Saturday, June 30, 2012

Poverty Piecing Purple


I have done most of the purple blocks I needed for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. I have put together some Poverty Piecing with my purples this week. I am not sure what I will use it for but it is the start of something. I did use some for the pray flag I made earlier in the month. To see what other purple people are doing go see Soscrappy`s linky page.

I thought I would show you how I put some of the piecing together.


I start by sorting some bits that are the same size.


These triangles are mostly from the ends of bindings when I join the strips.


Many are sewn together.


Again I join the ones that are about the same size.


Here the top row has four units and the bottom has three but they are about the same length and can be sewn together. I have chosen to add a strip between the rows.


Planning what units can go together again.


I got this to fit together but will need to trim the top right corner a bit.


Here are two larger halves ready to go together.

I hope you have enjoyed my show and tell about Poverty Piecing.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Weeds more then Garden


I wanted to show off my Garden. See how large my Delphinium are. I think they are as tall as me now. Any day they will open up to a forest of blue and purple. The are so tall the weeds have no chance. I made today`s post in part because Kathy (Over at Kathy Quilt`s) and I were talking about her bunnies and the weeds. I said I was needing to weed before I took any photos. She said please make a post before you weed. Let the rest of of know you too have weeds. Well it is bad in some parts. Here you go Kathy. My other friend Kathy S will get a kick out of it too.


Here is my pond. Not bad looking but if you knew the foreground of grass is all weeds. It is not to have all that grass but only wood chips. I need to get my boys to help pull out the grass. It pulls out easy because of the wood chips. But it still has to be done.


This flower bed is the worst. It has many perennials in it and they are flowering but the grass weeds have taken over it very very badly.   I may have to totally dig it up and start over.


Out in the veggy garden I have some spinach ( and a few weeds). I have a fence around the veggy garden to keep my dog from eating it before we do. As a puppy he learned to dig carrots. He likes peas and I am sure he could make a mess in minutes. The fence helps keep the deer and bunnies away. My dad has trouble with rabbits and deer eating his garden ( no fence).



Some Butter Crunch Lettuce and more weeds. I have peas, beets, potatoes, and carrots too. The beans hardly germinated.   Not sure there will be many of them.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Bee Group and Shopping


I wanted to share this quilt with you. My Bee group friend bought this quilt at the Red Deer Quilt Show (only 1/4 of the quilt is showing). It was a sample quilt for a pattern by Prairie Quilt Mercantile.  They were selling some fully finished quilts and for cheep. You could not have bought the fabric for the price they were asking.  
I have added this post to Linky Party Tuesdays #20


I picked up the old spools at a local garage sale this past weekend. I love them. So glad I stopped at the garage sale. I knew the lady at the sale was a fellow crafter and should have good stuff. I also got some large Rick Rack for $1.


Do you know what this is? I had one in my room as a child. It is the glass ball that covers a celling light bulb. My mom picked it up for me to use in my garden. Now to find a good spot for it.


Monday, June 25, 2012

Design Wall Monday June 25


Monday and back to work. I am quilting customers quilts today but I did get some log cabins sewn on  Sunday night. On my wall today is all the wonky long cabins I have done so far. I got started on them because of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012 .Check out the link to see more about Design Wall Monday and Sew Modern Monday and Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek.


I am going back and making more blocks of some of the colours. I do not want to have sashing or boarders on this quilt so I will need more blocks then 2 or 3 or 4 of each colour. Not sure how many in total I will need but so far I have 1 red, 3 Yellow, 4 green ( more coming), 8 purple, 9 Pink. I have 12 more green under way as some are a blue green and some are a mix of greens.  But I also have so much green.

 

So far we have not done Blue, Orange, or Brown yet. I hope Blue is soon as I have so much and it is needed in this quilt.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Are you sewing today

Fabric dyed then painted using a gel plate and some resists. 

It is Sunday and I might normally be trying to sew for myself today.  But I have had too many days off. I am machine quilting for customers today. I had a busy week and did not finish the machine quilting planned for this week. I hope to finish a quilt and get started on a second one. Then maybe I can play with more log cabins blocks.

So what are you sewing on today? I will plan to check out the blog world tonight. Some day I should try making a link up page. Not sure how to do that and should not take the time today to find out. Any one know where this information is?

