BUSY WEEK!

Where does the time go?  I can't believe it's Saturday already.  I finished two projects that I posted about before.  This Divine Felines wall hanging is now posted on Ebay to sell.

The table runner is now living on my coffee table. I should have stood on a chair to take the picture.

It is a good fall/halloweeny color.

Thursday we went to the Texas State Fair and it was in the upper 80s and too hot for us.  The bird show was good, but not quite as impressive as the last time we went.

Big Tex greets you when you come to the fair - yes, he talks!  Last year he burned down, so they made a new one.

I started quilting DGDs Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt and got about half of the inner part done.  I might get back to it today, but I have a special project to finish first.  I'm making a dress that I will be wearing to demonstrate quilting at a Harvest Heritage Festival in a couple weeks.

Have a nice weekend!

VIRGINIA BOUND - QUILTED AND BOUND!

Virginia Bound, designed by Bonnie Hunter, is FINISHED!   I went to Bonnie's workshop on September 7 and I finished sewing the binding on October 2.  This quilt is published in her book,  Scraps & Shirttails.  Thanks for a great workshop and quilt pattern, Bonnie!

I'm pretty sure this is the fastest that I have ever completed a quilt.  Usually it takes months, if not years!

I was kind of surprised that the light colored diamonds seem to pop out at you.

I quilted it on my Janome 6600 sewing machine and the quilt pattern (as much as I could follow it) is from Angela Walter's book, Free-Motion Quilting, and is swirled hook.  However, it took me a while to figure out how to do the hook, so depending on which part of the quilt you are looking at, you might not see it.

This picture contains some of the blocks that Joan sent me - I sent her some of mine in exchange.  I also traded some fabric strips with other people at the workshop.

Since the top is scrappy (mostly made with men's shirts that I bought at garage sales), I figured that I would make a scrappy backing as well.  The majority of the fabric I used for the back is from either garage sales, thrift shops or was given to me.

Except for some of the border fabric, that is.  The cheddar/orange fabric is from Andover's Jo Morton and I bought it at a garage sale for $2.00 per yard.  Same with some of the dark green in the border - I had to throw in some reproduction fabrics!

I decided to participate in Lori's quilt along (QAL).  It will be a small one and I hardly had to do anything to get this first part put together because I had all the HSTs leftover from other projects.  The basket block was also a leftover block.

Tomorrow we're supposed to get a "cold" front!  I'm not sure how cold it will get, but we'll take anything lower than the 90s - or 80s.  Woo Hoo!!

VIRGINIA BOUND BASTED!

This morning I basted Virginia Bound and I have 2 other quilts/backings ready to baste.  Once I get the table set up, I want to have more than one quilt to baste.  That's not counting my 2nd surprise quilt.

I want to get started with the quilting ASAP so I will be finished with the binding by next Thursday.

This afternoon, I plan to baste DGD's Bricks and Stepping Stones quilt.

Besides getting this basted, I made up a quilt panel that I had purchased several years ago at a garage sale.  It had the panel with the footprints and words as well as the pattern, but not any of the other fabric.  I'm glad I finally got this finished.  It just needs the binding.

 Sometime last year I saw this block thought it would be good for a fall project.  I don't have very many fall quilty decorations, so decided to make a table runner out of it.  Each block is 12" finished, so I decided 3 would be long enough for either my coffee table or dining room table.  I still need to get it quilted and bound.

We have had a day or two of cooler weather, and tomorrow are supposed to get some more.  Yea!!!  I love cooler days and changing leaves.  The Texas State Fair starts today and I hope it will be cool enough to go in a week or two.  It lasts about a month, I think.

ALMOST FINISHED VIRGINIA BOUND TOP

I finished the inner part of the top and am almost finished with the borders.

There will be a blue inner border between the pieced border and the middle section but first I need to finish the corner blocks.

 
Here is the inner section of the quilt being held up by my DH.

My plan is to get this quilt (Virginia Bound) basted sometime next week.  I want to get my DGD's quilt (bricks and stepping stones) ready to base while I have the table set up, so I can baste them both at the same time.  Then, I plan to quilt Virginia Bound before my next guild meeting so I can take it to show.  The Dallas guild calls it "Bring and Brag!"  Most quilts I have made have taken me a long time to finish - years sometimes.  So, I want to break that habit and get this finished fast.

