Le Petite Challenge - George

Now that I am finished with all of my jobs this summer, well almost - still have to fill out all the paperwork for the externship, but I am waiting on the owner of the restaurant to find some time.  Hopefully on Wednesday this week.  Anyway, now that I have nowhere I have to be, I don't want to do anything.  I am not in the mood to quilt.  It may be that I really wanted to have this quilt top finished and quilted by now, but I just couldn't make myself get in there and baste it so I could quilt it.  Here is my "George" quilt from the Le Petite Challenge.  Featuring "Portugal" by April Cornell for Moda with a blue Kona background.  I don't know which blue though.  I did find some time to work on this in the month of July.  I really like this quilt top.  It's small - Le Petite - but it makes a big statement.  I really need to crop this picture so you don't see the "table runner" next to it. 

That "table runner" was started over a year ago - maybe even two - and since I really don't like to make table runners, I was going to make it into a full size quilt.  However, I only did a bit and got bogged down in stitching all the stars on the squares - I even reduced the number of stars by half - and I never got back to it. When I was pulling batik scraps from off my cutting table and the surrounding area, I found the box that this was in.  It still has all the fabrics pulled and in the box with this top.  I used some of the scraps from this box to add to my block of the month challenge and saw why I haven't worked on it in awhile.  The blocks I have finished are the exact same fabrics that are already in the quilt!  I need to make more stars, add in more batiks and . . . finish this quilt top.  But first, I need to cut 6 inch squares for our Bee Friend's scrap swap.  I need 145 light squares and 145 medium/dark squares.  I know it won't take long to kick those out,  but my cutting table is over run with stuff.  So, I am going to have to cut on my small table - which is okay - but it also has fabric on it from at least two different projects plus leftover bits of George!  Gotta go clean that off.

February's Le Petite Challenge

This is my version of the newest Le Petite challenge, "Sweet Spot." I know, it's early. I know, I can't believe it either. Last month's challenge I finished late on the 31st. This month, it is the 12th and I am already done. What the heck? Here's the deal. I haven't worked on any other quilting project since I began pulling fabrics and cutting on the 5th and every time I made it up to the studio to sew, I worked on this quilt. Nothing else. No Intuition quilt, no blocks for others, nothing. Now, I don't want you to think that I have eaten, slept and breathed this top, because, that is not the case, but I was totally focused - in the studio - on getting this one done before the deadline. I might even have it quilted - hahaha - okay, now I am lying to myself about that - I should say that I would like to have it quilted and bound before the end of the month, but I would also like to finish up the intuition quilt and move on to the monochromatic challenge. Oh, yes, there is also a little thing called retreat and working on my newest quilt pattern. and, and, and . . . Anyway, back to this quilt. When the newest le petite pattern was posted on Pink Pincushion, I really liked it. I knew I wanted to do something modern, but also a little different from the pattern. I pulled out some Kona gray and 9 fabrics that have a more modern feel to them. I drew out the pattern on a graphing index card, figured out what size I wanted the blocks to be and started in almost immediately. I made one block to test out my plan and then it was off to the races. For some reason, I ended up with 10 star blocks. How did that happen? I only pulled 9 fabrics, didn't I? Oh, yes, that test block. I guess I pulled an extra one for that, but since it goes with the others and since I don't know what I am going to do with the back, I wanted to use all the blocks on the front. That is where this whole thing took a turn for the "different". I only added double borders on two sides along with the one block cornerstone. I thought it was finished, but then I decided it needed to be set with a final gray border. I sewed a 2 1/2" strip along the border sides and a 4 1/2" strips along the non border sides. Perfectiono!(she says, kissing her fingertips on her right hand and then waving her hand in the air) I really like how it looks.

Okay, I said that I hadn't been totally engrossed in making this top, I also have been keeping up with some of the blogs and one of them, 15 Minutes Play, had a posting about disappearing 4 patches. I read that posting, went to the makers blog and read that posting and still don't understand how to cut the blocks. That didn't stop me, though. I sewed 4 - 4 1/2" squares together into a 4 patch. Then I cut 1 inch to the right of the middle seam, turned it a quarter turn and cut 1 inch away from that seam. That looks nothing like - wait, one block looks like it may be part of the what I want - Nope. Can't figure it out. So, I took my pieces, turned a couple of them around and swapped them, sewed them all back together and voila! (another kissing hand thingy) here is my version of the disappearing 4 patch block.


That worked, now let's make another one and see what we have - Crash!! I just knocked off the drawer that holds my keyboard. I have done that before, but this time, I also took out the side support. I am not sure that this can be fixed. Back to the quilt blocks holding my keyboard in my lap. Here is two of them together. This doesn't look anything like the wonkiness of the other one, but I think it has potential, "we believe in you" sorry, flashing to Pretty Woman.

