Dare to Dresden Blog Hopping Progressiveness

Hello there!  thanks for dancing along on the Dare to Dresden Blog Hop!

Sponsored by the perpetually inspiring Madame Samm and Cheerleader Extraordinaire Christine L of Quilt Monster in my Closet

This blog hop is a feast for the eyes!  Who knew a design like 'Dresden Plate' could have so much variety?  ...be so modern and fresh?  ...and be sew popular among quilters of all ages?

I have to confess, a friend of mine has an antique Dresden quilt that I have always admired made during the 30's - with those wonderful, cheerful colors we quilters know so well... unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it to share with you, but I did draw out a similar design in EQ7...

  the thing is... that classic Dresden quilt I crave also has a pieced border that involves lots of those little wedges in a scalloped effect.... and I still don't know enough about EQ7 to draw custom scalloped borders - so try to imagine this with a couple hundred little red segments going all around the edges!  Yup, some day I'll make that quilt.  Really I will... it's on my bucket list!

In the meantime, however, I can share this with you - although this quilt has had an interesting journey from my sewing room to many places and back again!

It all started with Flickr... a splinter group from Old Red Barn quilt-along called Around the Bend and Across the Pond joined forces to create progressive quilts - the kind where you make a block or a row and pass it along each month - each person adds to it and sends it along to the next person on the 'tour' until the 'finished' top comes home to the originator.

I joined the sub-splinter group - the "Free Form Robin: Be Free Bees"  yes there were so many who participated - we had to become TWO groups - the A's and the B's - who decided to proceed with very few 'rooles' (if any) and sent this off to the first unsuspecting victim er participant:  

I had made the Dresden block from a few sample strips just to 'test the waters' of a new template.  I liked it a lot, but had no idea what to do with it after it had lurked around my sewing room, on and off the design wall for almost a decade.  Sew, last January - a whole year ago - I packed it up with a siggie block, a journal and a few of the fabrics that I had intended to use with it...

...and kept my fingers crossed for about eight months!

I didn't have any rooles for my starter - just a few fabrics to inspire and a plea that no one would use ALL of these fabrics and not leave any for the next participating quilter!

My quilt top underwent many mysterious and marvelous journeys (with progress pics posted to Flickr, of course!) and returned to me in August 2012.  After debating with myself for several months about how to quilt it, this is what I did:

it is very closely quilted...

... with bright "orange glow" OMNI thread... by Superior - seriously, that's the name of the color!  ORANGE GLOW --- LOVE IT!!!!

And - I'm thrilled that another participant decided to add two MORE Dresden plates to the corners - still leaving me enough of my original fabrics to use for the binding!  All of the little siggie blocks are pieced into the back.  I feel sew fortunate -I love how this quilt turned out - I hope you do too!

Now, if you haven't already been there, be sure to visit the other bloggers today. 

Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”

Clothes and Crafts (moved to 31st)

It Seams to be Sew

Merry Gay in Stitches

Water Penny

Granny Good Stuff (you are here!)

Under the Presser Foot

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Me Something Good

The Day Before This Day

Farm Road

Livin' Blue Quilter

I Piece 2 Mary
Kwilty Pleasures
Espritpatch
Nutz4Redwork

 

 

 

and the pics are all on Pinterest, too!

Dare to Dresdent blog hop

Thanks to Madame Samm and the loverly Christine at Quilt Monster in My Closet for hosting and assisting with this exciting blog hop!  Here is the schedule - you don't want to miss any of this Daring Dresden fun!  My day will be January 30th - I'll be sharing my latest and greatest then - meanwhile, enjoy what the others are showing....

January 24^th, 2013

Thimble Mouse & Spouse

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Apple Avenue Quilts

The TreeHouse

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much

Quilts My Way

Buzzing and Bumbling

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Selina Quilts

Quiltscapes

Hill Valley Quilter

Sew Incredibly Crazy

The Raspberry Rabbits

I Like to Quilt Blog

Cherry's Prairie Primitives

Spoilt Dog Quilts

January 25^th, 2013

Gingersnap Quilts

Busy Bee Quilts

She Sews the Blues

Traveling Quilter

Grand Mama's Stories

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

Sew at Home Mummy

The Slow Quilter

Pig Tales and Quilts

Annie Oak Design

Jane's Fabrics & Quilts

Tea Time Creations

Mo Broker My Creative Side

Just Let Me Quilt

Words and Stitches

Just Keep Swimming

Sew Many Yarns

Sowing Stitches

Jane's Quilting My Patchwork Life 2muchfun

Pumpkin Patch Quilter Quilt Monster in my Closet

January 28^th, 2013

A Reformed Heath'n

Meadowbrook

Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”

Stitch Duchess' Crazy & Sane Quilting World

Grammie Q’s

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sunshine Girl

Spiral

Butjenter Quilter

Blooming Where I am Planted

Quilting Lodge

The Tilted Quilt

Life in the Scrapatch

Pretty Bobbins In The Boon Docks

Sew Much and More

Threading My Way Pink Ribbon Quilts
January 29^th, 2013

A Peach in Stitches

Nancy W @ “that Other Blog”

L3 Designs

Bungalow Bay Quilts

Quilted Delights

Quilt Crossing

Lixie Makes it

A Quilting Sheep

Charlotte's Creations

Quilt-n-Queen Domesticity and Other Ponderous Things

Sew Much 2 Luv

A Quilt and a Prayer

Amanda Murphy Design

Little Mushroom Cap Kathy's Quilts

Sandra Kaye Design

January 30^th, 2013

Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”

Clothes and Crafts

It Seems to be Sew

Merry Gay in Stitches

Water Penny

Granny Good Stuff   (you are here!)

