A little bit of red, white, and blue.....

Yesterday I was trying to clean up my sewing space (at least somewhat). I happened upon 4 paper-pieced squares that needed to be joined together to form a larger square....so I allowed myself to stop cleaning things in that room and I sewed them together! They had been in an unsewn state for about a year...maybe two....so it was time to get them a step closer to a finish. I suppose they will just be a small little topper for a small table or to put on the bathroom vanity on patriotic holidays. Here is how they look now...still needing to be sandwiched and quilted and bound, but...better than they looked yesterday!
I also decided to stay in the red, white, and blue "mood" and put together a pineapple block in that color scheme. A gal I know is collecting them as a surprise for a friend of hers who is about to move....so this will be sent in the mail for that person. (We were asked to put our name and state in the center.) This uses 1 1/2 inch strips, so....it was easy to cut a whole bunch of them on the GO! cutter....and I have some leftovers if I want to do more R/W/B pineapple blocks someday.

Tutorial for D9P table runner.....

I have seen on another blog a tutorial making 9-patch blocks to cut apart and then manipulate to form a quilt that looks like you took the time to cut out sashing and corner posts/cornerstones. (It is a disappearing 9 patch but done in a way I'd not done it before.) I decided to use my AccuQuilt cutter and do a quick runner for my kitchen island. Here is how I did it.

First, I cut out 4 1/2 inch squares. I sewed them into 9-patch blocks being certain to put my FRUIT squares on the 4 corners...a DARK GREEN square right smack in the middle....and my light green squares in the remaining spaces...and I sewed them together as you see in the following photos. (I used 3 fruit fabrics...blueberries, cherries, and strawberries.) I made several blocks.......and do end up with a quarter or two left over to go into my "orphan" pile.....the number you make depends on the size of the runner you want. Next I cut these blocks all into quarters with one cut vertically and one horizontally...being certain to cut them right in the middle so they were equal in size......

Then you turn all your quarter-blocks so that it will look like you have sashing and corner posts once you join them together.....these are not yet joined, as you can see
Next...decide on how you want them arranged. I did it first in EQ so I knew where I wanted each kind of fruit to be in my layout. I then sewed them into rows and then sewed the rows together.......this next photo shows just the top row sewn together. Now....look closely at that next photo and you will see that once these 3 rows were sewn together, there was NO "sashing" and "posts" at the top of the piece OR on the left side. This is the expected result of working with the D9P....2 sides will be "unfinished"... so....if you want the look of "sashing" and "posts" on all 4 sides (which I think it needs), you must do a little additional work (described below the next photo).I did want the look of sashing and posts all around, so I took some additional dark green and light green squares and cut them as follows.....cut the light greens in half and the dark greens into quarters. I then sewed them, in the old-fashioned way (LOL)to make my strips to finish the "sashing" and "posts". BAD PAT forgot to take a picture of the strips I sewed, but I'm sure you can figure that part out. Once I had the strips made, I attached them to the top edge and left edge of the runner and it looked like this.
Next you can see it with the binding...might be hard to see unless you enlarge it. I then show a picture that is a close-up of the quilting...which was all straight-line using a fancy stitch on my machine. This whole project...start to finish... took just a couple of hours. It would make a quick and fun hostess gift, I think. If you study my runner, you can see I only had to make just two 9-patches with blueberry fabric in all 4 corners.....only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners....and then only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners just FOUR 9-patch blocks all together (and then cut each into quarters) BUT only had to use three/fourths of the cherry block....so the remaining section of the cherry block is now in my orphan block baggie!Here is a close-up of the quilting. It is, basically, nothing more than stitch-in-the-ditch using a fancy stitch on my machine. Of course, you could quilt it differently and take the time to quilt in each square, but I wanted fast and easy the other day! LOL

For the backing fabric (shown below), I used cotton fabric that matches one of the sets of valances I've made for the kitchen, so this runner can do double-duty!!! I LOVE to make things that are reversible...even though the other side isn't even pieced. I actually used ONLY stash fabrics for all of this...and the fruit fabrics were all in my SCRAP basket. So.....this was a fun project (made extra-quick by using my AccuQuilt GO to cut the 4 1/2 inch squares) and also helped me to do more "stash busting"!!! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you have questions, feel free to ask.