Agility up date - We did not pass any of our runs. Once he pooped in the ring - eating grass and pooping more. One run was looking very good and then the timer did not work so we had to do it over - he did not do well the second run, no gas left. Next run he was slow and jumped off the dog walk sideways or we would have come close to a pass. Last run he had more get up and go (a good thing) but had a jump down. We had some very good parts but just could not put in all together for one run.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Purple Log Cabin



This week I worked on my Purple Log Cabins for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012. To see what the other bloggers have been working on check out the linky page at Soscrappy. I now have 8 purple blocks.



 I have been putting a little triangle in the centre and then adding 1 1/2" strip (twice around) then I add the 2" strips (twice around again). To make then more fun I have used a angle to add then. This way they are wonky.


This block I messed up on the angle and I will have to do some trimming to use it. I think I can just trim and use it.



When we worked on the pink scraps I only made two blocks and I thought I should have more pink block.  I have lots of pink strips. I may go back and do more red and green blocks. It will give me more options for the quilt and I have tons and tons of green strips.

I am going to an agility trial today. Wish us Luck.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

WIP Wednesday Log Cabin


I have been working hard on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012. This month is Purple. I love Purple and have lots of scraps to use. This week I want to make Purple Log Cabins to add to this little group of untidy Log Cabins. I have not really thought how I would lay this out but here is one thought. I may make rows of colour but then need more Red Pink and Yellow. The colour balance would allow for more Green and Purple which I have lots of. I would not need more Yellow as if we do Orange it is kind of like Yellow.

What are you working on this week?

I have added today's post to Freshly Pieced and Sew Many Ways

I am going on a Shop Hop trip today as a guest with the Mulhurst Quilt Guild. Many of my bee group members are on the bus with me today. Hoping lunch will be good.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tin Box Exchange


Tuesday is normal a stitch group day but we are going shop hopping on Wed this week. I thought I would show you the Tin Box Exchange I did with the Leduc Quilt Guild. I won the Spring box at the end of the exchange. There were six blocks in the box. I love the robin Diana did, and the cool thing is my little red bird I did went to Diana. We each got each other's birds.


Two more make six. I have no idea what I will make with my blocks. I can add blocks. I might make a runner. We are now challenged to finish it and show it at the September meeting.


This is the tree I did for the box. It is scrappy.


My friend Janet was not able to make it to the meeting and I picked up her blocks. So then I can take photos and show you what her box looked like. She was in a different group of six people so I did not make any of these or see then travel around.



The basket with the holly is sweet.

I have linked this post to Linky Party Tuesday-19, go check out other quilt posts.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Design Wall Monday June 18


I am showing the ugliest quilt ever. I did these blocks many years ago (maybe more then 10 yrs). I had lots of floral fabrics because I was doing watercolour blending quilts. I made 16 patches with 2" strips of fabric and then used 3 1/2" strips to make 4 patches. I tried to do some colour blocking or diagonal  rows of colour to make some kind of sense with it. It is still very very bad - worst quilt designing ever.

I had my mom (PS mom is a quilt judge) over on the weekend and showed her. Yuck. We talked and moved blocks around.


Piles and piles of blocks. Why so many?


Here is four blocks together. Not sure why I continued to sew these. Even just four together is way too busy. I got this box out because I had put it on my UFO list this year. Now I know why it has been in a box for so long. There are more design walls over at Patchwork Times. I have added this post to Sew Happy Geek and manic Monday


This was starting to look a bit better. It has the white of the wall showing with half the blocks taken down. We (mom and I) think we could use a plainer print in every other block and make something out of this mess. We are thinking that we will sew some together and try to make one single size quilt. We will only be using a third of the blocks I have made. I may have to give some blocks away.

I just thought it is the second last Monday till school will be out for the summer. Whoopee

Sunday, June 17, 2012

UFO Day Fun


 Twice a year the Leduc Quilt Guild ( really called The Black Gold Quilt Patch) hosts a UFO day or Quilt Till You Wilt. We have been wilting earlier and earlier each time. I have head cold and packed up around 8 pm even though the hall was booked till 10 pm. I came home last night and went to bed early.

We also do a pot luck supper. I was near the end of the food line so I did not take photos. I was thinking I would show the good food too.


