If any of you are beginning quilters there is a very cool project going on to help you.

It is a quilt along at this website Beginner's quilt- along .

It is a great way to start quilting and have help along the way.

If you have any questions about it or need help you can ask me!

Sew happy!

Black Shoes

Here I am, the naughty shirking Quilter.  You may be wondering, what have you been doing besides quilting Ms. 4 a day lady?  I swam and walked in the morning.

Also, I have been hanging out with Emily and  my teacher friends.  Lots of my buddies are free now and can run around with me. 

Plus, I have been looking for black shoes. 
I have these three pairs from the trip to Spain, good for walking, but they require socks.

 Is that all the black shoes you have? you ask.

No, I have more!

I have these three pairs which are all Alegrias and I wear quite a bit in the cooler weather.  They also require socks and are good for teaching or going out to lunch but not for walking around all day in.

Plus I need black sandals.

Don't you have any black sandals, Imelda quilter lady? 

Why yes, I do.  I have two pair of Alegrias (one patent, one leather) and a pair of Birkenstocks.  I wore the Birkenstocks downtown with Emily on Monday.  We walked for donuts, then over to the museum, then through the museum and onto lunch and finally Millennium Park.  By the end of the day my feet were shot, really hurting me!

I need sandals to walk in!

Why?
Well, because I am going to NYC and to DC for weekends with my girlfriends this summer and both will require a fair amount of walking around. 

So, in spite of having a closet full of black shoes, I needed more.  My cute Cliff went with me on Tuesday and I found these two pairs.  Not the cutest, but comfortable walking sandals.  I wore the Walky brand ones today, very comfy.  I will wear the SAS uglier ones on Friday.  I need to break them in.  I need to be able to walk all day and not whimper and whine. 

So you can see why I didn't sew this week - Monday downtown, feet hurt.  Tuesday, shoe shopping.  Wednesday, trying out one pair of shoes shopping.  See it all makes sense now yes.  Oh, I mean if you are a woman it makes sense how I had 9 pairs of black shoes and still needed more.  (And yes, I do have other colors of shoes but shhhh, it's bad enough to have revealed this much about my black shoes to my husband!)

I wish you comfortable shoes and good times walking in them!

Sew happy!

Shoppping and shenanighans

 I have been quite the naughty blogger, I admit it.  I have been going to movies with Cliff, seeing friends for tea and having adventures with Emily inbetween the end of her regular school year and the start of her summer school.

Today at least the shopping involved some fabric.  We ended up at the Crate and Barrel outlet store where they have gorgeous Marimekko 100% cotton fabric from Finland, 54 inches wide for 6.00 a yard!  Yes, that's all.

 See the gorgeous red, I bought 10 yards of it.  I am thinking that it could be a great backing for the two heart quilts - so cheap!

If it doesn't go well then I have ten gorgeous yards to do something else with.

I also bought this 5 yard piece of all these gorgeous values of yellow.  I love it.

Emily approved of it as well.

 So I bought another 5 yard piece.

I am hoping to use it to make drapes and maybe other fun stuff for a nursery.

Hopefully, this will be needed mid December as Emily is due with "Tough Cookie" on December 16th.  It's a bit on the quiet side now.

It is hard for us to choose to trust happiness but we are trying!  Fingers crossed for Tough cookie to make it here safely.

Yesterday I bought these fabrics for an apron.

A very good friend of Emily's is getting married in October and Emily is in the wedding.

This friend is having a shower in July and so I thought I would make an apron for Emily to put with her gift to Bridget.

That's all for today from the naughty quilter.
Sew happy!

Bringing nature inside - first runner finished

I like it when I can drop the use of the top roller.  I had it all stabilized so I just used the two rollers for the backing.

I quilted flowers in the squares, feathers in the outer border and circles in the inner border.  It all turned out great, even the feathers!
My issue, and isn't there always an issue, is that the thread is laying on the back.  I have to adjust my tension again.  Grrrr!

 Here is the finished product!

It was fun to take pictures of it on the back deck, amongst the flowers and nature.

You can't really see the quilting but that's ok, maybe there are some mistakes!

Or maybe not?

 Here is the same deck, same chair and same table runner but photographed vertically.

I think it makes a difference, the whole table runner looks different!

Where is the second one, you query.

