Craftsy BOM-July- Tumbling Blocks

We are finally caught up. This month block was easier than we expected. We really like the way it was assembled in rows. Again the cutting was the most challenging part. It seems we are getting the hang of it because nothing was too wonky and the block went together fairly well.

As usual I got to put my block together first. If we run into a problem, we can figure it out on my block (Jana's idea.). I am still using the traditional fabrics. Initially I had a brighter yellow but it seemed to compete so I picked a softer yellow. I am okay with how it turned out. Honestly traditional fabrics don't keep me up at night, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone with this quilt. Since we are learning lots of traditional blocks, I decided to use mostly traditional fabrics. I think Jana's quilt will be very beautiful and energetic, just like her...hey mine will be.... well traditional and solid, like a grandma. At least that is the plan. And the last part of plan, we are learning together.

Grandma's Old School-Traditional block

Jana, being in love with bright colors and modern designs picked some more Kaffee Fassett fabric. We thought the pink might be too bright, but it turned out just right.You can see that the block tops are actually triangles sewn together. This is a neat trick that made putting these block together a breeze. I think we had the most fun trying to figure out the fabric, and making sure we didn't sew the words upside down.

Jana's New School- Modern block

An experiment in photography, don't ask why, no one knows.

What a difference fabric makes.

We where a little giddy and silly after finishing these blocks.

Let me get that camera away from that girl!  The block is upside down!

I only look grumpy. I am actually proud of my block. I just can't figure out what grandma is doing.

Grandma! Did you cut off my head again?

Do you know what we are most excited about?  August's block is a basket with a handle, and September are the flowers to fill it up. We can hardly contain our excitement.

We may be a little late getting started with the August block. We are all heading to Port Clinton the first of August for a little swimming and fishing and visiting the Islands, and to visit Sandy, our long arm quilter.

Thanks for visiting and watching our projects come together!

Jana and Darlene (Grandma)

Crafts BOM- June- LeMoyne Star Challenge

The new school versus old school challenge continues.

We have met the challenge. The jury is still out on who won the battle. Was it Jana or grandma or the LeMoyne Star.  We humbly report the LeMoyne star was the winner. We finished the block, but it is far from perfect. Still it will go into the sampler quilt imperfections and all. After all as Jana reminds me. "No worry grandma, remember we are just having fun."

We promised ourselves that we would do each and every block in this quilt no matter what. The lesson to learn for this month was the Y seam. This task was actually fairly easy to complete. The instructions where clear and making a don't sew beyond dot helped the seams lay flat.  The problem seemed to be with our measuring and cutting and maybe even sewing of the diamonds. Jana has the "grandma you go first" rule. That way I can work out the kinks on my block. By the time she does her modern block we usually know what we are doing.

This was not the case for this block. Oh from a distance they are acceptable, but you can see that things don't match up very well. I made so many mistakes in sewing, or cutting, the diamonds that I threw out an entire strip, and had to start over. Jana, on the other hand, just picked them up and sewed the pieces together. Hers where nearly perfect. But we still had trouble for some reason. Perhaps it was uneven seam allowances, or some pieces where slightly different in size. My block was really out of whack at the center. Even after doing these two block I still do not really know what happened.

Jana's modern block:  I think she has a good eye for color. And she is not afraid to take a risk with her fabric choices.

More Kaffee Fassett fabric. It met in the middle, but had the beanie effect.

Grandm's old school block: Thank goodness the dark fabric hides the center problems.

This did not meet in the middle, for some reason it was really wonky.

You might wonder why we have an old tablecloth with duck tape. Well when it cracks or accidentially gets cut we just tape it up and Jana writes little inspirational comments on the tape. I could get a new table clothe for just a few dollars, but I just love her little messages.

Oh yeah, we got it done, but don't have plans to do this block anytime soon.

 Coming next (we mean later this month) - Tumbling blocks -

Papa don't peak ready for longarm! Everyone look! Except dad!