Under the Presser Foot

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Me Something Good

The Day Before This Day

Farm Road

Livin' Blue Quilter

I Piece 2 Mary Kwilty Pleasures Espritpatch Nutz4Redwork

January 31^th, 2013

Quilting Prolifically

Patchouli Moon Studio

Mountain Quiltworks

In Ga

Dachsies with Moxie

Color My World

Shepody Mountain Crafter

Christa Quilts

Moosestash Quilting

Lavender Quilts

Never 2 Many Quilts

Cathy's Chatter

Madame Samm

Daffycat Day TUSAL check in for October

Wow, that's been a fast month!  Here it is 'New Moon' time already!

This is a little glass basket that a friend gave me filled with this month's ORT's...

You can see the other TUSAL ORT containers through the links on Daffycat's blog.

This was a cute little quilt that I quilted for a friend.

I did finish the third panel of my "Over the River and Through the Woods" quilt - now I'm planning the borders and spaces between the panels, because the original quilt would be too large for my quilt rack - I need to 'reduce' it a bit and still make it look as much as the original Crabapple Hill design as possible.

pattern  -  as designed

They have several other embroidery designs I'd love to try - but so many projects are already in line first....

but this Which Witches Boot is definitely on my bucket list!


I've quilted 10 baby/kid quilts for Quilts for Kids this past week...similar to the one pictured above... just the quilting, mind you - these tops were all made by the busy hands of the Quilt Company East Quilt Guild of Churchill, PA - and they will all be doing the bindings on these quilts as well...  but it's still a good feeling to have them all quilted in time for our meeting on Monday evening!  Now, there's no way I'll bore you with 10 very similar quilt pictures...  trust me!

I've also made a couple of these little zippy totes with the NewBee class... look for the tutorial to be posted here soon...

 notice the Patience Corner block in the center!

I spent a lovely day with friends Priscilla and Mary enjoying the Coverlet Museum in Bedford, plus a terrific lunch at the Jean Bonnet Tavern and a stop at a quilt shop with wonderful fall foliage all along the way!

we also stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel to see the quilted banners:

that's it for now - I need to get back to the studio!
see you again soon!

First week in August

Hello again,

My blog is suffering from summer fun - I'm just having too much of it!  Last Saturday was our annual Block Party BBQ.  The street was closed off - all two blocks of it - and the neighbors got together to catch up on family doings and who had heard from which former neighbors recently.  The weather (which was extremely wet in the morning) cooperated just in time to light up the grill and let the local littles play in the sprinkler.

Between travel, recuperating from travel, and all the other fun stuff - not to mention the exhaustive heat - it has been too hot to spend much time at the upstairs sewing machine - but I have spent enough time to get a couple of the corners done for my RRCB:

yeah, I know... still in the drawer.

... and a "Trend class" sample is quilted and bound:

The 4 x 6ers have almost all received their postcards from me for July before the middle of August:

Isabell's, Janet's, and mine

and I've received this beautiful little quiltie from my friend, Lani, all the way from California!

Lani's pc

doesn't it look like a sunrise behind a Manzanita?  I love it!  and, it's her first try at a postcard quilt.  I think she did a great job on it - she has a wonderful sense of design - and I love those bright colors!

The FATraders exchanged embellished coasters which we joined into books to celebrate our 6th anniversary on Yahoo.... it took a bit longer than expected due to the postal workers strike in Canada, but I'm loving my little book.  Here it is:

I've also been working on an embroidery block of the month - I'm keeping up pretty well with the Little Birdie Stitches by Little Miss Shabby... I'll post those pics in a day or so, along with the latest update on the Happiness Key Mystery quilt.


...and I've sewn, cut, re-sewn, rearranged, cut, sewn again on my QCE Guild fabric challenge - due in Sept. which I can't post pics of or any other details until the 'Reveal' at the next guild meeting.
 
The QCE guild has a quilt show coming up in November - and I'm trying to prep a new quilt or two for that deadline.  I'm also trying to get to Philadelphia to spend a couple of days with my one and only daughter, who has graciously kept her calendar free for the time of my visit.  Smoochies!

midsummer days

Hello again!

