Mason's Quilt

A few weeks ago for my birthday Lori met me for lunch and gave me a great gift bag.  Among other goodies were 2 sets of Lori's rulers.

Lori calls this set thimbles.  They are also called tumblers.  I have made tumbler quilts for years.  They are so fun to make.

I had an idea I wanted to use this size ruler for a special quilt I'm working on.  I'm making "lanterns" with it.

I realize this may not look like the normal color or prints I use for my projects.  But stick with me.

There are some strange or odd fabrics (spoonflower) but in the end when I'm done with this I hope you will see where I'm going with this.  This quilt has a bit of humor attached.  I hope despite the drab gray used in between the lanterns, it will be a striking quilt.

-nanette

Winner of Sherri's Book

 

Today is the day to announce my winner for Sherri's book tour "A Quilting Life".  The winner is CathyK, who said:

"I don't have a quilting space right now, but when my last child leaves for college in August, I WILL have my little creative spot. Thank you for the chance!"

Congratulations to Cathy.  And thanks so much to EVERYONE that played along.  

Happy weekend everyone.  I've caught a bug so I'm going to try to rest and get better.

-nanette

I've been off visiting family for a few days. We had so much fun visiting my sister Paula in southern Utah.  I went with my 2 daughters Shelbie and Whitney and we took my 2 granddaughters Allison and Eliza along with us.  It was  an amazing few days with my 2 nieces Tana and Tricia and their boys Maxx, Rex, Jens and Luke.

My sister and her husband Ken live very close to the mouth of Zions National Park.  Some of kids and adults went on hikes in the breathtaking canyon.

It was serious (second) cousin time for Jens and Allison.  They bonded from the first moment and they can't stop talking about each other.  I wish they lived closer.  It was so fun to see Allison play with Jens and the other boys.

This is Luke and Lizzie.  As 1 year-olds they enjoyed the typical floor time together.  It looks like Luke is pulling Lizzie's hair, but trust me, they got along so well.

It is back to business here with me working on binding my latest 6 quilts.  I am really proud of my red herringbone quilt.  I had Wendy quilt in an extra warm batting because this quilt will be used on a bed when the weather gets cool.

I pieced the backing.  After reorganizing my fabric, I realized I need to piece more quilt backs and use up some that fabric I keep "saving".  I realize the back looks kind of awkward so I'm going to work on putting those pieces together better next time.

This herringbone quilt is a scrap quilt from front to back and I am proud of that.  Scrap quilts speak to my heart.

There are 3 rows of herringbone strips with 6 sets across.  I'm going to make another herringbone quilt with light or neutral prints next.  I'm excited to think about using up all those prints and novelty fabrics with light backgrounds.

The binding is a black, white and red stripe.  I wanted a contrast binding and I really like how Rita at Red Pepper Quilts uses a strong back and white binding on many of her projects.  

When we pulled up to the house after driving home from southern Utah, I noticed how intensely green my yard seemed after being in the desert.  Zions Park is beautiful but it is nice to be home in my green yard and my house.  Thanks to my sister, brother-in-law, nieces and great nephews for a fantastic trip.  We can't wait to come back.

-nanette

Thanks for entering Sherri's Book Tour

Thanks to everyone that entered last week's "A Quilting Life" by Sherri McConnell book tour.  Friday, June 14, Sherri will be announcing winners then so check back with me and all the other blogs from the tour this Friday.  I'm closing the comment portion so good luck to everyone that left a comment.   I really really enjoyed reading all about your sewing areas and how you make your own quilting life.  The comments were all fantastic.

-nanette

A Quilting Life Book Blog Tour and a chance to win the book

Welcome to day 1 of the blog tour for the book A Quilting Life by Sherri McConnell, published by C&T Publishing.

Sherri at A Quilting Life has been a friend for many years.  I think she's one of the most talented quilters in blogland.  And she's a nice person, too.  Sherri has put together her first book entitled appropriately 

A Quilting Life. It is a great book with many ideas and designs to make and create things for your own home.  If you follow the blog tour you have 10 chances to win a copy of Sherri's great book.

