Design Wall Monday

To see what others are working on go to Judy's blog here.

I ran out of Snowman Gathering charms and had to order more so that project in on hold until those arrive. This is how far I got before I ran out. I need to do 5 more rows.

I am just working on Friendship Rings now. There are 3 blocks in the above photo.

I have 13 of Block 1 made. 15 more to go. I have 1 of Block 2 made.

I also received this fun game as a gift. I got my son to play with me for a while over the weekend.

Continuing On...

I have started piecing the rows of this quilt

I had had an idea for it. You know, those ideas you get in the middle of the night when you can't sleep. I spent about an hour and a half the next day trying to draw it out, but I couldn't make it work. I should know better. Those middle of the night ideas don't usually work out for me. So, this is what I am going with. This is almost half of the quilt. I was running out of pins to pin the blocks to the design wall and I was running out of room on the design wall so I started sewing rows. The top two rows are sewn together. The third row is sewn but not attached to the top two yet. I haven't thought of a name for this quilt yet. The pattern in the book is called Jennifer. I know it has other names. The charm packs I am using are named Snowman Gatherings and Snowman Gatherings ll. Some of the fabrics have snowmen on them.

I love snowmen. I don't know why since I am disliking winter more and more every year. The wind, the cold, the ice - no thank you! I don't mind snow when it is fresh and new, but after a few day I am done with it.

I am also making progress on Friendship Rings. I love that by working on this one as a Leader & Ender project I will have 2 quilt tops finished at about the same time!

I finished the black and white HST units yesterday, after I discovered that I had not cut enough of the white triangles. I also discovered I had not cut ANY of the white triangles for the side units for Block 1. That is now taken care of and I started piecing the side units.

I now have one Block 1 ready to piece and one Block 2 pieced. I just had to see what they would look like!

I am sewing like crazy before I return to work on Monday. I really should be working on de-cluttering and reorganizing, but, yeah, I'm sewing instead. I don't get much done during the week after school starts. I am a kindergarten teacher's aide. Maybe it's because they are so young, or maybe it's because I am getting older, but by the end of the day I am tired. And, those darn cleaning and cooking elves keep forgetting to come to my house. So, off I go to do some cleaning, cooking and, of course, sewing!

Design Wall Monday

To see what others are working on go to Judy's blog here.

 From the Honey Sweet charm packs I finished this top...

The backing and binding are ready so now I just need to get this one quilted.

I was thinking it would make a sweet baby girl quilt, but my husband and son aren't liking it very much. Maybe it will go to work with me. I work on the stage area at my school. As Smart boards have been put into classrooms the bulletin and chalk boards have been moved to the stage walls. I like to decorate them.
I also have an old one of these.

It is a chalkboard on one side. Some glued cork tiles to the other side. The person who shares my space like to use the chalkboard side. I covered the cork side with bulletin board paper.
I can hang this pretty little quilt there.

On my wall today is this...

I have added more HST and rearranged it once ...

... or twice.

I  quickly decided this would not be as big as I would like so I got more charm packs and will be making it bigger. I also got another idea to try so by the end of the next couple of days it make look different.

This pattern is from 3 Times the Charm Book Two by Me and My Sister Designs Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson Called jennifer on page 10.

The Charm Packs are Snowman Gatherings and Snowman Gatherings ll by Primitive Gatherings for Moda.

I had purchased 1 Snowman Gatherings charm pack last year because I liked the fabrics. I soon realized that wasn't enough to make anything of the size I would want. This year I saw the Snowman Gatherings ll charms and got a couple plus some coordinating fabrics to possibly be used for borders and backing. I just picked up 2 more charm packs. Hopefully that will be enough. I like to make bed sized quilts.

I did, on impulse, buy one of these. A Frivols by Moda.

These are new. A new one is released each month for 12 months. It is a collectible tin containing 42 7 inch squares, a pattern and a surprise.

Background, backing and binding are not included. I purchased some fabrics from the same line for that.

I like the bright, cheerful colors. This pattern finishes at 42 inches square.  I think this would make a nice baby girl quilt, too.

The floor around my sewing machine looks like this...

My son says it looks like I salt and peppered the floor! I have been trying really hard to use Bonnie Hunter's Leader and Ender method. I am piecing this as my L & E project...

It is Friendship Rings from Fons and Porters Scrapquilts Fall 2011.
I have all the 4 patch units are done. All the black and white star point units are done and almost all the black and white HST are done. Next will be the side units for the star blocks - it is similar to a Friendship Star block, but not the same. I don't know what it is called.

I need to get better at using the L & E method. That means I need to get better at planning and organizing my projects. I have gotten pretty good and organizing fabrics and patterns together. Now I just need to get fabrics cut so they are ready to sew when I need them.

I have 1 week before school starts for me. Off to the sewing machine!

Design Wall Monday

To see what others are working on go to Judy's blog here.

On my wall is this...

The pattern is the small version of Cindy Lou Who from another BiTE OF SCHNiBBLES 23 quilts from 5" or 10" squares by Carrie Nelson.

I am using Honey Sweet by Moda charms packs with a Bella solid charm pack. This will be about 35 inches when finished. I may add another or a wider border to make it a little bigger for a baby quilt.

I don't normally buy charm packs, but I loved this one.

We have fog this morning where I live. I took a walk around my yard this morning. Nature has been busy here.
I think this is some variety of Hibiscus, but the leaves look different. It was planted last year and I didn't think it survived the winter. I have been watching it for weeks. It had had flower buds on it for a while. Well, today one of the buds opened. This flower is HUGE and I love the color.

The foggy dew makes the spider web really show up.

My husband allows the milkweeds to grow as long as I don't let them go to seed. There are 2 Monarch caterpillars on these. There are more caterpillars, they just can't bee seen in this photo. There are also eggs on the undersides of some of the leaves.

More spider webs...

The white areas in the yard are more spiderwebs.

Design Wall Monday

To see what others are working on go to Judy's blog here...

Here is what I have had on my wall over the last few days.

My Quilters Exchange group met last Saturday to exchange our bags.
These are all the blocks made so far for this lucky quilter. The block I contributed is the top left.

Some of us also exchanged Civil War reproduction type fabrics and began a new project. We will each be making our own blocks for our own quilts with the fabric we exchanged plus any other fabrics we want to add. We are using this book...

There are 50 blocks in this book.

We are to make the 1st 3 blocks in the book to show at the next meeting.

Here are mine.


And, as you can see, I have decided to square up this piece. It measures 22 1/4" unfinished.
This picture is not a good picture. It is so much prettier in person.

Now I can't decide if I want to make it into a table topper or a pillow. My husband and son both say pillow.

I know that I will not be quilting it. It is too thick to quilt by hand and I really don't want to do it by machine.

So I am thinking a pillow it is. Now to decide what to use for the back... black or a print?
I was thinking of solid black piping.