Monochromatic Challenge March=Brown

Great FNSI- worked on my "Brown" block for the MC. Mark this one off my list as - completed! To see other Brown -MC click here Here are my first Three blocks- I will have to come up with something fun for setting strips! Pieces for the Bear Claw block were all cut and modified using my GO. (I will do a separate Tutorial later) Finished block is 6 1/2" I will set them with spacers in a 9-patch arrangement to yield a 20 (ish)" block for my MC quilt. The Book: "Brown Bear, Brown, What Do You See" was my original inspiration, thus the brown Bear paws. After doing a holiday search for ideas on March, I discovered that March hosts National Anthem Day on the 3rd. I decided to change my wording to "Oh Say Can you See" as a Patriotic reminder. My new puppies, Jack & Oreo , 9 wks old Hard to believe these are brothers! . The MC for March is BROWN- I have ideas and will update this post as I come up with something. My theme is going to be "What do you See?" - a line from the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear My goal is a 20" block to add to my on going collection for a MC top. I have decided for each month to just keep one post going start to finish. At the end of the month I will link to Judy's post that shares the other participants projects. Can't wait to see what our 'color' is for April! Just found out April=Orange

Monochromatic Challenge 2011

Saturday Night was a bit more productive- !

Friday Night Sew in didn't yield a lot of sewing.

I did manage to get some letters cut out for my border on my scrappy block.

Don't know why it cracks me up that the word Monochromatic is in scrappy fabrics!

The challenge is an Eleven Month project hosted by Judy L.

I hoping to make a total of 12 blocks to sew into a keepsake quilt.


I will raw-edge applique these little letters in place the next time I get a couple of minutes to sew.

My daughter's favorite color is "Plaid", mine is "Scrappy". What is your favorite color?

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.

Ordered the GO- sale this weekend

http://www.shoppersrule.com/ is having a sale on the GO and dies. I have been tracking the prices and this is the least I have seen. (More than I want to spend but a sale is a sale is a sale)

I ordered the GO (it comes with dies and a mat) and you had to get four additional dies to get the sales price. (the additional $25 saved paid for taxes and shipping was free!)

I purchased the Large Drunkards Path, Large Triangle (I want to do borders and pyramid quilts) The Large Tumbler, and the smaller Drunkards Path.

I hope to bust a lot of stash for donation quilts. I pulled a tub of fabrics to 'practice' cutting on as soon as the machine arrives. Some pieces are yardage, others fats or smaller.

I purposed to cut at least 11 Kits on my BABY Go in 2011. I will commit to doing at least 11 with my new GO too.

From the Practice fabrics I am guessing I can make a pretty good dent on the Kit Tally.

50 state flowers- Do I Want or Need Borders?

With out Borders this top is 80 x 92 (ish)

The setting strips are a white background with purple flowers and green leaves.

The setting sqs are a green Tone on Tone leaves and match the green in the strips.

The butterflies are raw-edge applique and still need their antennas added. The large wing is a darker purple print and the smaller wing is a light purple Tone on Tone

Question is: If I choose to do a border, what would look good?

I don't want to go to fancy b/c this is a pretty simple setting.

Normally I would do a small inner border, then another small and then a bit larger (if using 3 fabrics) What colors? What order? What sizes? I also have plenty of the light material used for setting strips. Materials available: Dark Purple print, Lt. Purple, Green, Light setting strips

Hard to believe this top started out looking so different! Here's the before photo- cw

50 state flowers WIP (I don't do UFO's)

Jill had asked the question:

What are the main reason(s) you put PIGS and UFOs to the side.

I interpreted it to be:
Why do you have UFO's?

Not that I would admit to having any but if I did it would be b/c I think faster then I sew.

Case in point- I pulled 11 projects to work on in 2011. All are in some stage of progress.

I can pick them up and put them down at any time. (I really don't have a problem, it's the other sewers that have UFO's)

I have never been bothered by an Unfinished project. In fact I love them. I love to take blocks from others and re-create them into something that says :'Cheryl has been here'.

I love taking pieces I have worked on and re-evaluate them at later dates to upgrade to what ever I am interested in that moment.

In my mind I really don't have UFO's b/c I can start back on anything that interests me any time I want too.

I never put a date on a TO DO item. I don't sew for profit so I am not constrained by time.

I do journal (through my blog) my progress or at least my thought process. On individual quilts I have been known to print out the 'story' behind the piece when it is gifted to the recipient.

Some quilts take years to get to their final destination, it doesn't make them UFO's, they are just Late Bloomers!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

In reality I have as many UFO's as the next gal, I am just in denial and it is fun to annoy Jill b/c I know she has WAY more then me (I don't care what her number is, it is more then mine- if I had one)

50 state flowers is not sewing its self together but I am making progress. My distraction is I want to start playing with border ideas.

Probably another reason, things get piled up is I get too many ideas and have to wait till the brain settles on one to move forward with.

Now it is your turn, if you have UFO's- Why and..... When are you sending them to me?

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

Snow and Sew- that's how I roll!

Blizzard of 2011-

Lucky we didn't get as much ice as predicted. Schools are all closed, my office is too...

What is a gal to do?

I did as much as I could, I pulled out my 11 for 2011 and flipped a coin to see which one to work on.

drum roll.......... the winner is T-shirt Quilt for co-worker Brian!

Brian traded his camera to me for two t-shirt quilts. The first one has long been finished and delivered. Brian has bragged that all his soft ball friends want one too. (Too bad, I don't quilt for others!)

This one has sat around for way too long. I told him last fall I would try get around to it by the Holidays. Wrong! We just needed a good snow day to put me in the mood to sew.

This top is 88 x 88 and hopefully it won't take all year to get it quilted.

Now to find the right piece of flannel for the back. I think I can commit to having this done by Christmas!

(I am not going to commit to which year)- cw