Quilting as you go...and practicing

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all in the States are enjoying some cool Fall weather. I know I am :) And there is fresh snow on the mtn top! That always makes me happy.

I have four of these blocks. They are 15" square. A little design I made up for a quilt design contest a few years ago. As they've just been sitting and doing nothing, I thought I would do a quilt as I go method. While I practiced my FMQing.

 

 I was having a little trouble at first.... till I realized I hadn't put my stitch length to zero. lol Here's some pebbling, I got confused which way to go occasionally.

 I just did some simple lines in these blocks... but it's hard to keep the line curved right.

 My regular readers know how much I love flowers. They are getting a little easier.

I'm still having fun! It sure is going to take a lot of practice! I best see what other ufo's I have laying around, small ones, that I can practice on. I know there is a lot of them somewhere. LOL

Linking up with:

Quilt story
I have to say
Free motion by the river

Quilt as you go....quilt

 I have a new tutorial up at the Q&N. It's on making a larger than table runner, quilt as you go project.

 

I made just a small top. Just to do the tutorial. Nice and Springlike though, yes?

 Linking up with H&M today. Thanks so much Heather and Megan, I love this link party!

For those of you looking forward to seeing what I did with these....

Come back on Thursday, and I will reveal all! LOL

Another sneakpeek at it....

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Signature quilt

Hello blog land, I am back! Been offline for almost a week. It's good to be back. I was having computer problems, all solved now though. I got lots of housework done, amazing what you do when you have no computer pulling you in, yes?! LOL

Linking up with H&M at Quiltstory today.
Linking up with Karen too.

I decided I needed another purse. One in lovely Spring colors. Something pretty and cheerful. So I made up my FQ purse in my favorite flowers, roses.

Where the rose fabric is, isn't just decoration...it's a nice, big pocket! On both sides of the purse. It's perfect for papers, lists, mail, whatever... I love this feature! The bag also has 2 more large pockets, a zip pouch and 2 small pockets.

 On the Q&N forum last year, we all made little signature blocks and traded them. This is how I set mine. I do not know if this block has a name or not. I just put it together as I went.

Here is how I set them together.

A nice little top. It's  square, about 65" x 65".

A perfect snuggle quilt....once it's quilted. 

 I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day!

Have a great day and..

 Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Another fabric Tues

WOW, I can't believe how quickly this week has gone by! I guess I've been hibernating. Last week was so cold and wet. We had rain/snow just about everyday until yesterday. Then we finally got some sun.

I'm doing a link party again this week. Thank you so much Heather and Megan, it's always fun to see what others are doing. And to show off what I am doing....although sometimes it just isn't much. I have to wait till I can get some fabric, to finish my DP16-patch, but I'll be sure to show you as soon as I do :)





This week I want to show you my 'boy bag'. I've been making bags with girls in mind, of course! I love a pretty bag, whether it's a purse, tote or little clutch. I actually get attached to one purse, and just use that till it's used up. But I enjoy looking at them all.

But Rae over at Made by Rae and Dana at Dana made it had a month to celebrate the boy. And I jumped on the band wagon...albeit too late to show over at their sites.

My youngest son is 6, he loves bags, boxes and anything he can get his hands on to organize all his toys. His Daddy bought him a plastic box with 4 littler boxes in it, and each little box has sections...it's supposed to be for tools, screws, nuts, etc...but Littleboy uses it for some of his Lego's. LOL.

So, I made a fun boy bag.

It has lots of pockets.

Some hooky spots, for hooking on flashlight, compass, etc.

I wanted to add a mesh bottle holder, for a water bottle, but didn't have any.

It has a nice flap, with a pocket under it for binoculars or whatever.

A perfect bag for a nature walk, plenty of room for pencil, paper, snack, bug catchers, and anything else he may want to bring along.

Or he can fill it with small toys, crayons, books for a long car trip.

These cute little clips are my dh's idea. He thought it would be a fun thing on a boys bag. A few days after he bought me these, is when I came across Dana's blog. And low and behold, she, too, made a cute bag with these clips!

