On the Other Side of our Studio, and a Group Quilt

No boats this time from DH, but instead, he made this amazing chuck wagon.  The undercarriage is especially marvelous, made exactly like the real thing.  The wheels were especially complex (IMHO) and of course, they roll and turn and brake perfectly.  Inside are sacks of potatoes, coffee, beans and flour, as well as blankets and firewood.

I was hoping we might find some toy draft horses, or oxen, to adjoin the wagon.  We discovered that the nearby ranch store, Baumgarrs has wonderful model animals, of various scale sizes the could actually be the right size.  Yes, I'm getting carried away.

On the quilty front, this is a group quilt our local quilting gals are making for a donation or raffle quilt to benefit a worthy cause, with appreciation for our monthly quilting gathering place.  Our group has new quilters and others more experienced, but all these blocks and border units turned out really well.  I  am putting borders on the quilt - don't ya jes love that ribbon border?   It's bright and bold - I think the quilting might help to blend the variety of Friendship Star blocks.   These blocks are 9 in. finished and the quilt is approx. 82" x 101".   So far, so good!  (It's kinda crumpled in this photo.)

Border quilting solution

This is my solution to the border. One quilting line was not enough - this is a wide space - 3 inches - so I went over it a second time, deliberately NOT on top of the previous line, as the thread was variegated. I kinda like it. The outside will most likely be the same, and I'm not sure if anything needs to be quilted on the ribbon itself. This goes FAST! (The seam ripper is there for scale.)

One of the disadvantages of machine quilting on a DSM is that there is more 'poofiness' for lack of a better word, while the work is in process. But when completed, and blocked, it will be fine.

We have another week ahead of absolutely gorgeous days of 78 degrees - I'm planning another basting project this weekend, since this particular quilt should be done. Oh yeah, Saturday, there is that sale at one of my LQSs. 8-)

I pieced the back - wish I had NOT. Somehow I don't have the artistic flair for piecing backs - it always looks like patchwork! LOL

BTW, my SIL LOVED her small "Mother Earth" quilt - it arrived safely in Wisconsin.

Quilting Makes the Quilt

The feel of Autumn is in the air and I have several quilts that need basting. My set-up for sandwiching/basting is in the garage on tables, so with cool weather coming, I'd better get a'goin'!

This Furrows and 4-Patch was not calling to me - it's pretty humble and homely, with too much WHITE, not anything I wanted to write home about, but today was lovely and I wanted to get SOMETHING sandwiched. I learned how to make a ribbon border on this project and am amazed at it's simplicity! We've all heard the phrase, "Quilting Makes the Quilt". As soon as I started machine quilting, the quilt became alive. I'm using a pastel pink, blue, green yellow thread, 40 wt, that helped to blend the fabrics and toned down the WHITE. Also, I keep forgetting to drop the feed dogs on my machine and it makes no difference at all! LOL

I made this one day (OK, maybe 2 or 3) when I just needed to sew something!!! This is about as easy as a quilt can get. It's about 70" x 80", and I used what I had on hand, except for the 2 blues in the ribbon border - that needed to be consistant fabrics. If you've been afraid of this border, you will be amazed at it's simplicity! Give it a try!

Turning a Corner

My title means "turning" from winter to spring, but today, you sure can't tell. Blizzard conditions, white out, people staying home, schools closed, etc. Our weather alert kept going off. Fortunately for me living in town, this kind of weather is usually not a problem, but out on the ranches, where there is nothing to break the wind, watch out! And I am hearing of much more serious weather conditions in the central U.S.

These are my poor little tulips, all encrusted with ice and snow, and then they were practically blown to bits.
In order to take a decent photo, the photographer should have laid ???, lain ???, reclined... ? on ground level -- NOT!

If you are not bored with my enthusiastic photos of the newly learned Ribbon Border, or if you didn't read a previous post, here is what it looks like in process. The important thing is to use an even number of blocks, then add the corner. That's about as difficult as this border gets but of course, keep your units the same scale. I.e, my blocks were 6 inches, my border 3 inches, and my Ribbon Border units 3 inches (all finished measurements). The last block on the right has to have the darker color on the right. The back of the block, lower left of the below photo, is shown for pressing purposes. Just press to the dark on the units and each one abuts very nicely to the next one. I designed these the old fashioned way, with regular quilt math, NOT any special rulers. Ya know, sometimes figuring out those rulers is more work then just learning to do it the 'right' way!

I'm liking it a lot, and kicking myself for thinking it was difficult. Silly.

Two sides done. I'll add an outer border to finish it off, probably white.

Oh, one more thing - what is it with Blogger and the new verification 'letters'? I can barely read them and it takes me up to 5 tries to guess what they are correctly. Anyone else having this difficulty?

Clever little unit!

Saturday mornings, for me, are reserved for watching Fons and Porter Love of Quilting on our Public TV station.

Recently they worked on this little unit, even making a mistake, right on national TV, but that only humanized them. I would be careful to not make the mistake. (You can guess the rest of THAT story!) Look what a difference it makes to simply turn the units.

But the goal of making these units is this clever border. I'd seen this in Judy Laquidara's "Nine Patch Extravaganza" and had bookmarked one of her patterns, but hadn't looked into how it was made, thinking it looked complicated. NOT. It's exactly the same unit as what I started with - a version of a quarter square triangle.

This little 4-Patch and Furrows started with a "Just hafta sew something" and a visit to www.quiltville.com. I tried very hard to make it in scraps of browns, tans, civil war looking fabrics, but the blues, garden-y fabrics won out. Not bad for scraps! I DID purchase 1/2 yd. of the border dark blue in the border. I made the unit size half of my block size and will add a white inner border of half (3 inches) of the block size. It will turn the corner very nicely.