What is on the Design Floor Today

I took these coasters to my daughter's house. I thought she might want to make some, and she did. She bought Christmas fabric so she can make them with the ladies in her in-law family. Then she found some Walking Dead fabric and bought that too so she could make coasters and pot holders for herself, her sister-in-law, and some friends at work. She made them with three folded hexagons instead of six so she could fussy cut the fabric.

I hear people on tv and radio talk about Walking Dead, but I've never watched it. Lil was convinced that we would like it if we just watched the first show. I had my doubts and asked her if the show was about zombies because I didn't think I wanted to watch a zombie show. It's not ALL about zombies she said, it has an ongoing plot and other things. So we watched the first episode while we were there. As far as I can tell, it's a show about zombies, and yes, it has on ongoing plot about a guy looking for his family and killing zombies all along the way.

I think we are not the target audience for this show. I'll watch Longmire and she can watch zombies.



Linking to:
Monday Making 9 at Love Laugh Quilt
Main Crush Monday 14 at Cooking up Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching

After spending Christmas with our daughter and son-in-law in St. Louis, we are on our way home. We left at 8am and are just to Tulsa at 4pm. It's been white-knuckle driving through the rain the whole time. We would have waited one more day but oldest daughter has to go to work tomorrow. Also, we heard that a tornado hit near the storage place where we left the trailer and we want to see if there is any damage.

While Hubby drove, I've been stitching.



After taking my turn at driving and then trying to figure out how to get pictures on here from my phone, I see I loaded the blurry pictures. Sorry, but I'm not doing it over now.

Edited after we got home: I changed the photo. We drove by the rv storage lot on our way home and the trailer is still upright. We'll check it out better tomorrow in the daylight and hopefully it will have stopped raining by then. A neighbor told me that 100 homes were damaged but we didn't see any sign of damage on the highway.



Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Design Wall Monday

It doesn't look like much has changed on my design wall, but I've been plugging away on the crossroads blocks and trying out finishes for the Irish chain. That is when I have had time. We've been digging in the mud lately trying to get our yard to dry out. Not fun. So this is just a quickie post before I have to get my mud boots on for the day.

Linking to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report

I've been sewing like crazy on my crossroads and Irish chain quilts but only cut a quarter yard of new fabric for it. I did use ten yards making receiving blankets, and that accounted for most of my usage this week. I didn't buy any fabric, so that's a good thing.

Linking to Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Still working on the crossroads blocks. I also decided to start using up my boxes of little scraps making string blocks as leaders and enders. I think I may be in danger of not finishing my UFO of the month either. Eek! I'd better hop to!

If you remember from last week, I originally made the crossroads blocks 7-1/2 inches and then decided that was too big, so cut then down to 6-1/2 inches. Being the frugal sort, I thought I'd use the cut off strips to make some string blocks. What a nightmare that was! Not only were all those strips cut on the bias, but they were so narrow that they stretched and curved as I stitched. And it took a lot to make a block. So after one block, I decided those scraps were better off in the trash.

I used that one block to make a pot holder. I thought it would be an easy way to practice free-motion quilting, and boy was I wrong about that. The center wasn't too bad, but there is nothing to hold onto at the edges. I also wanted to try out a method of binding a potholder where the end of the binding was also used to make the hanging loop. I'm not sure I did that right, but it worked. I first used binding that was too narrow and tried to trim the bulk of the potholder to make it turn, but then gave up and made 2 inch binding and just double folded the end that made up the hanging loop. By the time I finished, my potholder wasn't quite square anymore, but since it is just for me, who cares?

On the wall:

Linking to:
Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times 29
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs

Stash Buster Report December 13, 2015

No quilt fabric coming in this week, so that's a good thing. I had to say no quilt fabric because I did buy a quarter yard of some fabric to cover speaker doors. But that doesn't count, right? I didn't think so.


Not much fabric out either as I have mostly been using fabric I cut last week.

I've been trying to work on this quilt every day and set a goal of eight blocks per day, but there were several days that didn't see a single block completed. Life does get in the way some weeks and this was a hum-dinger. Better luck next week.

Linking to Stash Report at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Hubby went hunting this weekend so I got a lot of work done on my new quilt. But when Hubby is gone, I don't sleep well and I made up for it this morning, so I'm getting a late start today.

This is based off a quilt I saw in a quilt store. I also found some similar online with the name Summer Porch. Eleanor Burns has a pattern that is similar but different, also called Summer Porch. I thought these would be just the right colors and pattern for my grandmother's four poster bed.

The living room/sewing room is in sewing room mode again and the design wall is up. So much easier than the floor for bigger pieces.

I started by measuring the bed and decided that seven inch blocks would line up best across it. But after I made quite a few blocks, I thought they were too big, or maybe it was too much color and the sashing looked too small. So I cut the blocks down to six inches and like it much better. Now I have a lot of one inch strips, so I can see some strip quilts in my future.

Linking to
Patchwork Times
Love, Laugh, Quilt
Bits 'n Bobs
Cooking up Quilts

Scrappy coasters

I have to say I. LOVE. THESE. COASTERS! They are quick and easy to make and so doggone cute. I had enough of the same fabrics to make two, and then had to start digging through the scrap bins to find enough similar fabrics to finish out four. I can just see these made with holiday fabrics too - Christmas, Valentines. And what a great gift idea too. Can you see how excited I am? It's because they are so easy. Literally took me 5 minutes to make once I had the fabrics. Digging through the scrap bins took about twenty minutes. lol



I searched all the local shops and couldn't find a hexagon ruler, so made mine out of cardboard. Not the greatest but it will work until I can buy one. In the picture, you'll notice the upper one isn't finished. I wanted to show my neighbor and fellow quilter how to make these.  I know she will be smitten also.

I mentioned this in my last post, but I'll say it again, that I saw these coasters on Lisa J's blog: sunlight in winter quilts. She has a link to a tutorial for them.

Thanks Lisa!



Linking to
Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework.
Love, Laugh, Quilt

Stash Buster Report December 5, 2015

I've had a lot of sewing time this week and have made some headway on my crossroads quilt. I've bought and cut a lot more fabric than I'll probably use on it though. I'm not really satisfied with it and have been trying out more combinations - thus the purchases.

With some of the excess fabric, I cut out some hexagons for these cute coasters I saw on Lisa J's blog sunlight in winter quilts.



Linking to Patchwork Times.

December's UFO

I was soooo close when I took down my design wall flannel, and then completely forgot about this little quilt. This is the unfinished quilt I plan to finish in December, although with everything going on this month, even it may be a challenge.








Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes – December Goal Party at Sew BitterSweet Designs.