O Strip Progress

I made some progress on the O Strip quilt last night. It felt good to sew and see this quilt coming together.

I'm enjoying the process of making these blocks and how it looks using scraps. I'm not sure that I'll have an opportunity to sew tonight, but hopefully I'll be able to get back to this later this week.

Design Wall Monday

I started piecing the O Strip quilt Sunday. This was one of the projects I kit up so I could sit down and sew when I had just a little bit of time. I'm making the crib size quilt and have all the blocks made.

I have to finalize the layout and start adding the white strips and then this won't look so gray. I should have some time after school tomorrow to do that. 

I forgot to post pictures of the twelve blocks I sent to Tana Mueller using the American Honor fabrics. She's putting together some quilts for distribution to vets in November. I was just going to make a couple and then got carried away. Here's what I sent her.

I look forward to seeing the quilts she puts together! This certainly is a mish mash of blocks. 

What are you working on today?

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Beth's Monday Making

County Fairs and a Baby!

It's been a busy week. Monday, I judged all of the quilt categories at the Lorain County Fair. That was tremendous fun and there were some wonderful (and a lot!) of projects.

Wednesday, I traveled an hour and half from home to judge at the Morrow County Fair; and although there were not as many quilts there, they were beautiful. I always have mixed emotions when I'm asked to judge a quilt show or Fair. While it's exciting and wonderful to see all the beautiful quilts, I'm always a bit worried that I'll have a difficult time choosing the winners. Unlike the Lorain County Fair, judging for Morrow County was done before the Fair opened. Because of that, I don't want to show actual pictures of the quilts and their ribbons.  

I am careful to make comments on every single entry. I think every participant deserves to know what my thoughts are about their project, and not just my negative thoughts. I ALWAYS find a positive, even when a quilter has entered his/her project in the wrong category and is disqualified. Because of that, it takes me quite a long time to judge. I don't mind though. I get to look at and touch quilts the entire time I'm there.  😊 

I did get some quilting done recently. I finished binding the Celebrate the Season banners, but I don't have a good picture. I'll be sure to get one and post it soon.

I also completely finished my Sunset Strips quilt.

I had extra blocks and not enough of any single fabric for the backing, so I pieced one. 

Even with all of the wonderful quilts at the Fairs and my completions, the highlight of the week was Tuesday when we all joined Lynn and Ty in welcoming a new baby to the family! Layne John was born at 7:48am.   

The girls stayed with Ty's parents Monday night and arrived at the hospital around 9:00. They could hardly contain their excitement!

We're all thrilled to have another grandchild and they entire family is doing well. The girls just adore their brother! I think he's happy with them too. 

Thursday was the first day of school for Nikki's kids. Quinn is in 4th grade, Sadie is in 2nd, and Ronan is in Kindergarten. I think they were all excited to begin.

This picture was posted on the school's Facebook page. I'm not sure what Ronan's thinking here, but he told me that he had a "great day!"

Ty is taking some time off work to be with Lynn, so I'm subbing for him until after Labor Day. I'm enjoying the opportunity to teach Sociology, Government, and World History. That's my certification area and I don't often get the chance to actually teach because I'm usually only in the classroom for a day or two. 

This weekend is being spent sewing, reading, and catching up on housework. What are you doing this weekend?

Quilt Progress

My goal for yesterday was to get at least one of the three small projects quilted and the binding machine sewn on the front. Despite judging at the Lorain County Fair all morning, I met my goal and then some.

Mingled is completely done! It's small (35" x 40"), but it has some "punch" appeal. I like the finished product. 

The banners are both quilted. These each measure about 15" x 55". 

And, the bindings are sewn to the front. 

I'm almost done hand stitching the binding down on the Patriotic one, and I'll post a picture when I'm done with both of them.

It sure feels good to have met these goals!

It's baby day, so I'll be away from the computer for most of the day.

Have a great Tuesday!

Design Wall Monday

I am working really hard at completing projects that have been sitting around for a while. So in between new projects, I pull something old and work on it. Sometimes I'm lucky that they are small and I'm successful at finishing them before a deadline project demands attention or I get bored with it.

I still haven't decided if I want to add scrappy borders to the quilt I was working on last week, so I took it down and started something new. In my defense, this is a very simple quilt and I've had the fabrics pulled for a very long time.

The pattern is called Mingled and it's by Robinson Pattern Company. Like I said, this is quick to make and I love the center. According to the information on the pattern, the concept for the quilt began with seeing what happens when any two sides mingle together. The idea quickly expanded to represent how the best qualities of a father and mother mingle together to make a new and exciting creation - a baby! 

And since we'll be welcoming a new baby to the family tomorrow, I thought this quilt was appropriate to make right now. It's layered and ready for quilting. I hope to do that this evening.

I also pulled out a wall hanging that I cut out quite a long time ago, only to discover that there was a slight error in the cutting instructions. Instead of trying to figure out how to make adjustments, I simply put the pattern and fabric in a bag and tucked it away. No more! 

Adjustment has been made, as well as a Winter version of the same pattern. This is Celebrate the Season by Thankfully Sew.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture! I'll be sure to get a good picture when the quilting and binding is complete. Since the quilting will be very simple, I'm hoping to get this quilted tonight also. Keep your fingers crossed!

Binding is made for all three projects and if I'm feeling very productive tonight, perhaps that will get put onto all three. That would be nice, but I hope to go to bed early since we are meeting Lynn and Ty at the hospital around 6:00 tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned for baby news!