Well I hope I have more to show you this coming week. I'll try not to be so quiet.

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Fabric Tuesday

It's fabric Tuesday again, over at Quilt Story...




Besides finishing another ditty bag and finishing up the mystery quilt from the Q&N, I've been working on my disappearing 16-patches.

                                          
Here are all the colors I'm working with, 4 triangles of each.

I got the inspiration from Melissa, at Happy Quilting. Here is how she did her's. I chose to go with some tone on tone and solid prints, to put together with the petit fours I had of Lovely and Central Park.

I am just trying to figure out how I want to lay mine out. I don't want to do it the same way as Melissa, although that looks lovely. Just not the design I am looking for.

I could put them simply, like this.

 

 

 Or put them like this...with or without borders or sashing. This purple and blue colorways are my favorite, although the yellow and orange color way from Central Park is right up there with them.

 

Pinwheels look neat too.

I want to buy some solid white, so I can play with sashing and borders.

What do you think? Have you done any disappearing 16 patches? I would love to see photos.

Have a great day.

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

The Satchel bag

Here is my satchel bag. The 'prototype'. LOL. It needs a few kinks worked out, and I think it will be better with some hardware to hold the straps on.

I really like the binding along the edges, but have to figure an easier way to put it on.

Here is a side view.

 It has a zip pouch on the inside, as well as a few layered pockets, so you have plenty of space for pens, lipstick, phone, ipod, whatever.

It's deep, 11" from top to bottom, with two large spaces for putting all your stuff.

Now lets head over to Quiltstory, and see what fabulous things others are making this week.








Look at what I won from Kate Spain, in the Moda blog hop! Aren't they cute?!

These little goodies are 2.5" square, and have 40 pieces of fabric in them. You can see one line is Central Park, and one is Lovely. Both are lovely fabric lines!

Thank you Kate!!

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Block Party!

Hello everyone!

I hope all of you that got a lot of snow and ice, are starting to thaw out. And that you're keeping warm.

Over at Quiltstory, the block party starts on Monday. Here is my contemporary block. Adding some of the Nicey Jane to my star block, made me want to play with it some more. I think this green and blue go so well with it.

The button....click here to see all who are entering.








I originally made this block when I entered a block contest for Jackie Robinson. I have altered the original block I made up, just a little bit. It looks so Summery in blues/whites/greens!

So on Monday, I will put a link to this post on the Quiltstory blog. Then you visit all the blogs that have blocks, and look at all the lovelyness...lol.

Have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Summer star

Here's my progress on my next scrappy star... I think I'll call it my Summer star, as it's so flowery and pretty.

Here is a close up of the outer diamonds. They are a very lite green, so are kind of washed out in that top picture. (Sigh, I think it's just the picture. LOL. Even outside in the shade, there was too much sun on it)

 I just love the Nicey Jane for the background. I do admit though, that I had to cut into some yardage for the background. I just did not have any scraps big enough, in the right color and I didn't want pieced. Although I did try out some pieced backgrounds, I like this better.

I decided to put in a little flange there too. It seperates the colors a bit I think.

I have one more border I am working out, then I think I'll leave it as a wall hanging too.

And it's Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory! So I am doing my weekly link up.  I want to thank that Gals over at Quiltstory too!! This fabric Tuesday is helping me stay on top of my projects! LOL

I've also posted a few quick HST tutorials over at the Q&N blog.


 Have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian

Jewelled star

 It's finished!! Well...the top is finished being pieced. LOL. Don't know when I'll get around to quilting it. It will have to go in the 'need to quilt pile'.

But I had to post it now, as I am again doing the linky fabric Tuesday on Quiltstory! Just click on the button on my side bar, to go over and see what everyone else is up to.

I am calling this Jewelled star. A much nicer name than scrappy star.

I have done another of these stars from my scrap box too. It's just the star so far, not even on a back ground. It's done in pinks, greens and whites. A lot softer in color than this one. I'm sure you'll be seeing that soon too.

Have a safe, happy day!


 Thanks for stopping by, Dorian