Design Wall Monday - March 6, 2023

Good Morning Quilters!

Here is a new little doll quilt that I just finished, and the story behind it.  First the quilt:  

And the story:  While sorting some saved papers in a box, I found a picture I’d printed from an auction site on the internet.  It was a quilt that I liked very much.  The picture:  

Also this week I was looking at the hsts I had made two weeks ago:   

There wasn’t a good plan to go any further with the hsts until this week when I saw my saved picture.  I thought, hmmm, I could turn all the hsts into hourglass blocks, and have enough for this little quilt..

Here is the idea taking shape:

And here is my new little doll quilt, shown with my snoozing dog, Miss Penny Lane.  

The hourglass blocks are 3/4” square and the quilt measures 8.5” by 11”.  I added little triangle corners on the back in case I would ever want to hang it up.

This is what I find fun with quilting - making something that pleases me out of my stash.  Hope you have been having fun this week too.

Now it’s your turn - join the Design Wall Monday Linky Party below and we can see what you have made.  Thanks for sharing with us.  Have a great week!

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Design Wall Monday - May 6, 2019

Triangles, triangles, triangles.....and they are yet too small for the design wall.

Since I make small quilts and doll quilts, people sometimes give me their leftover fabric bits, and I am working on some of them this week.  My friend Gretchen Weaver, (Blog) , gave some to me last fall at a retreat.  Gretchen is a fantastic quilter, and has just finished hand quilting a wonderful quilt - called "Pastor's Attic".  I marvel at her skills!  

But back to the triangles:  The white triangles with the little sprigs of spring flowers on them that Gretchen handed to me have been matched to some of my stash pink fabrics, and now I am beginning to play with arrangements.  The fun begins!

I have a great striped fabric that I'd like to use as sashing, but we will see where the triangles lead me.  

What is on your design wall this week?  

Thanks for linking up each week for Design Wall Monday!  I really appreciate you, and it is so interesting to see what everyone else is working on.  My only request is that when you link up that you please provide a link back to this particular blog post somewhere within your post.

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Design Wall Monday - January 28, 2019

This past week was one where I jumped from project to project with lots of partial progress.  Some weeks are like that.  Here’s what I mean:

1)  The cheddar baskets are sewn into groups of three for sashing and the quilt top is on the design wall right now.  I found I had one basket left over.  Maybe it will go on the label on the back.  Assembly of the quilt top is next.

2)  Lori of Humble Quilts (Here) is having a string quilt linkup at the end of every month this year, so when I saw this project in my stash, I added a few blocks to the pile.  These are small blocks that measure 4 x 4 inches unfinished.  Crazy small, but a friend started me on them, and they are fun to make.....well, fun if a few at a time.  I'm making them on muslin, so there are no papers to pull off the back.

3)  My postage stamp Valentine larger quilt is away being machine quilted, and I made a small Valentine wall quilt to go with it.  This is 14 x 15 in.  I like to have a small one to match every large quilt I make.  I don't always do it, but that is the plan.  It wasn't very hard to make, as all the squares were cut and ready in my 1.5 inch cuts box of squares.  I just had to sort through and pick out red ones and shirting ones.

4)  I continued making small 1.5 inch half square triangles to sew into broken dishes blocks (4 per block).  Here are 400 of them which will make 100 blocks.  I am trying to make 100 blocks a week, and they go pretty quickly.  This batch will make the count of finished ones 600 out of 1300.  Almost half way!

See what I mean about working on several things this week?  Hope you were able to get some projects moving along too.  It's going to be a snowy Monday here in Grand Rapids (predicted up to 10 inches) so I will continue on with my sewing fun probably stay inside all day.

Please join in the Design Wall Monday photos fun.  I love to see your pictures, and read your blogs.  As always, please refer back to this particular post somewhere within your blog post.  

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Design Wall Monday - November 20, 2017

Here's my promised post about the November 2017 Jane Stickle quilt retreat in Shipshewana, IN.

Friday night was spectacular.  Many, many beautiful quilts were shown at the Show 'n Tell.  These women overwhelm me with their talent, and I alway come away inspired to do more.

These are just a few of the many intricate quilts I saw there:  The first one is a top that is made of bow tie blocks......lots of them!

Next is a quilt made by Rebecca Windburn, who sat next to me.  I liked her choices of fabrics.

And the overall quilting pano is feathers, which turned out so pretty.  Here's a closer look:

Here's one of the "365 block" quilts shown, and they are so amazing.  The dark blues have enough contrast in them that the pattern shows up because of the contrast with lights she used in the dark blocks.   Mine:  not so much.

Here's a Jane Stickle quilt top. The group is pushing everyone working on this quilt to finish their quilts by 2018 fall, for a Jane Stickle plethora of quilts showing.  When your quilt is completed, quilted, with a label on it, the group brings out a crown and you are crowned a "Goddess".   I aspire to be a Goddess.

The last one is a vintage quilt brought in by Rebecca Haarer (owner of Rebecca Haarer Arts & Antiques in downtown Shipshewana).   All hand stiched and hand quilted.   Isn't it beautiful?

Here are the three doll quilts that I brought to the show n tell.  That's me explaining a little about them.

What have you been working on this week?  With Thanksgiving coming up Thursday, for those in the USA, this will be a slower quilting production week.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.  I am thankful for you!

