Flowers from Erin--your UFO is still my UFO/WIP

Awhile back Erin gifted me a few flower blocks to play with.  I had several ideas of things to try with them.  The let's get it done was only a 24 hour bug and the blocks got buried under a pile of TO-DO's.
Well thankfully our A/C is still not working.  I spent a day at the building where I have my fabric.  It has A/C and my quilt machine.  I sorted and uncovered many forgotten goodies.  Everything for this project was kitted up with notes on ideas I had had.  Guess which one I choose----none of them!

Erin had given me 15 blocks (11 1/2 inches m/l)  I knew I wanted to add butterflies (8 1/2) blocks.  What to do, what to do.  I knew I didn't want to do a ton of butterflies as an outside border so I compromised and did just a strip to off-set the D-9 setting.  I love, love, love this look.

I will come up with some sorta of witty saying for a wide border and then finish off with the black/pink flowers.  Now to google butterfly sayings--lol

Thank you Erin, you can send me your Orphans anytime!  I have two little grand-daughters (and their mom) who have called dibs on this future keepsake.

The 'Pink' around the flowers is a yarn used to make pot scrubbers.  The texture is a bit stiff, but so cute.  At first glance it looks like I had tension problems and didn't know it--ha ha.  I hope to find large pink buttons to sew in the middle of each flower.

The A/C is getting replaced tomorrow, so I will have to find another excuse to take a day off and sew.

Erin's flowers and pink yarn

Yes I already had the butterflies cut out for a future project

New favorite setting for 12 focus blocks.

Up Coming Wedding....and a Quilt label

Kelly came over today and quilted the top for her friends Dawn & Kevin. She let me make the label!

Kevin's last name is Outhouse- I am sure the couple will get a kick out of my one of a kind marker!

Early Best Wishes to the new couple, Kevin and Dawn.

I wasn't invited to the private ceremony but I am hoping someone remembers to bring me home some cake! Hint Hint- be good cheryl

quilt group and a little late night sewing

I have always been a fan of RW&B!
This top was cut from scraps and was set 5 x 5 blocks.

It may or may not get borders. As Is would be a nice donation piece for a lap quilt or baby gift.


I will def. be making many more scrappy tops with variations of this block. A new favorite to cut using my GO dies!

Kelly's top is ready to get in line for the machine. She is coming over this week to get me caught up on a couple of quilts for a friend.
Once the machine is free, she plans to do a little personal quilting. (I am hoping she will sneak in a few tops from my collection- I think several have aged enough to get quilted!)

Good Friend, Debbie H brought this beautiful brick top to show off. I am so proud of her for busting stash, and for doing such a great job. Seeing this makes me want to start cutting bricks!

Deb also brought a WIP to share. The center medallion is her own design. The butterflies are ones she has had for awhile.

Again I am thrilled to see this Work in Progress. It is a graduation gift for a niece and will have framed photos on the sides.

It was fun to see a new setting for the scrappy butterflies.

Deb says this is pretty much all from stash too.

I also got to show off the quilt blocks I tested for QuiltMaker mag. There were two that I can see making more of. Both had applique- go figure! I will share them as soon as I get permission. From what I understand the 3rd book of 100 blocks is about ready to print.

Another Butterfly border-

Favorite DIL, Kelly asked if I had a quilt she could use for a wedding gift. I let her pick through a few tops that were made with her in mind.
Of course she wants to keep those for her personal collection (I don't blame her, she might have a fight getting them from me when she is ready to quilt 'em!- lol)

I have several Works in Progress that just haven't decided what they want to grow up to be.
Today the "Green and Blue Squares" got a chance to move up from a child's top to a future gift to celebrate friend's vows. There is just something about scrappy butterflies that make plain tops come to life. The blueberry print border fabric will be used on the back and as binding material too.


Funny thing is I started this top over 5 yrs ago. I did strip piecing and sub - cutting and after a few blocks was just 'sick' of the blue and green. It sat for a couple of years until it got sewn into a small top and added to my "Gift It" pile.
About a year later I needed a baby quilt for a shower and added the blue border. I changed my mind on the gift for that child and this top went back to the waiting list.

Kelly will do the quilting sometime this week and I will bind it for her. I am so thrilled to get to use more scrappy butterflies. I swear these can go anywhere. I have gotten to where I just have little baggies with sets in them waiting for projects to liven up. Lucky for me, this set was already tacked to the background blocks so they were easy to raw edge applique.

Earlier this year I purposed to do at least 11 Give A Ways on my Blog. I know this is not the 11th of the month but I would be happy to send out up to 11 sets to readers who do not already have a set.

Leave a comment, I will figure out a fun way to pick the winners. Do you have a small top that could use a beautiful scrappy butterfly border to help it grow up?- be good cw

Like a Butterfly......

I too shall awaken in my own time.

I don't know which was more fun, sewing the strips for the tumbler borders, or cutting the left overs for the scrappy words.

Hopefully this top will be one of the ones I quilt this year. I have a new to me butterfly pattern I want to try out.

Fed Ex Driver Delivers GO in the Snow

Fed Ex called me to confirm the delivery of my new GO (and additional dies!).

Due to the snow, I asked him to park up at the road and I would meet him.

He did and then carried my 30+ pound box down to the house for me. What a nice man.

There was no school again today and a couple of the grandsons were over to help me.

Tyler opened the box and started taking out the dies.

When he saw this large Drunkard's path he held it up and asked: "Are you going to make some underwear?"

I said, NO- this is for my quilting.

He responded: "But you could make underwear if you wanted too right?"

That kids cracks me up! I might just take a couple of the outer shapes and make him a pair of underwear out of them- or maybe NOT.

I was able to get the applique on one side of my scrappy butterfly top.

The phrase is suppose to be: Just like the Butterfly, I too shall awaken in my own time.

After cutting letters and playing around with the spacing. The first line now reads: Like a Butterfly (saved myself from sewing 6 letters)

now I need to decide if I will edit the rest too. Any one have any good ideas for the rest of verbiage?

strings and tumblers make a nice scrappy border

I did not get to sew as much as I had hoped to this evening.
We are getting another snow storm, which for me is an excuse to stay home from work (yeah) but I ended up doing computer stuff all day (darn reports) and missed out on getting to sew more strings together.

Maybe tomorrow night I can get back to this border-

I an sewing sets of strips and then sub-cutting them into the small tumbler die shape.

They take on a scrappy crumb block look.


This die works on my BABY GO. I have ordered the larger die and it should get here tomorrow!

I have a whole new found love of strips and strings knowing that I can now get more use out of them with the new cutting system I ordered.

These blocks take 5 strips each and I am cutting both horizontal and vertical tumblers.

I have one side done and a bunch ready to sew up for the border on the other side.

I finally figured out what saying I want to put on the last border.

I have been cutting out scrappy letter to raw edge applique.

Salmon pink is not my 'color' but I am learning to like it.

This top is growing on me and hopefully will be a bed size quilt sometime in my life time!

The outer border will be wonky letters and say:

Like the Butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time.

For some reason I love that saying. Kinda makes me sound profound and sarcastic both at the same time! Wont this be fun to sleep under.- cw

Piano Key, Strings or Crumbs? That is the question...

I started this top awhile back. I learned that I am not really a fan of spider web blocks (that's not entirely true, I am a fan just not a fan of doing them myself)

So this center sat for quite a bit.

Last week Mary asked to borrow one of my tops to photograph for a class she is getting ready to teach. This one was in the pile.

I had always intended for it to be a bed size quilt some day. (evidenced by the box of scraps labeled: TO DO)

A border of scrappy butterflies brings the top up to 54 x 63 (ish)

What do you think should be the next borders? 6 inch scrappy Piano Keys, String blocks or Crumbs?

I really thought I wanted to do some wonky letters on the final border but can't decided what I want to piece.

Phrases to consider: Just like the Butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time.

or: The butterfly counts not months but moments and has time enough.

50 States quilt- UFO- work in progress!

I decided to work on one of my 11 in 2011.

A flip of the coin pulled up the 50 flowers quilt. This was an auction purchase.

I did a bit of work with the seam ripper and promptly lost interest.

Think it had something to do with ironing 50 blocks!

