Design Wall...Winding Ways or Wheel of Mystery

Something New is Up on the Design Wall

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Wheel of Mystery or Winding Ways

I quickly put these blocks up on the design wall yesterday....mostly so I could have something new to look at while I was sitting at the machine doing some binding work on the clam shell quilt.

This is my current Take-A-Long Quilt. I started it in 2005. It goes everywhere I go. This pattern is known by two names: Wheel of Mystery or Winding Ways. I think both names suit it well. Brad thinks it looks like a kaleidoscope.......I see that too!

These curves are so gentle compared to the clam shell quilt I hand pieced before this.

This is a John Flynn lazer cut kit. I purchased one kit, which makes a lap size quilt. I used batiks from my own stash, cut more pieces and doubled the size of the quilt.

Right now it is 70 x 80 inches without borders. I have enough pieces cut to make more blocks, but I think I am ready to begin designing a border treatment.

I will leave this up on the design wall for a few days......move blocks around.......and see what border ideas I can come up with. I am thinking borders that read solid, so the machine quilting will show up in the borders....because it definitely won't show up on these blocks as busy as they are!

I will post my progress as I continue with this quilt.

Something new in the Thread Shed

I spend so many hours on my feet while working out in the Thread Shed. I am a bare feet girl.......I only put on shoes to go into town!

I decided to be kind to my feet and purchased this mat. It is 3 x 5 feet in size. Just perfect in front of the cutting station or the ironing board.

I found it at Sears this week $40.

I have seen mats like this elsewhere but they were nearly $100 or more.

I am trying to figure out how to change the name on the mat?

It should read..........CRAFTSGIRL

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Clam Shell Quilt Binding...

Time to bind the Clam Shell Quilt

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This is one of my Take-A-Long Quilts

After completing the Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt in 2003, I was so lost without a take-a-long project.......I guess you could say I was lonely without something to stitch on while away from home. It didn't take me long to find an acrylic clam shell template and begin cutting clam shells from my 1930's Depression Era Reproduction fabric collection. Why choose the clam shell design? I thought it would be much easier to hand piece those sharp curves, then try and do it on the machine.

It only took one year to piece this 102 x 102 inch quilt.

It was an absolute joy and delight to handle these beautiful fabrics.

I spent the day cutting 2 inch binding strips from all of the red fabrics leftover from this clam shell quilt. I need quite a few to make a 400+ inch binding! I think the scrappy binding is just right for this quilt. I tried not to use any one fabric more than 3 or 4 times total in this quilt, to give it a nice, old fashioned look.

Why so large? We are sleeping under this one this winter! We have a very tall pencil post bed. It requires a 100 inch square quilt to cover it nicely.

Peaches 'n Cream Rose

I just had to include a few flowers that are in bloom right now. I never tire of strolling around outside to check out all the new blooms each day. They are a treat and an inspiration! If these images inspire you, please download them and use them in your art work. They are at full resolution and should print out nicely for you.

Pink Star Lily

Red Star Lily

Orange & Yellow Star Lily

Pink Mum

50 is Nifty

SURPRISE PARTY

I partied down with my favorite party animals!

My grandnephew & 2 grandnieces

I do not cringe at another birthday...

50 is wonderful.

I have so many more quilting skills at 50 than I did when I was in my 20's and just starting out.

I choose to celebrate growing older each year...

Many are denied the privilege.

50 is Nifty,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Creating The Sunflower Quilt.....From Inspiration to Completing the Quilt

Make a Smilebox slideshow To see my New Work CLICK HERE To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Binding Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt...

Machine Quilting by Day.........Hand Binding by Night

It is Amazing what a Deadline will do for you!

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Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt

90 x 100 inches

1993 - 2003 This Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt traveled everywhere with me. It was my "Take-A-Long" Quilt. It has traveled on planes, trains and automobiles. Using the English Paper Piecing method, I hand pieced over 12,000 half inch hexagons at: football games, basketball games, wrestling tournaments, the dentist & orthodontists offices, the pediatricians, family vacations, at Seattle Mariner games...it was my constant companion......many times I was tempted to piece a hexagon while sitting at a rather long stop light in town.

I only pieced this quilt while I was away from home.......so it turned into a 10 year take-a-long quilt project. After the top was all pieced, I began to hand quilt it, but the pain in my wrists and hands from carpal tunnel soon let me know that I would never be able to complete it. I removed the hand quilting stitches and sent it off to a highly recommended long arm quilter in Idaho. She quilted feathered circles in the center of each flower. I used a wool batting and the quilt is absolutely yummy.

My personal quilts tend to get put on the back burner. The quilts that have deadlines are the ones that get completed quickly. I have never set a deadline for one of my own quilts. My quilt exhibit in September has given me a BIG DEADLINE to complete my own personal quilts. It is just the push I needed to get this quilt out and get to work on it again.

Yesterday I sewed the bias binding on the top side of the quilt with the sewing machine. Last night I brought it to the house and began hand stitching the binding to the backside.

