A Very BROWN Weekend

I just finished cutting some BROWN squares for a new idea.  I'll work on it this weekend and hopefully I'll have something to show next week.

I had TWO finishes this week.  One was the Christmas tree wall hanging that I shared earlier.  It has now been quilted and bound.  It remains to be seen whether or not it gets any beads or buttons on down the road. 

The last time I showed the jewel box quilt, it was in bits and pieces.

Now the wall hanging TOP is finished.

And the latest Cotton Fields pattern is ready to go!

Sure, it's a traditional pattern, but I've done all the math for four sizes.  Some people love that.

Three Projects

Do you know quilters who finish one thing before they start another?  How do they do it?

Here are the latest views of the long lost Christmas wall hanging.  While a massive thunderstorm raged last Friday night, I worked on adding blanket stitching around all of the stars.

Now the circle ornaments have been added and await their blanket stitching. That done, it won't take any time at all to quilt it!

While poking around at home, still looking for certain "lost" objects, I came across my demonstration pieces from the last time I taught a BIRDS class.  I finished the four blocks, added wonky borders and stitched them up together. I'm wondering if it needs a border or not.  Think I'll look at it for a day or two.

My current beginners class at COTTON FIELDS QUILT SHOP is making a lap quilt in the Jewel Box pattern.  Here's my full size version, pieced and hand quilted oh, so long ago. 

I'm making the quilt along with the class, this time with up-dated fabrics: a very pretty white tone-on-tone from P&B Textiles and an assortment of blues and purples.

It will become the newest Cotton Fields pattern as soon as I finish writing and get the photography done.

Christmas in June?

This is all part of the long, sad saga of the lost projects.  I still have not found the missing orange squares or the long absent set of selvage blocks. Come to think of it, I haven't run across the last pieced bird blocks I made either.

?

On Tuesday I was rummaging through a box of very miscellaneous old UFO's and found the pieces to a Christmas wall hanging that I started YEARS ago!  I had selected all but the center background fabric, then drawn and fused the necessary stars and circles, then tucked it back into the magazine and forgot about it.

If you love it, it's from December 2005 issue of Quilter's World Magazine.  The caption at the top says: 

ONE DAY ONLY

I finished cutting out the fused shapes last night.  This morning I pieced the background.  I need to find a white for the patch of snow at the bottom and then I can put it all together.

I'll probably be able to finish it up quickly like the table runner last week. Here is a picture of it finished, with a glimpse of the back, too.

I was poking around in the store closet yesterday.  That's where the large UFO's live, quilt tops safely hanging on garment hangers.  Does anyone else have this problem???  I found a box marked "small Christmas scraps".  I'm giving all of that away.  I looked and they really were small.  I like to "make" fabric a la Gwen Marston, but right now, there is no time in my life for something that fiddly.  I keep producing scraps anyway, so I'm not worried.

Wish me Luck

I'm taking a few things in to the gallery where I had my quilts on exhibit earlier.  They're very miscellaneous in regards to subjects, techniques, and color.  Maybe I will be able to sell a couple.  I have PILES of stuff like this.

"Candy Hearts" started out with a leftover block and some strip sets from a friend's quilt.  The hearts are yarn couched onto the machine quilted piece with beads added in the process.   The tails are hanging free.

"Strips 'N Buttons" came from an idea I saw in a magazine.  I love string quilts and the prairie points were a fun addition.  This little quilt was hand quilted with pearl cotton and the buttons added last.

"Rabbit Run" is from the archives!  I made this quite a few years back.  It is hand reverse applique over a crazy patch base, the idea coming from Jan Mullen's book Reverse Applique With No Brakez.  It is machine quilted.

Last is this simple runner made with crookedly pieced blocks set on point. You've seen it recently;  did I ever show you the back?

Lost and Lost

I wish that the title of this post was "Lost and Found".  I've lost another UFO! Just about a week ago, I made a 12 1/2" block for a display at our fall quilt show:

The quilt show is titled "Rainbow of Quilts" and each quilter is assigned a color.  All of the blocks will be displayed at the show and then later assembled into donation quilts.  I decided to use the method that Scott Murkin demonstrated at our recent workshop.  I cut and swapped, cut and swapped, until I had this cute block finished, pressed, ready to go.  I am keeping it is plain sight until I need it in September.  

The thing is, I cut 20 orange squares.  The math works out that no matter how much cutting and swapping you do, the number of squares that you start out with is the number of strippy squares you will end up with. SOOO...... I only used 4 squares for the block shown above. 

Yesterday, I decided that I would like to play with the remaining 16 squares, in their various stages of completion, and put together either a wall hanging or table topper.  Do you think I could find them?  NO.

Well, thank goodness I am the queen of UFO's.  While rummaging in the closet, I found the top of a table runner.  I looked WAY, WAY back in my pictures and found it in progress in September of 2012.

You see, it was a demo for a quilt show.  After the show, I packed it up and put it away.  Why, I don't know.  I had even added borders and packed enough of the border fabric with it for binding.  Anyway, yesterday it came out of the closet, was basted and machine quilted.  All I have left is the binding.

Why have I been MIA again?  Last weekend I was lucky enough to be one of the vendors at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium on the campus of UNCW in Wilmington, NC.

It's a pain to set it up and tear it down, but the two days in the booth were like a big party.  I saw old friends, quilters from all over and even had a chance to speak briefly to Jane Sassaman and Georgia Bonesteel, two of the professional teachers there for the event.

Last, but not least, I've got to show you my latest discovery.  I may call them "Hillbilly Bifocals".  My previous glasses were bifocals, but the bifocal part wasn't strong enough, so I ended up taking my glasses off to see up close. They were so expensive that I delayed getting new glasses and when I did, I got single vision lenses.  A friend told me about one of the quilters in the guild wearing (cheap) reading glasses on top of her regular glasses and by golly, it works!  I'm keeping the reading glasses on a chain so I can keep track of them.

Maybe they'll help me find some of the lost projects.