Design Wall Monday - August 13, 2012

Hope ya'll had a lovely weekend!  It was kind of quiet at our house, and that was okay with us :*)  The PGA Championship was on TV, as well as the end of the Olympics, so we had plenty to keep us entertained while I stitched and Don's knee recuperated.

On Friday, I went to Joanne's and loaded my niece Raney's graduation quilt, Raney Days & Mondays.  You can see my post about the fabrics and the piecing for this Disappearing Nine-Patch quilt HERE.

It looks huge on the machine, but it is really only about 60x90, a long twin size.  I did iron it - promise! - but I had to fold it up in the bag for transport, and it sure doesn't look like an iron ever came near it :*)  It quilted out just fine though!

This is the fabric Laurie (Raney's mom and my sister) chose for the back...

Raney's baby quilt was a multi-colored polka-dot like this, so Laurie felt this piece would make the quilt even more special.  I think it is the perfect fabric :*)  Doesn't the quilting show up nice on it?  So cute!

My favorite panto - Daisies Galore.  Simple and fun and a little flirty - just like our sweet Raney! :*)

Here is the whole quilt (this was taken before quilting).....Don't you just love the design the Disappearing Nine-Patch makes?  And it is SO easy too :*)

I have the binding all made and ready to apply, which I will do this week.  And I also need to make a label for it so Raney will have the provenance of the quilt if she ever needs it someday :*)

Also completed this weekend - this block for the Promises & Borders BOM....finally!

I really like it laid out on top of Raney's quilt...

I'm thinking I may re-think the layout for this quilt!  I really love these colors surrouding it and giving it a lot of color punch!  Jenny's design calls for a 3-fabric sashing & borders, but this peek at what a bright scrappy sashing might look like is enticing me to experiment.... stay tuned! =^..^=

And I completed my Twister Tree - woohoo!!!  But I'll wait until another post to unveil that because I have lots of photos to share & I don't want to overload this post :*)  However, I will leave you with this little tease of the tiny tree our instructor made with her scraps from her big tree....

I didn't measure it for exact measurements, but this tiny quilt is only about 8x10 inches!!!  And it is TOO cute!!!  I've started trimming down my scraps to make mine... I can't wait!!!   Many thanks to Starr for teaching us this fun new technique :*)

I'm linking up with this week as always with Patchwork Times for Design Wall Mondays.  Also linking up with:

BOMs Away at What a Hoot

Tuesday Linky Party at Freemotion by the River

WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Design Wall Monday - August 6, 2012

We've been very busy here at our house this past week!  My poor husband blew out his knee on Tuesday and had to undergo arthroscopic surgery on Friday.  Poor dear is hobbling around on crutches and getting very bored with no activity!  And this weekend my daughter and granddaughter drove in to visit, and the three of us girls went school shopping to take advantage of the tax-free weekend.  I'd forgotten how much fun it is to shop for back-to-school things :*)

On my Design Wall .... I thought I would be done with Raney Days & Mondays last night, but it just didn't turn out that way.  I realized that my Twister Tool class is THIS Tuesday afternoon after Guild and that I had not done any of the fabric planning or cutting, much less sewing the pieces together as assigned - yikes!!!  So I had to put aside Raney Days for a few hours while I took care of the preparation for the Twister class project.  Today, I'll get Raney Days to the point that it is all ready for quilting, and sew up the squares for the Guild project.

The Twister Tool project is a Christmas-in-August type of project, which works really great for me, because I tend to put Christmasy things off too long and end up with no quilty projects done in time for the season.  *sigh*  However, this year I'll have a Twister Tree to display!

So far this is what I managed to get done yesterday.  All the 5" square pieces are cut and arranged in their places.  I should be able to get all the squares sewn together today and be ready for class Tuesday.  Whew!!! I know it doesn't look like much now, but it will look much better the next time you see it.......(wait for it...)

I used a lot of sparkly fabrics in this, to give it extra pizzazz!  These are for the ornaments and the star at the top of the tree.....

Then I went really scrappy with a lot of gold sparkly neutrals for the background - I just LOVE scrappy, don't you?!?  And these sparkly fabrics are some of my favorites in my stash.  I realized as I was cutting that I'm running low on them and need to restock :*)

 

The fun thing about this project is that if you are very careful in cutting the shapes, you can then use the tiny Twister tool and get a minature tree out of the remaining pieces!  Two trees instead of just the one - that just makes my thrifty soul sing!!!  And just wait until you see that cute little teeny-tiny Christmas Tree!! :*D

I have finally begun work on a new Calendar Quilt.....

Kim Schaeffer's August quilt from her book, Calendar Quilts

I don't know if I can finish it up in time to hang this month, but it is one of my favorite quilts in the collection, so I've decided to give it a priority and see what happens.  I'm really trying to practice not rushing through a project just to get it done, and making sure that I take time to enjoy the journey.

