I let my jelly Roll!

I took up Megan's challenge this month and made a jelly roll quilt!  

I was sucked in to the Granny square craze and found Imagingermonkey's strip piecing tutorial. 

 So I pulled out some 40's repro jelly rolls I had and in two days had a quilt top!  

In another day I quilted it! 

I quilted some grafitti in my FMQ.  

 The on the way to Canada for vacation I hand sewed the binding!  

I took pictures with it in front of the giant bobber at the 1000 Island Bait store before entering Canada.

Now Im sleeping under it every night!  Yeah!

Keep dreaming...Colleen

I portaged my kayak up a short steep hill into Quebec lake.  This was my first incredible view.

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"Olympic opening ceremonies were so cool! The preformance was a little strange. But the lighting of the cauldron was amazing!"

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"Done binding and now time for the car nap."

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"Binding my retro granny square vacation quilt around the 'campfire' "

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"I did lots of graffiti writing in my FMQ on my Granny square quilt. Kelly better get married!"

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"Finished FMQ!!! Quilted some words and the date. Will sew the binding on tomorrow!!!"

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"Thanks @kheliwud for your FMQ help- its going great!"

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"Pin basted granny square quilt"

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I jumped...& Friday Night Sewin

Well I am a lemming.  You know those cute little animals that will follow the crowd even to their death.  Yep that's me, experiencing death by quilting or rather Great Granny along.  

I blame Carrie P.  Her blog pushed me over the edge.  For months I have been seeing these granny square quilt-alongs.  I have pinned tutorials.  I have soaked up the retro scrappy goodness of the pattern but ignored the urges to make one.  And then I followed everyone over the cliff.  Last night, after reading Carrie's blog, it hit me I had about 2 jelly rolls worth of feed sack prints, a couple yards of kona coal, and a desire to make myself a vacation quilt.  So...I...jumped.

This is what I had finished before I went to bed, 16 block segments 

(I thought I had 18, it was too late when I wen to bed).

This morning I sewed everything together and made two more blocks .

( I still thought I had 20 now)

I squared them up to 9".  Imagingermonkey's tutorial said 9.25 but my 1/4 foot is not a scant.

I messed around with some layouts on the design wall. And realized I only had 18 blocks, so...

 I took a break and went out for lunch and to run a few errands.  

It is Dress like a cow day at Chick-fil-a.  I couldn't miss that.

When I was out I stopped at Joanne's to get some more kona coal with my 50% coupon.  When I returned I played around with the layout in MS Publisher. 

 I took this picture and uploaded it, copied, and pasted it.  Then I copied it 17x and did a layout on a dark gray background.

I decided on this layout.  I addeded a 10" border to make it 62.5 inch square as a finished size.

I have one left over square and I took some of the many strips I had left that matched the 13 different ones I used in the blocks and whipped up a binding.  

(I need some more of these old bobbins-they're great for storing binding!)

I'm trying to think of how to quilt this and what to do with the leftover block.  Rainbowrobot suggested a matching pillow.  Im thinking a travel pillow as this will be my vacation quilt.  I plan on machine quilting it this weekend.  I can finish the binding traveling in the car on vacation.

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I also continued to clean out drawers and shelves in my studio.  Ive been really getting rid of things.

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Check out the FridayNight Sewin crowd and see what everyone else is sewing.

******

keep dreaming...Colleen

QuiltCon blocks made by the Triad MQG.  I sent them today to Elizabeth Hartman!

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"My future vacation quilt-now to dash!"

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"It's all Carrie P.'s fault! And the feedsack precut strips, kona coal I had, @imagingermonkey tutorial, summer vacation, Great granny along..."

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One Thing One Week Challenge

So I pledged to bind both of my S.C.A.N. quilts and as a bonus paint my Dad's barn quilt.  Well I accomplished both!  Yeah!

I hand sewed the binding on both.  SCAN is for Stop Child Abuse Now.  It is the charity that the Triad Modern Quilt Guild in NC adopted as its charity.  I bought 3 small bamboo batting very cheap from Joann's on clearance to make some quilts.  The first one I used  my ugly swoon block from the swoon quilt-along.  It is made up of a solid blue and orange from the 90s' along with some year 2000 fabric and a current obnoxious yellow and pink owl fabric.  My awesome guild mate Kelly Wood FMQ on her machine.

For the second quilt I challenged my guild to bring in a 12" star block with some orange in it.  For my birthday in May.  I then turned it into a quilt and pieced a back.  Anyia FMQ it for me.

Then for Dad's birthday I finally(after 2years of vascillating) painted a barn quilt for my Dad.  It is an original design.  One I havent submitted yet to the Accuquilt Barn quilt contest.

I had trouble with bleeding under the tape but it came out pretty good.

Check out the other finishes over at Amy's Creative Side

Keep dreaming...Colleen

My Dad likes martinis so my sister gave him a new glass for Father's Day.

Goals

Ok for the next 3 months my goals are clear

1. Finish star Trek quilt top and backing.  Find someone to quilt it.

2. Make Kelly's Wedding quilt top and backing.  Gina will hopefully quilt it.

3.  Make 4 bridesmade bags and one for the bride.

4.  Zakka style swaps(3)

5.  Quilt (or get quilted) some quilt tops

keep dreaming...Colleen

buying used books to read over vacation

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"Fabrics for quilt con block"

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Sometimes they get it right

Sometimes Target gets it right.  Have you seen this great casual dinnerware set beoig marketed for the college set?

They are the right kind of plastic for dishwasher and microwave use!  Plus look at the great colors and patterns!  It looks like a quilt I should make.

Some pieces have these cool record and cassette tape details.

And some cool black geometrics.

They have melamine trays and bambo servers and matching silverware.

I bought some to use at work.  Im tired of ugly microwaveable dishes.

Anyway just thought I would share the retro and hst loveliness.

keep dreaming...Colleen

barn quilt I made for Dad for his birthday.

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"Uncle Sam came to visit at our 4th party!"

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Happy Birthday America!

Ive been so busy cleaning out this summer that I have hardly done any bloggin on my summer off.  I will have to catch up soon.

*****     *****

*****     *****

This year as we have every year since 1986, 

I will spend the 4th of July with these people having a huge party.

that georgeous green umbrella is my vintage $5 find about 10 years ago.

It is always a great picnic with family, neighbors, and friends.  Yummy food too!

And I leave you with the words I quilted on this quilt I made for my Dad a long time go.

"Freedom 

to be free

Life liberty 

and the 

pursuit of 

happiness

All people 

are created equal

The great melting pot

we hold these truths

 to be self evident

and the greatest of these 

is love"

keep dreaming...Colleen

My plan for the above quilt.  Notice the date designed 4/9/95.
 I remember sitting in the park on a nice spring day doing this.