#2 Quilt top finish, Connie's Quilts

Shake it, Shake it!  Yes mam' that's my happy dance.  Tickled pink doesn't even begin to describe how I feel this morning after getting the final borders on this quilt.  All the fabrics except the blue inner border are men's shirts.

 Stealing a few minutes here and there to get this one together quickly really paid off.  I've always said with each quilt I learn something new.  This quilt was no exception.  The lesson was ...cut BIG pieces.  The bigger pieces made the quilt go together quickly and it actually makes it look less busy.  Now I've heard Bonnie Hunter say "If you think a fabric is ugly you just haven't cut it small enough."  Not true in this case.  Cutting smaller only  makes these uglier and very busy to the eye.  Don't get me wrong, I love Bonnie and her quilts, but her rule of thumb didn't work out on this one.

 The little pups were so much fun to put together.  

 As I stitched them down I sang an old song...."How much is that doggie in the window?  The one with the waggily tail?" 

I'm still humming it this morning as I race around preparing for an afternoon of more applique. 

Here's whats left of Connie's husbands shirts and fabric she wanted worked into the quilts.  Not sure I can make 3 more quilts from them but I'm going to give it my best shot.  The goal is 6 quilts, lightly quilted by March 1, that's Connie's Birthday.  In order to meet my goal I'm planning on taking my sewing machine along with me while I care for mom.  Being away from home for about 12 hrs a day, 4-5 days a week doesn't leave much time for sewing after doing the cooking and cleaning.  

 Today's plan is to start stitching down the applique for the "Main" quilt.  

If you missed my previous posts, the quilt below is Connie's quilt (the main quilt, with her origami shirt blocks).  All the other quilts made from the shirts are for her 4 children and a grand daughter that she's raising.

Wish me luck, cheer me on and if you live near by, get over here and bring your sewing machine and chocolate!  ....LOL!

~ Lea Anne ~

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Puppy Bow

 Happy Monday morning!  My little puppy quilt is almost complete.  Instead of sharing my quilt top progress today I decided to share how I made the bows for this cute little free Westie quilt block.

My original plan was to hand draw the bow and make applique templates.  Well doesn't that sound like a lot of work?!  Why not just sew a real bow to the block?  Sounds soooo much easier.  

Now remember the fabrics in these blocks are all old shirts.  So I can't tell you how long to cut your pieces, but I can tell you how long to sub cut them.  You'll need one strip that is 1.5" wide by at least 5" long.  And one piece that is cut 1" wide and at least 1.75" long.  On the 1.5" piece, press a quarter inch seam on both long sides.  On the 1" wide piece press the long edges towards the center.  Stitch down both sides of the 1.5" strip after turning the edges.  Sub cut the 1.5" strip into 5" lengths.  Cut the 1" inch wide piece into 1.75" lengths.  This might make more sense if you look at the pictures below.

Okay now that everything is pressed, stitched and cut let's add a few drops of applique glue(washable school glue works too!)  I use these handy close pins to hold them while they dry.  Now would be a good time to have a chocolate and pet some pretty fabrics in the stash.

Or in my case look for my camera tripod....it's still lost.  So lets improvise...cloths pins for fingers.  A picture is a 1,000 words so I'm going let the next group of pictures speak for themselves.

The only reason the pin is in the first picture below is because I needed my hands to take the picture.  You gals understand that you can add the glue without pinning.  Again I used cloths pins to hold it tight.  Or you could use your iron on Medium heat to set the glue.  I let mine dry with cloths pins while I caught up on some wifely chores.

Now that they're dry we can attach them to the cute little puppy using a medium heat setting.

Since the red shirt fabric was kinda thick I also pressed from the backside just to make sure it was good and dry.

It's really hard to see my invisible stitching....hence the name INVISIBLE.   The red dashed line below shows where I stitched.  I wanted the bow to maintain as much "fluffy" as it could and still be secure.

Here's the finished block.   I put the scissors and pencil in the bow just to show where I didn't stitch.

Hope this answered your questions Britney. 

~ Lea Anne ~

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Podunk Pickin's # 19 ~Sew DOG-gone cute~

Did ya'll know I'm a dog lover?  Yes ma'am! And these blocks make me sit pretty and beg for more.    I'm that crazy lady you bump into at the pet shop that asks if she can pet your dog, then 20 minutes later your wishing you had said "NO"  Why?  Because I must pet every dog, love on it, and ask a slew of question about your little fur baby.  I've never met a pooch that didn't make me baby talk until it's owner is totally annoyed.   

Normally a quilt in these dark colors would turn me off,  and quickly become a UFO.  Not this one.  It's so doggone cute!   You can find the template for the FREE dog applique here.    Two free templates are provided.  One large dog and one small.  I'm using the large one for my blocks.   Of course if you need a larger size I'm sure you gals are tech savvy and can figure out to enlarge them.  The bows are my creation and not part of the freebie.  The addition of the little bows took this block over the top.  They  are made with a little stitching and some applique glue, then glued to the 9.5" block and stitched in place.

It's hard to believe that each block is 100% shirt fabrics, even the background.

Here's the quilt layout plan below.  I know it's off balance but it's crunch time.  I'm working with what she gave me ...and at a very fast pace.  It's about memories not perfection.  

Okay that's my Podunk freebie Pick of the week.  You'll want to make sure you come back next Sunday for a new free quilt block design, designed by little ole me.  Here's a hint...You're going to "LOVE" it.

An InLinkz Link-up

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A Flimsy Friday

The decision was made to make the easier of the many quilts first.  If you have no clue what I'm talking about you can read about it here in my previous post.  I've been stealing 5 or 10 minutes, here and there over the last couple of weeks.  It finishes at about 74 x 86.  

After a lot of digging through old picture files I found this hilarious photo of Connie when she first starting making the shirt blocks for the quilt in the previous post.

The next quilt is already in the works.  Being that my time is so crunched and limited I'm opting for easy, and using someone else's pattern.  You can find the Scottie/Westie dog pattern here.  

The cute little doggies are coming along quite quickly. My plan is to use the red shirt fabric below for little red bow dog collars.  Awe...hopefully it will be as cute in real life as my minds eye says it is.

Thanks for stopping by and cheering me on during my quilt crunch month. See you in a few days with another flimsy!  Wish me luck!

  

 ~ Lea Anne ~

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