Cutting It Real Close~

Usually when I make a quilt, I alter it from the original directions. Then when it comes time to bind it~ I never guess right on how many strips to cut. Most often I am short and have to sew another on before I can finish getting the binding on. :-/ Sometimes I think, 'oh, I'll save myself the trouble of having to cut another' and I'll do it right away~ then I end up with enough binding to cover a quilt and a half! :-o This time was like hitting a hole in one!! :-))) Look at that~ Just snip off the selvage edges and perfect! :-)) I think this might be my lucky quilt!! ;-) Are you lucky with 'guesstimating' bindings??

Have a happy weekend and
Happy Stitchin'!!

Borders On!

I always kinda fizzle out when it comes time to add borders. It is so much quilt to struggle with! But I kept my nose to my sewing this week and finally got the borders on~yay! I think that deserves a little celebration, but not yet. No time to celebrate as I need to stick to it and get backings ready too. I am hoping to quilt these two in the near future! ;-))

The first is Judy L's 'Bears in the...' sew along she did a while back. I'm calling mine 'Bears in the Forest'. DS's one request was 'no flowers Mom!' I think he'll be happy. Some of the teeny HST's might contain a muted floral, but nothing that sings out 'I'm a flower! I'm a flower!'. LOL ;-) I'm hoping you can click it for a larger view, but sometimes that doesn't work and I sure don't know why! I am going to piece the backing for this one next week. I have bits and pieces of some of the fabrics left, so they should all coordinate nicely.

On the right we have the ocean wave blocks that I swapped with my friend. Y'all voted and helped me choose the border fabrics~ and I love how it turned out. :-) Thank you! This one is huge! :-o 80 wave blocks will do that. ;-) I think it measures 87 x 105, give or take a half inch, so you can see why I could only photograph half of it! It is going to be a full comforter on my bed when it is finished. I am now in the process of piecing its backing. I am hoping to quilt it with an all over leaf panto. Again, I'm hoping it will be clickable for the larger view... ;-)

Break time is over~ back to my sewing machine with me!
Have a great weekend and until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

More Hop Fun! :-)

I had a bit more fun hitting a few more shops. ;-))

At one shop they were giving demo's of the new Hunter's Star ruler~ called the Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler~ created by Deb Tucker. Well, rapid fire is right!~ I couldn't believe how fast the blocks were flying! ;-) So it found it's way into my shopping bag, along with this pattern. I love red. ;-)) I found the leaf print at another shop. It is for the border of my Ocean Wave's blocks~ which I discovered are also called 'Northwind' blocks (because they have 3 HST's in them). I like the name Northwind much better~ especially since my blocks are all autumn fabrics with a good wind rustling through them! :-) Even though I haven't named the quilt yet, they will now be called Northwind blocks. :-)) LOL The gold print I found at yet another shop. ;-) I'm not sure if I'll use it with the leaf print, but I laid it alongside to see how well they went together. ;-) Now to get them sewn together~~

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

What's On Your Design Wall?

It's Design Wall Monday already! :-) And in answer to Judy L's question~

well, let me just say, if you've been by in the last week, you already know! :-) And you are probably tired seeing it! I've been having readers vote for their favorite layout for my ocean wave blocks. Well, the good news is that I've made a decision! :-)) And yesterday while there was a lull in the activity around here and DH was relaxing and enjoying his Father's Day~ I started sewing! :-) So now I'm committed (but you probably already knew I should be by my blog name!) LOL! Now you are wondering~ which layout did she choose?~ :-) :-)

Well, I did fiddle with the blocks some more, so this isn't the exact photo, but I chose this one~

Thank you for all your votes and comments! I had a lot of fun reading your comments, playing with the blocks and deciding on the layout. Now I need to get back to my sewing machine!~

Have a happy day and~

~Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

Choices :-) ...and Giveaway Winner!

