Envelope Pattern by Edyta Sitar

Last night, I decided to start piecing a quilt that I purchased at last year's River City Quilt Show (November, 2012).  I purchased a kit with all of the fabrics and the pattern.  I love all of Edyta's patterns.  They are so beautiful but I never start any of them because I don't know which fabrics to select!  They are all equally beautiful!

I cut all of the pieces needed, 3"x3", 2 1/2"x2 1/2" and 3"x2 1/2".

It seems fairly easy.  The blocks are on point.

I have finished four blocks and I have 16 more to go.

I have quite a bit of housework to do so I will have to try to finish when I have most of it done.

Hourglass Quilt Pictures

I just wanted to share this picture.  For some reason, every time I set a quilt down on my dinning room table, my cat, Bibby decides that he must immediately lay down on it.  It was not any different today.

As promised, here is a better photo of the Hourglass Quilt.

I finished two quilt tops!

Last week, I mentioned that I received a quilt kit from Anka's Treasures (Heather Mulder Peterson).

I managed to finish it this morning.  I will get a better photograph of it tonight.  My husband is not here to hold it up.  It was very fun to put together.  I ordered fabric for the back and I am going to try to quilt it in the next week.  I will take some pictures of it.  I don't expect anything great!  I am a straight stitch quilter.

I was interrupted by a project for my local fabric store, Fabric Garden.  They asked me to make a shop sample.  I was very flattered that they asked me and I was able to finish it last night.  I will bring it over to them today.

The pattern that they wanted me to use is "Retreat" from the book by "It's sew Emma Patterns."  They used the fabric line of Jenn Ski, using the "Oink-a-Doodle-Moo" line.  It was so fun!

I have a new SEWING MACHINE!

After much consultation with my husband, he agreed that I needed a new sewing machine.  I searched at my local sewing machine store...not to be critical but I walked in and stood there for at least 30 minutes and not one person came up to me to ask me if I needed help or anything.  I walked up and down the aisles looking at all of the machines and writing down prices.  Eventually, the gentleman who services the machines came up and asked if I needed help.  Needless to say, he tried to sell me a used machine.  It was tempting but I did look at it and liked it.  It was a Janome Horizon 7700.  I just want to add that this store is known for its bad service.  You can ask most sewers here in Sacramento and most of them will agree with me.

I searched the internet to see if I could find a new one to purchase.  I started calling different merchants and decided to purchase the Janome New Home MC 7700 QCP. 

Hourglass Quilt

Yesterday, I started a new quilt with the fabric that I showed to you several days ago.  It has been fun.  I finished the first row two nights ago.  

It was so fun to work with the colorful fabrics.  If you have looked at the other blogs that I have written, you will have noticed that I also love Civil War reproduction fabrics but they are a bit somber and morose to reflect the times that they were used.  

Here are some of the photographs of the progress that I have made.  

The instructions in the book, Angles with Ease were easy to follow.  Fortunately the background fabric, white, looked the same (right and wrong sides) that all I had to do was flip the fabric to accommodate the angles without having to cut more of the white fabric to fit the right sides of the colorful fabric.


When it came to sewing the two parts together to form a complete row, it fit pretty well with the exception of two seams.  I had to pick the thread out and carefully pin to achieve a matching seam.

I finished this first row in four to five hours (with many breaks).  It was fun.  I like to work fast and usually make a few cutting errors but I decided to take my time and work as carefully as I could because of the angles of the cut fabric.

I tried to work on the blocks yesterday but I had a doctor's appointment with my OB-GYN in the late morning.  It was okay.  I enjoyed catching up with Dr. Julie and her family.  I hate to admit this but it has been five years since I last had my last PAP smear.  I had it done and it was okay.  My most traumatizing part of my day came several hours later when I went to have a mammogram.  I swear that my breasts were squeezed in a vice, 2x per breast.  The technician was very nice and I know that this is a good diagnostic test for breast cancer but my RIBS still hurt!  Needless to say, I did not sew very much yesterday when I returned home but I am trying to make-up for it this morning.  I took only this small amount time to write in this blog and here are the results so far.

How to Make Lori Holt's Quilt Block Board

I watched a video on "You Tube" several months ago, "How to Make Lori Holt's Quilt Block Board," from the Fat Quarter Shop's blog.  It looked interesting and a good way to keep my projects together when I put them aside to do something else as Lori Holt demonstrated on the video.