It's nice to be missed!!!

Many of you know I used to post every day and then scaled back to about every other day. Today would have been a day I'd post, but I didn't have an early-morning post here and one of my good blogging pals emailed me to ask where I was. She gets up and looks at blogs in the morning and noticed mine wasn't updated today. Thanks for missing me, Tonya!!! :)

I got home very late from guild last night and there had been bad storms...traffic lights out along the route home....some areas with no power....and still SO hot and humid, so I didn't do a post to show up early today. Anyway....here it is now. (Probably not worth the wait for you, Tonya.....LOL)

This is block # 9 of the Jelly Roll quilt-along. I am still not pleased with how all of these blocks are looking. While I do like a couple of them as patterns, I'm not happy with the colors I am having left in my jelly roll. I sure hope I can figure out a sashing color that ties them all together nicely OR they might be added to my "orphan" blocks and become parts of various other projects!!!

GO Quickly!!!!

No...I'm not sending you anyplace when I say in my title "GO Quickly". Actually, I want you to stay right here and look at my now-finished quilt top, which I am calling "GO Quickly". Seemed like a good name since I was able to design it very quickly with EQ7 (which I only learned to use last week) and I did all the cutting quickly with my GO cutter.....and then I was able to sew very quickly because there is a ton of time saved on the half-square-triangles when they are cut with the GO! So....here you have it......I present "GO Quickly"!!! I'm very happy with it! (I may make this again soon in red, green, and white for a Christmasy quilt top.) I think it will enlarge if you click on it.And here is a closeup of one section of it. The fabric that appears white actually has small, blue polka dots on a white background....which you can't really see easily here.
I need to stop cutting fabric for a day or two and practice quilting, so I can maybe get these tops turned into actual quilts myself and not have to send them out to be done. I also want to straighten up some things in my sewing space and rearrange things. Hubby built a nook, of sorts, for my GO and the dies...so that was terrific!

Almost finished......

A few days back, I posted an EQ7 image of a red, white and blue quilt I designed to use the GO! cutter dies I have. I will probably finish the top today. These are the last 5 blocks....finished them last night and will add them to the other 15 blocks this morning and then finish the sashing and the border and then it will be ready for quilting. I hope to have a photo of that to show you tomorrow. This top also went incredibly fast because the cutting was done quickly and so accurately with the new cutter. Check out AccuQuilt on Facebook (if you've not already done so).

Update on my Tumbler quilt top....

Here it is.......top is done...now I need to find a backing I like and quilt it...and it will have turquoise binding (same fabric as the smaller, inner border). This will look very nice in the sewing room / bedroom used by the grands when they are here. That room has a turquoise comforter on the bed and the valance is turquoise and lime green and there is a lime green sheer curtain on the window. This is throw-sized.......about 42" x 64". It was SO easy to make with the AccuQuilt GO! cutter. I only got the cutter on Monday afternoon and a tumbler quilt would have taken a long time to trace all the tumblers and assemble...hard to believe this is already DONE in 5 days (finished it yesterday). I am very happy with how it looks...and I used only scraps from my stash to make it (except for the green and turquoise fabrics in the borders, which I had to buy as I didn't have scraps large enough in my stash for that). What do you think?

AccuQuilt Bloggers......

SewCalGal is setting up a group of bloggers who own AccuQuilt Cutters (the Go or the Studio). It will be a great network in which to share tips and ideas and to show what we make using the cutters. There is a button on my sidebar that will link you to her post telling about this. I think it will be a fun group...and even if you don't yet have an AccuQuilt cutter, you might want to check out the information that will be shared by the members of this group.

