What's In The Box ~ Part 7 ~ My Tweets

 Hi Friends! Today's UFO is probably my oldest one.  The My Tweets by Erin Russek of One Piece at a Time was started way back in 2011.

Everything I need to finish this quilt top is here.  It's just a matter of mustering up the gumption to do the work.

I know many of my long-time followers are shocked to see orange and purple, right?  Instead of making this quilt my own and using different colors, I chose to match Erin's colors.  The reason is simple, my fabric stash was small, and I had all the colors in her version.

However, I do remember making some design changes to one or two of the smaller blocks.

All of the applique is handstitched.

This "kit" includes the threads, scissors, needles and the background fabric.  Most of the remaining applique pieces are finished and ready to be glue basted onto the border fabric.

I'm thinking this one should be worked into the rotation after I finish the Bumpkin Baskets applique quilt.

The My Tweets patterns are still available for purchase in Erin's Etsy Shop at very reasonable prices.  I was shocked that she hadn't raised the prices to match what other designers are charging these days.

The center block can be found here.

The 12 smaller blocks can be found here.

Erin's blog and her newest quilt design can be found by clicking here.  It's not a free pattern but it's cute and I have the center block in my shopping cart!

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Applique Love and a quilty tip

Who doesn't love the quick and easy quilt pattern that gives us the instant gratification of a finished project?  I know I do.  I've several go to quilt patterns that will stitch up in an day and be ready for use in within 48 hrs.  But my all time favorite quilts are appliqued.  Just the tiniest of applique gives a quilt an extra kick and WOW factor.   Some say they are out of style and way to much work but I think every quilter needs to make at least one FABULOUS quilt in their lifetime.  Even though it may take a lifetime to make it!...LOL!  

So far my determination for finishing this quilt UFO hasn't diminished.  Stealing a few minutes here and there to make a few more applique pieces.

Many quilters say it's too time consuming to make applique.   True, it does take a bit of time.  So this week I decided to time how long it took to make one orange flower below.  From plain fabric to one finished flower it took 30 minutes.  Now you need understand that is three applique pieces for one flower.  This process could be sped up by using a Go Cutter or fusible applique.  You can even find some kits out there that the applique pieces are already cut for you.  All you have to do is stitch them in place. 

Applique is also very messy.  I cleaned up a little bit in the picture below so you wouldn't know just how messy I really can be.  The picture below was taken to show you my tip of the day.  See the rug under my table? That's a bath mat.  It's one of those really soft one's that has foam inside.  It also has a rubber backing that stops it from sliding across my tile floor.  The fluffiness of this mat keeps my sewing machine foot petal from sliding when in use.  And the number one reason for using this mat is...It keeps my bare feet off the cold tile floors. 

If you're interested in the quilt pattern I'm making you can find  it in the previous blog post.

~ Lea Anne ~

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Something to Tweet about

 In 2011 Erin Russek of One Piece at a time shared her My Tweets BOM patterns for free.  During 2011 the monthly blocks were free for the entire year but to finish the quilt quilters needed to purchase the center block at a very reasonable price.  How could I not make this quilt, it was love at first sight.  I quickly gathered my fabrics and began the My Tweets journey.   Well here we are 5 years later and I just finished hand stitching my center block. 

Each block is unique and with a few repeat applique pieces in the blocks.  Erin made my first attempt at hand applique so much easier with her helpful tips along the way.  You can find her applique lessons here.  

 For those of you that have followed me for a long time you know how much I dislike the color purple.  In this quilt it just works, I couldn't change Erin's choice in colors.

But in true Lea Anne style I CAN NOT stick with a pattern.   Block 10 was changed to suit me.  It's top right in the picture below.

Below is Erin's Block 10.   Absolutely adorable.  

Now I need to get started on the borders.  This is half of one side.  Another 5 years?  Lets hope not!

If you'd like to make the My Tweets quilt you can find the pattern here, it's no longer free but it's still a really good price for an applique pattern.   Erin is also working on a current block of the month Chocolate Bon Bons.  Below is the current free block.   You can find out more information on her blog One Piece at a Time.  Take a look around her blog she's giving some sneak peaks about next years BOM, it going to be pieced blocks with some applique, and you never know when she'll throw in some embroidery.

Take a look at this cutie below called Be Happy.  All of the the blocks below are still available for free on her blog here and here for the borders.  All but the center block, you'll need to purchase it here.   

