Happy National Quilting Day!

Though I haven't written for a while, I really have been busy at the machine when possible.

Here is what I'm working on this week.  It is a super secret project, so am only showing you wnat is under my needle.  It is further along as I finished the all over quilting on 2 of the sections this week.

I've also made a few of these Foster Care Bags that our church ministry called Seams of Love has been working on.  Foster kids often leave their homes with their belongings in garbage bags if they even have anything they can take with them.  These bags will help them carry some of their essentials and give them a bit of dignity!

It is purely coincidental that both of these projects have a lot of blue and red in them!

Next time I'll tell you how these came to be and where I'm going with them.

You may remember that I started a 4-patch project at last year's Friend's Mini Retreat.

I'll tell you about my tumbler leader ender project then, too.  Here is a preview.

Hope you are having a super National Quilting Day and, yes, that is an actual day and it is always the 3rd Saturday in March.  Happy Quilting!

Until Next Time,

XOXOxoxoXOXO

Lois

Quilting Friends Retreat - 2015

My friend, Joyce, e-mailed me to tell me that my middle name is trouble.  She went on to say that last year at our 2014 retreat to her "cabin in the woods", I introduced her and friend Diane to hexie punches and showed them how to make hexies.  We are ALL now making English paper pieced hexie quilts.  Yep, I did that. 

This year, I bought them each a ruler and showed how they could cut tumbler shapes with it.  I had already been making these tumbler shapes for a quilt.  Yep, hooked them again.  By the end of the three days together, Joyce had already cut each of us 300 2-1/2" squares and we had decided each of us would exchange 300 squares with each other to make commemorative quilts to celebrate our 30th year as friends which happens in 2016.  We had been talking about exchanging New York Beauty blocks - making 10 each so we would each have 30 blocks.  Now, isn't cutting 2-1/2" squares easier?

You can see some of the strips of 4 tumblers in between the boxes that hold the parts and pieces to the quilt I was working on there.  One of those boxes holds the squares for the tumblers. I have to thank Bonnie Hunter for choosing the tumbler block for the leader/ender challenge for the year.  You can read about it here in case you would like to join in the tumbler fun. I also need to thank cousin Sheila who gifted me with a tumbler ruler along with her stash several months ago.

During the 3 days I finished putting together 444 four-patch blocks.  I had about a lot of them all done and the rest were pairs that just needed the final seams.  Then I started adding the half-square triangles to make them into square in a square blocks. This project was found in the April issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.  I just could not get that quilt out of my mind. Usually I don't do projects from magazines, but that one just appealed to me.

After she completed the machine binding on 5 -- yes 5 charity quilts, she brought out this beauty to work on. I wish I had photographed the charity quilts before she packed them up. She had also done the long arm machine quilting on the jelly roll quilts as well as the binding.

After completing the units she was working on for her bow tie quilt, Joyce started joining the blocks that will be the borders of her Civil War quilt.  These blocks are much smaller than they appear in this photo and the quilt is to die for!  Did I mention that my friends are very talented quilters?  You may have noticed that we all love the scrappy look in our quilts.

Our retreats are fun as well as productive.  We take turns making the meals so no one has to spend all of their time cooking.  It rained every day which may not sound like fun to you, but for Diane and I who live where 100 plus days are the norm, retreating to Joyce's cabin where it rains and the high during the day is in the 70's, well, it was refreshing! We sewed and slept with a breeze coming in the open windows!

I hope you have been having some sewing and quilting fun this Summer!

Until Next time,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Thousand Pyramids - The 30 Year Wonder Qluilt

According to my research, the Great Pyramid took about 20 years to build.  This quilt top took about 30 years from concept to last row joined.  Hmmm, maybe not so bad considering there are actually 1,175 pyramids in this charm quilt.

I think there were five of us who did an exchange that took about 18 months.  We had 4 templates (2 people used the same template).  We planned to exchange 10 fabrics a month in a particular color family.  Each of us drew around the templates and cut out the shapes with 1/4" seam allowances for hand piecing., Fifty quilt pieces were made and exchanged each month.  We were loose on the color families - red meant anything from deep burgundy to the lightest pink, blue was navy to pale blue, etc. Colors like rust might fit in either the orange or brown category.

