free-pieced log cabin blocks

 I do really love making log cabin blocks..............

AND I really love improv piecing.........

There is so much inspiration from YouTube videos.  This week I watched MSQC with Misty talking about free-pieced log cabin blocks and I had just watched Pat Sloan talk about piecing crumb blocks.  

I was making improv blocks using Jacquie Gering method...and decided to switch to a different kind of block in the same runner I am making for the top of a file cabinet.  Here is the design board with blocks...

Here is the bottom left log cabin block pieced before cutting wonky and after cutting

I really enjoy making blocks with no rules.....don't worry about being perfect...just create!!!

Misty said in the video they were inspired by the quilters of Gee's Bend.  

Now.....back to March Madness basketball games!!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Mother's Day Slow Sunday Stitching and a finish

It was quite a different Mother's Day not being able to get together with our family!

I spent the afternoon on the patio stitching the binding on a mini quilt and got it finished.

I am linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching.. 

The mini quilt is asymmetric log cabin.  It is from a Bluprint class by Suzy Williams.   I blogged about it in April and also I blogged about it last year.  It is from the class

Fabric Play:  Sewing Mojo Minis   

The class is a series of four little minis and not done with binding.  She framed them with the batting showing.  

There is machine quilting and hand quilting on this quilt and I really like the combination.

I decided to add a binding and not leave it with just batting showing.  Most of the quilting was done with just the batting.

Here is the back of the quilt

Here is a photo of the 2 mini quilts taken last month and I blogged about them then.

They should both be about the same size..........it was an improv quilt and I kept making my strips too large and it got larger than the first one!  

It doesn't look balanced....but will look better on the wall when I put another one next to it!!

I am linking to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2020/05/slow-sunday-stitching_10.html

I am also linking to  Oh Scrap!

  http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/2020/05/oh-scrap-green-is-color-for-may.html

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Easter Slow Sunday Stitching

Today was a rainy day and good to stay inside and stitch or paint or cook.  I did all three of these.

I am linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching.. 

The stitching I did was from a project I started last year and it is from a Bluprint class by Suzy Williams.  I blogged about it last year.  It is in the class

Fabric Play:  Sewing Mojo Minis 

and I really like that class.  I watched it yesterday again and decided I wanted to make more of the minis.....THEN I remembered I didn't ever finish the hand stitching on one from last year.  It is an asymmetric log cabin mini. So I am enjoying this stitching today.

Happy  Easter everyone....we had a low key day.  We did some texting with the family and I looked at some old photos.  I made meatball pasta tonight....so easy and so yummy!

I am linking to Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching

Be sure to see what everyone else is doing

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Improv scrappy brown tablerunner finish

 I have been blogging about this and yesterday I finished it.  I took a lot of photos and used this for my FMQ practice.  It will go on top of a desktop...that is 5' from the floor.

 Lots of closeup shots to show all the different stitching.
Crazy matrix.........open heart with echo....some closed hearts.....heart leaves...loops...
leafy meander....switchbacks....ribbon candy....lazy 8......u shapes and then backwards

 Designs from online videos and Bluprint classes.

 I used the improv piecing I have done before from Bluprint class by Jackie Gering and it is a fun way to do a quilt.  I used a lot of old scraps in this quilt.  I did 2½" rectangle pieced borders.
AND the backing is from a purchase in the 90's......

 I am linking to Free Motion Mavericks  week 268

Go and check out what others are making..........

I am also linking to Oh Scrap! 
This quilt has some really old scraps from more than 20 years ago!!

AND go check out the other posts in her link

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #6

I have been linking up to Home Sewn By Us and today is my 6th week.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of February 4 through February 10:

1. Do some Stitch Meditations at least 3 days. yes
2. FMQ improv browns quilt  yes
3. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on class lessons 4 days  yes

1  Here is the photo of the three I did this week.  I have been so interested in this since I heard about it several weeks ago and have blogged about this in previous blog posts.  These are just fun to do with no plan and just do creative stitching and enjoy the process.  I call these zen stitching.  I have a total of 7 done so far.

2  I finished FMQ on the improv quilt and have the binding sewn on and am now finishing the hand stitching binding to the back.  I did a lot of different practice stitches some for the first time.  I blogged about some of these in the last post.

3  And I worked in my class book.  I have some other pages partly done.  The only one finished is page 1.  The logo art in the photo is by Joanne Sharpe and the bottom part is done by me...the painting and doodle letters.

To-Do for the Week of February 11 through February 17:

1. Do more Stitch Meditations
2. Make sure I have all the info for Bonnie Hunter's Frolic mystery before it is deleted.

I am not going to be very specific on goals this week.....I have a birthday coming up this weekend!  I am coming to the end of my seventies!!  Hard to believe.....this time came too fast!  AND I have Aztec basketball games to watch!

I am linking to Roseanne's linky #27

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

FMQ on improv quilt

I am doing practice FMQ on the improv browns tabletopper!!

This is 14 x 57 and I started on the right end in about 10" and started with crazy matrix.  I have done this design before and blogged about it.  A design by Leah Day.

I had used the walking foot for the other tabletoppers I have made...but after one stitchng line on this one I decided I would switch to the BSR and that worked better.  I didn't want to turn the quilt each time.  It was easy to turn the smaller quilts I had done before and easier to control moving the quilt.

On this quilt.....I ended up going past the line on some areas and just filled in some random things....I will go back and fill in more and it won't stand out so much!!

