Charm Exchange Group and finishing the Lattice Bone Quilt

I finished the Lattice Bones Quilt last night.  I like the finished product and it was easy and very fun.                                                              

I am a bit embarrassed by the wrinkles in the quilt but I didn't want to iron it this morning.  I was feeling a bit lazy.

About a month ago, I read a FB entry by Kate Spain.  She announced a Charm Exchange through a blogger, Michele Kuhns of Quilts From My Crayon Box.   I joined the group.  It sounded easy enough.  I have quite a bit of Kate's fabrics in my stash and I am assuming that all of those that joined the group are also fans.   We were to select two 1-yard pieces of fabric and make 56 charm squares of each piece for a total of 112 - 5" squares.  We mail them in to Michele by November 5 with a Self-addressed, stamped envelope and she will mail us 112 squares of each of the charms sent to her.  I forgot to mention that we were to join her FLICKR group, "Kate Spain Charm Swap" and post pictures of the fabrics that we chose to exchange so there would not be any repeats.  I finished cutting my fabric tonight and now all I need to do is mail her my squares.  

  

These are my two fabrics from Kate's "Honey Honey" line.   

Lattice Bones by Julie Hirt-627handworks.com --Moda Bake Shop

I subscribe to Moda Bake Shop's blog -->  www.modabakeshop.com.  A couple of weeks ago, I received a blog that had a pattern that I thought was so interesting, Lattice Bones.  I loved the fact that I could use two jelly rolls, one a solid and the other any print that I had in my stash.  I loved the openness of the quilt and the angles of the almost round circles.

I went to the website to download the free pattern:  http://www.modabakeshop.com/2013/10/lattice-bones-quilt.html



 

I used a Bella Solid - Snow jelly roll and the Spring House jelly roll, both by Moda.

Here is the progression of the block:

The jelly roll is already cut at 2 1/2"

Cut from the print jelly roll:  2 - 6 1/2" rectangles
and 2 - 2 1/2" squares

Cut from the background jelly roll:  4 - 4 1/2" rectangles and 2 - 2 1/2" squares

The outside columns are easy to sew:
the background and printed squares are sewn together and the 4 1/2" rectangle is sewn to the printed square.  The length and width of the block is 8 1/2."  

The only part that you need to watch for is sewing 

the outside column to the center. 

Pin carefully to be sure that the point

meets the seam of the printed square.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           This quilt has sixteen of the larger blocks to make a 64" x 64" quilt.  You will need 4 yards of fabric for the back.  It goes together fairly quickly.

I had great surprises in the mail when I returned home!

We spent the day following PIQF (Saturday) with my oldest daughter, Erin and her friends up in the hills, above Cloverdale (north of Napa).  We had a great day there but when I returned home our mailbox was full of fun surprises that I had ordered.

I ordered this book several months ago, "Quilty Fun" by Lori Holt.  It has the instructions to make the quilt on the cover and many more projects using the blocks.  It looks like fun and I can't wait to use it on a couple of baby quilts that I have planned for the next few months.

I ordered a layer cake of a fabulous new line of fabrics called "Scrumptious."  The colors are so beautiful and I can't wait until I have the time to figure out what I want to do with these fabrics.

I received the fabric for Block #4 of "The Simple Life" from Homestead Hearth.  This one will be more difficult because I have to applique.  Just a warning, the end product may not look great.

I ordered some patterns and fabrics from Pink Chalk Fabrics.  I really want to make these quilts.  These patterns are from Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts.  She looks like she is my oldest daughter's age.  Her patterns and quilts are so fresh and modern.  

They look complicated but are supposed to be "easy" because of the "Sidekick" ruler.  I will let you know if that is the case.




I felt like it was Christmas...I had so many fun things waiting for me.  Now I get to work on making quilts with all of this fun "stuff."

PIQF....Pacific International Quilters Festival at the Santa Clara Convention Center

Last Friday, I was able to attend PIQF!  I tried to walk all of the aisles but after a couple of hours, my feet gave out on me!  I was very fortunate that my husband drove me there and the quilts were so beautiful that I was in awe of so many of the quilts that I decided to take some pictures of them.

This was my one of my favorites because of the  intricate details of the quilt.  It was stunning and the movement of the fabric moved your eye from one to the other was so playful.  I am sure required many hours of work.  The quilter is from Japan.

I loved this quilt also.  The aqua color is my favorite and the quilting was stunning.  This quilter is from the USA. 

This quilt didn't win an award but I loved the colors.  It is a depiction of Mt. Fuji.  The quilter is from Japan.