Here is an update on my quilt that I showed in my last post....the one designed in EQ7 with the intent to cut it entirely with dies from the AccuQuilt GO cutter. I had to vary, ever so slightly, the colors as it was a struggle to find 5 blues that looked okay together. I have made 6 of the non-blue blocks and here is a photo of them just laid out on the floor and also of just one of them close-up. (Of course, they will have sashing and cornerstones added to them.) I cannot begin to tell you what a savings in time the cutter has made.....and to have the half-square triangles make up so easily with NO "rabbit ears" to snip off is absolutely WONDERFUL!!! I hope to get some of the blue blocks done today. Thanks, AccuQuilt for a great product!!!And thanks to so many of you who are on Facebook and saw it was my birthday yesterday and wished me a Happy Birthday. It was fun to see all those messages posted there throughout the day!!!

EQ7 and the GO cutter...what a combo!!!

Some of you know that I once had EQ5 and, for some reason, was not able to figure it out. So...now I have EQ7. When it arrived, I had an initial day or two of sheer panic and figured I was crazy to have tried EQ again! (Thank you, Judy L, for your patience and encouragement on those couple of days and for the other blogging buddies since then who have suggested websites where I can get support and help.) Well...I am so pleased to say that I am starting to get the hang of it. YAY!!! In fact, I decided to challenge myself and see if I could design a quilt that would use the dies I presently have for the GO cutter. You can see it's simple....not a very sophisticated design..... and the border is actually very boring, but I am certain I will improve with my EQ7 design skills soon AND I was limiting myself to what could be made using just my cutter and dies. I am so excited that I could come up with something that fit those two criteria. Here is a photo of the design:Today hubby and I are going to Dover and I will get the fabric for this quilt. It should make up very quickly since the cutting will all be done in a flash with the GO. I think it's going to be a fun quilt!

GO!!!!!! (and then GO some more!!!)

HOORAY......the GO! cutter I won from AccuQuilt arrived yesterday. I was doing a little sewing in the morning with my neighborhood group (The Lakeside Ladies) at Kaye's house, and the cutter arrived. Hubby had the box waiting for me when I got home and I did the happy dance! Of course, I wasted no time in opening the box.....
And taking out the cutter....And the extra dies I'd purchased.....In no time at all, I was happily cutting tumbler blocks.....did my first 50 in less than a half hour and laid them out for a lap quilt. That one is not shown here as I want to change out some of the colors. Then I cut over 80 more blocks in about 20 minutes. They are used in the layout shown below. The blocks aren't yet sewn together and, of course, there will also be borders on it. It is AMAZING how quickly I was able to cut these blocks out....and there are no "bunny ears" to be trimmed after sewing....and all the blocks are perfectly uniform in size!!! Yippee...I LOVE it!!! Of course, the cutter does have one BAD feature......it is so much fun to use that you want to cut everything in sight and don't want to stop cutting to get your fanny over to the sewing machine and sew!!! LOL NOTE: I am adding this information in reply to a question asked below about the amount of waste after cutting fabric. There is only a TINY bit of waste if you use the free fabric reference chart AccuQuilt has kindly provided on their website. They tell you how to cut your fabric to minimize waste....and the little that is wasted, to me, is worth it for the savings in time AND the savings in aggravation to my carpal tunnel wrist!!!I also took the scraps I created and cut them into 2" squares and 2" HST's and 5" charm squares and put them in baggies. I think I will build a nice collection of them in no time at all. I'm sure I will be showing you much more as I cut more projects using the GO! cutter. For now, though, take a quick side trip to Rae Ann's STASH MANICURE blog where I am the guest blogger today. (Click on her blog name to get there.)

I know...you think this looks like a small mess...

I guess this does look like a small mess....just some fabrics tossed around and needing to be put away, but.....this actually is fabric that has been pulled from my stash and is waiting in line to be cut on my AccuQuilt GO! cutter that should arrive here tomorrow!!! The fabric piles to the left and right are fabrics that will probably be cut with the tumbler die for making a couple of small tumbler quilts. The fabrics in the box (and there are over 40 florals in there) are going to be cut into charm squares. I have wanted to do a good-sized floral charm square quilt for quite awhile and have been collecting fabrics for that......and my 5" die will help me tremendously with that. For now, though, I'm just counting the hours until that UPS truck arrives tomorrow!!! OH...and here is news since I last posted here...in case you didn't know yet, my blogging friend, Tonya, was the lucky winner of a GO! cutter on Friday during AccuQuilt's trivia day on their Facebook page, so Tonya will be looking out for that UPS truck later this week by HER house!!! Congratulations to her!!!!!

