Reaching a Leader Ender Goal and Some Apple Pickin'

I found out about Leaders and Enders (Bonnie Hunter) a few years ago.  Last year after a post about all my little HST's, Karen from Log Cabin Quilter emailed me to see if I'd be interested in a bag of lots of little triangles waiting to become HST's.  Of course I said yes.  I got the bag of triangles along with a few blocks already done. And so I started a journey that has taken almost a year to finish.  Not sure what this pattern is called.  Karen started this project, made 5 of these blocks, and then they came to live in Pensacola with me. 

I'm happy to say that all the little triangles are DONE!!  I haven't counted them but trust me, there are lots and lots of them. I'm not going to make the original pattern but I will use all these HST's in lots of  future projects. 

I'm playing around with some ideas using the blocks already done. I added this border and kind of like it.  I'm trying hard not to get too distracted as I still have things to finish.  So thank you Karen, for getting me hooked on leader/enders and for gifting me such a great bag of inspiration :).

Next, I used these blocks as a leader/ender project.  I now have 9 more souvenir blocks for the guild.  I call this block Flower Boxes even though we have had many different themes.  These are red, white and blue and will be sold in the boutique at our quilt show next year.

And since I've become such a fan of leaders/enders, and since I've finished all my HST's, and the souvenir blocks, I needed a new project.  The coolest thing about leaders and enders is that as you're making one quilt, you end up with two!!  This is an oriental style quilt made from Kim Brackett's book, Scrap Basket Beauties.  The pattern is Cross My Heart.  So easy, so fast, so fun, so Kim.  A very welcome relief from all the angst of working on this......

I'm in the process of adding a small pieced border. I've been calling this Pink Pickles - kind of a funny name, but I think it's stuck.  Still thinking about quilting designs - any help from any of you machine quilters will be greatly appreciated.

 And last, but certainly not least, my four babies.  They look a little hot and tired, but they all got together at an apple orchard south of Hendersonville, NC last weekend.  They had fun picking and eating apples - and James found quite a few trees to climb.  Jack is getting so big - I miss them all.  And yes, my DDIL made their shirts.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Having Fun in Madison, Alabama

Last Thursday, I drove to Madison, AL to share my trunk show and lecture with the Madison Station Quilters.  What a talented group of ladies!  Their "show and share" was fabulous.  And this is their raffle quilt (forgot to get the name of this quilt).  It is absolutely gorgeous and even more so in person.  It will go to some lucky winner next month.

The colors, fabrics, applique and quilting are wonderful.  Someone is going to be VERY happy next month.

 

My sister was able to go with me and we had so much fun just getting away.  She snapped a few pictures during the program.  The lighting was not the best for getting pictures, but we had a great time.

Not sure what I was saying here LOL - I can get kind of chatty :).

There were about 55 members there, I think a really good turnout.  She took a few pictures from where she was sitting.

After the meeting, I was showing these girls something, I think I was looking for the kitty.

And then before I knew it,

it was time to pack up.  Thanks MSQ so much for inviting me, I hope our paths cross again.

And now a little drumroll please............... the Pickle Dish blocks are done!!  I've started sewing the rows together.  There were a few times I wasn't sure this point would ever come.

Happy Stitching,

Karen

Broken Dishes and Pickles

I've been meaning to share this mini Broken Dishes that I made a while ago.  It's made with bonus triangles from my quilt Mocha Swirl (from Scrap Basket Surprises).  I made this for the upstairs bathroom.  You can see the pins are still holding it up.........it may be that way for a while LOL.

It looks really good with the black towel bars and the dark brown towels.  The border fabric is the backing of the original quilt.  It would probably look really good without the pins too - must put that on a list :).

I actually thought of this because last week I ordered new dishes and the boxes came yesterday!!  Kind of a late 40th Anniversary present to us.  These are Bobby Flay dishes from Kohl's and they are beautiful!!  This is only our third set of dishes in 40 years so I'll probably have these for a while.  They are my favorite color of brick red, with blue, cheddar yellow, lime green and a turquoise. So updated but still looks like me :).   And when I opened the boxes - there were no Broken Dishes!! (which made me think of the mini quilt)

 

The pickle dish blocks are nearing completion, and I'm realizing that I've made a mistake on the corner squares.  Here you can see how light they are where the four come together. I originally used a variety of all the greys in the quilt, and what it really needs are just the darkest ones.  I wanted a scrappy look, just didn't know it would look so unbalanced.

So, I've been spending time un-sewing.  Not my favorite part, but once it's done I'll be so much happier.  Below I covered over the top 2 squares and you can see what a difference it makes using the darker fabrics. These colors are still not true - it's not quite this annoying!  But it is bright.