I also enjoyed this quilt.  It had recycled can pop-tops incorporated throughout the top.  The quilter is from the USA.

Dermet and I also loved this quilt.  It is more traditional.  We loved the color selection and the overall feel of the quilt. 

We were very impressed by this quilt.  We really had to take a good look at it. 

The pieced row were STRAIGHT!  The quilting gave it a "curvy" look.  It was ingenious!  We loved IT!

The quilt was made by Jan Soules from Sacramento!

As promised, the finished product, Radiant Star.

I have finished the wall hanging, Radiant Star, from Marsha McCloskey's book, "Feathered Star - Blocks I."  It is 26" square. 

Again, I still can not get the "hang" of editing the pictures in Picasa.  The background color is white but the picture was yellow when I moved it into Picasa to edit.  This is what I came up with!  Ick!  It is over processed and I don't know what to do about it.

I want to acknowledge the book that our class used to make this block.

 

Still Organizing but I am taking a BREAK!

After seven days of organizing, I ran into a block that I made during a class about two years ago, Feathered Star.  I did one block and I almost finished a second but I did not care for all of the small pieces.  Needless to say, I abandoned the quilt but I have a lot of fabric that I did not use.  I added them to my stash but I decided to make the one block into a pillow.  Last night, I added a three inch border of light and a one-inch border of my dark fabric and added a two-inch border to finish it off.  So, I decided to make a wall hanging out of it.  Here is the result so far.

I have finished three of the four two-inch borders and I will add a photo of the finished wall hanging.

Organizing.....AGAIN!

I have decided that I have to re-organize my sewing workspace.  I don't like the feel of the space because I still have to rummage around looking for my quilting "stuff."  I have the most recent fabrics that I purchased in my "new" sewing area.  I moved into the eastern side our family room because I isolated myself from my family in my sewing room and I don't get to spend time with my husband.  We are now empty nesters and spending time with him is important to me.


I have been moving and inserting my "older" fabric into my "new" sewing area.  I had these fabrics in bins, organized by color in my small room.  Of course, these bins are stacked up on top of each other and difficult to get to.  I am determined to use my "older" fabric instead of going out and purchasing more fabric!  I am now organizing the fabric by color.  I have a lot of blue and green fabric!


I will post pictures of my endeavor to try to organize and tame the huge amount of fabric that I have in my STASH!

Civil War Melodies - Month 9 ----> The Homefront

Month 9 of Civil War Melodies arrived last week, The Homefront.  I enjoy this Block of the Month (BOM) series because the blocks are a little trickier to put together but there have not been a lot of blocks to make each month.  Four this month only....

I love the colors of this block, orange and green.  I have seen the completed quilt online and it is stunning.

This month's block is about the Southern Homefront.  "The women were left to manage households and provide for their families. Confederate women were faced with improvising:  spinning, weaving, and making dyes from roots and plants.  This lifestyle change was commemorated with The Homespun Dress."

Here are the beginning lyrics:
Oh, yes, I am a Southern Girl,
And glory in the name,
And boast it with far greater pride
Than glittering wealth or fame.
We envy not the Northern girl,
Her robes or beauty rare,
Though diamonds grace her snowy neck,
And pearls bedeck her hair.

Chorus:  Hurrah! Hurrah!
For the sunny South so dear;
Three cheers for the homespun dress
The Southern ladies wear.

Quick Fat Quarter Quilt

Last night I started a blue baby quilt.  The pattern instructions were easy to follow and I managed to finish the quilt in about four to five hours.

I bought this quilt kit from Pincushion Boutique in Davis.  It contained eight fat quarters and minky-like fabric as the backing.  What I enjoyed about the pattern is that it had a visual diagram of how to cut up each fat quarter.  It said to place four of the fat quarters together and cut all four at once.  Do the same for the next four fat quarters.  It was fun and different.  It also had a diagram of how to place each block.  It looks like each block was randomly placed.

These types of quilts are the kind that I should make for babies.  They are cute and bright but do not take up a lot of time to piece.

Organizing my Sewing Space.....not as satisfying as actual sewing!

I have been organizing my sewing area for the last week.  I am still in the midst of it all but I am actually getting to see most of my fabric so that I can at least use it and try not to buy more!

I went to my local shop here in Sacramento, Fabric Garden, yesterday and saw the quilt sample that I made for shop in the window.

Again, not a great photograph because it was taken with my phone.  I do not know how to edit with this device.  My kids will tell me that I should've downloaded it to my computer and had an easy time editing it but I am not familiar with Picasa3 yet.