Country Roads Mystery

Last week was busy and it didn't leave me much time to work on Calypso. So instead I worked on a little project that Lori's posted on her Humble Quilts blog mid September ~ Country Roads Mystery Quilt along. 

Lori based her quilt on an inspiration quilt and reproduced it with red, blue and black blocks. Here is a link to Part One if you are interested in joining in or go to this link for Part Three to see the inspiration quilt and Lori's finished quilt.  

My blocks are scrappy, made from the fabric scraps from Amaretto Cottage, a quilt top finished recently. Despite working over the weekend, I made a little time to get 16 ~ five inch blocks finished. The QAL's quilt has 9 blocks, my plan is to keep going until I run out of scraps!

I have two ideas for setting the blocks, both have the blocks set on point. Will save that for another day. 

When I took Lynn Wilder's Patchwork Math workshop in August, Lynn had the nicest turntable cutting mat that she used for the workshop. I found one online a couple of weeks ago and it arrived over the weekend. Other than it's still stinky, I love it.

It also has a second circle for pressing which will be great for workshops :0)

Enjoy your week

Tot Ziens

 

Back to some piecing

Over the 4th I spent the weekend sorting thru things and made some time to do some piecing, finishing a few of the quilt blocks from Linda Ballard's workshop. It was the day of the workshop when I received 'the' phone call about my mom and the project was set aside since that day, the first week of May.

Happy with how this quilt and the fabrics are laying out. At least three of the fabrics are from collections by Jo Morton. I read on her blog recently that she has a new fabric line coming out... 'Catherine'.  *Here is a link to her blog* for a preview of the prints with my fav... paisleys! There is a link on her blog post for a pattern called Homestead by Candy Hargrove with elongated churn dash blocks. One of my favorite blocks and the reason I chose You Need a Rita, Linda Ballard's pattern for the blocks pictured above.

There will be a red pieced outer border that will complete the star points. The centers of the Churn Dash blocks are supposed to be the off white fabric but I changed it to cheddar :0) Love those little Churn Dashes set on point. 

I also pulled out the fabrics for Amaretto Cottage to decide how I am going to finish the last outer border on that quilt. Will be good to get some projects finished.  

Spent some time working on my business as well, customer quilts and updating my website with some new quilting patterns. Oh, and Michael helped me put up a two of my finished quilts in my workroom plus we hung one up in the kitchen too. It was a good weekend.

My Medallion quilt made along with a QAL Lori 

hosted on Humble Quilts in 2013

and this quilt is Connected Friends, made from fabrics 

received from a swap of celestial fabrics on AAQMB many moons ago ;0)

Tot Ziens, Jo

Take the time to make some stitches :0) 

 

Scrap Happy Top almost finished!

This is my top made at Goldie's Scrap Happy Day

There was a great turnout and allot of good food!

The top finished at 48 x 48. I finished the rows and added the borders this morning. Not quite finished with the top as there will be applique in the borders. Kim Diehl's version adds leaves. That was my original plan however since I decided to use geometric prints instead of floral I am going to use a geometric shape.

Jewel is the shape I decided on. These are blue fabric scraps cut out just for a layout. My plan is to use my EPP set that Beckie gifted me (thank you Beckie :0) for each shape and applique them on after the top is quilted. They will be all different colors, not just blue as in the photo. Three per snowball and probably seven in each of the corners. 

The plan is to use a lime green Glide thread and quilt circles and swirls. Didn't quite make it with my background fabric and had to use a different fabric for the corners so now the background is scrappy too! This quilt has been fun to make. A departure from the Civil War fabrics I usually work with. It's keeping me balanced :0) Big plus... all of the cut off corners from the snowballs and left over strips will be used to make HSTs and another block for Faithful!

Above is Lori of Humble Quilts Big Top quilt which was made from traded HSTs and later Lori hosted a QAL to make each block. I made one block (here is my block made last year) and after this project have enough to make a second block for my top. Kind of sounds insane but you have to be a quilter to appreciate the sanity of it all. The pleasure is in the process! AND I am using up allot of stash!!! Below is the first block I made...

The World Cup is done! Yea. I won't say who in case you haven't seen the game. Happy to say that the Netherlands are in the top three! Yea!!! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Groetjes, Jo

Freezing to Flipflops and a Finish

My April goal is quilted, binding on and finished with a label.... for A Lovely Year of Finishes.
(Goal post # 83 and Finish post # 74)
  2014 MidWinter Blues QAL with Lori/Humble Quilts... 

Happy with the fabric choice added to the blocks and setting corner triangles
 I also used it for the binding.

Quilted with a feather and scroll b2b design and a border/corner set.
 And the label... with a Daf added for a Spring finish...

I had to work fast to take a few pix outside this evening, the mosquitoes are terrible already! After a weekend of thunderstorms and hail we are now in the 90's today and I'm wearing flipflops!!! This morning I tipped everything with standing water from the storm. Sadly there were a few flower casualties...