First to choices, I played with the blocks some more and have narrowed it down to these two. (no, Brenda, I am not making 80 more blocks to make both of them! LOL :-)) Please help me choose by commenting with either a left choice or a right choice~ok? And thank you all for your input!! :-))

Now on to my giveaway winner~~~ Thank you all for leaving comments and reading my 200 posts! I thought it would be years before I got to that number! LOL And now... drum roll please... congratulations to.....

are you ready? First I should tell you, since it is Father's Day, my DH picked the winner by choosing a number. The lucky person whose name was behind number 13 is............. :-) .................. :-) .................... :-)

~~~~~ :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Myra~~ !!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations! If you can email your address to me, I will get your prizes out sometime soon. ;-) And you know, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it, I must say hubby did good! :-) ~ I think it was really fate that chose you since you love making bags too. :-)

Have a happy day y'all!~

And until next time,

Happy Stitchin'!!!

Last Layout~

Thank you for all your comments and ideas for layouts! As for making more blocks to do them all? That would be no! I think making over 80 blocks for one quilt is enough already! LOL :-))

I have no idea what this layout is called. :-) It kinda reminds me of Hunter's Stars when it is this way. I've fiddled with this one off and on today and see I have too many lights in the bottom right corner~ digital camera's are great for getting perspective! I think I've narrowed it down to this way or the first one? Does this one change your mind? I'd love to hear from you! ;-)

Have a happy evening~

And Happy Stitchin'!! :-)

Two More Settings~

Still playing with my blocks here! :) This is the 'barn-raising' setting. I know I said I wouldn't do this one, but I had to see how it looked! :-) If I were to choose this one, I'd arrange the lights so each square had close to the same value, making them stand in rounds a little better.

I'd do the same thing in this setting~ called 'furrows'. The lines would stand up more if the lights were of like value through a line~

In the setting I showed yesterday, I'd keep them more mixed up. Isn't it interesting the different effects that different settings give?

I have one more to try... which do you like best so far?

I have a favorite, but won't say it yet. ;-)

Until later~

Happy Stitchin'! :-)

What To Do, What To Do....

Thank you so much for your comments about my blocks! Yesterday was a very exciting day! :-)

I'm having a 'fun Friday' playing with all these blocks! :-) 80 blocks take up a lot of floor space! LOL :-)) I'm not sure this will be the layout, and I can already see a few I'll change if it is, but I am enjoying playing. :-) I think these could be arranged any way that a log cabin is arranged~ barn raising, furrows etc. I already have one autumn quilt in a barn raising-type setting, so I won't do that one again, but otherwise there are a lot of possibilities. I'm going to keep playing until crawling around on the floor becomes too much. ;-)

I hope you've been finding fun things to do on Friday too!

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

They're Here!! :-)

The mailman brought me the blocks from my friend! If you've been following me for a bit, you know that I have been making Ocean Waves blocks for a while. (click on the label below to see other posts about the blocks) My friend and I each made 2 blocks and then this past Tuesday we mailed each other our duplicate sets~ and mine came today! Yay! :-)) We sent a few extra's in case we didn't care for one (not likely!), or had used the same fabrics, or 'just in case'. Our quilts need 80 blocks, so we sent 44. She surprised me with a 45th! LOL, maybe she just got on such a roll she lost track! ;-) This is a photo of all of them. Now I need to find a big batting piece so I can put them all out and play! It's really funny, because we both love autumn fabrics, but I can only spot one that we used the same fabric! :-) Kind of amazing! ;-)

Have a happy day and until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

What's on Your Design Wall?

Judy L is having a little fun today asking everyone to post what is on their design wall. Mine changes often since I don't have a wall, but a cloth on the floor! ;-) Today I finished up a dozen Ocean Waves blocks~ actually I made 24 because I am swapping half with a friend. We chose 'autumn colors' to tie our blocks together. I counted 3 times now and I can hardly believe it, but I have all 80 done! Yay! I have to send 40 to my friend, but I'll wait to see how far along she is before sending. ;-) I think I'd better go count again!... LOL :-))

Thank you for all your nice comments on the My Blue Heaven blocks! I printed off some more Triangulations today for the next batch. ;-)

Guess that's all for today~

Until next time~~~

Happy Stitchin'! :-)