Quilts Without Borders

Doesn't that title sound like it should be on a TV show as some investigative reporting or a place to donate your money to some tax-free organization? Okay, just kidding. I am trying to direct your attention to the fabric sitting along side of my sewing machine in the photo. I will be adding the gold strip of fabric as an inner border and cut a three and a half inch strip as an outer border from the green fabric for my Leaf Quilt. I thought I would be able to get to this today, but did not. I spent the bulk of my time pressing pre-washed fabric. I was getting it ready to use as the background for another quilt.

Things always seem to take more time than one thinks they will. That's often how it is for me anyway. I need to allow more time for things, to be more 'realistic' in accomplishing things. I should know this by now, but I hold out hopes of really accomplishing a lot on some days. Guess I allowed myself to get distracted. I didn't stay focused on this particular thing. That's okay.

I sewed with a friend this afternoon and really enjoyed my day. We went out for lunch and a bit of quilt shop fabric shopping. I engaged in a webinar on creating on-line shopping to further my business goals. I enjoyed a great visit with this friend while we sewed. All in all it was a good day. I will work to get those borders sewn onto my Leaf Quilt tomorrow. Being the one to set my own goals also means I can adjust and realign those goals to meet the situation. It's the perks of being 'my own boss'!!

New goal: Get the borders on that Leaf Quilt done tomorrow, on Friday!

Still Enjoying Autumn Leaves This Winter

I am happy to report that I am ready to sew the borders onto this leaf quilt. It has been a long time coming. Lots of distractions, everyday life, bouts with illness, etc. that have kept me from getting it done. It's funny, but there is nothing hard about creating a quilt like this one. Expecially if you already know how to use your embroidery functions on your sewing machine. But it seems this quilt is taking quite some time to be completed. Most of the designs are from Anita Goodesign. They sew out beautifully. It was fun to pair different thread colors together. Sewing the same design using different colors added enough variety so that none of the leaves are exactly alike. Just as in nature, no two are alike. It reminds me of a cool autumn day in the country with leaves that have just fluttered down from an overhead tree branch. I can just imagine spreading a quilt out and laying back to enjoy the last of a warm autumn day. The warm sun, a cool breeze comes along, then the delight of a light covering of leaves as they rustle overhead and come fluttering down.

At this point I am considering quilting it together using the stitch-in-the-ditch method. I toyed with the idea of a simple stipple or meandering quilting method. Now I have made up my mind to keep it really simple, and plain, looking. Stitching in the ditch along the seams of the blocks and the between the logs should be a good way to go. This simple treatment for the actual quilting will allow the leaves to steal the show as the focal feature, not the quilting itself.

I am in love with this quilt - very pleased with it. My friends agree this one is special. Don't you just love all the lovely colors? It contains lots of scraps from my stash. Even that makes me happy . . . to use up a good chunk of those scraps. This quilt will look beautiful draped across the back of our couch as a seasonal quilt for late summer and fall. Even though I look forward to spring - cannot wait till life in the Dakotas warms up - I look at this reminder of fall with favor.

Leaf Block Pillow Give-Away

I've been absent from this blog for awhile. Part of that time was spent lounging around with a bit of a cold or flu. Thought I'd check back in today and here it is already three weeks since my last post.

I have had these blocks laid out on the twin beds downstairs for some time now. I just have not taken the time to stitch them together yet. I'm hoping to fit it in still this week.

Perhaps you noticed an extra block in the upper left corner. It's at the head of the left twin bed by the magazine where I found the pattern for the quilt. Since I have an extra block I decided to use it as a Give-Away here at my blog. I will be sewing it up as a small pillow. If a pillow is something you could use to enhance your home decor, leave a comment below and you'll be in the drawing. Comments are open through November 14th. I'll conduct a random drawing of all entrants and pull a winner on November 15th. Good Luck - and thanks for visiting.

56 Leaf Blocks Completed

I have been busy emroidering and sewing away to get all 56 leaf blocks completed for my Autumn Leaf Quilt. Here they are laid out on my drawing table. Now I need to arrange them in the proper orientation so the blocks will be aligned correctly. I have a lot of different scrap fabrics working together to create the quilt. I want to lay the blocks out before I start sewing them together to be sure I don't have too many of the same leaves or colors of fabrics congregated in one area of the quilt. I'll lay them out on the beds in the guest bedroom downstairs to get the placement right. I want to start sewing them together tomorrow. There is supposed to be a border around the perimeter, but I haven't selected fabric color to do the border yet. Once the blocks are all sewn together I'll see what to chose for the border and the binding. I'm really looking forward to getting this quilt finished.

I've already started more cutting of fabric for the next couple quilts. I've got one quilt mostly sewn together right now. After talking it over with my sewing friend today at our Sew-In I'll be adding another 39 - 6 1/2" blocks to make the quilt larger. I can't say a whole lot more about this one since it's going to be a surprise for someone who might be reading my blog. It's that time of year to keep quiet about surprises for gift-giving later on.