The birthday girl.....and a question for you....

Last week hubby and I drove to NJ to surprise the granddaughter by picking her up from school on her 6th birthday. She was very confused when we got there and asked where her mom and dad were. (I guess she might have been momentarily worried something was wrong...even as young as she is.) We took her shopping for her gifts and then to her favorite restaurant....Friendly's. She wouldn't wear her birthday sticker (from her teacher) at the restaurant as she recalled that she was embarrassed and cried there last year when the waitresses came out and sang Happy Birthday to her...and she made us promise we would not tell them it was her birthday this time! Here are two photos of her that night at the restaurant.......(and below the photos, a question I have and hope one of you has an answer for me).No...she didn't eat all the ice cream.....she asked us to help finish it! And then back at her house none of the 3 of us was able to eat more than a bite of her cake!!!Okay...my question......how do I remove myself from the list of "Followers" on a blog??? There is a blog on which I signed up awhile ago that has no quilt-related posts ever now....and just in the 12 hours, the blog owner has done 31 posts on her blog!!! Isn't that totally ridiculous?? It is really clogging up my blog reader. So...I tried to go there and see if I could remove myself from the Followers' list, but I can't seem to do it. Do any of you know how to do it??? I hope so, because I have got to put a stop to this nonsense!!! OH...and thanks to all of you who had such nice comments to make here after I won the GO! fabric cutter from AccuQuilt. It is in transit and due here on Monday (according to the UPS tracking system). Raise your hand if you think I'm excited about this!!! LOL ADDED NOTE: Thanks to Jackie and Lola....I am now NOT a follower of that particular blog....Whew!!! She did another 12 posts that showed up on my blog roll just since I wrote my blog post today!!! Anyone who might want to READ all her posts, contact me and I'll give you the link.......!!!!!!

I must be dreaming!!!!!

I must be dreaming, but if I am, I hope never to awaken!!!!! Yesterday, I was stunned to find out that I was one of 5 winners of a GO! Fabric Cutter on AccuQuilt's Facebook page. They are the nicest people there at AccuQuilt. Now I know you think I'm only saying that because I won a cutter from them, but I'm not. They really are terrific folks who work there...who really enjoy their jobs and think the world of their boss, too. They have been genuinely nice and fun on their Facebook page all along. If you haven't gone there, you MUST go. People are always sharing great ideas about the cutters (they have two types) and showing things they have made using them. AccuQuilt also has giveaways quite often. BUT...to be part of the giveaway fun, you need to go sign up on their Facebook page. Just do a search on Facebook for AccuQuilt. You won't be sorry!!! The very least you'll come away with are some excellent ideas and, perhaps, will want to start saving for a cutter yourself! They sure do make life easier from what everyone is saying...and I'll let you know for sure in another week or two!

Anyway...back to my DREAMY day yesterday. I won a cutter just like this one....and then I used the money I'd been saving to BUY a cutter and went and picked out some dies I want to order for it. (It comes with some dies, but there are others I just need to have. You know how that goes!!! LOL)

AND...if that wasn't enough, today the dream continues as this is the day my EQ7 arrives.Hubby ordered that late in April for me. I thought it was my b'day gift, but he now says it's not. (Maybe some new dies are to be my b'day gift? Hubby was on that computer yesterday right after I found out I won, and I think that might be what he was doing....Woo-Hoo!!!) I can't wait to learn EQ7....as it is said to do some really wonderful things!!! I'll be reporting back on that soon, too!

