All 60 leaves appliqued

I now have a finished Saturday Sampler 2014/15 top.  The last of 60 leaves was appliqued on the vine border last night.  All of the applique is done with the back basted method.

One reason I enjoyed participating is that each month I would get a packet of fabric pieces to use for that month's assignment.

In this quilt there are a large number of different white on white fabrics as well as all the different greens, reds, oranges, blues, and aqua blues.  How many fat eights or fat quarters would I have had to purchase to get the variety shown in this quilt?  It's a bit wrinkly from all that leaf stitching.

 

Now my forever dilemma.  Can I do this top justice by quilting it on my machine or do I need to take it to a long arm quilter?

I've started the new Saturday Sampler for 2014/15.  It will be a Christmas quilt so my next applique project will be a back basted poinsettia.

End of July projects

In June I picked up my final Saturday Sampler kit and finishing kit for last year's Saturday Sampler sponsored by American Quilting in Orem, Utah.  I came home and put it away stating that I would work on it after all the company and trips.  Well, that time finally came and I have had so much fun sewing all the parts together .

But before I could start sewing all the blocks together I had to do the applique on the big house block.

Pretty cute!

Now all the corner blocks and borders are on.

I am in the process of appliqueing a vine with leaves and the flower centers in that middle white border around the whole quilt.  It will take some time.

This year's Saturday Sampler began on July 12th.  It will be a Christmas quilt and these are the simple beginnings.  I'm sure they went easy on us so we can finish last year's quilt.

I also finished Set 6 of my Modern Farmer's Wife Revival Quilt sew along with patterns provided by Karen Walker on Craftsy.  Set 7 has been downloaded and I've pulled the fabric.  Those blocks will be an August project.  Hubby's on a business trip so I'm cleaning including carpets the rest of the week.

Sewing this week . . .

Ten more blocks completed for a total of twenty for my Great Granny Quilt.  I played around with placement while my sheets were in the washer.  I really do love this cheery quilt made from Vintage Happy by Lori Holt as is the pattern.  The top is now all sashed together with corner blocks and I am working on the inner, outer, and diamond borders.

Saturday Sampler at American Quilting is winding down.  This month's assignment was to make a giant square within a square with the house  and green strip set.  It was a bit scary but I just followed directions which included using freezer paper cut to size and ironed to the rough house block so that it could be cut exactly to measurement.  I hand sewed on the rick rack.  Next month, finishing instructions.  I can hardly wait!

***For the first time ever, I took a quilt top and back to be quilted by a long arm quilter.  My Quilty Fun Sew Along Sampler quilt just called from some good all over quilting.  It was so hard to turn it over to someone else.  I no longer felt like the "boss of my own quilt."

More Spring and sewing

Those blossom covered trees are really making me happy so I moved my photo taking outside.

Love that balcony in the tree tops.  It is a great summer place to read a book.  I bought a chaise lounge chair and placed it on that balcony.  It feels like you are in a tree house.

This smaller balcony is just off the kitchen.  It is where Opal was hanging out on Saturday.

My view of the "Y" from my front porch.

Lovely!

And some more surprise tulips bloomed.  Now those are cheery tulips.

There are now red tulips, too.  I think I will have to shop the Thanksgiving Point tulip sale again so that I can fill in all those spaces.  It has been so fun to see what will bloom next.

This is what has been "blooming" inside.  I won a prize of a Riley Blake Vintage Happy 10 inch stacker from the Quilty Fun Sew Along.  I was so excited to win!  My "bee happy" block was highlighted on the Fat Quarter Shop Blog.

Then they announced another sew along this time using Lori Holt's new book "Great Granny Squared."  I already had the book so I decided to see how many great grannies I could make with my 24 pieces of fabric 10 inches square from Lori Holt's new fabric line.

This was a pretty great way to go because there is no waste and I could cut sixteen 2 1/2 inch squares from each fabric square using 12 of one fabric square for the outer level, then 8 from another fabric, then 4 from another, and a center square from yet another.

I easily pieced ten blocks with a few leftover squares, so I ordered another 10 inch stacker of Vintage Happy and I plan on making the quilt on the cover which is made with 20 great granny squares and 5 1/2 yards of white background fabric.  I picked up some Kona white cotton at JoAnn's with a coupon and senior day discount for that part.

I would rather make this larger quilt than participate in the new sew along.  Vintage Happy really does make me feel happy.

I also picked up this month's Saturday Sampler packet last Saturday.

This morning I put together these hexagon blocks.  I'm so excited to see the final quilt.  Just two more Saturday Samplers to go and I think it will mostly be applique and finish work.

I bought their hexagon template rather than try to make my own.

I bought it because I thought I might want to make another quilt using this ruler after I saw Amy demonstrate what happens when you off set the hexagon blocks.  Can you see that fun little zig zag happening?

And finally, this is what I watched outside my favorite window last night or rather early this morning.  It was pretty amazing. So glad that we had clear skies and that it was easily viewed from my window.

