finally a finish?

A good week has passed since I posted last. I've been busy!! We had a couple of holidays the last few weeks. We actually have three long weekends in May...my oh my, how do we ever get anything done with so many holidays?? ;-) I hope to post the whole week what I have been up to. Today I am sharing my advanced sampler with you.

My quilt top and backing are now finally at the Quilt-Oase. I wanted to get this finished up last year, and it was on my last year's To-Do List. Do you remember? It was the very first one on the list!!

I finished up my last block and laid out my sashing. I was showing my blocks and sashing to other quilters, and they were steering me in a direction I didn't want to go. I understand that my XL sashing and borders take away from the sampler blocks, but that is exactly what I was going for.I wanted the blocks to become a complete design on its own collectively as if they were printed on another piece of fabric. I am proud of myself for standing my ground, by the way!

I made my backing panel...and boy with this a monster; it measures about 95 x 115 inches! Fortunately, I had enough fabric in my stash to make it. I bought this gorgeous pink and orange fabric at a very quaint fabric/quilt shop somewhere in North Carolina on a trip three years ago that matching quite well with Kate Spain's Fandango. It was at a killer price and bought five or six yards of it. (I am not going to calculate the amount, seriously I could be wrong...it could be seven). It was almost enough for the entire backing too! I made some quick large pluses to add some extra backing surface. I could have left the size as is for home quilting, but I want this one to be long arm quilted, since it it huge and will be time consuming! I went the extra mile to add ten inches to the height and width to accommodate the long arm machine. To do this, I first pieced the backing and then carefully slice it twice, once horizontally and once vertically where I eventually placed the white plus.

 

I even matched up the print in the backing when I sewed the WOFs together. I first sewed them using a 1/2" then realized I should have sewn using 1/4" to allow the pattern to repeat. I frogged it (ripped the seam) and sewed it again ;-)

So I bet you are a little curious to see how this is supposed to look in the end. This was my original design layout. It changed just a little, but the idea is still there! I reduced my border width by five inches each side to make better use of the white fabric. I used strips 11 inches unfinished for each side; therefore, I could get four strips from my fabric. You can see more pictures in my flickr album.

What did I learn this week? When you run into a problem, don't stress about it. Allow it to become a challenge and solve it with enthusiasm. Your new idea will be brilliant!

Thank you for dropping by! Time for me to go grab another cup of coffee and move on to another project. And no more samplers...well, I still have to finish up my patchwork group sampler, but that's it!!! How do you feel about samplers? Do you like to make them?

getting ready for the holidays

This year I have decided to start a little earlier with the holiday preparations. Normally I am way late and stress myself out at the last minute.

I already started to make my mix of Christmas cookies too - ginger snaps, Russian tea cakes (so ähnlich wie Vanillekipferl), and traditional sugar cookies decorated by the kids. I still would like to make coconut macaroons, hazelnut macaroons, Baseler-Leckerli, mini peanut butter cookies and pecan sandies (Heidesand).

The house will get decorated this weekend and the Christmas tree will go up two weeks before the big day - December 25. We celebrate an American Christmas with Santa Claus and X-Mas morning gifts with stockings filled with goodies.

Our kids enjoy the German tradition of Advent Calenders that count down the days in December until the 24th. This is when the Christ Child (Kristkind) comes with presents. I made new calender for each of my children last year, but don't think we put them out.  (They always had one; they just got a new and improved rendition.) My kids have been nagging me for a store-bought calender, but I really like to fill them up with "healthy" goodies and not just a bunch of chocolate. My, what the kids of a patchworker have to endure in life! :-)

Today I am showing off my miniature quilt I made for my doll swap partner for the  month of November. We agreed to make something for Christmas, and Patty wanted a real doll quilt with the dimensions 18 x 24 inches. I didn't get the dimensions exactly right, but got them close enough. I also used a pattern from a doll quilt book, so I could book this one too...

