So Charming

I had just received the charm packs that I'm going to use for the Yoyoville quilt. I just love the color range.

I can't wait to cut into it. I'll be making the yoyos in the body of the quilt as well as the one used as trees and flowers in the border. I think it will make a great project to take with me during the boys' baseball season: during practices and games.

I'm really looking forward to the warmer weather. After the two days of school cancellations, it would be real rewarding to get rid of our cabin fever and get out in the fresh warm air. I'm wishful thinking!

Til next time,

Jane

Projects

I've been working with my son to get several of his Cub Scout den's project display ready for this Saturday's Blue & Gold Banquet.

One of the projects was to make a pillow. He had to sew the pillow form, fill it with fiber-fill, and then hand-sew the opening close. Using his favorite color (he picked this bright eye-piercing orange!), we made a no-sew cover with fringe (tied with knots).

Here he is with the completed pillow. He's trying to hide from the camera!

Another project will be some Project Linus quilts. I know, I had to put quilts into it somewhere ! : ) It is part of his community service project. I had his help me make some examples: he had picked the fabrics and colors and he will tie the quilts together for me. It is a good project for the boys to learn about unfortunate children in their area and have some satifaction in helping them out with a small gift that they had made.

I had one more project to make, but it is a project that will me done by me alone. It will be a small gift to the Cubmaster and his wife for all they have done since this is my son's last year in Cub Scouts.

And after this Saturday, he will be done with Scouting and I will have more time to devote to my quilting! Now, I don't mean to be whining about the Cub Scouts, it is a wonderful organization and I am so happy that my son was a part of it for the last five years. As a den leader, the organization told me that all it would take was one hour a week. As you can see, it does take a lot more than that. I give a BIG thanks to all of the volunteers who help our boys, because without them, Cub Scouting just couldn't happen.

In two more years, I'm looking forward to gettting my younger son into Cub Scouting when he is seven years-old. But at that time, I'll be enjoying myself as a parent instead of a Leader. I'll be able to bring my quilting with me at the meetings!!

As soon as I finish with that gift, I'll post a peek of it.

Gotta to get back to work!!

Jane

Satifying My Sweet Tooth

I couldn't help myself. I had to start on the Yoyoville quilt. I had the fabrics from the Quiltmaking 101 quilt (see below) left and I couldn't resist. I think the houses are so cute! I have ordered charm packs used to make the yoyos. Hopefully soon, I can get a better look of all the colors.

Here it is. My Quiltmaking 101 sampler quilt. I'm having a hard time figuring out the sashing. I don't want to use a plain solid sashing. And the Bear's paw at the bottom of the quilt
just doesn't appeal to me. I'm going to redo it using more colors.

Until the yoyo fabrics come in, what to work on now? I still have another quilt that has a border that I need to finish. I guess I had gotten bored with that part of the quilt. I haven't seen it for a few months, it may be a good time to try to finish the quilt top.

Will update on the progress of my quilts soon.

Jane

Snow Day

We had some snow last night and now I have my two monkeys home from school today. I'm going to have to find things to keep them busy otherwise they will drive me nuts. : )

The snow started falling while we were at a Scouting event last night. Yesterday, February 8, was the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouts of America and our scout council had an event celebrating our centennial and they also had former-first lady Laura Bush as our keynote speaker.

I found it very interesting but I think my son got a little bored during the hour-long presentation. But I still think he enjoyed it and, hopefully, it will be something that he will remember when he is older.

The postman had a surprise for me in my box! He had brought me two quilt patterns.

Yoyoville from Bunny Hill Designs

I have been wanting to do a Bunny Hill quilt for a while. Anne Sutton has an adorable style to her quilts. I actually want to make her Baltimore Bunnies quilt, but this one looks a little easier and perhaps I can get it done faster. And I have some fat quarters left over from the "Quilt Making 101" quilt from Annie Smith's web-quilt class. It is the fabrics used in the photo (Moda's Simple Abundance By Bonnie and Camille). No time like the present to get started!!

Reminiscence from The Rabbit Factory

I had found this quilt while blog-surfing one day. The quilt just spoke to me. I loved the applique work, the colors that were used.

Just a thought:

I have heard some quilt artists/designers say that they love to see quilters, when making a quilt from one of the artists' designs, to make the quilt "their own." To use their design and put a little twist on it, such as different colors or different fabric choices, and not make it what is pictured on the cover of the pattern. Well, I can't say that for myself. When I see a new quilt, one that I just fall in love with, it is the design, the colors, the fabrics in that quilt that I want to make for myself. I want to make the exact quilt that is photographed on the cover of that quilt pattern. Is that so wrong?

