Leaders and Enders

Chain sewing 4-Patch blocks.

I think it turned out pretty cute. I think I'll be ordering some more fabric from Connecting Threads to use as a border for this one. I also need to order the borders for the Pinwheel that I made. I went shopping at a fabric store about 1/2 a mile from my home and found most of the fabric had gone up a couple of dollars since I was in there. Knocked my socks right off! Connecting Threads lower prices are looking better and better and since these fabrics were from charm packs I ordered a few months ago I'll be able to match the borders easily.

I also did some playing around with my leaders and enders Snowball quilt. I have over 100 of each colorway so it will be a good sized quilt. I'm still playing with the arrangement.

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Happy Quilting! Lynda

Disappearing 4-Patch

I was over visiting Linda at Stray Stitches (see my side bar) a few days ago and saw she had made a Disappearing 4-Patch block. I loved it and thought I needed to try it myself.
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Above is a Charm pack called Princess from Connecting Threads that I got a couple of months ago.

Sewed them into 4 patches.

Cut them 1 inch away from the seams and mixed them up just a little. Cute tiny 4-patch in center.

Sewed them back together.....VIOLA! Isn't that a cute and easy block. All the princess fabrics are in pink and purple. I think it will make a cute little girl princess very happy.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

Muddled thoughts!

My Kaliedoscope quilt has been up on my design wall for a few days now. What to do ,what to do?????
How about a solid background...doesn't take away from the center.

Or a busy piece from one of the wedges?

I rather like the stripe.

Possibly a planned use of scraps.

I really liked the use of all the scraps in the border like one in Ricky's book....but mine really looks a little (make that a LOT) haphazard!!

I've been staring at this for quite some time. Today I'll be with my Bee at a fabric store. Maybe I can make a decision then.

Happy Quilting! Lynda

Whew!!!

Here IT is.....all the wedges, butts, wedgies and 1st border on. Please don't look too closely. That center orange star was a challenge! 12 points all coming together!! The process was fun...seeing the stages was fun...sewing the wedges was even fun. I wasn't sure I liked it for quite a while but now I think I LOVE it. I need to figure out how to put together all the left over pieces for the outside border but I think that will even be fun.


I ran into other quilters who have been working on Kaliedoscope quilts too.

Autie Em at Quilt Crossing is giving such great details of her experience with this pattern and from her blog you can get to Carol's at piecedgoods and Patty's at quiltfever also to see how they are doing. (Or you can get there from my sidebar...I know I know, my daughter has shown me 3 times how to make it so you can click on their names here and get to them but for the life of me I can never do it when she's not sitting here beside me to help!!!) Amazing how different they all look from each other. Carol is doing hers in monchromatic colors and it is so elegant. Patty is using lots of color like me and it is beautiful. Be sure to check theirs out too.

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Happy Quilting! Lynda

What's on the design wall?

Here it is...the first step of the Kaliedoscope quilt. I've already learned some lessons for when I try to make this again. As you can see, my first strip set of 6 fabrics only shows 5 of the fabrics. Looks rather Springy so far. I really like the blue plaid on the tips. Too bad the next time that fabric was used in a strip, it didn't make it onto the pattern. The 2nd set of strips only used 4 of the 6 strips. The stripe fabric could have been better showcased if they were at an angle instead of straight across. I really like the dark brown with green flower piece of fabric. It adds a different dimension to the quilt.

The 3rd set has 5 of the 6 strips but only shows a tiny tip of the 5th color. which will probably be lost in the seams. I think the stripe fabric is a little better being on the slant.

The 4th set of strips still only showed 5 of the 6 strips and the green stripe is still not angled as much as I would like it to be.
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If you'll look at the 3rd (last)row added above you can see that the piece under the paper pattern piece is added right. Look at the striped fabric. But when I added the rest around I put them up wrong making the stripe rather flat across instead of peaked like it should be. I couldn't figure out why the next row just didn't seem to fit correctly. By the time I added the last row around I figured out my mistake. If you compare the picture below with the last picture you can see the mistake. Now they all seem to fit together. Simple mistake but sure makes a difference.

By the 5th set of strips the pattern piece was big enough to show all 6 of the fabric strips but the strip set was about 1/2 inch too short as you can see by the red piece on the right corner. I'll need to do a little piecing on that one to make it right. I still need to add the wedgies and butt pieces to make it a 36 inch square....maybe later tonight.

So far it has been quite fun to see the development of the pattern. I think next time I might use less fabrics and repeat some of the fabrics in the strip sets. I really like the dark brown and think maybe repeating that might have given it more depth. It sure was fun to see how different it looked after each section was added. OK now I'm ready to go back and see about adding the wedges and then start sewing them together.

Happy quilting! Lynda

Progress!

We spent the weekend in Logan with our daughter, Nicky and her family. We just love this little girl. It is so fun to have a baby around again. This was after Church on Sunday...she and her Daddywere building a fort out of the couch cushions. Seriously....one more picture, Grandma???

I was visiting Pokey's blog and she had these cute string hearts so I thought I needed to make some too. After all, I have all these strips cut out and trying to figure out what to do with them all. I have all the left sides of the blocks done but only 1 right side so far. They certainly go together easily and I think they will make a cute little quilt for a baby.

Ok.....here are all the fabrics for the Kaleidoscope quilt I've been talking about. I know, the fabrics don't seem to jive together but according to Ricky Tims that just makes for a more interesting quilt.

Here I've divided them up into sets: 5 sets with 6 strips each. I made 2 identical of each set.

Started sewing them together. Don't know if you can tell that I started out making each set coordinate. By the 3rd set I was just throwing whatever strip I felt like. Now I need to draw the pattern on freezer paper, marking every seam etc. and cut out each pattern piece. I am so excited but I'm having company this weekend so I won't get around to sewing on it until next week!

Oh this is a fun one! Happy Quilting. Lynda

I should never have a day off!

I told Dr. M that I shouldn't have any more days off.....because....I go fabric shopping. But I saw this fabric called Petal Pushers by Pearl Louise Krush designs and couldn't pass it up. There were 11 coordinating fabrics in the line but I kept myself to just 4. I'm going to make a star block quilt from them. Aren't they just lucious! My friend, Janine, bought all 11 fabrics. Now we have to figure out what she'll make using them all. I have been sewing also. Finished all the Pinwheel blocks and put the top together. I ended up using less blocks than I had originally planned but now I have enough Pinwheels left over to make a baby quilt too. I think I'll put a small border of light orange 30's fabric and then a wider lavendar border out of 30's fabric too. I really love this one.

Also made a few more Tag Alongs. Suzanne from my Bee gave me some Minke scraps and I just happened to have a busy kittie fabric that matched the bright pink and a cute little bunny fabric to match the circles Minke.

I mentioned that I wanted to make a quilt from Ricky Tims Kool Kaleidoscope quilts book. I started buying fabrics for it. I know, I know....they certainly don't look like they go together. But after studying his method I followed his tips about what fabrics to use. Basically....ANY as long as there is contrast. I still need to get a few mottled fabrics to add to these to give your eye somewhere to rest. I'm getting quite excited to start the process and my Bee wants to see how all these fabrics can actually look good together. (Sure hope I don't disappoint them.)

That's it for now. Happy Quilting! Lynda