October quilting

October is starting out to be a busy quilting month!  The AQS quilt show in Des Moines starts this week.  My friends and I always go on Friday of the show. Can't wait!  If you are heading there, be sure to check out Rainbows and Calico Things Quilt Shop's booth.  They will have a great selection of brights and novelty fabrics in fat quarter, half yard and one yard lengths.  Don't miss The Woolen Needle's booth either.  They will have tons of wool. 

Another exciting event for October is the Halloween Paper Pieced Blog Hop 2012 hosted by Whims and Fancies.  Each day of October, a designer will post a free Halloween themed paper pieced quilt block that they created. I will post mine on the 10th.  Be sure to visit the blogs and get your free patterns!  

Also starting today is the BlockBase Sew Along by Electric Quilt.  I have owned BlockBase for years and hope this Sew Along will help me use it.  BlockBase is the CD-ROM version of Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns with over 4300 block patterns.  Electric Quilt recently published it again but the product is the same.  Every two weeks, a block will be featured to sew and there will be a link up so everyone can show a photo of their finished block.  The first block is posted so I better get started!

Time to sew

I've been gone awhile with moving, remodeling, downsizing and changing jobs but 

we are finally settled in-at least enough to do some sewing. Yay!

The house is coming along but is not "decorated" yet.  I had hoped to show progress pictures but got too burned out to completely finish a single room and my type A personality won't let me show you a room until it is "done." 

So, here are a some photos of areas in my sewing room that are done-

My cutting mats are hung on the back of the door using a skirt hanger and a Command hook and my rulers are hung on pegboard attached to the wall behind the door and

I have an 8' by 8' design wall to left of the door and right next to my sewing machine.  This by far the best set-up I have ever had for sewing.  I love it!

The blocks on the wall are from a Buggy Barn pattern called Spring Fever.  I don't know if they will all go in the same quilt or not.  I have made 48 of these blocks so far in an attempt to decrease my fat quarter stash.  I have five nieces and I may make each one of them a quilt using this pattern.

Twister receiving blanket quilts finished

If you have been following me for awhile, you know that my daughter has me make quilts for her children from the receiving blankets they used as babies.  One particular set of blankets (Lainey Jane's) had colors that didn't really look right together and it took me a long time to figure out how to use them in the same quilt.  I ended up making a larger version of a Twister quilt which I posted about here and this is the finished quilt.

Lainey's Big Twister quilt

Here's a closeup of the quilting and the polka dot binding.  Linda of L&R Designs did the custom quilting.

The backing is made from two polka dot fabrics from my stash.

I liked the Twister idea so well that I made Lylie's blankets into a Twister quilt also.  This time I just used the tool and 10" squares instead of making it oversized.

Lylie's Twister quilt

A closeup of the quilting by Linda of L&R Designs

and the back.  I purchased flannel for the back of this quilt and used the leftovers for the binding.

I cut the rest of the receiving blankets into squares and made Lylie a smaller quilt and a quilt for her dollies.

The backings for these quilts were from my stash which doesn't appear to be getting any smaller!

I am caught up on making quilts from receiving blankets because Kinsey is still using hers!  I overheard my daughter telling her grandmother who is also a quilter, "Grandma, I can have babies faster than you can make quilts."  Isn't that the truth for many of us quilters!

Great Granny Along blocks

I ran across the Great Granny Along quilt along and decided I needed to take a break from working on our house and make a block even if my sewing room is still a mess.  I talked Linda of L&R Designs into sewing one with me.  Here's our untrimmed blocks-

my great granny block

Linda's great granny block

Funny how we ended up using very similar colors in the same arrangement!  It wasn't planned.  We weren't really paying much attention to what fabrics the other was using.

What I love about this block is that it fits perfectly with my nickel theme.  You need one 5" square of fabric for the first round, two 5" squares for the second round and three 5" squares for the third round!  But you can also use 2 1/2" strips or squares.  It just fits in perfectly with how I cut up my scraps already. Check out Linda's blog to read more about how we made them.  You can find the tutorial to make your own great granny blocks here (scroll down).  

Twister receiving blanket quilt

The only time I've had to sew since we moved has been at retreats.  I made this Twister quilt at a weekend quilting retreat at the end of June.  It's made from my granddaughter Lylie's receiving blankets.  I used the original Twister tool that's made for 10" squares.  Off to my long arm quilter it goes!

If you have never tried a Twister ruler, you should.  It's addicting and is a great way to use scraps. As part of our retreat activities, we all brought 5" squares to exchange and made Lil' Twister quilts.  We all used the same fabric squares but we each used a different fabric for our outer border.

my Twister quilt

retreat Twister quilts

You can see an even larger Twister quilt that I made using 12 1/2" squares here and a smaller one here using the Itty Bitty Twister tool and 2 1/2" squares.

Since starting this post, I actually made a block in my new sewing room!  The room is far from being done but it's good enough to sew in.  I'll show you what I started next time.