At my house, I've tried to live a quilting life myself.  I think one of the things that has helped me live my quilting life is making a place for me to sew, create and display what I make.  My entryway always has the latest creation hung for me to enjoy along with some favorite trinkets.  I was really happy to be able to hang my quilt from Lori's Row By Row project over the weekend.

I think it is so important to carve out a comfortable, well organized space in your home where you can make your projects and live that quilting life.

For me, if my fabric is organized and well displayed, my creativity is able to flow and I am able to relax and enjoy my quilting life.  When things get too disorganized, I waste my time lose my creative spirit.

;

For my birthday I recently spent most the entire day with some of my family helping me reorganize and get back to where I need to be with my fabric and accessories.   It makes me so happy to have a clean room.

The room isn't perfect but it is a comfortable space for me to live my quilting life.  Over the years I've moved my studio from room to room as family needs changed.  But I've always been able to carve a space just for me to enjoy my hobby and live my quilting life.  This room is right off the kitchen so I'm able to stay close to the family and within range of happenings.

Leave a comment here and tell me about your quilting life space to win a chance for a copy of Sherri's book. Then for the next 9 days you can visit the other blogs on the blog book tour.

Schedule for blog tour:

Today is Me, of course

Tues is Sinta from Pink Pincushion

Wed is Jodi from Pleasant Home

Thurs is Judi from Green Fairy Quilts

Friday is Lissa of ModaLissa

Saturday is Amanda of Amanda Murphy Design

Sunday is Anna of Thimbleanna

Monday is Amy of Diary of a Quilter

Tues is Kristyne of Pretty by Hand

Wed is Sherri of A Quilting Life finishing up her Blog Tour

-nanette

Monday June 3rd

Row by Row from Bee In My Bonnet

I picked up several quilts from the machine quilter recently.  I've got 6 new quilts to bind.  But I think binding is fun so I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with my quilts.

The first quilt I bound was my Row by Row from Lori at Bee In My Bonnet. Thanks to Wendy, my quilt lays flat (or flatish).  I was so happy to lay it out on the floor and see it all completed.

My border is a tad too blue to match the background, but I'm living with that.  And my rows are not perfectly strait (hence it not laying flat).  But I think it turned out so cute anyway.

I like the swirling machine quilting. I think it fits the style and background fabric.

All in all I'm super happy to have my quilt finished and ready to use (or hang).  

You can really see in these rows my curving issue.  But once it is washed, that will mostly disappear I hope.

I love it.  Thanks for doing this Lori.  I am so glad I participated.

-nanette

Freda's Hive Fat Quarter Bundle from Donna's Lavender Nest and Sunshine Block from Riley Blake Tutorials

Thanks to everyone that left a comment last week in the giveaway and contrats to the winner of fabric from Donna's Lavender Nest.  The Freda's Hive Fat Quarter Bundle will go to heartsease54.  She commented "Those are probably the exact fabrics I would have picked! How did you know?".  I emailed her and she will receive the fat quarter bundle from Donna and a little package from me.  Donna has the custom fat quarter bundle up on her website if anyone is interested in getting a little bit of fun fabric for themselves.

Donna sent me the Freda's Hive bundle and I've been playing a bit with it over the long weekend.  Donna also included the cute cherry fabric on the right side. Sew cute.  I wanted to do a tutorial with the fabric bundle showing what I had planned to make using the fabrics.  I decided there are so many fantastic tutorials out there available to all of us for free, that I settled on using a great block I found from Jina and Cindy at Riley Blake.  The block is the Sunshine Block.  You can find the pattern here.  And you can view Jina and Cindy's video tutorial here.  I like the play of 2 pinwheels inside a star block.

Instead of white fabric, as suggested in the tutorial, I used Pam's  PKM Love's Bouquet print.  I used the very last of this fabric from my stash.  I think it makes the perfect compliment to the Freda's Hive fabric picks.  

I had a good time making the Sunshine blocks.  It was fun to switch up fabric in different places in the block. I was excited to use Lori's new fabric, too.

I don't know which one is my favorite block yet.  Thanks so much to Donna for letting me do this giveaway and creating my own fat quarter pack.  It was really fun to read everyone's comments.  I hope you like the fabrics I picked out.

