wow- warming up winter

Ta heck with ground hogs.  Winter will just be as everlasting as necessary.  I shall think warm thoughts, stitch warm covers, and sip apple cider by the fire!  The little rug is my only rug hooking attempt and if I had time, I'd do more. I liked it!

I'm going to leave the finishing of my leaf wall hanging until I can see green leaves in the landscape and work up my nerve to stamp on the quilt top.

In the mean time I am really warming up to these blocks from my old ufo pile of scraps.

When my thoughts kinda freeze up at the end of the day I can just put two fabrics together and sew.  When I get tired of that I switch to the iron and trimming. They'll finish at five inches and I'll need approximately 64 blocks.  They are going to be such fun to arrange!  

I shall try with the first teacup and then after I warm up I'll  get busy on the cold cups.  While I'm stitching I shall think about the kitchen curtain as the blinds are up and the curtain rod is hung.  The window trim needs another coat of paint but I'll wait till the wind changes and the draft settles down. ;~)

Stay warm and see what the other gals from The Needle and Thread Network are doing to stay warm.

Wow I think I've got it

I have misplaced the original book that had the winding ways wall hanging that was the inspiration for my DD's wedding quilt.  She married in South America so I decided to wait for the final borders until she came home.  Bad idea.  It has taken 3 children and a house remodel to get me back on the project.  Their bedroom finish is my new deadline!  :)

First I will go with the new floral and the paler green.  The solid pink is too bright so the diagonal tone on tone pink remains.  Because I prewash I needed to spray starch the fabrics as it just makes life so much easier.  The acrylic templates ensure accuracy which also makes life easier.  I started to pay better attention and it is not about which colour needs to be up but rather which curve, concave or convex. 

The C shape goes on top of the D shape. 

I don't pin since the the two end tips always match and the distance is short from the beginning tip to the end tip and I use my machine setting for needle down function if I stop to adjust anything.  The curve is really not too difficult.

So I get the first two tips matched perfectly and begin to sew.  I did all the centre with the regular 1/4 inch foot and this new foot has a guide which I didn't think I liked  but it is one less thing to consider when doing these curves so it has proved useful but not absolutely necessary.

After I 've done a few stitches I'll stop to line up the edges of the two pieces like in the photo with the C and D..

I find I am gently coaxing the bottom D to the left so it comes under the C which easily shapes to the bottom D. 

 Do NOT look ahead more than half to an whole inch.  Those little 'puckers' somehow ease themselves out of the way.  Really.  You can't sew at mach 1 speed but it all goes smoothly.

It comes out with a bit of a bowl shape but the iron folds that D piece right back and it is ready.

 I don't trim the ears as they are handy for joining everything together.  Note- I was so intent on the process I sewed the darn floral on with the back facing up.  :(

These are the pieces for this final round.  It is actually a block and an half as 'we' want a scalloped edge.

So here is that outside row coming together.  I am hitting my stride and I may even redo that first try.

The softer green, and the close match floral are passing the galloping horse test.  And I won't be slowing the horse until I'm done and I WILL be done by next WIP Wednesday at The Needle and Thread Network. Says she with fingers, toes and knees crossed!  lol

Child's play

I may have to change my name to my friend's blog, Naptime Quilter. But being a grandma rather than a mum means I'll not be quilting during nap time but joining the bed and blankie brigade. The good news is that 30 minutes does it well enough for me. lol

Journal quilt number 6 is the crayon drawing I made.

Now Josh seems to like the back the best. ???

We had spread an eye spy quilt I made way way back when I first met Cheryl out on the hallway floor. (see first photo) We had all shared novelty prints that represented the 26 letters of the alphabet and then I hand appliqued lower case letters on mine. I had lots of time as grandchildren didn't arrive till some years later. But when Josh saw the crayons on the back of my quiltlet he went over and studied the eye spy quilt which has C for crayon and yup, it is the same fabric. (It is gonna be hard to fool this little guy!) LOL

Needless to say I am a bit behind on the colour palette placemats and I need to be sewing while the little guy snores. SHHHHH!

Good ol' college try

The 3CS has a number of challenges that I like to participate in. I am hampered a bit by being on dial-up so some tutorials can be an issue. The Technique of the Month is transferring colour and I tried a few things but I need to get the transfer medium. My trip to the city has been delayed so I won't meet that deadline but I did do some 'fooling around' with various things including a new box of crayons.

That didn't work so I wondered 'what if...'

I found the Faber-Castell PITT artist pen worked the best on fabric and I drew a border and then filled it with a little scene. Now this may not look like much but I'm actually impressed. Then I got my iron working on the fabric to heat it up and used several of my 64 colours to add some colour. I ironed the cloth with parchment paper between the iron and my drawing. Kinda cool! oh, I guess it should be, Hot Stuff! lol

The Flicker Group for the TOM is here.

The 3CS Colour palette challenge is a favorite combo of mine. I wanted to revisit some curved piecing so I dug out some old class notes. I did these with no pinning.

This is a little preview and I should have my spring place mats ready for viewing tomorrow.