Ahh, I have gone back to the site and discovered that she cut one inch on both sides of each of those seams. Leaving, for the most part the middle section together. I am going to just have to ask her for a pictorial tutorial on exactly how she made them wonky. Or, I may have to sew some more blocks together and try it for myself.

Miss Fiona Lake/design wall monday

Here is the newest addition to our growing family. This is the one that my neighbor brought to my house thinking it was one of mine. It wasn't at the time, but since I have had her a couple of weeks, I have seen no evidence of an attempt to find her, she came without a collar and has apparently been well taken care of up until now, she is now mine and has the name: Fiona Lake. I have always named my dogs with a first and middle name. Her middle name is because she was found over here by the lake. I have found that she really doesn't like to have her picture taken. I would call her name and she would turn her head away or tuck it under the pillow! These are the best two that I had that weren't blurry from her turning her head so fast. Our Miss Fiona is a bit camera shy.
Below is a picture of my two other shi tzus. You can see why my neighbor thought this one was one of mine. She looks a lot like my Irish and when they are walking side by side, even I have a hard time sometimes telling them apart. She is fitting in great with all the boys and is even teaching McCallum, the yorkie and the baby of the bunch , to mind his manners.




Here is what I have up on my design wall today, Monday, January 7, 2011. I am working on my le petite challenge for February. I have all the center blocks done and sewn together and I am currently working on the borders. I am not sure if I want to do the same as everyone else, so I am playing with scraps and trying to figure it out as I go along. I also miscounted and made an extra block. I thought I was being so careful, but I guess making one block ahead of cutting out the rest, threw me off. I can't decide whether to put it in the corner of on the back. I will have to see after I play a bit more. I am going to finish this one earlier since last time I almost missed the parade. I was putting that final border on the last day of January. If you saw my quilt in the parade, you will notice that Sinta took my picture from my blog with only the three sides attached. It really looks better now with all four sides. To see more design walls on this Monday (or any day) just go to Judy's blog and check it out.





P. S. Dinner was great out with my friends. We had a lot of fun at Johnny Carino's for our monthly get together. There was gossiping and good times had by all!! I now have a new favorite for Monday nights. Their family platters are on half price and I got food for several, several meals for less than it would have cost me for one. I love a bargain!!

MonAmi Top Finished!

The Mon Ami top is finished for the Le Petite challenge. I have finished (not quilted) all of the challenges on time so far. YEA ME!! I don't think I have ever done that. I don't like to put my creativity on a deadline and it is a struggle to get everything in on time. If I were just doing this one challenge, it would be different. However, I was working on 4 different things during the month of January and this is the only one totally completed. The Intuition quilt is in progress and flowing very nicely. I just need to take this quilt off the wall and put back up the bits and pieces for the lower quadrants of that quilt. The next thing I was going to do in January is the Monochromatic quilt from Patchwork Times. The color drawn was yellow and I found a bunch of nice yellow FQ's on clearance at The Quilting Patch in Midland. I came home, cut them into fat eights to share half with my mother. Unfortunately that is as far as I got on that one. I do have to say that I wasn't' planning on making the entire quilt in one month, only about 8 or 9 blocks. Then, at the end of the year, after making that many blocks from each color drawn each month, I would put them all together in a single quilt. So, all is not lost on that one, yet. The color has been drawn for February and it is violet. I can make both sets of blocks and be back on track this month. (Plus the new challenge quilt, the intuition quilt, the retreat quilt, writing the pattern for my class quilt, etc., etc., etc.) I am really hoping that it rains and freezes all night so that they will cancel school tomorrow and I can stay home and quilt. That would be wonderful. Except tomorrow was already going to be wonderful in the fact that the majority of my students weren't going to be there anyway. Drats!

Design Wall Monday Posting Early

Almost!! I almost have my Mon Ami quilt top finished for the Le Petite challenge this month. I only have to put on one more border and I am done! I didn't think I would make it to the first of February, but I think I will. I can get that border, which is already cut and ready, sewn on tomorrow. I know, you are asking, "Why aren't you sewing it on now instead of blogging?" Because I can type faster than I can pin all those seams. I have been pinning each seam so that it lays flat and let me tell you, that is a lot of pins! Well, here it is, so far. I am also doing this now so I can post to the Monday Design Wall group tomorrow.

To see what everyone else has on their design wall Monday, go to Patchwork Times.

