a book, a mess at home, and some blocks.......

Me and My Quilts-Exploring the Possibilites

Julie Sefton has a book! A long time ago she asked me to make a barn block from the book directions. I did. Sent it off to her to get quilted, binding, and hanging sleeve!

And I was sworn to secrecy.

Hold right hand up.

I promise not to breath a word of this adventure and what I have done.

I was officially a SSOBB. 

Here is a link to the books blog.....

thefreepiecedbarnproject.blogspot

Here you will find links for all the other SSOBB members and snippet pictures of their barns.

They are all totally awesome!

Slowly each one will be revealed. 

So, while still working on the house, I have made a decision....

Someday when the kitchen is done, I'll hang that quilt on the new wall area above the fridge. Only it won't be a fridge, it will be a closet door there. All this house stuff is taking up so much of my life right now. It is a good kind of stress, at least it will be worth it when finished.

I took a picture of the block lotto mystery blocks that I have done so far.

Old McDonald Mystery QAL

There will be 99 blocks when we are done.

So I am sewing a little bit too.

2 snow days.....

I was home for two days and went to work on the tula pink blocks. First I put rows together.

I staggered them. I thought I could match up the stagger easier than actually lining them up vertically as I put the rows together. 

It is way to big to get a decent picture of it on the floor. This will have to do for now.

It was nice sewing while it snowed outside. The day before the big storm our new living room window went in too.

We always disliked this window. The center pane was always fogged up and you couldn't really see out. The drapes were hung when we moved in. They were in pretty bad shape after 16 years or so.

Wow, is this really my house? I love these new windows!

Block Lotto blocks...

These are for the February drawing.

And these are for the Old McDonald Mystery at Block Lotto. The color cue was "ground cover" and I went with green.

the latest stuff.....

I'm in a block exchange again. 

My blocks are called Maple Star.

My 12 Electric Fan blocks.

I needed to make one more 6 inch block for my layout and I added some red to the corners of one of the other blocks. 

We made 12 inch star blocks and a 6 inch block that could be any block we wanted. Our exchange blocks are all red and white. I'm adding this blue fabric. There was some discussion on the "rules" for the quilts. 

Were they ONLY red and white quilts? Several people said they had already started adding another color, me included. In the end it was decided that they were our blocks now and we could do anything we wanted with them. It will be fun to see how they all turn out.

Last morning to get January's Block Lotto blocks posted. This year all the blocks will be 6 inch blocks. There is a mystery sampler too. I decided to participate. Sophie dubbed it old McDonald. The name alone made me want to do it.

I went scrappy with mine. We needed 6. 

Two of my sisters came down for Christmas. We went painting and made snowmen. They could be personalized to what ever team we chose. Jane and I did the Minnesota Vikings. Jenny didn't do a team. She took hers home to finish. She wanted leopard spots on her scarf and hat.

And I won!

These are the wonky strip blocks from December at Block Lotto. The majority of them have arrived! I'm thinking they will be laid out in horizontal rows, as I can't think of anything better right now and I like this. The fabric between the block will be a bright green. Sort of a lime color.

We are in a BLIZZARD watch. Not a storm, but blizzard. It is expected Tuesday. 

tula pink goal met for today....

I am part of a group making the blocks from Tula Pink's 100 modern quilt blocks.

Today I wanted to get the january group done, and I did!

Only 8 more to go.

I had to lay out what I had so far.

I'm liking it a lot.

Plan right now is to get some medium gray to use for sashing and border.

Lets go back to October....

 I went on my first retreat ever in October.

It was pretty nice for sewing. I got a lot done.

There was lots of room to spread out for cutting and sewing and pressing. I worked on my row by rows. I haven't worked on these since. I pulled them out one Saturday, looked everything over, but was overwhelmed by it all. I didn't know where to start back up. It sat out all day and I ended up packing it all back up.

There were 10 of us. Some were sewing, some were scrap booking and my mom was knitting.

She was making mittens. But she kept telling everyone that came down to the kitchen that she was making warmers for a certain male body part!

Really Mom?!

Fast forward.....

I sew at a machine behind the sofa. It is a 1948 Singer. I like sewing here, right next to the kitchen. I can easily go back and forth when cooking. Not that I cook that much, but it is handy.

I was finally putting on some binding for a Christmas gift. There was pressure to get it done and close up the machine. A lot of work was going on behind that wall.

We are taking out the door in the kitchen so a new "front" door was needed. The door in the kitchen was rarely used and this one will probably get the same amount of traffic.

