Happy Labor Day

I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend with family and friends.
I am in the Red and Aqua swap at Jane's Fabrics and Quilts. She e-mailed me last night. Hooray.
While I was celebrating my Labor Day weekend I thought I would make some gifts for some of my friends and family. So I decided to make my daughter a purse I had seen on Oh, Fransson. So after I cut the pieces out I noticed that I had cut one of the purse fronts wrong. I was suppose to be on the fold and mine was not. So, what do you so with your mistake? You make a pincushion. I like large pincushions so I decided to use a large plate and make a pie pincushion.
I made an inner lining for the pincushion to hold the polyfil and the rice but the lining made it look like it was missing some of its stuffing.
So, I made another without a lining. This one feels just right. I will go and get a button later on this week. Maybe a nice sassy yellow button.
Oh, about the purse, I am still working on that.

This quilt has been on a resident's bed since she came into our facility. She is unable at this time in her life to tell me any history of the quilt. I just love it. It looks like it was handsewn with new binding sewn on. I appears old and well loved.
As you know I have been working faithfully on my Sunshine and Shadow. One of the things I do is think about how I am going to quilt it when I finish. So true to form I went to the library for quilting ideas. (Please excuse my photography).

This one is from an Amish quilt book. It had a lot of quilt patterns in the back. If you cannot make out the quilting it is crosshatched with feathers in the border.

This one is from "The Quilter's Guide to Amish Quilts". I like the crosshatching and the single cable along the sashing. There is some type of design in the corner blocks. I cannot make it out.

This one is from "A Treasury of Amish Quilts" by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman. This one has feather also in the borders and the corner blocks. The middle appears to be crosshatched but not every square. Maybe every other square.
I am not skilled enough to do feathers so unless I am willing to pay someone else to do the feathers, feathers are out.
So, without any drumrolls or fanfare here is my Sunshine and Shadow. I finished it Saturday but had to wait until today so I could take it to work and photograph it.

I love the center. The pink in the center is also the pink in the border.

It is a lot larger than I thought it was going to be. Oh, I knew what the measurements were but to actually lay it out and see it I was dumbfounded.

Another view.
I am going to send it to my mother. Through her I was given a grandmother that taught me to sew and quilt. Thank you Grandma.
I will try to write more later this week. Back to the old nine patch and my DS's quilt.
Lots of love.

Jeri

Another Swap

I signed up for another swap over at Jane's Fabric and Quilts. It is a Red and Aqua disappearing nine patch. I hope I get to participate.
I have spent the day working on my Sunshine and Shadow. I hope to have a finished picture for you by Sunday morning. I love the colors.
JoAnn's is having a sale this weekend. I have become very picky about the fabric I buy so I try to find quilt fabric on sale at my LQSs or on the internet. But I do like their Quilter's Only solids and their Kona Cottons. I have quite a few pieces from JoAnna's so I do like other things as well. But I am picky. Nothing loose weave or flimsy. I went today and bought 2 pieces (solids) for the back of my Sunshine and Shadow quilt. I really like the way the blue stands out in the quilt and so I bought two blues. I plan on adding some of the scrap pieces left over from the top to the back to bring it together. I plan on sewing the back at sit and sew on Tuesday.
Post more on Sunday.
Jeri

Sunshine and Shadow Strips

My Sunshine and Shadow quilt is coming along. I have finished all sixteen strip sets. I hope to spend the next few days/weeks putting it together. This may take some time as I keep thinking I should have put more of the darker pink in the quilt (the pink is what made me want to make it).

I am sorry that the picture is a little "oops" . I will take a better one tomorrow when I have more light. I also need to make a correction. In my last post I called the postage stamp quilt a sunshine and shadow quilt. What I should have said is that this a postage stamp quilt that reminds me of a sunshine and shadow quilt. Oops. Happy quilting.
Jeri

Sunshine and Shadow Progress

I was out visting blogs today and found myself over at Nadine's blog (Friendship Threads) and was amazed at the progress she had made with her Sunshine and Shadow quilt. I love her color combinations. It is going to be a stunner. Stop by and see her progress.

I wanted to show you another version of a Sunshine and Shadow quilt. I took a picture of this quilt while on vacation in Pennsylvania at the Chester County Historical Society. I like the color combinations in this quilt.

