Yellow combo prize

  I am not usually awake before my second cup of coffee, but this morning I only had two sips when Sir Old Man said I had an email from Pat Sloan. OK, I know who she is.  Then he said it's something about being a winner.
  Eyes popped open and off to see the message.   Yes!  I won one of her giveaways for the yellow combo.  Fabric....isn't it beautiful? 
   So excited, and now off for that second cup of coffee.
Happy stitching.

Finally Fall

Finally Fall!

I've enjoyed the cool mornings and today I spotted a hint of color on my favorite maple trees.  I pulled out this wall hanging from several years ago for the kitchen.  It's only 16" by 24"  and took forever to stitch around all those leaves. 
  Tomorrow is "working in the yard" day.....lots of trimming and weeding and mulching  to do.  It should be beautiful to be outside.
  Just a quick thank you for all the input and ideas on my struggle.  I have only done a bit of scrap piecing for the sashing using some stripes and shirting prints, but I am very happy so far.  I do think it will tone down the mauve and  anchor all the blocks of different sizes. 
  Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends, and have a great weekend to all.
Oh...a reminder about the Wantobe Giveaway.  The next and final 3 weeks are open to everyone, everyday....so Madame Samm says to stop by, leave a comment to enter for the last Big Prizes.
Happy stitching. 

Dilemma

  This is such a struggle for me to do......not my colors---from the 80's, or fabric style.  These are the blocks I managed to salvage after washing and pressing.  I found myself crying while pressing,  for a stitcher I never knew, who wanted to make a quilt.  How much of ourselves do we stitch into our projects?  Does it linger in the threads and fibers? 
I believe it does, I felt  her dreams in these blocks.

  A few are the same size, most were uneven, which I trimmed, and a lot were stained with age.    I need to come up with 2 small lap quilts from these.  My first idea was to use an asymmetrical layout on the denim blue background.  I think the blocks fade out a lot that way.  So I found a much lighter blue gray ( very old Jinny Beyer fabric ), but I'm not sure  that's it either.     I tried scraps of the dark blue to border  the blocks...whoa, that won't work.  Forget the mauve, and there is already too much gray, and the red/burgundy is strong. 
   So I am throwing this out to blog land......HELP!   All  ideas are wanted, and just maybe  one of them will give me the right inspiration on how to make this assortment match/work/go together for her boys.  Thanks.
Happy stitching.

Update and additonal information:   The blocks range in size from 7 1/2" to 11 1/4 ".  See my problem?  That's why some must have a frame/border added to them.
  Tried black....everything looks morbid.  Just white or muslin and everything looks dirty.  But a mix that includes a little black and muslin could be the way to go.  I am leaning right now towards a vetical strip setting and making it more scrappy.  Freda suggested ticking stripe.....maybe even some shirting prints would help.  Thanks for the ideas....love the input from everyone.   

Who me?

Award?  Yes, I am red faced and embarrassed to admit I forgot to mention and thank Linda at alottastiches blog  for passing The Versatile Blogger Award onto me.  So Thank you, Linda, and forgive me for the delay.  So what is The Versatile Blogger Award?  A way to spread the word about blogs you enjoy and share a little extra about yourself.  Here are the guidelines. 

 1.You must give credit to the person that has nominated you and create a link to their blog in your post.

2.You must create a list of 15 blogs that you enjoy most and link to those as well. Then you must go and tell them you have nominated them. That means if you do not have 15, you cannot do this step. If you do not complete this step, then you cannot claim this award.

3.Finally, you must create a list of seven things about yourself.

And I am about a week late on number one, but do drop in on Linda, who does  fabulous crochet--Ripple of the Week-- and knits and loves yarns and  reading about quilting too.  Now, for the number 2 part.  Here's the start of my list.  You might just want to drop in for a visit with some of them. 

Cheree at The Morning Latte

Mary at Hill Country Quilter

Pattilou Quilts

Dana at Stormy Days


Seven things about me.....
  1.  I wanted to be a writer but ended up majoring in biology and chemistry.  I went through an internship after college and became a Medical Technologist and was in charge of a lab in Orlando before getting married.
  2.  I began sewing when I was 12 years old.  Betty was a surrogate Grandmother to me and a wonderful seamstress.  I am so indebted to her. 
  3.  I love flowers and working in the garden, but have developed horrible allergies over the years.  Spiders and small ants are deadly to me.
  4.  Cooking is another love.  I have cookbooks and kitchen gadgets for everything.  So, why does my family always ask for the same old things?  Country Fried Steak is the all time favorite and pure comfort food.  The one time I changed the holiday menu, they all turned up their noses at the new stuff!  My nephew said that it wasn't Christmas without Grandma's salad.  I learned to leave the menu alone.
  5.  I am sentimental, and sensitive, yet analytical, love chocolate, cherish friends and my family, know a little about a lot of things, enjoy silence and watching the sunrise, need that first cup of coffee in the morning, find pleasure in the routine, abhor being rushed or pushed into something, and long to be a real artist.
  6.  I love to read.  Books take me places I have never been, and teach me more than I can ever use.
  7.  Finally, love fabrics, making quilts, giving quilts away, designing quilts, playing with color, and the biggest thing I love to do is inspire others.  It  makes my day complete when I can share and inspire.   
   
Happy stitching.

