Time to make a dark blueberry apron. This is the first time I have combined this blueberry print with purple. It started out as a tri-colored apron but I threw in a couple of more fabrics and made a crazy block design for the bib and pocket. The close up of the two block sewn together ended up as the bib. The method I use to make these crazy quilt blocks I described in a previous blog. see 9/4/12 - Crazy for Crazy Quilts. This particular method yielded 5 blocks. I chooses 2 other blocks, sewed them together then lined the pocket using a black solid so there would be no raw edges.
New England Fiber Arts has been on Pinterest now for a couple of months. Every now and then, I download a picture of one of my pieces but I must admit I haven't done much with it. I noticed that "Sue" has been pinning some of the item that I have posted on Facebook. It is true, I am fairly new to this whole social media thing so I have signed up for a Pinterest workshop in Shelburne Falls, which is where the Arts Co-op is that I am a member of. The Workshop is March 15th. The person running it is a fellow quilter so I am hoping to get some tips on how to better us Pinterest.
You are looking at what will be my last white print blueberry apron. I have run out of this wonderful fabric. It is like loosing an old friend since this fabric has been a part of Maine collection for years. Will make a few balsam sachets with the scrapes but it is the end of line for this print. There were actually 3 fabrics in this collection. One had a bright yellow background which i have been out of that for quite a while. The other sister print has a black background and I am down to the last yard of that. To the best of my knowledge (which isn't always reliable) this particular blueberry trio are no longer in printed. If anyone knows where I can get more of it at a REASONABLE price, please let me know!
My great grandmother was a quilter. I was fortunate enough to inherit one of her quilts. On my husband's side of the family, his father's aunts all quilted and we were thrilled that one of the auntie's quilts came our way. Which auntie made this quilt? We have NO idea since it was not labeled. My great grandmother's quilt is also not labeled. I have NO idea when she made this quilt. So, this brings us to the subject of this missive. ALWAYS label your work!
The sun is out, it's turkey mating season - trust me , I know because there is a large herd that lives in the woods around my house so that is why it is a bit noisy here on Fay Road. I have been working on the binding on the baby quilt when I set down to watch television but no new projects! Paper work will be the name of the game until I get the tax information organized and off to the CPA. BUT I thought I would take a picture of the cubbies under the stairs in my basement to show how some of my stash is stored. That's right, this is just part of it!
Yesterday was machine quilting day. I finally made the decision on where the quilting would go. There is the main block with the black triangles and the colorful kites and then there is the secondary pattern that emerges there all the kites come together. I took a close-up of this pattern to show where the quilting was done using green thread. Cotton thread is traditionally used with machine quilting. Adjusted the stitch gage to 3.5 (regular sewing...2.5) and the tension down a little for the thickness. The next step is to clip all the dangling threads and cut the access backing and batting and square the quilt up the best one can.
You've probably guessed by now when I say making a sandwich I am not talking about corned beef on rye (one of my favorites) but about a fabric sandwich. This quilt is slightly wider than the width of the fabric (darn) so this means the quilt back will need to be assembled. How I ended up doing it is to have the salvages running along the width of the quilt and the seam is aprox. 13 " from the end. Photo #1 shows the end piece of fabric being cut to size.
We all in some way or another have a day of reckoning. Mine comes when I have to clean out the refrigerator or clean off my cutting table. Today was cutting table day. It is the day that I pay for my habit of not picking up after myself. No one wants to see a picture of my messy cutting table which has to be cleared off so here is a picture of my daughter Meagan and methis weekend out celebrating my birthday! I mentio
Decided to setup a side by side view of the hot pad where the outside green and fuchsia are then used in the center. I also changed around where the black and white prints are in the design. I was having so much fun playing with these black and white fabrics I made one more hot pad with a cat peeking out from the center and then I put the matching meow fabric along the outside edge (it's a bit hard to see in this photo). Managed to put away all the fabric strunned all over the sewing room (it looked like a black and white tornado had hit
One of the fun things about what I do is taking a pile of fabric and making something useful out of it. I have already blogged about making this black and white block design (see Contrast) but I played around with it a little more today. This block has a bit of a Valentine theme about it without screaming it. While making it into a hot pad, I got the idea of flipping the colors around for the next one and putting the lime and fuchsia fabrics along the outer edge and the circle and dot fabrics in the center. It would then be a matched set, in my mind anyway. Maybe this afternoon....
