just a quick little quilt

 

I needed some instant gratification after clearing the table.  I pulled out some little bags of leftovers from previous quilts, there were just enough of these little flying geese units to make a little table topper.  Cut some border fabric find a backing and it was done.  Next to deal with the project that has been on the design wall since..............

A long time --Ann--

Ta da da done

 Another one done!  I free motion quilted the hooks and loops, that sounds like generic velcro, in the large light triangles.  I just did a smaller triangle inside each of the flying geese triangles and nothing in the small light triangles and a fraction of the stitches from the previous quilt of all the same size triangles.  Thats a lot of triangles.
Our snow piles are rapidly decreasing, our sump pumps are running full force and some of those are being replaced with more powerful units.  Its spring on the prairie with the unfurling of the sump hose --Ann--

TaDaDa Done

 My big finish yesterday was the binding on this quilt. I try to remember to reset the stitch counter on my Sweet 16 machine with each quilt, this one has 108,023 stitches in the machine quilting. I wonder how many miles of thread I have gone through?
I put the next quilt to be quilted on the design wall and looked at it for awhile, then I looked at all my books of quilting designs, with the light triangles making a large square I need a design to fill that space.  No great ideas so I laid out the next quilt on the floor, the hexagons, nothing popped into my head for that one.  Look at the books again.

Lay out the third quilt that might be good for an all over quilting design but that also had large light blocks with the alternating double 4 patches.   How do I quilt it / them to enhance the piecing????? Knit a few rows and do a little sketching on graph paper.    another snow day to think about it
--Ann--

Machine Quilting

Some time well spent in the sewing room and a good start on machine quilting second son's quilt for his big bed.  I'm just quilting in each design element and keeping it simple I want the quilting to enhance the piecing.   I was looking back for a post with the completed quilt top and I didn't find one so here it is.

Our sunny warm days have come to an end here.  I wore my peddle pushers on Sunday afternoon and soaked up some vitamin D while I sipped my coffee and wondered if it was the last warm day of fall as I have on several other perfect days. I believe Sunday was.  The last couple days have been overcast and windy, very windy, good days for sewing and knitting and reading.  --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

 I stayed away from the computer last week because I needed a low tech week. Sometimes pointing and clicking brings no happiness.  Finishing the borders of this quilt was my top priority.  I went even lower tech by tossing the calculator.  Then everything started falling place.  I worked on the design wall, I worked on the floor, I worked on the table.  I was going so low tech I forgot to take pictures as I progressed.  Sorry.

 Rather than measure the quilt and border parts because the math just wasn't working for the mathematically challenged.  I folded my quilt in half and pinched the edges together and matched seams and low and behold the parallel sides were exactly the same.  I sewed five bulls eye blocks together for the long side then laid it on top of the quilt pinching the edges together as I smoothed the fabric. The bulls eye blocks were 2 inches longer than the quilt top.  I would need a narrow border, half of 2 is 1 plus 1/2 inch for seams.  Cut a 1 1/2 inch strip to go around the quilt.  Measure, pin, pin, pin and sew. Perfect!!!

The short side border would have 4 bulls eye blocks and I knew I would need to add something to make it fit.  The word program on the first computer we had had a "make it fit" button so if I was typing something that went a couple lines into the second page I could push the "make it fit" button and it would reduce just enough to fit on one page.  I really miss the "make it fit" button.  It could be so useful for so many things............ like quilt borders.

Anyway I though about strips of fabrics for the spacers but then I saw the pile of unused flying geese units.  They would visually extend the flying geese into the outside border.  Perfect!!!!  Not quite.  The border was about an inch longer  than the short side.  Oooopps.....................

Time for coffee  and knit a few rows.  Knitting is so contemplative I have solved so many problems in my head while knitting.  I could clip the wings of all the geese.  No.  Ah ha pinch in the seams of the bulls eye blocks.  I resewed the 3 seams by about an eighth of an inch.  Now it fit!  Sew the corner blocks and pin, pin, pin to the side of the quilt and sew. 
Everything fit just right using only a tape measure and math I could do in my head. 
Lovin' low tech days.  
Now it is basted along with another quilt so I am off to my sweet 16 machine for some power sewing.   Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.  --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

