Christmas

 Wishing you a very Merry Christmas. 

A the happiest of New Years.

Thank you all for popping in to see what I'm up too. Sorry I have been more quiet this past year. 

Dorian

I didn't mean to be gone so long..

Hello Everyone,

I didn't mean to be gone so long. For the months of Aug and Sept it was quite warm here (as usual) and I just didn't get too much done in the sewing room. I did some sewing, just not everyday. Let's see...

I finished quilting my Lone star/wedding ring quilt! I still have to attach the binding, then I'll show it off. 

I did a fun swap with the Gals on QATW . We call it the 3 yrd swap. Whomever wants to play mails 1 yrd of fabric to someone, we all had partners chosen for us. Then the partner would add 2 yrds of fabric to that 1 and make a quilt top, which she would then send back to the person who sent her the original 1 yrd.

I sent the leafy fabric in this quilt top to Bonita, she added the vibrant orange and cream and made me this fun quilt top.

I can't show you the quilt top I made yet, as the owner hasn't recieved it just yet. But I'll post that in a couple days when she gets it.

After that, I started working on a friends baby quilt. I just found out she is expecting TWINS! So now I need to get going so that I can make her 2 quilts. She's due in late March, so I have time. Here are two of the blocks that will be in her quilts. The pattern is called "B is for Baby animals", and you can get it from Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Aren't these guys cute?! I have a chipmunk and mouse to make as well.

I am thinking about getting some Christmas pot holders and such made, but we'll see if I succeed or not :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Dorian

A Fun Project

Hello All,

I didn't mean to be gone so long. After making the last few quilt tops, I joined up for a fun project on my quilt forum, QATW.

Jann offered to send whomever wanted to join some fabric. The challenge was to take the fabric she sent (you had to use 75% of it), add 2 yrds of backing and any other fabric, and make something with it. The project had to be quilted and bound by today.

Here is the fabric Jann sent. All of the pieces are between 1/4 and 3/4 yrds. I added the dark red tone on tone on the bottom.

I decided to make a variation of my Pats' Gem's quilt. (I also added the slightly darker shade of aqua triangles here.)

 I had a lot of fun making this quilt. The mini-charm pack went into the border. It's a simple quilt, using 4 squares and HST blocks.

I had to buy the backing and the 2 yrds of background fabric, as I just didn't have anything that I liked to go with Jann's fabric. I rarely use a white or cream as the background, but felt it was a good choice for these fabrics.

I think it turned out pretty good. But that has what's been keeping me busy for most of July. And it's summertime, which means it's hot.  So not a lot of sewing going on. Also I really want to get this quilt top quilted.

So I haven't let myself start anything else, I jumped right from quilting the challenge quilt to quilting the star quilt. It's going very slowly though, just too hot to be moving a quilt around a table.

Well, I hope I wont be gone so long this next time. This is mostly just a quilting blog though, so if I am not quilting/piecing much, then I don't have anything to show :)

This was a fun challenge, thanks Jann!

I'm linking up with Ms Pat today, thank you Pat :)

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Dorian

Some tops

 Hello All,

I didn't mean to be go for so long. Sewing has been up and down, following the weather patterns we've been having. I get cold easily now a days and when we've had cold, rainy weather, I stay in the living room near the fire. Our Spring has been going from the warm upper 70s down to the low 30's, back and forth. 

I have managed to get a few tops finished though. This table runner is completely finished and already at it's new home. I just forgot to take a photo of it all quilted and bound.

This one was a mystery quilt on my forum. Heather is often doing quilt mysteries with us, always so fun. Mine didn't come out as well as others, as I used to many shades of green and then the two different whitish colors. 

I had chosen this hedgehog fabric as the main focus, so chose colors to go with it. The white with butterflies matches perfectly (the colors of the butterflies), but it wasn't the right project for them.

And here is the cute, colorful irish chain top. I got the borders on and hopefully will get some backing soon and get it quilted up.

I need to turn to quilting, as I have lots of tops that need finishing. But quilting is much harder on me than piecing, and more fun too :)

Linking up with the sweet Ms Pat this week, thank you Pat.

Thank you for stopping by, have a great day!

Dorian

Another Irish Chain

 Hello All,

Spring is here, and it's not a very wet one. I have a feeling we are in for a long, dry summer :( We usually get much of our water in the months between March and May, but not this year.

I had a bunch of 2" and 2 1/2" strips laying around. Some of them were WOF long from jelly rolls, others were partial strips, anything from 10" to 30". I made sure they were all 2" wide and then sewed them together in strips sets like this.

You can just see the green strip that has two strips sewn together. As some of my strips weren't long enough, I sewed them end to end until all my strips were at least 40" long. Then I cut them into 2" segments and sewed them together into the chain blocks.

Making sure that the blue was constant throughout the quilt, making the large X in each chain block. You can see some of the squares are two toned, from sewing the ends of strips together. (See them circled below).  But that's ok, I think it adds charm.

I was originally going to put wildflowers in the alternate blocks, but when I saw how colorful this was turning out, I decided to use these fun animal prints instead, and make a kid quilt.  I cut these fabrics into squares and then sewed a 2" wide strip of yellow on either side of a square.

Then I sewed strips together like so.

And cut them into 2" wide segments.

And put them together like this.

Put them all together, and you have a really cute and colorful Irish chain quilt :)

I still need to all a fun border, I'll use more leftover strips, and then I'll quilt it up, as I think I have a backing for it.

I'm sharing with Pat and her stitch and share link again today, thank you Pat for your linky.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dorian

What I'm working on

 Hello Everyone,

We had been having some lovely Feb weather, and now things are starting to get a bit cloudy and rainy, which is good. We reallllly need the moisture. So I am hoping this is the starting of a wet Spring (which often mean snow and freezing weather, as well as rain).

