Have had a few more projects completed since the Baptism banner went in the mail.
Last week was Quilt Bee day for the Material Girls and we worked on baby quilts for a charity.
At our meeting we cut 6 inch (I think) squares using some lovely flannel. I cut up enough for two kits.
I brought home a kit and another stack of fabric to kit up.
The one I brought home already cut turned out like this —
flannel baby quilt for charity
Winnie the Pooh charity quilt in flannel
I decided I would try a little “free motion quilting” which was less than lovely. 😦 (But hey, it is a baby quilt and they won’t care that my swirls and stippling aren’t great. Good practice…) I don’t like bringing the back to the front to bind, so I made some binding out of flannel scraps (left over from the wedding quilt last year).
My “next project” was to take a UFO out and finish it.
Cupcakes anyone?
Used a pounce pad and stencil
Quilted some swirls
Finished front
cupcake 9 patch back Baking fabric!!
I loved this cupcake fabric and sprinkles, and most of all the fabric on the back and the border. I have enough left to make an APRON for my youngest granddaughter…thinking 2nd birthday! (Shhh..don’t tell).
The next project…..there is a story of course. A couple of weeks ago we were “up North” in Dover DE and ventured into the Habit for Humanity “re-store” store. A favorite stop when we are in that area (we have one right in our home town we never seem to visit). I spied a rolling butcher block top cart/island. It was SOLID wood; real butcherblock top (2″ thick) and the price was $65. I have been after a piece that I could transform into an ironing station. This met the requirements for sturdy and wide. It is 2 ‘ x 4 ‘ and a nice comfortable height for working at. We brought it home, gave it a good scrub with a brush and some murphy’s oil soap. Let it dry for 48 hours, then we coated the entire thing in teak oil. That took nearly a week to soak in and no longer feel “sticky”.
This weekend we hauled it upstairs, into the quilt room (disassembly and reassembly required to get it up the stairs…..too heavy for me to help carry otherwise). I picked up some nice 90″ wide batting (cotton) at WAL-MART off the bolt and 2 yards later, had a very nice padded surface. We covered the cotton batting in flannel. I engaged dear husband with his air powered staple gun to affix it snuggly.
We contemplated further “covering” for the project. I bought this lovely ironing board cover at a quilt show in 2013 –
You will note that it is a “generous size 65x 29. (Did I mention how thick the butcher block was?)
IronSlide brand cover by BoNash
Well, it would not wrap around the edge and under for stapling….so, the next best thing….add an edge!! (Thank you to the nice lady at Walmart who suggested that and sold me a box of self adhesive velcro.)
I added 9″ to the long side on both edges. We tacked a piece of molding to the cart, with the hooky side of the velcro running the length. (We measured and affixed the velcro before we tacked it to the cart). We did this on all four sides. With some careful markings with pencil and PINS, we marked where the velcro needed to go on the skirting and the ends, and put it on. (Before we did the velcro step, we stretched out a nice big piece of flannel; taped it to the work table, and stuck the self adhesive cover to this piece of flannel. I used my “Pampered chef” rolling pin to smooth it out. Hubby was afraid it would be so sticky we would not be able to reposition or remove the cover if we wanted to.)(He is a genius….) It took longer to peel back the paper on the sticky side than any other part of the project. The cover had “wrinkles” in it from being folded up in the packaging for so long. I am SO glad we took that extra step because now, I can easily remove the cover.
Isn’t it fun!! I love the awning stripe fabric. I have rolls of “decorator” fabric that I was gifted and this was the tail end of a roll. I have just enough left to cover a bulletin board later this week. (Need more staples for the staple gun first. ) No, ironing a big quilt top will not be a problem And I can pull it out from the wall as needed. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Going to invest in a container for underneath to hold the starch and water jugs etc…that way they don’t get knocked over when I roll it around. (Maybe a fabric box with some of that upholstery fabric I have bolts of….)
In between the ironing station project, I worked on a layout of my SILK half square triangles (HST). I took a class at the beginning of May and we made 96 3.5″ HST. Our class was taught by Cheryl Lynch ( http://www.cheryllynchquilts.com/ ). She is a fabric artist who taught us how to stabilize the silk before cutting! She also had us draw a grid on the back of the fabric and we made speedy HST. Good trick if you are making a bunch in a particular color scheme. Check out her blog — http://www.cheryllynchquilts.blogspot.com/ I bet she is looking at architecture for great ideas for quilts.
I played around with a chevron design –
chevrons in silk
But then, I decided to try a design that was in the classs booklet called BARN RAISING:
You know I had to pick this. It was by far the best idea from my perspective. I think it will be a wall hanging. It should finish out 24 x 48. I have 4 rows on the bottom put together. I have a goal of having it finished to take to the guild meeting NEXT Monday. (Garden weeding will HAVE TO WAIT…..).
I need to “up date” my 2014 project list with a few finishes! 🙂 I need to go sew…. My thought was to finish this, as it counts against the UFO list; and then cut out and sew a BAG that I purchased the pattern for.
I have a favorite “video blogger” The Gourmet Quilter” and she did a 3 video tutorial on a great over the shoulder bag
I loved it so much I bought the pattern from her website! If you have some time, go check out her videos!! Picture of the bag from her website below to give you an idea! Love that fabric she used.
(Pattern available here — http://www.gourmetquilter.com/collections/bags/products/that-shoulder-bag )
Pattern available at http://www.gourmetquilter.com/collections/bags/products/that-shoulder-bag
MY bag will be made from fabrics in my stash. At first, I thought I would use some of the lovely NYC fabrics I bought early this year. But then, I changed my mind. I had some fabric just WAITING for me to use for this bag. It will be my “treat to myself” when I get it finished.
Do go check out the Gourmet Quilter on her blog. Her videos are DELICIOUS.
Time to sew…..
Stitching Grandma 