Design Wall Monday

It's already Monday evening

but I will still add my DWM post.

I have pulled out my Farmer's Wife blocks -

and made 2 more for a total of 12!

As always my paper piecing starts with

sewing

and unsewing

and sewing

 and un-sewing

 until I finally get it right.

And by then the paper is shredded...

Nevertheless I managed to get

Basket #3 ( no handle yet/ upper left corner block)

and Box # 9  (lower right corner) done.

I hope in the next weeks I will be able

to squeeze in some more Farm blocks.

I also tackeled another UFO

and am working on the binding

for Christmas Lights

(modified; a Bonnie Hunter mystery from Quiltmaker):

You can see the not-yet-joined binding strip

on the top of the picture.

I amchien sew the binding to the quilt back and then sew

a decorative stitch from the front.

That's the only way I ever get binding done...

And last but not least:

my Orca Bay has not changed much

and is still in half assembled blocks:

That's it from my end.

Please go and check all the other beautiful design walls

on Judy's Patchwork Place!

Barb

Design Wall Monday

Hot of the quilting frame:

This is Bonnie's Christmas Light mystery from a magazine -

just a different & smaller lay-out

and I know I am late...

But the baptist fans are finally done

and I can load the next quilt.

The other project I am working on

is the Orca Bay mystery.

I just loved the final reveal -

my current status:

I have decided to do a smaller lay-out:

6 x 7 blocks is big enough for me.

Anything bigger and it becomes a UFO

because my frame / throat is too small...

and I may actually finish Orca Bay this year!

Go and check out other design walls

at Judy's place

and Orca Bay mystery status

at Bonnie's blog!

Have a great week,

Barb

Tomorrow I'll be back at work.

No more days of endless sewing and

3 blog posts...

Christmas Light Mystery - backing

I saw Sara's post about the UFO's backings - and I couldn't agree more. Finally you have managed to complete the quilt top and then starts the search of some fitting backing material. And maybe you even will spend extra $$$ to buy backing fabric, which I don't like either.

Nevertheless I am quite happy with my (smaller version) Christmas Light Mystery backing. I finally used up all of the red-orange fabric. I like the color, but the quality is not quite there which made it rather difficult to sew the red bow type blocks for the quilt. And that was ultimately the reason I ended up with a small version quilt: I had enough of dealing with the red fabric. Now it is all used up in the backing - yeah!

Another finish for last week: the 1st Rainbow sock is done and the 2nd one started. It looks like I am slowly getting ready for Winter - at least concerning socks.

The weather looks promising today and another inline skate workout is on my schedule. Let's hope I can get another one in tomorrow as well. It's unreal if you think about it being almost Thanksgiving /end of November and we are seeing temperatures in the 50s in Michigan. Nice!

Enjoy your weekend!

Christmas Light Mystery Quilt

I finally put together my simplified Christmas Light Mystery Quilt - and I do like it very much. It is smaller and the blocks are arranged differently. But the top is completed and that is even better!

I am currently putting the backing together and it should be completely done just in time for the Christmas Season.

Another project is tagging blankets for Project Linus and i hope to give them all back by next Saturday, so that they can get distributed.

The weather this weekend - especially on Saturday was just beautiful and I managed to go out inline skating. It felt terrific to put on the skates again and I ended up doing some 12 miles on Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully I can keep this up the next couple of weekends - weather allowing. That should be the perfect preparation for my skate trip to Florida the beginning of December.

Barb

Christmas Lights Mystery Quilt

My approach: Better to have a finished quilt with a different than planned design than to add another UFO to the list.

I played around with my blocks of the Christmas Lights Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter out of the Quiltmaker Magazine - and came up with 3 compositions. These are more table cloth size quilts and I wouldn't need to finish another 7 Red blocks for the Original Twin size Mystery Quilt. And it probably still gives me 1 or 2 table runners - for "free".

Currently my first pick would be the 1st photo with some kind of star design in the middle. It still would need a border or 2 though, probably in green and red, maybe a small stripe of yellow/ gold.

Happy Sunday!

Barb

Fall into Quilts Show

Today I went to a Quilt show in Clarkston which showed over 200 quilts. Though my pictures are not as brilliant as they could be, I still hope it will give you an idea of the show and the beautiful quilts. It always amazes me how different quilts can be in their technique, choice of fabrics and colors.

This Flower Applique quilt was just pure beautiful and I can only imagine the hours it must have taken to sew it.

And the last one is my favorite, I just love the color way & placement and the star blocks are stunning.

As for my own quilting I came across a great solution for the Christmas Quilt mystery and may be ending up making a smaller square table cloth and maybe 1 or 2 table runners out of teh blocks. My camera gave up and teh battery needs charging, so I will post pictures later.

Have a nice weekend,

Barb

Monday update

The last couple of days were spent outdoors, so not much going on on the craft side of things. Nevertheless I started another sock - even though it is not yet Socktober...

They will probably be called dragon socks due to the greenish color and the display... The yarn is great and size 3.25 needles get the sock(s) growing fast enough. It is a called Aqua Jacquards and I like how the colored wool pattern shows . It makes simple socks so much more interesting without any complicated pattern and counting of stitches. So they will be added to the list of socks to be completed in October. I had looked at one of my lonely socks, but somehow the starting of yarn didn't match up as in the 1st sock, so I am somewhat irritated and have to look for the perfect spot to start my 2nd sock.

As for my wheel of love, I checked a couple of pinkish fabrics as a background, but they didn't do it for me. So it's back to plan "A" and the background will be white. Maybe I will add a row of 2 - 2.5 inch squares around the wheel of the leftover fabric "Love is in the Air" that wasn't used for the wedges.

And one more photo for tonight: I saw the online version of Quilter's Magazine and they had a preview of the Christmas Mystery by Bonnie Hunter. So here is the current lay-out with a few more red squares still missing ( all the outside squares will be red).

I hope you had a decent start into your week.
Barb

Nature and more

In the morning I found this little guy sitting on my front steps screaming at the top of his ( small) lungs. Somehow he was not happy, but he wasn't really bothered by me.

Later on I drove to Wolcott Mill Metro Park where they had a Quilt Show. It was real small and I didn't take any photos at the event.

But I had a great walk on Settlers Trail and saw this nest. Luckily there were no wasps in sight.

And when I finished the trail, coming out of the woods just in time to see these Gliders. Only one made it onto the photos, but all together there was a group of 3.

As for some sewing: I finished 10 more blocks of the "Christmas Light Mystery Quilt" by Bonnie Hunter that has been featured in the last 2 issues of Quiltmaker Magazine. Now I just need to sew 7 more of the "red"blocks and I am ready for the next step in the November issue.

Today I wish I could have been in Duluth, Minnesota for the North Shore Inline Marathon, but it didn't happen. Maybe next year I will be in better shape without any remnants of my back issues. Who knows it might be even bigger in 2010 when they will be celebrating their 15th year.

I hope you had a nice and maybe productive Saturday as well.

Barb