My firsts thoughts were to iron, re-size and re-set.

After spending the time to take this apart, I had a close up and personal experience. My revelation is: I just don't like this blue fabric.

In fact if anyone wants it I will send it to you.

Because the original person used a lot of purples in the embroidery work, I wanted to find similar fabrics to work into the setting strips and borders.

I was not a fan of the On Point Setting.

I counted twice and all 50 state blocks are here! I don't know of any straight set for 50. I either needed to set 7 x 7 and use one as a label on the back. Or go with a 7 x 8 setting and add six blocks.

I was able to find enough of a couple of fabrics to do setting strips and sqs. I should get a few borders out of it too.

Question was, What do I do with the additional 6 blocks?

I am not in the mood to embroidery.

Answer is as usual- Raw Edge Applique some Butterflies. They seem to be my GO-TO block of choice.

The Win-Win is the butterflies can be made from the fabrics I am using for sashings.

Blocks are laid out in ABC order. All need re-sized. The Butterflies look a little dark, but I think will blend in after the sashings are on.

Here are the first 4 blocks I worked on. The rest will have to wait till later.

Every thing is cut and ready to go. About time for me to loose interest again- NOT!

So what are you doing on your snow day?- cw

This one is for Dawn.....

Before we get all excited, I mean the post is for Dawn, the quilt will most likely be for me! (sorry I am just not that good of a friend- lol)

The tiny sqs were gifted to me from a friend of a friend. My challenge was to use them ALL up.

The scraps were cut down using my new BABY GO. I just love these little butterflies. They are made using the flower die. The top wing is actually the leaf shape. The bottom wing is a flower cut into thirds.




The applique pieces are just temporary attached with a glue stick. Once I decided on the layout I will machine sew them down.

The little circles are dime size, the larger circles are quarter size. Both are cut from mini 4 patch scraps.

I think I will raid my stash and make a piano key border. I should be able to use up a lot of 1" strips! - thanks Dawn for new TO DO project. I will think of you every time I work on it.- cw

Chicago Quilt Show--??--April 16-18th 2010

Anyone going to the Chicago Quilt Show this weekend? I am planning to be there on Sunday. We are headed up to visit our favorite youngest son. The guys are going to power walk the show with me. I told hubby he could help carry the bags (self included).

I will bring some packets of my scrappy butterfly appliques if you want to 'find' me in the crowd. If we don't meet and greet then I am sorry I missed seeing you. Here is a link to my little obsessions:

http://ozarkcastle.blogspot.com/2009/06/butterflies-mini-tutorial.html

Kits for Kids in Haiti

Where we attend church there are several teachers that worship with us. I don't have all the details but there was a note about school kids making kits to send to the kids in Haiti. Each Kit is to have a bottle of shampoo, a comb, soap, toothbrush & tooth paste and a hand towel.

A request was made for donations of the listed items to take to school with one of the teachers.

I volunteered my Bible class to put KITS together and if others would purchase the shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes the quilters would make the hand towels.

Mary and Dawn (and Dawn's mom) came over earlier to help in the project. Mary brought her serger and hemmed close to eighty towels. (Linda and I had pre-cut hand towel size from ones left from my mother-in-law)

We decided to pretty them up a bit and added....... you guessed it: Butterfly appliques! We also make a couple of dozen using Loony Toon applique characters.

We are getting together this Sunday to put it all together. I think the children are going to be thrilled to get to assist with such a worthy cause. I am sure mom would be thrilled to know I cut up all her towels! (Barb was very generous to mission works and I am sure that she would have given them to me if I asked.)

I was tossing these in a box as fast as I could. The kids can fold them Sunday.

And a side story: When I asked Hubby to run by mom's and let me grab the towels for this project he worried that I needed to 'ask' someone first. My response was: If the LORD is taking the time to move me to good works, who am I suppose to ask if it is OK?

I realise that his concern might be that store bought towels might look better. I can pretty much guarantee that when one is in a disaster situation, a kit like these is appreciated whether it is purchased or hand made. My note of encouragement to others is: Don't let others slow you down when the LORD intends you to be moving. If it is in your heart to DO IT, then IT is a good thing.