Just like the Dresden plate quilt. I have finished the top. Notice that it is just like the picture? Okay, I did make it a little bit bigger, but I wanted the quilt that was shown in the magazine.

I am plan to work on the "Quilt Making 101" quilt. I have all the sampler block finished and I need to figure out what sashing to use. And to satify my sweet tooth, I will cut out some of the houses from the Yoyoville quilt.

Be back soon,

Jane

Quilt Preview

Well, here it is. I fixed the mistake that I had made earlier and laid it out on the floor to get an idea of what it will look like. There are five horizontal rows in the body of this quilt and I still have the fifth row to sew on. I still have to design the border. I'm thinking of a patchwork style in the border since I still have a lot of the fabrics left.

My older son will be having two big events coming up in Cub Scouts this month, the Blue & Gold Banquet and the Pinewood Derby. Since this is his last year as Cub Scout, his will be in the "Crossing Over Ceremony" (crossing over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts), along with the other boys in our den. As their Den Leader, I am responsible for decorating a table displaying our projects and accomplishments. So, that's what will be taking up most of my time for the next couple weeks.

But you know that I can't drop the quilting. I'll probably do the scout stuff while my son is at school and when he is sleeping, so it will be a surprise for him, too. Most likely, I try working on the gradation plates for now.

Til later,

Jane

Another Quilt Almost Done!

Here is another quilt I worked on since I have to get more fabric for the Sunflower quilt. I have the body of this quilt constructed and still have the border to part on. It looks as if I will have enough fabric to finish it, hopefully by the end of this week. Once the top is finished, I think this will be the first quilt that I'll attempt the machine-quilt--maybe a simple all-over meandering?

This Christmas, I had received a couple of quilty gifts:

One gift was the quilt pattern "Storybook Farm" by McKenna Ryan. It's a beautiful art quilt and it will give me another opportunity to practice machine-quilting. I just love the Hoffman batiks that are used in this quilt. This is just a portion of the fabric. I will have to look for some more when I get the black fabric for the Sunflower quilt.

Another gift was a collection of gradation fabrics. I had an idea for a quilt that used Dresden plate flowers (I seem to be on a Dresden kick!) with tones that faded from dark to light. In my mind, it really sparkled--that remains to be seen. I have constructed just one of the blocks and I have found issues of shadowing with the black background. I will have to make some modifications with that.
And for the Sunflower quilt...I was planning on posting a photo of what I had so far. But I made a booboo. When sewing the rows together, I had stitched some backwards, and the layout was all messed up. I guess I was in a bit of a hurry. I have ripped that seam out and I hope to have it sewn back together tonight.
And don't let me forget, my son had his basketball tournament this last Saturday. Our school placed with second. In the championship game, the score was 21-22, with the other team turning it over at the last 10 seconds! I'm so proud of our team and my superstar son!
Will try to post a quick photo once the Sunflower quilt is fixed.
Til next time,
Jane

It's Me, Again!

I know, it's been a long time. The last post was in November. "So, what happened," you may ask? Well, not that I am using it as my excuse, that time of the year is always busy. Added to the holidays, both my boys have December birthdays. So things got pretty hectic here. And, it's not that I didn't do any quilting, I did. It's just didn't feel motivated to post anything when my to-do list was so long.

Things are now leveling out. My older son is in his last year of Cub Scouts (WEBELOS II, for those who are familiar with Scouting) and as his Scout Leader, I am trying to get our boys prepared for their "Crossing Over Ceremony" (where they "graduate" from Cub Scouting and "cross over" into Boy Scouts). Also, his basketball season is almost over. His tournament will be this Saturday. After both of those are completed, I will have about a month before baseball will start!! Here we go again!!

You might recognize the block in the photo above. I have been trying to complete the rest of these blocks, I'm planning to combine them with some sampler block. Initially, the block seem fairly easy. Then I designed the quilt with 13 of these applique blocks. I realized just how many flowers I was going to have to applique. There are 13 blocks with 4 flowers...each flower has 9 petals...that's 468 hand-appliqued petals. Get the idea? The fairly easy block turn in to a tedious block with all the petals and petals and petals...

The top is going well. I was thinking that I could get it finished by the week's end. But I realized that I will have to purchase more of the black fabric in the sashing. I may have to make I visit to that quilt shop sometime next week.

My New Year's challenge will be to conquer machine quilting and feel confident about it. I don't know if this quilt will be the first one I'll try, but I know that I have to find a faster way, than my usual hand-quilting, to finish my quilts.

I will try to be better in my posting. I will be back soon to show some new projects I have going (as if I really needed more!). : )

Til next time,

Jane