Lovin' "No Triangles"!

I saw a picture on pinterest of a zig-zag or chevron style quilt that was no triangles.  The link on the pin did not work, but the picture was enough for me to go ahead and jump in.  I have 1 baby quilt I need for a baby shower next week, and 1 I wanted to make for Christmas.

Its put together by making a two strip block, and turning the block in each row to form a zig-zag pattern.  My background and binding color will be gray, I decided on a 4" finished block, so here are my 2 1/2" strips cut for quilt 1 and quilt 2.

Sewing on my gray strips to my print strips looks like this . . .

and then cut into 4 1/2" squares . . .

Layout my design, left, right, left . . .

After laying out my design I began assembling the rows together . . .

Tops are ready to be quilted.

I love how these came out and how easily they went together.  I'll be quilting #1 over the weekend, and #2 next week.  Baby quilt #2 will be my first item off my Christmas list.  I have a few more Christmas items lined up and waiting for me to get to them.  There will be a lot of Christmas work going on over the next few weeks :)

Ho Ho HO!

Today is my turn to share in the Ho, Ho, Ho - Christmas in July hosted by Madam Sam at Sew We Quilt and our cheerleader Carol from Just Let me Quilt!  A HUGE thank you to both! There have been some fabulous projects all week long, and more to come! Please stop by today's posters to get in the holiday spirit and see what they've created!

August 8

Quiltscapes

Marla’s Crafts

A Stitch In Time

Mehitabel’s Musings

Buzzing and Bumbling

Transitions For Meee

A Little Bit of Lorene

I Piece 2-Mary

Under the Presser Foot (that's me)

A Reformed Heath’n

Just Sew Quilter

As far as far as summers go - this one has pretty much been a whirlwind!  So, I really enjoyed this little project to just break from the little rat race we've got going on :)

For me, Christmas is a time of FAVORITES! So, I started with my FAVORITE block - the New York Beauty.  I wanted a table topper.  So to jump right in and get to work, I popped in a dvd - my favorite Christmas movie - of all time. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!

I mean really - locked in the attic with the home movies & Chevy Chase running up the stairs with that squirrel on his back! Forget it!!







For foundation paper, my favorite is the Crayola Doodle Pad.

It's newsprint, and it rips SUPER EASY!  /The fact that it's only a couple bucks at Walmart is super cool too!




So, I trim it up for the printer like so . . .









I found a couple of New York Beauty patterns online - but they were all 6" or 8".  I don't know if that's because it prints out better on 8 1/2 x 11 paper - or why really, but what I wanted a 12" block, and I've never really been a "fit on the paper" kind of gal anyway, soooo . . . I hop on over to my next favorite - my most favorite Christmas present (thank you hubby) - love, love, love my EQ7!

 

I drafted up a couple options and played around with some color - wham bam! I got my 12" block :)



Once my pieces were printed, I notched the areas where the lines were to meet, use a little dab of the glue stick, and there it is.

Around here - for us - Christmas isn't so much red and green, but more like LOTS of color

 and and festiveness.  So I just grabbed some of everything and jumped right in!

Zip zip and here we go . . .

About here is where I put on my favorite Christmas music while I sew :)

Once I have one together, just to check it out - I throw some rocks and silk flowers in a glass, light some tea lights to get a "feel" if this is going the direction I want . . .

 Yeah, I'm diggin' it :)

Now, I don't know if you tell looking at this block - but once my blocks were together, I sliced a little extra down - this doesn't exactly make them wonky,

 but it's kind of like turning the end of a kaleidoscope - skews my angles a little when they meet up. This gives a slight star-like effect.

I need to put a back on it and quilt it - I was thinking maybe another design so it could be reversible - maybe a tree or snowman, or something.  On the other hand I really liked the idea of doing some free motion pebbles around the outer gray area - which may not exactly translate with what's going on the back - will have to ponder this some more.  What do you think - what would you do?

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Independence Day!

Yeah!  I finally finished the piecing on my log cabin top :)











Now I'll be playing around with the back.  If you happen to have the day off (I don't) enjoy it!  A happy and safe holiday to all!

Slow Going

Putting the final rows together of my red and white log cabin has been going slower than I anticipated.  But it's summer and I am enjoying it! :)  You may have seen when I started these log cabin blocks way back in January, and again here.  And due to our being in transition between houses - space was just not available and it became very difficult to sew.  Fortunately we've moved into our new home, I've got my machines up and running, and you could see I was making progress again.

