THE Quilt

Work continues on THE QUILT...
I have enjoyed making all the different animals and units for this quilt. I have not enjoyed as much the making it all fit together part.

The barn center with sawtooth border.

The flag, orchard, sun, turkeys and hearts. This ended up getting put together differently than pictured here. You can also see some of the chickens.

Chickens, pigs and barn. I have had to add extra blocks to make it all fit together. This has been fun, but time consuming, trying to figure out what size to make. I think I have taken most seams out at least once. The green and gold strip hanging from the ironing board are the fields that go at the bottom. There is a similar strip of blue sky at the top.

Today after getting the pigs, fence and fields units added I realized the quilt is 106 inches long. That is as long as I want it to be to be able to quilt it on my frame. It measures 85 inches wide. I want it wider than that. I will be adding borders to the sides only and using the fields and sky as the top and bottom borders.

A nest of eggs to represent future grandchildren.

I have a red fabric that I really like and had planned to use in the final borders, but it just does not go well with the reds in the barn and chicken blocks. I plan to possibly extend the sky and fields strips after adding the hourglass borders. I am thinking I might like that look better than extended the hourglass borders top to bottom. I am hoping to bind it in the blue.

The blue in the hourglass blocks is the same shade as the blue in the pinwheel blocks even though it shows up darker in this photo.

I am excited to be almost finished with piecing this top. I think the quilting will take much longer than I anticipate - it usually does.

I have enjoyed this quilt, but I will be glad to get it finished.

Design Wall Monday

to see what others are working on go to Judy's page.

On my wall is this...

I am constructing the barn for the quilt I have been asked to make. I have been putting this off and couldn't figure out why because I have really enjoyed making the other blocks. I think it may be because I am trying to make it too detailed. This is the last major thing I have to make before I can start putting it all together.

I had some issues with my machine when I was finishing up the turkey blocks -  kept getting a foot control warning, skipped stitches when doing the buttonhole applique stitch, thread breaking. I rethreaded, changed thread, bobbin and needle and still had the same issues. So, it went in for service. The repair guy didn't find anything wrong with it except that it needed a good cleaning. That is good! And, it has worked well since I brought it home, but I have not tried any applique stitches yet.

I am wondering if the frequent stopping and starting to turn the piece when appliqueing caused the foot control to be confused or overheat or something. Also, wondering if the fusible web may have caused the skipped stitches. I used Steam-A-Seam 11 Lite, something I have never had a problem with before. But, they took it off the market for a short time and brought it back. I wonder if it is made differently and might cause an issue?

You can stop reading now if you don't want to see my little rant.
I'm tired.
I HATE when this happens:

It seems that I am the only one who can change empty paper tubes. This one is in the garage but it happens in the kitchen and bathroom, too.

This also happens with the laundry, dishwasher and recycling/garbage bins. I have let these things go for days to see if someone else will take care of it... nope. I can give my husband a bit of a break this time of year because he is very busy farming - sunup until sundown. My son, no excuse.

Late to the Party..

Seems that since school/work started back up again, I am always late posting for Design Wall Monday.

Anyway...
... here is what I have been working on.

This is the bag I received in the latest exchange for the Quilters Exchange group I am in. Pretty Christmas-y colors without being just for Christmas.

This is my block. I have had a lot of fun making my block for each exchange. I usually try to fussy-cut that center square. It ends up finished size of 1inch so sometimes it is hard, but this flower was perfect!

I have also been working on the farm quilt. This is the flag that will go in it. I like the looks of this, but I am concerned that the white background of the star will disappear when it is pieced into the quilt... unless I do something different. Like, sash the flag with something, but what?

Or, instead of a pieced star, just a square from the blue with white stars fabric. But, then I feel like it needs a few more red and white stripes at the bottom. Either way, I think it needs another white and 2 more red stripes at the bottom.

The little hexie flower you see was a free hand-out at the quilt show I attended a couple of weeks ago. The kit included hexie papers and fabric squares along with directions. I got it stitched up in an evening. I like the fabric that was included in the kit. It is a cute little hexie block, but now I don't know what to do with it.

It measures 4 inches. The kit suggested appliqueing the hexie block to a 5 inch square and making it into a pin cushion. I don't need another pin cushion and I don't know any else who does either. Hhhmmm.

Design Wall Monday

The guy I am making the farm quilt for asked me to add a tom and hen turkey. They began raising them this summer and he wanted them in the quilt. I am in the process of appliqueing them. The hen is finished. Tom is still in progress. I will add small black buttons for eyes after the quilting is finished.

Tom is from here...
I made my own design for the hen as I could not find one anywhere.

I attended a small local quilt show over the weekend. I saw some lovely quilts and they had some nice vendors.

These are my favorites from the show...
I love snowmen.

 I drove a Beetle in my younger days so this one really caught my attention..

Nice use of rick-rack. It is bright red, although it doesn't appear that color in the close-up photo.

 I like the scrappy look of this one...

... and this one.

I love the bright colors of this hexie quilt. I started a bright hexie quilt years ago and threw it away because my friends thought it was too bright. I wish I had kept it.

I am not getting nearly the sewing done that I need to be. Being back to work at school is wearing me out. It has been very hot. These brick building really hold the heat once they get hot. I am not ready for winter, but I sure would like some cooler temperatures.

Kindergarten students wear me out, too! We are starting to get a little settled into routines so that is improving. We have teacher out to a conference for 2 days this week and her students were wild today. Add the full moon on Friday into that mix and the last few days have been a little crazy. I don't know what it is about the full moon, but it definitely affects young children.