A Block for Kaaren

My quilting bud, MB in MI, directed me to this blog -  http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/2011/06/quilt-for-kaaren-painted-quilt.html and here - http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/2011/06/updates-on-kaarens-quilts.html where Allie requested a block for a fellow blogger named Kaaren of The Painted Quilt.  Kaaren is having health issues and the hope is that these blocks when assembled into a quilt will bring her some cheer and well wishes.  It's so easy to do - here's what I did (the directions are all on Allie's first blog mentioned above).

One 6.5" beige square and four 3.5" red squares.  I washed the fabric first and checked the red for bleeding.  This is a very important step as you all know!

The four squares are marked on the diagonal on the back and then sewn to the corners of the beige square.  You can only do 2 at a time, opposite corners, press and trim.  Then do the other 2 corners.  Just like making a snowball block but with larger corner squares.  Voila - a square in a square!

You obviously noticed that I wrote my name and my city in the center of the block.  I will add a little quotation or cheery message also.  The "trick" to writing on fabric is to attach a piece of freezer paper to the back side of the block.  Before I ironed it on, I drew 2 dark lines to help me keep my writing straight.

I also found that using a Sharpie (ultra fine point) is easier for me than a Micron pen.



The triangles that you trimmed can now be re-purposed into half-square triangle units.  Mine came out 2.5" unfinished.  They were oversized but I trimmed them down to perfect 2.5" squares.

The entire process (minus the fabric washing and picture taking) took about 30 minutes.  I hope that you can find the time to add a little smile to our friend Kaaren.  The deadline is July 15 and the mailing address can be obtained by emailing Allie (refer to Allie's blog - the first one listed above).

Hope that where ever you are, you are enjoying the day!



The Sun is Out!!!

Hooray!!  The sun came back to northern Michigan!!  It was on vacation for almost an entire week and left us with gray clouds and rain, rain, and more rain.  Thursday, the temp reached 57 degrees - amazingly awful.  Yesterday the sun came out and we got to 75 degrees.  Today, it's almost 80 and sunny again!  Yippee.  Unfortunately, all this sunshine prevented me from finishing this post which I actually started yesterday morning but I'm sure you understand...

I am also sure that you are all anxiously awaiting the drawing for the prize - well, it wasn't that difficult to count all the comments - there were actually 4 comments - WooHoo!!!  Thank you all for your nice comments.  I let the random number generator whirl away for quite awhile while it thought about a number from 1 to 4...wait for it...wait for it...The number chosen was 3 and the winner of my contest was Mandy from M and M plus 3.

Congratulations Mandy, email me your address and I will send this along to you forthwith (on Monday).  I hope you have fun creating a little fall prettie with these cute fat quarters.  I deliberated a long time about which quilt to make and I decided on # 3 - the quilt from Kathy Brown's book, Strip-Smart Quilts.  The title of the quilt is "Hide n' Seek".  (there is no connection to quilt #3 and comment #3 - purely coincidence)

I've started on it already - cut the solid color strips and the individual pieces.  I had to wait to get the book so I cut the triangles according to my idea of what they were - turned out I cut them wrong.  (I cut them with an equilateral triangle (60 degrees with 3 equal sides) instead of an isosceles right triangle (90 degrees with 2 sides the same).  I love to throw in some math!!!  However, not a problem, my units will just be smaller but the effect will be almost the same.  It is very colorful and the individual fabrics shine - I am very pleased.  How do you like it??  Lots more to do but chain piecing is a good thing while I keep plugging away at organizing our home.  Here's my design wall with the twosies stuck up there:

Each row is separated by an off-white Kona cotton.  Thanks to my quiltie buds for the pretty fabrics.
I had better get this posted quickly so you will know who won.  I appreciate all your comments and as I said earlier, I like all the quilt choices so you may see one of them again with other fabrics.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and I hope to post again very soon!!

So Much to Report...

It's been awhile since I've written and now I have lots to tell.  I went to the Petoskey quilt show, Quilting by the Bay, on Friday (yesterday).  What a wonderful show and a wonderful day!!  More about that later.

Instead, I want to show you something that I'm almost finished with.  Since my sewing room is in such a state of disarray, I decided to finish a project that required a lot of handwork, aka Applique!  I started this in January 2010 with a workshop by Anita Shackleford - dimensional applique - not just regular applique, no, I had to choose something harder.  Here it is:

I'm not sure how it will be used - either a wall hanging, a pillow, or perhaps framed.  Any suggestions?  Since I have to wait for your suggestions, I decided to start a new project...

On my birthday I received the bestest gift from my bestest quiltie friends - each one gave me a Jelly Roll of fabric from their stash!!  Thanks gals!!  I recognized most of the fabrics from the pretty quilts that they have made or were still working on.  What to do with these lovelies?

(these are most of the strips - I couldn't get them all on the table top for the picture).  I've looked and looked and have come up with these ideas for my new summer quilt:

Ok, these are my choices - I like them all!!  The first quilt is from Moda Bake Shop.  I can't remember where I found the second quilt (I will check on that later).  The third quilt is from the new book, Strip-Smart Quilts by Kathy Brown which I hope to win after commenting on about 15 blogs!  The 4th and 5th are from Scrap Basket Sensations, and the last quilt is one that Barb (Paint Creek Quilt) found.

Which do you like best?  This is a contest with a prize.  So all my followers, leave a comment to see if you picked the one that I like the best (you could change my mind I guess).  You have until next Friday, June 24th, midnight, EDT, to enter.  LOL.

Ok, time to get dinner going.  Burgers on the grill - I've been busy today typing all this so I need a fast and easy meal.  Hugs you all!

Judy in Michigan (in the Birds)

A Quilty Birthday

My birthday is Sunday, June 5.  I was actually born around 6pm EST and if you consider that Europe is 5-6 hours ahead of us, the Allied soldiers were preparing for the assault on the beaches of Normandy when I made my appearance.  I do seem to be the instigator of things...

Here's a picture you don't see everyday...

My younger DD was taking this duck for a ride - IN HER CAR!  I hope the duck stayed on the "paper".  Don't know the story yet on this one but DD is known for her love of animals.  Maybe they were just going out for lunch.

I'm receiving little gifts in the mail - I will get pictures of them.  One thing I know you will recognize without the pictures are the 3 books ordered by my husband...Scrap-Basket Sensations by Kim Brackett, City Quilts by Cherri House, and Schnibbles Times Two by Carrie Nelson.  OOOOh - can't wait to see those beauties.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!