Picasa!

I've worked with a lot of different photo sites. Sometime, I did Picasa...and now, it just may help me with my photo problem...and woo hoo - it did! so, in random order...here's what I've been working on over the past couple of posts.

Hexies quilt based on patterns from Sizzling Sixties by Heather Mulder Peterson

Cindy Lou Who pattern from Carrie Nelson's Another Bite of Schnibbles in Countdown to Christmas fabric from Sweetwater (I LOVE THEIR STUFF!!)

My four red/white/blue (ok turquoise) Granny Squares blocks. I hope to make more...but then again, what a cute runner this would make, huh???!!

Black and white nine patch... the rows are sewn and need to be ironed and then the rows joined. Cute, huh?

Ohio stars - from who knows how long ago! I had them in a baggy and have been trying to use up my stash. For some reason this weekend, I just thought I'd put them together with a little border and finish it off.

String Hearts. I forgot to include this in the previous posts. I had the blocks done for awhile but didn't like it just like that and wasn't sure what to do. I thought of the black and white print checkerboard border. Loving it!!

String webs. I couldn't remember if I posted this so as long as I was working on everything else, I'm posting this too. This and two more are going to the LAQ tomorrow...

 

Oregon Ducks Disappearing 9-patch... I bought the fabrics to make a mug rug for Christmas but wasn't sure what kind of pattern I should use. So I bought three different fabrics, 1 yard each. I made this for the same guy I work with for his table at work...or...whatever he wants. This one goes to the LAQ tomorrow also and I hope to talk her into getting this one done in the next month or so...



Peace on Earth is the fabric line and name of the quilt. I love this one. I wasn't sure of the background, but I do love it! This is the third one going to the LAQ tomorrow.

and that's it! PHEW! I love that I can get these loaded up!! Maybe I'll reset everything I changed on my internet settings and just use Picasa for uploading photos...

LOVE LOVE LOVE my design wall!!!

(sure wish I could fix the picture issue!!)

I love having a design wall! I've completed so many tops and improved on some layouts I thought would be good. They were made even better when I could lay them out and look at them from a distance.

This weekend, I made a top of four orphan Ohio star blocks - I can't even tell you where the fabric came from! It's a cute little top.

Then, I made some nine patch blocks in black and white to use with some string blocks... NO it was horrible. So, I made some other strip blocks and now have a cool quilt top (well, almost I do have the rows together!) in just black and white.

Then, I wanted to make the quit "Cindy Lou Who" From Carrie Nelson's book "Another Bite of Schnibbles". (If you go here:  http://www.missrosiesquiltco.com/Schnibbles.html the quilt on the left is Cindy Lou Who...cute, huh??? Christmassy but not in your face!) So....I pulled out all of my left over Sweetwater "Countdown to Christmas" fabric and went to town...except there were four blocks I just couldn't get figured out. Up on the design wall in went in stages and then POP I was able to figure out those 4 blocks! All of the blocks are up waiting for the black and white rows to get done so that I can use my row markers on Cindy Lou Who.

Next up with be a Halloween runner for my sister. She found a cute runner of witch's hats. I've looked online and at a couple of shops, but haven't found the pattern. So, I'm making it up. Hopefully it'll turn out well and she'll like it.

Peace on Earth and Oregon Ducks

I've been able to piece two quilt tops this weekend. The first used two charm packs of "Peace on Earth" plus some yardage in the teal-on-teal print. I've seen the pattern a couple of places online, but not any one place that I copied from... I love how it turned out - and I remembered to make the binding and use the rest of the yardage for the backing!!!

I took 3 different Oregon ducks fabrics that I had leftover from a project last year and did a disappearing 9-patch pattern. It's small - just under 40" square - but it should be the perfect size for a table topper for the new owner. Again, I remembered to cut some of the yardage into binding strips and I hope to have the back pieced before the weekend is over!

Still no ability to upload photos : ( 

Quilt Progress and Blogger Frustration

I've had a quilt in progress for most of the month of August. I had planned to show it here...but I'm having problems uploading photos. Blogger says there's an error in my server...but I think it's just a setting somewhere that I can't resolve.

I'm also having a display driver issue when I'm surfing the web. I have a 2 year old Toshiba laptop that I love...the good news is that I prepaid a 3 year service agreement so today or this weekend, I'm going to contact them and see what I can get fixed. Maybe both problems are related and one will take care of the other. Maybe the blogger problem is "operator error" ...and if so, hopefully they can help me with the.

