Block Swap and New Quilting Books

I finally got my april and may blocks done for my block swap.  I especially like the black and yellow block that I made for May.  It inspired me to make a yellow and black quilt for myself in the future.

My Mother's Day present involved Barnes and Noble gift cards.  My loot included the following two books.

I am so inspired.  The Sunday Morning Quilts has lots and lots of scrap quilts.  I have lots and lots of scraps.  A marriage made in heaven.  The Tula Pink book is just simply inspiring.  It gives me a better appreciation of modern quilting.  Love, love, love.  

Yellow Tower of Goodness

I have been kind of a slacker these last few weeks.  I did participate in the Spectrum bright charms swap.  I sent off 56 squares each of 5 fabrics on Friday.  It was a stack of yellow deliciousness.  I am working on a charity quilt today.  Need to trim the blocks to size and put together.

Pezzy Yellow, Spring Street, Quilters Collection-May, Made with Love, Touched by the Sea

Tangerine Picnic Quilt

I spent so much time at my garden plot at Mayfield Preserve the last few weekends, I was thinking spring and flowery.  I took some Robyn Pandolph fabric in tangerine and mixed it up with some solids to make a picnic quilt.  I was not going to use the fabric for anything else.  I am not a big tangerine fan.  I got all the blocks together and am moving them around on the design wall.  I used a pattern called "Bits n' Pieces."

It was a little time consuming to cut but the piecing went fairly quickly.  I only had squares and rectangles.  I am on the road again and headed for Houston next week.  I won't get any more sewing done until next weekend.

Wonky Star Block

I had to do a wonky star block for my block exchange.  First time.  There is a great tutorial at http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2009/02/wonky-star-tutorial.html.  My block turned out great.

Then I decided it was time to do verykerryberry's Wonky Star QAL.  I saw a quilt on PinInterest that lead me back to the QAL.  http://verykerryberry.blogspot.com/p/quilt-long.html.  This was my first attempt at the wonky star.  The fabric is cut into 12 1/2" pieces and then subcut into nine uneven pieces.  I had trouble with the short and narrow strips.  You can see my points were not there.

The second block turned out better.  I am starting to get the hang of it.  Only eight more blocks to go.  This is a baby quilt.  

I also got all my string blocks completed.  I still have to cut my corner and side pieces and put the whole thing together.  I had a pretty productive sewing weekend.

I also went to a presentation by the Janome educator at my local sewing machine retailer.  I am in love with the Janome 7700.  We got to try fmq and did a small project where we got to try out a variety of stitches.  I am going to save my pennies for this baby.  

LQS in Texarkana

I was out of town in Texarkana a couple of weeks ago.  I found a new quilt shop in Summerhill Square that had only been open a couple of months.  She did not have too much fabric yet but I got some great deals.  Her fabric was mostly $8.00 per yard.  I got a great deal on a bundle of four fat quarters for $6.00.  I bought a yard of purple to finish out my husband's quilt and a fat quarter of a floral purple to add to my Farmer's Wife quilt fabrics pile.  I had a great time.  The owner and her daughter are very nice.  If you get to Texarkana you might want to stop by.

String Quilt Revival Quilt

I made progress on my string quilt.  I decided to piece it on the diagonal since my charm squares were directional.  I tried getting my sizes for my setting triangles from Quilt Pro but it would only give me a layout and not the size of the squares.  Thank goodness for Bonnie Hunter.  She has a page that gives you the math to figure out the blocks that you divide to get your setting triangles.  I still have eleven blocks to go.  Since I start at the charm square edge and go out with scraps on all four sides it is time-consuming.  I am using up a lot of scraps but still have lots left.  How many scrap quilts am I going to have to make to use up my scraps.  It seems that they just multiply in my storage containers. I pin-basted another quilt but did not get to it yet.  I am out-of-town this week so I will not get anything done until the weekend.

Not much happening

I have had sort of a slow three weeks sewing-wise.  I got the pieced back of a quilt done, a few of my string quilt blocks, and finished all of my log-cabin blocks.  Between being out-of-town,  having company and being sick, it has been slow.  Hope to get more done in the coming weeks.

I won an embroidered rooster that I can use a basis for a pot-holder or other kitchen item.  Bejeweled Barb is utilizing her new embroidery machine and I am a lucky recipient.

This is a picture of my log cabin blocks.  It does not look like 48 blocks but it is, and putting them together was very time-consuming.  I hope to get them sewn together next week.