So far, all I've managed to get done is trace off the pattern onto the fusible, so I definitely have my work cut out for me - pun entirely intended!  :*)


Both the Twister Tree and the August Calendar Quilt are part of the 2012 NewFO Challenge for August going on over at Cat Patches.  Barbara would love a visit from you, so click on the cute button on my sidebar to check out the fun over at Three Cats Ranch! =^..^=

What's on your design wall today?  Go to Patchwork Times to see some of the amazing quilts others are creating :*)

Also linking up with....
Linky Party at Quilting by the River
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story
Try It On Tuesday at Jo's Country Junction
TNT Thursday at Happy Quilting

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

The Nine-Patches are Disappearing :*)

I saw this on Facebook today and just had to share it....

Isn't this just hilarious!!  I wish I had a dollar for every time I've told Gypsy, 

"Make up your mind, in or out!!!"   LOL!!!!

***  =^..^=  ***  =^..^=  ***  =^..^=  ***

Now to get back to the serious stuff (*grin*)....

I am really enjoying working on these happy and quick Disappearing Nine-Patch blocks!
It's a good thing I chose this pattern for Raney's quilt, because now I can finish it up quickly and get it to her before she heads off to her first year of college :*)  I'm thinking of naming it "Raney Days & Mondays".... gotta love the Carpenters!!!!


I thought I'd share a little bit about the process for those who have not seen it before.  If you want to know more, there are a ton of tutorials on the web!


As a reminder from my post HERE, these are the fabrics I chose from the paint chips my sister sent me....

I had so much fun cutting into these sweet-as-cotton-candy pastels!  I started by cutting a number of 5-inch squares out of each fabric.  You can cut them any size, depending on how big you want your blocks and your final quilt to be.  I cut enough of the 5-inch squares out of the purple "zing" fabric to have one in the middle of each nine-patch.  

Then I sewed up a million nine-patches.... okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little bit :*)

This is where my 17-inch Olfa Rotating Mat really came in handy!

I just placed each nine-patch on the mat and cut it in half.  Then I turned the mat and cut it in half again.  Because I didn't have to move the pieces after the first cut, they stayed in place which made the second cut easy!

This gave me 4 blocks from each nine-patch that looked like this.

Now here's where the fun part begins!!!!  Just start rearranging the blocks to get a design that you like and sew them back together.  Easy peasy =^..^=

Here are all of my blocks on the design wall ready to be sewn together.  

This picture is not great because I took it rather late Tuesday night when I got finished arranging them.  I'll post a better picture in the light after they are all sewn together :*)


That's all there is to a Disappearing Nine-Patch!  The next time you are in a time crunch and need a quick quilt that still gives a lot of visual PUNCH... remember to try this pattern!  I've seen it done as a two color scrappy, in reds/whites/blacks.... the list of ways you can make this quilt is endless!


This quilt was my project for the NewFO Challenge for July!  Thanks Barbara =^..^=


I am also linking up with..... 
*    WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced
*    Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
*    Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life
*    Trying New Things Tuesday at Jo's Country Junction.


Hugs & Blessings!
Teresa
=^..^=

July NewFO - Disappearing Nine-Patch

Lookie what I got!

My sweet sister, Laurie, picked up this really cute license plate cover for me, and of course I just LOVE it!!!  Almost as much as I love her :*)


And speaking of Laurie, her daughter Raney is leaving for her first year of college in a few weeks! 

We are all so proud of her!!! And of course my niece MUST have a fun, bright, happy quilt to take to college with her, right?  So I asked Laurie to send me some paint chips to be sure I picked out the right colors...

.... and this worked great! I took the samples to my favorite shop - AKA My Stash! - and had a ball picking and choosing enough different pastels to make an interesting Disappearing Nine-Patch.

This, my friends, is why I enhance my stash!!! (Well, yes, in addition to the fact that I love fabric and can't resist it LOL!!!)


There's nothing more fun than going to my own fabrics, pulling what I like, auditioning the fabrics together at my leisure, and then happily digging into a project - all in my pj's! 

Stash organization in progress.... to be continued .... LOL!!!

No driving around to 3 different shops to find the right color or print ... no pressure to hurry and pick something before the shop closes ... and the price is always right because most of my stashed fabrics have been purchased on sale! :*)


Look at the sweet variety of fabrics I was able to pull together....

I love that there are a lot of bright happy DOTS in this collection!  I chose the dark purple as my Zing fabric, which will be sprinkled throughout the quilt. All the pastels will dance around it and hopefully play well together. I'm looking forward to coming up with a name for this quilt - something fun and light and joyous, just like Raney!


The Disappearing Nine-Patch design is one I have wanted to try for a while now, so I'm excited to get started! It's supposed to work up pretty quickly, which is a good thing since I don't want Raney to be receiving her quilt at graduation!!! =^..^=  I'll share pictures of the quilt in progress soon.

Have you started anything new or tried out a new pattern lately? Why not join the NewFO Challenge fun at Cat Patches? Barbara is the "hostess with the mostess" for this linky party and you might even win a prize!


Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=