She has done it. My granddaughter Jana just finished the top for her father's quilt. The idea for the quilt began in the fall of 2012. Jana wanted to do something special for her dad. He likes red and black, and she likes Ohio Stars and Friendship Stars. The plan came together. We gathered fabrics, and started to made star  kits for each block. We got off track for  a few months when it was discovered that Jana had a serious problem with her spine and needed a spinal fusion, in December 2012. It was a nine hour surgery. The first month was a challenge, but by mid January she was back to school. And before long, back to sewing, back brace and all. Here is the initial layout. That is a smile of relief that those blocks are finally done. I am proud of her for sticking with it. She took some breaks and we also have been working on the Craftsy BOM 2013 quilt. Now to sew it together. She had reservations, but she sticks with things and got it done.

Whew! that was a lot of cutting, ironing and sewing!

These are the fabrics for the border.

Jana wanted to stay with the red, black and white theme. After 25 stars she was done with them. But the quilt needed to be bigger. Borders were the answer.  She realized that she needed something different to frame the quilt. (It's so nice to just be able to shop grandma's stash). We had two yards of the tree ring fabric so no piecing was needed for the first border. At first she did not understand why we did not just sew the border with a straight seam, but when she saw the results she understood how much better mitered borders look.

What attracts us to certain fabrics? I love anything organic, having to do with earth or plants. When Jana saw the tree rings she said, "The last thing we learned about this year in school is that tree rings help you know how old a tree is."  That was not the only reason she picked  this fabric, but it does add an interesting element. We laughed that when she sees this quilt on dad's bed it will always remind her of the 4th grade.

This is the first quilt where  Jana added a border. She learned to piece the border and  measure the border from the middle so her sides stay even. She was surprised how easy it is to make a mitered border.

Here is how you piece together your border.

Trim the extra fabric

Measure at the middle.

Here goes the borders.

We sew on an oval table, so it can make it difficult to keep the quilt from falling off the edge. Jana used an old chair to hold the extra fabric.

Will the sewing ever end?

So happy how the borders came together.

Jana's picture.

Our favorite block

All Done! Off to the quilter!

Red or Black backing?  Look what we found at Fabric.com

The perfect backing fabric

What a special quilt: Designed and Made by an 11 year old daughter with love for her father.

From a proud grandma! Dad's birthday is the end of September.. The quilt goes to our long arm quilter Sandy Erwin this weekend. Another happy event to end this quilt story is Jana sees the surgeon on the 27th of June and all indications are the back brace is coming off!  Hurray! Update. All went well the back brace is history!

Bonnie Hunter's Lazy Sunday- Part 3

After much anticipation, the newest Quiltmaker arrived, and I have been busy cutting and sewing, sewing and cutting (and ironing). I love putting the blocks together, so I did that first. I did some editing of my stash and pulled a few new colors in.  I decided that the background colors I used in the previous block just would not do in what I call the chevron blocks of this step. I loved the hydrangea fabric and was determined to use it, but it just was not the right shade for the block. So it was edited out and set aside. Perhaps I went a little overboard with my background fabrics for the first block? It worked well there, but no so much with the chevrons.

These are the fabric I didn't use in this step.

 I love how the pinks and yellows came together for this block. I realize it is not really scrappy as Bonnie's was. Previously I teased that my Lazy Sunday will be in the summer. At first I said I would use it to sit on the porch and drink tea. I think I need to change that to raspberry lemonade.

I loved the texture of these fabrics.

Four blocks with a green corner? 

 

 

The chevron block is where my editing game into play. I had to go through my stash and find some more tone on tone and a different purple to go with. I wanted to stay close my original selection. I edited out the purple floral above because it was too pink and there was too much contrast with the purples I used in the first block. I ran out of purple, so found some new on sale. Yeah!

All cut and ready to go. I just need the time to sew.

