Today, I'm happy to be sharing my entry in the .......

This quilt was the topic of my very first blog post back in May.  Seems like forever ago!

Chain Link is a pattern from the book, Link to the '30's  by Kay Connors and Karen Earlywine.  I loved working with the bright colors and learning the partial seam technique, even making the prairie points, although ironing them all was a bit tedious.  Most of all, I enjoyed free-motion quilting all those feathers.  They aren't the greatest, but all washed and crinkled they look just fine and I've spent more than a few afternoon naps under this puppy!  This was my second quilt with thirties repro fabrics so I think I've got them out of my system now, just not out of my stash!

Hope you enjoy this and all the lovely entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Thanks, Amy!

A Little Progress

I've completed just a few blocks so far of the Spaghetti Junction quilt.  I may wind up regretting my fabric choices but have to admit I love the magenta and red combination.  Crossing my fingers that the thin red strips will bring it all together. 

 The pattern is made up of two alternating blocks and the other ones look like this.

Next, is a little progress on my hexagon star quilt that I've named the Hexabomination quilt.  Two of the diamonds are sewn together and I'm working on the third.  This would be over quickly if I did it on the machine but it's reserved for mindless TV sewing.

Please note the small dog snoot on the floor to the left.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.  Enjoy!

Design "Wall" Monday

Today I have two things to share.  The first is my hexagon star:

Yes, the hexagon project has grown to such proportions that it requires a design lawn.  It's also the only place I could get enough light.  I'm aware this has become something of an abomination, but I just couldn't stop sewing those little boogers together.  Planning, must remember planning!  I guess the next step is to add a solid fabric between the star points.  I have no idea how to measure for that or how to go about it or what color to use.  Any ideas, insights, suggestions would be appreciated.  Please be gentle.

Next up are the practice blocks for Heather Mulder Peterson's "Spaghetti Junction" from her book, Living Large 2.

Click here  to see how the finished quilt is supposed to look.  The patterns in the book are for large scale prints and it seems that I've accumulated quite a few that I'll be combining with a fat quarter bundle of Sandi Henderson's Secret Garden fabric in the Sunset Garden colorway.  I hope it works.  I'm using the rust colored chicken wire print where the pattern uses brown dot fabric. I plan to add a narrow inner border of that fabric as well.  The block on the right finished out pretty much perfectly at ten inches.  The one on the left is off in places almost a quarter inch.  Back to the machine with that one.  Accuracy is the absolute bane of my existence!

Check out what others are working on at Patchwork Times.  Have a great week with lots of quilting!

More Adventures in Watercolor and a Napkin Quilt Update

Okay, here goes with another watercolor:

This is my very blatant and not very successful attempt to paint like artist Joyce Hicks, specifically her painting called "Aspen Color".   I love her work and would so like to be able to paint like her.  My first attempt at this was much paler and I liked it better up close, but standing away from it, as you normally would while viewing, the two main trees in the front just disappeared.  At the suggestion of my class instructor, I darkened the backgrounds which made the trees more visible but all color subtlety was lost.  Still and all, I kinda like it.  I did, by the way, contact the artist and get her gracious permission to post my attempt at copying.  Do check out her website and blog to see her gorgeous paintings.

On the quilting front, I realized I didn't post a picture of the back of the Tuesday Morning Napkin Quilt so here it is all bound and washed.

And it wouldn't be a quilt post without a folded or rolled shot, so here's another!

It washed up just fine and I think it makes a great, inexpensive utility quilt.  I'm keeping it in my car as my emergency quilt.

WIP Wednesday - Tuesday Morning Quilt

Tuesday Morning had these gorgeous striped cotton napkins and I fell in love with the bright fall colors.  Naturally, I thought...quilt!  Like maybe for a picnic.  So I bought all they had, intending to just stitch them together maybe turning the stripes in different directions which would have been quite all right and I would've had a finished quilt weeks ago without all the mess-ups. But then I thought about cutting them up and sewing them back together like the mitered square quilts I've seen made from striped fabric.  Course that didn't quite work out.  Plus there were all the placement errors and cutting oopses that led to fewer useable napkins.  The cutting mistakes wound up as part of the backing and I left the rest alone.

The fabric is a heavier texture than quilting cotton, but still very workable.  It's kinda stretchy, but I always starch a good bit, so that wasn't a problem during piecing or the quilting, which is just straight line, in the ditch and about 3/8 inch either side of the seams.  I'm wondering if I should add more quilting?  Probably not.  I don't want to devote any more time to this little experiment gone wrong!

Even with the mistakes and problems, I still like this little quilt  because of the happy colors.  I'm  sewing the binding on now and linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Charity Quilt Finish

Today I'm linking up with the small blog meet at Lily's Quilts.  What a nice idea to have a link party for small blogs.  I like it.

Well, it's definitely a Fresh Sewing Day for me as well.   I was finishing up the quilting on this little quilt by six this morning.  Guild meeting is tonight and I'd really like to turn this in as I've had the kit for months.  Just a simple little block quilt.  Here it is:

As usual, my favorite part of the process was the quilting.  I did daisies and loops in red thread which matched the red print backing.  My first thread choice was purple but no matter how much I adjusted the tension little dots of purple showed through on the back so I gave up & switched to red.  Here is a close up of the quilting.

I like how the red shows up against the purple and green.  One thing I learned quilting this was that different fabrics affect the quality of your quilting.  On some of the fabric squares my stitches look pretty even and the quilting went smoothly.  On others, not so much.  The closer the weave or higher the thread count, the better the quilting looked.  Another reason to use the best quality fabric you can, I suppose.

So, that's my contribution for today.  Now that it's done maybe I can move on to something a little more exciting.  Delicious new fabric arrived in the mail yesterday and I have so many projects I want to start that it's mentally paralyzing! 

What a lovely day it's been so far.  Starting off with a quilt finish is always nice.  That little number is in the wash right now with a couple of color catchers.  Plus, I have sourdough bread rising and I'm getting ready for my watercolor class in a couple of hours.  Hope all of you have lovely, productive days.  But first, go over to Lily's Quilts and check out all the other entries.  Many thanks to Lily's Quilts for hosting!

Harvesting Flannel

In her first house, my sister had lovely custom drapes.  She took them with her to her new house hoping they'd work there, but they didn't.   They didn't work at my mama's house either.  Yes, I'm from the South and I say mama.  Eventually, the drapes came to my house where again, they didn't work.  Unlike mama and my sister, I couldn't let them go.  I just knew I'd use them someday, somehow.  Those drapes have hogged my storage space in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Kentucky and three houses in South Carolina and I have never used them!

Finally, I found a way.  I disassembled those babies and was rewarded with yards and yards of lovely, high quality flannel that had been used for interlining.  There's plenty for a design wall and lots of other things.  I'll never have to buy flannel again, so long as I want white.  I think now I'll be able to let go and drop the fabric & backing at Goodwill.  I re-used.  I re-purposed.  I am at peace.