Irresistible Creations

When I was ordering the fabric for the Sunflower quilt, I had seen these fabrics.  I just loved the colors.

For some reason, they reminded me of muffins.

So, I purchased them.  It was very impulsive. I'm not proud of myself.  But they do make me smile!!

So I thought they would make great pincushions shaped like muffins.  I don't know just how quickly I'll get to start on them.  I still have to make a pattern for them.

I hate it sometimes that I get so many ideas in my head.  If there were just more hours in the day!

Jane

Back In Black

I'm finally feeling that I'm accomplishing some progress in my UFO's.  No quilts are finished but I feeling I have been moving forward, at least.

I had decided to work on two different UFO's.  You had seen the Sunflower quilt from the last post.  I have appliqued all the sunflower on the body of the quilt.  I have just received the fabrics for the borders and once they are sewn on, I can continue with the appliqueing.

I've got a pile of sunflowers ready.

One good reason not to leave your UFO's unfinished for a long period of time is that it becomes difficult to find the same fabrics you may have used.  I've had to substitute the black fabric in the border for a solid black because I was unable to find it anywhere online or at my local quilts shops.

And you know that I can't work on just one quilt.  I have been avoiding this quilt for a while.  Although I still love this quilt, it is a very complex and tedious one.  But I think it will be all worth it once it is done.  Here's a sneak peak!

I hadn't planned it, but black is predominate in both of these quilts.

Jane

Working On The Next Quilt

After setting the hexagon quilt aside, I pulled out my Sunflower quilt to work on.

Once I had gotten to a point in this quilt, I was thinking that it missing something.  Nothing said "wow" to me.  So I had decided to add more sunflowers to it.

Here is a photo from about a years ago

                                                                     Here is the same quilt from today

Do you notice the additional flowers that were added to the cornerstones?  I'll be adding more along the border once they are placed.

I'm having to make about 40 more flowers for the borders.  That make makes 360 petals to be cut out and appliqued.   Whew!!

Jane  <3 p="p">

Catching Up on the Red and White

Little by little, I'm catching up on my Just Takes 2 BOM quilt.  I can't believe that we're up to block # 59!

I had finished a lot of blocks before we left for our family vacation.  We had  taken the boys to  Kings Island.  My younger son is finally tall enough to ride the BIG roller coasters.  When he was smaller, he would hear about them from Daddy and big brother and get a little upset because he was unable to ride them too.  He surprised all of us.  He was able to ride everything (within his height limit) without any problems.  I believe I have another roller coaster geek.  Me, on the other hand, after not riding on coasters for about 10 years, I've realized that my body doesn't react the same as it had in the past.  I find it very sad because I used to ride a lot of the them before the kids.  I guess I have to slowly work my way back up to that level again!

Now back to quilting...

I'm still a little behind, but I think I'm accomplishing a lot.  Here's a few of them.

I have to reorganize the blocks I have finished and will have more photos soon.

Jane  <3 p="p">

Quilt Burn Out

Humdrum...monotonous...routine...uninteresting...

That's how I'm feeling about this quilt.

This is not unusual for me.  I love the feeling of starting a new quilt.  About halfway through the process, I start getting very bored doing what seems like the same thing over and over again.  In this case, making the hexagons.  But once that is a finished, I will have to construct about 400 flowers out of them.

I'm going to have to set this quilt away for a while and pull out another UFO.

Before I can set it aside, I had to sew some of the hexagons together.  A sneak a peek of what it would look like once I have it done.

Now, what to decide to work on next?

Jane  <3 p="p">

Call Me Pinhead

And no, I'm not referring to the character from the Hellraiser movie series.

I was wondering how I was going through my pins so fast.  I always have several big piles of pins (I use magnetic pin caddies) but yet, I really could use a new package of pin right about now.

But I should have known.  I use them for everything!

I use my pins to hold the fabric so that they don't 
shuffle under the presser foot.  I'm a 
stickler for precise seams.

And, of course, I use my pins to hold 
my applique in place.

And I also use pins to hold my seams in place 
once the block or quilt-top 
is completed.

Once the quilt-top is folded to be put away, the pins keep the seams from flopping over to the other direction.

I have a bad habit of setting projects aside and not getting back to them for a longgggg time.  Usually because I'm starting another new project.  This is what I refer to as my "Quilt ADHD."  This disorder is at fault for my large UFO pile.

But I also use my pins to mark the rows and columns for my quilt block placement.  Take for instance my Sunflower quilt.  It consists of thirteen pieced blocks and twelve appliqued.  It was hard to remember where each block belonged.

By strategically placing the pins (pinned onto a small square piece of paper so that it will be easily visible), vertical for rows and horizontal for columns, I know exactly where each block belongs.




















For example:  
     One pin across means top row.  
     Two pins down means second column.

A more complicated example:
     Four pins across means four rows down.
     Three pins down means third column.

I've used this method in several quilts.  It is very helpful when I put out a quilt that I may not have seen for a couple of years and know exactly the order the quilts blocks are to be placed.

Now...to find some order to tackle my UFO pile!!

Jane  <3

Love My Handwork Projects

As well as the Omigosh quilt I had just posted about, I've been also working on my Hexagon quilt.  Since I'm piecing it all by hand, it's a project I can work on while I'm sitting at my son's baseball practices.

I had finally found some information about this quilt.  I still don't know whose photos I had 

seen but this quilt is named "The Hexagon Quilt," and it is created by Leanne Beasley.  She

 had featured this quilt in Vignette magazine in 2011.

Click here to visit here blog:     leanneshouse.typepad.com

Just to recap, I am using Nancy Halvorsen's fabrics.  Love them!!  I'm guessing that if I use 80 different prints and make 5 flowers from each, that will give me 400 flowers to sew together.  I think that will be enough for a good size quilt.  That'll be approximately 2800 hexagons to make!  I know, I've got to be nuts!

During one practice, one of the coaches' young daughters had sat by me and asked what I was making.  After describing how the quilt will look like once its finished, I thought I'd make her a flower using the hexagons.  A perfect visual aid on how the shapes fit together.

I had sewn them like little pillows and filled the center with some fiberfill for some body.

Jane  <3