bogged down in the flowers

Life has been busy and I'm finding prepping flowers for my table runner to be a bit of a challenge.  I've only done a bit of applique and the prep is always what slows me down.  Sharon has a different technique for using freezer paper where she places the freezer paper shiny side up on the wrong side of the fabric. The edge of the fabric is then pulled over and ironed to stick to the freezer paper. So I'm not so hot at this. LOL  I tried a couple of different techniques that I've used before...hmmm, still not too good and went back to trying the way Sharon does them.  I have lots more to prep so hopefully I will improve :-)

On a different note...I read a really good book!  If you are fans of Jennifer Chiaverini,  she has a new book out in her Quilter's series that I really enjoyed. 

The Christmas Boutique brings her Elm Creek Quilters helping out at the last minute for a charity boutique to raise money for needs in their community. Jennifer's stories have been very fun reads for me and this one did not disappoint. I bought mine on Amazon.
I'm linking here to Confessions of A Fabric Addict. For inspiration, go check out the other posts. And I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with safe travel and good people to share your gratitude with. Happy Thanksgiving!

A Win and a little progress

Last month I told you all about the Autumn Jubilee going on over at From My Carolina Home.  I hope you had a chance to go check out all the inspiration. And the prizes even just for visiting!  I think it was last year when I won some LED lights for my sewing machine...that I liked so much that I bought an additional set for my longarm which work wonderfully.  This year I was kind of blown out the water again....with a gift card to Fat Quarter Shop!  Fat Quarter Shop is rather generous as I see them as sponsors to many endeavors. I'm sure many winners of their gifts have as much fun as I did! When the day came for me to do some online shopping, I felt a bit like a kid in a candy store with money to spend :-) 
My choices were some notions that I had been thinking about.  I started with the Diagonal Seam Tape by Cluck Cluck Sew.  Useful for lining up the stitching line and I may not have to draw lines for HST's. I've tried a couple other versions of these notions but they seem difficult to get out of the way of my feeddogs or stick to the presser foot and dislodge. This tape just sits in the front of the presser foot and doesn't get in the way of anything. So far so good!
 The Slotted Trimmer finally seemed useful because I started pressing triangle seams open and this is a great pre-pressing way to square them up.
Then I picked out a new seam ripper and the navy blue Splash rotary cutter...well, just because it was a fun new color :-)
And then a gift...not pictured and some fabric.  So a big Thank You! to Carole for hosting such a fun and inspirational Autumn Jubilee and to Fat Quarter Shop for their generosity and awesome product line up! This was quite a treat!


















The Straits of Mackinac quilt is still on the sidelines as I work on this table runner in the sew along with Sharon Keightley.
The quilt top with the string border is complete.

I have prepped all the 48 leaves along with the bias vines. The four little pots are cut out but the flowers are only cut out as far as cutting out the freezer paper templates and piling up some scrap choices. So hopefully I will get those prepped this week and can start the machine applique process. This part gets scarier! LOL

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for more inspiration!

Autumn Bouquet progess

Here are the ShooFly blocks for my table runner.

And here is Elinor helping me with how to lay them out.

And this is as far as I've gotten with a 3" (finished size) string border.

I have made some bias strip vines to applique on the borders and today I'm picking out fabrics to use for leaves to go with them. The bias vines were fun to make as I used a Clover bias tape maker which I'd never used though I bought it about 25 years ago :-)  Better late than never.  It worked well though I think the fusible tape that I used with it may be too old to provide any adhesive when I go to apply it to the borders. 
Happy Stitching!
Linking to Confessions of Fabric Addict and Alycia Quilts go see some great inspiration there!

a break from lots of small pieces

to even smaller pieces...

I'm joining in on a sew along with Sharon Keightley, making a table runner from her book Autumn Bouquet.

The group is on Facebook if your interested at Sharon Keightley Quilts.
Linking to Confessions of Fabric Addict Fridays and to Em's Scrapbag :-)

short distraction

Sewing up the HST's into four patches this week

but I got distracted...
because I saw video by Stephanie from Quilt Addicts Anonymous on how to KonMari Your Stash. Two videos actually... here are the  YouTube links.
The first video...

and the second video

I had trouble getting these links right so if you have any problems with it, try searching YouTube for Quilts Addicts Anonymous and you should be able find them.
First, I started with my neutrals

I found  plastic boxes like she mentions in the video and some long thinner ones from Target that fit my drawers better. I was amazed it all fit.



Next I worked on my browns...from golden to dark and found it a little more challenging. 

I need to find a quilt where I can use a ton of brown!
I'm waiting for more boxes to work on other drawers. 
Not sure if I'll change anything up in these bigger cupboards

But it is kind of fun to be able to see what I actually have to work with.
I'm linking this post to Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Emily's at Em's Scrapbag. Go check out the  beautiful progress from other quilters this week.

working out the steps

So I've got a good start on my Straits of Mackinac.  I cut out most of the pieces in about 3 days. HA!  Lots of pieces! 

I cut out strips for the HST's (half square triangles) and layered a neutral and a blue one right sides together and then used Bonnie's Essential Triangle Tool to cut out 576 triangles that are all paired and ready to sew together.  And then I cut out about 144 of just blue ones for the square in a square blocks and the squares needed. From strips, I also cut out some triangles using the Tri Recs ruler for triangles in a square block. Lots of cutting!
As I'm cutting, I make stacks of 10 and then gather 10 stacks and put them in labeled baggies to keep track of how much I've cut!

Last week I worked on getting my square in a square blocks more accurate.
I only needed 36 but it still took a bit of time.

This week I'm sewing all those HST's. I'm about done with the sewing.  I've trimmed off the dog ears and pressed more than half so maybe today I'll get these done and start putting them together in those 4 patch settings.

I mentioned back in the post right after my class that a friend ...who I didn't get contact info from! :-(   shared some really cute crab fabric with me.  I searched the Web and found one fat quarter still available.  Yay! So I'm thrilled to have these in my triangles.  Absolutely, my favorite here and they remind of a quilter's kindness.

 I will work on the strings needed for the triangles in a square block after the 4 patch units  :-)  Happy Fall Stitching everyone!

Linking to Sarah's  Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and Em's Scrapbag

Autumn Jubilee 2019

Today begins another fun yearly event of  quilty and seasonal inspiration over at Carole's  From My Carolina Home!  Head over to check out the frequent posts of quilting, stamping, decorating and recipe inspiration all through the month.  There are even prizes for participating from some amazing sponsors!  Here's the link to begin..

 https://frommycarolinahome.com/2019/10/02/autumn-jubilee-2019-begins-today/  It promises to be fun!