Neglecting the sewing room

Well, more like neglecting the sewing machine. Lately, my time in the sewing room is spent on hand quilting. I am working on my Ohio Star Shadow.

Here, you can see (a little bit of) the markings of feathers. I'm at the bottom row still. When these three Ohio Stars are quilted, I'll be able to roll the quilt a bit. :^D I can not say that the first row will be done because only the second and third row of the star is stitched. It is too hard for me to quilt curving lines when my arms are extended to almost their maximum. So, I'll wait until I can bring it down a notch or two, to do the top row of the stars.

I did do a few minutes of workout on the sewing machine in the last two weeks. Yikes! It has been two weeks since my last post!!?? How did that happened? Well, I can not say I didn't enjoyed those weeks so it's all good! :^D

Worked with the newest addition to the RSC family and I started with purple.

This one was asking for teal and I have to admit it looks real good.

And the wanna-be plaid with purple and dots.  Not sure how this fabric will befriend teal or aqua. That is something I can think about while I'm adding some stitches on the star quilt.

Until next time. ...

;^)

Joining
Angela at Soscrappy 
Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than housework
Kathy at Kathy's Quilts
with a cup of coffee. Enjoy!

A quick update

In February I have announced the (older) fabrics I would be playing with in my RSC2017. (You can see them here.) I also said that I might add a few more along the way. Well, here's the latest addition.

Don't even know what to call this fabric, beside perfect for April, the multi-colored month.

One block got made in purple ...

and one block got a mistake.

The middle 4-Patch isn't standing up right. The white piece should be on top. I should pay more attention to my own tutorial, lol. (See tutorial for this block here)


Join Angela at Soscrappy to see all the lovely Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

Until next time ...

;^)

Buckwheat Block Tutorial (photo heavy)

The Buckwheat block attracted much attention among the viewers, so I thought a little tutorial would be welcome.



Measurements:
White : (2) 2.5" squares and (3) 3" squares
Yellow:  (2) 3" squares

Color of the month: (2) 2.5" squares and (4) 3" squares (let's pretend it's green month)
Constant color: (5) 3" squares (mine is blue in this tutorial)

Sew the 2.5 squares into a 4 Patch. Press.

           
Then, with the color of the month 3" squares and the constant color 3" squares we need to make HSTs. Use the method you are comfortable with.  Trim down to 2.5" square. The last constant color square will be cut diagonally once.

Sew two HSTs together. Pay attention to the orientation of the color of the month (green). Yes, this is the tricky part that might force you to use your seam ripper. Fair warning. Two units with the color of the month facing right (bottom) and two units with the color of the month facing left (top).



On to the whites and yellows. Cut all squares diagonally once. Put one white square aside (two triangles). Keeping the same color on the right, sew them two by two on the short end. Press.

Now, we are ready to assemble the block.
Here we go.

To the HST units with the color of the month (green) facing right, add a constant color to the right and a white triangle to the left. Press. Add a white/yellow unit at the bottom. Remember, the green has to be facing right. The whites have to be side by side.
Make two units.

To the HST units with the color of the month facing left, add to the 4 Patch. But NOT on whichever side. Hold the 4 Patch on point with a white square on top. Then sew the HST units on top and at the bottom, making sure that the green doesn't touch the green. Press.

Then add a white/yellow unit to the HST units. Press.

Sew a triangle unit to both sides. Press.

Cut the dog's ears and pat yourself on the back. You are done. The block should measure 9" at this point.

Of course, you may use any colors you wish. You can use scraps for the corners. Anything goes.
So ...

Do not be reasonable.
Do not use sparsely.
Do enjoy.
:^D

I use white/yellow in the corner to create a calm pinwheel in the middle. It will be a welcome resting place for the eyes I think.


Until next time ...


;^)

P.S. If any parts of this tutorial is not clear, please let me know. Thanks.


Joining Angela for RSC 2017
Joining Cynthia for Oh Scraps!

Log Cabin Heart

Heeeeerrreee's the 

Log Cabin 

                                                  Heart!

All quilted and bound. I so love this one. Thanks to Cécile, Patchwork Inspirations and Béa, Une aiguille dans une botte de foin,  for this nice, easy QAL. 

I used a log cabin cheatsheet fabric from Debbie Mum's collection. First time I use the corner triangles to hang a wall-hanging. 

 

I used pieces of fabric given to me by quilting friends. Even our sweet hostess, Cécile, is represented somewhere in these fabrics. 

I quilted it in the ditch, then decided to add a little more. Suebee's World gave me some pink thread that I used to draw some FMQ hearts. 

I wrote "heart" and "links" (Gosh, that would have been a good name for it but it's too late now) in the top corner blocks. I forgot to check for the corner triangles at the back and well, yes I did it! lol 

Today, I will unstitch, (sounds like my only chore for the entire weekend. See last post for more about that.) those corners blocks and redo the FMQ words. All the threads need to be buried too. 

This evening, I will attach the sweet label given to me by yet another quilting friend, Ruth from Country Log Cabin. 

Thanks to all of you, precious friends, who have participated in this lovely little quilt. 

After that, I will give some attention to the Ohio Star Shadow quilt. 

Not much progress was done on this one in March. I'll try to do better this month. 

Until next time .... look who came back! 

She's been around for the last two weeks. She's on my porch at 6:30 in the morning, lol.  She's my across the street neighbor's cat. She is very skittish and doesn't trust us much. Well, that was then. Now she has adopted us. 

Photo bomb, lol 

She even invited herself in ... for a very short visit. 

;^)

Joining Cécile at Patchwork Inspiration 

Joining Kathy at Kathy's Quilts

Rip red or R.I.P. Red ?

March is gone and so is red. Really?

Last year, I worked on some framed 9 Patch block that I spotted on Lynn Dykstra's blog.

I thought the idea was perfect since I have some solids that haven't seen the sewing machine since this quilt, in 2004!

 So I did four and decided to add this project to the RSC2017.  As I was writing last Saturday's post, I realized that I haven't done any in red yet ... or aqua ...  or purple. Oops!

 

So this past week I got busy on these and started to cut solid red with some old pink dotted fabric. 

Since the "wanna be plaid" blue was out, I cut into that one too. It looks good in red. 

And one with whatever flower that is on black. 

Have you noticed my blooper? 

I didn't! Honestly!  I didn't notice anything wrong until I got to the final pressing of the blocks. Dang! In this layout, the solid colour is the one with the 5 pieces in the 9 Patch, not four!  I remember the first time I did these blocks, I did exactly the same mistake. I guess I haven't learned the lesson very well, lol. 

Angela announced the new color for April as multicolored and look, the two last blocks qualify for March AND April. Bonus!!

So, for April, I'll work on these in purple too as they will be accompanied with colourful fabrics. Won't do Aqua or Teal because I have none in the solid bin. 

But first, I have to unstitch those three rascals. 

Joining Angela for Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Joining Cynthia for Oh Scraps! 

Until next time .... rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip .... 

;^)

April's Fool

Hehehe! There's no post! lol.

;^)