Sewing with friends and the Fabulous Letter F!

Today I am sewing with friends all day, and teaching a class tonight. I want to get the backs put together for the asian Circle and Spin quilt, and the St Marks quilt while I am at the store with the big tables! So that is part of what I am taking to work on.

I decided against using this Lone Star layout to use up my leftover diamonds, but thought I would show you anyway. I tried some different layouts, but didn't really love any of them, so I decided just to sew them together in diagonal rows.

I figured out a layout using most of the diamond sets that I sewed yesterday. I finally had to print it out on EQ, much easier to see how many diamonds are in each diagonal row ( diagonal rows are harder to visualize for me). So I haven't actually laid them out yet, just made the rows that I need to do so. Could be interesting or a train wreck, I'll just have to see how it comes together. I have some spares, so if something just doesn't work, I can change it. Since I had so many differing amounts of the different fabrics, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason and while I wanted to use them up, since there are a lot of them, I didn't want to spend too much time doing it. I am taking this to work on today as well.

 Finally, the Fabulous, Friendly F!

  I cheated and made it yesterday, since I knew I was going to be gone all day today.

 I like how it turned out, though I really think I should be making several while I do this, maybe in other colors, so I would have some to use later on. Lots of little bits and pieces of fabrics, but definitely Fun!

Tomorrow, G. I think G will be harder to make, don't you?

Quilt quilted, diamonds, and a letter E or two...

 I finished the quilt I started quilting Saturday. It's a really pretty Stack n Whack which she made more interesting by using several different colors as the background.

Since I didn't cut the exact amount needed,  I had a lot of the diamonds I cut for the St. Marks quilt left over when I was finished. I have been trying to figure out what to do with them. I actually laid them out in a scrappy Lone Star design, but decided that I didn't want to do that.

 I decided I would sew them together to make a scrappy little quilt. Some colors I had a lot of leftovers, some only 1 or 2.

 So I just started sewing them together, pairing up a dark and light diamond into pairs. Then I put the pairs together into sets of 4, then put some of them together in sets of 8. Because these are diagonal rows, all of the rows won't have the same amount, so I saved back some pairs to fill in.

Now I need to press these, start laying them out and see what I can come up with.

 This is my first Letter E. I like it, but it is too small, so I made another one.

 This one is a better size. E is for Easy!  F will be too.  Ok, I confess, I made F while I was making E since I will be gone all day tomorrow sewing with friends and teaching a class. I will post the pic tomorrow.

A pair of Es? Enough with the Es? If you are still thinking of joining in, do...this quiltalong is Exciting, Enticing, Exhilarating and  Enormously Fun!

The very important letter D!

I'm sure D stands for lots of important quilty things, but all I can think of right now is design! Can you think of others?

You can check out Susanne's letters too, if you want. She is also using blues. The link to Patchery Menagerie is on my sidebar if you want to go check out Lynne's great work.

I quilted this morning, and have my friend's #7 quilt almost finished. This is the last one, and then I have to figure out how I am going to get them to her.

A quilt quilted and letter C...

 These letters are really addictive...C was easy to do. Love this one!

 Tada! A...B...C...

I finished quilting my friend's quilt today too. This one is her version of the Garden Window Sampler. I will be teaching this sampler again starting in July. I have one more of hers left to quilt, and I loaded it on the machine after I finished this one. I should get a lot quilted tomorrow...with any luck!

Letter B

The letter B was harder than the letter A, at least it seemed so after I had to take it apart several times. You have to think ahead before you sew. Yea, I knew that, but still did some unsewing. It is fun! I have a link on my sidebar if you want to go over to Patchery Menagerie and see her great tutorial and quilt along..

Two letters done, 24 to go! I will have to trim this A down at some point, but didn't want to trim anymore until I put them together, even though the size sort of bugs me.
I spent the day at my parents. Had a great time visiting with them.

Red Letter Quilt Along

The Red Letter Quilt Along began yesterday at Patchery Menagerie. I have wanted to learn more about making letters with fabric and incorporating them into quilts ever since Word Play Quilts by Tonya Ricucci came out.  I am fascinated with this process, I just haven't found the time to try it. Along comes Lynne with her Red Letter Quilt Along, it's summer so I have a little more time and I am jumping in!

 We need 25 fabrics of our color. She is doing hers in red, but you can do any color you want. I am using blues and have a pretty good assortment of them to choose from. My background is a pale pink/yellow/greenish blender.

Then you need one other color that pops with the rest for your initial letter. For my initial I think I will use an orange, though not sure at this point which one. I have a few letters to go so don't have to decide right now! You need background fabric that your fabrics will show up well on.

Here is another orange. She is doing one letter a day on weekdays only, so it should be very doable. 
Here is my first letter!!!! I love it!

I got about 2/3 finished quilting a friend's quilt today. I have one more of hers left.

A new round robin....paperpiecing a block...a helper...

I have a group of friends that have gotten together every other month or so for years. We did a block round robin several years ago and later on we all did our magic on an Ocean Song panel. At our last gathering, one of them suggested we do another round robin, but this time it will be a medallion round robin.  So when we meet next week, we are supposed to bring a block. It has to be at least 12". I wanted a block that would stand out since it would be the focal point of the quilt. I had seen  the paperpieced Circle of Geese  on another blog, and loved it so decided to make it, with a little variation. I wanted the points colorful too.

 I had to choose 12 colors, as I wanted to reuse each twice. Plus I wanted the points lighter than the geese, so that (hopefully) it would look 3D.  It didn't take much of each fabric.  Here is one quarter finished.

 You can see how helpful Smokey can be!

See that tail? It swishes around while I am sewing and almost gets under the needle.

 Yea, I'm talking about you.

 Since I was using so many colors and the pieces are fairly small, I marked each one with the color I was going to use so I wouldn't get mixed up. If you make it with just the geese, you use the background on all of the pointy sections.

 Here is the second quarter finished.

 I needed 2 of each quarter to make my block.

 Ready to sew together.

 This pattern makes a 12" block. I wanted to take the paper out before I passed it on, plus I wanted it a bit bigger, so I added a 2" border of the background fabric.

All done! I am excited to see what the others will make for their center block.

Quilting can wear a girl out!