Congratulations!

I've been away on two trips this past week, so had no sewing progress to report on yesterday, so I apologize for missing my regular Tasting Table Tuesday post.  But I have something even better to share today.  Congratulations to my friend, Anya, who won another award for her Dear Jane quilt, while it was on display at the Flights & Fantasies Quilt Show in New England recently.  Here's a peak, if you haven't see it yet.  It's amazing!

You can click on this link to read the whole story.  Congratulations Anya!

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Trip Time!

The first Family Ties quilt traveled to the longarm quilter's today.  The long border strip you see at the bottom of this picture actually runs down both sides of the quilt.   I added triangles to the corner of each long rectangle to look a little like bow ties.  We picked the quilting design and the thread, and I'm excited to see how this looks after the quilting is done.  Knowing Sue, I'm sure it will look fantastic!

The colors and prints of all the ties are so attractive together!  The green and blue one here is one of my favorites.

Now I'm off on a trip of my own!  I'm headed out for three days of shopping with a good friend of mine.  We've been doing this trip for many years and always look forward to our annual "girl's weekend".  We'll see what bargains we can find this time!

Cheers!

Pineapple Log Cabin Ruler

I spent today helping out at Needles (LQS) and needed something to do to pass the time between customers.  I bought this Pineapple Log Cabin ruler after winning the challenge hosted by Colourful Stitches recently, but had not yet tried it.  Tracy has the ruler and Gyleen's book for sale at the shop, so I thought it might be worthwhile to have a block on display, to show what you can make.  I don't know about you , but I"m much more apt to buy a tool if I can see what you can make with it.  So that was my goal for the day.  Gyleen suggests that you make your blocks really scrappy, so every strip can be something different, but I used one fabric for each round.  Other than the center square, which is 2 1/2", all the strips are cut at 1 1/2" wide.  So it's a great way to use up those scraps that are taking over your sewing space!

Click here to see the block in Flickr

and click here to see the book and the ruler I used.

Overall, the tool worked great.  I have to admit, having never seen a demonstration, it was a little confusing at first, but once I completed the first 3 rounds, it finally "clicked" and I had no problems after that.  I like this block so well, that I just might have to make some more and actually make a quilt with them!

Now for the technical difficulties...  I took these pictures with my new iPad, then uploaded them to my Flickr account.  Now when I try and insert the pictures from Flickr, it won't allow me to do that.  The only way around it that I could find was to insert links instead of the pictures.  I know that many people directly link their Flickr pictures to their blog, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  Any suggestion???  I'm stumped... (and technically challenged, since I've never used an Apple product before)  Help!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Family Ties Progress

I've made some good progress on this Family Ties quilt since returning from Florida.  I was hoping to have the top pieced in time for today's post, but didn't quite make it.  These are the strips in the center section and there will be some longer additional blocks for side borders that will really set this off.  

Each tie block is surrounded by a blue/gray linen-look cotton from French General.  It looks quite gray in the upper picture, but it actually has a nice heather blue look to it.  I believe it's called "Woad Blue".  I think it resembles the look of men's suiting fabric, so it's a perfect compliment to the ties.

Stay tuned and I'll share pictures of the top as soon as it's finished - any day now!

Cheers!

Foxy Trails Quilt

We just got back from a wonderful visit with our grandson in Florida, and his Mom & I gave him his new quilt (it was a collaborative effort - she picked the pattern & fabric, I did the sewing, and Studio Sue did the longarm quilting).

 

I think he likes the back better than the front!  He plays "I Spy" with it and can find and identify just about everything on it.

Later, he dragged it out to the living room, and we built a fort with it.  The imaginary playtime is so much fun with a two-year-old!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Making Fabric

Progress continues on my Family Ties quilt(s).  After dissecting the ties last week, I'm now at the point where I've started cutting the pieces for the first quilt.  But the preparation of the ties is a long, slow process - I'm basically "making fabric" before I can start the quilt!

Neck ties are cut on the bias, and you'll generally find two seams somewhere along the length of the tie (sometimes only one), so I cut the seams off and separated each tie into 2 or 3 pieces.  I don't want those seams in my quilt blocks!

Then I cut strips of fusible interfacing (about 3 1/8" wide for this quilt) and fused them onto the back side of the tie pieces.

After the fusing was all done, I proceeded to trim each one down to the desired 3" width that I need for this quilt, then sub-cut each strip into 5" units.

My garbage bowl is filling up fast!  (Can you find Mickey Mouse in there?)

Now that the 3" x 5" cut units are stacking up, it's starting to feel like I'm finally making a quilt - not just making fabric.

But work in my Cotton Cellar will slow down for a few days as I take advantage of an opportunity to spend some time with our grandson next week.  He lives so far from us, that we don't get to see him very often, so this will be some real quality time.  But check back next Tuesday, because I'm sure I'll get a little something done between now and then - maybe not a lot, but I'll share my progress anyway.

Cheers!