One Thing One Week Challenge

Ok so first off I put the wrong gift down to make for my Mom's birthday.  I cant tell you what because there is a another birthday involved.  All I can say is I did make Mom's birthday present and thus completer Amy's Creative side One Thing One Week Challenge.

I took the scraps from my red and white challenge quilt.  I have wanted to make my mom a new pillow for a while as one I made her years ago is pretty beat up.  I did a mini swoon like the one in my red and white quilt which I put together Friday and Saturday.

Keep dreaming...Colleen

TMQG mosaic for pillow swap

OMG !

Oh my gosh I finished my top and the back!  Yeah! 

The name of the quilt is "All I Want is Red, Wah ,Wah, Wah".

It was the song I would sing as I looked for red fabrics in quilt stores.  I suppose I could of ordered online, but I really needed to see the red in person.  There are some I just did not like the shade of.

I did add one more tiny block.  It is 1 inch.  The rest of the blocks are based on the number 3 partially from the swoon/Bethlehem Star block.  This on is a 3" pinwheel star.

This is a 6" paper pieced hand drawn star.  It is one of my favorite blocks to make.

This is a 9" friendship star.  It is the first block I ever made with HST in it.

A nod to my current favorite modern block is the 12" wonky star.

 

And last of course is the Swoon/Bethlehem Star block. 

I pieced the back from the rest of the red, the Kumari garden and this tiny tight plaid.

Now I just need to figure out how to quilt it.  Of course many ideas are going through my head. 

1.  All over machine quilting in  FMQ swirls.

2.  Straight line quilting all over.

3.  Outline quilting by block with FMQ in the background.

4. Hand quilting with pearl cottons in red and white.

5.  Combination of techniques.

I want to put beads in the center flower with a removable (for washing) felt flower.  I'm leaning toward a mix of techniques.  After the quilt show I'm going to wash it for that crinkle look and use it as a lap quilt for ME!!!  It will only be the second completed quilt I have made for myself, except for a few small wall hangings.

 Keep dreaming...Colleen

Next I need to baste and FMQ the second scrappy star baby quilt. 
The baby was born in the fall so I'm a little late.  Blogged about here.

Red and white is coming together

The Forsyth Piecers and Quilters Quilt show is fast approaching.  Ive been thinking about it since they announced it and the quilt challenge.  I love a challenge!  It motivates my creativity!  When I was in DOQ it was my favotie part of being in a guild.  I have been thinking, designing, and collecting red fabrics for months.  I didnt have any red prints or just red and white fabrics so this was a challenge.  When I want on the LQS Shop Hop last fall I acquired some good fabrics- red on white, white on red, red on red, ...  I was always singing to myself "All I need is red, wah, wah, wah...." 

First design,

 

 Another

not sure what happened to this file..



Still another

this was my last design

I liked some of the elements but they weren't exactly right.  Then the Swoon along happened. I have been lusting after making one of these quilts.  I have some Denyse Schmidt and Kaffe Fasett fabric in my stash that would be perfectly showcased.  So this lead me to a new design based on me making this last night





 A red and white swoon block. 

 I actually didnt use the swoon pattern but rather the Bethlehem star pattern with my Marti Mitchell set A templetes and a companion triangle ruler.  I modified the center and enlarged the whole block to 24".   I really wanted a large statement piece block and this came out perfect.  I didn't want a layout with traditional borders or a one block quilt.  I added 4 other blocks based on my favortite stars and what I am now titling the quilt-"All I need is red, wah, wah, wah...." The 3 wahs gave me the idea for all blocks to be 3' based.  So I made these other four blocks.

A 3" pin wheel star, a 6" free style star, a 9" friendship star, a 12" wonky star and the 24" Swoonlike star.  These are my favorite quilt blocks!  This is kind of what the layout will look like.  Im using that great red I got at Karen Gray's shop for the background.  I have a large scale red and white print called Kumari Garden that will add a statement as a strip down the side.  It will finish at about 45" by 45".

  Im hoping to complete the top this weekend.  I'll piece the back with whatever I have left.  Im still debating the quilting.  Maybe some hand quilting on the stars with red and white pearl cottons, maybe a few antique red buttons, beads... or just straightline overall quilting or maybe straightline over lapping large freehand stars or a combo?  I plan this to be a small throw for my favorite chair in the den.  Any suggestions?

Bonnie Hunter's Challenge

Last year Bonnie Hunter issued a leader ender challenge.  What are leader enders?  When piecing you have a easy pieceing project stacked next to your sewing machine that you can feed at then end of every section you piece.  Leave these pieces in the sewing machine. This saves you from wasting lots of thread and you leaving these in the machines so when piecing your next project these 'enders' become 'leaders '.  Bonnie wanted to make cheddar bowties.  Scraps for the tie and cheddar color for the back ground like the vintage quilts you can find in antique malls.

BTW the green bucket is where I have been stacking them.  I need a bigger container!

So here is how many I have made so far 100!  I need to go back through my scrap bins and cut more.  I cut the sizes needed and then stack them in block groups so I can grab the pieces for one block at a time.

  I may need to change my back ground fabric as I had been using all those tone on tone printed muslins(ya know form the 90's).  I think I have cut them all up so I might go for unbleached muslin(I seem to have various pieces of that too!)

Here is the link up blog post where you can see everyone's bow ties so far!

Keep Dreaming...Colleen



A new necklace design I made.  Do you think it would sell?  I have lots of wire in different colors and plenty of beads. 
I need to use up some bead stash as well as fabric stash.



Catchup, Wrap up, Throwup

I caught up on all my monthly block swaps, packaged and mailed all but one that needs international postage.  Of course I forgot to take pictures of all of them but here are some including some quilt alongs I'm working on.

Block Swap Adventure sneak peek for Cathy in Australia.  I accidentally deleted the full pick.

And to wrap up this swap here are all of the ones I received,

Here are all of the ones made for me in August by Let's Bee Together hive A.  One block  never found its way to me.

Here is block 3 for the Fat Quarter Star quilt along.

And , OK I think I need to be sick.  Sorry.

I think I'm going to bed.

keep dreaming...Colleen

fabrics to use from my stash in the shades of gray charm swap  Join us there a a few spots left.