What are you working on today?

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Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

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Monday Making

Another Umbrella Class

On August 9th, Annie and I were at Somewhere Sewing in Millersburg, OH teaching an umbrella class. I just realized that I had not posted pictures of those awesome umbrellas. Oops!!

Here's Debi, the shop owner with her wonderful umbrella. She used such fun fabrics!

A few of the gals did not want their pictures taken, but we just had to share their umbrellas.

Kathy loves Minnie Mouse and fussy cut her fabrics to make Minnie front and centers. Try clicking on the picture to see if you can enlarge it and see it. She has a bag and small purse/wallet made from the same fabric. 

Some umbrellas match their maker's outfit.  😊 It's a challenge to see, but the red fabrics are pin cushions and the dark fabrics are sewing items.

June's umbrella was so pretty! You can't tell in the picture, but the light fabric has some shimmer to it. That'll make you smile, even when it's raining!

There were two Sues in the class and their umbrellas were very different, but oh so darn nice!

We are so lucky to be able to teach these classes all over Ohio! Thanks Umbrella Joan. We love representing you east of the Mississippi.  

Umbrella Class

Annie and I taught an umbrella class at Angelic's yesterday and as usual, all of the umbrellas turned out beautifully! We had a couple of late cancellations and ended up with just four students, but that didn't stop us from having a wonderfully creative time.   😊

Marlene has been patiently waiting for this class and when her husband got into a little tugging match with poison ivy, she almost had to cancel again. Fortunately, she was able to take him to urgent care and get some medicine for him and still have time to join the class. We found out during the class that Marlene chose to spend her 15th wedding anniversary making this umbrella, so we felt extra lucky to have her join us. Isn't this beautiful?

She had called me about this fabric quite a long time ago, questioning if she could use it. It is 97% cotton and 3% spandex. We figured we could, but suggested she bring a back up, just in case we ran into issues. I'm thrilled that she used it and love the results!

Nancy's butterfly fabric looks awesome next to this solid blue! She was worried because the blues don't match perfectly, but I'm happy to say that she was thrilled with the results. Just look at her smile!

Rosemary chose a wonderful Kaffe Fassett fabric and we all love the results! This picture does not do this umbrella justice. It really is BEAUTIFUL!

Terry, the shop owner was finally able to take this class. She has been trying since March to make this umbrella but scheduling conflicts, full classes, and illness always got in the way. We love her fabric choice and her finished umbrella. 

Everyone went home with umbrellas ready to waterproof and a hope for rain.

I love teaching these classes! Thanks Umbrella Joan for such a wonderful pattern and product. You rock!!

Design Wall Monday

I've had a pretty crazy couple of weeks and when I finally got home Thursday night, I decided that I wanted/needed to work on something fun and mindless. I went right to some of my prize-winnings from the American Honor Contest and pulled a fat quarter bundle of Starlet.

Isn't this fun! I knew that working with this would make me smile, especially if I made something simple and quick. 

It didn't take long for me to decide that I wanted to make a 20 block - 16 patch quilt. These quilts are easy and don't waste much fabric at all. Within a couple of hours, the fat quarters were all cut and half the blocks were sewn. It felt good to be at the sewing machine! 

I finished the blocks Friday evening and put them up on the design wall and they are still there. 

Grandma duty called Saturday afternoon and evening, and then Sunday was filled with prep work for the upcoming school year (I'm subbing for Ty when the new baby arrives), some pattern development work, and a concert featuring one of our friends.    

I hope to play around with the layout tomorrow and sew this top together. I'll add a small framing border (not sure which fabric yet), and then add a scrappy border using the left over fabrics from the fat quarters. 

What are you working on today?

Check out the eye candy at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

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Monday Making

My Happy Place Reveal #2

As soon as I saw the My Happy Place fabrics, I knew I wanted to create a heart block with them. I got busy sketching, had a number of possibilities, and quickly made a decision. The block was easy to sketch, but I had to really think about how I wanted to put them together in a quilt. 

I had a limited amount of fabric and knew that I also wanted to make a few other projects with it, so the size of my quilt was quickly scaled back to a small lap size. You've already seen the block before it was sewn together...

The block finishes at 12" and I love it!

As you can see in these pictures, I decided to have them nest into each other vertically and have a small sashing between the columns.

I'm teasing you here a bit...

What better place to take a picture than at one of my favorite places - the back patio.

I'll get some fun pictures as soon as I get this baby quilted. In the mean time, here's the completed quilt top.

Oops! I lied... 

I decided that I didn't like the top and bottom of the hearts so I got out my trusty seam ripper and made some changes. I wish taking these pictures was as easy as making the changes to the quilt. Between the bad lighting because of the time of day and the wind, I couldn't get a good picture. I guess that will have to wait for the completed quilt.

Do you see the changes I made? I especially like that the bottom hearts actually have points now.

I tried to get fancy with the pictures, and if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love to take pictures of quilts on a wood pile.

But, when all else fails you grab some tape and go to the back side of the shop. I decided to leave the weeds in the picture. That's kind of like life, isn't it? Hearts and Love triumph over the bad stuff!  

Besides the My Happy Place fabrics, I used these two Peppered Cottons.

Aubergine

Fushia

I love how this turned out, but have not yet decided a name for it. That will probably happen once it's quilted. I have to get Jack on that, since he's the one who normally names my projects.  😊