Just Sew Quilter: 2023

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Am I Crazy? Check it out today!

When I decided to join this "Crazy" blog hop, I knew what I would share--I am participating in Whole Circle Studio's Shoreline Shells block of the month. Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill is the founder of Whole Circle Studio and the creator of this block of the month. I often think that it was a crazy idea to join in on the fun...

The circle setting is the one I decided to do, and it wasn't enough to make it as shown in the photo above. I wanted to add sea glass to the center. (That was a crazy idea too.)

(The above photos are from Sheri's website.)

The BOM started in January, and I determined to keep up with it. Well, nothing got done in January or February, but in March, when Cerro Gordo Quilters had our annual retreat, I was able to get started. Below is the first block and some of the sea glass. I am using Chalk and Charcoal for the shells and Kona Celestial for the background.

Here's February's shell.

So far, I have all the sea glass parts done and even attached to the blocks up to this point, but I haven't sewn any blocks together yet. Here are the first seven blocks.

Just finished number 8 (snail shell) in time to get a photo for this post.

It wasn't enough to do that--I took a class on using a photograph to make a quilt. Here's my progress on that, but I haven't started to quilt it yet... There will be a lot of thread painting, and I'm working up the nerve to start, as well as finding the time to devote to it.

I had also decided to do one of Angela Walter's workshops on free motion quilting. Well, it's done. I sort of enjoyed stitching all the FMQ patterns, but some are not me.

The CG Quilters decided they wanted to make chicken pincushions again, so I had to remember how to do it before teaching that lesson:

In case you're wondering why they look kind of wimpy, these don't have filling yet. :)

On the right is Jenny Doan's method, in the middle is another method I learned at a quilt retreat, and on the left is combo of both.

I went on a shop hop bus trip Saturday, through my LQS, Stewart's Sewing in Mt. Zion, IL, for the All Illinois Shop Hop. We went to 5 shops, loads of fun and expensive... brought home lots of goodies! At the very first shop, we saw placemats made from the Take Four Placemat pattern, and I commented that I had made a bunch of these. Someone who knows me said, "Teach a lesson on it, Carol," and others quickly said they would come. Here's a set I made several years ago.

As a result, I am teaching a lesson on these placemats in October and have 11 signed up so far to come. Now I need to start another set (or two) as my teaching tools.

In the meantime, I am also making school bags for Church World Service school kits and Christmas stockings for the local domestic violence shelter.

No shortage of things to sew--and I love it--is that crazy? (Why aren't there more hours in the day?)

Thanks, Joan, for hosting Call Me Crazy!!

Here are the week's participants. If you haven't been to all of them yet, check them out!

Monday August 21

Tuesday August 22

Happy Cottage Quilter

Wednesday August 23

MooseStashQuilting Guest Post

Thursday August 24

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Coming Soon: Call Me Crazy Hop

Before we know it, Call Me Crazy Hop participants will be showing off their "stuff." I am one of those "crazies." My turn is August 23.

Monday August 21

Tuesday August 22

Happy Cottage Quilter

Wednesday August 23

MooseStashQuilting Guest Post

Thursday August 24

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Quilts I've Seen

We were at our Church of the Brethren Annual Conference over the 4th of July, and here is some of what I observed in the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Association for the Arts Church of the Brethren asks for blocks from each congregation. I have made the violets each year since at least 2011 for inclusion in each year's wall hangings. Five or 6 wall hangings are all hand quilted at conference each year. This one is still on the quilt frame.

Below are a few of the other wall hangings:

On a wall of the convention center, I notice this layered piece:

It is made of fabrics, yet stiffened to be 3D with the inserts in the "windows" of each block.

One booth in the exhibit hall featured an antique quilt--beautiful work!

This table runner was a silent auction item--I was fascinated with the hexies that were laid in the grid and then the quilting being so precise. Lovely--maybe I'll try keeping something that straight sometime. LOL.

I haven't finished much lately--with conference, going last week to help out with the grands, and having grands this week, not much stitching gets done.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Doing some catching up

Thought I'd share my Shoreline Shells, block 5, a sea urchin.

Wow, did that take some time--paper piecing pattern had pieces from A - T with sometimes 16 or more parts to each piece. The shells will be in a circle when all 12 are done. As soon as I finish the blocks on Harrisonburg (through the VA Quilt Museum, Pat Sloan, and Wendy Shepherd), I will start on block 6.

I made this purse and wallet for my hairdresser. Third purse I've made her. I don't usually make for others, but I will for her.

The table runner on the back of the chair is a kit from a shop in Nampa, ID.

I made this wallhanging with the elephant, hearts, and balloons last year as a part of Crafter's Edge Design Team. I thought my granddaughter Sydney would like it since she likes elephants. Well, she sure took it over, so I don't know if it will ever make it on a wall, but that's ok if it doesn't.

