a little quilting and a little collecting

I don't quilt for the public but every now and then I get talked into working on a donation project.
This Quillow is for an upcoming event to raise money for kids.  I didn't write the details down so I am not sure exactly when this auction piece will find a new home.  The 'boots' were new to me and took a bit to get use too!

 Thanks to Craig's list, I got to help a gal purge her glass and mosaic collection prior to her move.  I know I didn't really need to spare her the joy of adding all this to her yardsale.
I paid more than I wanted too and way less then it is all worth but happy to say it is home and on its way to being sorted and introduced to my own collection of misc future yard sale stuff.
(Seriously, this is supposed to be all used up in mosaic work in my lifetime, but we all know the grand-kids will be cleaning it up long after I am gone- lol)

We lost count on the number of full jars.  The glass globs, marbles, stained glass pieces, stones, and other misc were sorted and brought inside.  There are 4 totes of ceramics/china/etc/ and a dozen more lg pickle jars left to go through this week.

Who wants to take bets on how many relatives will get some sort of mosaic stepping stone for Christmas this year---insert evil laugh here- lol

Karlee 'found' the glass leaves and I added them to the one plant I haven't killed yet.  Today is very overcast, hopefully tomorrow morning I can enjoy the sunlight coming in.

Rooster Window Update- Installed

We are working on re-doing my home office.  Happy to say the floor is looking good!   As usual I am jumping ahead and 'decorating'  (or cluttering as hubby calls it- lol)

This stained glass window is my first piece done by myself.  I have a few things to 'tweek' on it but for the most part it is done.

The next few days are going to be dreary so I may have to wait awhile to 'see' the light coming through.  I did turn on the inside light and take a peak last night from outside-  wow! 

I still need to add the 'eye'.   The stained glass is attached with clips and needs centered better.  The window can still be raised and lowered.  The clips I used have a white tape on them, I think I will try scrape that off and attach a clear double sided product.

The 'rooster' started as an image I found in cyberspace (thanks google!)  The hexie background is different textures of clear glass.  I actually drew out the background and made my rooster 'fit'.

Orange glass is expensive so I only purchased one piece.  Of course I broke it on both tail feathers.  Oh well, curves are just going to be something I have to work on- lol

I love the primitive 'look', the thick coloring book lines.  I am excited to know that I can do this!  If you can draw it I can do it in glass.  What a whole new creative world I have just stepped into- wish me well-  cw

Dresden, Raw Edge Tut and poss Give A Way!

Hard to Belive it is time to Dresden already!  I can't wait to see the eye candy from this blog hop!  Give Thanks to Madame Samm from !Sew WE Quilt!  for letting me play along!

I love the look of the Dresden, I just don't love the traditional work to get to the look.  I short cut by doing raw-edge applique.  Years ago, I started with using the double sided iron on products.  I quickly came to realize that for me it was too time consuming.  The majority of my applique is now raw-edge w/glue stick.  I have never had a recipient of one of my projects say-  oh this would be more lovely if you had just taken time to needle turn-  lol  (They may think it, but anyone that loves me, knows better then to 'say it'!)

On a similar note, I have never had anyone tell me that one of my snuggle under quilts would have been warmer if I had only matched my corners better or not cut off a goose head.-  You get the idea.

Scraps and raw-edge applique are an easy way to make an heirloom block!

My quilt was cut out on a trip from MO to OK and back.  The sqs were cut using a cereal box template.  The plate petals were cardboard too.  I would grab a chunk of scraps and cut as much of either shape as I could get.  Later I would 'deal' out the pieces into piles to mix up the fabrics.  Years later I bought a die cutter and now I like to cut strips from my scraps and then sew and sub-cut.

I  use this quilt on my bed, the borders were added as a quick way to enlarge the top.(I have a king size bed)  If I had planned it out better I may have done an outer border of scrappy sqs.  I was actually a little tired of sewing sqs by the time I called this one done.  The orange Swiss fabric used as the center circle was completely used up on this quilt.  In fact I cut the circles first to know how many plates I was shooting for.

While looking for something fun to 'give a way' I came across a set of 30 blocks that were cut out around the same time as my Dresden bed quilt.  This packet is blades and circles only.  I always enjoy uncovering a well hidden kit of fabrics from the past.(Who wants to take a guess as to the age of these beauties) - lol

This is not a real tutorial but something I found helpful over the years doing applique.  I have several guides for laying out designs.  In this case I used a heavy pellon that I had on hand.  I cut out a 15 inch sq and marked directional lines.  I then added a circle to give reference to where my blades need to cover.  (I couldn't find my original, so I quickly drew this one out, the inner circle is not placed as persist as I would have liked but you get the idea)

When I get ready to do multiple blocks I 'tape' my guide to the under side of my glass 'light' table.  I can then place my real fabric on top and use the lines to lay out my petals.  I use glue stick to tack my pieces in place.  Having the pattern under the glass makes it easier to wipe up any over spill from the glue.  The size of petal you are using, and the size of the circle will help determine the block size to shoot for.  I like to do these little ones on a 10 1/2 or 12 1/2 inch block.

I lay out my petals at 12,3, 6 and 9 (o'clock)  Then fill in at the diagonal lines.  (These are not glued down)

If you choose you can leave every other petal over lapping.  I tend to layer mine so the left side overlaps its neighbor, kinda in a fan style.  I raw edge applique using a chicken scratch stitch so both sides of the seam are covered either way.  I like to use an overcast stitch around the center circle and the outer edges.

How crazy are some of these fabrics!    Almost makes me want to stop and cut some backgrounds.  A future TO DO?

  Here's a link to my WIP blue Dresden

Run check out the other Dresden posts for today! 