Not long ago, I was talking about pulling this old UFO out, and getting it quilted up.

It's now sandwhiched and pinned, ready to quilt. 

I started to hand quilt this, because I have some issues that I'm afraid I'm going to have a hard time 'quilting' out ( and because I haven't hand quilted in a long time and thought it would be nice), like the bumps below (where the arrows are). I know, it's wrinkly as well and I should of ironed it before pinning it...

But, there is lots of lovely spaces here to quilt...

And after quilting for just 10 or 15 mins, making barely any headway, I started rethinking my hand quilting. For one, it's not very good. Something like 5 stitches per inch, instead of 8 or 10. And then the next day, my forearm was hurting a lot from doing the little bit of stitching I had the day before. I don't think I can handle doing this whole quilt by hand :(

So, I had my oldest son get my machine oiled (I had cleaned it a few days ago) and am going to get going on quilting this one... as soon as I buy some thread. The thread I started using started falling apart when I was frogging it. It's polyester and I am not a 'poly' girl, much prefer cotton. But I don't have any matching colors, so I'll have to buy something. 

Now I hope that I can quilt this up decently and don't have many issues with it.

I also have a few more tops to add to the 'need to quilt' pile. This is the macaroon mystery top. So pretty and colorful! I really like the green sashing, which was supposed to be the background color but I had too much swirls and needed something to rest the eyes.

This is a Jacob's ladder quilt top that I got out of the Fall 2018 Quilts and More magazine. This is the quilt I did for a swap on our forum. We aren't supposed to quilt it, so that we can swap it with someone else, if we want.

I really wish this one was bigger, as I love it. But I don't have any wall spaces for it and I have no Grand babies to give it to. So, I might keep it and add some more patch work around it, making it bigger.. I might not, we'll see.

I have plenty of things to quilt up while I wait for thread for the Lonestar, I'm starting on a few table runners.

Take care, and thanks for stopping by.

Dorian

Macaroon mystery and another project

                             UPDATED WITH FINISHED MACAROON TOP

 Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying whatever weather you are having. We are in our usual warm and lovely February weather. I do so hope we get a good, cold, wet Spring though (as we often do).

I've been having fun with my beautiful Sunkissed and Spring Chicken fabrics. Both by Sweetwater, I was sooo happy when they brought these gorgeous, fun colors back! I've added in a few tone on tone fabrics that are not by Sweetwater, as well.

This is for the Macaroon mystery by Meadow Mist Designs. My blocks are all together now.

 

These are the setting triangles. The pattern calls for 2 background fabrics, but I ran out of both of them, so chose another swirl for them.

And since my background is sooo busy (But I love all those swirls!) I am going with a more sedate greens for the sashings. Some are tone on tone, and some are from the Spring Chicken line (although I didn't take a picture of them).

I'm also working on a Jacob's ladder quilt with these fabrics.

Isn't this pretty? I've been wanting to use it in a quilt for a few years now. I know that I am going to put a 3 or 4 inch border on my Jacob's ladder quilt, as it's only 36" square. So I picked this for the border, and chose some matching fabrics for it. I am also using a bit of the black in the blocks as well.

The pattern I am using is from Quilts and More Fall of 2018 issue. The block is a simple pattern of 4 squares and HST's.   Here's my piles, I'm still sewing the HST's and have to press the 4 squares.

Here is what the block will look like. It's just 16 of these to make the quilt.

I don't know why I am adding to my 'to quilt' pile, when I have enough tops as it is, lol. But I sure do love piecing them :)

 

I am linking up to Pat's weekly linky party, thank you Pat :)

 

Have a great day, and thank you for stopping by.

  

Dorian 

 

Some projects for the New Year

 Hello Everyone,

 A happy new Year to you all. I hope the year has started off well for you.

I received some gift certificates for Christmas this year, to a few of my favorite fabric stores. So I was able to indulge :) Thank you again Carol!

Most of you who have been with me for years, know that my favorite fabric line ever was Sunkissed, by Sweetwater. I just love the soft colors of that line. So I was very thrilled when they came out with the Spring Chicken line last year. As the colors are the same as Sunkissed. So, I had to buy some :)

I am going to use it with these for the Meadow Mist mystery quilt. Cheryl does one clue a month, and it takes a year to get it done. I am too antzy for this, I like to do my mystery quilt clues all at the same time. So I am saving all the clues, and in March I'll get myself caught up, and then be ready for the final clue in April.

The swirly fabrics are going to be the background. Those two fabrics are pieces from Sunkissed that I have been hoarding! I plan on using some of Spring chicken, along with the other fabrics up there, mixing them up and doing a bit of scrappiness.

I've also been wanting to make a rag quilt this year. So I spent a GC on these flannels.

I saw a picture of a rag quilt that uses quilting cottons on the front and the flannel on the back. I liked that look, so I pulled a handful of florals (and discovered something astonishing.... I am running out of florals!! LOL, looks like I have to do more shopping).

These colors aren't exact, but I think they have the same feeling, mostly... and that is what I was shooting for.

I also pulled an old, old quilt top out of storage. I'm not quite sure when I made this top, I can't remember if I did it at the old house (which would be over 11 yrs ago) or if I made it after we moved into this house. But either way, I put it aside and have decided it now needs to be quilted up and sent to it's new owner. She's a special person and her quilt has been calling to me to get it done :)

The quilt design comes out of the Benni Harper quilt albumn. I love the combination of wedding ring and lone star. I really like the colors I used on this quilt. That blue with daisy's is one of my favorites :) So one of the GC's went to backing for this top.

So these projects will keep me busy for a little while at least. Especially since I often have little projects I am doing in between. Like a wall hanging for a swap we are doing on the forum.

So you all take care, thanks for dropping by and have a lovely day.

Dorian