Quilting like a Maniac- Relaxing through Quilting.

It's time again to make ALYOF for June.  I don't really think I should win for May because although I finished a number of BOMs for May, I did not finish (quilt, bind, etc) a full quilt. I only did one top and it wasn't listed.  So this time, I'll put down what quilt I want to finish, and there are five that need to be finished but  I will really try to do two of them and save the others for another time.  The first one is a quilt BOM that was very fast and the squares were completed with Material Girls Layer Cake Sampler which was completed with two layer cakes or one layer cake and a background piece of fabric.   I've been working with subtle pastels and with a background of black with polka dots. All the pieces are completed, but I need to put the squares together, with the sashes and borders, and then quilt it.  I'm excited about it.  It was suppose to be completed two weeks ago, but with a number of things working against me, I know I can finish it.

Well, it's the end of May and what did I get completed?  Here's the list with  links to blog postings showing each listed item done.  Two of the "Blocks of the Month" are completed, and it will be on the list next month for putting them together and quilting them, so I'm excited about that.  But will I completed them?  Well.....  ;)  Enjoy the read in the links, all pictures are at the bottom in the end of the completed sections. Material Girls' Layer Cake 13 and 14 Material Girl's Layer Cake 15 and 16 Material Girl's Layer Cake 17 and 18 Material Girl's Layer Cake 19 & 20 Material Girl's Layer Cake finishing off the quilt (put the borders on it). Down the Rabbit hole Flying Geese fix up down the Rabbit  fans.  They were too small. Down the Rabbit Hole - Applique pieces sycamore-rose-block-2  - Can't seem to get my applique in order...  So much work. sycamore-rose-block-3  - I'm getting so behind!! Sycamore Rose bloc

Before I was dreaming of a quilt which is strange because i've never done that before.  After the 3rd dream I knew that I had to make the quilt.  It's all applique at this point and I just started last month.  So here's my progress.   AFter During last week I fixed up the dress because it was at a wrong angle with the wind blowing at it.  So on the right side I added another piece.  The arms were not sewn at this point, I must placed them. Material is a problem here.  I'm very picky of what it should look like.  I loved the dress material but I can't find skin tone.  I'm looking at painting a light pink tone, but I've never done that before so this will really be a challenge. This month I found the shawl material and some background material, but I'm not ready to put my piece on the background yet.  I've sewn the shawl and the arms to the girl.  So the piece is solid. I know it's not a flattering picture, but as I said th

It wasn't on my list of things to do because quite frankly, I had June to do it, but sometimes you feel like working with specific material and this was one of those days.  Debbie Mumm has a block of the month here  that looks like the picture below.  She gives all the instructions at the start for the cutting but I've been cutting as I go because I wanted to try to use some of my stash and I have, but to make it for the military I have bought  some more to make it as big as it's getting.  The quilt is approximately 62" by 78" or thereabouts. It'll look great and my husband has already said he wants it. Sooooo  Another quilt to add to my collection. This was May and June's block.  She does a section every two weeks so it's easy to complete and you make a number of the same blocks to add. The ones below, I had to make four of them.  The colours are different and definitely for a man.  But with the gold in it, it would be a lovely show quilt. Mayb

The following is a bit of of tutorial in how to create this block from Jennifer's BOM.  The final piece looks like this: Final block on the "Down the Rabbit Hole" BOM by Jennifer . Instead of making the squares and then appliquing the leaves or using a button stitch on rough edges I wanted to finish the edges and then use the button stitch.  So this is what I did... I used interfacing (normal sewing interfacing), and cut out eight copies of the leaf pattern.  Make your template with a 1/4 inch sewing area. I pinned each interfacing to the material, and sewed 1/4 inch around the interfacing.  When pinning the interfacing remember that the sticky side faces the right side of your material.  This way when you cut it out and turn it inside out the sticky side will be on the back and the right side of the material will face you.  Continue on to understand more. This is where I cut out the interfacing now.  And I clipped the top corners. I then make

