OFF CENTER PINEAPPLE QUILT

Hello to all! It's been almost a week since I posted, so time to let you know I'm still around. This is an day of aches for me so I won't be posting much. My back and legs ache. One of those days! I hope I can get some stitching done today as I am working on the last border for my Trumpet Flower quilt. I am getting anxious to get it done. I have about 35 blocks prepped for the Circuit Rider quilt. My back aches too much to attempt to lay them out for a photo but will do that soon. No more complaining.

I thought I would post a picture of an off-center pineapple quilt I made a good while back. In fact, I completed it on January 1st, 2000. The first day of the New Mellenium. The blocks were paper-pieced. I drew my own pattern after seeing a similar quilt. I was really into reds at the time. I collected quite a few and made three or four quilts using them. I wish I had a photo of the bigger pineapple quilt I made. I just looked through my quilt pictures and I don't find one. And that was before I ha a digital camera. The design was a bit complicated and interesting. The quilt was given as a gift to a good friend.

This quilt is a nice wall hanging size. The center piece of each pineapple block is a black and white zebra.

It's Friday! I am retired but I still like the sound of the word Friday. For those who work Monday through Friday, you know what I mean. Hope you have an enjoyable weekend. I have no plans. Not even a trip to the quilt shop! I already did that earlier in the week. And I got two squishy packages in the mail yesterday and another on the way.

Come back soon!

Karen

A WINNER!

TaDa! We have a winner of the wool kit that I was giving away for my 100th post. I wrote all the names on little papers and put them in my pretty Fenton bowl. (Cobalt blue is my favorite glass color!) And the papers are well mixed.
Without looking my hand draws the winning name. I am the only one home this morning, so it had to be me doing the drawing

The winner is Danielle! Danielle has a blog called Want to Bee Quilting. She is a regular reader of my blog. I have already e-mailed her asking for her address so I can get the kit to her. I sure got a blurry picture of her name on the paper but you get the idea.
Today I am showing you a picture of my Pokeberry quilt which is the next to last quilt top to show you from my sewing room closet. If you have followed my blog, you know that I got this quilt top together last year some time. There are lots of berries to applique on this pattern. My friend Jeanne (no blog) can tell you just how many berries there are. She made one of these quilts. The pattern is by Jan Patek.
I am preparing another project for applique. I know, I know! You are thinking that I have way too many UFO's already. I am cutting out baskets to applique. The reason I am doing the prep work now is that I am mainly using one line of fabric, Portabella Market (I always want to call it Portabella Mushroom) by Moda. I am adding some fabrics from stash and will make a decision soon if they are going to stay. I prefer to add some pieces from other fabric lines when possible. Anyhow, the fabric line has been out for a while. I want to see if I need more fabric while it is still available. I purchased a layer cake first just because I liked the fabrics so well. I thought I could at least put some in scrap quilts. Then I found a good buy on a fat quarter bundle and purchased that. I added some extra of two of the backgrounds not knowing what I wanted to make. I really like the Blackbird Designs baskets that so many of you are working on but decided I wanted a one piece basket and somewhat larger. Some of the prints in the Portabella line are large and a bigger basket seemed more appropriate. I appliqued one basket to try this shape. It is from a pattern called "Susan's Baskets" that was in "Threads of Time" by Cabbage Rose. I no longer have the book, so I don't know what the quilt was to look like. I am doing my own thing with it. Found the template in a folder that I had a few basket quilt patterns in. I will lay some of the shapes on backgrounds and photograph for the next post. I should have used the flash this morning as the photo is a bit dim. We are having rain again and the house has gotten a btg dark. The project is long term as I have others that need my attention.
The block size is supposed to finish to 6 1/2 by 8 inches but there is room for play. I am thinking of having a light background with darker basket placed by a darker background with lighter basket.

I am almost halfway on the third border of the Trumpet Flower quilt. Thank you for all the nice compliments you left on this project. No one seemed to think it was too busy.

I have been visiting a blog that would interest any of you that like the prim style like I do. If you haven't already been over to Humble Quilts, please pay Lori a visit. She started her blog earlier this year and has posted some wonderful quilts and wool projects that she has made.

I don't think the astronauts are going to be able to land here today since it is pouring rain. I know it costs a lot to have it land in California and then piggyback it to Florida but it is something to see coming in.

Time for me to get busy. Come back soon!

Karen

POST 100

Hello to my fellow bloggers and visitors! The sun is trying to shine here in central Florida after two days of rain. We aren't complaining about the rain as we went almost a month without any. I don't know how many inches we received of the wet stuff but the pool had to be drained because it got too full. It rained some this morning and we may get more today. It has certainly helped ease the dry conditions that were causing brush fires.

I have been busy stitching on projects. I have two borders on the Trumpet Flower quilt. I started the third border yesterday evening. I showed the quilt at the Sew 'n Sew meeting the other day. I feel it is a busy quilt but my fellow stitchers said I needed to step back from it and view. I love the Blackbird Designs sampler fabric that I used as a background on four of the blocks. I think, though, that it makes the quilt a bit too busy. I am continuing on and trusting that I will really like this when done.

Another quilt from the closet. Hey, Khris, from Quilted Simple. This might be a quilt top right up your alley. Khris has a photo of the prettiest chicken (maybe it's a rooster) on her blog. This quilt top is a sampler of chicken blocks. I used to be really into chicken blocks of all kinds. I participated in a chicken block trade one time. Several friends have given me chicken blocks also. This is a setting I chose for some of the blocks. I saw a picture of a quilt done with this setting in "Smashing Sets" by Margaret J. Miller. It worked well for this quilt top and another chicken quilt I put together that you can see here. I have used this book on another quilt or two for settings that are different.