This is as far as I have gotten on queen size quilt for second son. And wouldn't you know one of the planes did a loop on me. I think the south bound planes look like neck ties against a classy blue shirt but then there is that bar across the bottom of the tie, belly up to the bar boys! ha  This is the point where I reconsider buying the quilt designing software it would make it easier to visualize the next round of blocks and get the size right. I hope there is progress this week. I'm thinking there will be flying geese on two sides and maybe saw tooth stars on the other two sides or maybe an 9 patch with alternating squares followed by a round of?????........oh the possibilities.......... and some little spacer pieces to make it fit notice my little red squares between the flying geese. Linking to Judy's DWM  --Ann--

Grooms Quilt

The grooms quilt was finished and given away weeks ago. I should have named it "the bear goes over the mountain quilt".  I started the quilt on a Friday finished on Wednesday and gave it to them on Saturday. The fastest I have ever made a quilt and quilted it with my usual concentric teardrops. --Ann--Linking to Free Motion Friday

Groom's quilt

We have a wedding to go to on Saturday, last Friday I started this for the blissful couple. Earlier that week I was looking through the photo book I keep of all my quilts for a really quick quilt, There are notes in the book about who has the quilt and details like the finished size and block size.  I had written 8 1/2" blocks for this quilt.  The math doesn't work very nice for 8 1/2 inch nine patches. The pattern was in a magazine from at least 9 years ago that's how long #2 son has been out of high school, I made him a similar quilt for the dorm. After spending hours looking for the magazine and not finding it I looked in a notebook I keep of all the quilts I have made or at least most of them. Its really more of a recipe book for quilts that has the size of strips I cut and what tools and methods I used. Its a great time saver if I think to look in it when I need the information.! Note to self: put the recipe book in a more obvious place like on top of the stack of magazines or on top of the cutting mat. The blocks were 8 1/2 inches after washing and drying in the dryer what happens at college stays at college.... so the blocks were originally 9inches made with 3 1/2 inch strips. That made the math so much easier. By Monday I was pinning it to the quilt frame and was machine quilting all evening. Today I sew the binding on all by machine and make a label then I will hang it on my stair rail and enjoy it for a couple days before I wrap it.

I called this a groom's quilt...they are user friendly, made with guy colors, earthy and lots of plaids and hunting and fishing themes. The groom's quilt is on the sofa, in the recliner and on the floor next to the dog and into the washer and dryer and everyone is happy.--Ann--

Fall Leaves

 Fall is in the air, leaves are on the ground. The color was fabulous a couple weeks ago then the wind came. I made this little quilt when I first started quilting, many years ago, the leaves are batiks I dyed in college many more years ago, and still very stiff with wax. I machine quilted around each goose and leaf with gold metallic thread. I remember I did not like sewing sashing in long strips because matching the intersections didn't just happen, they had to be marked and pinned.  Learning to piece was sewing without pinning as I always did when sewing garments. It was fun, it was fast, it was liberating, it wasn't for 4-H. ~~Ann~~

The Erin Quilts III

Today I washed her sheets and tidied up her room so it would be fresh the next time she comes home. This quilt was new for her new room in our new house that we built  six years ago. She chose the pattern and the fabrics, I dyed several of them. It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern Tropical Sundance. I do not like to do paper piecing but I do like the way Judy Niemeyer does it. She maps out how to cut the pieces so you don's waste a lot of fabric and everything fits together perfectly. I had fabrics enough to make a Roman shade for her window, it looks like stained glass when the sun shines through. The quilt was professionally quilted by Kay Peterson of Olive Branch. --Ann--

The Erin Quilts I

My youngest child and only daughter went off to college a couple weeks ago, she is a senior this year and living in an apartment, the quilt is on a queen size air mattress. The house is feels empty and very quiet. I miss her and our late night talks. She always wanted to chat about the time I wanted to go to bed, so I would postpone my bedtime for one of our chats. She would talk about school, friends, movies, actors, her job (she worked at a nursing home this summer Bless her heart) her future, anything and everything and occasionally get to the issue that was bothering her and I would listen more. Sometimes she would ask my opinion or what I thought so I would tell her but mostly I would listen.  This is the quilt I made for her to take to the dorm as a freshman.  She picked the pattern and the fabrics I added a few as needed. I did the 8 point star the easy way with the split squares in the corners and split triangles. The machine quilting was so much fun I put the faces in each sun. I used a small plate to draw the circle then free motion quilted the rest. There were diamonds left from each strip so this quilt has a sister quilt which I will post on Thursday.  This will be a seven part series of the Erin Quilts on the T days. ~~Ann~~