I finally got the rows pieced together - and numbered them with my Frixion Pilot pens so I don't get them out of order.  I love them!  A touch with the iron, and poof! the lines vanish.  [I have to be careful - I actually marked on something one time and left it lying on a spot of my work table that was touched by direct sunlight - I came back and the lines had disappeared on that section of my fabric!] 

Not a lot of time today, I have to get to work in a few, so I HOPE to finish up my sashing tomorrow.

In the meantime, I had a some time (and quiet) early this morning, so I sat on the porch with my iced coffee before the heat set in, and got on my laptop.  I have really been enjoying EQ7's Summery Drawing Series.  This morning was block 3.  It's been really useful in helping me get acquainted with all the bells and whistles of this wonderful software.  I worked with the "PatchDraw Block" this morning.

The possibilities are endless!

Also sharing a couple purchases :) 

  

These lovely hand dyed fabrics from Ruby Mountain Dye Works 













and these yummy fat quarters from Me and My Sister Designs - part of Ticklish Collection

Last but not least, I will be participating in Sew We Quilt's  Ho, Ho, Ho Blog Hop - part of a Christmas in July celebration.  So I've started pulling out fabrics to begin getting the idea bank churning to see what I can come up with.

I enjoy participating in the hops.  It gives me a chance to try some new things out, and it also pushes me to do a little more.  The hop will be July 31st thru August 9th.  My blog will be on the hop August 8th.  Hope you can stop by! 

Making Progress . . .

So I've finished the red sashing, and I have my parts lined up and ready to go!

Because I tend to get a little wonky putting things together, I laid all my blocks and sashing out to make sure everything was turned the right way.  Then I take a picture of it, so I can refer to it when I'm putting everything together.  If I take it off the floor and just stitch it right from there - no problem.  But it never fails, something always comes up and I've gotta stop, and I've either put things away - or it gets moved - and I come back scratchin' my head trying to figure out where I left off at. LOL!

And here you can see, I've started piecing my rows together. 

Pretty busy, with Father's Day weekend and all, so I've only got my 5 rows together.  Hopefully I can piece the sashing together Tuesday and get the top finished by next weekend.  Then on to the quilting next week (in between painting the house - hmmmm).

Finally Moved!

We've finally moved!  And now we are in the process of finding a place for EVERYTHING that we've accumulated!  Good grief!  How much stuff we acquire over time!  I have gotten rid of a lot of just ridiculous, unnecessary stuff - now we're down to the nitty gritty.  Some things will remain boxed up until we can get the paint and shelves up - etc.  You know, make it ours.  BUT I have unearthed enough of my precious sewing tools that for today, I decided it was time for a sewing break.  Well, a day.  A sewing day!

This is a breakfast nook.  Well, these jokers are gonna have to "breakfast" elsewhere - cause I have claimed this spot!  I have had my life in a box for 10 months!  Feels good to "feel" my toys again :)  Been pulling my threads and fabrics, and notions out all weekend.  I have to get my pegboards and shelves up - to hold this collection - but for now, I've found enough that I can actually remember where I left off at.

The last thing I worked on was the Dare 2 Dresden challenge.  I found my red and white log cabins, patiently waiting for their sashing to be done, so I dove right in!

I worked on the white sashing strips first, attaching the blue squares to make my star points.  Done one side, and on to the next!

Clip the corners, open and press . . .

Then on to the reds  :)

My daughter moved to Texas a couple of weeks ago, and decided she didn't want to take her Kenmore (and cabinet & accessories) with her.  So she gave them to me (grinning from ear-2-ear).  I wasn't able to try it out, so I thought today was the perfect time.

This baby is a real workhorse and sews BEAUTIFULLY!  It came with the cabinet (in excellent condition), and the original manual and accessories - I think she got it at an estate sale for $15.  When it came to the house, my husband says, "why would you take another sewing machine?!  good grief - how many do you need?"  Need?  Who said anything about Need???  Define "Need".

I mean really.  Sean Bean would know!

I don't know how much sewing I'll get done this week - but I definitely enjoyed myself today!  I'll be good and unpack some more.  Hopefully get to paint in another week.  Now. . .  we just have to agree on a color! LOL!