Erin started out as a quilt blogger and quickly caught the eye of the quilt world.  She now works for Mcalls quilting.  I'm sure you've seen some of her patterns in there magazine.  Below is one of my favorite magazine quilt patterns, Miss Kyra.

Hope you found something today to Tweet about or make you do Happy Dance!

~Lea Anne~

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My Tweets center block

At last!  The last block is ready to be hand stitched.  It may sound like the end is near but when making a mental list of what still needs to be done before the quilt is complete it seems the light at the tunnel is still very small.  Hopefully by the time this last block is complete the block setting and borders idea will be set in stone.  It would be easier to just follow the pattern. 

Erin gave 3 different finishing instructions, all of which are great but....I just want mine to be different.  Following the quilt making instructions 100%, NEVER, ever... that I can recall. 

I fell in love with the quilt pattern at first sight over 3 years ago.  So much so that  I've made a couple different projects from single blocks.  This blue one hangs in the spare bedroom.  

Another one made for my mom'ma using block 2 of the series.  You can find the pattern for the entire set of quilt blocks here.   A tutorial for the border on the quilt below can be found on Erin's blog here.

Since this post seems to be all about Erin Russek, have you seen her new 

FREE BOM called Happy Dance?  The picture below is from her blog,  Onepieceatatime. 

 If your not a big fan of applique she's also giving instructions for pieced blocks that will surround the center applique.   I hadn't planned on doing this years BOM but I just couldn't say no to that cute watering can.  It's not to late to join in the fun!   All you need to do is purchase the center block, and the rest is free!  

~ Lea Anne ~

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Cabin or Spring fever?

Happy Friday!  We made it through another week.  That means only 5 more weeks till spring.  Whoohoo!  Just thinking about all the glorious spring colors makes me all giddy inside.  The little crocus's should be peaking through the snow by the start of next month.  We've already started planning for this years veggie garden.  Planting will start next month with spinach and lettuce in the hot bed.  With all the preparations for spring there's been neglect of the Studio.  It seems spring fever or cabin fever has made it's way to Podunk.  Side effects are doing anything but sewing.  Even though I'm not physically working on quilts my mind is twirling with ideas.   As I flutter and flit about the house there's always time for a quick peek at the explosion of color from these two new love birds.  They look so young and innocent as they do their ritualistic bashful courtship dance.  It occurred to me since they have so much character they needed names.  Instantly I knew they were Daphne and Delmer.  Who knows why, they just seemed to fit the whimsical feel of this quilt.

 Hopefully the afternoon can be spent working on the rest of the block.  In an effort to make things a little easier a design change was necessary.  The leaves in the red circle will be the same as the leaves at the bottom.  Not much of a change but at least there won't need to make more templates.  

Do you have "The Fever"?  Now I'm no doctor but I hear tell that a good dose of quilty inspiration is the best thing for "The Fever".  You can find a pretty good sized dose over at Richard and Tayna Quilts Friday Linky.

~ Lea Anne ~

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Fat finger applique

The older I get it seems the harder it is to do little tiny tedious detail work with my hands.  So I thought I'd share with you how I pre assemble small applique.  

The little pins shown below are the original pins I purchased over 20 years ago.  I keep them around for emergency use only because they are to hard for my fat fingers to manage.  They are perfect for this project because the heads won't melt.  Glass head pins could be used but mine are finer and bend to easily.   Pinning each little petal in place allows re-positioning of one petal if needed without disturbing the rest.  The scissors are pointing to the one I moved.

Note:  for more exact placement of applique I would have the applique outline sheet under the white fabric allowing it to show through.  But these can be free handed and not cause an issue with the rest of the pattern.

Using a larger longer pin helps to hold small applique steady while applying basting glue.  It also serves as a skewer making placement easier and less messy.

I should also mention the only glue I used is what you see.  The petals are held together by the center of the flower.

No need to remove pins when setting the glue with the iron.  

Perfect little Posies every time!  OOPS...looks like one of them still has water soluble ink shining through.  A little shot of water will take care of that.

~ Lea Anne ~

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Only one more to go!

Way back in 2011 this was a free BOM by Erin Russek at Onepieceatatime.  My quilt was started in January 2012.  Three years and I'm still plucking away a little by little.  This weekend the last of the 12 monthly blocks was finished!  Yeah!