My sew along projects for February

This is my autumn leaves portion of Lori Holt's Quilty Sew Along.  I can hear someone saying, "Oh, I thought that they were Christmas lights."  I made a mistake and the stems are supposed to alternate, you know, like falling autumn leaves.  Just for fun, I decided to pose them with some Valentines :)

I also made some tulips.  No mistakes here.

I was "sew" excited about the latest Saturday Sampler project that I had it together within an hour of getting back home.  And yes, there is a mistake :(  I was supposed to cut 11 inch strips for each side of the red roof.  My rotary cutter decided to make it 10 inches.  There was not extra fabric for a redo.

I know that there will be some trimming going on next month.  I hope it will become a non-issue.  This house looks so cute surrounded by all the other blocks.

Sew along projects through January

Today I completed this week's Quilty Fun Sew Along project on the same day it was released.

These are my honeycomb (snowball) blocks all ready to be added to the sampler.

And these are my Saturday Sampler projects for January.  Those circles now have corners after being trimmed into an octagon and they have contrasting centers.

There were also seven sets of flying geese blocks to be made, 28 in all.  I'm starting to feel some excitement for the final project. Five more months to go!

Ping Pong Projects

I really do feel like a ping pong ball.  I've been working on several projects this month all at the same time.  I cut awhile, I sew awhile, and then I find something new and it all starts over again.  I have loved sewing along with the Lori Holt Quilty Fun Sampler.  I finished the trees.

The half square triangles. . .

and the scrappy four patches.

I went shopping for a 5 1/2 inch square ruler and found some great fat quarters that I just loved.  The next day there was a fun tutorial for making heart pillows and I knew why I needed those fat quarters.  The Riley Blake small heart fabric was left over from my American Girl Valentine jumper project last year.  Now I need to quilt then make the backs and bind my pillow covers.

I needed that 5 1/2 inch ruler so that I could trim my circles for my January Saturday Sampler blocks.  They will receive white corners after I finish the appliqued circle centers.  These have been time consuming.

I came across a blog telling about a Craftsy pattern of the month where the blocks for "The Farmer's Wife" were simplified.  The book and fabric I planned to use for the quilt have been on the shelf for years and I was happy for this option.  I downloaded the pattern and immediately had to do the cutting for the first 10 blocks.  By the end of the year, I hope to have the blocks for this quilt completed.

I've also been working on two baby boy cousin quilts.  These blocks are for my grandson's quilt. He will arrive in a month or so.

His cousin has been around for a couple of months and this is his quilt which I am machine quilting and binding today.  I hope to deliver it when I go to a baby shower for my soon to be born grandson tomorrow night.  You will notice that there are common elements in both quilts, just in a different color way.  Yes, once again I am using the "Yellow Brick Road" pattern.  It goes together easily, six fat quarters are totally used up in making the blocks, and the younger generation seems to like the modern fabric, colors, and feel of this quilt pattern.

There is one more quilt that I have been working on as well, but I'm keeping it a secret for now.  The blocks are in strips and I am waiting for some border fabric to arrive in the mail.  It is for me and it makes me feel young and happy.  Can't wait to share!

Little sewing projects

I have been working on several little projects.  I'm not sure why I'm suddenly in the midst of more than one sew along, but I am, most likely because they appealed to me.  I've finished the first two weeks of Lori Holt's Sampler Quilt sew along using her new book Quilty Fun.  I pre-ordered the book because I liked her Row Along sew along earlier this year but had too much going on to follow.  Quilty Fun includes all the directions for the Row Along as well as other projects inspired by the Row Along.

When they announced the Sampler Quilt sew along, I decided to play.  Perhaps I will still do the Row Along, but for now this is doable and fun and I already had fabric pieces and a bunch of white for the background.

These are my apples from week one.  The sparkly stars were the project for this week.  Fun!

I am rethinking the Temecula Quilt sew along.  I think she had me at "Midwinter Reds."  I love that fabric line and now I could use it so I went and bought a layer cake and here we are.  I forgot that Temecula likes to do things small, really small.

And it calls for 24 star blocks which finish at 2 inches!  This is hard for me, really.  I'm two thirds done and there are the rest of the pieces for the final 8.  Wish me luck.  I am also making 140 four patches.  They have been my leaders and enders and the muffin tin is helping me to kept them truly scrappy.

 This photo is proof that this will be a finished 2 inch star.

I also couldn't resist making this autumn table runner.  It was kitted at American Quilting and I loved all the deep fall colors.  My fabric leftovers would not support a runner this fallish.

The goal of course is to have it quilted and bound in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last, but not least is November's Saturday Sampler sponsored by American Quilting.

 Those square in a square blocks that were made in September now have a frame.  I now have fifteen 5 1/2 inch square in a square blocks.  Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

So, sewing little projects has kept me sane the last couple of weeks while I have been dealing with facial nerve pain.  I'm off to a dentist who specializes in this kind of pain.  It feels like 8 tooth aches with some jaw pain and sensitive lips thrown in for good measure and occasionally my right eye twitches as well.  Hopefully he has some answers.