My sewing friend and I were discussing ideas for projects we'll be making for Christmas gifts this year. I think I'll be doing a lot of sewing for gifts that I have in mind for this year. Hope all my dear readers won't feel slighted if I can't actually speak on specifics or show photos of all the things I'll be working on over the next couple months - have to keep some things to myself for awhile so there will be some surprises later. I'll update you all after the Christmas Holidays on projects that get completed.

More Autumn Leaves

I was not feeling like my usual chipper self the last several days. I'm fending off some viral intestinal thing or something. Just feeling off from the norm, so I didn't participate in my usual Sew-In on Monday. I took it easy around the house by doing very little except for some time spent in my sewing studio. It's been nice and quiet around here. That's okay; I like to hole up at home when I don't feel so well.

I worked on embroidering more leaves for my Autumn Leaf quilt. I forget what the count is on that exactly, but I know I still need some more to get to 56 leaves. It's getting close. I did a bit more with cutting strips for the log cabin type blocks. I'm not keeping count on those since I've decided to do a second quilt with some other embroidered squares I have on hand. I'll take photos of those and post about them on another blog entry. Meanwhile, just know . . . even though I haven't posted for a short while, I'm still here . . . kind of just bumming around taking it easy as my body gets back to a more balanced state of being.

Leaf Quilt Half Done

I went to sew with a friend today. This is what I worked on. I was busy sewing strips to these leaf blocks, then worked on cutting more strips for the rest of the blocks. Apparently I miss counted the other day. I re-counted this afternoon and there are 28 blocks finished now. Yea! That's half of the 56 blocks required for this quilt. I laid these out on the floor at my friend's house to see how this quilt will look when it is put together. If you're sharp, you probably noticed I have some blocks in the lower right corner positioned wrong. I can see this is something I'll have to be careful to watch for when it comes time to sew them together.

I love the look of the blocks. The colors seem to be just right with the scrap fabrics that were selected. I love how all these odd ball scraps turned out to work so well together. Now I need to work on embroidering 28 more leaves and continue cutting more scrappy strips. Once those two things are done, the actual sewing time to put the blocks together goes pretty fast.

I've been thinking that I need to have a name to refer to the time spent sewing as a social activity with my friend. It would be so much easier to refer to this time if it was named. It needs a name because it's important and would make it easier to talk about and write about. How does everyone else refer to their sewing time together with friends? It used to be called a Sewing Bee when sewers/sew-ers/sewists got together to sew and visit. Is that term too old-fashioned to use anymore? It doesn't quite seem to fit. After all, there are only two of us. What's the current term for social sewing? I'm open to suggestions.

Falling Leaves

I thought I would spend some time this weekend working on my Autumn Leaf quilt, but alas . . . I did not. The time just seems to fly by. The last time I worked on these was Thursday night. As I recall, I counted the number of leaf blocks I had already completed. They added up to 21 blocks. That means I need 35 more for 56 total. I spent quite a bit of time cutting up fabric strips to the appropriate lengths. Then I spent the rest of the evening and night sewing up some of the blocks. At first I worked on one, or just a few, blocks at a time. Then I decided it would be more efficient to sew them up assembly style. Right now the 21 leaf blocks are all partially sewn into blocks. I've got a few more strips to sew onto each of those blocks to have them finished. I'm contemplating going downstairs to my Sewing Studio and do a little bit of sewing before I head off to bed.

Autumn Leaf Quilt Progress

I went to a friend's house for our weekly sewing session. Since it was a holiday on Monday we postponed our regular Monday sewing time for today. I brought the makings for this Autumn Harvest Quilt and cut strips to size for most of the afternoon while we chatted. Then decided I had enough cut and sorted in their little piles to try sewing a few blocks together. I'm anxious to get this quilt completed in time to actually make use of it this fall. Hopefully it will be completed before the snow hits for winter.

I need 56- 9 1/2" blocks for this quilt. The pattern is in the American Patchwork & Quilting October 2009 issue. It's easy basic sewing, but of course I changed it and decided I wanted to make use of some embroidery designs rather than piecing the leaves as shown in the magazine. I have 17 leaves embroidered already - need 39 more so will try to keep the machine running tomorrow while I get caught up on some laundry and tidy up my sewing studio again. Last night I stayed up to get more leaves embroidered and was looking for some gray fabric for a project my friend will be working on. That lead me to digging through all my scattered stashes of fabrics, not just what was on the shelves in view. I have a bunch more fabric tucked away in a few places - like under my cutting table, inside plastic bins, etc. I'd like to someday get that all out and organized on my shelves so I can see it at a glance to find a particular color right away when needed. If I can eliminate the time to search for stuff by being more organized I can get projects finished easier.

Here's a shot of everything laid out on my cutting table after I got back from sewing today. I still need a lot more strips cut to size to make all 56 blocks for this quilt, so will continue to work on that between loads of laundry tomorrow. I need to do a bit of tidying up since we decided to sew again tomorrow and my friend is coming here to my house this time. I've got to clean up and make room for us both to work.

