DWM: My "A-word" Love Affair

People talk about "the A-word" like its a scary ogre or a disease. I shared that opinion through 3 applique classes over the years where the method and outcome produced a less than desirable outcome. Then I found the freezer paper and starch method and an obsession was born! I'm currently working on 4 applique projects including a Bunny Hill Design BOM pictured here. This is the 4th block of a 10-month series and I'm going to love this fall-themed quilt.

At my quilt guild meeting last week, I signed up for a class in August. The quilt we'll be making is a wall-sized Tennessee Waltz which has 4 large blank areas for fancy quilting or a fussy-cut fabric. I've decided to use 30s fabrics and prepare 4, 'basket-of-fruit' applique blocks to put in the spaces instead. Besides the baskets that will measure 6" across, I need 8 leaves, and 8 each of a penny-sized circle, a quarter-sized circle and one in-between those sizes. By the time you read this, they will be cut out and ready to sew.

I'm also appliqueing 150 leaves on borders of the "Civil War Anniversary" quilt I'm making for my Civil War-buff DH commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War and making the "Flight of Fancy" pattern below.

If you think of applique as "the A-word", don't give up! There are a lot of different methods you can learn!
Don't miss at all the other fabulous projects by checking out Judy's blog!

Do I HAVE to tell you. . .?

Boy was I a bad girl this week. Fabric.com had a one-day sale earlier this week where some mighty lovely fabric was $3.95 and $4.95 a yard. With the price of fabric so high--and going higher--I thought I'd better embellish my stash a little and also buy some 3-yard pieces for backs. I added . . .  gulp . . . 29.5 yards. . . to my stash. Top this off with the fact that I only did applique this week (tiny, tiny pieces), and a binding, I can only add 1 yard to my 'used' column.

Fabric bought this week: 29.5
Fabric used this week: 1
Fabric bought this year: 109.5
Fabric used this year: 68
Total: -41.5

Finished 2 quilts this week!

I'm on a ROLL! Don't think I've ever finished 2 quilts in one week before--what a great feeling.

This will be my donation to the Sutter Breast Cancer Auction along with 8 other quilts, one each made by my Spring Chicks group. (They're not supposed to see this one until August when it's due but I can't help myself).

Below is the detail of the quilting that a longarm quilter from my quilt guild, Cathy Evans, added. I hope someone finds this quilt worthy of donating some serious money for this great cause.

The other quilt I finished is the April UFO that Judy challenged us to finish so I'm going to wait to post a photo of that until the 30th. I think you'll like it! If you want to see a 'before' photo of it (as a top) look at #4 in this post here.

Check out all the other accomplishments from Design Wall Monday on Judy's website.

And if you want to see a hilarious U-Tube video to prepare you for the Royal Nuptuals later this week, check this out!

"A day patched with quilting seldom unravels"

Don't you just love that quote? It's so true. I get in my sewing room and it's like going on vacation. Color! Patterns! Soft, cuddly stuff all around! Once I get my quilting 'fix' I can face the day, or, more often, once I'm done with things I HAVE to do, a respite in my sewing room is my reward.

I'm working on my April UFO here. The pins are still in it and you can see the markings I made with white pen. It's a top I finished a couple of years ago with 20 blocks in different rainbow colors of batiks on black. I envisioned quilting it with bright colors of thread to match the blocks but even though I've had quite a number of years of machine quilting practice, really wasn't sure I could pull it off.

With some encouragement from my "best machine-quilter" friend plus the fact that I bought a Janome bobbin case made especially for machine quilting that another friend told me was great, (and that totally fixed my tension problems!!) I have success! I'm very happy with the way it's turning out!

This UFO WILL be done by the end of the month and I'm going to try to take a photo of it that does it justice rather than the rather washed-out version you see here. You'll notice I used a black batting to keep any "bearding" that might occur from a white batting at bay.

Thanks to Judy for the encouragement to finish my big stack of UFOs! See what other quilters are working on at Judy's blog!

Quilt Rush!

Before my report, take 2 minutes to watch this U-tube video, already seen by almost 3 million people, in preparation for next weekend's Royal Nuptials.


The 12th annual "Quilt Rush" shop hop in Northern California is going on as we speak and I'm pleased to say, that for the first time, I completed it!! What fun! If you've never gone on a shop hop before, grab a quilting buddy or your significant other and head off. A few of the shops I'd never been to and, let me tell you, I now know which shop has the best selection of Civil War fabric is AND which shop has the best batik selection. I bought everything on my list and then some! (I like to save up a list so I buy at least a little something in each shop although it is certainly not required). 

Of course, this means my stash report took a hit--although I did make a couple of backs so all is not so bad. I could not resist these fat quarters of "Charlevoix Summer" a 1910-1935 repro by Moda from a shop I like to support that's 80 miles away.


Added this week: 10.75 yards
Used this week: 5.5 yards
Added this year: 80 yards
Used this year: 67 yards
Stash NOT busted: -13 yards
                              HAPPY QUILTING!!

My newest WIP

How to go from this . . . .                                

1 Layer Cake with 6" border

I tried out a Lil' Twister ruler with a 
Charm Pack last week (here) and loved it. So I 
made a 7 1/2" template and tried it with a 
 Layer Cake.
(don't you just love the Moda "Salt Box
Harvest" fabric?) 
After you finish cutting all the 'wonky' 
blocks you're left with 42, 5 1/2"
squares (a Charm Pack!!) to create 
the border. This quilt measures about 62"x 65. 
It's a very quick and satisfying project, 
I'll tell you! 
I know, I know; now I have another UFO!!   
LOL!!
I also worked on a couple of hand-applique 
projects which I'll show you next week.
Thanks, Judy, for giving us the opportunity
to show our stuff here! 

          


 to this?

Add a 7 1/2" Lil' Twister ruler (or equivalent)

LEAP!!

Before I give you my stash report, here's a thought:

This is my credo etched in a tile that hangs in my sewing room. We women are more resilient than we believe and that's been proven by history time and again. I truly believe that most of us can turn lemons into lemonade easily and shoulder whatever life throws at us.

Don't be afraid to try something new--a project without a pattern, an art quilt, curved piecing, applique, one of those decorative stitches on your sewing machine, a color you think you hate. The net WILL appear!

I've decided I needed to get off the computer every night and start hand work again. Here's the first  block of a redwork pattern I'll bet many of you have already made. It's amazing how quickly these blocks finish up!

I bought fabric this week (a Layer Cake that I used in a quilt you'll see if you check out my Design Wall Monday tomorrow!) but I also used more fabric than I usually do--2 3/4 yards for a background and borders and 2/3 of a yard for a couple of applique projects--YAY!

Added this week: 3 yards

Used this week: 6 1/2 yards

Added this year: 69 1/4

Used this year: 61 1/2

total stash busted: -7 3/4

 Check on Judy's blog and see what everyone else has LEPT into! LOL!!