Tag: Paper Piecing

Interesting Pattern

This is a pattern I tested for Denise at For the Love of Geese.  I believe she calls it “Twilight”.  I am far from a good paper piecer, however, I love the way this one turned out.  I think I will eventually get the hang of things.  It is mostly fabric I had.  The only thing I purchased was the dark blue grunge border.  I think it has a lot going on.  The blues I used was leftover from a fat quarter pack I think that I got 20 years ago.

20191226_202833I am getting the hang of the longarm.  I still struggle a bit with tension, but I used rulers this time and it came out pretty good.  I am happy with my quilting.  It is starting to look way better.

I do not know what I am going to do with this quilt, I have no plans at this time.  I might just look at it for a while.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

 

 

 

 

My One Monthly Goal for January…Tada

All done, quilted and even hung up in the kitchen Nook.

So, My one monthly goal was to quilt and bind my jars.  Since my jars were pretty wonky I chose a bit of a different layout.  My daughter asked my they were not neatly spaced on the shelf.  uhhh  “This is our house, how does everything else look?”  Daughter:  “Oh ya…right.  actually neater than our pantry”.  So, it looks like it belongs in our house. It looks great hanging in the kitchen.

This “Ancient Alien” is now complete.

 

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

 

An Ancient Alien—UFO

This is an ancient Alien.  Can you tell I am a Science nerd?  Yes, I have watched that show.  My daughter and I even have nick names for some of the people.  If you have ever watched it, you will know who Crazy Hair is.

I started this quilt about 20 years ago.  It was oddly a paper pieced project.  I obviously had no idea what I was doing.  I am not sure how a paper pieced project could have blocks so wonky.  I don’t think there are any 2 the same size.  I actually think I participated in a fabric swap for food fabric.  I still have a ton left, but I think it’s time to see if I can make a wall hanging that does not look too awful.  If it comes out, I have a spot in my kitchen across from my pantry for it.

This will be my One monthly Goal.  My plan is to complete it entirely.  We will see.  It may be to wonky to put together.  I also seemed to use a lot of starch back then.  weird.

If any of you need some pieces (maybe 5×7″) food fabric let me know.  I have a stack.  I was going to use them on the back, but just went with black.

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SISTER STORY

So, I have been having such a difficult time with the loss of my sweet sister Kellie.  It had affected me far more than I expected.  I know loss all to well, but this one is so very different for me.  Anyways….. I was coming home from the grocery store today…alone (very unusual) and thinking.  I had not dreamed about Kellie since she died. It bothers me a lot.  So, I talked to her and told her of my concerns.  I just wanted a dream, a sign, something.

I came home and put the groceries away.  I went to the family room and turned on the TV.  As I was sitting on the couch flipping through the channels, I noticed an odd flickering out of the corner of my eye.  I ignored it, thinking I was crazy.  It kept happening.  I turned and looked and one of a string of recessed lights was slowly going on and off.  It stopped, I looked away.  It started happening again.  I turned and looked at it and said “Is that you Kel?”  It blinked on and off quickly and then did not happen again.  I am not sure what I believe or if I am half way to crazy town.  Odd coincidence.  In the photo, Kellie is on the left and I am on the right.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

 

Firefly test block. Thoughts?

So, this is my firefly test block.  I am unsure if I like it or not.  I really liked the sample, but am unsure If I like mine.  I am trying very hard not to buy new fabric and use what I have.  My daughter says it looks like a bee.  There is a bee variation for this pattern, but that is not the patch I went down.  I explained to her that I would have a black stripe in the middle of the bee’s body.  “Ahhh No, Mom.  Still looks like a bee.”

So, you should try piecing that antenna section.  Virtually impossible.  I sewed several, all crazily wrong.  I finally resorted to paper piecing, just this section.  Then there was not problem.  This pattern which comes from Pattern drop, calls for 16 of these blocks.  Do I like it enough for sixteen blocks?  What do you think?  Should I change something?  Should I make it a bee and lose the light up part (teal print)? Decisions, Decisions.  Let me know what you think.  My blogging friends give the best advice.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

My One Monthly Goal Finish….

I would say it was a miracle that I completed my One Monthly Goal, but I have already used that headline…LOL. I finished my “Starry Starry Night” quilt.  This was a top that I paper pieced for Denise at For the Love of Geese as a pattern test (She does have some lovely patterns).   It came out not too bad, considering I don’t consider myself a very good paper piecer.

I had a lot of fun quilting this project.  I think that is because I like how the quilting cameWaterMark_2018-05-23-19-12-25 out.  I wish I had chosen a different thread for the front, because I wound up liking the back a lot.  I used a variable thread on the front, and all I see is the the light part of the thread, which shows any mistakes.  I do not have a long arm, so I am always using my domestic machine and I always want to get the “longarm” look on my WaterMark_2018-05-23-19-10-53domestic machine.  I know it takes a lot of practice to become proficient and I have been working on it.  However, I found these rulers (not sure why some are called rulers) at my local quilt shop.  I quilted this using the Star shape.  It made making beautiful stars on my 20180422_135918.jpgdomestic machine easy.  They come out nearly perfect.  I am still getting used to using them, so not every star is perfect, but I like it.  I think I will keep this quilt for one of my future grandchildren.

This is the last photo I have of my birds.  They have all flown the nest.  I see them in the yard, learning about life, trying to get food.  It was wonderful watching them hatch and grow each day.20180523_175037_resized

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

The good, The Bad and the Ugly…..

So, you know what really stinks?  When you finally get around to doing something and it is screwed up.  So, my one monthly goal is to quilt this quilt.  So, I spray basted it about a week ago.  I go to get it and it looks like this.  So, the border was totally jacked up.  It looked fine when I had it all laid out, but I like to wait until that spray basting is dry.  Ugh.  So, more finagling with the border.  I am trying to figure out what I did.  Did I stretch it out when I basted it?  Do I not know what square is?  Could be either, I have my moments.  Will have to figure out something. Open for suggestions.

WaterMark_2018-05-13-12-39-59So, on a more positive note.  My star quilting looks awesome.  I love this ruler, even though it is not really a ruler.  It makes it look like I WaterMark_2018-05-13-12-39-26am way better than I am.  It is hard to mess up.  Perfect stars.  This was my test piece, until I figure out what to do with my border.

Baby birds look about the same.  Getting more feathers though.  It rained a lot here yesterday, so I watched Mom andIMG_06261001 Dad collect worms for the babies.  So cute.  This morning when I left, it was sprinkling, and Mama was sitting on the nest, keeping the babies dry and warm.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Starry Starry Night….a secret project

So, I have been working on a “secret” project, meaning that I could not blog about it until it was ready.  I have tested a pattern for Denise at For the love of geese.  I volunteered to test this pattern for her, mostly because I really don’t paper piece but wanted to do it/get better/be less chicken.  That way when I see some of the beautiful paper pieced patterns, I won’t just dismiss them because they are paper pieced.

I previously attempted to paper piece a quilt and gave up.  So, I am always up for a challenge and really wanted to be able to paper piece confidently.  By the time I was done with this quilt, I was pretty confident with it.  It looks so hard, but it really wasn’t.

I actually like this one so much, I am going to finish it and put it up for my future grandchildren.  Funny thing was that I did not find the paper piecing difficult at all.  What I found harder was putting the blocks together.  I wanted to make sure all the points were perfect.  They are not, but not too bad.

Now the dilemma, How to quilt it?  I will have to think about that one for a bit.  If you are interested in this pattern, please visit Denise at “For the Love of Quilting“.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting