Venice

One of the (many!) block of the month projects I've started this year is Pat Sloan's Globetrotting.  In January we made the center block which was to represent Washington, D.C.  In honor of that central block and our country . . . and because I don't have nearly enough red, white, and blue quilts . . . I thought I'd try a red, white, and blue color palette.  I posted a photo of that central block back in January.

For February, Pat Sloan's block was to represent Venice.  Here's my interpretation of the theme:

The darker blue represents the water that surrounds Venice, and the blue corner squares are the sky where it meets the water.  I thought I'd bring some golden brown into the palette, and that represents the stairs and walkways of the city.  The center red square represents the public squares and the Italian tiles.

Here are the first two blocks together.

The next world city block will be revealed on Saturday.  I wonder what Pat has planned for us next?

For Those of You With Scraps . . .

Have you seen Pat Sloan's Scrap Happy Sew Along?  She has some fantastic-looking shoo-fly blocks she's making this month from scraps.  Here's a photo to entice you:

I love the way she's used a mix of black and white prints for the backgrounds with vivid colors for the shoo-fly triangles, don't you?  Of course, there are many other color combinations/options you could use if you prefer a different style.  Click HERE to visit her blog and see the whole post with a link to the pattern.  One of the things I like about the pattern is that she's using leftover 5" charm squares from other projects--and those of us who participate in the monthly Schnibbles projects over at Sinta's and Sherri's blogs know there are ALWAYS leftover charm squares, right?  What a great way to use them!

If you haven't joined me in Scrap Basket Sunday in the past, maybe Pat Sloan's idea will give you incentive to join me one of these weekends.  Check out her post and take a look in your scrap basket.

A Busy Week

I'm looking at a busy week ahead with not too much time to sew or blog about sewing, so I thought I'd post the only other thing I have to show you--the star centers of the Star Light, Star Bright quilt along.  This is the one where we get weekly tasks.  Yes, it's the same quilt along where I had to make 512 half square triangles and get them all trimmed up--remember me whining about that last week?  Well, now we start enjoying the payoff of having made all those HSTs.  Here are my star blocks--please excuse the shiny bags that I photographed through, but I need to keep the rest of the "parts" for each block all together or I'd be lost!

And although having those HSTs already made helped with assembling these centers, making 16 of these blocks still took some time--I spent much of the weekend working on them.

On Wednesday we'll get the next step--which I think might be making the side sections of the blocks, but I'm not positive because I haven't looked back at the schedule to check.  Truth to tell, though, I sort of cheated with the first block I made--I made all the sections to see how a block would look when it finally goes together.  But I didn't get a photograph of that block laid out, so I can't share it with you, but I'm kind of excited to see how these turn out.

I was hesitant about using the black background to start with but it's turning out much like I imagined it would, at least so far!  And I like it!  It's really nice when things turn out the way you see them in your mind, isn't it?  But I'm not all done yet, so stay tuned!

February Block - Controlled Scrappy

On Sunday, I dug through my scrap bins and pulled out a few scraps to use in the February block of the Quilt Doodle BOM, Cozy Cabin, as well as a little fabric from my stash.  I actually made the cabin section of the block twice, before I was reasonably satisfied with the way this block looked.

The designer's pattern has the cabin made up of scrappy brown squares, but I couldn't settle on any particular combination of fabrics, so my first attempt used a single fabric, a brown with cream polka dot.  It looked kind of plain and I felt the roof would look better with a little overhang, so when I re-made the body of the cabin, I brought the sides in an inch on the right and the left.  I appliqued the door and window rather than piecing them in, and I added a few details, like the window shutters.  I kind of think the original scrappy pieced block design of the cabin made it look a little less plain, but I didn't want to make a third cabin, so I'll leave it as it is for now.  I might tinker with this one a little more as time goes by, but I'll wait to see what the designer has in store for us with the next blocks first.  You may remember that our January "block" was a row of snowman heads.  I think this will grow into a really cute quilt by the time we finish!

Scrap Basket Sunday--Thinking About Something New

Yes, I'm thinking about doing something new.  Of course, I usually am, and it's usually much, much more than I'll ever have time to accomplish in this lifetime!  But seriously, I've been thinking about the next scrap project.  I've thought about doing something with strings for awhile now, and then I saw this quilt in a book--

I really love the way designer Cheryl Wall combined the string blocks with homespun and applique, don't you?  So I'm thinking about doing something like this.  By the way, the pattern is from the book At Home with Country Quilts--

And yes, I ordered the book today though Amazon.  I don't know if I'll make the exact same string quilt idea, but there are plenty of other quilts in the book that I liked . . . a lot!