So only one more edition and the puzzle, and mystery will be solved. This is the first Mystery Quilt I have done that has progressed over so many months. The advantage is that you have plenty time to get each step done. On the other hand, you have to delay gratification and wait, and wait, and wait. That is actually good for me because I usually bulldoze through, making myself a little nutty trying to get everything done as soon as the step is published. No pressure with this one.

Here's a reminder of the previous block. You can see that the pink and purples do carry through to the current steps so I think it will still work well. I have no idea how this thing will go together. I just know I love doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts.

My funky background worked okay here.

Quilts for Dad - Show and Tell

One of the on line communities I enjoy being part of is Quilting Bloggers. This includes bloggers around the world. It's hard to believe, but there are thousands of blogs about quilting. Each week there is a Show and Tell where quilters can share their quilts. The online community votes on their favorite. The quilts are just fantastic.

Normally I just look at the beautiful pictures each week and vote for my favorite. The majority of these quilters are much more skilled than I am. Still I decided to add one of my quilts to the voting. I have to admit the picture isn't the greatest. And the quilt is plain. But it's a quilt that I really enjoyed making for my DH. He loves to fish and I wanted to surprise him with a quilt that had the look of being around fish camp for many summers. And it is not about winning, but about sharing what we love to do. One can not really be part of a community if you only sit on the sidelines and watch the action. You have to jump in and enjoy the fun from time to time.

The pattern is My Old Brown Shoe. The pattern called for several squares to be raw appliqued on each block. That was a bit much for me. So I decided to pick and choose the blocks where the applique would add something to the design. I call the quilt Old Brown Shoe at Fish Camp.

Finished quilt (I mean top-had not been quilted at this point)

Close up off blocks with fish

Of all the times to need batteries in my camera, it is not today. I thought I had a picture of this quilted, but can't seem to locate it. When I get the camera up and running I'll snag the quilt from my  hubby and I will add a picture of the quilting. Sandy did an all over quilt design of fishing lures! It is fabulous.

Click the show and tell button to be connected to the sites. You can enter your quilts. Voting starts on Friday and ends Monday.  You can also click onto the Quilting Bloggers button to see what all the excitement is about.  Enjoy!

Craftsy 2013 BOM- May

Here we are another month and another set of new blocks complete. My granddaughter, Jana, and I are diligently completing our blocks each month. This month's block was another easy one. I think they are called spool blocks.

I continued to use my traditional fabrics. I pulled another modern fabric (the blue) that I felt mixed well with my reproduction fabrics. We only needed 7 blocks, which was good, because I miss cut one block. It has been enjoyable to learn about  block construction in general. This is another block I have never done, so I am pretty happy with the outcome so far.  I have been reading about quilting a quilt block by block and then constructing the quilt once the blocks are quilted. I am toying with the idea of doing this for my quilt. I need to learn more about it thought. I am guessing that the back is hand stitched. I'm not exactly excited about that process. Can anyone recommend some detailed reading material or a tutorial on the process?

My reproduction fabric blocks

Jana is continuing along her colorful way. Sometimes I think she gets wilder with each block. Most of her blocks where different (only one duplicate). As you can see she used more Kaffee Fassett fabrics. Some of these are a little wild for my taste, but she likes them "wild and crazy". On second thought I bought the fabric, so I must  like a little wildness in my fabric too! I am not sure I would have used the same combinations. But it's her quilt, and perhaps she has something going here. I am sort of fond of the middle block on the bottom. And the bottom left block too.

Jana's modern selection

Did you know it is a fashion statement to wear glasses even when you don't need them to read?

Oh to be 11 again. Wait no I don't want to be 11, but it is fun watching my granddaughter be 11!


Speaking of wild and crazy, my granddaughter brought the quilt I made her over to be washed, and she wanted me to share this section. We called the quilt Happiness. That is because the border has fabric with happiness written on it, and each block represents something that makes her happy. I made this quilt, but she picked most of the fabrics. As you can tell she is not afraid to mix and match her fabrics.

