More quilts in gallery

Just posted some fall wallhangings on my gallery page. I definitely have a soft spot for the colors of fall. I will try to keep posting a few more every week.

Love Cheddar and Black

Love the civil war cheddar and black fabrics together. I have done a cheddar and navy wallhanging but now have started collecting for cheddar and black. What I have so far.

Dear Jane Quilt

Today I thought I would share my Dear Jane quilt....another WIP. Once a month I meet with 6 other quilters who are also working on DJ blocks. Some are doing 6 and 7 inch blocks but mine were the original 4 1/2 inch. Because I like to move onto another quilt I stopped making blocks at number 60. Some are paper pieced, some needleturned applique and others just pieced. Now I am needing to get the paper off the backs of some of the blocks and get it layered for
quilting. I will begin by quilting in the ditch to stabilize the quilt for free motion quilting. I will use muslin for backing and warm and natural cotton batting. At a quilt show recently one of the vendors had many "civil war" type quilts on display with tiny stippling done throughout. It was awesome and made the quilt look antique. That is my plan for this quilt.

 This quilt finishes at 57" by 68".
Here is a favorite block, a basket. Love those baskets.

 This is a needleturn applique block.

Paper-pieced block.

Binding Tutorial

I have been working all day on a power point presentation on the method of machine binding I mentioned in a previous posting. My goal is to present a program to my guild on binding. I am using as samples the seasonal miniatures from Patch Abilities, Inc. This was a little quilt of the month from Quilt N'Go Quilt Shop. This was December.

My friend, Nonnie, and I finally decided on a Bunny Hill Design, Catch a Christmas Star, to do together. Here is the pattern and some of the fabrics I plan to use. The red fabric with white snowflakes will the border. This will be a large wallhanging. I foresee an evening getting applique pieces ready for needleturning.

Machine Binding

Just read on another blog a different way of doing machine binding. This one I am going to definitely try. Read down to the second posting on this blog. http://www.mylifeasaquilter.blogspot.com/

Tea Towel Apron Picture

Abbi and I making our Christmas cookies.

Tea Towel Aprons and Christmas Cookies

This morning my darling granddaughter, Abbi, came over to make our traditional Christmas cookies. For our baking experience this year I added tea towel aprons that were way too easy to make. I made mine similar to these directions: http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-make-a-tea-towel-apron/ but made a casing for the ties....a very long one to go up around the neck, down the sides and to the back. Because Abbi is so much shorter I folded up the bottom of hers and made it into pockets. She loved putting the food coloring and colored sprinkles in her pockets.

Newest Obsession: English Paper Piecing

English Paper Piecing is my newest craze even though I have done some before. Now I am back at it again with more vigor and more ideas. It is perfect for tv watching on these cold evenings. I can use up old thread basting the fabric around the shapes that I have purchased from Paper Pieces. http://www.paperpieces.com/  They have every shape in every size. The shapes I am nuts about are the smallest ones. They are so cute!!

These are 1 inch tumbler blocks. If I want more than 100 blocks I can take out the paper pieces and reuse them. When I baste the fabric I do not sew into the paper piece so they are easily reusable.

Here are some finished pieces. I am using mostly civil war repro fabrics from my stash. Can't say yet how many or how big this quilt will end up.

 Half inch hexagons are making these little flowers. I fussy cut the little ornaments. These little flowers will be appliqued onto another Christmas fabric for a little Christmas cheer.

 Sorry I didn't get the pics straight. These are more packages of paper pieces with which I will be doing more piecing exploration....doll quilts, maybe. Hubby said he would like make a couple little doll beds. Fun time. I see a miniature dresden quilt in my future.

New Amy Bradley Wallhanging

My newest project completed and ready to take to the quilt shop. This is one of Amy Bradley's newest patterns. http://www.amybradleydesigns.com/ On this website you can see all her new patterns. She always uses wonderful bright colors. This will have a spot on my sewing room when it is retired from the quilt shop.