I started with the book Prairie Children and Their Quilts. I wanted the quilt to be uniform (that didn't happen!) and use three colors - white, red, gray. I decided to use up my scraps from the prettiest winter collection in my stash from Jan Shade Beach for Henry Glass called Holiday Frost. This collection is no longer available but a newer version can be bought with the name Holiday Magic. All of the centers are fussy cut and the blocks finish at 4.5 inches. I thought I would make things a little easier and fuse all of the blocks to a thin fleece and then sew all seams at once. To do this, your layout has to be set in stone, because you can't flip the blocks around later. It definitely took longer to set it all up, but I am pleased with the result. I think only two points didn't match up. I don't mind the brightness, but the larger prints distract a bit from the total design. Was it the right choice with the red binding? Is the gray distracting? What about those three red centers I threw in to make it a little scrappier? Personally, for my own taste, I am not sure I like it. But, then again, if I put it away for a while, and took it out later, it might have become one of my favorites.

Enjoy your weekend!
Karen

destiny's trail pattern

First and most importantly, the winner for the Project Sewing Room: essential wanna haves drawing is...lucky visitor No. 3 - Janarama! Congratulations! Yeah! I will be contacting via email for your address of where to send your surprise package!

Now on to today's post:
I started working on a really cute baby quilt pattern last fall and sent it in to a magazine to see if I could get it published. I never heard back from them, so I thought enough time has gone by; it's time to publish on my own. This pattern is for those of you who like a challenge. Although it is just a baby quilt, you might struggle a bit, because there are lots of points to match up. It uses three basic blocks and has several different patterns that jump out at you.

You might remember that I posted a picture of this at the beginning of the year? I barely gave any details away other than a dotty nine patch block. Here is the finished top:

And this is my work in progress. Looking back at the quilt on the wall, I think it would have been better to quilt this in circles rather than in straight lines. I am a little more confident I could do it too! :-)

BUT, I wanted the mod pods to come out more. Can you see one? Maybe it would have been better if I had used a turquoise colored thread for the quilting?

 Or do you see the star? You can also highlight the star with echo quilting.

I changed the name to Mod Pod Nine Patch while making this quilt, thinking about the pod chains that I wanted to stand out. I had to change the name back though. I think Destiny's Trail Nine Patch is more suited. What do you think? Which name is better?

You can find more pictures here on flickr.

Thanks for dropping by. And if you are interested in this pattern, check it out on Craftsy.

Karen

a new quilt for teddy and friends

I was pretty excited this month; time permitted me to sew a few blocks for the Block Lotto. Depending on how difficult the blocks are and what colors are being used, I might or might not participate. In the end, I want to receive the blocks I will be making. And if I have a difficult time making them, everyone else probably will too.

This month's block is a Triangle in a Square. Yahoo...an easy block. I can do this one and my daughter can help. (That was one of the reasons of joining the group - that my daughter was going to sew along with me.) We followed the directions and cut everything out just as described in Method Two: making eight blocks at once. I like making more at a time. Es rendiert sich! Silly me, I picked up the smaller squares to make the smaller triangles. (I really should read more carefully and not sew in the evenings. This always seems to cause a problem.) I sewed according to the next section and voila! My inner blocks were 1/2 inch smaller than they should be. Huh?? I remember reading on the website that someone else had also sewn the blocks together, and they were smaller. Where's the problem? Oh course, I got confused and picked up the wrong square. I needed the larger square for the smaller triangle and the smaller square for the larger triangle. Sound logical. At that moment, no.

Well, I trimmed them down and found a great use for them - a new quilt for teddy and friends! I let my daugter arrange them. Pink had to go in the center; it is a girly color. And even though teddy is a boy, he has to share with the girls as well. It will get quilted within the next couple of days with a really nice flannel backing so teddy and friends stay nice and cozy. I don't know if there is a block name for this layout. If there is not, we're going to call this teddy's block.

The next morning, I was on a mission to get it right. After re-reading the directions, everything seemed logical to me. I cut new colored patches slightly larger than the directions as before, because when I am sewing on the bias and cutting, I always like to have a little extra. That works for me. Everything went easy cheesy, except my daughter didn't want to help anymore.

This time I eliminated the red and substituted a light pink. The red was probably better, a little brighter. These are getting thrown into the lotto pot. Maybe I will win a collection? If not, it was fun working with my bright colors again --- so nice and cheery.

Thanks to a mix up of the mind, my daughter has a new quilt for her teddy and friends. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever made teddy bear quilts? What do you like about making them? If you have, I would love to hear about it. Please post in the comments section. I love to receive your comments! Until next time, happy patching.