Saturday's Smile!!

Quilt of Valor Quilt is at the Quilter's!!

Thank you to everyone who gave me their opinion about the blend star for the Quilt of Valor that I made.  

I listened and I made 6 new stars before I decided that the quilt was going to be way too large for a QOV lap quilt.  So, I used some of the blocks that were made for another QOV quilt and I added a few stars among the crosses and added a border.  

I am happy with how it turned out and it is up the coast right now at the quilter.  I hope to get it back next week and it will be presented to our Veteran on March 8.

February Patchwork of the Crosses Block . . .

It's always so fun to me to see how these blocks can turn out.  Carlene is my February swap recipient and she wanted a POTC block using 1930's fabric.  I thought, that one will be really hard to get a fun look.  But I searched through my stash and found some fabrics that turned out quite well ~

I posted a sneekie peek on FB and Carlene said she already loved it without seeing the whole block!! I'm telling ya, these blocks are so addicting!!  It went out in the mail to her today!!

It's Official!! Global Warming Has Now Ended . . .

and the onset of the ice age is upon us!!  Snow at the beach!!

Brrrrrrrrrr!

Saturday's Smile!!

Women After 50 on Facebook

Saturday's Smile!!

Fractured Bargello Tablerunner . . .

I have decided that now that most of the heavy demolition is done on the house and since we are always in limbo waiting for that dam . . . .  electrician to come, I would spend a little more "me" time while waiting for the next stage in the home renovation process.

So, one of the gals in my Guild taught a class to show us how to do what she calls a "fractured bargello."  She actually does them on sweatshirts but in order to teach us the process, she had us make a tablerunner.

First we had to pick out our focus print.  I chose one by Kaffe Fassett that sort of had beachy colors in it.

Then we had to chose 9-13 batiks in colors that would work with the focus print.  We cut those prints into 1-1/2 inch strips, the width of the fabric and then sewed them together in a strata.  Since I didn't know what a strata was, I looked it up on the internet and the one I found said the fabrics should go from dark to light back to dark.  So, I chose my fabrics, sewed strips and got this ~

Then we cut the first strip for the runner 1-3/4 inches and sewed it down.  Then we added a 3/4 inch strip of focus fabric and sewed it down - the focus fabric is what causes the "fracture."  The next strata strip I cut was 1-1/2 inches and I then un-picked the bottom square and sewed it onto the purple square at the top and sewed it to the fracture strip.  Then another fracture piece and so on until I have the full length.

The gal who taught the class had never taught before so we learned a lot from each other as we went along.  A couple of things we figured out in class:

1.  When doing quilt-as-you-go, it is best if you use a walking foot;

2.  Pin, pin, pin, pin, pin!!  If you look closely, you can see that my first two rows are a little wonky.  Then Susan figured out if we pin the strata row that was already down and then pin the new fracture row on top of that (so you have two layers of pins), the rows stay straighter.  Look how straight rows 3-6 are as compared to the first two wonky rows!!

This is going to be beautiful when it gets done but oh man, it is very, very time consuming!!  I will add a pencil thin border to it and then a narrow border out of the focus fabric with the binding also being the focus fabric.  I am hoping it will finish out at about 18" by 45" to go on my long sofa table.

Then today I made a "hug" block for one of the gals in our Guild who just lost her Mom.  The theme was owls and flowers and the outdoors.  So here is the block I made.  It measures 9" finished. 

I am kinda liking this "me" time!!  Tomorrow is Guild and we are going to show the rest of the group our new tablerunners.  Susan just called and she has her's all done except for a bit more on the binding!!  Smarty Pants!!

Saturday's Smile!!

Quilts of Valor Quilt . . .

I have the privilege of making a Quilts of Valor quilt for one of the players in my Thursday bridge group who is a Vietnam vet.  Don is a really nice man and some of us girls are especially fond of him because he is the only guy in our Friday party bridge group!!  And he puts up with all us old biddies!!

Here are two of the blocks i have made so far and I would like your opinion.

I love the blue one but I am afraid that the cream on the red one is too blendy with the background.  What do you think?

I am using the Big Star pattern by Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Jenny uses a Layer Cake which are 10" in squares but I cut mine down to 9" squares so the quilt was closer to a large lap quilt instead of the size for a double bed.

Here is the Youtube if you have not seen this quilt.  It's fast, it's fun and it can be a great stash buster ~