The templates included a half-square triangle which was used by two quilters.  One (our East Coast native) used a clam shell, one shape was a diamond and then there was mine that was a pyramid shape.

I moved cross country during the exchange and found that 10 of the fabric shapes could be sent in a #10 envelope for the price of a first class stamp, so each month, I continued to send my shapes to each of the others and they sent theirs to me.

A little Amish Influence.

All types of fabrics were exchanged.  There are a few that probably  aren't the best quality and maybe should have been left out, but our stashes weren't as big back then.

Christmas fabrics including a fussy cut Christmas bear were exchanged.

Even a vintage Holly Hobby fabric made it into the top. Notice that it is next to an Irish clover leaf.

There is even an "A" for Arnold in the top.

There may be a point or two that need to be "fixed" or maybe they will be left in even if they are slightly off.  Maybe it's more important to have this quilt done and quilted than it is to have it be perfectly pieced after 30 years or so!

One of the neatest things about the fabric is that even though the original exchange was with a small group of dear friends in Iowa, as I was finishing the quilt, I needed more fabric to make it large enough.  Of course, I used some of my newer stash, but I still needed unique fabrics in some colors, so asked two of my dear Arizona friends if they would contribute the colors I needed and they did!  So this quilt includes fabrics from not only over time, but from more friends than the original group.  

Isn't that part of the culture of quilting?  Neighbors exchanged fabrics, friends contributed fabrics to fill a need and relatives shared their stash.  Today just like in the past, these traditions continue and I'm very happy they do, aren't you?

Here's to Quilting Traditions!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Hexie Progress

Lately I have been working on a project that I can't show you yet.  I'm sorry to have been so silent for the past few weeks.

We have also spent several days in Tucson as our daughter was diagnosed with Stage 1 Melanoma.  We went down each time she was to have a procedure.  They were able to get all of the margin and the two lymph nodes they removed were clear.  Such a relief!  She will become very close friends with her dermatologist, however, as she will be monitored regularly to make sure there are no recurrences. And where is she this week?  At Camp Surf with the Girl Scout Troop she leads.  Hope they use a LOT of sunblock!

In the evenings when I am home, I've been working on hexies.  I also worked on them in waiting rooms during our trips.  I do not work on them in the car as it's way too hard to thread the needles I use while moving.

One diamond has been added.  The rest are ready to attach.

I love how the scraps look together giving a more interesting look than just a single fabric would.

As of right now only two more diamonds need to be added to the center star.

Before I do much more, I will need to make some more hexies is all of the colors. I am using a 3/4" punch by Fiskars and all of those annoying cards that magazines have tucked in their pages for the base of the English paper piecing of the hexies.

For this size, I have cut a lot of 2" x 2-1'2" rectangles.  Using a glue stick, I place the base on the wrong side of the rectangle and cut a little more than 1/4" seam allowance before basting the seam allowance to the back.  There are many tutorials on the web that can show you how to do that.  I do not baste through the cards, but simply tack the seam allowances on each point and then use a tiny slip stitch to join the hexies to one another.  It really takes longer to describe than it does to do!

Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Until next time,

xoxoXOXO

Lois

Other People's Fabric - Sheila's Stash

Scrappy quilts are just the best!  To get all those fabrics takes time.  It takes time to build your own stash, but if you have friends, you can get other people's fabric.  Sometimes we have formal exchanges of fat quarters or fat eighths.  Sometimes, it's specific blocks or strips or squares. Sometimes, it's a gift from someone. Whichever it is -- it's fun to play with other people's fabric mixed with your own!

Last week, I received this box.

Inside was this.......

Oh, my! A Longaberger Basket!

A BIG basket full of.......

Make that jam packed full of........

Yep, fabric!

And other stuff, too!

Lots of fabric and stuff!

A tear might have fallen!

Sheila's greens, red and purples!

Patriotic prints and patterns.

Neutrals, golds and yummy blues!

