Pinwheels Galore!

I have lots of pinwheels finished. I made 48 for my block exchange this Sunday. My log cabin blocks are finished, too, so I am ready to go! I like making pinwheel blocks, but sometimes when I have a lot to sew, I start looking at them and do not see if there is a problem. I had to be careful to make sure all my fabrics were in the correct order so that a pinwheel design was made when I finished my last seam. Sometimes surprises sneak in at the oddest times. All my pinwheels do not go in the same direction. That was not a requirement of the exchange. This picture below is of two pinwheels made from the cast off triangles from one of the steps in Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt. When I sewed that step, I sewed an extra seam at each end of the piece so that when I cut off the excess fabric, I had already sewed my little HSTs. These blocks measure 3 inches unfinished. I have a plan for a quilt with these pinwheels. You can see the full basket below. They are the rest of the HSTs that I sewed from the cast off fabric. I sewed together eight of them to make these two pinwheels so that I could get a feel as to how big the blocks would be. I don't know how big the quilt will be until I sew all the little pinwheels together and place them into the block I have planned to make with them. I know I am crazy, but I love pinwheels, and I love using that cast off fabric. That is one reason why it took me longer making the mystery quilt. I was also sewing all those little HSTs as well as the other part of that step. I also have a baggie with many little HSTs from another quilt I am working on. When I sew two pieces together, there are left over triangles to be trimmed, so I made HSTs from those cast off pieces. I am not sure what I will do with those yet. The background fabric is the same as with the pinwheels I am making from Bonnie's mystery quilt, so maybe I can use them all together in one quilt. I don't know yet if they will be the same size because I have not sewn any of those pinwheels together yet. I think those strips were the same size as the strips in the mystery quilt. Sounds promising! There are so many little pieces of fabric flying around my sewing room amidst the stacks of fabrics and UFOs. I pulled out a couple of baskets of scraps the other day. I wanted to cut them up into usable pieces, but I did not have time that day to work on the scraps. That will be a project for another day I guess. A friend asked me today if I had used bamboo batting. I have not, yet, but I have wanted to try it. If you have used it, please let me know your assessment of the bamboo batting. Happy Quilting

Exchange Blocks Again

Here is a picture of some of the exchange blocks I am working on this weekend. I have seven completed blocks with five more to go, and then 48 pinwheel blocks. The fabric in these blocks is from a line designed by one of the women in my quilt group. She and a friend co-designed this line. It is Pizazz by Wilmington. I am using all fabrics from their line in my blocks. This will be an interesting quilt. Some of my blocks are very busy, but I am liking them more and more. I am totally in love with these fabrics. It is fun making different combinations of the fabrics. Some of my blocks are a bit wild and wooly, I think.

Another friend from our quilt group (who married, moved to Nevada, had two darling children, and opened a quilt store) carrys all the Pizazz line, so I ordered my fabric from her. I will look up her web address and post it so that you can see all the super duper fabrics in this line, and also all the other lines that Beth has at her shop.

I finished the binding on my Candy Kisses quilt last week. It is a darling red, pink, and white quilt totally appropriate for Valentine's Day. I forgot to get a picture of it before I took it to the quilt store! Bummer! It really is a cute quilt.

When I finish my exchange blocks, I want to get back to my friend's quilt that I stopped working on when I started the Christmas mystery quilt. I also am behind one and a half blocks of my Aunt Millie's Garden blocks. I want to get going on the new Bunny Hill BOM, Snowbound, too. I purchased some fabric last week for the backgrounds when I was at the quilt store delivering my quilt. I need to get busy on some baby quilts, too. And, last week I also started working on the Winter Wonderland quilt with a friend. Actually, I am not sewing on that quilt yet. We are just getting our embroidery patterns on our fabric. Wow, if I can get all these quilts and BOMs done, maybe I can join the Super Duper Quilters Club (SDQC), if there is such a club!

Well, right now it is late and I should be heading for bed. I hope you all have a great week. The weather forecasters are predicting rain all week for us. Good weather for staying inside and sewing, right?

Happy Quilting

What's wrong with this block?