I closed up the machine and they started cutting out the wall. And then they hauled the cut section outside through the.....

new front door! The space! The light! It was all so wonderful!

I asked them to put an outlet in there.

Because....

Well, you never know.

But just in case....

I wanted to put the ironing board in there if I am sewing a lot.

Tractor joe just shook his head. 

I made this some time ago. I'm not sure I have ever shown it.

The strips are 1 1/4 cut.

I wanted to show the quilt that was getting its binding at the last minute, but now I can't find it.

I found this one and can say.....

Merry Christmas to all of you!

My pictures are all so disorganized. I'm going to go see what else I can blog about!

October what?? 17th. Already??

Back in September Mary Fons was at the the Quilted Steeple in Lone Rock Iowa.

She did some classes and lectures during their open house.

There was an outdoor quilt show too.

A nice strong breeze made picture taking hard.

It is located out in the country. A new purpose for an old church.

She went up and down the aisle warming up the crowd before she started. We didn't do any of the classes, just the lecture. There is a picture of the crowd on the home page if you click on the link.

This was a dresser up on the second floor of one of the sheds. It was there when we bought the place.

The drawers were missing and it was falling apart. We added two shelves using scrap wood.

Then stained it...

It turned out a little better than anticipated. But we are still using it the way I had planned. As a grilling station. Our tiny table top gas grill sits on top and other grilling supplies are on the shelves. It is protected from the weather and will be brought inside for the winter. So it should last a nice long time. 

This was last years block exchange quilt. We had a meeting for this years. We will make a 12 inch star block and a 6 inch block of our choice (times 12). They will be in reds and whites. I think I have a plan already...but I haven't sewn one block yet.

That is probably where I should start...getting my blocks sewn.

Went to Des Moines for the AQS quilt show a couple weeks ago. 

Lynne had a quilt entered again this year. I love being able to see her stuff in person! We stopped to stare and soak it all in and take a photo. I bought her a pin too, but that is still in my bag. 

This car cover was made by one of the members of the Blue Earth Valley Quilters. Jan asked friends for orphan blocks to create this car cover. She made it several years ago. She had even sold the car. The new owner loaned it back just for the quilt show last August. I had heard about it, but this was the first time I saw it in person. It is pretty awesome. 

I still need to work on some binding. I can drag my feet with the best of them when it comes to binding. But today is the day. Pressure is on, I want it done before Monday and the next BEVQ meeting. 

One more thing.

The fabric pack challenge this year is Pumpkin Spice. I dug out an old pattern I made about 20 years ago. No Ordinary Cats by Country Threads. While making all the small flying geese and tiny stars that also go in this quilt, I discovered something.

My skills for sewing small stuff has not improved in 20 years. They are as wonky and off as ever.

When I pull this out again to work on it....I may be simplifying the pattern and using 2 inch squares for some of the filler. Or maybe not, but, that is just how I feel today.

I better get busy!

quilt show and tula.....

First a link to Smilebox that will show all the quilts.

Challenge Quilts

This is old stuff now! Last month was the BEVQ

(Blue Earth Valley Quilters)

And the woodcarvers too.

The challenge quilts were made from the same fabric packets bought the year before. You can do as you please. Any size, any style and add fabric if you want. But you must use all the fabrics.

I don't remember how I found this, but I thought it was pretty cool.

lorrie.cranor.org/blog/2014/01/19/how-to-make-an-interleave-quilt/

I did this in an afternoon. I didn't mark my batting. I used the straight edge of the next strip as my guide and that worked for me. I also pressed each strip as I sewed them on. I failed to curve both sides, so I have some straight edges in there too. I wasn't happy about this, but I had used all ten fabrics and called it done.

I was very surprised with a ribbon. 2nd place. Wow.

It shows that you shouldn't judge your own work.

While you may not be that impressed with what you did....someone else might be.

There was the jelly roll derby race on Friday night. 

Here is mine. I think it will make a wonderful throw on the floor baby quilt. I had high hopes of quilting it myself right away. But it it still just a top in the closet.

This is Karen's finished top.

We were the ONLY TWO contestants! 

She won by about 15 inches.

The event has been cancelled for next year due to lack of participation.

Dang. How can I try and beat her? She won last year too.

The Tula Pink 100 quilt blocks continues.

We are over half way now. 

We are in a new school year. Sewing is pretty sporadic. I did pick up a finished quilt last week,

or was it two weeks ago....

Anyway, I still want to get the binding on that soon. 

It is the gift for the wedding that was last May.