Design Wall Monday: The Project of Doom

Here is my big Harry Potter quilt in progress.  This is just my first pass at a layout and I already see things I want to switch around.  But it's exciting for me to finally put this pile of blocks up on a design wall (or curtain in this case) and see them together.

The broom and the flying key on the side will be leaning on the outside of the bookshelf, which is why the background is a different color.  There are a few more blocks I want to include, which is why the one block on the bottom looks so lonely.

What would you put in the center?  Right now the monster book of monsters sits there but I am thinking of switching and putting Hedwig there.  I'm also not sure I want both potted plants on the second shelf.  But maybe Neville put them there because he's tall.  I have a backstory for everything.

Thanks for hanging with me while I worked on blocks and shared them this month.  Hopefully this beast will be done soon!

Design Wall Monday: Still working on Jolly Halloween

I am back to working on blocks for my Jolly Halloween quilt.  I've trimmed up the embroidery squares and have started making blocks for the corners.  It took me forever to decide on a block I really wanted to use, then I've spent forever switching around fabrics for sashing and borders.  So here is a piece of the design as it stands now.  The outer border has sort of a vintage feel which I think goes with the vintage look of the embroidery blocks.  There are actually two different blacks which look like solids in this picture, but trust me, they each have character close up.

Place your bets on whether this will get done by Halloween.  I think so.  I have a few other Halloween projects I was hoping to get to as well, but I think at this point they may have to wait until next year. 

Linking up today with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and
Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs

Today's Harry Potter quilt block includes a lovely book about potions.

Hopefully I will have at least part of this quilt put together next week for Design Wall Monday!

Monster Movie Table Runner

I cut apart another panel that I have of the monster movie posters.  I picked this up last year and I liked it so much that I got extra.  Good thing, because I gave away the first quilt so now I can make another.  I played around with this rough layout on the floor.   Two of the images are larger than the rest, so I thought I would put them at the ends.

It wasn't until I had all the smaller posters put together that I realized that the two end pictures ave very different sizes.  Centering them on each end would just involve so much math.  I convinced myself that they wouldn't look good being so asymmetrical, so opted to go with a runner with just the smaller pictures.

Then I got on a roll putting it all together.  Merrily sewing and pressing.  Getting to the last green border and. . .

. . .the bobbin thread ran out just inches from the end.  Happens so often you'd think I'd fill bobbins in advance.  But no, I seem to like the frustration of stopping everything to refill a bobbin.

Then it was time to select the outer border.  This is what I'm thinking right now:

I'm going with spiderwebs.  Figuring out how wide I want to make it.  This should be finished up pretty quickly.  I do love keeping to a crafting theme during the holidays!

The next block in my Harry Potter Project of Doom quilt is Hedwig:

I love how she turned out!

Linking up today for Design Wall Monday with Judy at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday: Jack Baskets

Since I finished my Autumn leaves quilt, I jumped right in on my next one.  This one will have four blocks with slightly different fabrics in each.  The teeth will be embroidered in later.  Hope to finish this one by Halloween.

Don't worry about the selvage along the bottom - the block is cute extra big and will be trimmed way down after I applique it.

I love the retro look for Halloween.  I guess I'm getting old.  It seems like it used to be a gentler holiday for little kids.  Now it's all about really grisly stuff (or sexy!) for adults.  As long as everyone has fun, to each his own.  Just pass the candy corn and I'm happy.

Linking up today to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday: 12 Farmer's Wife Blocks

I'm moving right along with my hot pink Farmer's Wife Quilt.  I'm having so much fun with this.  I just flip through the pages and do whichever block strikes my fancy at the moment.  I've still been too lazy to start printing out templates.  Everything you see is just done by calculation and stitch-and-flip.

Math skills are great - until they let you down.

See this block?  Isn't it gorgeous?  I did my calculations and spent some time making it  I was so proud.

Until I realized the completed block is only five inches instead of six.

Argh.  This one goes in the orphan block pile.  Possibly to become a cute pin cushion or something someday.

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday: Farmer's Wife 8 blocks

My "Farmer's Wife's Midlife Crisis" Jubilee quilt only got four more blocks this week.  I still have barely dipped  into my stash of hot pinks and I'm having a lot of fun with it.  I'm too lazy to work from templates so I'm just doing the math for each block in my head.  I'll need to use templates for some of the more difficult blocks.

The farmer's wife in my imagination is not a shy person.  She mixes her batiks with mind-bending geometrics with florals. 

She likes pinks so hot they're almost red.

But she still likes the occasional sweet cherry print.  As long as the cherries are deep pink.

I would love to work faster on this quilt but the incredibly good weather has pulled me out to the garden most days.  I need to find a "look how much I've cleaned up the garden" weekly meme.  Maybe "Weedless Wednesday."

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times.

The Farmer's Wife's Midlife Crisis Quilt

For the past year, quilting bloggers all over the internet have been making blocks based on a book called "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt."



The blocks are  interesting, and range from very simple to a bit more complex.  Everywhere I looked, people were posting pictures of their blocks.

So about a year ago I bought the book.  I was going to get in on this!

Life and other quilts got in the way.  But I made a Pinterest board of some of the cool blocks and helpful tips.  I started thinking about what fabrics I wanted to use.

Time passed.

More time passed.  The bandwagon continued to fill with Farmer's Wife quilts everywhere.  I thought I'd catch up.

Guess what?  The quilt-along is finishing.  All 111 blocks.  There is no more hope of catching up.  Therefore, it seemed like a good time to start.  No pressure, right? 

So here, better late than never, are my first few blocks.  I was too impatient to print out all the templates required so I just did the math in my head to cut the pieces the right size.

My quilt is going to feature a lot of hot pink.  