Okay, what is wrong with this block? I started sewing my big blocks together, and what did I find? One small triangle block turned the wrong way. I caught a couple of these when I was pressing them after I had sewn them in the first part. I found another one when I put the first part of the star block together. But I looked at this one when I was sewing the rows of big blocks together, and found another twisted one. I know I looked at these blocks at least six times to check them to make sure everything was in the right configuration. And this one slipped past me. I think there was a sewing gremlin in my sewing room at night and resewed my work! I am sure of it. I did finally get all the blocks together. I planned that I would get the top done on Saturday, but NO. Then I decided that it would be together on Sunday, and that I could get a picture to post in my blog on Sunday. But NO! The top was finally finished late last night, but not early enough in the day to get a picture outside in the almost sunshine. It is overcast this morning. The haze is burning away, slowly. When the sun started to peak through the haze, I dragged Hubby outside to hold up this top. It is so big, over 90 inches square. This picture does not show the entire top clearly because Hubby is not tall enough, nor has long enough arms, but you can see most of it. I am not super happy with this quilt. I think it is too busy. With a two block design, I feel one block should be more predominant, or one of the blocks should blend or recede into the background, like a snowball block. With the colors I used, I feel my blocks are competing with each other instead of playing well together. Then there was this issue with the outside border. I wanted to use one red piece for all the red squares. I cut out my six 5.5 inch squares for the last border. When I started to sew them on (the last two), I realized I needed eight squares, not just six. There was only enough fabric for six, so I used a different red for the corner squares. That worked okay, but it is just typical of what happens to me when I put a quilt together. There is always something to upset the apple cart! I did receive good grades in math in school. Honest I did. But geometry was not my favorite subject. I say this problem fell into the geometry category. I could only envision six squares, not eight! This quilt is so heavy, and it is not quilted yet! There is a seam every two inches, and it is over 90 inches square so that means a LOT of seams. I used nearly three big spools of thread to piece this top. I was so tired last night when I was wrestling this quilt in my small space to apply the borders. I am accustomed to smaller quilts, baby and lap size. This one was hard for me to handle once all the 25 big blocks were sewn together. The UPSIDEof this issue is that it is FINISHED. I will take it to a machine quilter since it is too large for me to handle on my home machine. I am so glad it is finished. If I ever mention, again, that I want to sew a mystery quilt in December, please, please discourage me!

My Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt will have it's first California Christmas this year, 2010. This is gonna be a great year!!!

Happy Quilting

Happy 2010

Happy 2010. This is my first post in the new year! WOW! 2010! WOW! Where has all the time gone? WOW! What happened to 2009, and 2008, and 2007, and....? I remember the years when my children were small. I remember the year I was married, and all my high school years. I remember the year of my first job. But what happened to all those other years? They just slipped by somehow. I am looking at some of my quilts that are stored in this room and I remember when I made those (most of them). I remember the year we bought our house. I think I should keep a daily journal so I can remember all the things that I seem to forget. But then, I look back at my posts, and I think that they are my journal, although not a daily one.

The pictures I am enclosing today are the last five blocks I finished yesterday and today for my $5.00 BOM blocks. I went yesterday (it being the first Saturday of the month). I was finishing sewing my block at about midnight Friday night. I set my alarm clock so that I would get up early and be ready to go on time so that I could get my ticket at the quilt shop for my free block. Hubby was up (not as early as I) ready to drive. He likes to go with me because after the block thing we go to the Railroad Cafe, our favorite breakfast place.

Well ladies, after getting up early, and hussling hubby along, I was still not on time. I was six minutes late so it was necessary for me to pay another $5.00 for my block. The traffic was not too bad driving out to Livermore. From our house it is about a 35 minute drive. If I had driven, I would get there on time, but hubby drives a lot slower than I drive. I will admit I do have a lead foot when I drive. When I have a destination in mind, I want to get there ASAP, whether it be across town or in another city. Or maybe it is because I always seem to be on a tight time schedule wherever I go. Maybe next time I will be on time! LOL! But the upside of this episode is that I was determined to have next month's block sewn before it is due. I had not sewn these last four blocks since I picked them up late knowing that I would not be able to get to the quilt store on the designated first Fridays for these blocks due to other obligations. So, yesterday and this morning I sat at the sewing machine and sewed all five blocks. I did finish the last one this morning as it was getting late last night and my eyes were not focusing well. I decided that the last one could be finished today, and it was.

Let me tell you though, that piecing these blocks was challenging for me. I thought I would whip right through them, but NO! I am not as good at piecing as I once was I think. I don't remember having so much trouble with quirky pieced triangle units as I did yesterday. Maybe because I avoid them like the plague! Give me squares, rectangles, and HSTs and I am a happy piecer!

I am halfway through my Carolina Christmas quilt. I have 13 of the big star units done, and I am working on the 12 poinsettia units now. I like Bonnie's finished quilt, but do not think I will spend the time cutting and piecing the border that Bonnie has done. I may apply plain borders and call it finished. Of course, it will need quilting and binding to be totally finished. Then I will be back to my other projects.

I have designated 2010 as my finishing year. Finn has put me in the mood to get things finished. Julie has shown me the way, along with many other quilters. Hopefully I can maintain this attitude throughout this year, and more years to come.

Happy quilting ladies, and Happy 2010!