Nov. is last trade for Library Holiday Swap

I have been teaching an Intro to Quilting class at our local library once a month.  We meet 1st Wednesdays at 2:30pm.

We are participating in a block exchange.  Each person takes home as many as they bring.  We are seeing a lot of fun fabrics and patterns!

I am trading six 12 1/2" scrappy Tumbler blocks

Last month I made six snowmen blocks w/red borders and six with tan/angel borders

I had enough of the green and white stripe to strip the blocks in sets of four.  I will then border those sets with red w/dots.

I made this 4-patch for the middle of my top.

HO HO HO cont.

 The day after I was scheduled to post on the HO HO HO Blog Hop, I finally cut into material I had laid out for a quilt top.

 After seeing that I could indeed still operate a pair of scissors, I ventured into the world of holiday prints.

Kelly and I had pulled this red w/dots out to see if there was enough to do words on the HO HO HO quilt.

In the spirit of Cake Wrecks, my quilt will hopefully make future generation wonder 'what' was g-ma 'thinking'!

I draw out my letters free-hand.  Number the repeats so I only have to cut out one shape in multiples.  I use M &W,  n & u,  p, b,d(reverse)  Anything that looks like another letter gets cut at the same time and trimmed down.  This style makes even my ugly hand-writting look like a font.
The---- HO HO HO--down the side---  is all cut out too.
I love how each quilt turns out so different.
What quilt saying would you do Cake Wreck style if you had time to play?

It is always a good time to show off a Christmas quilt!

   Special Thanks to  Mdm Samm and Carol for organizing this blog hop.  I hope you are having fun visiting all the creative talent we have had step up to share this week.

August 7

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

From This to That

I Like To Quilt Blog

Leah @ L3designs

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Just Quilt It

Meadowbrook

Peanut’s Patchwork

Around the Homestead

Feathered Nest Studio

In The Boon Docks

MO Broker, My Creative Side  (you are here-lol)

  

Since we are all 'friends' here I will admit that I did not do the project I purposed TO DO.   I am sure that no one else has ever had a near miss on a dead-line.  

I started out really excited and just "Knew" exactly what I wanted to -show off.

The Blog Hop was a perfect opportunity for me to  get out an old UFO and finish it in time to share (and to be one quilt ahead for Christmas)

Well you know how it goes.......(fill in your own excuses here- I may need to borrow one sometime).....I actually got the top back from my friend Pam. (She had it at her shop to show off how easy the small tumbler die from Accuquilt is to use with scraps)

This is one of the first projects I cut tumblers for.  I have always wanted to add borders and was holding out to find the 'perfect' fabric or idea to finish this future keepsake.  It will have to wait a bit longer--my bad.

I did pull additional fabrics to design and work on my border...and the rest is how it sometimes goes....nothing got done.  

I want(ed) to make a 6 in black border with 2 1/2" letters.  In the spirit of Christmas and as a salute to Cake Wrecks I came up with the perfect saying to tie this piece in with our Blog Hop.

 Don't laugh but I still plan to add:   

           M E R R Y (across the top)

HO                                                         Down

HO                                                          the

HO                                                         Side

              C H R I S T M A S 

             (on the bottom)     

I will do some holiday applique in the corners etc....

You know this was a lot cuter in my head--lol

Don't be too sad that I missed this dead-line, I look at it that I am ahead of  the game for next year.  

Because you have been so forgiving, I decided to throw  in a little more eye candy to make your stop worthwhile. 

You can do this setting in any size you like.  Make flying geese by the method of your choice.  Sew  geese together in sets of 3.  Measure two geese and use that measurement to make hour block and sq in a sq blocks.  Sew strip sets of 3 geese pointing towards an hour glass block followed by 3 geese pointing in from the other side.  Measure this new strip unit.  Take that measurement and cut background blocks to embellish as you chose.  I like to raw-edge applique. For this quilt I made scrappy Sue girls.    Set the top in a focus block and sashing w/corner sqs set.

I think I would like to try this sometime set on point, maybe with flowers?  What would you do?

Here is the finished quilt thrown laid out on the floor to get it's photo taken.

The grand kids always love a favorite quilt to pull out around the holidays.  I like that they enjoy a good snuggle under at grandma's house.  Some day I can gift this then well worn keepsake to one of my future heirs to share with their loved ones.

Several of the girls have already called Dibs....wonder who will add it to their collection?  Maybe I should just make a couple of more just in case...... the way I am going, maybe I should just gift the UFO's and call it good!

