Easy Street



 Welcome to Easy Street.  This is a first for me.  I am joining in on the fun over at Quiltville's Quips & Snips for the new Mystery Quilt.  It is call Easy Street.  So come join in with us.

 





The first Part is making 192 - 4 patch blocks.  The fun began last Friday and because the Family went all directions, I was left home to play.  Got started about 11:00 am and by 6:00 pm I had all 192 - 4 patches made......All though I have way too many UFO's on my plate I decided that I would treat myself to something NEW!  I now have tons of new found energy to tackle my UFO's... it will be fun to see how many of them I can finish while making this quilt.

Thank You Bonnie.....

 

The fun started a few weeks ago when Bonnie posted the information on the mystery quilt and seeing the paint chips to help us choose our fabrics.  What a fun way to see exactly what colors she was using.  I will surely use this trick to help show some of my friend what I have been up to.  Because the color that comes across with the photos is not always the same. And looking at fabric at the store you just hold it over the fabric and look at the hole.  It opens up a whole new way of looking at things.









 

This was my fabric inspiration and my choice of grey fabric for the med grey fabric that Bonnie used.  A little on the brown grey side of things.  I knew that I wanted to change the color a little because I have already made a black, white and green quilt and I really did not want this one to be the same.  So finding this print was perfect, 3 colors, plus backgrounds....GREAT!

 

Color #1 shades of pink

 

Color #2 shades of green

 

Color #3 shade of aqua

 

My light background, 

 I had been looking at projects using the printed words and just knew that it had to be in this quilt.

 

Be sure to check back next week to see my progress and more on the Easy Street

 

Enjoy....



Block Base Sew Along #4

We are back again with another Quilt block from Block Base.  This time it is 2049.  It sewed together really fast and easy.  I think I have more fun playing on Block Base than sewing.

 

 

Now for a few pictures from Block Base:

 

Could not decided if I liked the dark center or the lighter one....

 

Please enjoy....  Still making 6 inch finished blocks for my Farmer's Wife Quilt....

 

 

 

QT Design Wall

OK, lately there has been allot said about design walls and I wanted to show you mine.  This wall is 85 inches by 95 inch, perfect for hanging a whole quilt.  I stapled Warm-N-Natural on this wall 12 years ago and it is still going strong.

Until I got my second long arm machine I could see the whole wall from any where in the room.  No more straight on pictures now, but I can still see the wall and when I am quilting I just have to look up and think about what is next.  The light is a little different depending on where you are standing because of 4 large windows on the side.  Some of these are 9 blocks strips sewn together and I have even hung the whole quilt top on this wall after it got sewn together just so I could look at it and think about how I wanted to quilt it.

This is from where I stand at my long arm machine...good view hu?  I run a ceiling fan on high most of the time and have never had a problem with the quilt pieces falling down, but I do not have big guss of wind.  If you are a pinner you could put a foam board behind it.  When I get to many threads, I just get my lint roller out and roll it down.  Also, I was always going to put a small molding around where the stapled are.  That's what I did at my last house, but I have never got around to it here and it still works just fine.  I am not worry about the staple holes or if I want to stick a pin into the wall, someone else can worry about that.  Although I have not used more than about 15 to 20 pins on the wall, just have not needed to.

So that's it for now.  Hope you have a design wall in your house as well.  I will come back again and show you other design boards I have.  Have a Happy Day.

QT Block Base Block #3

 This week at Block Base it is  #2448.  Although I found this block easy to piece and fun, it came during a very bad week and my heart just was not in it. It seems that every thing I did this week went bad....have you ever had a week like that, I hope not.... Seeing it here I will unpick a few spot and resew it again, but I don't have the time right now.  OK, it was pretty bad, so I stayed up last night and resewed it.  It's not perfect, but for a civil war quilt it will work.  I will do better next time.

 

 

Next are 2 I worked on in EQ7:

 

 

Sometimes I think it is more fun to play with Block Base that to really sew on a block.

That is the case this week....

 



QT Block Base Sew Along

We are here today with the second block in the Block Base Sew Along.  This one is #2741 and when I first saw it I agreed that I didn't want to sew it.  So I just buckle down and cut the fabric out.  It came together very easily and was a joy to make.  So ....Thank you for this one and to all of you, come on just sew one too...

My block:



This one is my drawing in EQ7:

This block was so much fun that I am really looking forward to a new block next week.  Still making the blocks 6 inch finished for my Farmer's Wife quilt.

QT Block Base Sew Along

Welcome and good morning.  Block Base is having a Sew Along and I have decided to join in.  After getting my dates mixed up, I think I am back on track.  This is #1336 and is the first block.

I am making mine 6 inch finished squares so I can put them with my Farmer's Wife Blocks.  The Farmer's Wife book has you make 145 blocks with 34 of them a repeat.  I didn't want to do repeats so this will make up the difference. It is written by Laurie Aaron Hird.

My block:

This one is how I design it on EQ7:

 

I love working in EQ.  It's fun, fast and you get to see what it mite look like before you cut fabrics.  My fabric library is not as big as I would like to see, but I am working on it. 

Just for your information this is the Famer's Wife Quilt book.   I love it and out of the 111 blocks I have all but 9 of them made.

 

Be sure to tune in next week and I will show you block 2....yes it is all sewn together and I LOVE IT!
See you then....

PH The Staircase

We were just out driving around Texas last week and I took this photo.  Just thought I would post it and see what kind of comments I would get on it.

Enjoy....

Stacked Pumpkins are from Little Miss Muffet and her New Release today.  So get on over and check out all the fun new stuff.

