WOW!!! I can't believe I haven't written in such a long time!

Where did August go...???!!! Well... for that matter, where did OVER HALF OF THIS DING-DANG YEAR go???!!!

I'm still in the SewConnected quilting group on Flickr. I have been a good little girl and gotten all of my monthly required blocks finished and sent back to their homes within the first week or two of the month. Well... not August... Part of it is because I've felt time-challenged (though I don't really know what I've done???), part of it is because I've been lazy and the other part of it is because the fabrics didn't even arrive until August 8th.

The blocks for August are very, very simple blocks-in-blocks blocks, but I just couldn't get up the gumption to work on them until today. I drew out the squares in CorelDraw then had to sit down and calculate how wide each strip needed to be to make up the size squares I'd drawn out. I AM NOT good a calculating anything!!!

Anyway, I was going to do 12.5" squares, but she didn't send fabric long enough for me to work with that size. Instead, I'm doing 9.5" and 6.5" ones.

AND... I've already received my September fabric: a fat quarter of white Kona cotton. We're supposed to use our own scraps of fabric to make tiny houses in the center of a 15.5" block. The houses can't be smaller than 3x3.5" or larger than 4x4.5. Dangit! Another something I'm going to have to calculate!!!

JacquieG's July SewConnected Block

I finally finished JacquieG's July SewConnected quilt block. This was BY FAR the most difficult block I've made for this group. And, it wasn't that it was THAT difficult, but it really, really made me stretch to figure out how to do it.

I wish I'd added more of the aqua color blocks.

Mini Art Quilt for RyverChyld

RyverChyld received the art quilt that I sent her so I can finally post photos of it!

I was so afraid that RyverChyld would be disappointed in it, but she posted photos of it in the gallery, and wrote some really nice things about it. It IS cute; it's just not up to the standards of her quilting!

#1. This is the first art quilt I've ever made. It really sparked my imagination, and I can't wait to make more!
#2. Quilting is NOT my strong point. I really need to work on that!
#3. This is the first time I've sewn the binding on. I usually flip it over and stitch it down by hand. I saw a really cool Elmer's glue trick on the internet, and I tried it to tack down the binding on the backside so the stitches would catch it from the front. Worked like a dream!
#4. Speaking of glue... I used glue stick to tack down the rick-rack around the border. Also worked like a dream!
#5. I had NO idea how to add hanging tabs on the back. I kind of winged it (and it shows!!!). RyverChyld's quilt to me has perfect hanging tabs--a real "ah ha!" moment for me. Now I know how to do them!
#6. This was FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

RyverChyld's Art Quilt For Me!!!

Last week, I received the art quilt that RyverChyld made for me!!! WOW! It is really, really cool. She did lots of techniques on it: the sky is crazy-pieced with silver embroidery; the grass is made from layers of pleats; the trees are appliquéd; the corners have folded fabric roses; and "live" "laugh" "love" is embroidered across the top!

It's bigger than the one I sent her--I think she said it's 20x24. The one I made her is 14x18.

Anyway, she did some beautiful work. I hope she's not disappointed in the one I sent her. I spent alot of time on it, and I learned SOOOOOO much making it, but it looks so Plain Jane and simple compared to what I made for her. It's too late now since I already put it n the mail!

June SewConnected Block

June is krommomma's month for a quilt block. She wants us to use our fabric scraps to make her a block. This sounds really petty, but I don't think that is fair. I spent alot of money and time buying fabric, cutting it up, addressing the envelopes, driving to the PO and paying to ship out the fabric.

She wants a wonky log cabin house. We're only supposed to use scrap fabric, and not cut into our stash. I don't have much scrap fabric because I cut up what I had into 1.5" squares for TwiztidBlood. I'll have to dig into my stash to make her block for her.

I'm glad she posted a tutorial on how to make the block because I don't have a clue how.

May SewConnected block

I finished my May quilt block for the SewConnected group. I had a really hard time with this one because she wanted a 15" finished block but she didn't send all that much fabric. Another girl posted her leftovers so I thought I would, too. My block is very simple. It's a 5-1/2" center block surrounded by 32, 3" squares. It came out to exactly 15-1/2". I hope she likes it.

Oh, yeah. I had to piece together two of the little squares to even have enough litte squares to make up the block. I hope she doesn't mind that either.

Mini art quilt

My new mini art quilt partner filled out a great questionnaire. I can't wait to get started on a quilt for her! I already have an idea of something she may like. I also know what size I want to make it. I'll check my fabric stash, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to go shopping for more. Here's a teaser: I know I need white-on-white and maybe some pink since that's her favorite color (not sure about that yet).