At any rate, I do have photos to show and things in work. I have a couple of projects in work at one time so that I can work on one and work the other as a "leader and ender"...It's a little confusing as there's more than one project in work at a time...but it's also easy to work on two when they are completely different. Hopefully, I'll be able to show projects shortly.

Design Wall

I'm making a quilt based on some of the quilts in Sizzlin Sixties by Heather Mulder Peterson/Anka's Treasue (http://www.ankastreasures.com/item_212/Sizzlin-Sixties--ANK292.htm). I bought the book and a table runner kit last summer during vacation in northern Minnesota. The table runner is all pieced and ready to be quilted. I love the patterns as they are hexagons that don't require set in seams.

Anyway, my idea was to make a quilt using the 6 different layouts. I started making quilts with a jelly roll of Fresh Flowers (Moda) and a jelly roll of white (Robert Kaufman) fabrics. The two together ensure some great bright colors and lots of white. Anyway, I was having problems laying out the blocks... when I thought about the hangers and dowel I had bought to hang my Grand Canyon quilt. One of the only walls I have in my living room that is blank and easy to get to is the entry way (yep, you enter the front door into the entryway and the living room is immediately to the left). Anyway, I was hanging up the rod and my DH wasn't too thrilled with what I was doing...until later in the day when I had blocks on the batting. He was ok with my placement after that.

When we had company last weekend, I put my Grand Canyon quilt on the dowel as I didn't want the blocks to fall down. So here's a picture of the dowl with my Grand Canyon quilt:

(yeah, a little too high for this quilt... but than again not too bad) My front door is on the right, the bookcase on the right is at the edge of the living room. Everything else is the entry...
Here's a picture of the "design wall":

The batting is a lot wider than the dowel. Last weekend, I let it fall off both ends. This time, I scrunched it up on the right...It's a little hard to see the white batting on the white wall...
I'll take a picture later today/this week when I put my 1/2 blocks back up for designing purposes... This has really helped me to layout this quilt! I actually laid out the quilt blocks three different times. I remade a couple of them and streamlined the amount of blocks I'm going to use. Today, I'm making more blocks as the quilt was getting long but still pretty narrow... I'm confident the quilt will be great.

String Clean Finish

I finished this quilt on August 4th. I was going to blog about it last weekend, but we had other plans. Here's String Clean:

This quilt is about 60" square - a little too big for my table at work and a little too square for other uses. I think it's a decorating type of quilt. I've got another similar pattern to make - maybe with smaller blocks? The quilting is custom and is wavy lines following the stings. Here's a close up on one of the blocks:

The  quilting gives the front lots of great texture and here's the back:

Cool huh?

I also finished my Sparkle Stars. I loved it so much I took that one to work and it's on my table. When I bring it home (after Labor Day, most likely...), I'll take pictures and post them. I still have 3 more quilts at the LAQ - almost brought another one home but as we were looking at it, she noticed a bad run of bobbin thread. She's so cool in that she's going to fix just that little area. Talk about attention to detail!

Granny Squares - Top finished

Way back at the beginning of this month. I pieced together my granny squares into a top. I sashed my nearly 9inch blocks with 2.5 inch black sashing...and added one 2.5 inch border around the entire outside. Its 40something x 50something as it's 20 squares. I love the way it turned out. here it is:

Isn't it pretty? I love how all of the color in the blocks pop so great. All of the fabrics here are scraps that I cut up in 2.5 inch squares and have been using in a variety of projects. Here's three more pictures of this quilt top:

This was a fun and easy quilt to make.

I started on my next project but have been taking it slow. I'm making up my own pattern but following a few hexagon blocks made in Heather Mulder Peterson (of Anka's Treasures) book Sigglin' Sixties. I bought a kit last summer for the Secret Garden Runner from this book and found Heather's methods very easy. I had a thought to use two jelly rolls (one white/Robert Kaufman, one Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain/Moda). I have a bunch of the triangle blocks cut out and some of them pieced in half hexies (Heather's method to sew in strips and not have to sew any set in seams!). I'll post blocks/layout as I work on it. I really wish I had a design wall for this one. I've tried different layouts on paper and so far...yuck. I'm certain the reality will be far better!!

(OK, just figured out spell check in blogger - love it!)