my normal limp is out of range and I have been sort of "scuffing" along since Tuesday. 

Let me see here, what have I been up to since blogging last?  Oh yes I made a wall hanging, it's a little thing barely bigger than 1' square, but I hope the person I made it for will like it.  All I have left to do with that is make and add the binding.  Who would have thought it would take so much work to talk myself into making a yard and a half of binding?  Good Grief.  Do you have times like that?  It seems like such a paint to get everything out for such a little thing.  Perhaps I'd be quicker if I commited myself to making the binding for something else too...  Hmmm, like maybe the Patisserie Quilt...

People that work all the time amaze me.  Sometimes I just want to curl up with a book, or something else quiet.  Like now, the only noise in the room is the slight hum of the computer and the click of the keys.  I love that peace and tranquility.  I'm certain a love of things quiet comes from parenthood as I didn't care one way or the other for it growing up.  Shoot in those days I could read through just about anything.  Hu, I guess I still can; as when I was sick over the weekend I was reading on the couch while my daughter watched Sponge-bob, what is it with that show anyway?  DH and I used to comment that simply having it on makes our IQs drop.  These days it must have plummeted low enough for us to stop mentioning it.  Perhaps it's like a big mess that you hope will go away if you ignore it. 

Does anyone know how to make a Giant Spiral?  I need one, something like 8"-10" out to about 30", well I'm off to go see what I can find on the Internet, wish me luck.

No Fuss Snowball Blocks

I loved working on the Snowball Blocks in my Patisserie Waltz Quilt so much that I thought I'd put together a little tutorial for you, after all I haven't posted one in a while and they are so easy you'll be wanting to make them more and more.  Not to mention you'll wonder why you didn't go ahead and make this block sooner as opposed to waiting all this time.

We're going to make a 12" snowball it will be 12.5" while we worth with it of course and will then sew in at 12.5", as a bonus we'll end up with 4 half square triangles which can be used for just about anything else (hint hint - like the back!)

Diagonal lines on HSTriangles

First cut your base fabric.  Cut it at 12.5" square.  Next you will need your corner fabrics, mine are purple.  For those cut four squares of fabric at 4.5" each.  On each of the corner blocks draw a line diagonally across the fabric from corner to corner as seen above.  Please note my corner fabric is a batik with no set top/bottom, but if yours is a standard print you should draw your line on the backside (wrong side) of the fabric and sew the two pretty sides together.

Line the entire small corner square up over one corner of the large square of fabric pretty side kissing pretty side.  Now sew right on top of the line you drew.  Do that for each corner or chain stitch for as many as you like.

Now that you have your almost snowballs.  Some people would cut off the corners fold the print down and call it a snowball block, but just one more step and you will have your bonus half square triangles.

See the second line of stitching next to the first on the blocks to the left vs. the single row of stitching on the blocks to your right?

Now adjust your sewing machine needle over to the right as far as it will go line the edge of the presser foot.  Line the presser foot edge up with the line you stitched.  Does that look like it will leave enough of a seam allowance?  If not draw an offset line 1/2" from the first line you drew.  Now sew using your last row of stitches as a guide or the second line you have drawn. 

Once you have two lines of sewing simply cut between the two lines.  Be careful while you cut the corners off not to accidentally nick any of the other blocks or any other part of the block itself. 

These already look like snowballs!

After they have been cut apart simply press them open.  Now wasn't that easy?  I know for certain you'll be seeing more Snowball Blocks in my quilts in the future.

All done!

Are you wondering what to do with those leftover half square triangles?  Simply square them to 3.5" so they will sew in at 3".  Perhaps I might end up using mine to make some Ohio Stars...

As always feel free to click on any of my images to see them larger and if you still need to see them with more detail you can click on them again when the larger image appears. 

Patisserie: All in the Stars

This morning I sewed all of the Snowball Blocks (look here for my tutorial that will give you a 12" block combined with four bonus 3"  half square triangles), and then this afternoon I sewed all of the blocks together.  I'm certain with this quilt the work was all in the stars.  Well...  What do you think already?!?!  Personally I'm a bit stunned that I made it this far so quickly, of course I still have a border or two to add, as well as something for the back but honestly how can you not look at this quilt and love it?  It's so girlie it screams to be loved.  Now if only it would tell me a bit about how it wants to be quilted.  I thought I had a couple ideas until I saw it open and flat for the first time and then every thought of any quilting went right out of my head, sort of a long "ohhhhhhh," followed by a "hu".

Tiny was of course the first one to actually have full body contact with this quilt, both DH and I moved it carefully to the side to sit.  This quilt is seven rows, four blocks wide and at this point measures 87"x49".

Tomorrow is my birthday, so don't expect much if any sewing out of me for the next couple of days.  Nothing like an "0" ending birthday to make you want to get the lead out - at least a little bit.  Besides I have to revel in the joy of having gotten DD's quilt this far! 