Joann's doesn't have a sale on their quilting fabric for this ad so I'll probably wait for it to go on sale if I can't find anything in my stash that will work.

I'm worried about the actual quilting part of it. I quilted my cherry tree mini quilt with an all-over meandering design that looked pretty good, but that's the only quilt I've ever quilted, and I'm not confident I can do it again! I would absolute HATE to mess up all my hard work with crappy quilting! I need to make a practice sandwich and practice, practice, practice. Maybe I can do some echo quilting? I'm just not sure?

Craftster.org mini art quilt swap

There's a new mini art quilt swap on Craftster.org that I'm debating on joining in on. The deadline is May 13 and the send date is July 10 so there's plenty of crafting time, I'm just not so sure of my artistic capabilities. I've never made an art quilt before, but it, like Photoshop, has been on my New Year's Resolution list for the last two years. I just worry that the themes I know I can execute won't match my partner's interests.

I have several more days to decide...

72-square quilt block for twinfibers

Yesterday, I finished up the quilt block I made for Jessica/twinfibers for the SewConnected block swap. She sent out vintage sheets and pillowcases. Here's what I made for her:

twinfibers' block pattern

I recieved twinfibers/Jessica's March SewConnected fabrics last week. I think I've figured out what to do with it:

It's 72 1-7/8" squares with a micro-bordered 4-1/2 square in the center. I'll have to measure her fabric and make sure I have enough, but I think I do.

Does this look okay, though? I don't particularly care for the block in my fabrics, but maybe it'll look better in her vintage sheets?

artsymomma's block

Well! I finished artsymomma's quilt block! I used templates and did a crazy nine-patch. I had a little bit of waste from the angled cuts, but I used almost every last shred of fabric she sent me. The block is 11.5" square.

I don't feel it's a GREAT block, but it's definitely better than I expected considering how little fabric I had to work with.


I was also a little disappointed because I couldn't get one of the seams to align. I picked it out three or four times before I gave up on it. I don't know what the problem is with it (it's the top left seam below).


I kind of like the inner border. I wanted to do a solid green inner border, but I didn't have enough fabric (even a skinny stip like that) to make a solid green border. So, I miter-joined the green with a strip of tan. It's different, but I like it.

SewConnected Quilt Group

I'm in a virtual quilting bee called SewConnected. There are 15 of us. We each send out fabric during our assigned month and everybody works on a block for us and sends it back. So far, I've had alot of fun working on blocks for both myself and for other people. However... this month's fabric is VERY HARD to work with! The sender sent out 8 pieces of fabric which should be enough to work with, however, she wants a block no smaller than 10" (which means 10.5" unfinished). This wouldn't be a big deal except that she only sent out 9" x 5" pieces of fabric! I'm going to have to piece together the fabric to get it to 10.5"! Shesh! I don't even have a CLUE what I can make. I'm going to have to cut some of my fabric into 9x5 pieces and then try cutting those dimensions into a workable block. This is really challenging me, and it makes me very nervous. I hope I can come up with something nice for her.

SewConnected Quilt Blocks

Here are my newest "Eclectic" blocks! The first one was inspired by the block that Jacquie G. from Tall Grass Prairie made for me. I really like that it's a rectangle within a square. I think that's unusual.

Second is a scrap block made from all the scraps people are returning to me.

Third is a block from the Japanese Quilt Blocks book that I have. I can't remember the name of the block, and the book is upstairs.

Fourth is a 45° angle block that I cut with my rotary cutter (rather than on the laser). It turned out nicely!

And finally, my favorite! It's a crazy nine-patch that I made with templates. I cut up a square out of paper then added 1/4" around all four sides (I got to use my new rotating mat, and I LOVE it!). I really like the little 1/4" brown border. It was only supposed to have the Kona bone as the outer border, but I miscalculated and ended up with an 11-1/2" block. I like the Surf and Sand border so it doesn't matter that I messed up a little! Anyway, another reason I like this block so much is because these are all 9 fabrics that are in the quilt.

Alex Anderson's Super Simple Quilts (1 and 2)

So... I also bought Alex Anderson and Liz Aneloski's books, Super Simple Quilts (1 and 2). The first book has arrived already. There are only 3 quilts in the book, but I LOVE IT! The quilt on the cover makes it worth the $9 price of the book.

The second book was a pre-order and hasn't been released yet. I love the quilt on the cover of that book, too.

