Sleigh Bell BOM - Month 8

This month's Sleigh Bell block of the month (BOM) is a Christmas Basket.  I did not add the appliqued Christmas leaves and berry because I really don't like to applique.  I am not successful at it so I chose not to do it.

I finished the block this morning.  It is easy to make and finished it quickly.

Month 6 - Quilter's Joy Mystery Quilt

I just finished the sixth month of Quilter's Joy Mystery Quilt.  It was fun but much more sewing was needed to complete this month's quilt portions.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Baggie A 

This is one of 9 pieces in Baggie A.  I am making the Quaintly Queen-sized Quilt and using the French General fabric:  Madame Rouge. There are baggies B-E, Baggies H-I and Baggie K with parts of the mystery quilt.

There will be two more month's of classes.  The parts that I can see, for example Baggie A is very beautiful.  

Vacation & the Double Wedding Ring Quilt

We planned a vacation last year for our family to celebrate my husband's retirement.  We decided to rent an Airbnb that would fit all eight of us.  It was a blast.  Our children and their "signifcant other" went snorkeling, swimming and ate our way through South Kihei's restaurants.

From L to R: Caroline (our youngest child), Jocelyn (our son's fiance),
Dermet (my spouse), Liz (me), Tom (our son), August (Erin's husband),
Eric (Caroline's boyfriend) and Erin (our oldest).

We went whale watching last Saturday when there was a storm coming in.  The water was so choppy that many of our fellow passengers were green and throwing up over the side of the boat.  Fortunately, my husband had brought "seasickness" patches and we were fine.  We saw many whales from afar.  I enjoyed watching a "calf" demonstrate it's breaching skills.  There were many breaching whales and it was a pleasure to be able to see them.  The crew kept apologizing for the weather.  We wanted the boat to get closer to the whales (within the allowed limits) but it was difficult because of the Kona Winds.

Our son, Tom and his fiance, Jocelyn are getting married this coming October, 2017 in Arizona.  They met while in graduate school in Glendale, Arizona and both are now pharmacists.  I decided to make them a quilt as a wedding quilt.  I decided to make a "Double Wedding Ring Quilt."  I did quite a bit of research and decided to make the quilt from Quiltsmart's Double Wedding Ring using interfacing to make the process go faster and less hassle on my part.  I searched YouTube and found several videos of the technique used and really thought that I could easily do it.  I selected the fabrics and Jocelyn helped me by letting me know that she loved "blues and grays."

The four fabrics in the center were 

purchased from Craftsy:  Boundless Ombre.

The two fabrics were purchased from my 

local fabric shop in Sacramento, Fabric

Garden.  They are Northcut Fabrics by

Deborah Edwards.

I brought these fabrics with me to Maui.  I was hoping to finish cutting the pieces from  2 1/2" strips.  I was only able to do half of them but it was fun just playing with the different shades of each of the fabrics.  Fortunately, Quiltsmart sells the small template on it's website.  

There is a drawing of the template on the pattern 

but as some of you know, it is so much easier to 

use the thick template plastic then make

a template out of cardboard or thin template plastic.

The template was larger then the required 2 1/2" 

strip.  I just "eyeballed" the middle of the

template and cut out the piece that I needed.

The next step is to attach the 

interfacing to the sewn six fabrics.

Sew on the solid line, the dotted line

next to the sewing line is the cutting

line and the other dotted line at

the ends must be inside of the fabric.

I used the "Bow Whip" Turn-it All to turn the 

tube inside out.  It was horrible.  I will have to bring my tube turner and ask someone to show me how to successfully use it.  It was so hard to turn.  In the Youtube video, they used a different tube turner and I just ordered it.  I hope that it is easier to use.

I will post photos of the coming steps.  It has been fairly straight forward so far.  I hope that it isn't more complicated.

New 12-Month BOM - Saturday Sampler

Today was the first day of a new Block of the Month (BOM).  We meet the first Saturday of the month.  I have a photo of the quilt but it did not turn out well. As soon as I get back to the Fabric Garden Quilt Shop, I will take another photo and post it.  We are using solids for the blocks and they are offering two backgrounds to use:  a navy and a light beige.  I chose the navy as the background for my quilt.  We are given the directions to make the block with Studio 180 Design's Wing Clipper or to sew it together without the ruler.  Of course, I love using the Wing Clipper.  It is more accurate and uses less fabric.  

I did not realize that they also offered fat quarters to make a Civil War-like blocks.  I decided to do those blocks as well.  Each block is 12 1/2" square and this month's block is called Ciara.

Civil War Reproduction Fabrics