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Time to make a dark blueberry apron. This is the first time I have combined this blueberry print with purple. It started out as a tri-colored apron but I threw in a couple of more fabrics and made a crazy block design for the bib and pocket. The close up of the two block sewn together ended up as the bib. The method I use to make these crazy quilt blocks I described in a previous blog. see 9/4/12 - Crazy for Crazy Quilts. This particular method yielded 5 blocks. I chooses 2 other blocks, sewed them together then lined the pocket using a black solid so there would be no raw edges.
New England Fiber Arts has been on Pinterest now for a couple of months. Every now and then, I download a picture of one of my pieces but I must admit I haven't done much with it. I noticed that "Sue" has been pinning some of the item that I have posted on Facebook. It is true, I am fairly new to this whole social media thing so I have signed up for a Pinterest workshop in Shelburne Falls, which is where the Arts Co-op is that I am a member of. The Workshop is March 15th. The person running it is a fellow quilter so I am hoping to get some tips on how to better us Pinterest.
You are looking at what will be my last white print blueberry apron. I have run out of this wonderful fabric. It is like loosing an old friend since this fabric has been a part of Maine collection for years. Will make a few balsam sachets with the scrapes but it is the end of line for this print. There were actually 3 fabrics in this collection. One had a bright yellow background which i have been out of that for quite a while. The other sister print has a black background and I am down to the last yard of that. To the best of my knowledge (which isn't always reliable) this particular blueberry trio are no longer in printed. If anyone knows where I can get more of it at a REASONABLE price, please let me know! 
My great grandmother was a quilter. I was fortunate enough to inherit one of her quilts. On my husband's side of the family, his father's aunts all quilted and we were thrilled that one of the auntie's quilts came our way. Which auntie made this quilt? We have NO idea since it was not labeled. My great grandmother's quilt is also not labeled. I have NO idea when she made this quilt. So, this brings us to the subject of this missive. ALWAYS label your work!
The sun is out, it's turkey mating season - trust me , I know because there is a large herd that lives in the woods around my house so that is why it is a bit noisy here on Fay Road. I have been working on the binding on the baby quilt when I set down to watch television but no new projects! Paper work will be the name of the game until I get the tax information organized and off to the CPA. BUT I thought I would take a picture of the cubbies under the stairs in my basement to show how some of my stash is stored. That's right, this is just part of it!.JPG)
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Yesterday was machine quilting day. I finally made the decision on where the quilting would go. There is the main block with the black triangles and the colorful kites and then there is the secondary pattern that emerges there all the kites come together. I took a close-up of this pattern to show where the quilting was done using green thread. Cotton thread is traditionally used with machine quilting. Adjusted the stitch gage to 3.5 (regular sewing...2.5) and the tension down a little for the thickness. The next step is to clip all the dangling threads and cut the access backing and batting and square the quilt up the best one can. 
You've probably guessed by now when I say making a sandwich I am not talking about corned beef on rye (one of my favorites) but about a fabric sandwich. This quilt is slightly wider than the width of the fabric (darn) so this means the quilt back will need to be assembled. How I ended up doing it is to have the salvages running along the width of the quilt and the seam is aprox. 13 " from the end. Photo #1 shows the end piece of fabric being cut to size.
We all in some way or another have a day of reckoning. Mine comes when I have to clean out the refrigerator or clean off my cutting table. Today was cutting table day. It is the day that I pay for my habit of not picking up after myself. No one wants to see a picture of my messy cutting table which has to be cleared off so here is a picture of my daughter Meagan and methis weekend out celebrating my birthday! I mentio
Decided to setup a side by side view of the hot pad where the outside green and fuchsia are then used in the center. I also changed around where the black and white prints are in the design. I was having so much fun playing with these black and white fabrics I made one more hot pad with a cat peeking out from the center and then I put the matching meow fabric along the outside edge (it's a bit hard to see in this photo). Managed to put away all the fabric strunned all over the sewing room (it looked like a black and white tornado had hit
One of the fun things about what I do is taking a pile of fabric and making something useful out of it. I have already blogged about making this black and white block design (see Contrast) but I played around with it a little more today. This block has a bit of a Valentine theme about it without screaming it. While making it into a hot pad, I got the idea of flipping the colors around for the next one and putting the lime and fuchsia fabrics along the outer edge and the circle and dot fabrics in the center. It would then be a matched set, in my mind anyway. Maybe this afternoon....