I know that it is not the usual solid color that the Amish use but it is still very striking to see in person. The colors all seem to blend in together to make it look like stripes.

This is a closer view. Look at how the colors seem to blend in to each other.

These are my strips for my Sunshine and Shadow. I haven't made much progress but the weekend is near. More time to quilt. Hooray!!! Hooray!!!

I plan on putting my on-going quilt block as a side bar as soon as my DS comes over. I have decided to turn it into a year long quilt. From Sept 2009 to Sept 2010 without stopping the chain. I can cut blocks and make things but I cannot stop the chain. I have over 200 inches at this time. I plan on working on it every Tuesday at Sit and Sew. The Lutheran church near my job has a sit and craft night every Tuesday. You bring whatever you want to work on and socialize with other crafters. In my case ooh and aah. One of my co-worker's mother is a quilter and she attends every Tuesday. She does not attend the church but will find out if I can attend since she was invited by a friend. Keep your fingers crossed. The sit and sew I attend is about a 30-40 minute drive from my job and it is every 2nd and 4th Tuesday. The nice part is it is at a quilt shop and you can buy fabric or supplies if you need it. Maybe I will attend both.

Lots of quilting.

Jeri

Quilt Pattern Organizer

I went to my quilting group last night and had a lot of fun. Show and tell was great. I won the door prize last month and had to bring something this month. I decided to make a quilt pattern organizer. I love mine. I found the pattern on All People Quilt and decided to modify it to meet my needs. I also changed the closure to a button and ribbon.

I bought the 8-pocket folder from Office Depot. I now can keep track of the patterns I am working on (and future patterns). I am working on a smaller version for taking to the quilt store (shopping list with supplies and samples).

I started attending Sit and Sew at one of my local quilt shops. I have so many quilts I want to make I could not decide on a project for working on there. So I decided to make an ongoing quilt block that I plan to cut up into scrap squares or triangles or tumblers or some shape and sew together.

Since I have quite a few scraps I can keep this going forever. I am sewing to about three inches away from the end of each row so that the rows can continue on. They are two inches wide (I had a lot of these) and no more than 6 1/2inches long but no smaller than 1 inch in length. I will keep you posted on my never ending block.
Last night I started sewing my strips together for my Sunshine and Shadow quilt with Nadine. I will post pictures this weekend. We divided the quilt up into sections. We are working on the four corners. Nadine e-mailed my pictures of her strips and they are beautiful. Thanks Nadine.

Happy quilting.

Jeri

New Quilt Started

I guess you could say I have started another quilt. I completed my color reference board.
I did not include the inner or outer border colors on the board.

I have cut all my strips and labelled them with my numerical system. They are just waiting to be sewn. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Jeri

More Sunshine and Shadow

Sorry I haven't blogged anything lately but I have been busy with my quilting projects. I will try to blog every other Sunday. That way I will have something to show and tell.
I have started cutting the strips for my Sunshine and Shadow quilt. I have 18 colors but will not use them all but want to have them available if needed. I sent Nadine some fabric and numbered each piece so that we could coordinate our colors. When you look at a picture vs looking at the actual quilt the colors may be a little different. So I need her help with the different colors. I made a new color reference board. I wanted to show Nadine what I was talking about so I decided to put a picture on my blog. I have made one before when I was making a Bargello quilt and found it quite helpful.
I have a curtain rod running along the top of my bookcase with curtain hooks that I can hang notes to myself there, as well as quilt patterns and finished quilts. It is a very helpful rod.

Recently I took one of my quilt tops to work to photograph and one of my co-workers whose mother quilts ask me why I iron my seams open. I iron them open because that was the way I learned to sew plus I get a flatter, neater seam and my seams seem to match when I sew them together.

My DS is having a birthday this month and wants a quilt. King size no less. So I am going to start two new quilts this month. I know this is against my New Years Resolution but he's my son and I not only love him, I like him. So I am searching through my stash for blues, reds and lights. The pattern is Hudson River Chain by Maria Umhey. The pattern is in The Quilter January 2007 issue.
The closer it gets to September the more excited I am about going to the Jacksonville Quilt Show. The lady I am going with has made our hotel reservations. We will be staying at the same hotel we stayed in last year. They give a special rate for the show.

Happy Quilting.

Jeri