A quilt tale to be

    While helping Trey and Deana clear out and move items from a storage unit last week, Trey found a cross stitch that his Grandmother had done.  His comment was, "What do you do with something like this?  Just trash it. "    Such pain and emotion in those few words.   I put it with the 2 bags of fabrics and partial quilt blocks that he had saved which his mother had never finished. 
    The  quilt blocks are from the late 80's.....polyester batting and all.  It has been in storage for about 12 years and needs a good airing.






  Trey asked me to finish the section that his mother had put together.  Not because it is lovely, but because it  is something her hands worked on.    The stitches are large, and there are tucks and irregularities.  So I will finish off this section----it was lap quilted by block and needs to be finished on the back and have a binding added.  There are other blocks that have only been pieced.  From these I will make lap quilts for each brother.
  So I am putting my projects on hold for a bit.  I feel this is way more important ---maybe not as much fun, but so very important---than quilting my current projects. 
  The first morale of this continuing quilt tale:  If you are a quilter, pull out those UFOs or PIGs and complete them.  If you don't like them any more, give them away or trash them.  Please don't leave them for  your children or family to throw out.   I have a great son-in-law and my heart was in pieces seeing him want his mom's handwork, but not in this unfinished state. 
  

  So a couple hours of sewing, and here's the completed top.

I wanted to show movement, and that's what I got.  I repeated "my mistake" from the beginning 2 rows again just before the end by going up on 2 rows and then back down.  So, now it is on purpose!
  Before I get lost in just looking at the colors, let me finish up with the technique.  From this full shot, you can see that the color pattern at the bottom disappears and then seems to wrap to  the top.  So a few things to remember......
    1. Strata is created with 4" strips. The number of fabrics in your strata will determine the over all finished length. Example: 18 strips times 3 1/2" (finished size) equals 63 inch length.

   *Note: Sew strata together with a small stitch, so the strips will not come apart when sub-cut.
   2. If using cuts of 20"-22" wide cuts from fat quarters, you will need 3 cuts of 4" for a small lap quilt that is about 45-49 inches wide when finished. For a wider quilt, use 2 full width of fabric cuts and a minimum of 20 fabrics in the strata.

  3.   Bridge fabrics help you transition from one color to the next.  Use 3 or 4 values of a color to create a blended wave of color.
  4.  The first 5 to 7 fabrics start at the top left and work down and across to the right. They will probably not make it to the top corner and be repeated.
  5. The first fabric and the last fabric will end up next to each other and need to blend or play/work well together.
  6 . Pattern movement comes from the wide strips--they flatten out the movement, and from the very narrow strips---that move down the quilt quickly and almost create an angle. If you like that, use a lot of them, and if not, then only 2 or 3 will create variety.
   If you have any questions about this technique, let me know and I will post details for all.  A couple of borders on this and I will be done.
  The weather turned cool this weekend, and  last night was 45 degrees.  So you won't hear me complain for the next few days.  In fact, I will probably have to put another quilt on the bed tonight.  Luckily, I have a couple to use!
Happy stitching.

Slicing and dicing

Continuing bargello saga:    All that planning and here's where I am.

Once the rows are sewn for the strata, and you sew the bottom piece to the top piece.....you get a tube.  All that is easy, the slicing it up takes a ruler, a sharp rotary cutter, and bravery!  I find it the scariest part to slice up the tubes for some reason.  But I can go no further if I don't.
  So I slice and pin to the design wall.  I use 3 1/2" width, 3" width, 2 1/2" width, 2" width, 1 1/4" width for my cuts.  I knew I wanted about 5  to 6 very wide cuts, and at least 7 narrow cuts, so those were my first ones.   I ended up with 3 at 3" instead of 3 1/2" as I was running out of fabric.  Not really a problem as I didn't have a plan written in stone.
   This was pinned up according to my original plan with the dark green as the #2 fabric.  The strips are still as tubes, so this is one half of the whole design.  I liked it, but.....I didn't love it.  The drama was happening in the corner not in the middle. 

So I began rotating the tubes to change the position of the fabrics and re-pinning to the wall.   Zing!  That was it, much better.    I made notes on the swatch card  of the change in number position----but the order of the fabric stayed the same.  OK, ready to sew. 
   Before I get to the serendipity thing that happened, here's the rest of this technique.   On the odd number rows  the piece at the top is a full piece.  The even number rows have half drop pieces at the top.  For the odd rows you cut exactly on the seam line between the fabric you want at the top and the last one....or cut the seam line of #1 and #18.  #1 goes to the top and #18 to the bottom.  For the even number rows, you will cut the piece for the top exactly in half---that gives you the half drop.  It is very easy to do by folding the piece in half and matching the seams in the sewn tube and make the cut.  I only cut the rows I am sewing right now....remember I get interrupted and confused too easily.  Then sew rows together in correct order.  Remember Eleanor Burns' book, Quick Trip Quilts, has all the details. 

Note the upper corner at the left in the above photo, and look at this one.  Guess what I did?  I sewed the first 2 rows together in reverse.  Pattern is going up instead of down in the second row.

   Repeat after me, the first row  goes on the bottom and  the second row  goes on the top.

 Since I absolutely hate to unsew, I looked for the serendipity of the situation.  Found it, too.  A little change in the design plan, and realized this was exactly what I wanted in the first place. 

 So I am sewing and sewing.  The top will take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours .  Back soon. 
Happy stitching.