by Karen on May 31, 2011
in quilts
Throughout the last three days or so I have been working on the two quilts that I showed you a couple days ago. Today I finished hand piecing the sashing on the blocks. I still have some sashing that I will put all around the quilt before I start on the border.
This sashing is 1 1/2 inches (finished size 1 inch) around the outer edges I plan on (I think) 2 to 3 inches of sashing in the same color in the same fashion – strips.
Some have asked how long has it taken to do this quilt so far? Well I made the first block back in January of 2010. Then I put it aside while I was working on other things – then got busy on it a year ago in June 2010. Total hours – I am mainly estimating here – I know several blocks took me about 25 hours each and one took me about 20 hours all combined on the 12 – 16 inch blocks I am estimating about 300 hours – the center block took me about 50 hours – so total 350 hours and I am counting the sashing in on that time as it is an estimation and I don’t think I am too far off. The applique is needle turn applique – so yes it is all done by hand.
I picked out a border I like and as there is no pattern for it – I will be free style designing it as I go pretty much. The border I like is in the “Red and Green –An Applique Tradition” by Jeana Kimball. I believe she designed the border and the quilt. I am not doing the zigzag part of it, but I am going to do the vine woven with flowers and leaves intermingled in it. I am not doing the same flowers in this pattern – but a different flower and bud that I like that I used several times throughout the quilt to carry some of it through to the border.
A photo of the quilt with the border that I will be inspired from:
We had a great day yesterday with the family. It was very nice to see Chris (37 yrs) and his wife Terri, I had not seen Chris in about 12 years or so! Terri was just as I thought she would be, I have spent time over the last 8 years? “talking” to her on the computer and getting to know her through e mail and facebook. Chris is one of my mother’s older grandchildren – his mom is the 2nd oldest of her 12 children. The newly weds were there as well – John is much younger than Chris being only about 22 I believe.
Chris and Terri with grandma – Chris hadn’t seen her in 12 years(?) so really wanted to plan this trip with getting in a quick visit before he starts his new job.
The happy newlyweds home from their elopement – John and Kandi. John is a real sweetheart and we all love him dearly – I don’t know about all that “art” on his body though 
I have never been into tattoos but I know they are very popular with a lot of people.
Too many people in the family to show more family photos – Mike took a zillion photos and I got them all on my computer now and haven’t even looked at all of them yet.
Edited Monday morning: This post is also serving as my design wall Monday as I’m sure I will be working on these projects all week! Run over to Judy at Patchwork Times to see what everyone is working on this week.
I think I have been busy since I got up this morning. It was a very warm day also – summer is off to a hot start. I got several plants dug up from one area and transplanted and watered to another area. Weeds pulled, flowers cut to put in a vase on the table. Then it was on to quilting.
I got started on the machine quilting for the patchwork – straight lines I am about 1/4 of the way done!! I am going down the middle of the blocks both horizontal and vertical. Then I will see what it looks like and see if it needs more. Here it is all spread out on the tables. (I guess I still need to come up with a name for this one)
When I wasn’t working on that quilt or reading I was also hand piecing the sashing in place for the Red & Green Quilt. Also I have been pondering what kind of border to put on this quilt. I will have to look through the books some more and see what the end result will be. I would like this quilt to be bed size – when I finish the sashing it will be about 70 x70 so it will need 15 inch wide borders at least. Possibly a little less than that and have more of the red as a trim all the way around the quilt as well.
What is done so far:
Tomorrow will be a busy day – family day – a big get together. One of my many nephews and his wife are moving from Birmingham, Alabama to Phoenix, Arizona. They left Alabama first thing this morning and will be somewhere in Arkansas tonight and then a slight detour to NW Arkansas for a family visit before they get back on I-40 for Arizona. We will be up there with everyone else to see them. My nephew (Chris) grew up on the east coast and has spent very little time in Arkansas and really doesn’t know this part of the family really well and his wife has never met us. Another nephew (John) eloped to Las Vegas last weekend and he and his bride will be at the family gathering as well – she hasn’t met all of us either (well some but not all) –- this should be fun!! I’m taking my camera – well post on Tuesday. 
I have my patchwork quilt all spray basted together and ready to work on sometime this week so it is off of the design wall finally. Thank you to everyone who gave me their helpful hints on how to machine quilt – I will need it 
here it is ready to go.
Now at the same time I was working on this quilt I was also working on the big center square for the Red and Green applique – I finished it. Now the blocks are all up on my design wall so I could decide placement – I need to square all the blocks up, check measurements ect before I cut the red fabric for the sashing.
The red batik for the sashing – washed several times!
The hydrangeas opening up for lovely color.
