Multitasking and still calm

Multitasking at my old sales job was the only way to stay on top of everything.  I loved how it made me feel organized. When it came to quilting multitasking made me nervous like I wasn't getting anything done.  I currently have more projects at various points of progress than EVER before and am amazingly calm.

First I made this little guy for my secret Santa swap, some thought is needed but it is started. I love incorporating machine embroidery and quilting.

Next I am going to be queen for ModernInstaBeeHive17 for January2015, since one of our ladies is going to have her first baby in January we were asked to post early.  For my quilt I know I want at least 16 maybe 20 blocks so I am making extra examples now. I asked for 2 prints that coordinate, I would like a variety of colors so I didn't give suggestions. 
 

Last week I received most of my blocks from the WNY MQG, these are the first two quilt tops ready to be sandwiched, I am still missing some blocks for the third one. I put the blocks together with a quarter inch piping around the outside then another three inches.  They will finish at 40 x 40"

I love how these cute fabrics play together

I had so many blue blocks I made one of the quilts just blues.  Look some are froggies, bees and swirls in this one.

 

Finished and mailed my last bee block for Novembers queen, this is also the pattern I picked.  Mine are double prints see how different it looks with a solid.

 

 

Just waiting for the mail delivery to finish the blocks for the patchwork log cabin quilt.  I am eight blocks short of the swirly brown rings. I hate when that happens, Etsy to the rescue.

I think the reason I am so calm about all of this is because November may be busy with all this piecing, that means December will be all about quilting.  I will say it~ quilting is my favorite part, I am going to enjoy December.

You know I am linking up with my two favorites, Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced, check them out!

Thanks for visiting
off to sew,
Pam

Pillowcase tube style

While I was deciding what to do about the blank space on my AMH Birds of a Feather quilt I took on a small request for a family member.  To make two pillowcases each out of 3 fabric colors measuring 27", 9" and 3".  I used one of Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorials with a few tweaks to make these cuties.

The tweaks were mostly due to the fact that the fabric given to me was flannel.  After retrimming the fabric with a rotary cutter I had 27", 9" and 2"

First I opened up then rolled up the 27" fabric and sewed on the folded 2" piece.  I did this to avoid the bulky slide of 5 layers of fabric.  This way the folded 2" fabric stayed put showing a nice straight width of the decorative stripe.  

 

Then I wrapped the 9" fabric piece around the previously stitched piece and sewed the seam (DO NOT SEW THE ENDS)

 

Once it is sewn pull all the fabric out of the tube giving you a piece that is approximately 31" x 43"

Fold it in half right sides together and sew or serge down the side and along the bottom.  This will complete the perfect pillowcase.

Although I always clean my machine then I finish a project I found it necessary to clean it out between pillowcase 1 & 2 due to the flannel lint.

UPDATE

Doing the projects above while all of you fantastic ladies posted suggestions about the way to finish the AMH quilt worked out perfectly.  I loved the idea if the horizontal lines, adding something like birds or words and when one suggested the lines mimic the wind I knew what to do.  

I went with horizontal wavy lines inserting a few individual fallen leaves randomly.  I love it ladies thank you, I may be using some of the other suggestions in a future quilt!

Ta-done just in time for my MQG meeting, yay!

 

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced

AMH Birds of a Feather

For me it seems like this one took a long time, they are part of a block swap with the girls at WNY MQG starting back in September 2013.  It is almost done and maybe you can help me decide something

Let me start with what was added since the last post of this project.  I hope it is not TOO noticable I placed a tree under the white fabric to complete the vision I had before it all began.

I changed the quilting for each area, the bottom are waves of grass, moving up are leaves in the trees.  The question is I can not decide what to put between the two spaces IF anything,  I really like the blank area.  On the other hand maybe it's a little too much blank space?

 

I love the texture all over this quilt it emphasizes the feathers, birds and tree.

What do you think of the tree?

 

See the blank spacing, thoughts?  I would love to have this complete by our guild meeting on Saturday.

 

Linking to Sew Fresh Quilts and Freshly Pieced

Off to sew something else,

Pam

Improv, resizing & pattern issues

First of the month means new bee blocks

The first bee block I want to show is an improv block I just finished for the NQB Bee Group.  Our queen sent us a simple tutorial and said to make it any size with a low volume background.  I had the perfect fabric in mind, I received it with a low volume swap I participated in earlier this year.  I was excited to get started!

How is this not perfect?  I would love to do a children's quilt with lots of these.

 

For my second the background is actually from a Christmas line, I think it looks like raindrops.

 

For the next two bees the queens asked for ANYTHING- make 2 of your favorites that will then create a sampler style quilt.  I don't have favorites but I do have several books with lots of blocks I would like to try before committing an entire quilt to it.  I decided to use a couple of those dog-eared pages to make these blocks.

This one was originally a 6 1/2" block I needed to do some math on to get it up to 12 1/2".  Very easy, I like the block and will use it again.  It is the perfect block for some medium size fussy cutting.

This one is a version of a block called crossroads, what made this block special was the fabric, its a gorgeous line my friend from mvquilts introduced me to and I purchased it ASAP. (by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics) The issue was the pattern was to be paper pieced after you make the center, hummmmmpf.  Now I am not new to paper-piecing but this one gave me issues.  I had to ripper it twice and re-size the pieces as the paper-piecing didn't line up when I did follow the instructions.  Well. I must have done something wrong.  Instead I went back to quilty math because I hated wasting this fabric, this is actually the second one I cut- the first one didn't make it so sad.

 

These next two are for the WNY MQG Bee, her request was no pastels and not neon, I can work with that.  These two are block patterns I will set aside for one of my future queen months.  What I liked about them is if someone sent them at 12" instead of 12 1/2" which happens, trimming them to size wouldn't cut any points off, I hate when that happens. 

 

This one is my two favorite Kona colors together, wasabi and bubble gum, when I saw the printed fabric on Etsy I had to have it, matched so perfectly. I love this block, its not from a book, I was just playing but like many I am sure it appears somewhere with a fancy name.

My last one is the Ziggy Star from the Modern Bee book by Lindsey Conner,  if you don't have this book it is so worth the purchase.  She host ModernInstaBee on Instagram using her book, genius!  This is the same block I will use when I am queen in January and this one is actually for my quilt sample,  I want prints with a solidish star and stripe.  The November queen wants white backgrounds with jewel tones, I am thinking a deep ruby color.  

 

Almost done with my bee blocks for this month, off to sew that last one!

 

Pam