So what does Jana love? Daffodils, sewing, girl scout cookies, granny smith apples, fishing , the lake, strawberry shortcake, fairies, bunnies, dad, scrabble, gardening, guitars, her brother, mom, butterflies, snow, granny,  swimming, ...it is amazing what can fit into a quilt.

An older picture of the quilt top before it was quilted.

A final note. Jana is two blocks away from finishing the blocks for her Papa Don't Peak quilt. She plans to finish them next week and we will post all of the blocks together. I hope we can get some feedback once she posts them. There are decisions to be made. The biggest is to add sashing or not? We will have some fabrics to trial...Till next week. Happy sewing to all.

Craftsy BOM 2013 - Old VS New April edition

If you have visited this blog you know that each month my granddaughter Jana and I do the Craftsy 2013 BOM. She is using modern fabrics and making a hip and sassy quilt. Grandmother, that's me, is doing the old fashion, old-school  style quilt and using mostly reproduction fabrics. Reproduction fabrics really aren't my thing.  But we decided to go in different directions to see for ourselves how much difference fabric makes in a quilt. It should not be a surprise that my granddaughter chose the modern fabrics.

April's block taught us how to make curved seams.  During last years BOM we made Dresden Plates. These where not Jana's favorite and when she saw the fan block, she wasn't a fan. But we watched the video and learned that the construction was very different. and we would learned a few new tricks. This was the first time she had heard of using freezer paper. It was the first time for either of us to used heat-n-bond. It was also our first time using our blanket stitch, stitch selection on our machines. Our blanket stitches are slightly different,  so it did give us the opportunity to try another new skill.

Grandma's Old School fan block

Jana learned to make a template from freezer paper, reuse this for each cut by ironing it on the fabric and use her seam to center the template. We had to redo our template after a while as it seemed to get shorter on one side.

Using a freezer paper template.

Trimming the edge of the template.

The block went together in quarters. This is the first quarter. I found it surprising easy to sew the curved seams as demonstrated in the video. I admit that I had to help Jana with this section. I think she could have done it, but she was a little unsure.

Is this colorful enough!

The block went together nicely. Once again her color choices worked. "Grandma you just have to give things a chance. You might not think it works but you might like it, you never know," says the wise old eleven year old Jana.

Jana's new style block.

During the construction of this block Jana discovered something. She is crazy for Kaffe Fassett!
These are some of the fabrics she shopped from my stash. I wasn't surprised by her choices, but as she was putting this block together I realized the fabric was familiar and similar. A closer look and we knew why. They where by the same designer. I went to my old Quilt magazine and showed her Kaffee's picture and article. She started to laugh. "Hey I am a fan of his and I didn't even know who he was", said Jana. "His fabric is fun to use and it's very creative. I love it".

Kaffee Fassett fabrics

I think Jana has something about trying new things. When I bought this fabric I loved it, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I am, after all is said and done, a big picture person. Jana could see the details and color and was able to come up with other fabrics that complemented this fabric. The Moda fabric below is more colorful in person and she picked up right from the start that all the colors in the Moda fabric where found in her more colorful fabric.

Here she matched a Moda and Fassett fabric.

She accomplish the same with this combination. The very graphic and colorful Fassett fabric was match with
a totally unexpected fabric that matched the teals.

So April BOM is done. Here are the blocks to compare.

New and sassy versus old school reproduction

Our finished blocks.

Here is Jana and her pride and joy

Oh yes, and lastly..Here is grandma, who hates her picture taken, but had to give in after "Grandma every week you make an excuse. You say you are tired, your hair is a mess, you have no make up, just let me take your picture with your block". Okay Jana today you win, my hair is a mess, I have no makeup on, I have bags under my eyes. But you worked hard, tried new things, so you can take my picture and I will put in on our blog. Oh yeah. One day we have to clean out the non sewing side so we can get some nice pictures.