Lemon Shake up Finish

 I don't know about you but I'm ready for hot summer days and sipping on homemade lemonade while swinging on the porch swing.  My favorite is fresh squeezed Strawberry Lemonade....Yummy!  I love it when the strawberry syrup stays on the bottom of the glass.  All this dreaming of sunny, warmer days has definitely inspired a few small quilts lately.  My latest below is

"Lemon Shake Up"  It's a small quilt, 28 x 28.  

Using the scraps from the Hillbilly Hookup and Super Nova, I randomly sewed the pieces together until I had a piece big enough to cut a 5" charm. The pile on the left hand side is before making the blocks.  At last they can not be sewn anymore and CAN BE thrown out...Thank goodness.  There may be a few pieces big enough for a stitch but  I'm not digging through that pile anymore.   The insanity stops HERE!  I've gone much farther than planned with the original string blocks.

I tried to slow down the visual on this quilt by framing the 5" charms with 1.5" white strips.

The pale yellow butterfly fabric was just enough color to add some cheeriness without making the quilt to overwhelmed with more color.   I feel like the decorative stitch and using a pale yellow thread added a little whimsy to the quilt.

The scrappy binding was sorta scary.  My fear was that a seam on the binding would fall on every corner.  And if you ever tried to make a nice corner with a binding seam in it, you know it's darn near impossible.  Luckily not one seam fell in a corner...Hows that for luck?!  I'm feeling the sudden urge to go buy a lottery ticket!

The backing is just more of the yellow butterfly fabric.  Don't look to close or you see that the binding hasn't been hand stitched to the back.  It's just glue basted in place for picture taking while the sun is still shining.  I'll get to it one night soon while watching TV with Mr. Podunk.

How about one last sip of Lemonade....

MMM...Sweet!

~ Lea Anne ~

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Super Nova Table Topper

Finally!  My little table topper with an explosion of color, Super Nova.  I designed it using the Hex N More ruler.  It could be made using any 60 Degree ruler.  The only difference would be the center would be made from 6 triangles instead of half hexies.   The string pieced triangles are leftovers from my Hillbilly Hookup quilt.  The binding is leftovers from Flit and Flutter.  And the background fabric, backing and batting are all scraps from quilting on the frame.  So this is 100% scrappy!

Each little triangle finishes at 2 inches tall.  One of the issues I had when piecing the triangles was the seams in the string piecing.  It made for tons of bulk and hard to press the seams.   So I kept the quilting in the background fabric only.

Since I was stepping out of my comfort zone, and having trouble doing it, I decided to stay uncomfortable and add a border that required a partial seam.  It wasn't as hard as I thought.  

The last challenge was the binding.  Binding odd angles is a little different than simple 90 Degree corners.  Thank goodness for the generous quilters that love to share FREE quilty knowledge.  I used these two tutorials as reference. 

 Here and Here

I had planned on making a tutorial for this topper.  After all the issues I changed my mind.  However if you would like a template of the triangle so you could attempt it on your own it can be found here.

~ Lea Anne ~

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Playing with string scraps

The last quilt, Hillbilly Hookup, made a lot of scraps.  I tried tossing them in the trash, only to pull them out...twice.  Oh fiddlesticks!  I might as well just get it over with and make something from them.  Even though the scrap pieces were small and oddly shaped,  I managed to get enough 2.5 triangles cut for 7 wacky looking stars.

To cut the triangles I used a Hex N More ruler.  Unless my plan changes I'll need to use this ruler again to for the hex shape.

There's still a huge pile of  tiny string scraps.  Can I throw them away?  Not yet...I've tried but it just seems like a waste. 

~ Lea Anne ~

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Hillbilly Hookup finished!

Come on in and sit a spell while I tell Ya'll about this here quilt!

That sounded as if it came right out of my granny's mouth.  I was lucky enough to spend lots of time with both of my grandmothers.  They were country girls with a southern way of life.  Southern meaning Kentucky backwoods style. Visiting them meant listening to endless hours of funny stories.  I'm not sure if the stories were really funny or just the way they told them.  

Well lets get back to the quilt I'm calling Hillbilly Hookup.   It's a Double Wedding Ring made with string piecing instead of the normal oddball arcs  piecing.   I made an applique template from the arc and omitted the connecting corners, replacing them with a huge Posy. 

Using one large piece of fabric I marked grid for placing the arcs.  After glue basting the arcs and Posies in place I used my sewing machine to make a very tiny blanket stitch with invisible thread.

It came out so cuddly and soft with the minimal quilting done on the Domestic Machine.  The Posies are FM quilting so don't look at the stitch length.  At first I started quilting with stitch in the ditch.  The planned changed when I couldn't stay in the ditch.  So  I ripped out the stitches and changed my stitch plan to outlining the blocks.  The backing is from my older stash.  The fabric was purchased from an estate sale years ago.  I have about 6 more yards of it!

Look how fluffy she is, and that's a low loft poly batting.  I talked earlier in the week about getting back to the basics of quilting.  There were so many of you that expressed your dislike for the quilt it to death quilts, which shocked me.  I'm not saying I'm never going to quilt it death again because I love the look of them.  But I think I'll be doing a lot more of the"less is more" quilting.

While I was folding it look what I found.  Dirt from my outdoor photos. GRRRR....The things we do to get a good picture.  I hope its not grease. 

There's some linky party's today.  

Richard and Tayna Quilts, Link a finish Friday

and

Can I get a Whoop Whoop@Confessions of a fabric addict

~  Lea Anne ~

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Getting back to the basics

Happy Snowy Monday!  We're setting snow accumulation records here in Podunk for the month of March.  In our little spot of the woods the snow piled up to about 8 inches on top of the 5 inches already on the ground.  But it's still not warm enough for a snowman.  The snow is like powder.  I think by this afternoon that should change.  Anyone else playing in the snow today?