 Stacked Pumpkins

Park Glen Door Diecut from Little Miss Muffet

twine from Martha Stewart and

Close to Cocoa Stampin' write from Stampin' Up

 Copic Sketch markers

Stamped on Cryogen White by Cut Card Stock

Leaf punch from EK

Paper and sticker from my stash

Enjoy

And 

Happy Halloween

QT Begining Quilting with the girls

Hello everyone, yes I am still here and alive.  Life just gets really busy from time to time and this has just been my time.  I just wanted to show you what I have been up to lately.  One of my daughter's made the suggested that I should teach my little grand daughters how to quilt and then the next day two of my grand daughter asked me to teach them.  I had seen this quilt block over at Lurline's Place on Low Volume Quilting and it had stuck in my mind.  I love the low volume, they are so lite and pastel looking.
 

 This quilt pattern came from 'Sunday Morning Quilts' by Amandra Jean Nyberg & Cheryl Arkison.  What a cute and simple block and how easy it would be to sew together.  I changed the directions a little so that when the girls sewed 18" strips together and cut them it would make 2 blocks exactly the same with about 4" left over that could be used in the borders.  This way the girls even helped with the outside border..

 Here is Cassandra with her 16 blocks.  I am amazed at how good the girl sewed their blocks with exact 1/4" seams.  

 And here is Lydia with her 16 blocks.  Great job girls.  To start off with I asked the girls to sew 6 blocks each and if they did they would have a twin size quilt for themselves.  Then mom asked for double bed size, so I gave mom a sewing assignment and they all did what was asked of them and more. Then mom asked for one for Amelia who would be going into a bigger bed soon.  So.....2 twin quilts grew to 3 double size.

 This picture and the next is Cassandra's quilt all finished.  I even talked the girls into sharing their blocks with their sister so that all the blocks would be different in each quilt..

The backing for these quilts came from lefted over fabrics and other fabric in my stash that the girls liked.

This is Lydia's quilt.  This all took us about 1 1/2 months to start and finish the quilts.  The girls helped me cut the fabric with my accuquilt, helped pick out more fabric when the quilt sizes grew, pieced, pressed and cut their blocks.  Then when the time came they picked out their quilting pattern and help me quilt them on the long-arm machine.

The next two pictures are Amelia's double bed size quilt.  She even helped mom sew on the sewing machine one day.

Just so Amelia would not be left out for a time, I made a quilt for her daybed, which my daughter did not know about until I gave them to her.

 All of the quilts have labels on them, which was so much fun to make.  I will have to do more like this.  I used my EQ7 and designed them and then printed them on fabric sheets and sewed them onto the quilts.  Very FAST!  Mistake was made in the label and now needs to be corrected, the girls did sew 16 blocks each, not 12.

Just love to wash the quilts after they are made.  I love the look you get when you do not prewash the fabrics. Thank heavens my family room is big enough to lay out 4 double size quilts all at once.

All wrapped up and ready to give to the girls.  Each with their name showing on the top and Amelia's second quilt is inside the center of her big one.

It was later in the day by the time we got over to their house and Amelia had already gone to bed, but Cassandra and Lydia were as happy as Christmas Morning!  Each of them opened and started to play with their quilts.

I understand that there is some kind of a quilt club going on over at their house.....I will have to check it out and get back with you later.

What fun we had.  Cassandra is 8 and picked up on quilting like she had been doing it for years and Lydia age 6, just loved the whole process of the quilting.  Both are looking forward to the next quilting lesson with grandma.  Now just what are we going to do?

Swan Princess - Sugar

 Sugar as Swan Princess is from Little Miss Muffet Stamps.  I love these Sugar and Spice Girls because they remind me so much of my grand daughters.  Each one has their own little personality.   We are also here today with Inspirational Monday.  I had lots of fun coloring this and using some more of my pearls.

I hope it inspires you too, so get out your paper, coloring tools, digis or stamps.  The challenge at Little Miss Muffet is #37 Loads of Layers.  You can count, but I think I used 7 layers on this card.  So what are you waiting for?????  Get yourself a Little Miss Muffet image or not...and come join in on the fun!

Close up of Swan Princess:

 

Stamped on Cryogen White by Cut Card Stock, ribbon and pearls are from Stampin-up, Funky Fibers Sherbet from Making Memories, flower from Prima, scallop punch from Martha Stewart, Large Deckled Rectangles die from Spellbinders Nestabilities. DP from my stash. White gel pen and black pigment liner from Staedtler.

And of course, Copic Sketch Markers:

One more look;

Enjoy....

Farmer's Wife Quilt Blocks

 We are back today with my Farmer's Wife Quilt Blocks and Flowers and a Quilt Show.  Just needed to do something light and fun.   I had seen a baby quilt with strips and one row of something across the top 

and thought that it would be fun to use my FWQB.  I am not to sure I like it as much as I thought I would.  But it is still light and fun....  I love the 1930 prints.

The next two quilts are some OLD UFO's that are finally finished!

This is an applique quilt I pieced about 14 years ago.  Believe it or not the top has been hanging in my closet waiting to be quilts all this time.

 Then about 3 years ago I was looking for a change.   

Something fast and I wanted to use a jelly roll.

This is what came from it....

My girls came over to play today, so I got them to hold up my quilts outside, 

so there would be plenty of light. 

Please enjoy.....

Farmer's Wife Quilt Blocks

 OK, just what does Farmer's Wife Blocks have to do with Applique Flowers?

Well, stay tune and in just a few days you will find out....

 1930 Farmer's Wife Blocks:

 

 1930 Applique Flowers:

Enjoy...