The first three photos are of a quilt by Joan A. She had it basted together and spent her time Machine Quilting it on her domestic machine. She just goes like crazy and gets it done. She likes to use the gloves with little rubber dots. She says she saw this pattern of a star in a quilt at the Red Deer Quilt Show last year and traced out the block. The block units are 3"finished so the block finished up to 9". I love the scrappy quilts that Joan makes. She makes good use of some very old fabric mixed with great fabrics, most people would not do the mixture she does.  She had some of us pick out our favourite blocks. I picked one with the bright pink and some lime green (third row in the centre of the top photo).


Maybe you can see some of the quilting. She free motion quilted some leaves and some square lines.


Here I am, not to far from my box of tissue. I am working on my RRCB by Bonnie Hunter. I got many blocks put together. I am still not ready to put the whole quilt together yet. More units to do. I am considering making it bigger. Crazy Ha. I would need 6 more main blocks and more string units. I would like a big bed quilt. We are considering on buying a King size bed. And a new bed would need a new quilt. 


This wall quilt is by June A. She took a class in St John's Newfoundland in 2010 at Quilt Canada with Pippa Moore. She did the designing in the class with Pippa  and now has it based together and was just started to do the machine stain stitch. Can you see it is Bleeding Hearts?

Happy Father's Day.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

3rd Purple Scrap Saturday


Scrappy Saturday is here. I have some more blocks to add to one of my rainbow quilts. I fell in love with this Rainbow Quilt last Nov and wanted to make one. I have made the inside part different for each block. I plan to do the sashing kind of the same but in green. The top block is a 6" star on the inside. To see more purple goodness check out the linky page at Soscrappy.

Friday night sew in was last night check out what they all worked on Here.


A purple log cabin with a twist for the second block.


This is a photo I took back in March after doing Brown, Red, Lime Green, Green and Pink. In May I did two Yellow blocks. I now have 13 blocks for my quilt and hope to get more done. I am thinking I could do another brown one. I feel like Blue is strongly missing so far.

Today I am sewing with the Leduc quilt guild on one of our UFO days. I hope to work on my son's quilt and RRCB quilt.

Up date June 17 for Linda who asked what size I have done these blocks (finish to 12" blocks). You too can do these. First the centre block is 6" finished (6 1/2" unfinished). I did different types of blocks. Six divided into so many unit sizes. Then the white is a 1 1/2" strip (1" finished) the piano key is cut 2 1/2" (finished to 2") It can be 2 1/2 units all sewn together or some strip piecing. The key can be any width from 1" to 3" but I kept mine to under 2".  I hope that has helped.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Edmonton Guild Wrap Up


Wednesday night was the Edmonton Guild Dinner. We had a raffle of some 40 Bead and Button creations. I was the lucky winner of two of the prizes. First was this beautiful Button and Bead ball. I was thrilled to win it. If I did not win one of these I was going to have to make one. I did not hear who made it. Thanks you maker. Maybe my friend Kathy knows.


It has three little charms hanging from it. I will have to find a good spot in my sewing room for it.

Now I will tell you, I took my camera but when I got there the battery was dead. I did not get any photos of the guild challenge. I had started a challenge quilt but did not get it done. I now can not find it in my sewing room. I'll show it someday in it's unfinished state.


This is the second prize I won. A pretty little button tree. Some for the buttons look very special. Again thank you maker.


We also finished up our block swap. I had done two blocks to exchange with the Napa Valley quilt guild. I got my blocks back. The top one is a photo transfer. We also got a guild pin. Our guild provided the Napa Valley ladies pins from us too.


The sea themed nine patch is my traditional block. Nice bright and cheery fabric. We had a little confusion with the exchange. Turns out we were to give them a Fat Quarter as well, but we did not know till a few days ago. I handed in two FQ but then I did not get any back. Thanks You Napa Valley Guild.


My friend Janet was not able to go last night and asked me to pick up her blocks. I will see her next week so I can give her the little pile of quilt things.  This cat on the grape wall is one of them and the balloon below is her second one. She got FQ's with her blocks. I sent FQ for her partners too.



We had a great night. Good food, good friends and good times. Only bad thing was my dead camera battery.

Saturday is UFO day or Quilt Till You Wilt day with the Leduc guild. I have to make some pot luck and pack for my sewing day. I am really looking forward to it all. But what project(s) to take?