SOME BLOCKS PUT TOGETHER

Before I get to the blocks I want to show you the antique box I found at a garage sale.  I wonder what it was used for.

It looks perfect for storing fat quarters!  I don't know if I will use it for that, but it looks perfect.

As I'm sewing blocks together, I'm using pieces from the border of Virginia Bound as leaders and enders.  This picture shows an ender and I can cut the thread between and see how my blocks look.

These 3" blocks will be part of the border.

And here are four blocks put together (they are civil war fabric...the cheddar is a Jo Morton Andover).   I love how the light colored diamond shapes pop out when you look at it.  Or, sometimes the dark colored stars are more noticeable.

I hope I can get it put together this weekend.

TWO WINS AND DONATION QUILT FINISHED

Last March at the Dallas Quilt Show, I saw an adorable pattern.  It had three items in it, one of which was this butterfly case.

You can use it as a scissors case...

Or a glasses case...

It was kind of fun to make and I gave one to my sister for her birthday.

I finished the teen aged boys donation quilt just in time to take it to my guild meeting Monday night.
The top was made from men's shirts and the border, backing and binding was some fabric that I bought at a thrift shop and it looks like men's shirting fabric.  I love it when I find "deals!"

The color is better in the picture above but this shows the border quilting better.

The plaid square on the top right is the pocket from a shirt.  I didn't quilt over it in case whoever gets this quilt wants to use the pocket.  It even has a section to put a pen.

We always have door prizes at my guild meetings and this month I won fabric!  There is 1 yd of the top fabric,  1/2 yd of the blue fabric with the buttons on it and fat quarters of the cup/saucer and tea pot fabrics.

I especially love this blue and yellow fabric.

This is really pretty also.

Now to figure out something to make out of these.

The guild meeting was a lucky meeting for me also because I won the "President's Challenge!!"  The guild president challenged us to make a two color quilt, which I had already planned to do.  So I made sure I got it finished for this meeting.  There was even a judge to award the ribbons.  There were about 15 or so entries and they were all gorgeous quilts.  If you want to see my quilt, you will need to go to my "secret" blog because I don't want certain people to see it yet.  You will need my permission to see that blog, so let me know if you are interested.

Thanks for visiting!

VIRGINIA BOUND WORKSHOP WITH BONNIE HUNTER

Today I went with two friends from my quilter's guild to the workshop to make the "Virginia Bound" quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter and published in her book, Scraps & Shirttails.  I got picked up at 8:00 AM to go north of Dallas in order to get there on time.  I had my lunch packed and lots of strips cut from men's shirts that I had bought at garage sales.

Virginia Bound by Bonnie Hunter

We had a wonderful time learning from Bonnie, sharing our frustrations and victories while making blocks for our own quilt.  Not everyone brought men's shirts to use for the quilt.  Some brought Jo Morton or other Civil War fabric, others bright colors and one is making hers into a Christmas quilt.  They will all be beautiful.

Part of the fun is sharing quilts that we have made that were designed by Bonnie.  We had our own little show and tell.

I can't remember the names of these quilts, but they here they are.

Quilt top

Completed quilt

Bonnie helping me hold up "Christmas Lights," a mystery quilt that I made in 2009.

Quilt top

The following blocks were made by other ladies who attended the workshop.

These are the blocks I made at the workshop.  

Here are the friends that I rode with.  I would say that it was a pretty successful day!

Kathy and Maryln

Thanks, Bonnie!

CAUGHT UP ON BASKETS

I totally caught up on my baskets for a few days until I get the next group in the mail!  

I decided to get busy and quilt the Ohio Star donation quilt made out of men's shirts.  This quilt will be for a teen aged boy.

I did a cinnamon roll in each square of the stars.  I saw this type of quilting in one of Kim Diehl's books.

In the inner border made out of brick size blocks, I tried some different quilting designs from the book, Free Motion Quilting by Angela Walters.  She has some really good "modern" designs for filling in areas.  It doesn't have to be a modern quilt, but I probably wouldn't use some of these on a CW type quilt.

I have found a lot of good ideas in Angela's book.  The swirl that I used in the outer border is a lot easier than it looks and she has great diagrams on how to do it.  Once I get the binding sewn down, I'll take another picture of the whole quilt so you can see that border better.