Design Wall Monday and More

I threw some leftover flying geese blocks from my Totally Decaffeinated up last night and started playing around. I'm not sure if I'm going to use them, but I have five or six star blocks left as well. I'm done with both the top and back of the Totally Decaffeinated quilt and it's ready to be quilted this afternoon, but for some reason I never took a picture of the finished pieces. I guess I'll just post them after it's quilted.

Here are two potential layouts so far, although I don't really like either one. Just remember that I'm playing here and don't ask me why there are only six flying geese on the bottom right row....

 

 

My thoughts here for the first picture are that more flying geese would be added to the sides to create "boxes" that house the star blocks. I have the geese, but just didn't put them up. In the bottom picture, I thought about the same "boxes" but not including the stars. In the open space I would quilt something special.

 

These are all scrappy and anything that I add would probably be as well. Any thoughts? I'm open to suggestions.

 

And now for the MORE mentioned above...

 

I am so blessed! 

 

I told you HERE and HERE about the wonderful packages I've recently received in the mail, well I was completely blown away on Friday when I received another one. Check out what Alice sent me.

Ten fat quarters from Andover Fabrics Fairmount Park collection!

 

 

I met Alice last March/April while I was attending the Judy Niemeyer workshop at Tennessee Quilts. She and I sat next to each other for the last two sessions and I really enjoyed talking to her. We've "messaged" each other on Facebook now and then, but it's been a while since we've even done that. (Any by the way, she does a wonderful job of piecing quilts and has a great color sense.)

 

Alice sent along a very nice note that touched me very much. It's almost like she knew that I've been fondling some of the greys and muted fabrics in my stash trying to decide what to do. When these arrived, I just knew it was a sign to get something going. I have narrowed down my ideas and hopefully will start some cutting later this week. I'll keep you posted. THANKS ALICE!!

 

As I type this, I have two dear friends dealing with loved ones who have some serious medical issues. I feel pretty darn helpless in being able to do something for them, but I also feel so fortunate to not be facing the same type of situations with my loved ones. I know it's easy to forget about the fragility of life, but these two situations have really grounded me. I need to step back and recognize that it's not the end of the world when that big piece of fabric I bought to use as a backing has a major flaw right down the middle. Really, it's not that big of a deal when you put things in perspective.

 

I have a wonderful family and great friends. I have a passion for quilting that just keeps on growing and overall, LIFE IS GOOD! I sure hope you feel the same way. And remember that if you or a loved one is struggling, there are people who care.

 

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times. 

Design Wall Monday

I subbed today and forgot to take a picture last night so this post is kind of late in the day. It doesn't really matter, since the project is still up on the wall.

I'm working on the backing to my version of Totally Decaffeinated, which has the borders on but is too big for me to get a picture right now. Here's what I have so far.

 

I like the design, but really dislike that light fabric. I'm not sure where I got it or when, but it is so thin that I've decided I can't use it. I'm really disappointed because I had enough of it and I wanted to use it. I just know that I won't be happy if I continue on with this fabric, so I guess some of tonight will be spent looking for light/neutral fabrics. 

 

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

Design Wall Monday

It's hard to believe, but I actually have a picture to share!

If you read any of yesterday's posts (here, here, and here), you'll know that I kicked myself in the butt and got some sewing done. (I know, it's about time.)

Well, here's the status of the Totally Decaffeinated quilt so far.

I'm liking this!

 

I just realized that this picture was taken before I added the first small border. Oh well. That is sewn on and the flying geese are all made for the second border. I'm adding some star blocks to the second border and I haven't made them yet, but that shouldn't take long. I plan to add another small border and then I have a large outside border that doesn't need pieced. That's the plan right now but as you probably already know, that could easily change. I told you this was going to be big!

 

Unfortunately I can't do any sewing until later tonight, but now that the fire is re-ignited this shouldn't remain an UFO (minus quilting) much longer.

 

Of course then the quilting dilemma begins....

 

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

Also, don't forget the check out today's April Showers Blog Hop creations.

Totally Decaffeinated Update

The camera battery is charging so there's no picture right now, but I'm excited to say that the rows are all sewn together. YEAH!! I'm making my decision about the inside border now, and then I'm going to continue piecing my border flying geese.

This is so much fun! Why did I wait?

Progression

Here's the first update on my sewing today.

The reunion with the sewing machine went well. She's all cleaned and oiled and I even changed the needle. I wound a couple of extra bobbins just because, and now I'm ready to sew and be another productive member of the quilting community.

Before I begin, I should bring you up to speed on one of the projects that will hopefully see some major progress today.

A couple of years ago, one of our guild members made a quilt called Totally Decaffeinated and it was gorgeous! I decided that I wanted to make one, but finding the pattern/book proved to be quite challenging because it was out of print. (In the bottom picture, the Totally Decaffeinated quilt is the one on the right. See, isn't it beautiful? Kathy's was made with Christmas colors and it was stunning!)

Well the search was on and I finally came across the book (quite by accident) and bought it. Now you would think that since I fell in love with the quilt so easily and that because the search for the book was not easy that I would have chosen fabric and get started on it right away wouldn't you? Obviously that wasn't the case and this book sat about for about a year until this past summer when I decided that it would make a great "leader/ender" project. I pulled fabrics and got started cutting.

Par for the course, as I was cutting I decided I wanted to make a few design changes and the already large quilt (98" x 110") was going to be even bigger. (I'm still "playing" so we'll all be surprised now won't we?) The change didn't really affect my fabric quantities though because it's scrappy and I just pulled more fabric.  :-) Here's some of the fabrics I'm using.

Using the leader/ender concept, I started sewing units in June of last year. I know exactly when I started because it was while I was in Washington Island, Wisconsin. Here's a picture of the basic block units that I began sewing. I started with the two patch blocks and moved on to the flying geese units after all 512 two patch units were made.

 

(Soon after I began working on this, the guild raffle quilt committee announced that they were going to make this quilt for the 2013 project. The guild's project is much less scrappy than mine but I know it's going to be beautiful! Maybe the fact that the guild quilt will be done soon is the kick in the butt push that I needed to get mine done.)

 

Anyway, for various reason, I didn't work in this project continuously but instead only when it felt right to do so or when I didn't have a pressing project that needed done. (There were times when I was working on two class samples at one time and of course that took precedence.)

 

So fast forward to about three weeks ago and for whatever reason, I pulled this project out and sat down to make some decisions about the changes I wanted to make. I decided that I really couldn't make those decisions until I had all the blocks done so I took the time and finished them. Here are the two blocks used for the body of the quilt.

 

 

Stacked Log Blocks (32 of these)

 

 

Rising Star Blocks (16 of these)

 

I am sewing the blocks into rows, and  my goal is to have the inside of this quilt done today and begin sewing all the flying geese units for the borders. The original pattern calls for 66 flying geese units for the border., but this is where I decided to make a change. I'm going to have flying geese on all four sides, instead of just two. That means I have a lot more geese to sew. Fortunately I'm using the no-waste method and I can make four geese at a time.  :-)

 

I'm headed back to the machine. I'll post progress pictures later.