The first of my all time favorite... my China Red Poppy

The first 2 blooms are a little worse for wear from the rain and hail

Not to worry, there are many more buds ready to open soon :0)

Follow this link to see more April finishes at a Lovely Year of Finishes with Shanna and Melissa

Jo

April Goal

Considering how hopelessly behind I am in my longarm quilting duties I am setting another easy goal for April for A lovely Year of Finishes. My goal is to quilt, bind and label a flimsy. This is MidWinter Blues, a QAL with Lori ~ Humble Quilts blog. The link will take you to her post and the linky with everyone's finished tops. I am the only crazy person that made the original inspiration quilt. I do wish I had taken the time to add sashing like Lori did in her version for the QAL, it would have been way more forgiving with these blocks set on point and all of those little triangles!

I plan to do a b2b (border to border) in the center field and a border with corner design for the outer border. I have a feather and scroll design in mind. Found some tea stained muslin in my stash for the backing and am good to go! It will also be good practice to do on my Innova. I love my Innova... and the Auto Pilot, well lets say we are beginning to get along a little better! 

This week as I was chatting with Nancy and Marna at Cathy's Honeyrun quilt store, Nancy was asking about my Innova. We started brainstorming ideas for names and I mentioned it had chrome handlebars, which I have yet to see on another Innova! With the names Innova and Auto Pilot she thought it sounded more like a spaceship or fancy motorcycle! So we thought of Harley! I like it!!! and the Auto Pilot, I'm thinking it needs it's own name... Hal because that computer has a mind of it's own!!! 

Harley and Hal. What do you think?

Quite happy that it's Friday altho I will be working this weekend to try and catch up. Had a wonderfully evening last night. Met for dinner with Donna, Esther, Brandie and Gail at the newest TBar on Forest/FlyingV in Chico that opened last week. Food was great! After we all went to our Annie's Star Quilt guild meeting with a trunk show with Rob Appell. Very entertaining!

Enjoy your weekend! 

Jo, who is looking forward to some Spring soon!

MidWinters Blues QAL

I took a break from setting up my studio today to finish my top for Lori's QAL MidWinters Blues.

and watch the season's end of Downton Abbey :0) A nice end to this season.

Only a flimsy tho. Not my best piecing but I had fun with this one. Lori has the best quilt alongs. Mine is a different only because I decided to reproduce Lori's inspiration quilt, pictured below... I did change the color of the corner setting triangles and used the same fabric for all of the dark squares. The rest is scrappy.

It was a busy week getting my longarm studio back in order. Not quite finished but I did make space to set up a new sewing area in the studio and used it today to sew my blocks together.

I am linking up to Lori's blog ~ Humble Quilts for this flimsy finish to Lori's QAL.

Thank you Lori! You are the best

MidWinters Blue progress

Playing with different options with the triangle pieces of the blocks. I also added another color, a sort of dark coral/orange/red. It picks up that color in the blue fabrics.

I love putting Civil War fabrics together and mixing in a few other fabrics for fun. MidWinters Blue is a QAL Lori @ Humble Quilts started two weeks ago. Part 3 is now posted with sashing. I have some catching up to do with extra blocks to make in order to reproduce the original inspiration quilt.

Inspiration quilt for Lori's QAL

These are the first 5 blocks that I made for part 1

Then decided to make more and add the alternate blocks to reproduce the inspiration quilt. 

First bowl has HSTs for the dark square blocks, middle for the light and blue bowl HSTs are for the 1/2 blocks. Toying with the idea of adding the sashing. 

We finally have rain! Three days of it!!! Not great timing for moving the longarm this weekend. Hoping to move it tomorrow. But we need the rain. This storm is just a drop in the bucket considering the drought we are facing here on the West coast.

Enjoy your Sunday and have good weather for quilting

Leaving you with a funny DH found on the web this week

Yea right!!!!!

February Goals

First February goal is to finish my Tree of Life quilt top for A Lovely Year of Finishes. I've been working on this for a long time! I love designing my own tops but it takes more time to make with lots of decisions! Falls under 'The Pleasure is in the Process'. With most of them made now, it's on to finishing the top...

Second is to work on Lori @ Humble Quilts QAL ~ MidWinter Blues. Got a start on my cutting...

This is Lori's finished top

 and the antique inspiration quilt that she is working from...

I love this antique quilt and am toying with the idea of reproducing it for my project. Love how the alternating blocks form another pattern and how, altho set on point, looks like a straight set.

Third is to continue on with the Amaretto Cottage BOM with Janie. She and I got started on the next block last Wednesday, there are four of these, this is one of mine...

Fourth is to make the first block in Barbara Brackman's new BOM Threads of Memory...

 

Kathy, a quilter participating in A Lovely Year of Finishes posted her finish (#66) for January and it's her Civil War Sampler top from Barbara Brackman's 2011 Civil War BOW!  It really got me thinking about my sampler and getting that back on to my list of goals for this year. My January finish is #87 the NYD Mystery quilt top. Last night I finished quilting it so it is also quilted for a finish!

Lofty goals considering all I have going on this month switching out longarms and reorganizing my studio. It will be a fun month, once I shake this cold off!

Have a great Super Bowl Weekend!

