Design Wall Monday - February 24, 2025

 Good Morning Quilters!

The Collection for a Cause - Community quilt is now sewn together into a quilt top.  Despite all my mistakes, I am happy to have it ready to be quilted.  It turned out to be 78” by 80”, almost square.  If I had cut the diamonds correctly, the kit should have resulted in a quilt that would be 69” by 83”.  So I am happy with it, in spite of  all the twists and turns,  If you want to know more, you could search my blog for previous posts in January, 2025.  

Here is the quilt top on the design wall:

I am also making progress of sewing the borders on the Cousin’s Walk bird quilt.  I decided to sew the borders onto the quilt before I finish the final flowers at the end of the borders.  Here is my first mitered corner:

What are you moving onto or off of your design wall this week?  It was great participation on our  linkup last week, with 25 blogs showing lots of beautiful quilting projects.  Thank you all for participating.  I appreciate reading about and seeing your work.  

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Design Wall Monday - February 10, 2025

 Good Morning Quilters!

My design wall looks similar to last week, but I am making progress.  here is a picture:

The left side is all sewn together, and I am working on the rest of it.  It is going well, but I didn’t have time to work on it much this week.  Slow and steady will get the job done.

The Cousin’s Walk quilt is getting nearer the end….slow and steady applies to this one too.  I tried to appliqué one flower each day, and there are three more flowers to go before I get to the end of each border, where there are mitered corners.  I plan to sew the borders to the quilt, miter the corners, and then finish the appliqué at the ends of each vine.  I am so happy to be near the end of this quilt, and am looking forward to seeing the borders together with the middle part of the quilt.  Here is a picture of my progress:  (The white strip is freezer paper in a pattern of where the final vine will be)

Valentine’s Day is this week.  Do you have any quilts that you display for Valentines Day?  I have this one, that I always have out in February:

This quilt was made from a cross-stitch pattern that was free on the internet.  (Here) I used squares that finish at one inch, and changed the bottom wording part.  If you want to read further about the construction of it, there is explanation in this 2017 post (Here)

Maybe I will see some Valentine’s Day quilts this week from some of you.  It is always a pleasure to read your blog posts and look at your pictures.  Click on the link below and join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party.  I appreciate you so much.  Thank you for participating,

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Design Wall Monday - February 3, 2025

 Good Morning Quilters!

Happy February to you.  My Cousin’s Walk borders are getting finished.  I am nearing the end, and try to appliqué one flower each day.  Here’s todays picture:  on left, the last two borders as they are now, and on the right, a picture of the same two borders from two weeks ago.  I am getting excited that the end is getting near!

The diamonds quilt on the design wall is coming along too.  I added the edge parts, and have about ten long strips of blocks sewn together, and also have a little bit in the top left that have the strips sewn together.  It involves thinking as I sew because the triangles all have bias edges, and when sewing them together, I have to offset the edges a little to line the seams up correctly.  It’s a job where I keep Mr. Seamripper handy when I first begin a session, but after I get sewing for a while, I use him less.  Here’s the design wall, in three pictures:

(1) The top left corner is all sewn together (except for the one little corner bit)

(2) The next set of blocks are now sewn into six long diagonal strips:

(3) And the rest is a mix of some blocks sewn to their neighbors, and some blocks that are not sewn to anything.

   

It is turning out to be fitting together like a giant puzzle, and I am liking it.  What are you playing with on your design wall this week?  It doesn’t have to be on a design wall, but we like to see what progress you are making.

Click on the link below and join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party.  I really enjoy seeing what you are making.  Thanks for participating each week.  I appreciate you.

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Design Wall Monday - January 27, 2025

 Good Morning Quilters!

My design wall now has most of the blocks for the Collection for a Cause - Community quilt up on it.  It still needs the outside red blocks, which I’m still working on.

Here is a picture:

I am now ready to start sewing diamond to diamond, in long diagonal strips.  Since it could be a boring job, I’ve decided to set my hourglass sand timer and work on it for at least as long as the sand is running from the top to the bottom, and then take a break.  Do you have a fun timer in your sewing room?

Here is mine, and sometimes I’m amazed when I look up from the sewing machine and see it has no sand in the top part.  It takes roughly an hour for the sand to run from the top to the bottom.  

I also appliquéd some leaves on the Cousin’s Walk borders.  It went a little faster when I was making the same shape over and over.  Here is a picture:

What is on your design wall this Monday?  We had lots of eye candy last week with almost 30 linkups.  Thanks to all our regulars and all the new people who joined in.

Please join in and show us any progress you’ve made (or squirrels you’ve chased) this week.  

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Design Wall Monday - January 20, 2025

Good Morning Quilters!

The two quilts I’m working on got some progress this week:

(1)  Collection for a Cause - Community is on the design wall, or at least 1/2 of it.  The blocks are now all adjusted to the same size, and here are all the solid diamonds for it.   I put the darks and lights into vertical rows.  Next, when they are all sewn, I’ll put up the four-patch diamonds into the blank spots.