Finished Harmonic Convergence. I faced it instead of using regular binding.

It's summer and time for watermelon. Sydney is sure focused on something here. :)

Can't wait to see her and the rest of our grands this weekend!

Monday, May 15, 2023

Christmas in April/May

I did get the bench pillow done (see my last post) but didn't get it posted in a timely manner.

This is from Jillily studios. I had purchased a Kimberbell bench pillow insert which turned out to be bigger than this pattern so I added the red border.

I didn't take a picture of it, but put a zipper in the back so I can remove this cover and use another (I have a Halloween pattern--hope I will make it by then...)

I've been working on Shoreline Shells BOM. Block 5 from Whole Circle Studio came out this month, but I just finished block 4. Still, I think I'm keeping up pretty well...

No recent pics. Will try to post some some at some point.

Here's a work in progress; this is Harmonic Convergence by Ricky Tims. It's my fourth one, and I'm making it for a brother and SIL.

It's really all done now, except for some circles I am going to applique onto the front, so stay tuned for that too.

Now for the best part: our youngest granddaughter--isn't she a cutie?! 💕

And here's her mommy (our younger daughter) and her girls yesterday:

More later. I have a purse to make for a friend and a flock of pin cushion chickens to finish/work at before our next quilt club meeting (I'm leader of the chicken lesson).

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Free Motion and Hand Stitching

Wow, it has been longer than I thought since I posted last! Not joining in on blog hops is part of the problem...

A few days ago I finished quilting this Angela Walters panel. It is for her Free Motion Fillers workshop, which I started toward the end of last year. I finally powered through the last 2 sessions to get this thing done. There are optional borders you can buy, but I didn't want to deal with them.

I did buy her set of Glide thread though. (I am not a Glide fan but it did work out for this, thankfully.)

Here are some close ups of sections of the panel.

This was an interesting, educational experience. I doubt if I use some of these designs, but at least I have played with them.

Next up, my Backyard Birds wall hanging.

This is all hand appliqued and long-stitch quilted. I really enjoy doing these kits by Rachel's of Greenfield, and I enjoy wool handwork.

This Curvaceous table runner (GE Designs) is the fourth I've made with the pattern.

The fabric is Angela Walters and it's Christmas. I bought a set of fat quarters from her shop and then enough of the center fabric for the back and binding.

This is a quilt as you go pattern.

Currently working on a bench pillow that I hope to finish today.

Until my next post...

Keep on stitching!

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Shades of Blue

My day for the Shades of Blue Sew It/Show It challenge hosted by Carla of Creatin in the Sticks.

When I first thought about participating, I decided a zipper bag would be neat, using scraps on hand. I cut scraps into strips of various widths (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0...up to 5.0") and also into squares of those sizes. So, I looked through some of my strips and came up with several that I thought worked for the needed shades of blue. I stitched them together, and my zipper bag was born.

On the front, I stitched darkest in the middle and lighter out to the sides.

I liked the added yellow appliqued hearts.

On the back, I stitched light to dark, going both directions.

The lining has some blue too--a scrap of penguin fabric.

Next, I decided to make a paper-pieced log cabin pin cushion, Carla-fashion.

I love seeing the pin cushions Carla makes for her various challenges and thought I would imitate that.

So the shades of blue pin cushion came about. It is stuffed with walnut shells and fiber fill.

Thanks, Carla, for that inspiration!! I love my blue pin cushion!

Here is the back--simple blue strips.

I made the pins by gluing buttons onto needles. Cute, aren't they?

I thought I'd show a couple blue quilts I've made in the past.

This one was a Craftsy 2013 or 2014 BOM. Many of the fabrics I used were those used by an aunt in various garments she had made for others, so when I finished the quilt, I gave it to a cousin so she could remember her mother every time she looked at this quilt.

I even made giant quilt blocks for the back. Not sure why I was that ambitious then, but there it is.

Lots of blues in this quilt.

This wall hanging is in my daughter's stairway. I made is about 5 years ago, I guess. The pattern is called Waterfall, by Leah Day

The same daughter also received this jelly roll race I made for her, also several years ago. I'm pretty sure those are scrappy strips, not an actual jelly roll.

Last month I showed this little quilt on my blog. I used the various blues because of this challenge, but it was my Crafter's Edge project in December. The animals are all cut from Crafter's Edge dies on the Crossover II cutting machine.

Thanks for visiting!

Here is the line-up for the week. If you haven't visited the rest of the bloggers, be sure to do so for some inspiration, and prepared to be awestruck--I always am.

Thanks, Carla, for a wonderful challenge!

Monday, January 23rd

Creatin' in the Sticks

Tuesday, January 24th

MooseStash Quilting

Kathleen McMusing

Den syende himmel