Some Assembly Required!

October 29, 201810 Comments

Good morning! It’s Cindy reporting in.

Yesterday was a rainy day in Ohio…here’s an outside view from my sewing room…(Oops, photo includes window screen!)

On a day like this, what choice did I have but sew for hours on end? Here’s an inside view from my sewing room…Sadie and Norma were on hand to keep me company.

In last Thursday’s blog, I mentioned Sandy sent a quilt to me so I could help her overcome creative block.

Did I mention there was some assembly required??!!

Her block design features 4 inch (finished) half square triangles. Not a favorite piecing technique for me but I just so happened to have 4 inch Thangles on hand! I had perfect half square triangles in no time flat!

Thangles get all the credit for these beautiful, perfect points!

I also assembled a few piles of squares and rectangles. Needless to say, my rotary cutter got a major workout…yikes! My blade needs to be changed after all this cutting!

I’ve got the basic piecing completed, now I’m ready to assemble the blocks. Once I have the blocks pieced together, I can get creative on the quilt design. Stay tuned for another update!

Modern Piecing for a Cause

October 15, 20187 Comments

Good morning! It’s Cindy reporting in from Ohio.

I recently joined the Central Ohio Modern Quilt Guild and have met some incredibly talented quilters. This is a very active guild and the monthly meetings are full of inspiration.

Each year the guild chooses a community charity project, and for 2018, the Meals on Wheels program was adopted. Guild members make quilted placemats that are distributed to Meals on Wheels clients. These placemats are are great way to use miscellaneous scraps and left over quilt blocks to create small, modern quilt designs.

Below is the label each quilter/creator sews on the back of each placemat:

I was looking through a large bag of colorful scraps from my dear friend, MJ, AND wondered how I could put them to work. Then I started thinking about some of the leftover blocks I have from previous quilts. Hmmmm…the lightbulb in my head turned on.

Left over pieced blocks + lovely scraps = bright, bold placemats!

I need to practice my machine quilting skills and these placemats are the perfect size to machine quilt. I’ll add them to my “must finish” list for October.

I have plenty of leftover blocks to incorporate into some type of placemat design. Below are just a few random blocks…wouldn’t that cute fox face brighten someone’s day?

I hope you are still enjoying the sights and sounds of fall! Here’s another photo I snapped while walking in the park with Norma and Sadie.

Gasp…my thread broke!

October 1, 20186 Comments

Cindy here, reporting in from New York. The big GRAY BARN is in view through a misty rain. Mom, dad and I are just relaxing and hoping the sun will shine sometime today. Good thing I brought a few quilting projects with me!

A few months ago, Sandy scored big at an antique store…10 antique red and white Ohio Star blocks. These unfinished blocks measure 11 x 11 inches square.

I like how the blocks were pieced by hand, very special!

Sandy and I have created three different projects from these 10 blocks. You’ll see our feature project and pattern soon…Sandy is putting the finishing touches on it as we speak!

Meanwhile, since the blocks were pieced by hand, I thought I would hand quilt one block. I found a spool of red quilting cotton and a spool of cream quilting cotton in my vast thread stash and started quilting.

GASP…my thread broke over and over again!

Okay, so it took me awhile to admit my thread was the problem. Once I realized this…quilting thread stash went into the trash!

Question for our readers:

What is your favorite brand of hand quilting thread?

There are so many different threads to choose from, I definitely need some advice!

A Quilting Story, 2018 Edition

September 10, 201814 Comments

In my November 27, 2017 post, I shared with you “A Quilting Story”. Each year, my guild makes a quilt to give to a family receiving a Habitat for Humanity sponsored home.

On Saturday, we met to compile our latest creation for a soon to be new home owner. We always have so much fun mixing and matching fabrics, houses, trees and community buildings. Below are some highlights:

Isn’t this fabric perfect for a church?

I love the color combinations in this house! I don’t think my husband will agree to an orange house…but maybe a door? Hmmmmm.

Rick rack makes a nice gutter along the roof (sorry, contractor-speak) and how about this cute, color coordinated chimney?

The bark on this tree looks like the real deal!

Party pennants or laundry? I say we go with party pennants!

Another cute gutter along the roof again…AND what’s not to love about lace shutters?

Nice tree in the back yard…I’m thinking lemonade in the shade!

The school looks like it’s ready for business!

Here’s a bird’s eye view of our community in progress. We always add three layers of 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch “bricks” around the outside edge for more color and texture.