First, I had to find my glue gun and glue sticks. That was a daunting task because I haven't used my glue gun in years.  Well....I couldn't find it so I had to go to Joann's to find a cheap but good glue gun.  Of course, I looked on Amazon to find the ratings of each of the glue gun's that I found on the Joann's website.  I felt satisfied once I finished my research.  I wrote everything down on a piece of paper and especially the one that I wanted to purchase.  

I found one at Joann's that had glue sticks included in the package.  EUREKA, I thought, I could make a purchase with glue sticks included!  I realized, my research was a waste of time because I selected the glue gun based on the glue sticks included with the glue gun and not the ratings of satisfaction that were on Amazon.  I am practical and it seemed a good idea to buy a mid-priced glue gun (with a lower rating) with glue sticks so I wouldn't have to purchase more that I wanted to spend.  I had a 40% off one item coupon so I felt that I had gotten a deal.

Okay, on to the making of the Quilt Block Board.  I had many poster boards with the foam core, at least six.  The next dilemma I had, what size do I make them?  After much thought, I decided on making them 15"x15" because I make quite a few blocks at least 12"x12" and that size would be able to accommodate all of the larger blocks that I make.  I used two of the poster boards and cut the four, 15"x15" blocks.  Lori uses a whole piece of left over batting for each board.  Since my boards were larger than her boards, I had a difficult time finding pieces that would fit.  Needless to say, I had to sew together pieces of batting and they work just fine.

I made four Quilt Block Boards.  Two of them have a "binding" around them and the other two do not.  The only reason why I did not put a binding around the last two was that I used all of my glue sticks putting the "binding on the first two boards.  HaHaHa, the joke was on me.  I should've bought the better glue gun and additional glue sticks!  

Below are some photographs of my version of Lori Holt's (fabric designer for Riley Blake Fabrics) Quilt Block Boards.

The supplies needed to make a Quilt Block Board.

My two types of Quilt Block Boards that I made:  one without and the other with binding.

New Project

I just received a kit from Anka's Treasures, owned by Heather Mulder Peterson, a couple of days ago.  I love her new book, "Angles with Ease."  The quilts are colorful and so beautiful.  I also purchased the new ruler, Trianguler.  The instructions seem to be easy to follow.  Even though, I have many projects waiting to be finished, I decided to start this one because I wanted to be able to look at the wonderful colors and finish it quickly.  The picture at the right are designed by Heather, the "Summer House" line.  They are fat quarters of the entire line.

To the right (bottom) is a picture of the kit that I received and a picture that Heather sent of the completed quilt (top).

The kit includes 16 fat eighths, white background fabric and the binding (dark brown in the upper left hand corner).  I can't wait to start!  I will have to look for some backing fabric.

                            
Heather has a new line of fabric coming out at the end of the month called "Here Fishy Fishy."  Cute name!  I can't wait to see and especially feel it!

I am finally sewing again......

It has been several weeks since I have been able to sew.  I volunteered to help with setting up an online schedule to work at our neighborhood high school's fireworks booth.  Little did I realize I would have to work also!  To add insult to injury, we had a record breaking heat wave that entire week.  It culminated in the high of 110 degrees on July 3rd!  Needless to say, I could not sew when I returned home.  I was too tired.

I decided a couple of days ago that I could return to sewing the many projects waiting for me at my machine.  Unfortunately, I could not find my extra rotary blades to replace the dull one in my rotary cutter.  AAACH, I decided that I had to clean my sewing area!  The tidying of my sewing area took a few days.....

I finally finished yesterday after my eye appointment at 9:20 am.  The prescription for my eyes changed very little, not bad for a person with diabetes!  Of course, my optometrist was obligated to examine my retinas by dilation and peering through my pupils.  He said they had not gotten worse, again a very good thing for a diabetic.

Dermet and I went this afternoon and ordered glasses with my new prescription.  This is a traumatizing ordeal....the glasses and lenses are expensive but the worst part is deciding which glasses look the best on your face.  My new glasses should arrive in a week.  I hope I made a good choice!

Here is a picture of the six blocks that I completed tonight.

These blocks are Month 6 of Civil War Melodies from Homestead Hearth.