Patisserie Stars

Last night I finished up the 54-40 fight Stars, my goodness, I think these turned out pretty.  As I was ironing them open I stopped and counted the pieces.  There are 29 pieces in each and every star, what was I thinking?  Though I am certain I've made blocks with more pieces, I don't think I've ever made so many, and I'm nearly sure the blocks were bigger than 12".  No matter I'm glad I didn't select to make the 9" blocks!  It sounds like it was bad, but as I made each block in sections, aka the star points and the four patch blocks it wasn't the big deal it might sound like it was. 

Of course it helps that the fabric I'm using is nice, so it slips through my fingers just right and presses open just the way you want it to.  Now that all of the stars are completed I'll be starting on the snowball spacer blocks.  Those will be the Patisserie fabric and that pretty blue-purple batik.  I'm sharing the process with dd each step of the way, so she's completely in the loop on where her quilt is and how I'm progressing on it.  Doing so even enticed her to do a bit of sewing on her own. 

As I'm certain you're feeling picture deprived (the camera had a dead battery - but I was dreading it to be something worse because the fool thing never warned me!)  The photo above is the front of the strip quilt for the freemotion Quilt-a-long, the back is a bit more complicated so time will tell which is the front and which is the back.

Stars of Patisserie

Patisserie Star not quite finished

Today I worked on squaring up and sewing together the stars for the Patisserie Tennessee Waltz Quilt.  Granted I'm still waiting on the purple and blue hand dyed fabric I ordered from Connecting Threads as a replacement for the purple fabric I'd previously selected that didn't match at all.  Yes, I'm capable of making bad decisions like that, yes - even when it comes to fabric.  But did you read what I said?  Hand Dyed fabrics at Connecting Threads?!?   It seems odd to me too.  Their stuff always seems a bit more old school than what I'd like to use; Patisserie fabric not withstanding and besides they send me snail mail with pretty pictures of fabric on it and who doesn't like that!?!?

Planetary Nebula Batik from Connecting Threads

So back to the Batiks.  The first one I selected from them arrived over the weekend.  It totally and completely feels like when I first started sewing and my DH enrolled me in a Batik of the Month club, talk about spoiled me, I think the fabrics were some where between $18 and $24 a yard!  Granted that was a club, but this fabric looks and feels just like that stuff, even the over dying techniques are the same.  Now do you want to know what Connecting Threads are selling it for?  Only $5.96 a yard.  Yes, that's what I said.  They even dropped the prices on their other fabrics so shopping there could easily become a joy.  Now the photograph you see was taken on the dark side of my kitchen and it is reading just a bit more green as the fabric is a bit more teal than it appears, but still doesn't it look wonderful?  As it's part of the ribbon border, I'm trying my darndest to keep my hands off of it until later.

Now I'm drooling over their collections that they have just posted with these beautiful fabrics, and my mind keeps playing over the "oh it would be so nice to have a yard of every single one,"  or "what if I just order the strips packs?" (Strip packs start at $9 for 24 fabrics)

I'm on a Tear!

I'm not really on a tear and it's a good thing too, because being on a tear to a quilter/sewer means we have to fix something, which for me at least, is unpleasant.

Today I basted, quilted, and put the binding on the Friendship Wall Hanging.  I liked the look of the green binding I used on the Christmas Row Robin, that I pulled another hunter green fabric from my stash to bind this one.  The green gives it such a calming touch, I really am glad I finished these two in the order I did or else I might not have given much thought to using the dark green binding.

Something Leftover

Sure enough yesterday I cut fabric.  With the templates my DH cut for me the whole process went rather quickly.  As I have 60 x 45 inches leftover of the Patisserie fabric (how did that happen!?!?) as well as plenty of other leftovers I believe I will have plenty to make the back after the top is done, we'll see how it goes of course.

Denim Patchwork and Yes that's a Carebear.

I noticed I haven't showed you this yet.  When I came up with the plans for the back of the Gift from Heaven Quilt I planned 3 borders worth of 4 patches, but with a mix-up + a change up of the middle the quilt grew to quickly and I wasn't able to add the 2 set of borders.  Hence the birth of this denim patchwork; the fabrics are made from dd's baby clothes denim, knits, fleece, and so on, so it is wonderfully soft.  I'm not certain what should become of this one yet.  I know I will use a real batting on it and perhaps a blender flannel on the back.  My eyes keep seeing it as a puffy quilt.  What do you think?  While I know sort of how to make one of those I don't have any idea how much Polyfil something like that would take.  Any thoughts?  As for the flannel backing I think it should be something super soft.  Every time my brain says make it blue I argue back "but it has such pretty girlie white patches!"  It's a never ending battle of course.

I don't recall the exact measurements I think it's 42" x 48", but I was noticing yesterday while waiting for the bus, that it is big enough to be a lap quilt.  What do people use puffy quilts for anyway?  Do they always live on a bed?  As I look at the pictures even now it's easy to see what it would look like puffy, but to what purpose?  Maybe I'll figure it out today.

As always you can view my pictures in more detail by simply clicking on them.