Foolproof Machine Quilting and Machine Quilting Solutions

I bought this book the other day from Overstock.com. I really like her attitude: "Free-motion quilting?! Who needs it!?" All of the machine quilting examples in this book are strictly done with the walking foot and/or decorative stitches.

She suggests using paper-folded-and-cut templates to create simple-to-sew-around quilting motifs. It all looks so easy to do. Plus, I love her use of embellishments. She uses lots of buttons and rick-rack trim--it's just something unexpected and very pretty.

I also bought this book: Machine Quilting Soutions. This one, on the other hand, is all about free-motion quilting. And, she's RIGHT. She says: "how many of you have walked over to your machine and actually attempted to quilt a flower with no prior knoledge of how to draw a flower?" Okay... I admit it, that's me! Instead, you're supposed to practice, practice, practice drawing until it becomes second nature to draw the flower you want to quilt. Muscle memory is key. HOWEVER... I don't understand how muscle memory works because I'll be holding a pencil with my right hand to practice making the shape. When it comes time to actually free-motion quilt, I'll be holding my hands flat... doesn't that require DIFFERENT muscle memory? I think it does... right...? I'm not sure.

Just in case...

I measured all of my quilt tops the other day so I can start work on the backings. Unfortunately, I've already misplaced my card with all of the measurements on it! So... to keep that from happening again, I'm going to post the quilt top measurements here so I can refer to them if I need to later on (actual backing sizes are in parenthesis after the measurement):

Brian's Quilt: 82 x 90
Marquee Quilt: 86-1/2 x 104-1/2
Hopscotch: 65-1/2 x 77 (70 x 84)
Urban Windowpanes: 48-1/2 x 61-1/2 (52-1/2 x 69-1/2)
Eco Breeze: 48-1/2 x 64-1/2 (53 x 71)
Hancock's Remnant: 48-1/2 x 64-1/2 (53-1/2 x 72)
Chris' Quilt: 81-1/2 x 90

I've finished all of my smaller-sized backings, and now I need to work on the larger quilts. The one I'm dreading the most is the marquee quilt. I think I have two 4-1/2 yard pieces of fabric that I'm going to have to piece together to make that backing. I hope I bought enough because that is a BIG quilt! If nothing else, I can piece together a bunch of the leftover strips I have from the front of the quilt.

Speaking of which... I have a TON of leftover strips from the front of the quilt. I probably have enough to make ANOTHER quilt.

Long Arm Lesson!

I'm so excited! I just signed up for my long arm lesson! It's not until December, but that's okay. It's $15 for a 2-hour lesson and then $15/hour after that! I seriously thought the lesson would be between $50-100 and then then rental was probably $30/hour so I am PLEASANTLY surprised to find the price is only $15! Lucky, lucky me! And, she says a queen-sized quilt can be done in about 4 hours. I've been paying $135+ per quilt to have them quilted across town. This will be a huge cost savings if I can do it myself!

Hancock's Remnant Quilt Backing

I just finished the backing for the Hancock's Remnant quilt. I wrote earlier that the Eco Breeze backing was my first attempt at random piecing. Well it was, BUT... that was controlled randomness. This Hancock's quilt was the first time I've just thrown the fabric on the floor and attempted to get it to align.

My final measurement is 53-1/2 x 72"--just perfect.

Eco Breeze Backing

Here's the backing for the Eco Breeze quilt kit I bought at Joann's. I bought 3 yards of fabric as the directions said I'd need. However, instead of 108" of fabric, the lady only cut me 104"! That totally messed up my nice pretty in-the-middle seam that I was planning on doing.

So... this was my first attempt at random piecing a backing. I did not bad, though I REALLY had to think hard to do it.

The top part in the picture is two pieces; the bottom part is three. I laser-cut my leftover fabric and added it to the middle just for the heck of it, and I really like how that turned out!

Now I'm worried about the Urban Windowpanes backing. I don't have any leftover pieces from the front to add to the backing so if it's not big enough, I'm up the creek (I bought it on a different day, but the same lady cut it for me). I mean I can always buy more, but that really aggravates me if that's what I end up having to do!

2-Hour Quilt Kit

The Eco Breeze quilt kit I bought at Joann's the other day has been assembled! Easy, Easy, Easy. So easy, I should be ashamed! But I'm NOT!

I like that these little kits go together so fast. There's certainly that element of immediate satisfication.

And, I like that I got them on sale.

And, I like that I have practice quilts for all the little techniques I want to try (long-arming for the first time, sewing on the binding, quilting on my machine, etc.). I didn't spend alot of money or time on them, but they look nice, and they'll look even nicer when they're quilted and finished.