Projects in Progress

I am hard at it, working on Long Time Gone #2:

The six sections are joined together, only the borders remain. When I made the first Long Time Gone, I completed the borders as the pattern suggested, only enlarging the last set of strips:

This one I intend to enlarge to queen size, from the 60" x 61" it is now. Here is the plan:

This quilt is being made with a kit from Homestead Hearth. There is a lot of fabric left from the 12 months of kits so I figure it's time to use it, so I don't have to store it. And I usually make a project harder than it needs to be so, go figure...

While working on this quilt, I am working on smaller projects. Here are the Temecula Quilt Co. 1880 sampler sew along blocks:

I've kept up with the Temperature Quilt  but have decided this will be a 6 month project, when it finishes to about 26" x 30" before whatever border I decide to add:

My Lifetime Quilt is getting done each week too. More info on it is here and here. I do plan to have it finished this year--then find a NEW Lifetime quilt to make:

The Patchwork Barn Quilt is keeping me busy and I'm doing the Block By Block 40th anniversary quilt from Patches & Stitches. No photos of them yet, I need the design wall for that. Soon...

Next up is quilting Little Monkey:

The outer border is marked for hand quilting, the middle part of the quilt I will machine quilt, some stitch in the ditch, some free motion. That is how I quilted Stella's baby quilt--this is the quilt for her new brother or sister, joining the family this September. We are very excited and so thrilled--another baby to love!

I am teaching quite a bit and have a few new irons in the fire--more on that soon.

What are you working on?

Let's Quilt.

Barbara

Bits and Pieces

Now that I am feeling oh, so much better, I am back at it, making blocks, teaching 6 classes I had to postpone, answering email, booking trips,, all the usual stuff.

Here are a few things I'm working on. The Temperature Quilt, showing the first 5 weeks of 2018. More info about that here.:

More Little Monkey blocks, a section to be added to the section that is currently on display at Barb's Sewing Center:

A small applique' top, used as a sample with the Sunday Sew and Sews who are working on the Patchwork Barn 2018 Block of the Month. Applique' appears in month 9, practicing a bit now will make you comfortable when you get to that step. Some of this is machine, some is hand:

My first 6 blocks of the Patchwork Barn quilt--there are actually 3 of each of these blocks, for a total of 18 so far:

Temecula Quilt Company has a new, simple little sampler, with 4" blocks. I couldn't help myself and to keep it easy I'm using the same fabrics as the Patchwork Barn quilt. Find out more 1880 Sampler Sew A Long:

The design wall is bright and cheerful--time to get the last section of Long Time Gone done. And I am making good progress on my Lifetime quilt--it will be finished this year. More info on that here.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Archie, Squiggy, Little Monkey and Temperature

It's been a productive week. I made class samples after prepping for my trip to California. Here is Little Monkey, an easy quilt for a baby or child, and it uses lots of scraps:

Eventually, this quilt will have 24 blocks and two borders. This is as much as I could get done this week. It's a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter, find it on her Blog. The class will be March 8, 2018, from 1-4 p.m. at Barb's Sewing Center, Huntsville, AL. 256-539-2414.

There are new rulers, better referred to as templates, for free-motion quilting with rulers on a domestic or longarm machine. Designed by Angela Walters for Creative Grids, they have the magic grippy stuff on the outside edge of the bottom of these rulers, it holds the ruler firmly in place as you stitch around it with a ruler foot:

I used two of them, Archie and Squiggy, to create a Ruler Work sample for demo sessions I'll be doing at Barb's Sewing Center, February 16, 2018, 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. I'll be using the Bernina Q20 in the shop, showing several designs for ruler work. Instead of just "practice sandwiches" I am making placemats for my kitchen. The light side is just muslin, the dark side is a dark blue multi-print--that will be the side we eat on. I find I do better stitching if I know people will actually see how I stitched:

The other quilt project I started this year is a 2018 Temperature Quilt--Google it, it's a thing. It started in knitting and crocheting but I saw two quilts online that inspired me to make one. The idea is you assign a fabric to various temperature ranges and use the daily high (or low, I suppose) for the location you want to use and make a quilt with those fabrics, one piece for each day. Here is my first 2 weeks of 2018 for Huntsville, AL and the fabric chart I made:

The rectangles are cut 1.5" x 4.75", there are 7 in each row and there will be 52 rows. The quilt will be 29.75" x 52" before borders, a weird size. We'll see as the year goes on. You can do any size pieces you want. The other decision to make is do you use only one location, like where you live, or do you use the physical location you are at each day?  I'm sticking with Huntsville to keep it easy.

One of the fine women in the Sunday Sew and Sews class gave me a lovely gift she made for me:

The stitching is beautiful, she even used metallic thread to "stitch in the ditch". I hung it up immediately in a spot where I will see it every day. Thank you, Cindy! Those are the extras that make teaching quilting so rewarding. Students often become friends.

Time to pack my bags and get on the Road to California.

Let's quilt!

Barbara