The next photo is a design I am doing for the first time!  AND I am doing it without trying it on paper first!!  If this were any other quilt I would always practice on paper and another fabric practice piece.  BUT this quilt will be 5' above the floor and actually not very visible. 
click on the link by Leah Day
Open heart tutorial
It is a fun design without closing the heart and doing echoing.  I know I can do better with practice and this design will be one I use in the future.  Some of my hearts I ended up closing and not leaving open...

Linking to Free Motion Mavericks   week 266

Now I have to hurry up and do some more quilting before the BB game later this afternoon.  Our SD Aztecs are 23 and 0 and they are so fun to watch.  There will be no quilting during their games!! 

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #5

I have been linking up to Home Sewn By Us for the past several weeks.  And today is my 5th week.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of January 28 through February 3:

1. Finish batik rails quilt this month. yes
2. Do a page in my creative journal and post in FB group Decorative Journaling  yes
3. Improv browns....get the top pieced and start FMQ practice on it  almost
4. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on it 4 days. yes

1  I finished the Kiwiberry batik rails quilt the last day of January....and did a blog post about it then.  The quilt has a lot of different FMQing and I added lots of photos to that post.

2  I am in a FB group and we do creative art journaling about our life and our days!  We have to post at least once a month to stay in the group..........and here is the page I posted last month.

3  I have the top almost done of the improv browns.........the top and bottom borders are ready to be added.  I have the binding ready to add.  

4   I worked 5 days on my 2020 online class in practicing and in the class book

My last post I also blogged about what I call my zen stitching.  Last week I heard about Stitch Meditations and started doing them.  There is more about it on my last post.  Here is a photo of the four I have done this past week:

These are not art quilts....just creative stitching for mindfulness practice.  

There is a video by Liz Kettle to watch to learn about it and the rules of doing it.

To-Do for the Week of February 4 through February 10:

1. Do some Stitch Meditations at least 3 days.
2. FMQ improv browns quilt
3. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on class lessons 4 days

I am linking to Roseanne's Linky #26

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

crazy improv quilt mat finish and other projects

 I made this little mat to sit on top of a cabinet in our bedroom.  The cabinet belonged to my dad.  I used the same fabrics and technique as I did last summer with the other mat I made for our bedroom furniture.

 It is crazy improvisaional and from a Bluprint class.  The next photo shows the back with the crazy matrix quilting.  So fun and so easy!

 There are so many interesting classes online.  Several weeks ago I watched The Quilt Show #2310 with Lynn Carson Harris.  She was using tiny bits of scraps.  Her liberated log cabin caught my eye and I couldn't stop thinking about it and had to start piecing little pieces together.  This is what I have so far.

 Sew Sampler this month had a pressing mat that I really like.

 I enjoy classes by Joanne Sharpe online.  I got the idea from her of cutting out letters out of magazines to use for journals, scrapbooks....and I used some for a card.  Very fun to search for letters larger than a penny.

 The following photo is the two pages of assignments from the class...2019 Artfully Inspired Life with Joanne Sharpe.  The background is acrylic layering.

 I used a practice journal to check out different acrylic paints for class projects and decided to use a white pen and doodle!  The following photos are of two pages I have done.

That's it for now!!   Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Jelly Roll Jam II finish

I finished this quilt this week that I started on Jelly Roll Day and blogged about it here

The fabric is Attitude Girls by Mary Engelbreit.  I took a photo before I opened up the jelly roll!  Now ....doesn't everyone do that??  

 The pattern is a shortcut free pattern from fatquartershop.com.  A very fun quilt to make!!

 I did the serpentine stitch with light green thread.  My "go to" quilting lately!

 And the backing is also a fabric piece from the same line.  And the binding is the same fabric as the back.  I finished this binding at a quilt retreat this past week.

I brought my Hello Kitty machine to the retreat and finished another little mat.  I also finished two others in different sizes this past month.  I used the blocks from improvisational piecing...crazy piecing like I have blogged about before.  I will be doing another post with more about the retreat.

I am linking to:
   crazy mom quilts finish it up Friday
   Freemotion by the River Linky Tuesday

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Improv piecing of quilts

Craftsy Unlimited is such fun...........sooooo many classes that are so interesting!!!
I watched Jacquie Gering do Improvisational Piecing and I had to go grab some fabric and start making strips using her method.  The photo shows the diagonal cutting of the strips.  I am using fabrics from a fat quarter.  The strips are then cut into diagonal pieces.  She presses the seams open so that is what I am doing on this mini quilt.  (Not my favorite way to do seams!)

I had already started doing some improv piecing with my scraps of fabric where I just match up sizes and sew pieces together.  I press to the side for these and for most of my piecing.  So that will be a different quilt.

Another way to do the improv blocks is on a video by Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation
and the blog link is here
That looks like a fun way to do the blocks too.........

I have been doing other things besides quilting....and watching classes on Craftsy!!
I am interested in documenting memories.  AND have blogged about this before.
Every day has special memories and it is fun to journal and add some creativity!
Here are two photos of pages from my creative journal in May

I have joined some FB groups that are about journaling about your everyday memories creatively.    The groups have so many creative ideas to share. 

The list goes on and on of the new things I want to do.  

I have a FB group and my goal is to post every day some of the creations and projects I am doing.  I have a lot of interests in many different techniques and it is hard to remember how to do something when you don't do it all the time.  So sometimes I post about just simple techniques.  It is easier to use my FB group because I take a photo and post with my phone and write a short post and done!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/248603659018607/

  

Here are some red and aqua pairs I am using to make a mug rug.  I want to add some stamping and painting to this mug rug.  In fact....I have enough of these to do several mug rugs!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Weight Watcher Lifestyle~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is a crockpot full of chicken chili and it is so delicious. 

And bubble up enchilada is another favorite............

Smiles and hugs....Caryl