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Design Wall Monday - October 30, 2017

People give me their projects to finish.....I don't know why, but they do.....probably because I will take on the challenge.  Anyway, at a retreat last year, I was given this small wall hanging that was partially finished, and the owner was ready to throw it away.  She had done all the paper piecing of the leaves and the three pumpkins.  I took it home, and am finishing it this week.  All I have left to do is connect the pumpkin leaves by embroidering curly stems on the pumpkin vines.  I should have done this before assembly of the whole thing, but I forgot about the stems.

I think the problem she may have had was there wasn't enough background fabric to finish it, but I pulled some additional brown fabric from my stash and "made it work".  I love the little paper pieced leaf blocks she made.  I had her name somewhere, and can't find it now, but I will bring this to Shipshewana in November, to see if she is there, so she can see the finished wall hanging.

I have lots of ideas in my head for fall quilts.  Here are some that I'd like to make:

An hour glass quilt with blacks and cheddars and browns....

Small four patches with alternate squares of cheddar....

Single Irish chain of shirting squares on cheddar background....

Maple leaf square alternating with medium and dark fabric nine patch blocks....

Maple leaves quilt from this free tutorial, (to make in 1/2 the size, giving me 6 inch blocks of four leaves... to make in four units, so the quilt would be 12 inches by 12 inches)  (Here)

What about you?  I am looking forward to seeing what's on your Design Wall.

Happy Halloween!

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Design Wall Monday - October 23, 2017

Topic of the day:  Three Small Fall Wall Quilts

Someone asked me recently how I hang my small quilts.  I usually switch them out each season, and sometimes hang them right over something else.  For example,

This small quilt is now hanging in the front entry:

The size of this little quilt is 17 inches by 17 inches, and the hsts are 3/4 inches square.  How did it get there?  It is simply slipped over the mirror that is always hanging there:

In the computer room, I have a fall leaf quilt that was paper pieced:

This one measures 14 in. by 18 in.  I think it was a kit, but I don't remember.  The wooden dowel is slipped into the triangle corners on the back and is resting on a picture hanger/nail in the wall:

The third small fall quilt is propped up in the living room bookcase:

This little black beauty is 14 in. by 14 in.  How does it stay there?   Here's "the behind the scenes story"

Here's a Halloween pumpkin that I like:

Have you carved your pumpkin yet?  If not, what are you working on this week?  I love to see all of your pictures and I thank you for linking up with Design Wall Mondays.

An InLinkz Link-up

Decoration Day

Decoration Day (now called Memorial Day) is set aside to honor those who lost their lives defending our freedom.  

A Canadian surgeon, serving in the Flanders area of Belgium during WWI, wrote the beloved poem that is often quoted on Memorial Day:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

A little patriotic crib quilt I made:

Sophia Grace and Rosie, flying a little 3 in. x 5 in. flag:

Thank you to all the soldiers who died to preserve our freedom.  I honor you today, and always.

Preparing For 2016

This post will cover some thoughts I have as 2015 winds to a close.  Since setting up the new quilt room, I have looked at all the quilts that I have started, or planned to start, that are not finished yet.  This will be my goal for 2016.  

I also would like to make some baby quilts to have on hand, to enable me to gift a baby quilt without feeling I have a time schedule to get it done.  It would make me feel so organized to have some finished ahead of time.  Also, I was surprised at how much fabric I have that comes in "baby quilt" category.

Also, in 2016, I would like to give more information on the blog about how I make my quilts, as I often get questions about them.  For instance, Anita left me a comment about this table topper:  "What size are the blocks?"

I think I blogged about it before, but it is a free pattern from McCall's Quick Quilts.  It is available from www.mccallsquilting.com/free-christmas-quilt-patterns and is called "Peppermint Dash" by Darlene Zimmerman.

Darlene's pattern finishes at 47 in. by 55.5 inches with blocks that finish at 6 inches square.

When I made my table topper, I just divided all the instructions in half, and my squares finish 3 in. by 3 in.  I also made fewer blocks that the big quilt.  I have 20 churn dash blocks and the magazine directions have 30 blocks.  I would like to make the bigger version someday, maybe in 2016.hVE

This week I sorted the last large box of fabric, which was all scraps.  It took me a long time, and I have it now sorted into strips by color, and have just a small box of odd shaped pieces.  It was fun to look at all the pieces, and have them all sorted now.

The boxes of "projects" is a little overwhelming, but 2016 is a new start, with a clean quilt room, and all of the projects lined up for me to see.  I am open to how you tackle old projects that you want to finish......I've seen some ideas out there:

Put the names in a bowl and draw one out and finish that one before drawing another name

Prioritize them by which ones are the furthest toward finishing, and finish those first.

List them by order in which you love them.....I love them all, so that won't work.

Start with the easiest ones, and move more quickly.

Start with the hardest ones, and they will get easier as you go along.

Work on five at a time, and work on the one that interests you that day.

Besides all the projects I have in boxes, I am also starting new ones.  The new year starts with a challenge from Australia, The Ultimate Sampler, or the 365 Challenge.  There is a plan to make a quilt block every day for a year, to make a 90 inch sampler.  All the blocks will be rotary cut and machine pieced, which is what I like to do.  I also like the quilt, as it is shown on the website.  If you are interested in participating, the website it (Here)

We have had a wonderful Christmas and my dear husband have me the best Christmas present I could ever hope for!  He said I could get a yellow Labrador puppy this Spring.  And I can't wait!  He wrapped up a box filled with lots of paper, and inside was a book about raising Labrador Retrievers.  He knew how much I missed our dear Sally since she's been gone.  Here's a picture of us taken this afternoon at his sister's home:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!  On New Year's Eve, I shall toast to a new year filled with finished quilts!  

My word for the new year is "focused".  I will be focused on completing the quilts I have started.