Not one, but two!

Audition time...

Looking around on the internet the other day I saw someone had posted a photo of a cute little quilt she was making with half square triangles.  The quilter showed the original, which was made with lovely yellows and pastels.  Then she showed her quilt in progress with brighter colors.  Inspiration!

There was a small bag of yellow and red HST's left over from another project and the little quilt would be the perfect way to use them up.

After piecing the center there were still some HST's leftover, and one pinwheel.  Soon all the leftovers were made into pinwheels.   There were only 12, but enough for the top and bottom borders with 2 extra.   I auditioned them for a day or two on the design wall.  

Summer Sunshine

Until....  another quilter posted her quilt in progress.  It is Cabin in the Woods, a design by Ellen Murphy in American Homestead Quilts.  It uses 12 pinwheels for the centers of the blocks. More inspiration!

Those pinwheels were snatched off the design wall and I started searching through the stash.  Now there are two quilt tops pieced up and those leftover HST's are all gone!

I wish I could give you a link to the quilt that inspired Summer Sunshine, but I can't find it at all now.  (sigh) Apparently inspiration is fleeting.

I

Cabin in the Woods

Row by Row

Vertically it's a waterfall

One of the patterns I picked up as part of the Row by Row Experience used bargello technique, which I have never tried.  A quick trip to Hancock to pick up a few extra quarter-yard cuts of batik, and I gave it a try.

The pattern is Lappin' at the Shore by Country Fabrics and Quilts in Brainerd, MN.

I had trouble with the directions.  My eye kept going to the chart of how to cross-cut the joined strips, and I started off cutting the original strips those sizes.  Oops!  But I caught it fairly early, and only had to re-cut two pieces.  (One was too narrow and I re-cut it completely, the other I just trimmed down to the right size.)

The quilting was so easy. I just used the walking foot and made a series of wavy lines that crossed over each other.  I used several different color threads - white, lime green, lt. and dark blues.  That really gave motion to the quilt!  And used a piece of my Marimekko fabric from Finland for the back.

DS and DIL are celebrating their second wedding anniversary today.  This table runner is for them as a reminder of their honeymoon trip to Canada where they saw some lovely lakes and waterfalls.

Horizontally it's a lake

The happy couple at Honeymoon Lake

If you give a mouse a quilt....

He will chew a hole in it!

I was looking for something on the linen shelf at the lake cabin this past weekend and was dismayed to find that a little mouse had been visiting.  This little quilt was a gift from a neighbor.  She didn't know who made it.  Occasionally I hang it up at the lake cabin in the fall.

A fix was in order.   I didn't take photos of all the steps, but here they are...
1. Slip a small square of muslin between the muslin backing and the batting.  Pin in place from the back.
2. Flip over.  Re-position batting in the hole.  Pin a larger piece of black bridal netting to the front to keep the loose batting from being caught in the feed dogs.  Flip again so backing is facing up.
3.  Using darning or free motion quilting setting, machine stitch around the hole.  Mend the hole (from the back) with vertical and horizontal rows of straight stitching.
4. Flip over to the front side.  Trim away excess netting.
5. Cut a heart applique to cover the hole and repair stitching from the front.  I used a bit of Heat N Bond to hold it in place.
6.  Zig-zag applique the heart to the front of the quilt.  I used 2.5 width and .5 length.
Ta Da!

When I was trimming threads I thought they made the heart look like a balloon.  I just might add a string or ribbon and that heart will become a heart-shaped balloon floating UP above the neighborhood.

Just keeping up

Busy week here catching up from our vacation, but I have found time to keep up with the Summer Sew-along from Temecula Quilt Co.  Here's my design 'door' so far.

Yes, design door.  I have draped a piece of white fleece over the bedroom door and the blocks stick to it beautifully.  Look ma, no pins!

A pair of old pants hangers are clipped to the top of the fleece and are draped just over the top of the door.  The weight balances perfectly, and I can fold it up, or hang it in the closet any time it needs to disappear.

While we were up north last week on vacation I did something entirely new.  I stopped by two quilt shops and joined in the Row by Row Experience that is sweeping the country this summer - at least among quilters.  This seems to be a great idea to increase visitors and purchases at small quilt shops during the slow summer months.

I picked up a couple free patterns and bought their license plates.  I also found this post card kit- which will make a lovely label for a quilt, don't you think?

Had to pick up a couple fat quarters too, so my stash grew by almost 2 yards.  My sister went with me and picked up a few fat quarters for a quilt we are planning for her new guest house.  Her DH kindly drove us around, and even came into the quilt shops to look around.  He particularly enjoyed the lounge chair and coffee at Country Fabrics in Brainerd.   Additional stops at the Home Depot and Fleet Farm made it fair all around.

Don't think I'll get to any quilting this weekend.  We'll be making curtains for the above said guest house.

Hope you get the chance to Quilt Awhile soon.

Lazy Sunday, Rainy Monday

What could be better than a rainy Monday to spend the day quilting?  Lazy Sunday, a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt from 2013, is no longer a UFO!  I worked hard yesterday marking the borders with chalk and quilting them up.  The binding was cut late last night and it's finished today.  I could hardly wait for the lawn to dry so I could hang it on the clothesline for a photo!

The sun had not even come from behind the tall pine trees.  I might have to try again this afternoon for a better shot.

The backing is from IKEA, and I love it.  They do carry mostly decorator fabrics, but there were a few cottons as well.  I picked this up several years ago thinking it would be perfect for a quilt backing, or maybe a border.  It's such a huge print that it wouldn't look like anything if it was used for piecing!

By the way, we had 4.75 inches of rain in our backyard rain gauge from Monday's rainstorm.  It was a real downpour!   Our air is full of smoke from the wildfires in Alaska and Canada, and it looks like the rain picked up the smoke particles as it fell.   The water in the rain gauge was pale amber colored.

Happy 4th!

Have you seen this tiny little flag quilt from Temecula Quilt Co?  You can find the original post and free directions here.  I just had to give it a try and I love it!  I used single fold bias tape for the binding, and might make a few to donate to the local historical society fundraiser this fall.  To quilt it I just used my walking foot and a triple zig-zag stitch on widest and longest settings.  Perfect!

Another little quilt that I was side-tracked into making last week is from quilts by cheri.  She posted the free directions as part of the Summerthyme Blog Hop here.  I'm not that fond of crows, so I searched through my quilting books and found Know Your ABC's by Farmyard Creations (1995) for my applique letters.

The binding is just pinned back.  I'll do the hand stitching while we're on vacation this summer.  But I can take another 1-1/2 yards off my stash list!