I am convienced that these little "towels" are going to be used in a good way. -- cw

fast D-9 w/butterflies

I was messing around last night and appliquéd 24 of the scrappy butterflies to 8 1/2” sqs of this dark pink sheet. I usually do something scrappy to set the blocks but this time decided to do a Disappearing 9-patch just to ‘see’ what it would look like.

Have to say, I am a-liking-it! Very fast- I had another sheet with similar pinks that I used for the 4 side sqs. A green fabric from my stash matched well and was used in the center. The butterflies were placed in the corners.

When I am doing these ‘quick’ projects the idea is to sew and not be stressed about the process. I do not iron but will smooth the block out by hand. I fold the 9-patch in half and then half again and scissor cut the folds apart.

There is no need to resize unless you want too. I sew by ‘sight and feel’ and for the most part end up with pretty flat tops.

This top is 58 x 78” (I have slightly narrower borders on the top and bottom than the sides.

I like to keep them smaller than 60” so I can use a twin sheet on the back. I like to pull the back to the front to bind.

It takes me a little over an hour to appliqué the butterflies- I still need to draw on the antennae. This style of top takes about an hour to cut and sew up. Not bad for a couple of hours work.

I can see doing this in other colors too. I picked up a light purple sheet the other day at the thrift shop for $1.00, bet I can find a couple of fabrics to go with it.

“Favorite Block” 12 1/2” Exchange

I joined a new to me group awhile back. The quilter’s that hang there are mostly live-body friends and/or cyber-quilting-buddies for different blog sources.

I have not taken on any cyber exchanges lately, mostly b/c of time and rules. This one was a Must-DO mainly because the rules were simple. MAKE A BLOCK YOU LIKE- I can do that! I have a lot of “favorite blocks” I even have a quilt named “My Favorite Things Quilt”.

I know I have had butterflies on my brain this year. The harder I try to use them up and/or give them away, them MORE I find that I HAVE.

My last project was made with quizzi-vintage (old as I am) fabrics and I wanted…. you guessed it- butterflies in the border. I just had to cut them from the fabrics I was using in the top.

I also cut enough extras to do an additional border. After I (my girls) decided no more borders I had a handful of beautiful butterflies that needed a project to show them off. I rather enjoyed embellishing each a bit different then my normal appliqué. It was fun to see what stitches I had and what they could do. I also played with different threads. I am excited to think that peers are going to have one of a kind original mini pieces of art from SW Missouri! Even more exciting is knowing that I AM going to have original mini pieces of quilt art from cyber friends I haven’t met in person. I tried to pick fabrics that the others might not have in their stash. For me part of the charm of an Exchange Block quilt is the different styles, patterns, sewing skill and materials in the blocks. I hope the other participants each do a post of the block they are making so I can print a mini-directory. I am already day-dreaming of how I hope to set this together and can’t wait till next month to see the blocks I get to work with.

ps- I also can’t wait to see what the rest of the gals do with their collection- I’ll keep updating- cw

PandC gets Butterflies

Both of my daughters came over this afternoon. Both forbid me to add the last outer black border that I wanted to do. (Something about having enough lg. quilts keep this one a size that can be used.)

In their defense, they know me well, and large quilts usually do NOT get quilted. OR if I quilt them, they get folded and stuck in the closet waiting to be gifted.

This size stands a chance of both getting quilted and getting used as a snuggle under couch quilt. (It will most likely get gifted at some point in the future too)

Typically when I do a border appliqué I do the work before I sew the borders on. For this quilt the appliqué was an after thought so I had to improvise.

The top is large enough that I didn’t want to have to manipulate it sewing around the individual pieces in the butterflies. My solutions was to make patches by sewing the butterflies to black and then stitching to the border.

The butterflies intended for my outer border are either going to get stitched up and used as patches for other projects OR centered on a light background and become setting blocks for another scrappy project..

One advantage to using the patches on this project is I could move them around before I sewed them to the border. Once I found a layout I liked I just did an echo stitch to secure the piece and then cut the excess fabric back. The photo above shows before the trimming up.

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I don’t know what is getting quilted on this top but I bet it is done in either black or variegated threads. Top size is 74 x74.