quilting log cabin runner

 Here is a photo of about half of the runner quilted.  I changed to a different pattern for the center blocks using the ruler foot.  I was using the walking foot for the quilting on the end blocks.

Yikes....I should have done some practice pieces first!  That is what all FMQ teachers say.....always practice before going to your piece to FMQ.  My thinking when I switched to a different design for the center blocks was that using the ruler foot would  be easier............WRONG..... 

I was constantly turning the runner with the walking foot quilting so using the ruler foot would eliminate all the quilt turning.   BUT........Quilting going forward and backward work better for me than sideways quilting.

I am not going to publish a to-do list for the rest of this month.  March Madness is here!!

This last week I did part of my goals.  1. The runner above half of quilting done.  2. I don't have all of my fabrics for the Spiral Lone Star quilt along.  AND I may change my mind anyway....so no fabric prep.  3. I am about half done with the improv runner for the top of the file cabinet. 

Wondering.....do you do swatches of colors when you get new paints, pens, pencils, crayons?

Here is a photo of my new purchase that I have wanted for a long time.  I have started a swatch page of the colors.  I included some of my other swatch papers in the photo.  

Here is a photo of all the colors

I am slowly working on my kawandi runner....a little bit every day.  I am in no hurry...just enjoying the process of stitching.  

The NCAA BB tournament is so exciting every year!  AND since it was cancelled last year and our team didn't get to play.....it means so much more for out team to be able to go this year.  

Last week for the Mountain West tournament we watched all 10 games Wednesday through Saturday!

Go Aztecs!!  I will be watching as many games as possible for the tournament! 

linking to Free Motion Mavericks

https://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com/2021/03/here-comes-sun-on-free-motion-mavericks.html

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #54

 This is To-Do Tuesday #54  I will be linking with Chris Knits 

Here is my progress on last week's list:

To-Do Tuesday week of March 2 through March 8:

1. Log Cabin Loonies runner.....decide how to quilt it and start quilting ✅
2. Do more from Jean Wells book✅
3. Watch the first FB Live on Friday of Jan Krentz and the Spiral Lone Star Quilt 
   Along.✅

The first photo shows some of the assignments I have done in Jean Wells book

Intuitive Color & Design:  Adventures in Art Quilting

Last week I showed a photo of my start of this....rulerless cutting and piecing.  

This week I added the narrow insert piecing and detail piecing.

The next photo shows my start of quilting the log cabin runner.  I am using my walking foot and gray thread

In my last  two blog posts I have talked about the quilt along with Jan Krentz and it has started this month.

 Spiral Lone Star quilt along

She has a FB group  Spiral Lone Star Quilt Along with Jan Krentz

 She is on FB Live every Friday for 7 weeks that started last Friday  

Here is a photo of the 8 photos I will use....my latest decision....

I forgot to crop this before downloading....sorry

So my list for this week won't be very much....the basketball tournament is this week on TV

To-Do Tuesday week of March 9 through March 15:

1. Continue walking foot quilting log cabin runner and get at least half done
2. Prep fabrics for Spiral Lone Star quilt along
3. Work on improv Gering style quilt for the top of a file cabinet

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Log Cabin Loonies runner

 This is To-Do Tuesday #53  I will be linking with Chris Knits

I decided to just do 10 blocks of the log cabin blocks and turn it into a runner for our front foyer table.  AND I decided to change every other block and make a different arrangement.

Here are my blocks in the way Julie of JulieKQuilts had her blocks arranged

Today is a rainy day and we don't get those very often.  It has been gorgeous weather for several weeks and here is a photo I took several weeks ago on our patio.

AND here is a surprise I saw on our patio one day looking out from my sewing room

I have been making bread with the recipe from the book Artison Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  It is so good and it is nice to have with an evening meal or to have with homemade vegetable soup for lunch.  I make vegetable soup and freeze part of it so I always have some on hand.  The bread recipe makes 4 loaves...crusty outside and chewy inside.....delicious!!  So now I have bread dough in the refrigerator ready to make several times a week.

In my last blog post I talked about the quilt along coming up with Jan Krentz

Here is a link to that post 

 http://carylquilts.blogspot.com/2021/02/spiral-lone-star-quilt-along-in-march.html

Here is a photo of the pattern pack for the Spiral Lone Star quilt along

She has a FB group and will be doing FB Live every Friday for 7 weeks starting this Friday.  

For those interested in making the quilt........the name of the FB group is

Spiral Lone Star Quilt Along with Jan Krentz

In my last post I showed photos of the start of making fun stuff using Jean Wells method from her book.  Here is the beginning piece I made............very easy and soooo fun!!!

Now to my list of things I want to do this coming week.....

This is the beginning of March Madness and I will be watching basketball games on TV so my list is short and sweet!

To-Do Tuesday week of March 2 through March 8:

1. Log Cabin Loonies runner.....decide how to quilt it and start quilting
2. Do more from Jean Wells book
3. Watch the first FB Live on Friday of Jan Krentz and the Spiral Lone Star Quilt 
   Along.

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Starting Kawandi inspired tablerunner

 I am starting my third Kawandi inspired quilt.  The first two were small wall hangings and they are hanging side by side on my dining room wall.  This one will be a table runner for the top of a cabinet in our dining room.  I have missed the hand sewing and this will give me hand sewing to work on every day.