 

The Mystery is now a flimsy

2014 NYD Mystery quilt top is a flimsy. I am linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes with this quilt top finish as my January goal ~ link to blog post. Link up # 181. Update: This baby is quilted!!!

After a few block layout changes plus I decided to add borders, this top is ready to be quilted! Notice I couldn't do the misfit layout of the original.

Quilting on my New Year's Day Mystery quilt

I am quite pleased with this one, you never know how a mystery will turn out! All the fabrics are pulled from stash scraps and FQ's except the light print in the large HSTs are cut from two half yard pieces that came from Honey Run Quilters. Many of the fabrics are left overs from Petit Fours, a quilt I made from a kit from Morning Star Quilts. Barbara, a new quilt customer recently brought her Petit Fours that she recently finished that I will quilt for her. When she unfolded her quilt top I immediately knew the quilt! Nice surprise!!

Petit Fours made in 2010

This is a pic of my Petit Fours made in 2010 for my friend Suzanne. The left over border print is in most of the blocks in the Mystery quilt top and more scraps I added to the Anvil blocks.

My goal this year is to use up stash and I think I got a pretty good start on that one :0) Another is to start blocks on a 2014 Barbara Brackman ~ Threads of Memory BOM and do a QAL with Lori of Humble Quilts. Both of them posted the first blocks, Lori yesterday and Barbara this morning on her Civil War blog. Check out the links. Off to sew as I have blocks to make this weekend!!!

Enjoy your weekend! Thanks for stopping by

 Jo

Faithful

Final border added to Faithful this weekend. Not quilted, my plan is to make more blocks and HSTs for sashing. This block has bright colors, scraps from two BOMs last year.

Faithful in progress...

Faithful ~ Steps one and two

 Center block is Peace and Plenty. When I re-sized it to a 6 inch block it came out too small so I added an extra row of sashing.

Faithful ~ Step three

Great way to use up scraps and HSTs, or trade HSTs with other quilter as Lori of Humble Quilts did for her Big Top. Thank you Lori for another great SAL!

Here is a link to Lori's blog with pix of more blocks made.

Take a look at Lori's blog header, it's her Big Top made with 9 blocks, each sashed with additional HSTs for a finish. It's what I plan to do with my block.

Also worked on my Tree of Life project. Last two Pine Tree blocks finished. 

Center tree blocks are sewn together in a medallion. I am planning two 1/2 inch inner borders with a row of HSTs between them before I sew on the corners. Not exactly sure yet what size this will finish out at, close to 50 x 50 depending on the size of a red outer border, if I add one, may just bind it in the red.

Very frustrated with my longarm business right now and the reason I haven't posted the last two weeks. Mom is doing OK. She will be 98 this weekend! We had unexpected rain last night, a quick downpour, enough to make a mess of newly fallen leaves. Will have some clean up and sheltering plants today. Forecast is for night time temps down in the 30s this week. Fall has arrived here in Northern California! 

Enjoy your day!

UFO and a SAL

Working on my October UFO ~ making Tree of Life blocks this weekend. Two more trees to finish, they take some time and patience. Drafted new trunks as the new corner blocks are larger than the blocks in the center. Started with some ideas for the final layout, adding a saw tooth sashing around the center blocks.

New corner tree blocks in progress...the HSTs are squared to 1 3/4, finish at 1 1/4 inch.

The first tree trunk I drafted, the branches were too big and the roots too small. This one is just right...

This is my quilt where all the HSTs came from, the corners from all of the snowball blocks...

I've also started on Lori ~ Humble Quilts SAL ~ Faithful. Part one was to make any 6 inch block for the center. I decided on a Peace and Plenty block. First one made was in my Civil War Sampler with Barbara Brachman's BOW. It was 8 inches and I needed a 6 inch block for this project. Using Quilt Genie I made the block but it finished at 5 inches so I added the purple sashing. Part two was adding sashing and HSTs around the center...

and part three is adding another sashing and 44 more HSTs this weekend. Four of us had a conversation at dinner before a guild meeting last week about how different random means to a mathematician and a quilter. Sew I can't say this is random... it's organized chaos :0)

All the fabrics and HSTs are scraps and cut offs from two BOMs I made in 2011. Mostly from Flying Geese blocks. I make a habit of stitching a second line of stitching before cutting off the triangle corners. The sewn cut offs get thrown in a container with more HSTs, ready to be pressed and squared to size when needed. Also how I ended up with so many HSTs for my Tree of Life project above. Great for scrappy projects and Saw Tooth borders too. This SAL with Lori ~ Humble Quilts was the perfect project to use up more of them. Check out Lori's quilt top made with HSTs she traded with friends, it's Lori's header right now.

I love it when I see vintage quilts and the owner says "I remember that fabric in a dress". It happened just the other day when someone brought a vintage quilt in to my studio. A Dresden Plate quilt her grandmother made in the 30's. Since I haven't made cloths since my teens, I don't have scraps from dresses and such. This will be a fun way to remember past quilt projects.

Now to get out and enjoy the fine Fall weather we are having in Northern California. Hope you all get to do the same! Enjoy your day, stitching away. Thanks for visiting.

Groetjes, Jo