Red Bird and Berries

I have busy with many things, some of which were gifts so I haven't been able to share a lot.  We visited my parents in High Point, NC last weekend and I gave them their gift.

I saw this quilt on Pinterest several years ago and immediately was smitten.  Sometime after that I started following Karen Miller on IG.  She lives on Keuka Lake which caught my attention as I'm from Rochester, NY and had a good friend that had a cottage on Keuka Lake and used to go there in High School.  Anyway, it turn out she created this pattern for Moda Bake shop.  So here it is.  

I used McTavishing for the background and hand appliquéd the bird, stems and berries.  Such a fun project.  There's also a second project in the works, I'll share soon.

Here's the second one, love the gray stems!  

Hope everyone is trying to enjoy these last few days before Christmas morning.

Karen 

Fifth Step is Done

I have been working on my Midnight at the Oasis quilt in between other projects.  All of can say about this quilt is that it is wild and wonderful.  Maybe that's the way things are in Australia and Jen Kingwell has done a great job of portraying that feeling. 

I have finished all 44 blocks in the outside border.   Yay!!  There was a little trick to making these blocks that I didn't discover until about three quarters of the way thru.  But I'm not going back to fix them.  I figure no one may notice except me.

And I have started work on the 9 patch border. Jen does not do anything fast, so her method is to individually cut 276 bright 11/2" squares  and 276 gray squares - and that's exactly what I've done.

When these are done all that will be left is the appliqué border and then putting it together.  I'm not making any deadlines for myself, but I can feel the end is in sight (sort of).  I still am not wild about the stripe border but to date I can't find anything else.  I am still looking though.

Hope you've found some stitching time today,

Karen 

Pink and Brown Update

I just realized I never posted the final results of my Tumbler leader/ender project.  It ended up being the main thing and not a L/E project - he,he.

It almost completely fills my design wall and I love it.  AND, I didn't buy a single piece of fabric to make this.  It's all stash, that feels so good.  I also have backing and binding already, so this hopefully will be 100% free!!

After I finished that, I quilted something that has been a flimsy for about 5 years.  So sad.  It's a Christmas quilt that my sister put together. It's done in the "One of a Kind" technique. 

It's done now and has the binding on.  When she finishes that I'll get it back for a complete picture. This feels so good and it's only October!!

We've had the remnants of Patrica so it's been raining here for three days.  Hope you're warm and dry where ever you are.

Happy stitching. 

Karen

Pink and Brown - Still Growing

I know this is a L/E project which means you're supposed to work on this in between another project. But sometimes things just take over.  I think this is a quilt that's been waiting a long time to be born and now is the time.

I moved the pieces to the design wall when it became evident this project was moving full speed ahead. 

And I found some more "perfect " fabrics and how fun is it when they are dated??  I know the RP from Moda is also from the late 90's.  I also like what's happening with the green in with the pink and brown.

This is going to be one of those comfort quilts.  You know, the one where you snuggle down in a chair with a good book.  I know there are lots of quilts out there that are happy and loud, but I think there will always be a place for these calm and beautiful quilts too.  At least there will be in my house.😊

Happy stitching today,

Karen 

Pink and Brown is Like Potato Chips

You might wonder how these two are similar, well you can't stop at one - especially if pink and brown are one of your all-time favorite combinations.  I have started cutting tumblers for Bonnie Hunter's Leader Ender project for this year.  

I found a jelly roll that I bought at one of our quilt shows probably almost 10 years ago.  I figured I'd be safe to start cutting it up LOL!!  So while there was green, brown and neutral strips, I have decided to add pink and brownish reds.

I've been raiding my Civil War stash and can I just say these fabrics make me happy.

I'm not sure what it will end up looking like or how big it will be.  For now, I will just have fun sewing a dark to a light and building a stack of little tumblers.

It's been a while since I've done a L/E project. After the angst of my art quilt and my modern quilt, this feels like home.

Happy stitching.

Karen 

The Fourth Step - Still Working on It

I am down to 6 left.  That's good news as I need 52 to complete this border.  While I've gotten used to the little pieces (these blocks finish at 3"), it takes me more time to pick the fabric and cut the pieces than it does to construct the block.

I wanted to get this border done before I start work one the vine and flower border as I still haven't totally committed to the background fabrics.  I'm thinking at this point I will use several different fabrics and not stick to just one like Jen did.  As you can see, I've cut the black dot and will probably use that for the vine border.  I'm still debating in the stripe.

These really are turning out so cute.

They are kind of fussy, so extra trimming takes time too.  But this was one of my favorite elements of Jen's original quilt so I'm excited to almost be finished with this step.  I still haven't figured out how to embed a link, so be sure to go to Lining Up My Stitches blog and check the progress of the others on this quiltalong.

I'm off to work today, but hope you have time for some stitching today.

Karen 

From Student to Teacher

Last Saturday I had the privilege to spend the day with some of the members of the Covington County Quilters Guild up in Andalusia, AL.  We spent the day in a workshop learning the pickle dish block.

And I'm sad to say I do not have a single picture from our day to share!! (These are from my workshop a few months ago.)

My students got to choose between making either Organic Pink Pickles or Purple Pickles.  There was a lot of purple, cheddar, pink, brown, batiks and B&W going on.  They all finished at least one block and I hope I made some PP pickle dish fanatics. 

 Today I'm putting what I preached into practice.  This is actually a hand drawn pattern.  It seems to be adequate since I'm only doing one arc.

I'm making this arc for a current project.

This is my second try.  The one on top just completely disappeared into the background.  After finishing it and appliquing it to the background I could tell it was not working.  So I decided to use the actual background fabrics instead of the yellow. I think I'll be much happier.  It's a good thing these don't take long. 

And speaking of being the student, my project from Jane Sassaman's class is still living on my design wall.  Jane said the yellow didn't go, so I took it out and now I'm stuck here.  I'll be making a few more rays and putting them in the upper corner.  This may take me a while.

I will share some student work when I get pictures ☺️. 

Happy stitching today,

Karen