New Ironing Board has been ordered

For over 20 years, I had an ironing board attached to the wall in my sewing room.  It always creaked a little as I ironed but I didn't think much about it.  Well, today the ironing board broke.  My husband was in gear within 15 minutes, on the web and ordering a new ironing board for me.  Can I make it 5-10 days without ironing my fabric and my quilt blocks??  We shall see.....

I'm looking at the situation as an opportunity to clean up and organize my sewing room before the ironing board arrives!!

Design Wall Monday

Yesterday, I was able to die cut 20 light lavender tumblers that were needed for one more Tumbler Quilt.  Several months ago, I had purchased (4) purple/lavender fleece backs for these quilts that I chose to make.
Here is the lay-out for the final quilt top.  I still have more pre-cut tumblers, which hopefully I can use to create a scrappy quilt down the road.

I spent many hours last week, trying to make friends with my EQ7 Quilt program.  My friend, Denni wrote step by step instructions which led me to the section where I could find the Tumbler pattern, which helped me on my way.  Then my husband helped me scan (7) fabrics into the computer for using in my tumbler quilt but the scanned fabrics did not want to move from the fabric section to my tumbler quilt layout.  Frustration was setting in.... We (the computer and I) are barely on speaking terms at the moment. I see so many beautiful quilts that have been designed with this program but my patience level.....Enough said.

Here is what I designed on my design wall, the old fashioned way......

Tumbler Quilt 08312015

 Even after making all these tumbler quilts, I still have tumblers left over.  What I have left over needs to be put together into a kit for a scrappy quilt.  I'm now ready to move on to another pattern.
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Design Wall Monday

Hooray!!   I am actually posting on Monday.  I love this Tumbler pattern.  I had enough white to create some good contrast with the lavender, purples and few pinks.  It was fun to make the flower pot with another tumbler.  All the tumblers and the flower blossoms were cut with the AccuQuilt Studio Die Cutter.  I'm sure I have enough tumblers left over to make another top.  My goal was to sandwich the top with a purple fleece back, machine quilt it and machine sew the binding on before tomorrow.  Something is telling me that is not going to happen--so I will be extending the goal until next Tuesday's sewing group meets.  In the meantime,
I can work on cleaning up my sewing room.

Design Wall Monday  08242015

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Design Wall Monday

I'm almost done with last week's "Island Star Quilt".  It has been sandwiched with purple fleece on the back and no batting.  I found some acrylic thread for sewing with the fleece which worked well until I was sewing around the final corner and I happened to look on the back and the thread had massive loops all the way around the corner.  So after removing the loose thread and hand stitching the opening closed, I chose to quit for the night.  With a fresh start this morning, I switched to a purple polyester thread, which is probably the only polyester thread I have and it just happened to be purple.  The quilt is now ready for some limited machine quilting via the walking foot.

This week's quilt uses the same die cut pattern pieces but I found a different setting, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I found a picture in "The Quilter" magazine dated July 2003 on page 45.  The pattern can be found in the book, Dresden Flower Garden by Blanche Young (C & T Publishing).  Blanche named it; Strip Heaven in 2001.

I have just one row to add to the right but here is what I have so far.

DWM08032015

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Design Wall Monday

Hey!!  I am actually posting on Monday.  This morning, I've been working on (3) different ideas/projects.
My fabric scraps are taking over my sewing room.  It doesn't appear that I have even made a dent in all the scraps but I've been enjoying seeing all the different fabrics that I have used through the years.

Project #1:
The two squares on the left side are two mug rugs that I promised to make for my friends in California.  When I left for California in early June, I was only able to complete 19 Mug Rugs but I discovered that I needed many more for family and friends.  I just need about 10 more.

Project #2:
The two rectangles on the bottom left measure 4.5" x 6".  They are the beginning of a scrappy quilt of spools of thread.  I still need to make the actual spools out of dark brown or grey fabric.

Project #3:
The five squares on the right were made from panels of fabric strips sewn together and then sent through my Die Cutter using the triangle die and matching them with a neutral solid.  These are my favorite.  I'm excited to see how the finished quilt will look.  I discovered this unique technique from Katy Quilts Design Wall Monday from last week.

Design Wall Monday  Scraps

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Island Star Quilt

This morning, I decided the Island Star Quilt needed to be a bit larger, so I added another row of blocks at the bottom of the quilt.  As I was adding the row, I discovered a much easier way to sew the triangles, so the ends didn't need set in seams.  The top is now 46" x 51", which will make a nice lap quilt for someone who needs a hug.

Island Star top with one more row

Island Star Quilt

Our Tuesday Sewing Group was busy last week cutting kits with their "GO Accuquilt Die Cutter".  The group found a pattern called Island Star Quilt, which uses hexagons and Equilateral Triangles.  I used 33 hexagons to make a top 46" x 43.5".  With a little better planning, I could have had more star points matching and standing out.  As it is, I found only one hexagon with matching star points.  I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Island Star Quilt