In the meantime, I'm continuing to quilt the Pie in the Sky quilt and I'll put in a little time on that project today.  Are you working on anything scrappy?  If so, link up so we can see what you've been doing!



Happy stitching!

512

That's how many half square triangles I've made for the Star Light, Star Bright quilt along. As I got to the last two sets, I decided to do the math.

You may recall that this project can be tailored to the quilter's preference as to the number of blocks and block size, and I decided I would make 16 blocks. So I figured out on my second to last set of half square triangles that each block requires 32 HSTs. Multiplied by 16 blocks.  Five hundred and twelve HSTs.  That's a lot, right?

And I calculated somewhere around the 12th set that it was taking me about an hour to make the HSTs I needed for each block. Well, actually what took the biggest chunk of time was trimming them down to size. So that's about 16 hours I've spent in the last few days making HSTs. This better be a very, very excellent quilt! But I think it will be. I think I'm going to like it a lot.  Want to see my HSTs?

You know what else? This will be the first time I'll have finished the weekly "task" before the deadline.  Not too bad!  Our next assignment will be to make the star centers of the blocks.  I figure that will be a piece of cake after this week's assignment!

Now that's done, I wonder which of my many other projects I should work on next?

A Little "Housecleaning"

I've been debating how I wanted to quilt the Pie in the Sky quilt, and I finally decided to use a particular stencil design in each block, so I spent part of my Saturday transferring the design onto some of the blocks--I think I probably stenciled the first 25 blocks or so.  Before quilting, though, I thought I should give the old Juki a little clean.  Well, a "little clean" led to unscrewing and removing the bottom of the machine--and BOY WAS IT NASTY IN THERE!  I brushed out all the dust bunnies and wiped out the bottom tray, and although it's not all bright and shiny new by any means, I am confident that it's a much happier machine now.  After putting the bottom back on, I wiped down the outside and gave it a little machine oil, and I do think it's working quite nicely!

After Ms. Juki got her little spa treatment, I started quilting the first few blocks while watching the Olympics.  I plan to keep working on the quilting on Sunday, especially since it's Scrap Basket Sunday and this is my scrappy quilt project.  What are you working on?  If you have a scrappy project to share, please post a photo or two on your blog and link up below.



Happy stitching!

Country Homecoming . . . The Beginning

Today marks the reveal of the first two Country Homecoming blocks.  It's not too late to join us if you've been thinking about making this quilt.  As a reminder, here's what the finished quilt will look like:

It's a pattern from the book Primitive Gatherings--

The last time I checked Amazon, these books were getting a little pricey, but one of the quilters who is making this quilt with us, Sheryn, told me a quilt shop near her home carries the book if any of you want to join us--Countryside Quilts (click on the link for contact info).  [UPDATE:  THEY ARE SOLD OUT--PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU KNOW OF ANOTHER SOURCE THAT'S SELLING THE BOOK AT THE LIST PRICE AND I'LL PASS THE INFO ON.]

So, here's what we've done so far--and a couple of the quilters in our group don't have blogs, so I'll share their photos with you each month.  We're trying to make two blocks a month for six months--at least that's what we'll do if we're making the full quilt, although some quilters may wish to make a smaller version.

Here are Tina's first two blocks:

And Sheryn's first two blocks:

Next are Imelda's first two blocks:

And, finally, my own first two blocks:

Besides the four of us whose houses are pictured here, there are four more quilters who will be participating.  I've learned, though, that two of us aren't quite ready to reveal the first two blocks yet.  However, two more should have photos posted sometime this weekend:  Nancie Anne and Tanya.  You can visit them by clicking on their names.

The piecing of these houses is very quick and easy.  The pattern gives several different types of doors and windows, and the quilter picks whatever combination she (or he) likes, which means we can "build" personalized houses with no two ending up the same--very fun!  If you want to join us next month, please email me--you can easily catch up, I suspect, since our construction project is just beginning!

Continuing as I Began . . . Late!

Yes, I'm talking about the Star Light, Star Bright quilt along.  I finished making a gaggle of geese--they were supposed to be done by Wednesday, so I'm two days late!  Ah, well, maybe I can catch up before next Wednesday when we have to complete our half square triangles.  Here are my geese:

So far, so good . . . just late.  But then if you asked anyone who knows me, they'd tell you that's standard operating procedure for me.  And speaking of late . . . it's time for bed.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I hope you're having a happy Valentine's Day!

And The Other One . . .

Here's the other little Buttermilk Basin project I finished this past weekend.

This one is from the block of the month line called "Sew" Simple, which features pieced backgrounds with applique.  The finished blocks from this line are 6-1/2" and would have fit the small standing frame I showed you yesterday, but I elected to add a simple border so I could hang it in one of my larger stands.