Ok – I’ve mis-calculated and mis-cut the fabric several times; mis-construed my own directions, mis-assembled the pieces but all in all, I don’t think it’ll turn out to be a “miss” in the long run. This is just the beginnings of a beautiful quilt! I plan to finish the borders tomorrow providing I don’t miss something else in the translation!
I’ve been wanting to do an Amish Card Trick for a long time and actually have a pattern that says “if it doesn’t fit together, trim it until is does” or something to that effect. Needless to say, mine doesn’t fit together and if you trim it as the pattern recommends “until it does”, none of the seams and points match…hmmm… So I sat down in the quiet of the morning and did the math, drew it up on EQ6 and viola! OK, the fabrics are a little busy and its not Log-cabin like YET. Its just a prototype! I’m off to try it in stripes then I’ll spend the time piecing the logs. For now, I’m happy it worked. All the seams and points match and I didn’t have to fudge a thing!
40″ x 40″
I decided to participate in the LadyBugs Quilt Guild’s block exchange last month – the premise being you paid 25 cents for a square of fabric that must be used in a 12-1/2 inch block. Then you bring the block to the meeting, toss it in the kitty with all the other blocks and the kitty gets raffled off. Maybe you get 12 blocks and maybe you get nothing. The guild meeting and drawing for blocks is tonight. Although I don’t win raffles 99.9% of the time, I’m crossing my fingers for the 12 blocks!!
Working on the background “fill” for this Diamond Star – its going to take some time. Sometimes I wish I could could just make myself meander!! However, the texture that this is giving the background is beautiful and compliments the quilting going on in the star nicely, if i do say so myself. It is created by using the Gadget Girls Swag ruler to make the scallops then filling in the scallops with leafy feathers.
Just finished this Snowman – a trapunto sample – a few days ago. The pattern was enlarged from my smaller “Stuffed Snowmen” and I will be using it to teach a trapunto class this fall. He is completed quilted on my home machine, didn’t even near the long-arm – no wait, I might have spread the fabric out on top of another quilt on the long-arm, so he did get near the machine. The blue snowman has beady little eyes, literally, a ribbon scarf and big turquoise buttons from the beach. You can see him close up and personal in my gallery. The white and purple one has not been bound yet but check out the buttons on his belly. They are from the Art Pantheon in Harve De Grace that I told you about earlier. He is still waiting for his scarf too because I am waiting on my brain to decide what color – red or purple and green… Its a little odd thinking about snow in the middle of June.
Needed a second class sample for my Machine Quilting 101 so I have been busily sewing away – used lime green embroidery thread on a purple Kona Cotton – helps the stitches show up really well. Almost finished – think I’ll bind it in lime green also!
My braided hearts quilt is finally finished! Well, the hearts are not exactly braided but woven strips of fabric, like a basket. I embellished with bits of lace and beads to add some romance. Check out better pictures of it in my gallery. This technique will be offered as a class at Sew-n-Save in February too!
This second picture was a proto-type of the block – done with just two colors instead of the neutrals in the finished quilt. The white background is a little hard to photograph but I think you get the idea.