I have basted the backing folded over to the front over the batting.   I have posted about the first two in previous posts.  I will have different rules for myself for this Kawandi.  The first two I tried NOT to repeat any fabric.  

Now for this Kawandi I WANT to repeat fabrics more than once.  AND it will be more planned.  That is the way it is starting anyway....I may change my mind as I go along!!

  The photo shows the fabrics I will be using to select pieces as I slowly stitch around and around.  The fabrics I am starting with have purple swirls in the corners with blue on each side.  Then there will be more purples, blues, teals and some dark pinks.  I just love those colors!!!

I started stitching these today and it is a actually a little different than the photo shows.  

I am linking to Kathy's Quilts             Slow Sunday Stitching

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2021/01/slow-sunday-link.html

Now I am going to check out what everyone else is stitching today....join me in checking!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #35 and dolphin runner finish

 My 35th week of linking to Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday

Here is the list from last week

To-Do Tuesday week of September 8 through September 14:

1. Finish dolphin runner yes
2. Work on other projects in progress..........scrappy rectangles.....around the cabin....and mini 3 crazy sisters AND my potholder FMQ practice pieces. yes

This dolphin runner started with me finding 3 dolphin fat quarters with the idea of making a runner for a friend to fit the top of her 50 x 18 cabinet.  She also really likes dolphins, blue and flags.  The decisions on this were the size of each section and the sashing...the cornerstones were needed to make it complete.  Then I decided on quilting with wavy lines with some crossing over each other.

And I remembered to FMQ my name and year at the edge...you can see it if you zoom in on that area.

The next photo is the scrappy rectangle quilt top finished and ready to find a backing and decide on quilting?  I used a black jelly roll to put vertical sashing on each block and used all of the length of the strips for the horizontal sashing.  I left the selvage ends on to sew the strips and will trim them after quilting.

I started a new project this week....actually two new projects........

I was watching The Quilt Show episode 2705 and became fascinated with the Kawandi quilt method shown by Sujata Shah.  I put photos and explained this in my last post on Sunday...Slow Sunday Stitching.

I also started another little quilt because of another fascination I saw on Pinterest....by Melody Johnson.  Nothing more about that now.

To-Do Tuesday week of September 15 through September 21:

1. finish hand quilting mini three crazy sisters quilt
2. start Cool Cats quilt in blues
3. FMQ 4 days this week

I am linking to Roseanne's 

http://homesewnbyus.com/to-do-tuesday-linky-58-weekly-progress-update/

and linking to Rebecca Grace  about FMQ

http://www.rebeccagracequilting.com/2020/09/lal7-inspired-by-online-ruler-work.html

and linking to Free Motion Mavericks

https://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com/2020/09/sparkling-star-on-free-motion-mavericks.html

Be sure to see what everyone else is doing and join in the fun!!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #22

I skipped several weeks with my weekly goals...took a break.

This is my 22nd week of linking with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

The last time I wrote my goals....it was to watch a lot of Bluprint classes...

AND that is what I have been doing.  I was downloading some and watching and watching and taking notes because the end of my subscription was coming.  AND there is no word yet when Bluprint will end.

To my surprise several days ago my subscription renewed....for another year!  

To-Do Tuesday for the Week of June 16 through June 22:

1. Finish the B blocks on the Hope quilt and decide on the layout
2. FMQ on the yellow brick road quilt
3. Work on the dolphin tablerunner
4. Work in my creative journal and Joanne Sharpe classes
5. Make some more blocks for scrappy around the cabin quilt

Here is the photo of some of the blocks spread on the table with the dolphin tablerunner laying on top......

I am linking to Roseanne's blog post

http://homesewnbyus.com/to-do-tuesday-linky-45-weekly-progress-update/

Be sure to see what everyone else is doing and join in the fun!!

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

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

Happy Fourth of July

I thought I would post some photos of some red white and blue quilt projects from the past....
I already added my strip tube ruler quilt at the top.

AND here is a dessert I used to make this time of year....(not making it this year)

 And here is the photo from July 2010 of the ingredients.

Smiles ans hugs....Caryl

Trunk Show

Soma at Whims and Fancies is hosting a virtual trunk show.

So here are some of my quilts.............

This is one I made many year ago using the strip tube ruler.........

Next is the largest one I have made...scrappy trips from Bonnie Hunter's pattern Scrappy Trip around the World.  I used all Sandy Gervais jelly rolls....a lot of them!

Next is my giddy postage stamp quilt............I did this with Rachel at psiquilt..........

Next is string bean challenge quilt from Pat Sloan challenge.........

Next is a baby quilt I made for my great granddaughter.............

Some smaller projects I have done........

Japan Star from Carol Doak's book Mariner's Compass Stars.......

D4P tablerunner.................

I hope you enjoyed my trunk show......

Go check out some of the other trunk shows that are linked.........

Smiles and hugs.....Caryl

Pumpkin Harvest placemats and potholders

I finished four small projects this week. Two placemats with Awesome fabric on the sides and top and Harvest fabric in the center to match the border fabric of the tablerunner from last post. I did x hand quilting on one of them. Two pot holders I  used same fabrics and one I stitched in the ditch around the center. The other one I machine stitched along the seams before I turned it.

I am linking with crazymomquilts. 

The last photo shows the foreground placemats from 2012 and the new things I have finished this week and last week.