Lilies and Roses, the yucca flowers are finished already over in this area and I didn’t get a photo of them all in bloom – that happened when I was in Wisconsin and then stormy weather blew them all off.
Flower baskets
Ferns
Hope everyone has a nice weekend. I haven’t heard back from my winner of the giveaway and it is a holiday weekend here – she might be away from home and no computer available. If I do not hear from her by say Wednesday I will get another winner drawn.
by Karen on May 28, 2011
in quilts
Thank you all that participated in my give away. I had a total of 88 entries. Sorry that it didn’t come up to 100. I had several post last night after I gave the reminder but I forgot to tell them to post their comment on the giveaway post so I assigned those entries numbers 85,86, 87 and 88 respectively when I went through the numbers.
So without further chatter – the winner is #14 Sherri from Kansas – Sherri I sent you a e mail letting you know – please send me your mailing address and I will get the package in the mail to you on Tuesday after our holiday weekend.
by Karen on May 27, 2011
in quilts
GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED WINNER ANNOUNCED SHORTLY
Tonight is the last chance you have to enter my give away. I will use a random generator in the morning to select the winner. The prizes – these 2 patterns and a stack of 10 inch squares of Christmas prints from Connecting Threads.
Good Luck.
Last week when I was showing my design wall off and on with the patchwork quilt on it I got some comments about what others use for this purpose and we have a range of the floor being used to flannel sheets on the floor or walls. We all work with what is best for us for the space we have available.
I would love to have a wall large enough to put a permanent design wall in place – but I don’t so I make due with what I have. I just do not have empty wall space – I have built in bookshelves, windows in odd spaces it seems with little wall space left over and art work and photos on any space left over. I really and truly have no wall available that is not in an awkward space or inconvenient space to put one.
So what I have is a design wall like this – this is a portable design wall that comes in a bag. I got mine from Connecting Threads.
this is what it is like standing up – this one is 72 x 72 inches. Click on the numbers and it will lead you to the write up about it.
It is a portable design wall and maybe that should have told me right then and there that it wasn’t necessarily stable? I like the surface to work on but the legs that stand it up are very flimsy – a person can walk past it too closely and it will tip over. I have had several people tell me that they had gotten one too and have the same problem with it.
I solve that problem in my house by leaning it up by the door/wall in the kitchen/dining area that no one uses or at times if I know my husband is not going to be home for much more than sleeping (at times that happens when he is putting in long hours) I hang it off of three hooks that are right above the wide closet in the sewing room. That closet though is on my husbands side of the room that we use for sewing/computers – we share the room. If I use that space his chair is very near it and fabric will fall off of it unless it is pinned on so normally I just use the kitchen and walk back and forth giving me more exercise.
If you have any other option go for it – I like the wall but I do not like the legs. If you have space to lean it against or hang it then this might be right for you – but if you have to use it on the legs provided I wouldn’t recommend it. I do like that when I am done with it that I can take it apart easily and put it back in the bag. Some people recommend using insulation board and covering with flannel. That sounds good but if you have limited storage space that doesn’t work out.
Thank you all for your tips on needles and machine quilting. I am off today to pick up some new sewing machine needles as I want to try a few out and see which will work best for me for this project.
by Karen on May 26, 2011
in quilts
Today has been a crazy day – to begin with all the hot awful weather creating tornado’s has finally gone past us and a cool front is taking it’s place – it is cloudy and cool – in the 60’s!! I have been so busy with looking at blogs, writing my post, looking at my quilt top and deciding about borders or not – fooling with thread that all of a sudden I happened to glance at the clock and saw it was 12:35 – I had a hair cut appointment at 1 so I dashed out of the house only to realize I still had my slippers on and had to dash back in the house to put some sandals on and take off. I got there on time ( I hate being late for anything) got my fast haircut and here I am back home again to take back up where I left off.
I decided after all the thinking on borders yesterday and asking what others thought that even though I had some good ideas and you all did too I have decided to just go with the patchwork as it. I am not a person that always has to have a border on a quilt and I think the patchwork stands well on its own. And I also do not want it larger than it is right now.
I love hand quilting but because I have a lot of tops gathered up waiting in line I had also talked of machine quilting straight lines on this quilt and not do my usual hand quilting. I love variegated thread and I have just the right one to go with this top. But because of the limited amount of the thread that I have (2 spools) I do not want to also use it for the bottom thread. I have heard that a lot of you machine quilters use a plain thread for the bottom side in the bobbin and the more colorful thread for the top.
I was practicing on a scrap sandwich to see how things look – the thread on the very right is just the plain cream color that is also in the bobbin. The other lines are the variegated as you can see – lovely bright colors that really go with the quilt top well. (this fabric is not in the quilt it is just a practice piece).