As I am working on this quilt, I realized that since I cut all the diamonds shorter and fatter than the instructions, the quilt will probably be shorter and fatter too…..but, since the cutting mistake gave me extra fabric left over from the kit, I am making more diamonds to add three more rows to make the final quilt longer.  I will have to see what size it turns out, as I am thinking it should be fairly close in size compared to the original pattern.  We shall see.  This quilt is certainly an adventure.

(2). The Cousin’s Walk quilt borders are coming along.  Two borders are finished, and the last two borders are now 1/2 finished.  I had set a goal of having the borders completed by the end of January, but that may realistically be the end of February.  I am a slow appliquér.  But it is not a race, right?  Here’s a picture of the two side borders as they are right now:

How are your projects coming along.  Please update us by joining our Design Wall Monday Linky Party below.  Thanks!  I really enjoy seeing your progress and seeing your pictures.  

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Design Wall Monday - Janary 13, 2025

 Good Morning Quilters!

Here’s my design wall, as it has looked for the past month:

Last week, I talked about perseverance.  And I told you about our amaryllis that tipped over and broke off.  Well, here’s the second try of this hardy little bulb.  I am so proud of it!

So this week, I am rejoicing in perseverance and “second chances”.  This lily encouraged me to look again at the diamond blocks that have been in time out, on my design wall.  They are from a kit, Collection for a Cause, Community, by Moda.

There were two problems with my progress so far.  #1   I cut some of the blocks the wrong size……. read this December post if you want details (Here). I have decided to cut all the longer narrower block to more of the size of the shorter fatter ones.  They won’t be exactly the same size, but close enough to get this quilt moving along.  We shall see.

#2 After looking at it for a month on the design wall, I realized that there was a dark/light pattern to the quilt both horizontally and vertically.  In my start of the quilt, I had the horizontal part going, but was not paying attention to the vertical dark/light thing going on.

So this week, I used the seam ripper while on a trip - on the plane, and in the rental car - to take all the blocks apart.  I feel I am now back on the path to progress, but you never know with some quilts.  We shall see.

Also, The Cousin’s Walk border flowers are coming along as planned.  How about you?  What challenges are you attacking, and do you have any perseverance and second chance stories to tell us?

Please join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party below and share with us.

Thanks for participating.  Your blogs are so interesting, and I learn a lot from you.  I appreciate you.

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Design Wall Monday - December 9, 2024

 Good Morning Quilters!

My design wall has a new UFO on it that has some issues.  More than my usual issues.

Here is a picture of prigress:

The kit is one I bought a few years ago.  It is part of Howard Marcus Collection for a Cause series.  I cut some if the pieces years ago, and cut some more oieces recently.  And I took it to a recent retreat, intending to assemble it there.  While I was at the retreat, I discovered a major mistake I had made in cutting the pieces.  

See these two pieces?  They should be the same, but are not.

I discovered that my pieces were cut using different angles on my ruler.  Some at 60 degree, some at 45 degree.  

Here is a picture of the quilt, from the kit:

I am using the size diamonds that I have the most of to see what I can salvage from my cutting mistakes.   (I cut about 75% of diamonds at wrong size.)  Anyway, it is a new challenge to be figured out.

What challenges are you facing in your quilting life this week?  What good things are happening in your life?  I have an amyrallis about ready to show off all its beauty.  I will take another picture of it next week, when it is in full bloom.

Please join our Design Wall Monday Linky Party below, and tell us all about your week.    Thanks so much for all of our faithful participants.  

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Design Wall Monday - September 9, 2024

Good Morning Quilters!

The baby quilt is quilted, and ready to send off to the new baby.  I cheated:  instead of quilting it myself and dealing with the stretchy flannel back, I took it to a friend and she did a wonderful job!  Much better than I would have done!  

And it is finished.  Here are a few pictures:

First, the complete quilt.

Second, a square up close, the turtle:

The back side showing the butterfly quilting.  So cute!

My next UFO that has been pulled out is a quilt kit.  Pictured below:

It is part of the Marcus “Collection for a Cause” series.  The collection series are mostly reproductions of vintage quilts, and I liked the fabrics in this repro kit.  I started it, but was challenged by cutting angles and having block edges on the bias.  But now I am attempting it again, and have started making the “four patch” diamond blocks.  There are about 100 of them, and I am just starting - 12 made so far.  

The weather here in Michigan has been hinting fall….cooler nights and sunny 70s in the daytime.  I hope it lasts for a while.  

What is on your design wall?  Mine is empty right now, but will soon have the UFO diamonds. up there.   We are looking forward to seeing what you are working on.  Thank you for faithfully linking up with our Design Wall Monday Linky Party each week.  You are a blessing to me.

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