To sum it all up, what a great couple of days this has been. My birthday isn't until June 18, but this feels like it's been my birthday and Christmas and Mother's Day and college graduation and wedding and baby showers all rolled into one! THANK YOU, AccuQuilt for putting me up on Cloud Nine...and I must say I feel like I'll never come back down to earth!!! So....... you all remember to go to AccuQuilt's Facebook page now, okay???

NOTE ...new GO! Giveaway...info on my sidebar!!!

Check out the link on my sidebar to Amy's GO! giveaway!!! If the link doesn't take you to the exact giveaway post, look back on her blog to her June 8 post...for some reason, I can't get it to go directly to that post...but that is where she has the giveaway info posted.

And the winner is.........

Don't say I didn't warn you......a few days back. I said I had surpassed 200 followers (but hadn't noticed right away...now I'm up to 207...and I appreciate each and every one of you). Anyway...back to business. I had told you a couple of posts back that I'd be having a giveaway for this and that I would be noticing who was making regular comments. Here is the prize......a charm pack of Moda's Nautical & Nice along with a half-yard of a fabric that seems to match it nicely and a cute magnet.
So...I looked over the past two posts and tallied up all the names of those who posted and assigned a number to each. I then went back to one post PRIOR to when I mentioned this...just to see if any of my regulars had posted there, too. Four of them had posted there......"Lois"....Gene.....Tonya....and Cecelia. So...I gave them each extra entries for that.

Then...I used the random number generator and #28 came up and that was......TONYA!!! (Click on her name to get to her blog.)

Those of you who have followed me for a long time (as Tonya has) know that I like my giveaways to go to my followers rather than people who just "surf" around blogs doing nothing but entering giveaways...and rarely return to a blog afterwards. That is why I never ask anyone to post about my giveaways on their blogs. Those of you who are new will now know to be on the lookout as I like to do giveaways that are spur of the moment (like this one was). So.....keep reading...and keep commenting, okay? You never know when another giveaway will pop up and you'll want to be in the running for it...right? And...thanks for all who follow and comment...and also for having your own great blogs that I truly enjoy reading (although it is getting hard to keep up with over 200 blogs every day, so please forgive me if I don't always comment)!

A touch of summer........

I love some of the flowers I have right now. My one hydrangea bush has pretty pinkish flowers and one of them is now at the top of my blog page....did you notice it yet? If not, go back and look! Isn't it GORGEOUS?

I have another hydrangea bush...called Endless Summer as it blooms all summer long., which I LOVE. It isn't as big yet as my pink hydrangea, as it's only about 2 years old, but it got a lot of flowers this year and I'm happy since I worried it would be lost during the extreme winter we had. Here it is with some of the flowers blooming.
I'm not sure what these next flowers are....I planted a couple of bulbs of them a few years back and each year they multiply. Too bad they don't bloom all season long. (And too bad I didn't write down the name of these when I planted them, so I'd know what they are!!!)

I love my gardenia bush. The smell of the flowers is incredible....which you might already know if you've had the chance to smell them. I was really fearful this bush wouldn't survive the ice and snow we had in the winter, but it did and I am really enjoying it. Someone told me to float some of the flowers on top of water in a dish in the house....and I did that and it is really a treat! Again...another one I wish flowered for a longer period of time. There are about 150 flowers opened on it right now with at least that many more buds that will open within the next few days! Oh...how I wish you could smell these flowers...they are heavenly.This next one isn't such a great photo of the bush, but if you look closely you can see many of the yet-unopened flower buds.I did work on a reversible runner that matches two sets of kitchen valances I made recently, and I'll show a photo of that when the binding is completed (which I may do later today). Tomorrow I hope to get out to buy a prize to celebrate getting over 200 followers....and it will go to one of my lucky, regular followers!!!

Bits and pieces.......

