Sunday, September 27, 2015

September

Hello Autumn...I wish!  We are still having heat waves here on the central coast and it's messing with my favorite season. Hopefully October will bring on cooler temps and oh please Dear Lord, some rain. Lots of it would be a blessing!
I have been happily stitching though. I finished a quilt for my DH that he is quite pleased with...though it is so huge I'm not sure what he's going to do with it.
This is made with a line of fabric called Stonehenge and the pattern is called Smokey River. It was kit that I purchased on impulse while browsing that dangerous website called Pinterest. When I got the fabric...I wasn't excited as it looked ..um, boring or something. However, sewn up and quilted heavily, it looks a lot better to me now. It measures 76X97 and is heavy with the Quilter's Dream supreme batting that I used so I'm not making DH try to be a quilt holder with it...thus saving his shoulders from injury!
I chose a dense quilting design of fall leaves...still trying to bring on the season!
The backing is a batik from my LQS that I thought complimented the colors.
I'm zooming through my next project which is a pattern and fabric that I purchased last year at PIQF in Santa Clara. I've sewn the smaller version of this several times this year for gift quilts and one for me but this version and fabric is the one that caught my eye and started the whole thing :-)
It has lime green, sunflowers and cats in it. What's not to love!
And for some reason...all I can think about is PIQF! it's about two and a half weeks away and I'm ready to start packing already.
A week late but I'm linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict :-)

Friday, September 4, 2015

August...a few days late

It was a busy month and I'm grateful it also included some days to sew and one to actually take a quilt class too. At Quilter's Cupboard in Atascadero, I happened upon a quilt I liked and found that a class was offered teaching the use of a curved template. I'd been wanting to learn curved piecing and with this template coming in two sizes...I was set for some fun :-)
Here's the larger version

I went "modern" and left off borders ;-)
And did some freehand quilting with Rainbows thread from Superior.
For the smaller version, I used just a charm pack that was gifted to me and backed it with some fun girlie fabric for a young friend at church.


The smaller quilt measures about 36 by 45 using one charm pack and fabric for a 1 inch inner border and about a 4 1/2 inch outer border.
I have forgotten the size of the larger version but it is roughly 60 by 70. I used 14 fat quarters for it with 9 inch squares to cut from the template. It is different from cutting for a true drunkard's path block in that you cut both pieces with one cut of the curved template and then just sewn them back together centered on each other. There is left over at each edge and you just trim it for about an 8 1/4 size block. Fast and easy. For the larger version, I used the leftover strip from the fat quarters and made a scrappy binding. 
So I have two finishes with bindings this month. Wahoo!
Another big WAHOO! was that I was gifted an early Christmas present from MODA :-)  A big WOW here!  Carrie Nelson blogs and inspires from their website and picked some names to share some rather awesome goodies. I was overwhelmed when I opened the box! A huge party inside!
A layer cake, charm packs, a new book and notions! WOW!
What really made me squeal was the Splash rotary cutter! I had heard these were nice and boy is that true. I can't really tell you exactly what the difference is from my still well functioning 45mm Olfa cutter but I sure feel it. It just feels good in my hand...and is a lovely turquoise :-) I have put it to good use and can't seem to go back to my old ones. 
A big THANK YOU again to Carrie and MODA and also to "Ducky" who pulled my name out of the hat :-)
I'm linking this post to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to join in her Friday happy dance :-)