During the retreat, I managed to complete the top to my Designer Mystery 2009 quilt. I took the project as an after thought and am now very glad I did.
the photo is kinda dark, but you get the idea.. 
Category Archives: WIPs
Love Letters
I started another Fat Quarter Shop block of the month this week. Love Letters by This & That designs. I know… I am addicted to Block of the Month patterns from there.
This one runs for 6 months and there are two duplicate blocks each month. The fabric used is Etchings by 3 Sisters for Moda. I really love the colors. I think I am a fan of 3 Sisters fabric lines; I seem to be drawn to them and not even realize it until after they are purchased.
While I love to piece complicated blocks, I think this one “took the cake”. I worked on the two blocks for three days. It wasn’t all day, but several hours each day. Between pressing, cutting, drawing diagonal lines on the backs of tons of fabric squares, it was tedious. The result is beautiful and worth it though.
The plaid fabric is a woven. I have never worked with wovens before. I treated it just like a regular cotton fabric, just starched the heck out of it with my Mary Ellen’s Best Press before cutting.
Just Like Potato Chips
You can’t just make just one!
I have heard that before and couldn’t believe it. But then I have not really been interested in hand projects.
Last month at my guild meeting, our program was hexagons and how to English Paper Piece. I have, of course, seen tutorials and such for a while and resisted. This seemed appropriate to take along with me each afternoon while I am waiting for my kids to get out of school – I usually have to wait an hour each day because of my kids being in two different schools with twenty minutes between release times.
I purchased 600 hexagon papers (1-inch leg size). I then was trying to decide what fabric to use. I really didn’t want a “Grandmother’s Flower Garden”. I decided to cut up my Moda Grace Jelly Roll for this. I will probably place this in a random order since each jelly roll strip yields 18 hexagons. I then purchased three charm packs that will yield 12 more for a total of 30 per fabric. I will have a total of 1200 hexagons.
The last two days that I have been working on them to baste the fabric to the papers, I have done 55 of them. I will have to admit though I have been a bit under the weather and on the couch a lot. This is a perfect project for this. I can rest on the couch and work on basting hexagons to the paper.
So… for an official hexagon count:
55/1200
Oasis Chain
It looks like I forgot to add a photo of this top that I finished a while ago.
It is made using three jelly rolls and yardage for the chains. It is king sized. The pattern was on the Moda Bake Shop site.
All Caught Up
I had two of my block of the month packets (months 3 and 4) just sitting around waiting for me to work on them and the other day I was able to put them together. I also purchased the finishing kit, so I started to put some of it together so it is relatively easy to finish once the blocks are all done.
Here are all of them in order:
Month 1:
Month 2:
This one I did mess up a bit (the yellow and red flying geese are supposed to point the other way – I didn’t find out until after the whole block was together. I wasn’t going to rip it all out when it looks fine. Mine will just be unique!
Month 3:
Month 4:
I am now a third of the way done with this block of the month. The colors in the blocks are much prettier than in these photos.