Final layout............

Here is my final layout of the batik star quilt.  I need to sew on the left side and bottom edge sashing strips and then I can sew it all together.  I'm predicting it will be about 69" x 96" when sewn together.  I might consider a light print batik border but I won't know until I sew it together and then look through my fabrics.

I found the dotted fabric that I thought might work for some alternate blocks on the wonky heart quilt but I only have a quarter yard so there is enough for 8 blocks.  I also have enough of the kitty print left to make 4 blocks.  Added to the 16 blocks that are done I would have 28 six inch blocks.  There will still be a little bit of the black print left so I'll keep looking for one more bright fabric.

Sewing, cutting, bird watching...........

I showed 4 of these blocks that I made shortly after getting the Wonky Heart die for my die cutter.  I cut 12 more blocks yesterday and got them sewn last night.  They are only 6" finished and I only have a little more of the bright kitty print so I'll have to figure out what I can do to make the quilt bigger than 24" square.  I have enough of the black print to make quite a few more blocks so I really just need to find another bright print I like with these.  I'm thinking a dotted fabric might be the answer.  The other option is 2 borders.

I cut one block with another new die, Hattie's Choice.  This may just be an orphan block or part of a new scrap quilt.  This is not an immediate project.  Many other important things to work on.  A friend is coming over today to sew and I will probably do the layout with my batiks stars.  I will have to build it sideways on the double design wall because it is way too big to do it the other way.

I saw a big bird in my neighbor's tree and used my telephoto lens to try to get a good photo.  Unfortunately it is a little blurry but now I know it was a hawk.  The funny part is 2 squirrels were eating bird seed under the feeders and didn't notice it.  Then I saw it take off and one of the squirrels jumped on the closest tree and flattened himself against the trunk.  I don't think he moved for almost a full minute.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is another of my antique Valentine postcards. They are so different from today's cards. This is a repeat that I showed last year when I showed a series of heart quilts in February. If you are interested in its construction, click on Prismatic Garden on the Label list on the right side of the blog and it will take you to the whole series I have made as well as some in progress pictures of some.

It's just another day for me, cleaning the house for the company on Monday, continuing to make blocks for my next project. We got a coating of snow last night which should melt today. Hurray, no shoveling!

Another flannel finsh

This quilt has been waiting to be finished for over 5 years. Finally last week its turn came up. I finished the binding by machine since it will be used and washed a lot. It will look great in my living room with the red accents. I just did an all over meander with a few hearts thrown in. I did a heart in the center of each heart and then a few scattered here and there in the background.

Today I will go for our last session of making Chrismons for our Christmas tree at church. We are making them out of beads and copper wire, a new experience for me.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

This quilt was a pile of blocks in a bag 2 weeks ago. In Mary Ellen Hopkins "Connecting Up" book there was a quilt with hearts and stars and everybody that saw it wanted to make it. I figured out the yardage and started teaching it as a class about 20 years ago. I taught it many times and I know I made at least 4 others besides this one. I was just tired of this one and put the last set of blocks in a bag and put them with the backing fabric in the UFO box. In my search for all things "heart" I found it and decided to finish it. It is made of flannel and measures about 50" x 62". I started the quilting yesterday but still have the border to quilt as well as the insides of the stars and hearts. I outline quilted all of the hearts and stars and then did meandering with a heart now and then. The block below shows what to do when you don't have enough of one fabric for a block.
If you look closely you can see the meandering and a heart, maybe if you click on it and enlarge it you can see it better.
When my cousins were visiting a couple years ago I pulled out my old postcard collection and let them take some of them. I couldn't find the greeting card batch at the time so later when I found them I scanned some and then sent some of the originals to my cousin whose mother's birthday is on Valentine's Day. Here are some old fashioned greetings for you, my visitors...........

Another finish!

This is the next to last heart quilt (I think) and it is finally finished. The top was on my design wall for about 8 years. I looked at it every day and I really liked it but I never pushed myself to finish it. Why? When you finish something, it becomes something someone else wants. When it is unfinished it belongs to me. I am always tempted to sell them or give them as gifts once they are finished. I took this picture with natural light yesterday since it is bright in my studio when there is snow on the ground. Notice my wonky single chain in the burgundy area? I am sick of trying to be perfect, I would rather have fun. Besides that I am a little wonky. Just ask my friends. This piece is 20" square. Someone asked in the comments yesterday about the size of the bag I posted. I took this picture and emailed it to her but then I decided maybe some others wondered about the size too. I don't even know what the original size of the bag was on the pattern. I just use whatever size my patchwork piece is and then use the same general directions for assembly.
I ended up canceling the computer class I teach at the sewing machine store because of the snow predicted. In the end we only got about 2" and didn't get any of the snow they predicted for overnight. It is going to be cold (20's) and several of the ladies travel over 20 miles so I think it was the thing to do anyway. So that gives me a snow day and I have a list of 4 things I want to accomplish.

What's new?

What's new around here? Another 3" of wet snow from a thunderstorm last night. And...they are predicting another storm Tues. night.

The only thing new about the quilt below is that it is DONE! Since it is only about 18" square I just ditch quilted with the teal/green thread around everything.
Detail of binding. I chose a binding fabric with the same colors that was halfway between the dotted teal and the black/teal in value. That way it became part of the design rather than a plain black that simply said binding.
The one below is nothing special. It was made to show how to use 2 little paper pieced orphan blocks and it never got quilted. It has been on the shelf for at least 10 years so I finally decided to quilt it and use it as the placemat it is supposed to be.

Heart theme

I didn't realize how many quilts I have in progress and finished that have a heart theme. When we taught basic applique we always started the students out with a heart so they would have a straight edge, a curved edge, and inside point and an outside point. Hearts and flowers are the 2 shapes that most readily come to my mind when I need a theme.

The one below was started in a David Walker 2 day workshop in Naperville a few years ago. We started out by layering 4 pieces of fabric, stitching lines, then cutting away to expose areas below.
Then we came back with braids and heavy threads or yarns and couched them down using clear monofilament thread and a zig zag.
Here is a really close look at the zig zag over heavy thread, and the cutaway fabric.
I'm not sure I can keep the heart theme going all the way to Valentine's day , but I have at least 2 more things to show.

"Needs to be Finished" box, part 7

This is the other flannel quilt top waiting to be quilted. It is one of my favorites and I will keep it for myself. It is 72" x 94" so it is big enough for a twin bed but it hardly matches my pinky-purple bedroom, or the bright sunshine yellow guest bedroom.

If any of you have done a Buggy Barn pattern quilt you know how this is made. For those of you who haven't, the procedure is to draw the pattern on freezer paper, layer the required number of fabrics, iron on the pattern and cut through the paper pattern and fabric, and then shuffle the fabrics so each pile has a different fabric on top. You sew the pieces back together and of course they don't match after seam allowance is used, so trimming as you go as well as trimming the whole block is necessary. I taught this class more than once so I used a couple different patterns from this company.
And now for the close up pictures of fabrics......



I think this quilt is in the "definitely finish this year" pile.

We had a 50 degree temperature drop yesterday and snow flurries last night after a 53 degree high in the morning. I will not complain about snow however. If you want to see snow, check out Idaho Beauty's blog. Now that is snow. Read the first 3 posts.

Also if you have been reading my blog from the beginning you know that my self portrait quilt was made in a Jane Sassaman workshop. She designs some fabulous fabrics but because a lot of them are really big prints, we sometimes don't know how to use them. She has just started a blog to show us what to do with them. Check it out.