Hopefully I'll have something to share soon,  I'm ready to have this thing done!!!  I've been thinking of quilting designs.  Not sure how custom I want to make it. 

Happy stitching time today,

Karen

All the Little Pickle Pieces

I am finally comfortable with my technique.  All the angst has paid off, they seem to go together easily.  I still haven't tried to sew any blocks together so if it doesn't go well at that point, you may hear me crying.

 I have cut all the pieces (except for the some of the small, square corners) and am pretty pleased with the layout.  I take down 2 blocks at a time to piece them so I don't get confused (of course, that is NO guarantee LOL).

This is a glimpse of what it might look like finished.

This is what most of the blocks still look like!

At least I'm making progress.  This is a little "happier" than I thought it would be, but I still think I'm going to like it. 

I'm off to work, have a great day.

Karen

P.S.  Have you seen the big "Karen" out in the Gulf?  Hope she behaves :).  We've been spoiled by having no hurricanes for a while, but Pensacola is in the middle of the models.  I think it's going to be a wet weekend - more time to sew :).

Jubilee Tribute - One Stitch at a Time

I thought it was time for a Jubilee Quilt update.  Just wanted you to know that in between all the Pickle Dish blocks, I am still working on this.  After weeks and weeks of marking, hand quilting, ripping out, re-marking and then hand quilting again, I think I'm finally on the right path.  I think my quilt was not quite square to begin with and that was where my problems were coming from.

I started out by first outline quilting all the vines, leaves and berries.

Next I outline quilted the coxcomb flowers and their leaves.  Then I was finally ready for the cross hatching.  I started out by using my 6" x 24" ruler, drawing lines 6" apart.

Then I came back and drew in 3" lines.  When those were finished, I started quilting the 1 1/2" lines. Here (in the picture above) you can see the pins I use to stabilize the quilting area (as I don't quilt in a hoop).  It's actually going pretty fast now.  And it's starting to give me a glimpse of what's going to happen very, very soon :).

The rectangle areas are where I've quilted across in 1 1/2" rows but there are still 3" rows going the other way.  It's a good thing I REALLY enjoy hand quilting otherwise I think I would be in serious trouble about now.

This is a picture of where I was last weekend.  My sister and I flew from Florida to Albany, NY and then drove from there to a cabin at Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondack Mountains.  We met childhood friends and spent a very special time re-connecting.  This was taken as we were walking across the new lake bridge on a glorious fall day.  Priceless memories...

As I've said before, I am blessed.

Karen

My Technique for Pickle Dish

Well, after much ripping out and trying again, I think I have my technique down for making these blocks.  They are different from the standard DWR block construction so it's been a lot of trial and error.

First, sew one arc to the melon piece.  I found I didn't need to clip at this step (usually).

Then sew a corner piece to the top side of the arc.  I did clip this corner piece.  I also re-drafted another corner template making it a little bigger so I could trim to size.  For some reason, the first blocks always came up too small using the original corner template.  One problem solved. :)

So this is what one half of the block looks like,  I press at every step.

Then sew a corner to the 2nd arc. Again, clip this piece.

Sew 2 corner squares on (these I also cut slightly larger than the original).

Then sew the 2nd arc to the melon.  It kind of bothered me that it looks so wrong, but after trimming, it was perfect.

Here is the trimmed block.  Notice the corner piece on the left sits on top of the corner square.  That was another thing I changed, I didn't like it on top.  So now the arcs are both under the corner square.

Here are the only ones I have left to make.  Yay!! Now that I know what I'm doing, it's not bad.  But this is still not my favorite step.  I'll be glad to move on.

And here's my craziness at the moment.  I'm sure this will get tweaked many times before the final version.

Looking forward to that for sure!  Then it will be on to trying to figure out how to quilt it!!

 

Have a great day,

Karen

In a Pickle

I am making headway in my Pickle Dish project... slowly figuring out what I want to do.  My problem is this, I'm not sure of the sequence of piecing these blocks.  I am still having problems with the outside corner pieces.

The melon piece is going together well, I'm just not sure if I should add the corner piece before I sew the unit to the melon.  I've done it both ways, neither feels terribly right to me.

This is one of the drawbacks to drafting it on EQ7.  I have made the outside corner a little bigger and that helped some.  I'm thinking of making it a little bigger still - there is still a puckering when I try to press the corner out.

  I am kind of liking where this is going, but I am really frustrated with the sewing process.  Any suggestions???  Thanks for listening :).

Karen