I use hair clips to hold the binding around the edge of the quilt. The clips help to relieve the strain on my hands and wrists while I am stitching the binding in place. I don't struggle trying to hold the binding in place, the clips do that for me. I am able to bind for hours without any fatigue to my hands.

This is my Binding Tin.......I found it years and years ago at a garage sale with hair clips already in it. I added a small pair of scissors, a wooden needle case, Thread Heaven thread conditioner, and thread to match my binding fabric. All of these supplies live in this little red tin and are always ready when I need to bind a quilt.

The best part of this quilt is........the yellow center in every flower block is a piece of fabric cut from my grandmother's house dress......making this TRULY a Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt. I have named it......In The Presence of the Past.

P.S. To answer a few of the questions I have rec'd since posting this:

1. I started out with a fanny pack around my waist. It contained a zip loc bag with fabric hexagons and paper hexagons, thread, needle, nail clippers and beeswax (I later switched to Thread Heaven conditioner). I was able to sit quietly and piece hexagons, going mostly unnoticed at any event I was attending. I sat in a church at weddings and pieced and nobody even noticed. This gets addicting once you get started. Every idle minute you have away from home, you want to be piecing on your take-a-long quilt.

2. These are mini-hexagons, each of the 6 sides measures one half inch. A standard hexagon is 2 inches on each side....much quicker to put together.

3. There are 63 mini hexagons in each flower. A flower takes about 10 hours to hand piece. There are 150 flowers in this quilt........1,500 hours to piece the top.

4. 5 spools of thread.....2,500 yards of thread to piece the quilt top.

5. This is made entirely from scraps of fabric. Over the years I rec'd fabrics from people who knew my history with this quilt, had watched me work on it for years, and wanted to add to the quilt........I gladly included the donated tiny bits of fabric in this quilt, which makes me cherish it even more.

5. ALL of my nieces helped with cutting hexagons from fabric, pinning the papers to them and putting them in zip loc bags for me. They enjoyed choosing the fabrics and designing flowers for me to sew. I cherished my time with my nieces. Two of them eventually became quilters! LOTS of warm and wonderful memories come to mind when I look at this Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt.

In My Cozy Spot Binding,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Sunflower Quilt Slideshow

This slideshow represents my journey while creating the Sunflower Quilt. From my original inspiration for the quilt........to the completion of the quilt. It was quite a trip!

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CLICK HERE to view the slideshow

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Quilt Exhibit Postcards

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I am playing around with a few different designs for postcards. I just taught myself this morning to use the Picasa FREE MAC program. In just a few minutes of downloading the program, I was importing images and placing text on them.......how fun is that!

I printed this image out on photo paper and it is much better than what you see on the screen here. I was afraid the white writing would be difficult to read, but on the printed version it is clearly visible.

I plan to send the image to an online printer and have postcards made. So.......please comment and let me know what you think of this first postcard. Anyone out there experienced in postcard design? I need to design a poster ......but Rome was not built in a day. The comment link is directly below this post. Hoping to hear from you soon.

In Computer Land,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE

Woven Sunshine Quilt............DONE

I had a day to myself today.............and it was a fun day!

Thread Shed, Music & Machine Quilting

My needs are few...

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With the exception of the stem in the middle of the vines, this was all free motion quilting without any marking. If you click on the image and enlarge it.....you can see the faint white chalk line down the center of the vine. That line keeps me going in the right direction as I move across the quilt stitching 90 mph.

I LOVE these Chubby Crayons for marking. They are made by Miracle Chalk. I purchased mine at my local quiltshop: JanniLou Creations in Philomath, OR.

They are soft and yummy and glide over the fabric effortlessly.

The BEST part of Chubby Crayons is...........you just iron the chalk off when you are done! As soon as the heat from the iron touches the chalk......it disappears completely!

You can quit reading this post now if you like.......because that was the best part of it!

Here is a peek at some of the whimsical vine quilting on the woven background area.

I learned the whimsical vine motif from Patsy Thompson. I purchased her DVD's a couple of years ago........and my machine quilting has improved more than I had ever hoped.

I chose a botanical quilting motif for the background and it was a good fit. I am happy with the way it turned out.

After all the machine quilting was done.......I blocked the quilt.........and was ready to trim it up square. This 20 inch Ominigrip Square Up Ruler is the absolute best and most accurate for squaring up those corners. I am sorry I waited 15 years to get one.

This 2o inch ruler makes it easy to have perfectly square corners on your completed quilts.

Here is the Woven Sunshine Quilt all DONE and ready for a binding. I am looking at all this leftover green batik fabric..........hmmm.........I also have a lot of leftover black fabric........that might work for a binding? After 9 hours of quilting today I am done making decisions.......the binding fabric will have to wait for another day.

Good Night,

LuAnn

To see my New Work CLICK HERE

To see the Thread Shed CLICK HERE

To see my Exhibit Quilts CLICK HERE

To see Tutorials CLICK HERE