And here's another view of the cutting table. Yep, I'm back to cutting out fabric, post accident, and feeling confident about my safety. I have to say I am really glad to have purchased those safety shields for my ruler. I already had my rotary cutter slip and jump atop the ruler to hit the ruler guard today. Honestly, I'm not being careless, but have to say I was a bit jumpy when that happened. It takes you by surprise. Again it happened so fast and had I not had the guards I may have had another accident.

I'll stress it again . . . go out today and get those ruler guards. Put them on your rulers. The fingers you save will be your own, or a loved one's. Yikes, it gives me the willies just thinking about it. Don't put it off - this is good advice from one who knows! By the way, the finger has healed up nicely. I cannot say enough about being thankful God made us with bodies that heal. There's only a tiny bit of numbness and funny feeling right at the tip, under the nail. I have full confidence that will eventually dissipate over time so that I have normal feeling in my fingertip again.

In the background of this photo you can see that huge pile of fabric scraps waiting to be cut to size. These are mostly skinny pieces and oddball sized strips. I'll cut them to the two inch size for this leaf quilt if they are an appropriate color. If not, they will just be cut to 2 1/2" strips and later used for more jelly roll quilts. I've got a couple quilt books with patterns to make use of jelly rolls so I'm collecting assorted strips from my scraps. I've also got quite an assortment of oddball sized strips to make up some string quilts, too.

After looking through, and unpacking, more of my fabric stash last night I have to say I am looking forward to doing a quilt in the future that's planned from a pattern and not just scraps and scrappy strips. I've got so much beautiful fabric collected over the years that I've never cut into. It will be fun to make up some quilts from new fabric even though some of it isn't quite so new any more. What with working in the sewing and quilting field for the past 9 years or so - I've been to lots of quilt shows and purchased lots of fabric. Always seemed so busy with working and life in general that I didn't get to start using much of it yet. Guess I kind of went crazy buying up fabrics, books and patterns. There's so much now to chose from. That's a good thing, and yet I don't want to let too much more time pass while trying to catch up with making use of it. Times change, patterns change, colors change, etc. I'm loving the colors of it all now, but when too much time passes this will all seem old, passe or vintage.

Autumn Leaf Quilt

I wanted to work on a project that would keep my embroidery machines running while I was busy doing other work in my sewing studio. So I decided to start embroidering fall leaves to make into the quilt on the front of this magazine, American Patchwork & Quilting October 2009 issue. Yep, that's right . . . I'm not one to follow directions exactly as laid out. I'm veering off the beaten path and plan on making embroidered leaves the focus in the centers of these log-cabin type blocks rather than piecing the leaves as shown. They have an alternate color option for this Maple Leaf Log Cabin quilt. Mine will be just one more alternate when it is finished. Yeah for alternatives!

I've only just begun with these leaves. As I recall it takes 56 blocks so I will need 56 leaves in various colors, shapes and sizes to do this quilt. So far they are absolutely gorgeous colored leaves - each one slightly different! The embroidery design is from Anita Goodesign's Autumn Harvest 2 collection. I've also got a few other designs with fall leaves I may mix in with these. It should be a lot of fun to embroider these bright colorful leaves - and to mix and match thread colors to make them all different.

I've already got lots of 2 1/2" strips cut from my scraps. I could use those and ignore the printed instructions which call for 2" strips. I'm not decided about that just yet. I've still got a nice big stack of fabric to cut up into strips so I think I will be cutting some appropriate fall colors into 2" strips to use on this quilt. I noticed the magazine cover shows other colors thrown in the mix like blues, greens, purples along with the browns, tans, reds and orange colors of fall.

I have not forgotten about my rattlesnake quilt. That's still on hold for just a while longer. My finger is nearly healed. The nail and skin have all grown back and look pretty much back to normal. But I'm still experiencing some numbness and tingling in the tip. It still feels a bit painful when I ding it on something or press hard on the tip. I can barely clean under the nail as it is still very sensitive. I still need time on it for healing more.

In the meantime, while I'm doing other stuff in my sewing studio, I'll be running embroideries on two of my machines to keep raking up these beautiful leaves. Lately I've been cutting more strips or satin stitching and detail stitching on some appliques. I've usually got something going . . . or rather lots of things going all at the same time. Occasionally it will just be one thing at a time when I feel like winding down in the evening. It just depends on how distracting it can be keeping multiple machines going at once. Does anyone else work like this as well? Sometimes I want to only do one thing, other times I feel like I'm wasting time, or just not using it efficiently enough, to not have more than one thing going on at a time. After all, those machines are made to just keep on running on their own as long as I can keep up with the thread changes and the hoopings.

A few days ago I rummaged through my stash and pulled out a few different off-white background fabrics to pre-cut the blocks for the leaves. I want them to look a bit scrappy using different fabrics, but keep them in the same color tones. I've got a nice little pile going to pull from now so hooping goes a bit faster. I can't wait to get this quilt done. The leaves look so pretty.