-nanette

Donna's Lavender Nest Fabric - Freda's Hive Fat Quarter Pack Give Away

I'm really REALLY excited about the Give Away this week here from Donna's Lavender Nest.  Donna has let me pick fabrics from her store to make a custom Freda's Hive fat quarter pack.  And she is going to let me give the fat quarter pack to a lucky blog reader this week.  Also, the bundle is available for purchase in Donna's online shop.

Donna has really lovely fabrics in her online shop.  I like to call them all "Nanette fabrics", meaning they are all  fabrics I want in my stash and that match the kinds of fabrics I use in my projects.  

See all the cute fabrics in my Freda's Hive pack above.  They are a combination of Lecien, Yuwa, Lori's Riley Blake and Pam's PKM fabric.  You can find them all in Donna's shop.  I really like combining lines of fabric so it was fun to pick from Donna's stock and make my own bundle.

Here are the beautiful fabrics for a closer look.  I really am so excited to have Donna work with me.  If you don't win the Give Away, remember, you can visit Donna's shop to purchase your own Freda's Hive bundle.

I have a project I'm thinking of making with the Freda's Hive pack.  I was considering making a tutorial with the fabric.  But then I thought about several tutorials I've seen around blogs that I've wanted to make.  So instead of reinventing the wheel (so to speak), I'm going to use a couple tutorials from blogs and next week I will post the links for those and start using the Freda's Hive Fat Quarter pack from Donna's Lavender Nest.

Leave a comment here, any comment, to enter the giveaway.  I'm going to add a few goodies from me along with Donna's fabric for the give away.  I'm looking forward to this week.  The give away ends Friday evening at midnight and I'll announce the winner Tuesday, May 28 (after Memorial Day).

-nanette

Back to Red

I know it doesn't always appear that way, but at my heart, I'm truly a finisher.  Those UFO projects under my cutting table weigh heavily on my shoulders.  I like to get things done and move on.  I started my Red Herring-bone project last year and I was happy to bring it out and make friends with it again.

I'm not quite sure what size it will end up.  Lately all my quilts are queen or king bed size and that is fine with me.  We will see.  I have lots and lots of red I can donate to this little project.

If you want to know how I'm making it, you can review at my original post here called Seeing Red.  It is a simple way to trend the herringbone pattern with scraps.  Quilts like this are my favorites.  Sew and sew and not worry about points since it is mostly just easy seams.

I'm slightly horrified to show you my Row by Row flimsy from Lori's pattern.  It turned out to be one wrinkly unflat quilt top.  I'm praying that Wendy can make something of it.  If she pulls super tight, there is a chance.  

I'm really an idiot.  Instead of metering out my machine quilting projects, I've muddled about backs for them so when I finally decided and then waited for the fabric, it ended up that I have 5 very full sized quilts to take to the machine quilter.  It isn't going to be pretty when she tells me how much.  But won't it be worth it!?

Tired.  Goodnight

-nanette

Mother's Day

Irons Wars! (not really)

I'm sorry this is going to be wordy but may be helpful for someone who is considering a change in their current iron.  (read to the end because there is a Reliable iron giveaway tip)

Thanks to everyone for their iron input from this post.  My Oliso iron was dropped and the prongs that make it go up and down stayed permanently up.  So I began my quest for a new iron.  Your comments really did help me.  I was all over the map when reading them.  I was up and down on several different irons and price points as I read.   I had almost decided on a Reliable iron (very top of the line and price point but pretty orange). But, I finally listened to Lynn, whom I trust from a long blog relationship, and to Beth. Kati also had an opinion about the Black and Decker, which I appreciated and considered.  Along the way I also acquired a low end iron from Hamilton Beach, which may or may not be without some value.  Also, I still have an older Rowenta, that has been the family iron for ironing clothes.  This was not kept in my sewing room but I did move it in to my sewing ironing board while I considered options.

Here are the current 3 irons I own.  The Rowenta on the right.  The Hamilton Beach in pretty aqua, and the Black and Decker Digital.   Now, one recommendation that came up multiple times in comments was to shop thrift stores for great buys in irons.  I guess with fabrics and life styles today people really don't use irons much so there is the possibility of a great iron, barely used, that is sitting in a thrift store at an under $5.00 price point.  I'm not the kind of person that happens on stuff like that very often, I will say.  But I know lots of people score like this.

