A February Finish

I finally have a finish to show for February.

This is the table runner I made from the "Orphans and Scraps" sew along posted by Pam Buda.  I love the way it turned out.

It's kind of like a "Where's Waldo" with quilt blocks.  

Find the Courthouse Steps block...

Ah, there it is.

I have become a fan of using striped fabrics for bindings.  The tan/black stripe fabric was something I bought from a sale bin without knowing exactly what I would use it for, but I thought it was perfect for the binding on this runner.

On the opposite end of the quilted spectrum, I also finished this month's Block of the Month that I am doing at my local quilt shop.

In my time as a quilter, I have always referred to myself as a "jewel tone gal".  They have always been my favorite colors to work with.  I surprised myself with how much I have enjoyed using the Civil War repro fabrics.   Who would have guessed?

I finished the block I posted about yesterday.  All 68 pieces. Whew!

I don't think it has ever taken me 2 days to complete one block before.  One thing that was slowing me down is that the illustration of the block was a black and white drawing.  I had to keep referring back to the instructions to figure out which was "Fabric 1" etc. 

Eventually, I sat down with my trusty Electric Quilt software and drafted up a block in color to use as a guide.

Things went much smoother after that.  (I must remember to take a photo of the sample she shows us in class from now on!)

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Sat down to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics last night, and planned on getting lots of knitting done.  I'm still working on the sweater for my son, and the time had come to rip out several inches of the front of the sweater due to an error I made in the cable stitch.

I discovered the error back in May, but I didn't have the heart to pull out all that work at the time.  I hoped that if I ignored it long enough it might magically disappear, but the knitting elves were busy, I guess.  Anyhow, I made it my goal to get the sweater finished by the time the Olympic Games are over.

So, as I said, I sat there watching TV for a couple of hours last night, but I had trouble getting back into the pattern.  I knitted and un-knitted the same few rows a bunch of times, and ended the night exactly where I started. 

I hope the US Olympic team has better luck!

23 Geese a-laying

This is what I have done so far for this month's  Saturday Sampler BOM:

That's only about half of the number of Flying Geese units needed for this block.

The technique we learned for making the Flying Geese blocks involves using a new ruler that we all got in our introductory block.  It's called the "Quick Trim and Circle " ruler from Creative Grids.   The "Quick Trim" technique is used for making the Flying Geese.

There are lots of different ways to make Flying Geese, and everyone has their favorite, but since this is a new one to me, I thought it worth a try.  The biggest advantage I can tell, is that you don't have to draw a diagonal sewing line on the back of the squares.

Here's an overview of how the ruler is used, primarily because I want to add these photos to my blog so I can refer back to them again next month.  

Start with a square and a rectangle.

Place the square on top of the rectangle, right sides together.

Look, Ma!  No  diagonal lines!

Line up the crosshair lines on the ruler and cut.  (The lines are hard to see in the photo.)

 Bring the unit to your sewing machine, and sew a 1/4 inch seam along the edge you just cut.  Then open it out and press.

Do the same to the other side.  Cut. Sew. Press.

Now you have your Flying Geese unit.

For a stack of Flying Geese, you sew the next fabric to the top of the unit like this:

and start over again.

Pretty neat, once you get the hang of it.  When you are just learning how to use the ruler, you may end up with this:

So the next time, you concentrate really hard on getting the angle right, but forget to check that the fabrics are right sides together.

Hard to tell, but the top left corner had to be removed and turned over to the right side.

The downside to doing a BOM from a quilt shop is that if you goof up with fabric, you have no more yardage to replace it with.  I really liked that turqoise fabric with the black swirls, but I had to substitute a fabric from my stash when I cut it the wrong way.

The upside to doing a BOM is that you can make a labor-intensive, 68-piece block just this one time and never have to do one again.

Sunglasses required

This weekend I picked up the next 2 blocks in the Saturday Sampler BOM.  The fabrics for this month are really bright.

These are the fabrics I will be using

to make this block:

The weather is scorching hot outside, and its a good day to just stay home and sew.  It's also a good day for ice cream, and there's been no lack of that around here.  My daughter got an ice cream maker and has been trying out recipes.  The first one was a maple fig ice cream, with a maple sauce and topped with walnuts:

A few day later it was cheesecake ice cream with blueberry sauce and a vanilla wafer crumble:

Not to be outdone, the next night my son made a chocolate chiffon pie with a fresh fruit topping:

Why did they pick the week I need to go for my cholesterol test to make these fabulous desserts?  Tonight we are switching gears and having homemade watermelon sorbet. Can't wait.

In under the wire...

I managed to find some time in my sewing room this afternoon and I finished making my first block for my Saturday Sampler BOM.

Working with these fun, bright colors is such a pleasure.  The challenge to this block was using a new ruler that we were issued as part of the Saturday Sampler.  It's a neat way to make Flying Geese units.  I'll show how it works in another post.

Almost but not quite.

I was hoping to get more done last night during the Friday Night Sew In, but it was 9:15 by the time I got to my sewing room.  I didn't get to start the actual sewing, but at least I got all the pieces cut for the first block of the BOM.  If I hadn't signed up for the Friday Night Sew In, I probably wouldn't have gotten even that much done.

Aren't these luscious colors?   I can't wait to get them sewn together. Hopefully that will get done today.

Saturday Sampler begins

Heidi over at   Handmade by Heidi   hosts a monthly Friday Night Sew In.  A virtual sew-in where everyone who participates sets a goal for sewing and shares their progress over on Heidi's blog.  This will be my first time actually committing to do it.

My project for tonight is to get started on a Block of the Month that just began at my nearby quilt shop.  It's called the Saturday Sampler.  Each month you get instructions and fabric for one block.  If you finish the block by the next month's meeting, you get the pattern and fabric for the next month for free. 

I've heard about these type of BOM programs, but I've never done one before.  This one is pushing me a little bit out of my comfort zone because we don't know what the final quilt will look like.  It's a mystery.   Thankfully, my quilting buddy Linda is also signed up for the BOM so we can encourage each other to keep going.

We had our choice of 3 colorways: Black and White, Batiks, or Bubblegum

I chose batiks, and Linda chose black and white.  It will be really fun to compare both quilts when we are done and see how different they are just by using different fabrics.

This is a picture of the sample block that I will be making tonight:

Hope I'll have an identical block of my own to show by tomorrow.