July “block” of Comfort & Joy quilt

This is “block” 6 of the Comfort & Joy quilt, but I would hardly call it a “block”.  It has many components including three applique blocks, flying geese, nine patches, etc., etc.  It should be called the June “section”.

On all these monthly sections there is still embroidery to do and buttons to add.  Can’t have those gingerbread men lacking happy faces!

Bonnie

 

Fun Fun Fun

My niece Becky, my friend Aline, and I went to the International Quilt Show here in the Chicago area.  We had so much fun shopping and laughing and marveling at all the new products, ideas, and wonderful fabric.   Here is some of the loot I brought home.

I have projects in mind for most of the fabrics, but of course there are a few that I bought “just because”.

BOTM – #1

Today was an exciting day.  My package from The Fat Quarter Shop arrived with the makings for the first block in their new 2013 Designer Block Of the Month series.

Inside was the finishing kit to save for much later and the smaller kit for the first block.

I couldn’t wait to start.  A little booklet had clear precise instructions and in no time my block was finished.

Cute block – pretty fabrics.  Now I have to put it away and wait another whole month for the next block!

(I think I can find something else to do in the meantime.)

 

 

 

Ideas from the internet

On the blog Simplify (Camille Roskelley) a while back, Camille showed how she did some machine quilting using her zig-zag setting at the widest width and a longer stitch.  I liked the look and the idea, as it was an easy way to machine quilt using straight lines instead of free motion.  I tried it today and like the results.

This is a little quilt which started out with a charm pack of “Basically Neutral” by Benartex to which I added fabrics from my stash.  It is my version of a “low volume” quilt.  I also decided to try doing the entire binding process by machine after seeing a promotional ad from Clover using their new “wonder clips”.  I still prefer doing the finishing by hand, but this way was quicker and it doesn’t look too bad on the back side.

After all that machine work, my neck is sore.  I don’t realize how tense I get until I stop and my neck hurts.  I probably should take more breaks.

My little quilt looks nice hanging on the divider in my front entryway.

Scrap quilt

One of my favorite blogs about quilts is Red Pepper Quilts (Rita Hodge).  I especially love her scrappy quilts made from a line of modern fabric – like this one.  I didn’t have a whole line of fabric but decided to try the idea with some fabrics in my stash.  Mine isn’t any where near as nice as Rita’s, but it is colorful and I will keep it.

 

The backing will be a nice lime green fabric and the binding will be back & white striped.

 

Binding project done

On a previous  post I said that I was picking up 16 quilts to bind.  That was not true.  I miss-heard and it was actually 6 quilts – and they are very small.  Each little quilt is just one quilt block with borders.  I finished the project today.

Sorry I can’t show them in full, but they are not mine to show.  The hardest part was squaring them up, but as always, the hand stitching was completely relaxing.

Never give up….

Today I worked on my June Craftsy Block-of-the-Month which was a lesson on Y-seams.  Oh dear.  The dreaded Y-seam.  The instructions were good but I still managed to do a lot of things wrong and spent as much time unsewing as I did sewing.  And I messed up the color arrangement.  I wanted the green on the outside and center, not the yellow.   It is by no means perfect.  Not all the points are perfect and it does not lay perfectly flat.  However, it is acceptable and it is finished ! ! ! !

It is fun to learn new techniques though and I do feel like I learned a lot in this lesson and the biggest thing I learned is that in order to make good Y-seams you need patience and persistence!

 

Barn with silo

Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet has posted a new barn.  This one has a silo.  Lori is very generous in offering her instructions free.  You can find the tutorial here.  My silo looks like it is leaning.  It could either be full of corn or trying to do a Do-See-Do………….or it could be that I cut the shape on the diagonal.

There seems to be a plethora of kitty-cats in this barn.   They love feasting on those poppy seeds!

And here is my progress on the two cross-stitch projects.