I do not have large amounts of fabric that are colors or prints so the backing will be a off white or cream color as that is what I have large pieces of (well I have some large batiks but I don’t want to use them for backing) – if I pieced a backing it would be putting together a lot of pieces like 8 to 10 as most of my fabric are fat quarters or up to 1/2 yard pieces and I do not want to nor intend to do that. When I put together another sandwich using the white on the back I can see the top thread coming through. I have fooled around with the tension and no matter what I do it stays the same – I have put in a higher count needle as well as I heard that for machine quilting you should not use the size 11 that you use for piecing but a 14 or 16. I have a 14 in the machine right now. This is what the thread on the back looks like. See you can see the little bit of color coming through from the stitch line. The thread is not loose, it lays just right, the tension really does appear to be normal. Is this normal when you use one color on top and a different color on the bottom? Both threads are the same weight and both are 100’% cotton threads.
I did zoom in of course on this photo so that I could show it to you. It doesn’t really stand out that much when I hold the fabric up and look at it.
Is this what happens when you machine quilt your quilts? I wonder as I have so little experience doing it this way. I really want to use my variegated thread. I am so used to hand quilting that I do not know what is normal for machine quilting 
I won’t be getting started on it today so let me know if this is normal when you use one color for the top and one for the bottom.
Don’t forget the drawing for the giveaway is on Saturday morning! Leave your comment here to be included. 73 in the drawing so far – if it gets to 100 I will pick a second winner.
by Karen on May 25, 2011
in quilts
Thanks for all the ideas on the patchwork quilt. I am not going to do any applique although I did think about it for awhile. I think I will go with some thin strips of the bright colors and white – not a lot, as I don’t want it much larger than it is now. I am thinking that I might try to machine quilt this one again like I did that baby quilt last month – just straight stitch so I don’t want any applique in the way. And no I am not giving up hand quilting 
but I have so many large tops waiting in line for hand quilting that I think it will be ok for this “purist hand quilter” to occasionally try the machine quilting method.
Thanks for all the comments on this quilt and for comments on the give away – I have gotten so many comments from all of you telling me where you are from and I have had many from the states, Australia, Canada, Europe, Mauritius (off of South Africa), South Korea and even a comment today from China! Thank you all for stopping by – the give away continues until Saturday morning. I usually try to send back a short comment to you for stopping by but I have not been able to keep up – so I’m just saying here = thanks for stopping by.
by Karen on May 24, 2011
in quilts
I am up late tonight. More storms on the way – there have been so many storms this past couple weeks that I didn’t feel comfortable going to bed the time I normally do around 10 so I decided to stay up a little tonight until I can tell that the storms won’t be here. At this time of year the tornado season is always here – but worse this year than normal for us.
Earlier this evening I finished putting the patchwork quilt together! Now do I put a border on it or do I leave it as is? The finished size is 64 inches by 68 inches – kind of big for a baby quilt LOL, I think it will possibly be for the camper or just plain an extra one for decorating the house 
What do you all think – would you put a border on this or leave as is? I actually have some bright yellow, orange, green, blue and reddish orange to use if I want to – it isn’t the same design but the same colors.
A close up of the colors:
These are the fabrics I have – the strips are what is left from the jelly roll and I will use it for binding – the others are in the same color groups (a 1/2 yard of each color) as the patchwork and could be used for pinwheels or stripes or something. I will think about it for a couple days while I work on the tiny circles.
It was so humid outside today that when I got back from my dental appointment I just decided to continue on with my quilts. Time enough when the weather clears up to do things outside – better weather will be coming by Thursday I hear.
When I got done with the patchwork I got back to work on the circles for the Red & Green – I worked on and off for 3 hours on them this evening and I got done!!
They are all glue basted in place and ready for stitching tomorrow and the rest of the week:
I have been in such a mood to finish things lately – I really do not normally work so much on my sewing hour after hour – I don’t know what has gotten in to me lately – I’m sure I will slow down soon – I normally do as the weather warms up and I start to sit outside more on the porch with an interesting book and a nice cool glass of lemonade or something – I think it is because it has been so rainy and cloudy this past two weeks or so.
Don’t forget you still have time to enter the give away for the two patterns and fabric – I have 65 comments so far and still several days to go. Here for the comments
by Karen on May 24, 2011
in quilts
I think almost all of us have heard of the horrible devastation in Joplin, Missouri – right? And I do believe a lot of us quilters have heard of Judy Laquidara from the Patchwork Times –she is the one that has “’Design Wall Monday” that a lot of us participate in.
Judy is putting together a raffle to raise money for the RED CROSS specifically for Joplin.
Please go to Judy’s site at THIS LINK and see what she is doing and please join in and help people in need – I am getting a check ready to send off to her right now.
Spread the word through your blogs and your friends.