Actually, I should have said "Pieces and Bits" in the title of this post. First...the pieces.....pieces of fabric! Remember Amy's recent online Quilt Festival? Many of you also showed quilts in it. I was lucky enough to win one of the many prizes she was offering at the end of the festival. I won these Essex fat quarters (a linen/cotton blend) from Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works. Aren't the colors BEAUTIFUL? And don't you think I should wait until I have a GO! cutter so I can cut them out crisply and cleanly?????? Thanks, Jackie and Amy, for this fun prize!!! You can find Jackie by clicking on her name above. AND.....if you don't know what a GO! cutter is, you need to do a search for AccuQuilt OR go to this link (and PLEASE mention to Barb that I sent you...gets me extra entries) and maybe you can WIN a GO! cutter (and if you don't want a cutter, please go there and mention I sent you anyway, okay?) If you go to AccuQuilt's Facebook page and join... they give away a cutter every once in awhile when they reach another 1,000 fans, so you'd have a chance to win there, too!!! Of course, if you win and then decide you don't WANT the cutter, you could simply give it to me.......LOL.....hehehehe.....I'm pretty funny, aren't I???And now for the "Bits".......tiny BITS of 4 projects I've done recently (the pink one isn't quite finished). I am sorry I can't show you anymore of the projects than these little bits, but they are part of a technique my friend, Kathy, and I have developed that we might try to take somewhere......so we can't show them just yet. I will show them to you someday, though. For now, I just wanted you to know that I have been working very hard lately....just not on things that can be shown yet. Wish us luck...okay? (Sorry to be mysterious....you know I don't usually do that....but it's necessary right now!)SOMEHOW...while I wasn't paying attention, I went over 200 followers, so I will be getting to one of the LQS soon and buying a prize to give away to one of my followers...so keep watching and commenting here. You know I give my prizes just to my followers, in particular those who comment regularly!!!

It's somebody's birthday today!!!

Yesterday it was my granddaughter's birthday...and today it's someone else's birthday....and that somebody is Sandi from A Legacy of Stitches. Click HERE if you want to go wish her a Happy Birthday! She has a great blog (if you don't already know that) and she is a very talented and artistic person!
Happy Birthday, Sandi!!!

2nd post...AccuQuilt Go cutter giveaway info....

Barb at Bejeweled Quilts is having a giveaway for a GO cutter. Click HERE for the details. While I know you don't want to diminish YOUR chance to win, if you go there and comment, PLEASE tell her Pat in Delaware sent you as it will get me another chance or two along the way!!! (And be sure to read my first post for today...would not normally do a second post but this is a very special reason for one!!!) OH...and while you are online, do a search on Facebook for AccuQuilt and if you are NOT a fan of their page yet...sign up to become one. They are approaching 5000 fans now and when they hit that mark, they will give away another GO cutter (and all fans are eligible to win it). So....GO.....and you might GET a "Go"....and if you mention that Pat in Delaware sent you, that would be extra-nice!!!

Happy Birthday, Jessi......

My granddaughter, Jessica, turns 6 today. Time surely does fly!!! We're going to do our part to make sure she has a really special day today!

Over the weekend, I did a lot of sewing.......I made the block pictured below. It is another one from the R/W/B no-sew swap. I LOVE this block. The fabric was cut and sent out by Marion in Germany...and she picked the block, too. It is called Love in a Mist and is found on Quilter's Cache (in case you want to make it, too). These blocks will finish at 12" so having 9 of them, and adding sashing and borders, will make a nice sized hanging for my new quilt hanger.I also made the following over the weekend: 3 new valances for my kitchen windows, 2 new valances for our bedroom windows, a wall-hanging to match the bedroom valances, and pillow covers (for throw pillows) to match the bedroom valances, and I have a table topper ready to go for the kitchen that will match those valances. The wall-hanging for the bedroom was done in the disappearing 9-patch method...starting with 5" squares. I could have made it a lot quicker if I had an AccuQuilt GO cutter to cut out those squares........*sigh* I am still doing some hand-quilting on that piece so I didn't take a picture of it yet. The valances were two of my many UFO's that I posted about recently.....so that is 2 more I can cross off the list....YAY!!! On top of all that sewing, I did some yardwork, went to church, and also read some of Jennifer Chiavarini's "Aloha Quilt". I can surely get a LOT done when I don't have any work from that darned typing job to interfere with my quilting but I guess I'll keep that typing job since it keeps me in fabric!!! LOL