I can't remember how long I've had this Rowenta.  I have had several Rowenta irons over the years.  My favorite was the one with the separate water well.  That model is just too big for my little sewing/pressing area. I originally purchased this iron above for my sewing room at a fairly high price point at just under $100.00.  This iron worked well.  It was again, dropped, over time.  So now you can't add much water without it leaking out.  So it is kind of inconvenient because I feel like I'm constantly putting a small amount of water in it.  Rowentas tend to spit and drip anyway, overall.  I don't like the spout design for adding water.  The iron is heavy enough and gets hot enough.  Also it doesn't turn auto off too quickly, which I like.  But there is no way to completely turn off the iron without unplugging it.  I don't really like that but I know that is how irons are these days.  I've been using this since the death of the Oliso and it works well enough but I'm ready to move it back to the family iron status.

This little Hamilton Beach is so cute.  It is pretty and would be the perfect accessory to any sewing are.  Since I haven't used the iron, I can't say how well it works but I will be trying it out.  My first thought is that it is light as a feather.  And we all know that is a bad feature in a pressing iron.  It also is made pretty cheaply but it is priced under $20, so you may get what you pay for.  However, since it is light weight, it might be good for a someone that doesn't iron much or that would be packing it around from class to class.  And it's cute.  Right.  I'll let you know later how it works.

Same for this iron.  I haven't used this B&D yet, but this was the iron I purchased after the blog post.  It is a mid range in price, which is good, it is digital, which I really like, and seems to heat up lightening fast.  It is a great weight, probably better than the Rowenta.

This is iron gray, which is fine.  But I wish it was aqua.  Why not?  I like how the handle is set up with the buttons and I really like that I can turn the iron OFF!  So many irons now have the auto off, which this one does, too.  But you can't turn them all the way off without unplugging.  With young children in my home, I really like this feature since my iron is set up all the time.  The B&D takes a good amount of water, too.  It took 2.5x  that little water pitcher (came in the box).  Kati had a concern about the holes in the plate.  I'll watch for that.  I haven't really used it much yet, but I will keep you posted.

For all of you looking for an iron, you might check out Sew We Quilt.  They are give out THREE! of the high end beautiful orange Reliable Irons to celebrate Mother's Day.  Head over to this post and follow the instructions to win.  Three is great odds. I'm going to enter, too.  Hey, at the rate I go through irons, I need extra!

-nanette

Any Old Left Over Block Quilt

Last week I gathered up all my UFO blocks and I decided to finally make the quilt I had thought about for more than a year now.  I've seen some other quilts like it around blogs, too.  Whenever I would have left over blocks from a project, I would keep the blocks together not wanting to let go of my "extras".   

Shelbie and Whitney helped me figure out the placement of all my blocks.  I was pleasantly surprised with how it worked out.  Some of these blocks are 7 years old and some are just from last year.  Some of the blocks are from past quilts and some are sample blocks to proof drawings.

Since my colors tend to be similar from project to project, it was rather easy to gather them into a cohesive quilt top.  It was nice that there was a great number of the blocks similarly sized.

You might recognize some of the blocks from more current projects.  I put together half square triangles from a baby quilt I made into the blue scrappy blocks above.

I also included my Farmer's Wife blocks that have just been sitting in a box.  Why not?  I probably won't ever finish that anyway and I'm happy to see them belong to a project.

The basket block in the middle was a trial block from a fabric company quilt.  The stars are from my heritage quilt.  The little houses up on the top edge of this photo are blocks I couldn't stop making from Lori's Row by Row quilt.

You'll see lots of PKM fabric.  I fit blocks in and sashed as needed.  I used two prints for sashing to maintain the scrappy look.  Fitting blocks together was kind of like working a quilt puzzle.

The border fabric is a Japanese import fabric in a reproduction feedsack print.  I have been saving it and saving it.  For what?  Why not use it?

I've seen lots of names for left over block quilts like this.  Originally in my head I even named it the ugly quilt.  But I think don't think it ended up ugly at all.  Once quilted, this is a quilt I'm going to put on a bed and use.  It's sort of like a diary quilt and I want to enjoy looking at it.

-nanette