It was Sheila's stash and all she asked was.....

that I quilt and bind this small quilt she made.

She's decided to give up quilting.  She's discovered

Skydiving and Zip lining!

I guess those are sort of exciting, but I'd rather play with other people's fabric adding it to my own rather large stash!

Thank you Sheila!

Do you love other people's fabric as much as I do?  It's the variety and they choose differently than I do which adds to the spice in a quilt.

Until next time,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Celtic Solstice and Hexie Progress - slow but sure!

Are you a slow stitcher or a fast one?

Do you get things done really quickly or savor the process?

Do you work on one project until it's done? 

Or are you like me with several things going at once?

Here is where Celtic Solstice is today.  The left portion is all stitched together.  The right portion is webbed and ready for the horizontal rows to be stitched together.

I showed you the first two borders here. The final border is a bright blue.

The pieced border is only stitched into "twosies" at this point.

In addition to Celtic Solstice, my evening hand stitching project is hexies.

When the diamonds are added, they will fit like this.

Of course, I have to add some more neutral to the final points before adding diamonds.  And, I'll have to make 5 more diamonds, too!  I cut more neutral fabric this morning for more hexie variety.

Then, there is the pyramid project that I showed you here.  All of the setting triangles are stitched now, so it is just a matter of sewing the diagonal rows and deciding if a border is needed. 

I need to take a photo of the pyramids now that all of the setting triangles are done.

So which are you? Fast, Slow, one project at a time or working on many projects?  I'd love to know so leave a comment below.

Until next time,

XOXOxoxoXOXO

Lois

Sew Day and Pyramid Building

Last week my friends and I had the opportunity to get together for a day of sewing fun!  Joyce was in the valley for a few days to stay with grand kids.  We met at Diane's as her husband had surgery a couple of weeks ago and we didn't want him to be alone yet.

I made Crock pot Potato Soup and carrot cake for lunch so we were set to sew! And sew we did!

Joyce is working on four patches for a quilt for one of her grandsons.

Now doesn't she look happy!  She got all the ones she had ready to sew that day done!

Diane was continuing a tradition of working on a quilt she plans to enter in the Arizona Quilters Guild Show which is in March.  Yep, last minute, but she always gets them done! And they win prizes, too!

These geese are for the border of her flying geese quilt. these are actually the side triangles, the geese are from various prints that are used in the blocks of the quilt.

We are all working on hexie quilts.  This is the beginning of Diane's.  I had mine there, too, but have a lot more done on it now and have not photographed the progress -- next time.  Joyce did not have hers there that day.  She is working on a larger size hexie, but has now purchased the smaller one that Diane and I are using as she likes that size better now that she has seen our progress.

Joyce made this wonderful bag for me to use while working on hexies.  She made Diane another friend and herself one, too.  She's been a busy gal!

Just look at all of those compartments!  She had rolled up 2" strips of fabrics in the colors I'm sewing my hexie quilt in as an extra surprise!  I am loving sing this wonderful bag. Thank you, Joyce!

I was working on setting triangles for my Thousand Pyramids quilt.

All of the blocks are finally sewn together and the top 5 of the setting triangles on the right side.  None of the blocks are sewn into rows and the 7 setting triangles yet to be sewn are just pieces placed on the design wall.  This quilt began with an exchange of fabrics almost 30 years ago.  I won't say there are no repeated fabrics as there may be one or two, but not intentionally.  I think there were six of us who sent each other fabrics 10 per month in the color of the month until we had a thousand fabrics.  Since we sometimes bought the same fabrics, there may be some that are the same.  I'll tell the whole story when the quilt top is done and ready to be off the design wall!

I need it off the design wall so I can put Celtic Solstice up there! All the blocks are done.  All of the pieced border blocks are done, but none of the rows have been sewn together.  It's on the list, but first I want those pyramids off the design wall.  My design floor doesn't allow me to check out the blocks as well, but I have decided that an Oriental rug would look lovely on the floor in the loft once Celtic Solstice is finished!

So, I'm making progress on 3 quilts.  Yay!

Until next time,

sosoSOSOsoso

Lois