This one is just for me.  No matter how much the girls beg.  In fact, I'm thinking of making this my "Jubilee" quilt - 50 blocks to celebrate my 50 years.  Then I'll call it the Farmer's Wife Midlife Crisis quilt.

Bandwagons. . .I might miss them, but eventually I get where I want to go.

Design Wall Monday: Doll quilt

I finished piecing my doll quilt.  This has been a fun way to use up scraps, and I think I've done enough tiny triangles to satisfy me for a while.

I know to be a purist I should hand quilt it, but I have so many projects I want to move forward right now I just don't know if I want to spend the time on it.  There are a LOT of intersections and layers to work through on this.  Maybe I'll just do a very minimal amount of quilting and call it a day so I can move on.

The stars on my design wall are joined into rows.  I need to join up the rows and start on the border triangles, which are all cut out and ready to go.  I'm optimistic that I might get this one done by the 4th of July - but June is zipping by so fast!

A lot of things going on at my house.  As always, a little stitching helps me preserve my sanity.

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday: William Morris block 2

Here is the second of the William Morris blocks I'm working on.  Drama Girl has already claimed this quilt as one she would like to have.  I'm enjoying the machine applique, although it's very slow-going.  Stitch by stitch around each of those curves.

My "Henrietta Whiskers" quilt top is finally finished and Wasabi Girl helped me baste it this weekend.  Hestia "helped" too, although her help wasn't quite as useful.  I'm trying out bamboo batting for this one.  Somewhat thinner, but it seems to have a nice drape. 

Still making stars when I have a spare minute for my patriotic quilt.  This is the small design wall next to my sewing machine.  You can see I have some photo buttons from Wasabi Girl's softball days up there.  If you could see the rest of the design wall you'd see a lot of randomness.

Final work in progress is this doll quilt.  I spent hours and hours on Saturday cutting out tiny triangles of various sizes and then changing my mind about fabrics and cutting more triangles.  I think sometimes small-scale quilts take as much time as big ones. 

Always busy around here.  The twins are finishing up 8th grade and suddenly it seems like there are a million little things to do every day to wrap things up and get things ready for summer.  Glad I have my stitching to fall back on when I have spare moments.

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times.  Go and visit to see some beautiful work.

Design Wall Monday: William Morris block 1

I picked up a beautiful book of William Morris applique patterns.  Since I have a lot of batik fabrics I thought I'd try some of the blocks using batiks against a black background.

The shapes are pretty fussy to cut out and I'm glad I'm trying this one by machine, and not by hand.  It would be very slow-going for me with all those curves and points.

Here is a close-up.

The stitching goes very very slowly, but I like the effect. 

Design wall Monday is hosted by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday: Flower Pot

I finished my applique project that I started at my quilt retreat.

The original pattern had very traditional reds and greens like a Baltimore Album quilt.  But then I found a scrap of focus fabric in my stash for the pot and the whole bright color scheme followed.

I learned a lot about machine applique!  I spent many hours carefully stitching each piece.  There is even some reverse-applique.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Some of the circles, like these red ones below, were really tiny.

  

I also learned how to quilt feathers.  I've never been brave enough to try them before.  Don't look too closely, they're a little wonky, but I love the overall effect.

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday and also Makes My Monday.

Design Wall Monday: Seeing Stars

I've had a million things going on this week so why not just start a new project as well?  I saw this pattern called "Celebrating Freedom" in the latest issue of McCall's Quilting and I had to start it.  Thirty-six scrappy blue stars and a pretty red and white border.  This one will be done by summer hopefully. 

I have several quilts just about ready to be basted.  Once I get them all ready to go, the quilting usually goes pretty quickly for me.  I just need to call in my team of junior assistants to crawl around on the floor with the pins and put those quilt sandwiches together.

I'm packing up my sewing machine tomorrow morning to head off to quilt camp at Asilomar.  I can't wait!  Did I mention that the on-site quilt shop lets you run a tab?  Do you know how dangerous that can be?  "Oh I just need a little bit of this green fabric ...and this book...and this thread...and this cute tote bag.

Also, there is a wonderful quilt shop just down the street from the retreat center.  I would like to think I haven't spent a lot of money there - it's really pretty far from home - but I have gift certificates from them for being one of their big shoppers.  I can resist anything, except the possibility that I wont see a piece of beautiful fabric again.

Running a tab, spending money at a great quilt shop - I'm willing to face these dangers.  I'm brave like that. 

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday: Cookies and Squirrels

Today I have two finished tops up on my design wall.  Three months late, the Christmas themed flannel cookie quilt is all put together: 

It's huge and thick and will be really cozy next Christmas.  I have the backing so this one is ready to be basted by my team of basting elves this week.  (What am I going to do when the kids move out?!?)

The next one is the "Henrietta Whiskers" block of the month by Bunny Hill Designs.

There are still two more long skinny blocks top and bottom, which will have more crows and more wool stars all over.  Then two borders.  This is my $5 quilt.  The local quilt shop sold the first block instructions and fabric for $5.  If we brought it in finished the next month, we got the next block free.  I added and substituted a lot of my own fabrics from my stash, but I'll always think of it as my $5 quilt.

Please excuse the note pinned on the lower left.  I still have notes on some embroidery to add and buttons to add when it's finished.  Forgot to take the note off for the picture.

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times. 

Design Wall Monday: Applique Sampler Quilt

So happy to have this one put together at last!   I love how the hedgehogs on the bottom panel turned out.  

Now it can finally come off my design wall and into my pile of quilts to baste and quilt in March. I plan to have it ready to display with my other Spring quilts.  It's not big so it shouldn't take long.  Don't quote me on that though...

Design Wall Monday is hosted by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times.