Yes, I HAVE been sewing Part 2

While I was taking glamour shots of the shop hop quilt (secret until the hop starts on February 4), I decided to snag a few pictures of other works in progress.

When last we saw the paint chip challenge, it looked like this:

  

Now it's ready for quilting.  Long and skinny, the challenge quilts will be displayed as a group, like banners.  All are 12" wide and length was supposed to be between 60" and 72".  Mine is 64" long.

Then there's the hexagon table topper.  It's my pattern and this is my third, started while I taught a class.  Here's what it looked like in the beginning. 

And here's how far I've gotten with the embroidered seams.

Of course, we all get side-tracked.  I like to knit and for the longest time I have wanted to learn to make socks.  Here is my first one EVER, made with Jeanne's pattern from Knitting Addiction, Kitty Hawk, NC.

By the way, Jeanne will be back at Cotton Fields with her YARN TRUCK again on Saturday, February 7.

Yes, I HAVE been sewing!

Brief glimpses of some of the things I've been working on.

Beginning Quilters are making this:

Saturday's class learned how to make this:

Progress has been made on the paint chip challenge:

AND, I'm making a sample of the cover quilt from this book:

WHEW!

Only a Little Progress

The three fabrics I showed in the last post will eventually be a Patience Corner quilt.  That's the pattern that I'm teaching to my beginners in January. Since it will eventually come together in pattern form, I have been taking pictures along the way to illustrate.  Here's where I'm at now.

While digging around, probably looking for some other lost item, I came across the demonstration samples from the Hexagon Table Mat class.  I had managed to piece four of the six segments.  It was either going to sit in a pile with its left-over coordinating scraps, or I could WORK ON IT.  So I finished the piecing and decided what order I would like to arrange the triangles.  Then I took a picture, so I could remember.

No hurry at all, since this is the third one of these I've made.  And with the fall theme, I won't really need it to be finished until next year.  But it's nice to have a little hand-work project to fall back on.

I'm getting nervous because some of the fabric for the shop hop quilt hasn't come yet and the hop starts Feb. 4!!!!!  I also need to put together samples for two other January classes.  

  

New Project

Just a little "tease" today.  I am starting the cutting for a bed quilt that will become the January beginning quilting class and also a new Cotton Fields pattern.

Trust me .... the center piece picks up the color of the leaves MUCH better than it looks here!

So excited!  I haven't been able to get near my machine for two weeks.

Bee Happy

Back in August, a little "bee" group that I belong to started a simple fat quarter challenge.  Each person put in two fat quarters and was given two different ones back.  The assignment was to make anything we wanted out of the two fat quarters and we were allowed to add other fabrics.  Here's what I received:

It has been a busy fall and I almost waited too long to get started.  I had to think of something that would be cute, yet easy to get finished in a short length of time.  TWISTER!  I found some coordinating fabrics and was able to locate my lil' twister ruler.  The two fabrics that I was given made for a rather unusual fabric combination!

Here is the top, pieced:

I decided to add a little something extra to the back.  I used peel and stick letters to spell BEE HAPPY, then went over them with acrylic paint with fabric medium added, using my stencil brush.  I was pretty heavy-handed with the paint.  Here's how it looked when I removed the letter stickers.

Here it is, quilted:

Close-up:

Working on the binding:

Finished front:

Finished back:

Not bad for only three days in the shop, in between customers!  I admit that it is only about 16" square.  But, it is finished.  And the due date is three weeks away.  Yay!

Repair Work

A couple of weeks ago, a man called, saying that he had bought an old quilt. He said that it was in fair shape, but some of the squares had disintegrated. I don't normally take on this sort of project, but he assured me that only a few pieces needed to be replaced and it wasn't a fancy quilt.  He just wanted to have it cleaned and lay it across a spare bed.  So, I said to bring it over and let me take a look.

I am not any kind of expert in dating quilts.  All I can say is that it is old.  At least depression era.  The blocks are sixteen-patches, but there is no rhyme or reason to the color placement.  Someone was just using what they had. The back is pieced from feed sacks, very coarse fabric.

Here is the sort of damage I found.

The first thing I did was round up some fabrics that would blend with what was already in the quilt.  It's obviously a a utility quilt, made of all sorts of scraps.  I chose a few solids and small prints, then I tea dyed them.

There was not a square on the quilt that was a square!!!  Actually, that made my work easier, because I could extend a patch a bit beyond a seam line if necessary.  I ended up replacing 10 squares, two because they were badly stained and the others were tattered.

After I finished the applique, I went back and added quilting just through the patch and the batting, not all the way to the back side.  I found a couple of places that the original quilter had missed and added lines of stitching there, too.

I called Mr. Bryan this morning to tell him that his quilt is ready.  I think he'll be pleased.  I enjoyed working on this old quilt, but sure wish it had a label. REMEMBER to put your name and at least the year on any quilt you make. Fancy or not, years from now people won't have to wonder about it!

Not a Quilt

Started Tuesday night in jewelry class, finished Friday night.  Whew! 

Inspiration for the project came from www.happyhourprojects.com.