Upstairs waiting to be quilted, I reply!

Hey, quilters need breaks!

 I think I like the flowers so much because in the summer time I am trying to bring nature inside.  No, not the mosquitoes, I am trying to keep them out!

Here I have my flower of the month tea cups.  I liked to put them out on Mother's day and put them away after labor day.

One day I may even drink tea from them!

This table runner is in my kitchen right now, it is the same pattern as the one I just finished.

See how fabric selection changes the whole look?

I love this one - I made 4 of these!

This makes three blogs for this week so I will write again next week.  I will work on the second runner and the heart blocks.  And whatever else strikes my fancy.
Sew happy!

Back to the Heart Quilt!

 I am working on the quilting of the two, count 'em, two table runners. 

While I am doing that, I need something to sew on, something I can sit and sew.  (I can only stand for so long at dear Gladys.)

Remember the heart quilts?  The key here is the "s" as yes, I am making two heart quilts.

Are you noticing the same pattern here that I am?

At any rate, I found the squares for the second quilt, waiting patiently. 

 I like to have 3 squares going at once.

The one that is "on the blocks" (to borrow a term from my swim team days) has the rows stitched together and pressed.

I just have to join the rows together and press.

But I don't like to heat up the iron for just that amount of ironing and I don't have anything left in my to iron pile.  (I KNOW, I am shocked also.)

 The block that is "on deck" (don't be overly impressed, I wasn't a very fast swimmer I just liked being on the team) has the squares selected and is waiting to have the rows put together.

I keep it on the ironing board.  Once the block is sewn together, I flip it onto the ironing board and replace it with these rows as I stitch them together. 

This gives me two things to iron with one heating of the iron.

Here is the "in the hole" block.

I fiddle with the color and fabric placement as it sits next to me.

I can see right now that this will not be a block, there are two squares with the same fabric.  I will work with it until I am happy and then it will move to "on deck" and the squares below it will be "in the hole."  I get a kick out of this sports vocab used with my quilting1

Sew happy!

Times two

 I fooled you, I didn't finish my table runner.

Why, you ask.

Well, I was looking at the leftover fabric and thought, I could make another one.  The second one has slightly smaller outside borders but otherwise, exactly the same.

I guess this is why I always buy too much fabric, so I can double my fun?

 Speaking of too much fabric, I dove into my stash to look for backing fabric.

In the spring of 2010, I made some bags, etc. to donate to Shelby's sorority auction.  I had bought bunches of fabric at Hancock's of Paducah and look at this, I had a bunch of pink fabric left.  (Shelby's sorority colors were pink and green.)

There is enough for two backs and still about a half a yard left over. 

 I got the first one on Gladys.

Am I brave enough to attempt feathers on this table runner?

I don't know!

In the meantime, I stitched in the ditch along all the borders and squares.

I like this fabric more every time I work with it. 

As I work on the first one, I can see its twin sister on the loft railing, waiting its turn.

Hang on, sister!  First I have to figure out what design I am going to do.  I am leaning towards flowers but maybe I should give feathers a try?

I will let you know when I figure it out.

Sew happy!

Easy table runner part two

 We continue strip piecing.  Yay!

Both sides now have a strip pieced onto them.

As the top strip will be the bottom of the square beneath it, you are only strip piecing on one more side.

One strip will do 3 squares, the 4th will use the 4th stip

Sew, press and cut.

 Ta da!

You have three squares with strips on three sides.

Lay them out and decide what order you want them in.  I decided to go pink - yellow - pink - yellow.  The leftover part of the 4th strip will be added at the bottom.

Sew each square to its neighbor and finish with strip.  Press. 

 Now it is beginning to look like a table runner.

The second quarter or half yard will be cut into 3 strips now - I made mine 2.5 inches.

I measured the length of the middle of the table runner and cut two strips to that size.

Sew one on each side.

Measure middle for short end and cut two that size.

Once you have pressed the table runner it will look more like the finished product.

You have to decide how you want to finish it.

Are you going to machine quilt it on your sewing machine, like I did the Paris one?  Or will you use a longarm, as I tried to!

Will you bind it or sew it like a pillowcase and turn it inside out and then quilt?

Next Tuesday I will show you how I decided to finish mine.  Enjoy Memorial day weekend!

Sew happy!