Thanks for stopping by

be good-  Cheryl

 

I worked on all three today!

Tumbler top is almost finished. I need to decide on a border. I am in the mood for some raw edge applique. Just need a catch saying. (I am leaning towards: Merry (on the top) Christmas (on the bottom) and HO HO HO (down each side). Unless you can give me other suggestions,

I have viewed a lot of cake wrecks and might go with a literal MERRY ON THE TOP, CHRISTMAS ON THE BOTTOM, (OK it is late, this is not funny, except to me)

I'm loving how the triangle pieces are coming together. Not real sure how to treat the sides, if I want to leave them pointy/scalloped or add wedges to sq. it up. I don't have to make the decision yet.

I am enjoying cutting and sewing on this, not committing to ever finishing it but so far I am NOT giving up hope for a future Holiday Keepsake.

Two/Thirds finished with the piecing of the center on the Apple Core. Not sure how I want to border this one yet. May leave it on the small side for a couch quilt. I do like the scalloped edges!

I ordered a foot for sewing the curves, hope to get it soon and start another top. I want to see if the foot really helps speed it along. I don't pin and these were large enough they went together pretty well. Not sure if I could have done it with smaller pieces.

Thanks for looking at what I worked on for my Friday Night Sew-IN- be good cw

Thanksgiving sewing time

Not quite snowed in. Storms from last night messed up our well so we have no water.

The favorite brother in law who works with a drilling compy will come out tomorrow and help hubby pull the pump.

Fingers crossed they can get it fixed.

(Not that I mind not doing dishes or laundry due to the lack of running agua!)

Too cold to get out.

It was ice not snow,

What's a gal to do?

Stay inside and sew!

I haven't counted how many triangles I have cut. I am getting them from the scraps of the scraps.

The apple cores get cut first, then tumblers and last the larger triangles. (Even I am not nuts enough to cut the smaller two sizes- ok may a few but not a whole top worth.)

If anyone wants the smaller scraps for doing crumb blocks give me a shout. (You better hurry before I make a few and decide I like it!)

Happy Thanksgiving, hope your Turkey Day was fulled with fun, family, food and fabric!- cw

Tumblers, cut and ready to sew

Ask me when was the last time I cut out a 600 piece quilt top. My answer is: Yesterday!!

Again with the BABY GO.

What a fun way to use up the Christmas scraps.

I am doing all the 1/2 tumblers on the edge in a Red print. Hopefully I will then add an 1 1/2" border on the straights edges.

I am thinking I want to do raw edge applique' borders at the top and bottom that say: Merry Christmas and the sides: HO HO HO!

I haven't named this quilt yet b/c it is still a work in progress. I am leaning on calling it the Holiday Kitchen Sink. I think just about everything has been thrown in it.

Here's my favorite part. No ironing, no pins.

These pieces line up amazingly well. It wouldn't surprise me if I don't get it finished this week.

There are enough scraps left from cutting out the apple core to cut another tumbler (or two) Those will end up kits to gift or use as donation quilts.

I have a new BABY it's a GO!

I found my new BABY on the Shoppersrule.com site. It was priced lower then any I have seen.

I was able to get a couple of dies and several mats too.

The triangle die will be used to cut my scraps to do the 1,000 triangle quilt tops. My first one will be will Christmas Holiday scraps.

This die would be better for me if it cut more then two of each size. There are 3 sizes and two cuts each. I have sewn all three and prefer the larger set.

I can see myself making several tops over the years with this die.

This is the pile of scraps from several years of sewing. I hope to pull the larger pieces and cut apple cores then wedges and finally triangles.

Plan is to get three or four new Holiday print tops out of this stash.

I have cut enough of the tumblers to make an outer border on a top I sewed a couple of years ago. The more I look at the border pieces the more I want to cut extra and make a tumbler block quilt top.

The apple core has always been a block I wanted to use for a top, I just didn't want to cut them out. The BABY GO has a die to cut 6 1/2" pieces. These will be an on going project for me to take on the road.

I also purchased a 2 1/2" strip die. I have not tried it out yet but plan to play with it later this week.

The BABY is fast and fun and should let me cut pieces that I would not normally want to do.

My preference would have been to purchase the industrial unit but I just can't justify the expense vs my use.

I have been thinking about doing crumb blocks with the scraps from this session of cutting. If I get everything cut from the Christmas prints I should have quilts, tops, kits and scraps to keep me busy for awhile!- cw