sew what's new?

I am not for sure that you can see it or not but I am starting to sew around each applique. Click on the pics to enlarge them. I used monofiliment on top and aurifill on the bottom. After  I finish going around the rest of appliques I am going to use clover pink pencil and mark several leaves  on top to go around. Today is my wedding anniversary and we celebrated with dinner at Olive Garden.  Also made him brownies today.   As promised a review of Julie Herman's  new book " Quilt without Borders" .  It is an excellent book for your stash and for those that  do a lot of sewing for charities and gifts.  Many cute quick lap size quilts. Chatter  later, Martha.

I finished doing the wool applique on my table topper from the " Runners  Rock" book by Gathering Friends.  So now I have it basted down and ready to try and big stitch quilt it. I do not do this very often so I would like to practise when I can. Hopefully I will get better at it.  I did my own thing on the border, it is not from the book. Flowers, grapes, three lady bugs and one snail! I will start hand quilting tonight. I also got the top to Edyta's wall hanging pieced and ironed on .  I will try and get this layered tomorrow so that when I sew down the pieces for raw edge applique I will be quilting at same time. I saved the backing from my steam'n seam so that I can use leaf shapes and mark quilting lines with these also. It is only about 40" x 40". So not that large. Will chit chat with you later, Martha.

I was telling Mary Hammer in Pequot Lakes, Mother's Originals, that it was hard for me to see the flowers at first in this quilt. That when I look at it I see stars! Grey ones and white ones! I did this in Cherrywood fabric .  I used and 8 step Che~ Fab  fat quarter bundle.  I did not have quite enough so two of my flowers were multi-colored. Mary is going to quilt it for me. It is about 61 x 68, so not a large quilt.  I also started on a new small quilt pattern by Edyta Sitar.  I purchased the kit at Mary's store. I am doing the one with the umbrella.  I also found  the new book by Julie Herman (hex'n more ruler fame!)  I will give you a review after i give it a read. Chatter with you later, Martha.

Jo Morton's Savannah line has come to live at my house!  Arrived this morning from the Old Country Store. Usually I like reds better than blues, but not in this line for some reason.   I am sure they will be put to good use. I have also gotten a little further along on my Terri Atkinson's  Hexie Garden pattern. Still need to make three blocks. They are in progress. Should get them put together today! Husband has gone fishing, so I will be left alone! Ha! See with the floor picked up you can lay something pretty down! Ha ha ! The files have been downloaded for the quilt Love Entwined from Esther Aliu.  They are available to anyone who joins her yahoo group. I must run to do a couple of errands ,must get in some sewing time too, right. Martha.

Five more blocks together!  Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to start putting it together. Friday  is the start of two new sew a longs.  One by Pam Buda of heartspunquilts.blogspot.com .   The other by Ester Alui. You will find it at estheraliu.blogspot.com .  Check them out!

Four more blocks are built...... They go together so fast and really cute! Martha.

Since I have three projects that need hand work and none that need piecing ,  I decided to start another project.  Have to have some contact with that sewing machine right? I love to do hexies by hand so I thought I would try some more with the machine. I started with Terri Atkinson's pattern   "Hexie Garden" as an added bonus to myself I choose  to work with Cherrywood  Hand Dyed fabric .  I choose a fat quarter bundle  , an eight step, with colors ranging from blue to yellow, and paired it with a vintage white fabric.  I was hoping to bring out the cool  freshness of the colors.  This pattern was so well written it only took me a short time to put together these three blocks.  Plus I was using  my " Hex'n' more " ruler from jaybird quilts . So that sped things along also. I have to work today, so have to get going. Chatter with you later, Martha.

I  have finished the fourth  block  of our  " block of the week"  during the summer.  So here it is.... Earlier this month we had a class given by Emily Hartwig for our quilt guild the Pinetree Patchworkers.   I only have the top put together , not any of the wool applique nor the embroidery done.  I lost 3 blocks somewhere  from then until this morning and had to remake them.  Ever do that?     So now you will be seeing the progress  over the next few weeks.  Chit chat later, Martha.

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Well I have my top and borders put onto my nine patch of blocks.  I need to take off the paper on the back now! A good way to do that is to use the rubber end of my new seam ripper.  A little rub and the paper is out!  ( Or a squiggle! ) Now the flowers and leaves that were in the book " Runners Rock"   were not my taste, so I decided to draw my own. So in case you are wandering that is why it looks different than the book.  So here are a couple of pics (I still have to do the hand stitching around pieces.).......   Not sure if any real difference in any of these pics, but in person the reds stand out more than the yellow.  Will chit chat later. Martha

Projects do have an end , it is just sometimes they seem to go on forever.  The last time you saw this it was a flimsy. Now I have it bound and quilted with a stitch in  the ditch. I am still plucking away at my diamond hexie.  There are more black hexies sewn on.  So some progress has been made. Now I have finished the paper piecing part of my table topper from the book "Runners Rock" class. I now need to put together, add border and the wool applique. No idle fingers here will chit chat later. Martha

More pics of the trunk show from Emily... Martha.

I finished block three of our store's Block of the Week. Here is a pic... We  had a guest speaker at our  of Pinetree Patchworkers  guild meeting last week.  Emily Hardwig , her pattern company is called  Red Button Quilt Co.   www.redbuttonquiltco.com   Use this link to see her designs. The pattern we did  was #302 Around the Pumpkin Patch   I will show it at a later date when I get further along. Here are some pics at our meeting of her trunk show... For some reason blogger won't let me add any more pics to this, will add more to a later post. Martha

Today we had a lot of customers who were on their way to Duluth to the big quilt show. We also had a special visitor to the shop, not that each of you who visit, are all special. Victoria Findley Wolfe was visiting our store. She is the author of "15 Minutes of Play" and whose new line of fabric will be coming out in September of this year. She took pics and a small video and put it on her blog   bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com   .So hop on over and give her a visit! I believe she is also the president of the modern quilt guild in New York.  

I took a class on paper piecing awhile back and did not get the project done .  So now I am trying to finish it up. Pic of how the state of  eight  blocks are ... I have one finished block to show you. This pattern is a square  table topper.The pattern is called Patchwork Posies from the book "Runners Rock" by Gathering Friends.  I will keep plugging away at it.  My sewing machine is long and heavy , so carrying it can be hard especially for long distances. So I have purchased a storage carrier with rollers. My Pfaff  just fit  but with no room to spare though ! This will help when I go to class tomorrow. Chatter a bit more later, Martha.