Spiderweb Quilt

I cannot believe how cold it is this year. I have always said we have four seasons in Florida-hot, hotter, hotter-hotter, and hottest. Never have I experienced it being this cold for this long. We usually have a few cold days in the winter, but nothing like this. I feels good to sleep under a quilt.
One of my recycled New Year's resolutions is to finish some of my quilts this year. I know you are wondering what is a recycled New Year's resolution. Well, it is the same resolutions I had last year and did not make good on them. My intentions were good, but willpower was a little lacking.
This year I am going to finish off the quilts I started over the last three years.
I decided to start with the Spiderweb Quilt I was making for my daughter. So I pulled out the stack of triangles.
While I was looking at them I wondered why I had put them aside. It was the way I was taught to do it. In the class we were taught to put them together to make a larger triangle. For some reason this did not work out well for me. So I took two triangles and put them together to make a square. I made four squares.

I took the four squares and made two strips.

I took the two strips and made one larger square. Which I like.

This weekend I plan on putting all my squares together. I do have some triangles put together that I need to take out. I want to have my quilt top done by Sunday evening. That does not include the borders (I have not decided what I am going to use for the borders).

I also want to make Bonnie's quilt Roll Roll, Cotton Roll. Since I am not crazy about the light strips I plan on doing that step first. I have went through my stash and found all the light I could. I have cut a large bag full and plan doing it as a leader-ender project. I have this bad habit of doing what I do not like first and the fun comes later. Silly I know but that is just being jeri.

I forgot to blog on my Clamshell progress. I did not make much progress in December. The holidays made everything rush-rush-rush. Now that I am back to sewing I hope to make some progress this month.
Until we chat again.

Jeri

Clamshells on the road to Texas

I am leaving for the quilt show in Houston, Texas on Tuesday. I am excited and afraid at the same time. I want to have a good time but I am a little afraid I will be overhelmed by everything and mortgage the house while I am there. So, I have asked a few of my non-quilting friends to call me daily and say, "You don't need that". I hope it works.
When I get back I am going to the World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, Fl. Last year I went for three days, was a white glove lady, took three classes and shopped until my purse ran dry. I did not buy a lot but I went to a lot of demos, test drove a lot of long arms, made a wish list a mile long and went home a tired, happy lady. This year I am only going for one day, Saturday, with my friend JoAnna. I want to enjoy the quilts more and spend less.
This is the third trip I have taken with the ladies from West Palm Beach. Last year I went with them to Lancaster. In September I went with them to the quilt show in Jacksonville, Fl. Now I am going with them to Houston, Texas.
I decided to work on my Clamshell Quilt on the road to Texas. I have 200 lights and 205 different color clamshells.

My goal is to have the top edge of all 405 clamshells basted down by the time I get back. I have basted some of them. Since I will not have an iron of the bus I plan to finger baste them and sew them down. I had planned to work on my T-shirt quilt but I could not get it together. Nothing seemed to work for me. I wouldn't or couldn't find the right stencils. I could never decide what color thread to buy. The back wasn't ready (yes it is) or the patches were in the wrong place (no they are not). I had more excuses than Carter has liver pills. So, while I was pondering over the little things, time slipped by and I missed getting everything together. This year I plan to do better.

Happy quilting,

Jeri

Clamshell Update

For some reason I cannot not get my pictures to upload on the computer. I will try to fix it myself this weekend and load them up for you to see.
However, I have made some progress. I was blog browsing and stumbled upon Brown Dirt Cottage blog. I noted that she was using muslin for her light blocks. I liked it. So I said to myself, "Self, you can make all your light blocks one color instead of trying to find several different lights." Since I had a credit at my local quilt shop I went there (drove like an maniac) and bought not one, but three yards of an off yellowish cream color. Then I went shopping at my other favorite quilt place (my sewing room) and found over fifty different dark colors to start my journey.
I cut out a few of the darks and ironed the tops down. This weekend I will glue them down.
I have a four day weekend this week-Friday thru Monday-I plan to do a little quilting on my HQ 16. Which brings a question to mind I have meaning to ask. I have a HQ 16 and one of the banquet tables but I want one of the newer tables-the Studio frame. Does anyone have a Studio frame and how do you like it?
Happy quilting until we meet again.
Jeri

Clamshell Pattern

I wanted you to see the clamshell pattern I decided to use. I will add a quarter inch seam allowance.
I made a few extra copies and taped them together to see how it would fit/look. I like it. The first pattern I found did not fit together well.

I found this pattern in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, June 2005. The article is "Sashiko by Machine". I enlarged the pattern 225%. That made it 4 1/2 inches across finished. My first try at enlarging it made it 5 inches across which is a little to much for me.

Another thing I like about the pattern is that it has a line at the top for placement. That made it easy to line the pattern up. How I will use the line in the quilting I do not know yet. But I like the ease of using it to fit the pattern together.

I wasn't going to make a plastic template but I have since changed my mind. I still plan to use the freezer paper but the template may come in handy. Who knows.

Happy quilting.

Jeri

The Clamshell Club

I joined the Clamshell Club. I do not have any pictures this week but I will have next week.
So, what have I done? I went to the library and found a pattern. I enlarged it to be approx. 4.5 inches at the widest point. I took an afternoon to learn the different types of applique. I have not really appliqued anything even thought I took a class. Connecting Threads has a nice tutorial on applique. I decided to use freezer paper. I have some mylar template plastic that I have used in the past and was going to use that but the freezer paper is my choice. So, this is my to-do list:
Copy of pattern-done
Make a master copy of the pattern (4 clamshells will fit on a sheet of paper)-done
Cut my freezer paper to fit my copier-to do
Make 25 copies to start-to do
Will have photos before the week is over. I plan to start with the light colors. The word here is PLAN (which always go astray).
Happy quilting.
Jeri