1. Gingersnap Quilts
2. Busy Bee Quilts
3. She Sews the Blues
4. Traveling Quilter
5. Grand Mama's Stories
6. Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio
7. Sew at Home Mummy
8. The Slow Quilter
9. Pig Tales and Quilts
10. Annie Oak Design
11. Jane's Fabrics & Quilts
12. Tea Time Creations
13. Mo Broker My Creative Side  (me- lol)
14. Just Let Me Quilt
15. Words and Stitches
16. Just Keep Swimming
17. Sew Many Yarns
18. Sowing Stitches
19. Jane's Quilting
20. My Patchwork Life
21. 2muchfun
22. Pumpkin Patch Quilter
23. Quilt Monster in my Close

To tell you the truth, there are so many give-a-ways going on in the blog hop, I don't  have a list of them all.  SO...... for taking time to visit my humble post, I will throw a little something, something in the mail to a commenter to be named later.  You know the drill,  you must respond with in  48 hrs of email notification that your name was drawn.  I will leave this invite open till then end of the hop.  good luck!  cw

Neighbor Girl Quilt- variation

Do you ever see a quilt and think I can do that?  Then when you get ready to "do that" you can't remember where you saw the inspiration piece.

It drives me nuts.

Jo posted a quilt last week.  She even offered a free version.  I didn't look it up b/c I had done the block before.  So of course there was no reason to write myself a note as to what I had just seen.   I  knew I could die cut the pieces using my GO and dies.
I found a packet of fabrics that looked like they would work,  I pulled out the dies.  I got ready to start cutting and went blank!!  I had no notes on what I wanted to try do.

New Year's quilt/project resolution:  Print a photo and write where I found the blog or inspiration AND make notes as to if/when and what I want to accomplish.
Jo made her quilt in a straight set w/an adorable border.  I think I will make mine off set and possibly applique flowers in two corners of the outer border.  I have just enough left over scraps to do a few embellishments.

 The block I did years ago is the one third from the top on the right.  This Christmas quilt was made with blocks that each had 16 triangle/sqs.  Each red block has a green mate.  The applique angels were a pre-print ornament material I had picked up at a yard sale.

Back to my Easy Street quilt

We have the house a mess while we are doing the floors.  I have no place to hang or lay out a top.
This back is pretty large and I tried to drape it over the dog fence on our upper level.  Of course the wind didn't want to cooperate.  lol
Happy to say this was entirely out of stash.  The houses were an Ebay purchase.  The yardage was what ever would work.  I am very happy with how this turned out!

Trying to lay it out flat in the yard didn't work either but I can mark off my exercise for the day!

No taking bets on how long it takes me to get this quilted and on a bed-   cw

My Easy Street post is HERE

Another baby quilt- green and gray!

The soon to be New Mom asked for greens and grays as her choice for colors for the baby quilt.
This piece was found in my stash.  I love the green and gray!

A 2 inch border of green check on a white background and a 6 inch border of dark grey were added to the print to make a good size back.  If you like to speculate as to why the borders look wavy, that would be b/c it is not ironed, or squared up yet.  I kinda just let it fall to the floor so I could take a picture.

The small tumbler die for the GO was used to cut scraps.  Special thanks to the other gals for getting this cut out at quilt group.  I was supposed to kit them up for the  to sew- my bad.  I was only going to do a couple of rows and hand it off, but these are so easy I just kept going.  I sew my 'row' together in a loop and then cut either a green or gray in half, that gives me a straight edge on the sides.  When I get the length I want I sew the top row to the bottom and cut one row in half.  That gives me a 1/2 block across the top and bottom to match the sides.

I had enough of the dark gray left to do a small border on this top.  I should then be able to  quilt it all together in time for the baby shower in a few weeks.

Easy Street has been reveled, I had to sew a few blocks!

Thanks Bonnie for another fun Mystery. Link to the Link up will be up on Monday.

I can't wait to see what the other hundreds of  participants have come up with for their future keepsake heirloom masterpieces!

The original was to be  apple green, turquoise, grey(accent/constant) and purples on a white w/black background.  I flipped a coin and decided on Red for my background.  Kept the Greens and Purples and sub-ed in Yellow for the blues.  I chose my 'accent' color by pulling a chunk of black w/pink roses off the shelf.  It was the first piece that had enough yardage.

The original is a scrappy quilter's dream, throw it all in there.  I however chose to be more controlled.  I used my GO and dies to cut everything.  I went for speed over variety.  I tend to cut in sets of 4 or 8.  This worked well for me.  The top will have a pieced block look with out the headache of  not having matching fabric 'touch'.

I wish I could say I put a lot of thought into this top but truth is, it is what it is.  If the instructions called for X amount of sqs and I could get it out of one fabric, I did.  All my center purple sqs are the same, for example.  I rather like that my outer green triangles are all the same.  I will pick my fabrics for the final outer border by what will work from the pieces I have left over.  Leaning towards 2 inches of red and 6 1/2 of a yellow print not in the top.

My regret is that I didn't stay caught up each week so I had a lot of sewing to do.  I did however have everything cut out and dealt into sets to work on if/when I get a good snow day.

I think I am figuring out what I want to do for my back.  This long pieced houses is an E-Bay purchase.  It is pretty close to the length of my Red Hot Easy Street top.  The dark green yardage has been in my stash for way to long. (I am sure if I use it on a back I will have a dozen other projects it would have been perfect for!!)  The Yellow on the right is also used in my top. 
My 'back' is finished, the link to that post is HERE
Do you think this would be a good applique?  I am leaning towards 2013 Easy Street (like it is an address)
The dark green side will say:  "Where we sleep till Noon"
now don't hold your breath while I get that part done- lol

check out Easy Street on Bonnie Hunter's website www.Quiltville.com