Shirley Anne’s Heart

Posted By drsao on June 1, 2008

I just finished testing a pattern for the second quilt in the COZY QUILT SERIES designed by Susan at The QUILTER’S CORNER.  (The first one was the BEACH RETREAT – the beautiful blue and yellow one that I wrote about previously.) 

This one is called the SWEETHEART QUILT and it is a combination of appliqued hearts and pieced blocks in luscious pinks, yellows, and greens from the April Cornell for MODA line.  It will be available in kit form at QUILTER’S CORNER soon….and they are starting an online store this month too!  It was so much fun to make – and it only took five days!

I was so happy that the cutting was complete – and I had my strips hanging from my wall coat rack – I just had to take a picture – or two !  It looks like I am drying pasta strips (but alas quilting has taken away from my culinary activities – and those talents were NEVER that well developed even BEFORE I started quilting  LOL!)

            

I had to develop a new way to STORE my pieces that I had sorted into blocks – my neatly stacked blocks kept getting UNSTACKED!  Our three cats kept SITTING on the stacks of blocks…..I sometimes wonder why cats LOVE to sit on whatever work one is doing!  They just LOVE to be right in the middle of things.  Our little cat CUDDLES TINKERBELLE actually got some fur from her tail sewn into one of my blocks because she just leaped up to say hi at an inopportune time!  Cuddles even has to help me when I am changing purses!

To solve my block stacking problem –  I made a little BLOCK HOUSE! It worked great!

The first blocks are complete!

  

Everything in this pattern is so precise that everything just FITS TOGETHER like a puzzle – no tugging or stretching to match corners!!!  Don’t I just LOVE IT when that happens.  Here is the quilt without borders.

And here is a close up with the small green and the larger pink print borders on.

I dropped it off at the QUILTER’S CORNER today and I felt somewhat like a surrogate mother who had carried a baby for nine months and then gave it to a new mother!  (That is possibly a bit over-dramatic.)  LOL 🙂  Some quilts you just grow attached to.  Maybe I will have to make another one – Grandangel Sarah says she REALLY WANTS ONE LIKE THIS!!!

A NEW ADDITION TO MY QUILTS COMPLETED IN 2008 LIST!!!!

I finished the Hawaiian OHANA Log Cabin Quilt at the Sit N Stitch, Friday, at the QUILTER’S CORNER.  Valerie at A NEEDLE RUNS THROUGH IT did a fabulous job on the quilting – HAWAIIAN FLOWERS pattern – and the back of the quilt I did in a Hawaiian sandy colored HIBISCUS pattern……thanks to Susan at the QC for selecting the fabrics (only she knows what this quilt could have looked like – because she saw the fabrics that I picked out before she very subtly introduced “other choices” to me!!!)

I have it folded to show the borders, the back and the binding.  Another UFO bites the dust!

Now I will tell you the measure of a TRULY OUTSTANDING QUILT TEACHER!  Sherry Whitford (she is teaching the NINE-MONTH class on the BIRTH OF A SAMPLER QUILT at the QUILTER’S CORNER) e-mailed me LATE Saturday night in response to a frantic plea from me.  It appears that I couldn’t figure out how to make bias vines for my next border on my quilt (even though she had included VERY NICE COLOR PHOTOS in her instructions!)

Sherry went to all of the trouble to DRAW me step-by-step diagrams – and at 1:30 AM this morning I had my MASTERPIECE.  I am so happy with this!

 

I had some really cool TOOLS! The little bias tape maker helped me thread my strip of bias fabric right under my iron – and I got some fusible webbing strips that I ironed onto the wrong side of my bias strips (all of my tools are from the QUILTER’S CORNER.)   

You can see that I have ironed WONDER UNDER fusible web onto the wrong side of some fabric strips that I am using for leaves.

 

I am really excited about this because this is something NEW that I learned and LEARNING SOMETHING NEW is on my LIST OF FAVORITE THINGS!

The border is on – I really like it.  I am going to learn another NEW thing in the near future (because I am going to add flowers on the vines after it is quilted – and so I have to learn to make YO YO flowers!)  I am glad that I had such a GREAT TEACHER who helped me in the “MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT”  so that I could accomplish this vine and leaves border!

THANKS SHERRY WHITFORD!

THIMBLEBERRIES

This month, our Thimbleberries LAKESIDE Quilt assignment was not humongous – but I learned something new – I made four BEAR CLAW BLOCKS.  Here they are!

I don’t know how I could have done this without my QUILT IN A DAY ruler that I used to square up the half/square triangle blocks.  The ruler made it so easy and my points all came out just the way they were supposed to!

 I had a great time at our THIMBLEBERRIES CLUB meeting today at QC.  It is fun to see what everyone else has been making – in addition to our assignment.  Our “refreshments’ are always TO DIE FOR!

GRANDANGEL FUN

Exciting things have been happening in the LAND OF THE GRANDANGELS.  Leanna‘s sixth grade team had a picnic – and we sat on a blanket and watched them eat (the poor things have LUNCH at 10:30 am because they start so early – so we were only hungry enough to WATCH!)  CONGRATS TO LEANNA 12 FOR BEING STUDENT OF THE MONTH!  HIP HIP HOORAY!

  

Leanna’s friend Camryn, is giving her a hug.  I have to make a mental note to make sure I make a quilt suitable for picnics!

And Sarah and I attended a breakfast at her school to celebrate the end of the MORNING WALKING PROGRAM.  Sarah won three charms (little colored feet) for jogging three miles – pretty good accomplishment for a 2nd grader.  YEAH SARAH 8!  I was pretty impressed – and also delighted that not one – not two – but THREE BOYS from Sarah’s class came to sit with “us.” 

Sarah also officially became a GIRL SCOUT this week – and all of those patches sewn onto her Brownie Vest – HM – I wonder if anyone has ever made a quilt from Brownie patches!

The fun just never ends.  I went to my first ALL MALE hair cut happening with Cooper!  It was like a SPORTS BAR – with TVs and SPORTS STUFF everywhere.  It was pretty cool! 

Cooper 4 is quite a conversationalist and he TALKED the entire time – except when he was giggling….he thinks getting his hair cut tickles!

Life is good – and tomorrow holds more excitement – I am subbing in the clinic – so I get to administer ice, routine meds, Bactine and Bandaids to the little angels both with real and imagined maladies!

This will be a busy week – the BIG DANCE RECITAL is Saturday (two performances) so all week we are having lessons,  regular rehearsals, tech rehearsals, dress rehearsals and the REAL DEAL.  Christi and I are helping in the dressing area – lots of fast costume changes and hair dos to touch up.  Sarah is in three performances (jazz, ballet, and Irish Dance)  this year and Leanna is in a modern dance performance for older girls.

WHO KNOWS – I MIGHT EVEN FIND A MOMENT TO DO SOME QUILTING THIS WEEK! 

 

 

 

Categories: Birth of a Sampler, Hawaiian OHANA Cabin, My Favorite Things, Quilts Completed 2008, Sweetheart, Thimbleberries 08
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