Okay, I give up. I have been trying to move the photo of the Floral Urn to another spot and have messed up something in the edit function. The Floral Urn picture is supposed to be after all the chicken quilt top pictures. Before I mess up any more, I will just leave things as they are. If you noticed the title on this blog entry, I have reached my 100th post. I started my blog in January of 2008. I have enjoyed the ride so far. I have made many blogging friends I never would have come across otherwise. And I have e-mail contact with a few non bloggers who read my posts and comment that way. All is good! In celebration of the 100th post I am giving away a kit from The Quilted Crow for the project "Floral Urn". The kit contains the pattern, floss,wool roving, and felted wool. Just leave a comment on this post. I will draw a name on Saturday, May 23rd, 2009. Good luck.

I am posting a picture of what I have completed on the Garden Club quilt so far. I don't like making the type stars that are part of the flag but muddled through with paper piecing.
The mini shop hop that the Sew 'n Sews did on Saturday was a lot of fun. I did not get pictures in the shops as neither owner of the two shops was working that day. I want permission before I take pictures and post. We visited a shop in Deland, Florida and one in Sanford, Florida. My purchase for the day was a small pile of fat quarters of a line of fabric called "Sachet Potpourri". I didn't photograph them to put on the blog. Forgot to do that. I haven't decided exactly what to make with them. Too much to think about with all the projects going on. We ate lunch at an Italian Deli in Deland. I don't eat much Italian food as some of the tomato sauces and sausages upset my stomach. I decided to just go straight to dessert and ate a piece of cheesecake. It was very good. Not a real heavy cheesecake which pleased me.

I need to get busy. Hubby is vacuuming floors. I will put a few things away so the house looks a little neater. Come back soon.

Karen

SEW 'N SEWS SHOP HOP DAY

Today is the third Saturday of the month. I meet with my quilting friends on the third Saturday of every month. Today, we Sew 'n Sews will be doing a mini shop hop. There is no official shop hop going on but our hostess has created her own for us. We will be going to two shops for sure and maybe a third if there is time and the group is up to it. I have not been to any of the quilt shops, so it definitely will be a treat for me. And we will have a stop for lunch. Gotta have energy to keep going. Dessert maybe? I'll tell you about our day later.

No, I am not done with quilt tops from the closet. The closet has been likened to Mary Poppin's bag. Never ending what comes out of it. This quilt top is called "Lolo Trail" and is a Terry Clothier Thomas pattern. Reproduction fabrics were used. I didn't get the whole top in the photo but I think you get the idea of what it looks like.

The next picture got some sunlight on it from the french doors but I don't have time to retake the photo this morning. The picture shows what I have done on the first block for the new project that I began yesterday. I have a couple leaves to finish and a dragon fly. I spent yesterday evening stitching on the block. Libby, Beth, Colleen, Kim, and myself are working on the Garden Club Quilt by Country Threads. Libby and I had agreed to start on Friday. We invited a few others to join in because they all have the book and have wanted to make the quilt. This is a no rules kind of thing and a project that will take a while. We will still be working on our other projects. I have had the patterns for quite a while and am looking forward to working on this project. If anyone else wants to joing in, please feel free to do so.

And the last picture is of all the blocks I have prepared so far for the Circuit Rider Quilt. These are peel 'n stick and all edges will be machine stitched in matching thread and a tiny buttonhole stitch. I only use a ring of the fusible around the pieces, so the fabric is still soft and pliable. I wish I had time to hand applique these but I don't. And the recipient will be happy to have it one way or the other. I would like to hand applique one for myself in the future. But who knows if I will ever get around to doing it.

That's all I have time to write about now. Have to get ready for the big day!

Karen

MORE UFO'S

Thought I would post about what I am working on in the sewing room and give you a glimpse at another quilt top from the un-ending closet.

The photo is of a quilt top that is really too big to be a wall quilt and too small to be a bed quilt. I sometimes wonder why I do those things. I know I have posted a photo of this top before but I could not find it looking quickly back through my blog posts. It was a magazine pattern. I will have to find all the information on the quilt & post it with the final picture upon completion of the quilt. I do like designs with circles involved and with points.

Over the weekend I finished preparing the "Love Letters" applique project from "When the Cold Wind Blows". It is the version with the reds & blue greens. It wouldn't do me any good to photograph the prepared blocks as it would just be a blob of one million pieces. I'm sure it has one million pieces to it! What was I thinking? It certainly doesn't look like it would have so many pieces when you look at the quilt picture in the book. The blocks are large. Twenty-eight inches I think. Certainly innocent enough looking. Wrong. Lots and lots of pieces to each block. I hope I made the right selections of fabrics for each block. Lots of little floral prints involved. Well, maybe there aren't a million pieces for the quilt blocks but I have a feeling it will seem like it when I do start working on it. The project is put away for the time being. The fabrics are back on the shelves.

I saw some "Circuit Rider" blocks on a blog. Which one, I don't remember. They inspired me though. I need a nice quilt for a donation. I am working on preparing some of the blocks. How many, I am not sure just yet. I need to do some math after I figure out what kind of setting I will do. I am not going to do hand applique on the project but will do it with a machine stitch. I don't have time to do hand applique on it and really it would not make a difference to anyone that ends up with it. But it will be pretty! So, that is what is going on in the sewing room right now.

I am using modern looking fabrics instead of reproduction fabrics. I think it is a better choice for my project and where it is going. Reproduction fabrics would look very good for these blocks also.

I am looking forward to Friday and a new quilt project to be started with friends. It is something that will be done over a period of time. Maybe a block or section every three weeks or so. No rules. Hopefully lots of inspiration from the friends to keep going and get it done for next spring. More on the project later.

I am getting close to post 100 so stay tuned.

Come back soon for another visit.

Karen