 I know what you thinking, it could be those PURPLE birds that's been holding me back.  For those of you that are new to my blog, I've a fairly strong dislike of purple.  But my number rule in quilting is to work out of the comfort zone.   This quilt has been a challenge in more ways than just color.  I chose to stay with the colors in the pattern because the brights just say HELLO.   And the hand applique was enough of a challenge that I didn't want to throw in picking my own colors and fabrics.  

Even with my dislike of purple I love every expressive Distelfink.

I still need to decided what to do about eyes....do you think they NEED eyes or can they be blind birds?

I've also made a couple of changes to the original quilt pattern.  The first change was a in one block design.  The picture of the block came out blurry  so I'll just show the close up of this block, I love the orange in this one.  But if your really curious take a look at the first picture in this post.  Its the third block down from the top on the far left.  It had a huge heart at the bottom of the block that I felt look out of place with the rest of the blocks, so I change it to flowers.

And the second change would be to the block setting.  I'm tossing around a couple ideas that you can see here.

Once more I'll try to get the large center applique block at least glue basted before cleaning up this mess.  Wish me luck!  This is my third time working on this block.  

I'm linking up with a new linky party today.  I'd like to encourage you to hop over and check it out and link up!  

Beth@CookingUpQuilts is hosting Main Crush Monday Linky

And
Randi@Ihavetosay

I'll also be linking with Slow stitching Sunday, and

Design Wall Monday, you can find the links to both of these in the sidebar.
Let's add another Esther's Blog for WIP's Wednesday also found in my sidebar. 

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Slow Stitching

I'm linking up today with Kathy's@Katthy'squilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.  I've shown these quilt blocks many times over the last 4 years because I'm 

Slooooooooow

when it come to handwork.  You can find links to the pattern over at Erins Blog.

I work on it here and there and not always on Sunday.  This week there's been  about 4 hours or so in the evenings while watching TV. 

 This is one of my favorite blocks, its those daisies.  Miss Birdie looks as if she really like them also.

 One of the reasons(excuses) it's taking so long is I need new glasses.  So I've been using this for all my handwork.

Since this last block is almost complete I've been thinking about how to tackle  

 the center block and borders.  I'm still looking for the right fabric for the vase/urn in the center block.  I may end up altering the pattern and adding applique to a vase made from a solid fabric.  The applique borders may be left off also, at the rate I'm going that could take another 2 yrs.

 I found this picture(below) somewhere awhile back and forgot to add the info on who, what, when, and where.  Anyway...I love the sashing idea and thought it might be an option for my version of the My Tweets quilt.  It too would be a lot of applique....only time will tell how this will end.

Thanks for stopping by my little spot in Podunk!

~ Lea Anne ~

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Messy Design Wall Monday

Is everyone this messy when they work?  As you can see not much has changed in the Studio.  My real design wall has collected even more dust.  It's peaking out of the upper right corner of this picture.  The entire weekend was spent cooking and working towards getting the birds off my work table.

It took all day Saturday to make templates for the center block.  My stash of different templar products ran out and I had to make a few triple layered freezer paper templates.  

 In order to trace on the white templar I had to use the table light Mr. Podunk put in my work table a couple of years ago.  

 Most of my quilts are fairly easy to assemble and take just a little snippet of time out of my life.  This one is a big CHUNK.  With so much effort I feel like taking the time to make sure it sticks around awhile is probably a good idea.   I'm no expert quilter by a long shot but I do like to take the advice of those that I feel  fall in that category.  So somewhere I read that using Sew Secure on the inner point of turned applique will help with any fraying that might occur over it's lifetime.  If I were better at these inner corners maybe I wouldn't need this but for now I'm not taking any chances.  It's better to be safe than sorry, it would be a shame to do all this work only to have a gazillion little frays after the first few washes.

 It does make the fabric a little stiff and harder to handstitch  but it's worth it in my book.  Using it sparingly is the trick.  Just a itty bitty dot at the top of her neck, can you see it?

 It's so hard to see on the bird so here's the itty bitty dot on my finger.  After I make the dot in the inner point I kinda smear it into the area.   To test this stuff  I've washed unsewn pieces of fabric with one edge treated with the product.  Low and behold they don't fray even when completely exposed.    

Well these birds are going to be on the table a bit longer, I'm quilting on the frame today.

 Three years ago I started this project, can you believe I still don't have a fabric for the vase!

~ Lea Anne ~

Today's freebie from Attic Window Quilt

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