Quilting: A Love Story

It's been awhile since I posted but I have tons to share :)

I finished the scrappy quilt for my Secret Santa person at work. We have our party next week. We do it later so everyone can make it. It seems someone is always on vacation around Christmas.

I hope she likes it! From my experience, everyone loves getting a quilt!

Made some progress on my Aunt's scrappy and pink quilt. This will be a queen size. It's going together pretty fast. It will be my next finish.

Finished the hexagon sewing on the Green and Hexy quilt. Just need to square it off and add the fabulous border that came with this green stash when I won it. Then, I have to make the back and quilt it.

That being said, I had to start another Hexy quilt. I need something to do while on the train to and from work everyday. It's a long ride. This one is using a huge bundle of fat quarters that I won. The collection is called Picnic Pals. I won it from Penguin & Fish.

They had a sale at Joann's this weekend. I walked out with a load of Valentine's Day fabric at basement bargain prices... with a coupon, of course! I have a year to finish it :) I got the Olive the Ostrich fabric from Hawthorne Threads.

I went to the Road 2 California quilting show in Ontario, CA. I took a class with my Aunt C. Boy was it a bitch! A quilt that had lots of tiny pieces to cut up and sew back together. It was a total mind f**k. I don't have any pictures of it yet. Will keep you posted :) Here's the pattern. The designer taught the class.

But, look at some things I picked up:

Check out these peeps:

And of course, I love the Owl fabric. Check out my pinterest board for owls :) I couldn't resist the bacon either :)

I'm still contemplating the Monday linky party, but as you all know, I tend to disappear from the blog for awhile, so maybe it would be too much work. :(

But if you got this far, pin the scrappy Secret Santa quilt to your pinterest page then leave me the link in the comments. I will send a random commenter this fat quarter. It's the poison poppies from the Wizard of Oz. I have a stash of Dorothy stuff :) U.S. only this time. Ends Saturday February 23 at midnight Eastern.

Until next time,

Mike.

Scrappy Days Are Here Again... and a Ton of Stuff!!!

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to let you know what I have been up to over the last couple of weeks. I also still haven't announced the winners of my last two giveaways (here and here). They were contacted the next day and both have already received their respective prizes.

Barbara from Cat Patches won the fat quarter bundles:

Gabriele from Gabriele's Boutique won the Holly Jolly Christmas fabric assortment:

This also brings me to an important point. Gabriele was NOT a no reply blogger, but her email on her profile was out of date and kept bouncing back to me. I was able still to click through to her blog and find her Facebook page where I left a message on her wall. Sometimes it's really easy to find the person even if you do not have their email. I wanted her to get her prize and I wanted her to know that her email was bad! She did not realize it and was probably missing out on giveaways that she had previously won.

As a segue, I also wanted to point out that if you link Google+ to your blogger profile, it will make you automatically a no reply blogger!!!!! But... and most people don't realize this, your name in your profile and in the comment (if the blogger receives the no reply email) is linked to your Google+ page where the person having a giveaway can obviously contact you. It's just not by email.

Anyway, on with the show. First off, happy holidays to everyone!

I just wanted to let you know what I have been up to. Here we go:

Work in progress: I have been sewing these 320 hexagons on the train while I commute back and forth to work everyday. It's finally coming together, but I have quite a bit of whip stitching left to do. I did it in blocks and now I am just sewing the blocks together. Oh my, the people I get asking questions all the time!

90% of the fabric comes from my very first giveaway win from about a year ago. I haven't decided what to do with the charms yet. I have been working on it since about June of 2011, and I sew on it some everyday pretty much (every work day). And, if you can believe this, I have not blogged about these hexies at all. I know you all got tired of hearing about hexies the last time!!!

Work in Progress: I have started my first rag quilt. It is all owls mostly. They had a great sale on flannels at Joann's. I still have tons left over too. I am going to alternate the prints so they form diagonals (matching) across the quilt. I am coordinating the solids as shown in the picture. The solids will be on the back. 

Finished: This table runner is finished. I made a nice simple nine patch block with HSTs. I used scraps and leftover fabrics from my stash. This was the first one I had ever made :)

This is the back.

Here it is loaded an ready on the machine. I haven't decided yet if it was worth the trouble to load it on the long arm since I know I could have done it FMQ on my home machine. I did enjoy using the machine for the third time though.

Work in progress: This one is my first truly scrappy quilt. I literally hit the bucket to find anything that would make a 5.5 inch square. It's mostly random, but I still tried to make sure there were no similar squares too close to each other. It is really going together fast!!!

Well, if you made it this far, I wanted to let you all know that I have a new sponsor. I'm not doing a giveaway yet, but if you would like to stop by and see Nicole at 1 Choice 4 Quilting her button is at the end of this post and at the top of the right side bar. The store has an awesome selection and I am pleased with their shipping rates. $2.95 for orders under $10. $4.95 for orders $10-50 and anything over $50 ships free!!!

Also, my Facebook page has been really hopping since the last two giveaways. If you haven't liked The Amateur Quilter yet you should. I always try to share any useful or interesting blog posts I read as well as any giveaways I come across.

This week I am going to link up at Richard and Tanya Quilts Link a Finish Friday and Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays!

Enjoy your holidays!

Until next time!

Mike.

The BOM is back!!!

Okay, I had a few moments the other day so I decided to try to catch up on my BOMs. I've been busy with the Hexy quilt and the Buzz Lightyear quilt but now that they have been given to my loved ones, it's time for some "me" sewing. Technically this is a work in progress and a block "finish" so I will be linking up at WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and Richard & Tanya's Link a Finish Friday.