Playing around

I have been working on a couple of quilts and ideas this week along with trying to still fight this "flu/cold" bug. I finally went back to the doctor today and got some more medicine. I am a little afraid to take it with all the warnings on it "may cause diarrhea", "may cause diarrhea up to one month after taking this medicine" (what?) "do not take within 24 hours of taking ....vitamins" Scary!!! I should have taken two doses by now, but since I take a daily vitamin, I haven't taken any. I am tempted to call my doctor back tomorrow and ask for something that doesn't make me sick in a different way than what I am now.

I have had my hair up in a ponytail for the last two days (except to sleep) and when I took it down tonight I shook it all out and felt wild. I wondered what I looked like. So, I picked up the camera that was right in front of me and took a picture . . .

LOL!!! I need some lipstick/lip coloring. They are extremely pale. However, I think it looks like an art picture. I like the eye peeking out. I may change my picture on facebook. My mother hates the picture I have now, I doubt she will like this one any better. Look for her comment below and see what she says.

I have been playing almost everyday for at least 15 minutes and this is what I have been working on since I last blogged. I am still in the middle of the intuition quilt project. I did one quadrant then took time off and stitched together some scrap strips into a rail fence quilt. Since it was all in the same pile on the table, I thought I might use that as one of the quadrants and put the other section back up on the wall. hmmm. Not sure about that yet. They will definitely swap sides if I do use it.

So, I started on another section. Pulling in some of the same fabrics and playing. Here is from two sessions at the sewing machine.

I found some more of those 9 patch blocks and put them on the board all together. I am going to go in there and move them all around here in a minute and break them up. I don't like the entire block, but may leave some of them together.


I put the intuition aside last night while I was watching the BCS game (TCU should have been playing in that game.) Personal comments aside, I started pulling fabric to make the Mon Ami from the le petite challenge for this month. I plan on working on this at our quilt-in starting Thursday. I decided to make it out of solids and I am happy with the choices I have made.


I was so excited that I just had to make one block just to get me started. Only 24 more to go. Now, off the computer and back to the intuition quilt.

Tree top done

here is the top for my le petite tree challenge. I need to lay it out and baste it. I plan on putting some beads on it to decorate it after it is all quilted. Stay tuned and for the final product, hopefully before Christmas.

I am currently working on some placemats. But for now, I need to take a nap so I can cheer on our Idalou Wildcats as they play in the state championship game for the first time ever!! Go Cats!!

Edit: OOPS! I forgot you could see the blocks behind the tree. That block is a cakestand block from our year-long-prepare-for-December-stir-fry-class with Debbie Caffrey. More posted later on that class/quilt

Time and New Projects

I have been sewing a little and lazing around a lot! I need to get into the sewing room, but by the time I get home, feed the dogs, check out facebook and play a couple games of bejeweled blitz - okay, a lot more than a couple, it is almost time to go to bed. Where does the day go? I know I am getting out of school later than I have in 8 years and I am even sometimes staying later than that (4:30/5:00), but it really seems like there is no time to do ANYTHING!! At least I know what I am wearing tomorrow and it is clean. I need to do a couple or 4 loads of laundry. Do things ever pile up for you like this? Laundry, kitchen, refrigerator, puppy, trash? It's a never ending cycle. I think I will take a break from it all and go to Andrews for a sew-in Friday. Maybe I will get more done at this one that I did at the one in Midland. I have enough to keep me busy, I just need to work on it.

This past weekend was our Quilt-in with our Bee friends group and I worked on my quilt-along with That Girl - That Quilt. I saw her drawing and just started out on my own not waiting for her instructions. Sounds like me, huh? I was not liking it and still am not totally sure about it. I haven't found the layout I want or the spark that will send it over the edge. So, I won't be working on that one on Friday unless it comes together in my head tomorrow.

Also on the blogs, I am doing the layer cake quilt along with moose on the porch. The first block pattern came out Monday so I printed it off and need to make it. I am not using a layer cake with this one, but am using 12 fat quarters I picked up at the Andrews store almost a year ago. I must have been saving them for just this occasion.

I am also doing the la petite sew-along even though I didn't get my paganini into the parade. [didn't know how to do it :( ]You have all seen it before, but I will post it again.



I didn't add the wavy border or cut out the wavy border. I like it just the way it is. (can you say chicken?)

Now, for le petite, there is a new pattern, but the one store I looked in for the pattern was all out. So, I printed out a picture of the quilt and I am going to make it using larger blocks. The top consists of churn dash (my favorite), jacobs ladder and half square triangles. How simple is that? I love the way it is arranged. You will just have to wait and see unless you go to one of the websites and check it out for yourself.

Well, it is almost 10 and bedtime once again. See how time flies?