Since I couldn't build a snowman(boohoo) most of the weekend was spent quilting.  I managed to get all the applique machine stitched in place.  Now for the quilting.

My new walking foot is so bulky and I can't see a darn thing when I use it so today I'm trying out the open toe foot.   I really wish they made a walking foot with the open toe, it would make stitch in the ditch so much easier.

 The keep it simple quilting will make for a quick finish.  I don't feel like dealing with quilting on the frame lately.  Sometimes it's good to get back to the basics, don't you think?  It takes me back to my early days of quilting, long before I knew longarm quilt machines existed.  Oh don't get me wrong I still love the "quilted to death" quilts.  But sometimes it nice to just let a quilt be a quilt and let the quilt design do all the talking instead of the fancy quilting.   And this bright quilt has a lot to say!   

Maybe someday I can really get back to the basics by hand quilting a quilt....

Maybe.  So tell me what's your thoughts on quilting?  Do you like your quilts to be quilted to death, lightly quilted, tied, or hand quilted?

I found a new to me linky over at Hug-a-Bit Quilts.  Hop on over and share some quilty love!

and another new to me linky is MCM@Cookingupquilts
Hope to see you there!

And don't forget Judy's Design Wall Monday over at PatchworkTimes

~ Lea Anne ~

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Flimsy Friday

 I'm loving the snow!  My studio gets brighter earlier in the day due to the sun reflecting off the snow.  This is how I started my day.   So bright and happy, it  washes away any gloomy and glum cabin fever blues that might be lurking about.  

 When I started making strings last week I didn't plan on making a Wedding Ring quilt, but...failure on Plan A.  Onto Plan B which I pulled out of thin cold air.   My attempts at piecing the blocks ended in disaster.  Good thing there's always a Plan C that doesn't require so much pinning.  If you look closely at the picture below you can see where I marked a grid on a solid piece of fabric.  100 % applique.  All I had to do was add glue to an arc and press.  Much easier than a bazillion pins.

Add a few posies....

Now all I need to do is do an invisible machine stitch around ALL of it! 

Why can't I get a good picture of this quilt.  Maybe its because it's so bright.

When all else fails...put on your husbands boots and brave the weather.

Hmmm...the colors are still showing brighter than real life.

Oh well you get the idea.  She's happy and bright and puts a big ole smile on my face.  

Found another new to me Linky Party over at Modern Tradition Quilts, hop on over and link up.   You could win a free pattern if your project is featured next week!

~ Lea Anne ~

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Let the fun begin!

Happy Monday morning quilty friends!  I hope it's warm and cozy in your neck of the woods.  It's sunny and 7 degrees here in Podunk.  The studio temp is 54.  Yes you read those number right, it's not a typo.   So while letting the Studio warm up lets take a look at the string quilt progress.   All the strings are pieced and ready for cutting.  It took a tad longer than expected to get enough sets for my design.  Would you believe I ran out of strings and had to MAKE more?! 

My granny used to say "There's more than one way to skin a cat".  Well that statement is very true in quilting.  When making string quilts there's several ways I could piece them.  Some quilters use some sort of foundation such as muslin, phone book pages, newspaper, or store bought foundation paper.  I chose to use none of them.  The reason is simple..bulk in the quilt and I don't want to remove any papers later.  I know there's a water soluble product on the market but I'm too cheap for that!  The next major decision was pressing of the seams.  Open or to one side? This topic is highly debated among quilters.  To be honest I do both.  It really  depends on the quilt and the amount of bulk that will be made if I don't press open.  As general rule I prefer pressing to the side.  It makes for a stronger seam, and although I've never put a quilt in a quilt show, should I decide to, most judges look for pressing direction and if they can see piecing stitches... that's BAD.  It could be the difference between a ribbon and a list helpful advice.  For this quilt I decided open seams was best.  Shew that was a chore!  Not a decision made lightly.  Pressing to the side would have been so much quicker and easier.

Finally I can start cutting and shaping these stacks into a quilt.  

Let the fun begin! 

~ Lea Anne ~

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Got strings?

The last scrap quilt was so much fun why not make another out of the growing pile of strings.  The inspiration for a string quilt struck when I saw Emily's quilt over at Em's Scrapbag.  

We've seen a gazillion string quilts of every shape and size.  How can I make this one my own, make it different, original, a one of a kind?  Nothing lubricates the creative quilty gears like some mindless speed piecing strips of technicolor  fabric.  

Once the sewing began the ideas flowed out of my brain like the curse words out of my mouth when my expensive sewing machine broke earlier in the week. 

(yep I'm still peeved)

One sweet idea after another until...I HAVE A NEW PLAN!  Something I've not seen before.   I've Googled, Binged, and YahOOOOO'ed and not one quilt with this idea.  Now that doesn't mean it doesn't exist ....and I'm sure somebody with better knowledge or skills of searching will let me know if does.  

So what's my plan you say?  

Before I go getting too cocky and spouting off at the mouth, there's still oodles of design elements that need a little tweaking.  So until then I'll show you what I should be working on but can't seem to come up with any ideas.

Oh yes, my nemesis....NOVELTY FABRIC!  UGG! YUK!   My sweet little grandson(Hunter) wants a Spidey quilt.  Well guess what granny had in the stash?   After hours of searching for some type of inspiration, I'm feeling inspired to toss it in the trash can, because you know 6 yr olds are very critical of quilt patterns...wink wink.

~ Lea Anne ~

  

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