I'll be you're wondering whether I'm still blogging or not?  Well, of course I am!  But, summer being what it is with so much to do and only 24 hours in a day, etc.  Sometimes the writing takes a backseat to the doing...  and what I've been doing is - for the moment - a secret!  I do so wish I could tell you all about the new product from C&T that I'm testing, but no, sorry, no can do - not yet!  It is interesting stuff, tho, and I'm enjoying the playtime.

I've been scrunching it, ironing it, painting it, separating it, draping it and sprinkling it with sparkles.  It has an intriguing ethereal quality about it.

That's not all, of course.  I'm also working on a 'fabric challenge' for QCE guild - which is supposed to be a secret until the 'unveiling' in September.  So far, I've done a little shopping and a lot of cutting - enough for at least 2 quilts of the required size limit.  I like having choices, but hate making decisions.  What a conundrum!

I've also been working on a quilt for my good friend Carolyn T. so I think I can show you a pic of that...

 If you squint a bit, the bright parts seem to curve, but really they're straight.

Talent Tuesday

Postcards made last month for 4x6ers swap - Buildings theme

 
Today is a good day to expand an existing talent. 

Whether you like to sew, paint, jog, swim, bike, or whatever.  Push yourself just a little out of your comfort zone today.  Experiment with a new recipe, try a different route, speak to someone you have never spoken to before.
 
I'm taking an art class today... in watercolors.  I haven't had an art class since I was 14, so this is scary! 

I might find out that I know a lot less than I thought I did.  Maybe I really can't learn everything from the internet.  Who knows?  I'm going to try - really give it a shot.

And tomorrow, I'm going to try gelatin printing.  I've already mixed the gelatin in a pan - it is in the fridge getting firmer by the minute.  I'm giddy with anticipation.  Will it really work?

I won't know for sure until I try!  The theme for the next 4x6ers swap is 'Free Choice'.... I wonder where the muse will lead me?

The Irish Chain in me.... went to Lancaster!

I spent St. Patrick's Day at the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster PA - and I wore a deelibopper headband with little sparkly shamrocks and feathers.  Almost everyone who looked at me smiled - it was a wonderful day!
Beautiful quilts on display, marvelous vendors with lovely new tools, books and fabrics.  I also ran into some old friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, and met some new friends that I hope to meet again.



a sampling of the  AQS wallhanging quilts
 - every one deserved a prize!!!

  and an overview of the first floor - the show altogether is about 6 TIMES this size... for starters!

AQS Lancaster - 1/4th of first floor exhibit hall....

The talents of machine quilters continues to amaze me.... watch for these winners in future magazines!  Of course, pictures never do them justice - you really need to see these in person to fully appreciate the talent and skill involved!

One of the tools I brought home is a finger guard for my rotary ruler.... no more finger cutting for me!  It goes onto the ruler with little suction cups and is easy to move to all kinds of rulers.  I'll have to share that in a future post, because now, I have to move on to a little quilting!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Block of the Month for QCE this month is Irish Chain.  This is a simple pattern that alternates two blocks.  I like to make the simplest one first to give myself a sense of accomplishment, then I proceed to the more difficult block.  Here is the simple one:

Irish Chain Block 1

This has a 6 1/2" CENTER square surrounded by 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" strips and 2 1/2" squares.  It finishes to a 10" block; 10 1/2" unfinished.
This quilt has 12 of these blocks.

First, sew a square to each end of 2 of the strips, then sew the remaining two strips to opposite sides of the large center square.  Press the seams toward the green corner squares on the outside pieces, and toward the center of the block on the center square unit.  Then sew the three sections together to complete the block.

The second block is a bit more complicated, being a 5x5 layout of 2 1/2" squares there are 13 of these in the quilt:


Irish Chain Block 2

This block will have 9 of the dark squares, 12 of the medium and 4 of the light (25 total).

I lay out the squares to the left of my sewing machine so I keep the pieces in order as I sew.  I pick up the pieces in the second column from the left and turn them over like the pages of a book and lay them on the pieces of the first column, then turn the pieces in the fourth column and lay them on the pieces of the third colum.  Then I pin them... pick them up in order and sew them, column by column, chain piecing so there is a continuous bit of thread holding them in their proper order.  when I get to the bottom of one column, I insert a little scrap of a bright color to remind me that I've reached the bottom of a column, then proceed to sew the next column.  When I've finished the first/second and third/fourth columns, I join the two columns together (leaving the little joining threads intact) then open that set of rows, lay this out on the table where it all started to make sure I have the orientation correct, and join the pieces of column 5 to the rest of the rows.

NOW it's time to press!  The top, middle and bottom rows are pressed in one direction, and the other two rows are pressed in the opposite direction.  Now it is easy to match up those rows and complete the block!

The block should look like this from the wrong side when finished:

wrong side of Irish Chain Block 2 showing pressing

These blocks can then be assembled to make a quilt that will be 56" square with the addition of a 3" border:


Irish Chain Quilt


This is an excellent design for small redwork (or greenwork) patches and works up very quickly.  The size is a generous proportion for a baby quilt or a comfy lap quilt for that tall guy in your life!