It's a Finish!!!

'Patriotic Twirl' is officially a FINISH!!!

I am loving this little quilt.  

It measures 24 inches square - perfect for a table topper or wall hanging.  

Not every triangle is perfectly perfect but I like making them using the 2 HST units out of 1 square, draw the stitch lines on the back method.  Drawing the lines really goes quickly and it makes for accurate units.

Here's a detail of the quilting.  I used blue variegated thread in the blue squares and plain cream everywhere else.  

Oh, and remember the red & blue fabrics from the original collection I edited out of the mix?

I pieced the back with them!

Hope you had a fun & productive sewing weekend, too! 

Nearly a Finish

I've been spending early mornings and evenings working on the Red, White and Blue project and it's paid off in a near finish.

This has been completely pieced and quilted on Wild Cherry, the 1949 Featherweight.  She worked like a champ!

Here is the project - all trimmed and ready for binding.

I'm using the medium red batik for the binding. It's already stitched on, just need to turn it to the back and hand stitch it down.  Then it will be a finish! 

Red, White and Blue Progress

I had the center 4 blocks made and sewn together already.

 

First thing in the morning, I moved onto the next 4 blocks with blue corners and got them knocked out by 7:30 am! 

Of course, it totally helps to have all the pieces cut, stacked and ready to go.

As soon as work was over, it was back to the sewing machine.  Before I knew it - the red, white & blue top was all stitched...

And layered!!

And it's hard to see in this picture, but the machine quilting has been started.  I'm determined to get this done this week.

Twirling the Red, White and Blue

I started stitching the 'Twirl Around' blocks!

Slowly.

Why?

So I don't get carried away and sew things the wrong way.  HSTs are all about placement and direction. Accidentally turning a unit is way too easy to do with HSTs.

Ask me how I know. 

Center 4 blocks - need a tiny bit of trimming here.

But hey, out of the four blocks done for the center, I only had to un-sew one 4 inch seam.  And that's enough for me!  If I am really good and careful, I may be able to get the rest of the blocks done tonight. 

Late Patriotic Project

Over the weekend, I saw lots and lots of patriotic & red, white & blue quilt projects post all over the Interweb.  And it got me to thinking - I don't have a red, white and blue quilted anything in our house. 

What I do have is red, white & blue fabric - more specifically I have a rwb batik  collection I purchased years ago from a Quilt in a Day sale.  

Hmmmm... what to make?  Something small - for my work cubicle or table topper seemed just perfect, though I must have purchased two of these collections, as I have 2 FQs of each fabric.  The fabric prints are okay but the colors are not quite where I them to be - so some swapping was in order.

Left side are the fabrics I'm using. Right side is the edit out pile.

Better! On to the design.  This came together fairly quickly.  I remembered I like the Bonnie Hunter 'Twirl Around' block from a few months ago.

Re-arranging the layout and including a few spacer blocks, gave me a Plan.

On to cutting - really quick - and then stitching up the 112 HSTs - even quicker!

The pieces are inch and a half finished so the project will finish around 24 inches square.  This should be done this week - too late for this year's Fourth of July, but I'm ready for next year.

Independence Day!!!

Celebrate Freedom!

Enjoy Independence!

Love Liberty!

Remember those who fought to establish this great Nation!

And maybe, sneak in a little stitching time, too.

Tangled Threads

Happy Thursday!  

Umm, okay?  But - Why I am so happy today?

Because:

1. Tomorrow is the start of a 3 day weekend, celebrating Independence Day;

2. The side effects of the meds are subsiding (Thank the Universe!);

3. The sun is shining - I swear it rained every single day of June!

And maybe, just maybe, I'll get the energy to do some sewing!

The pink binding is still in the one-side-pinned-down stage, so that needs to be my quiet time task this weekend.

I have managed to tangle some threads together in the last few days.

This is beautiful, subtle, hand dyed cotton floss from Artfabrik.  This skein was included as a free gift with an order I placed for some heavier cotton thread. 

Wild Cherry needed a vintage-looking thread spool doily. 

 I looked at a lot of different patterns for these and in the end decided to just wing it. 

And, I have enough of this floss left to make another one for Dot - the black FW.  I may even be able to manage this by tomorrow and that's one more thing to make me happy today!