A New Design Wall and a Little Good Fortune!

I find that one of my most important quilting tools is my design wall (with corresponding chair across from said design wall). My wall was pretty shabby, two various lengths of old white flannel tacked to the wall.

Old design wall didn't quite match up in length!

The old wall missed out for height!

The NEW design wall fits perfect floor to ceiling and side to side! 90"H x 108"L

Tucked in just behind my fabric storage.

My NEW design wall is queen sized Warm and White batting! It was on sale at JoAnn's, 50% off! Can't wait to try it out!

In other fun news, I received a cool present in the mail yesterday, a little Good Fortune!

Beautifully wrapped from Intrepid Thread!

Sweet!

 

 

This was my winnings from Annabella of Life's Rich Pattern's blogiversary! That was fast! Thanks Annabella!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

WIP Wednesday: Storybook Quilt Progress

It feels good to get back into a rhythm, after the crazy holiday season. I missed linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday (it really keeps my on track).  I started working on two  matching twin sized quilts after Christmas, trying to use up some "orphaned" blocks. I'm pretty happy with how the first quilt is turning out.

I feel like I need one more embroidered block. I love the design process. Anyway here are my stats for the week.

In-process: (5)
Hip to be Square FMQ sampler (still at 14 out of 30 blocks quilted)
Purple heart wall hanging ( needs borders, backing, quilting and binding)
Expanding Possibilities quilt (needs backing, quilting and binding)
Storybook quilt # 1 -  Blocks are being pieced
Storybook quilt # 2 - Embroidered blocks waiting to be pieced

New projects in the cue to start: (3)
FLMQG solids challenge crib quilt (Not started)
New Wave quilt (not started)
Friend's baby quilt - fabric picked out!


Finished (0)

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!

Color Me Quilty!


Pat

My Design Wall! What Do You Think???

I've been a bit under the weather the last few days. Nothing dreadful, just enough to knockout any extra energy after work. But this morning I woke up with a design idea and I had to put it into action.

I have 7 of the pieced blocks, orphans from my mother's stash (I don't think she pieced them, probably from a swap or bee). I recently purchased the 1001 Peeps, then realized that I think this will look pretty good with these blocks. Add in the dark purple and white to keep it from getting too busy. There are two little girls that I would like to make quilts for their birthdays in February. What do you think?

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Bears and Moose Revisited

About a month ago, I embroidered some bears and moose for my friend Kate and we started putting them together in a log cabin block.  Well Kate has been quite industrious and got all the blocks completed and we were able to lay out the quilt.

As a matter of fact, Kate was able to lay out a second quilt she made. WOW!

Well, just Color Kate Quilty!

Pat

Expanding Possibilities Quilt Top DONE!!!

I was getting to the point that I didn't think I would ever get this quilt top done. But YIPPEE, I finished last night! I'm happy with the final outcome, I wasn't sure I was going to like it after working on it for so long. I am thinking about writing up the pattern for this quilt and posting it.  It would work well with Jelly Roll strips, I will think about it while I quilt it.

Sew, Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Best Laid Plans

Well, my goal was to finish my Expanding Possibilities quilt top by the end of the long weekend, but I didn't quite make it. I had some design changes and just some plan old seam ripper challenges. You would think that a quality engineer could manage to measure things properly!  While I was trimming the second chevron pattern block it got all cattiwompus.  I did finally get all of the pieced blocks done at 9:30 last night. The rest is just going to be white.

Well, Color Me Back to Work!

Pat

Design Boards and Seam Rippers

What is the point of a design board???? CHANGE! I have been staring at my latest quilt project for several days now. My husband walked into my sewing room and I asked him his opinion of my quilt. "It's nice, honey!" was his response.  Of course, I couldn't leave it at that and kept at him asking about different parts. He said his least favor part was the print that I was designing the quilt around. That had been bothering me too. Soooooo....I got out the seam ripper....and..... CHANGED!

Auditioned new fabric

Ripped and Redid!

My husband walked in again, mid-change and asked what I was doing. Changing it....."But I didn't mean, you should change it, I don't have a sense of color"!  Why do people always want to underestimate their talent.  You like what you like!  Inspiration and change can come from unlikely places. Happy I made the changes. 

Go Big or Go Home!

Size DOES matter! I have been "fermenting" on my new quilt for the past few days. Something just wasn't right. The embroidered birds were too small, the scale for the quilt was off. I had originally reduced the size to fit in the diamond shaped piece. That wasn't working for me either. Sew I changed the pattern up just a bit and redid the birds.

This hoop is 7x12, it came with the machine. But the machine will not recognize anything bigger than 6x10.  Sew the question is: is it the machine or the operator??? I would give 50-50 odds, it could be either.  I decided not to fight, just stitch it the in size the file came. It is definitely and improvement.

I also like the change to the shape of this piece, more arrow-like.

I do feel better about this now, but I'm going to have to put this aside for a little bit and work on a project with an approaching deadline. BEARS!

Well, color me quilty!

Pat

Expanding Possibilities - The Design Phase

I always expect I can get more done that I actually do! But designing a quilt does take some time and effort. It's also more difficult when some of your tools are a little "old school".  (I've already asked my husband for EQ 7 for Christmas)

If anyone likes this design when it's done, I'll post the pattern.

It's hard to be COLOR Me Quilty when you don't have any color on your drawing!

I've been playing around with a little more UT embroidery (and having fits with my bobbins).

Serious bobbin problems with the orange, but then I finally got it straightened out

Changed some of the colors around

I think this is the one I'm going to go with.

 So here is a sneak peak at my design board so far. Trust me, I have to add a whole bunch of luscious color yet!

So I'm back to work today (UGH). Hopefully I will have time to get a little more done tonight.

Color Me Quilty,

Pat