Goldfinch....

Another bird applique done!  Now for the crazy stitching.

Working on......

I haven't posted in this blog for awhile, so I thought I would post a couple small projects I'm working on. Click on the photos and they look better up-close.

 I call this one "Cats in the Cabin".  I wanted to make a small quilt to put on my lap for when my cats want to curl up with me.  They love to lie on quilts, but a quilt plus a cat in the summer is hot!  So I thought I would make a couple of small quilts big enough for them to lie on , but not so hot as a bigger quilt draped over me.  I chose to make some cat blocks....they still need embroidered faces and tails.  I had a lot of left over strips from my strip quilt, so I surrounded the cats on two sides with color log cabin style.  Didn't get my colors distributed too well, but I like it and will use it.  I'm kind of leaning towards wishing it was a wall hanging rather than a cat quilt :-)

This wall hanging isn't quite finished....never sure when I am done with things.  I just keep working until I either run out of time for a project, or get tired of working on it.  Our guild has a challenge this year and it is complicated to explain all the details, but the main idea is "Simply Charming, Darling.....".  Everything except borders has to be made from charm squares and it has to represent something charming.  I didn't like that charm square part....it made my fence posts have seams :-(  I've had fun working on this and hope to have it hanging on the wall in my bedroom soon.

100 years, 100 quilts...Arizona Centennial Exhibition

I'm in Tucson, Arizona!  We decided one cold day to go to the Arizona History Museum.  It is a wonderful place and when we got there we discovered they were having a special Arizona quilt exhibit for their centennial year.  Wow....what a great show!  100 quilts by Arizona quilters with stories about Arizona.  Here are some of the quilts.  I will try to put more in a slide show when I get back home.  Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns.....

I've been working on this Hot Cross Buns top for awhile!  This name apparently fits several different blocks, but I found this block on-line under that name.  It was rather "fussy" to work with all those small squares and I'm glad to have it finished at last.

 This was the first time I have ever set blocks on-point in a quilt and it presented me with some challenges.  I looked up various formulas for what size to cut the squares for the setting triangles.  I finally went plenty big to make sure I had it right!  Then I didn't know how to trim the sides of those panels to get them ready to sew together!  Luckily I left a half inch rather than a quarter inch, because when I got the last panel sewn on, it didn't match up with the other two exactly at the bottom.  It was a tad bit longer!  So I had to do some "creative trimming" to get them to look the same.  This is why I don't try to make quilts that are entered in quilt shows......I'm not that much of a perfectionist!  I'd rather just muddle along with a minimum of ripping out and correcting :-)

 I'm not sure I would be in a hurry to set another quilt on-point....at least not in panels like this. 

I do like the final result and hope the person getting it will like it too.  Now....to get it quilted!

Nature Crazy Quilt blocks progress...

(I'm sticking this in at the top of a post I did last night.)

*I just changed the eye of my squirrel and I think it looks a lot better than the one below.  The button was all wrong....a squirrel's eye is almond shaped.  Now I don't like the ear....a little too big, but that is harder to change, so it will stay the way it is!

I'm having a lot of fun working on these nature blocks, but applique is sure a lot of hard work, and I feel like I have "6 thumbs" working on these little things.

 The Chickadee block is basically done.  I don't want to overwhelm the applique by doing too much of the crazy quilt stitching, so I am doing less than I would normally do on the blocks.  

 Today I finished up this poppy for another block.  I want to get several of the appliques done so I have a variety of blocks to do the hand stitching on in my spare time.  

 My squirrel block.  I'm not happy with the eye and am trying to decide whether to rip it out and change it.  the button is a little bit too big...maybe.... and the circle around it not obvious enough. *NOTE: See eye change at the top of the post.  Maybe you can't see the difference, but I can and like it better :-)

My second bird block....a Red-bellied Woodpecker.  Not too bad!  I'm trying to pick ones that aren't too complicated .  I may do a Cardinal next and a Goldfinch, I hope.  We'll see.  I have 12 blocks to put whatever I want on.

Crazy about nature.....

A new project!  I have been wanting to start a new Crazy Quilt project ever since I finished my last one.  I really enjoy doing the hand work on the blocks.

  I made 12 blocks from the Quik Krazy pattern in all greens.

Here are 6 of them tacked to the design wall.

These blocks are fast to make from a stack of 12 pieces of fabric.  You stack up 12" pieces of fabric and then slice them along the lines of the pattern.  Then after re-stacking them......move one piece to the bottom of stack 1, 2 pieces to the bottom of stack 2, 3 pieces to the bottom of stack 3, etc. for the 12 stacks.  Now you have 12 new blocks arranged to sew back together!  An easy way to get some crazy quilt blocks if you don't mind them all being the same design, just different arrangements of the fabric pieces.

Chickadee!

I have wanted to do some nature themed work for a long time, so this is the year I will experiment!  Starting here!  I am going to put one bird, flower or butterfly on each block and then do the fancy stitching to the rest of the block as it takes my fancy.  This is the beginning of block #1.....a chickadee!  Not too bad.  His head isn't quite right, but I am not good at applique yet.  I can't wait to finish this block and am planning the next one....maybe a woodpecker? or a Cardinal?  I can't make them too hard until my skills improve.  This should be a fun project for a long time.  No idea what its final shape will be, but assume a wall hanging of some sort.

Starting out the new year.....

Well, I am starting the new year in a very quilting mood!  I finished the strip/rail fence top....except for whatever I decide to do about borders.  I'm still debating that in my mind.  I wasn't going to put borders on it, but it needs a bit more width and I don't want to make any more blocks.....I'm "stripped out" at the moment.

For me, this quilt top was like playing with "candy".....I just love all the yummy colors!

Here is a close-up of some of the blocks.

Then, before that one was even "cold" or ironed or put away, I started a blue and white quilt using the same pattern block as the orange quilt I did earlier (see at the end of this post).  This should be quite a contrast to the orange quilt.....from flaming hot to icy cold!

I'm laying the blocks out differently this time and hope to do applique in the white areas.  This will be an ambitious project for me....so don't expect to see it done anytime soon!  I have sewn the blocks into long strips since I took these photos.  Now I have to plan the applique.

I'm thinking "Bluebirds and blueberries" for my applique.   I started some blueberry circles today just to play with.  I may decide this won't even look good on the quilt, but it is my plan at the moment.  I'm not very good at applique, so don't want anything complicated.  I can't seem to get past the idea of blue leaves with the blueberries, but want to stick with all blue and white.  Hmmmmm......

Hard to believe this one started out the same as the blue and white!