Well, I've looked over my list and I still have a bit to do and the end of the month is speeding up. Most of it is applique, but that just takes time.  and the Prairie flower this time has so many pieces, I stitched in the car when we went down to the states for baseball. Although the list is still large, I don't feel pressure from it because I have completed more then what's uncompleted.  The vice versa is done, and ready to put up on the flickr account.  Take a peek yourself below to see how it turned out. I'm really starting to enjoy the colours together.  In the end it will look fantastic.  As for the list....  What's left. Material Girl's Layer Cake finishing off the quilt (put the borders on it). Down the Rabbit Hole - Applique pieces - Orange Peel. sycamore-rose-block-2  - applique sycamore-rose-block-3 - applique Sycamore Rose block 4 (April) - applique Sycamore Rose Block 5 - May - applique Free Motion Quilt along Block 2 styles Free

I wanted to add a few things to my complete list  today and although I was going to work on the Layer Cake by Material Girls, I also wanted to do a repair job on my "Down the Rabbit Hole" quilt by Jennifer.  But once I got started I couldn't put it down.  Here's some of the pictures of what I did. Fixed the fans, put white all around them. Completed the flying geese around the quilt. But not completely around... I ran out of the tan material around the geese, and couldn't find any more so I improvised.  Remember, this is my "50th" quilt, the 50 pieces of material a friend gave me for my 50th birthday, so I promised myself that I would only use that material.  I did cheat with some left over tan that I ran out, but I don't want to add anything more and there was no tan material in the group.  So I decided to put the square there, and the rectangles to sort of mark a spot to embroider the name of the quilt on that square.  In the en

I continued on sewing on Monday, but I still didn't brag about everything I did Sunday.  I started to sew and cook at the same time at 1:00 and stopped at 2:30.  No I did not cook a quilt, while waiting for the timer to go off I sewed.  These are my blocks of the month (9 in total with two to be completed by the end of this month) that are on my list of things to do: Crafty 2012 Block of the month (free online) for May 2nd Crafty 2012 BOM for May.  Two blocks a month.  Block size is 12 1/2 inches.  I'm loving the colours - blast batique that I got years ago on sale in Belleview Washington. The International Globetrotting Mystery quilt by Pat Sloan.  Using some very bright material for this and I don't know if it's working or I should get a different flatter colour so it fits in better.  Comment here and tell me what you think.  None of my pictures do justice to the material, which has gold thread in it.  There are beautiful different shades of purple an

Block Lotto Been going at it really strong to catch up with the Block Lotto modern quilt and I have to say it was really fun!!!  I had to do 12 blocks of the May block which was stripes.  Many people said it was hard, but I guess my sewing foot is on the mark for a 1/4 inch because once I started I had no problem doing them.  The ones on this bed have been sewn together into units of four.  Now I have to put them on on the Block Lotto site and tell them now many I made.  Not only did I do the 12 for my queen size quilt that I am building (been at it since January - but you can start late because all the patterns are there, you just need to catch up) but I also did 4 more to enter the lottery and 2 others that were the wrong size.  So that's not bad - 2 out of 18 that didn't work.  The secret, I made the side triangles (you make a square and cut it in half to make two triangles) from a 5" square, much bigger then what they ask for, but really, it's easier to

With my list fresh in my mind and a couple of quilt due dates coming up I spent about 4 hours sewing today.  I did most of the cutting on Friday, so it was nice to just sew and see what appears.  I wanted to keep up with many of my BOMs that I caught up with last month, so here they are, the steady ones. There's the steady one, the Quilt Doodle which is really turning out so well, I am so happy with it.  I sewed 3 of the large blocks together to make a complete row.  Showed it to my husband and his only comment was "Its a Christmas quilt??"  I explained to him that it won't be finished until Christmas anyways so that's perfect.  Then dutifully he said it was very nice and continued to watch his hockey game  ;) Doodle Quilt - did the tree on the right. I completed the Aurifill block.  My entire quilt is all flowers, so it will be very bright when it's done.  It's a chain on point. I also tried to catch up on the Material Girl quilt  - layer