Here is the block:

This is one of the June (I know, it's almost September) blocks for the Craftsy Block of the Month. It's called a Greek Cross. The cross was supposed to be all the same fabric, but I have been using only scraps and I thought these scraps would work even if they are not the same color. While doing it, I also learned about the ever popular "scant" 1/4 inch seam. It basically means that you sew the seams just a little bit under the 1/4 inch mark to make up for the area taken up by the stitch itself. It helps to keep highly pieced blocks from shrinking in size the more you sew pieces together. It worked nicely. There is another June block called the Octagon, which looks easy, but I have not got to that one yet. I am also doing the Quilt Story BOM, for which I am still on June as well :(

I also wanted to mention some of my useful tools that I used:

This is the first time I've used a rotating cutting mat. Wow, it's quite handy! I don't have to move the ruler or my body anymore!!! Great for half square triangles and trimming down blocks with a square. Also, my bloc-loc is always dandy! It makes perfect HSTs because it grabs the folded seam and lines up all the edges to trim them down to perfect squares (and gets rid of the dog ears). I love it! Also, I used the draw the line method for making HSTs so you can see my water soluble blue marker in the picture too. This method really saves you time.

I also wanted to mention that I am doing the Shades of Grey charm swap (from my last post) and I finally got all the fabric squares cut out and ready to mail off:

I found myself trying really hard to be exact. These will be used by others, so I could not just settle for close enough like I normally would.

Again, I am linking up at WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced, and Link a Finish Fridays at Richard & Tanya Quilts.


Also, if you got this far and feel like commenting, I am currently looking for quilting ideas for quilting a quilt made entirely of hexagons. :) Right now, I am thinking of going with straight lines corner to corner, or maybe some sort design to make them pop, like just outside the ditch. Thoughts?

Until next time,
Mike.

I work hard for no money, dun-dun, dun-dun...

Well, I know it's been awhile since I've blogged about what I am up to, so here goes. And, as a coincidence it's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and tomorrow is Link it up Thursday at These Peas Taste Funny, so I will link up at both.

First off, I finally finished my May block of the months for Quilt Story and for Craftsy:

I know, it's July. I'm behind. The top 2 are the hourglass blocks for Quilt Story and the bottom two are the Wonky Log Cabins for Craftsy. The hourglasses are so much like HSTs that I don't know if I care to distinguish them. Easy to make though. The Craftsy blocks were fun! No rules just cutting and sewing without any measurments. Loved it! Great Scrapbuster!

My mom, brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Kansas. I talked my Mom and Sis-in-law into making a block. I think I will try to talk other members of my family into doing so when they visit so that I can make a family quilt out of them.

 I'm still in hexie land, although I finished all the hexagon flowers and I have sewn them all on the the background fabric.

 I was spraying them on the back with my trusty 505 spray and then using a free motion stitch to straight stitch them on around the edge. At first I was just placing them on, but I realized it was getting wonky and bubbly, so the spray really made a difference. I was also using Isachord gold colored thread and it was not looking right. It was loose and there were loops on the back in places. I tried everything: new needle, different size needle, different thread/same thread in the boobin, tension, speed, cleaning out the bobbin. Nothing worked. Finally, I tried standing up the thread spool. I usually leave it down using Gutermann on a regular spool because the thread tension gets to be too much when standing up, but this Isachord was a large spool (green plastic) and when I stood it up, it worked perfectly! Note to self next time I am having issues.

 Hexies all sewn on...

I back piece, and this is one of the many backing fabrics I am using. I just loved it so much I had to take a picture. I got it at Joann's. They had a great 4th of July sale where not only were the fabrics etc. on sale, but they had a coupon for an additional 15% off the whole order! I stocked up :)

I also got a little something-something fat quarter bundles for my next giveaway. I will do it when I reach 200 followers (hint, hint follow me on the right through Google Friend Connect if you don't already).  I also started a facebook page ("like" my page by clicking on the Facebook button top right or the hyperlink I just put in). The only "like" I have right now is my own :(

I am linking up at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays and Link it Up Thursdays at These Peas Taste Funny.





Until next time,

Mike.

I'm Too Hexy for This Quilt, Too Hexy for This Quilt, So Hexy IT HURTS!!!

It's been awhile since I've posted (other than sharing some giveaways), but I want you all to know that I have been busy! I am still working on the flowery hexagon quilt. I have posted many previous times about this, but I thought I should share some progress:

Background fabric is on the design wall, and it doesn't fit a queen size so part of it is on the floor.

 The flower shapes are just pinned on temporarily. I'm trying to decide how close together they will be (and where).

 Right now, this is what I am still doing: taking out the basting threads and paper then ironing and starching those puppies!

 I just finished my last flower today, sewing the hexies together, that is (on the commuter train to work).

And, needless to say, my block of the months for Quilt Story and Craftsy have taken a backseat. I still haven't finished May for either one and it's almost July :(

I have a deadline for the flowery hexie quilt of August 1st (birthday), so this is basically all I have been working on.

I do have a question though. Can anyone suggest a good quilting design to go over the flower shapes? Also, something to go into the spaces between them? I'm pretty good at stippling, but I have not toyed too much with other designs. I would appreciate any suggestions in the comments.

Hope you are having a wonderful week! It's supposed to be a scorcher today and tomorrow here in the Northeast.

I'm linking up at WIP Wednesdays (Freshly Pieced).



Until next time,

Mike.