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I'm taking a big step and actually cutting into my hoarded stash of Paris Flea Market fabric.  My next quilt project will use what you see in the photo above.  Many of the prints are from the Paris Flea Market line by Moda, bought when the line first came out about eight years ago.  Moda recently re-released a good part of the line and you can still find it online if not at your LQS.  I've augmented the Paris Flea Market with some other similar prints from my stash.  It has been folded so long, the folds are set in.  Time to get busy with the iron!

 

 

This & That

A few random thoughts for today:

Is there anything more satisfying than having a pile of finished quilt tops and pieced backs ready to go to the quilter?  Maybe only getting them back from said quilter.  These are ready to go.

 

 

JoAnne at The Patriotic Quilter posted about using this medallion print from French General for the center of her Dresden plate blocks.  I thought it was a fantastic idea.  I was going to my LQS anyway (sale in progress!), and sure enough, they had this in stock.  So I bought a yard of each color.  I don't have any plans for it but thought it was a necessary addition to my stash, just in case.

Time flies when I'm on Pinterest!  We were having a quiet Sunday - Miss Main Street was away at a music festival, the Mister was reading, the dogs were napping, so I thought it was safe to amuse myself for a few minutes hours.  Looking for quilt inspiration, of course!  I've decided my next project should make use of one of my unused gadgets.  I'm a sucker for specialty rulers that promise to make a difficult technique easier and/or quicker, as well as other quilting aids.  One of them, though I'm not yet sure which, will be getting a try-out very soon.

Main Street

My version of Full House, tentatively called Main Street, is a finished flimsy.

 

I added a little green to the checkerboard sashing but kept the borders neutral.  I'm planning to use a green binding. 

 

I'll be piecing backs this weekend and readying a couple of quilts to go to the quilter.  And I may give some thought to my next project!  TGIF

 

 

Where Are The Trees?

I live in a "mature" neighborhood, where most of the houses were built around 100 years ago; some are even older and a few are relatively new.  This means we have a lot of big trees.  At this time of year, you can barely see the houses for the trees.

 

 

(We also have utility poles, street lights, and power lines.) 

 

I decided my Full House neighborhood could use a few trees.

 

My next step is to make the checkerboard sashing.  I'm going to put some green in that too.

 

 

Building Houses

I'm in the process of building the houses for my Full House Schnibble quilt.  So far, so good.

 

In fact, so far, very good.  I can understand how quilters come to love making Schnibbles and other small quilts.  They are a perfect interlude between more ambitious projects.  And the small size and limited investment in fabric makes it fun to try fabric designs, styles, and color combinations that are outside one's usual repertoire. 

 

This could the start of a long relationship!

 

 

Scrap Basket Sunday - Week 14

I finished my Lemoyne star quilt project and posted about it earlier in the week, here.  OK, twist my arm,  I'll show it off again.

49 Lemoyne stars in an 80" quilt yet it hardly made a dent in my scrap basket!  Still full, so I need another scrappy project, and I certainly found lots of inspiration and ideas by visiting the blogs of the other Scrap Basket Sunday participants.  Thank you all, scrap quilters!

I'll be back to scrappy quilting soon, but first a time out for small, not-scrappy project.

Go over to Kim's blog and see what the other scrappers are up to.

Do You Schnibble?

Do you enjoy making Schnibbles, the small quilts designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co?  I haven't actually made a quilt using a Schnibble pattern before; the closest I came was when I Schnibble-sized my Spools quilt by reducing the block size to use a charm pack instead of a jelly roll.  But when I saw the Full House pattern, I knew I wanted to make it to hang in our kitchen. 

 

I even bought the pattern and all the materials, including two charm packs of Little Gatherings, the fabric collection used in the original.  The charm packs, yardage, and pattern have been stored in a zip-lock bag, like my own little kit, just waiting to grab my attention again.

 

The time is now!

 

 

Scrap Basket Flimsy

I need a quilt holder with a bigger wingspan!  Mr. Main Street is doing his best but can't quite stretch to 80 inches.

 

Yes, my scrappy Lemoyne star blocks are all together in their quilt.  I'm quite pleased with how it came out, including the addition of my alternate pieced blocks.  They provide a bit of a frame around the stars without overpowering them, so the attention is still on the stars.

 

 

That's Reggie, our eight year old corgi, in the lower right corner (with his toy octopus we call Paulie). When he sees the camera, he has to get in the picture. We have fewer photos of Dillie, the one year old corgi; well, she is the second dog, but the big reason is that every picture looks like this (or worse). Reggie poses but when Dillie sees the camera she runs right at it.

 

Back to the quilt.  The seam lines show up in this photo, so you can see the construction.  I made the Lemoyne stars using the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star Ruler from Deb Tucker.  Quite easy (but not a first or second quilt) and the pieces fit together very well.  With this ruler, you can select the size of the block you want to make; mine are 7" finished.

 

And this is the pieced alternate block.  It is also 7" finished, with the dark brown squares finishing at 1". 

Now, to get it quilted!  I'm already thinking about my next project.

Scrap Basket Sunday - Week 13

I'm in the process of assembling my scrappy Lemoyne star blocks into a quilt.

What you see here is not completely sewn together yet, which is why some of the brown squares appear to be out of alignment.  I got it laid out and partially sewn (5 diagnonal rows), then decided I want it to be a little bigger.  So now I need to make 5 or 6 more Lemoyne star blocks.  Not a problem, I still have plenty of scraps!

I hope to get the remaining stars made this week so I can finish the assembly next weekend.

Hop over to Kim's blog for links to more Scrap Basket Sunday projects.

Some Assembly Required

I'm in the process of assembling my Lemoyne stars quilt.  The blocks are set on point, alternating the stars and the pieced blocks with the small brown squares.  As a result, the quilt takes shape from one upper corner to the opposite lower corner.



 

 

 

This is about one-third of the finished quilt, laid out on our queen size bed so I can get an idea of how big it is turning out.  I'm not sure yet how big I want it to be.

 

Assembly is not my most favorite part of quilt-making.  It's not that I dislike it, but I find it slow going and sometimes tedious, especially when putting together a large quilt with lots of blocks.  Part of it is how I obsess over which blocks should be next to each other, and which blocks shouldn't be next to each other, to get a good flow of color across the quilt.  This one is not giving me too much trouble, so that's good.

 

I had a double dose of the domestic arts here on the 4th of July, first a few hours of sewing then I made this red-white-and-blueberry cake for a patriotic celebration. 

 

 

 

It's a red velvet cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and a garnish of fresh blueberries.  Yum!

 

 

And Now For Something Completely Different

As the only sewist in the family, I am often asked to perform those little tasks that require my special skill.  Most frequently this involves shortening a pair of pants, something I never need to do for myself because I'm lucky if I can find them long enough, but I'm an outlier, height-wise, in the family. 

The most recent request came from my mother.  "Could I make her a set of cloth napkins to go with this tablecloth she bought?"  Apparently, the tablecloth did not come with matching napkins.  The tablecloth is sage green floral on a cream background (background of photo below).  I found some fabric in a matching sage green tone-on-tone in my stash, enough to make six napkins, so agreed to do it even though this is like asking Michelangelo to paint your garage. 

To make the napkins, I used this self-binding napkin tutorial I found online.  The green fabric is from a Robyn Pandolph collection from way back when she designed for Moda; the white lining is Kona snow.  The napkins were super easy to make.  You just have to follow the directions exactly, even when they seem a little odd.  My corners came out perfectly.  And all done on the machine, no hand sewing necessary.

 

 

A set of napkins would make a great gift and you could sew them up in an afternoon.  Think Christmas; it is less than six months away.