Fabric stamping, organizing, and some Finishes etc

I made another watermelon table topper for another friend's birthday.

This time I used a machine decorative stitch for the quilting.  Click here to see where I updated my tutorial with the details.

I also did a leaf and vine design to quilt this plum and pinks triangle quilt.

Once again the Glide thread came through to help with my quilting.

Here I tried some fabric stamping by inking the stamp with a fabric marker.  I had to add many details with a micron pen to improve the stamped image, though.

More about this needle book project later

 

I've been following along a bit with Sherri at a Quilting Life because she's blogging about organizing sewing rooms and I read it with no hope of tackling my messes for now, but it must have registered in the back of my mind and little by little, I got quite a bit done lately.  I purchased this thread organizer from Amazon and it was fun to put the spools in rainbow color order.

I also went through my ribbons and organized them (this is just one of the drawers).  My daughter gave me this ribbon organizer (top of the pic) for Christmas a couple years ago and I'd never even took it out of the wrapper.  Now it's put to good use!

I sewed together this Quilt Studio wall hanging (but still need to finish it).  Pattern by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts

And I got this quilt all bound and gave it to a niece for her high school graduation.
Linking up with:
Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts
Lee at Freshly Pieced
and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts

Ombre Quilt Studio from Sew Fresh Quilts

When Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts asked for pattern testers, I signed right up.  This pattern is called Ombre Quilt Studio- mini.  Here is what I have so far, made with scraps.

Designed to hang vertically.

A horizontal configuration would also look nice.

 It was fun being a pattern tester!  Thanks Lorna!

 Here's the Sew Fresh Quilts Flickr page for the Ombre Sewing Studio

Linking up to Finish it up Friday with Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

I'm also working on sewing my triangle strips together since Paula at the Sassy Quilter is having a last chance link up for all those triangle quilts that weren't done by the original deadline.

Have a great Day!

Finished Watermelon Topper and Sunshine 16 progress on Purple Layer Cake

  I added some "seeds" and some labels to the watermelon topper to finish it up.  (Link goes to original post)

You may be interested in this next part if you have a Sunshine 16 midarm quilting machine or are thinking of purchasing one.  I've had mine for 2 years and had difficulty with it.  Recently I found another owner (Ronna Gilani) who lives about an hour away and she kindly invited me to her home and gave me some pointers.

Ronna's machine set up for my lesson.  Ronna's machine worked so smoothly for me and I got a little better idea about adjusting tension, thread, moving the machine.  So if you're having trouble, you might see if there is another owner nearby that could help.

Ronna and me.  You can see Ronna's quilts at Dancing Lady Quilts on Facebook.  She will have a booth at the Piecemakers  of Southern Alameda County Quilt Show in Newark, CA    Links included to Ronna's facebook page and info. on the Piecemakers quilt show.

When I got home I loaded one of my purple sampler quilts.  One of my main problems is thread breaking.  Ronna's Tip #1 is to use Glide thread and she gave me a spool.  Sure enough you can see that I was able to start quilting swirls right off the bat.

I was able to quilt the whole thing in about 3 hours.  The pattern I attempted to follow is from Wendy at Ivory Spring-- her Thread Talk #12 Swirly Swirls.  I love to see Wendy's thread talk tutorials!

It's far from perfect and I did still have the thread break on occasion but the experience was a hundred times better than usual!  And I have hope of improving.

Ronna encouraged me to move the machine in a very controlled motion to make sure the stitches are very even and I knew that, but I like now that when I start going too fast and the stitches get long, I hear Ronna's voice in my head, reminding me.

Needless to say, I went online and purchased a bunch of Glide thread.  It's polyester and shiny and fine to the touch!  I've included a lot of links in this post and want to clarify that I do not sell or make any money or get any compensation of any sort from posting to this blog.  Links are FYI only.

Watermelon Table Topper for Summer (with a tutorial) & UPDATE

I was looking for something cute and seasonal to make for a friend's birthday when I was inspired by a darling table topper in my Summer Fun Pinterest Collection. 

 I still need to buy some black embroidery floss to add some "seeds".

UPDATE:

I made another watermelon topper and did it a little different so will include some instructions in my tutorial for version B.

It would be very cute to give along with a watermelon candle.  If you're really ambitious here's a site that has a tutorial for making these darling watermelon candles!

Click here to learn to make your own!

Here's the topper from Pinterest and the original post is from Yvonne's blog here. She does beautiful work!

Here is the pattern by Shelley Robson at All People Quilt, that Yvonne used. 

At first, I didn't find the pattern and so I made my own and I'll share the tutorial with you, although I'm sure you might want to check out Shelley's tutorial above.

Sew Kitschy May Block

I sewed the Sew Kitschy May block this weekend.

I changed the style a bit.

It's so nice of Kristie of Quiet Play to share her wonderful talent.   The May block is available for free through the end of the month.

Triangle quilt in Plums and Charm Packs

Here's a peak at another triangle quilt I'm working on.  This time in mostly pinks and plums.

I also got these darling charm packs from Green Fairy Quilts when they had their sale a couple of weeks ago.  They are as much a treasure as any other!  I love to look at and touch the wonderful fabrics.  The Castle one is called "brushed" and it's softer.

Hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

TWO Layer Cake Quilt Along quilts ready to link up

After seeing one of the other participants make a quilt with 12 of the layer cake blocks, I decided to maximize my quilting return and make another 4 blocks so I could make two lap quilts. 

It was windy outside but luckily I was able to get a half way good photo of the two quilts together for the link up photo.

Each quilt measure 57" x 71".  This one might be called "Faceted Purples and Platinum"

I added the striped and checker board borders in the respective blue and pink purples.  This one might be named "Purple, Pepper & Plums"

 

I have enjoyed quilting along with Amanda.  Here is the link in case you want to check out the other layer cake quilts in the link up.

Layer Cake Quilt Along nearing Completion (or not)

I got my last two blocks made!

As I was laying out the blocks and starting to sew some of them together, I thought....

Considering my goal is to make quilts for all of my family and several of them want purple quilts.....

Instead of sewing 20 together, I could sew 12 together and make 4 more blocks, and then I could have two lap quilts!

Four blocks doesn't sound like much, right?  Well there are 16 half square triangles (HSTs) in each block and so I have 64 HSTs ready to press open and trim!!

A tip from Wendy over at Ivory Spring is that she doesn't press all the components of her blocks open before assembling, but finger presses them... so I rifled through my sewing drawer and found a finger presser....

Not sure what the R and L mean (right or left handed?)  Anyway, I tried that method out for the last two blocks and found it to be pretty good and time saving!

I may group the 12 blocks into warmer and cooler purple groups that could possibly look similar to these layouts...

  I decided against sashing, as nothing was looking good in the audition-- maybe because I have too many different gray backgrounds.

I'm linking photos up in the Material Girl Layer Cake Quilt Along Flickr group.  There are some breath taking quilts in all sorts of colors and patterns to see!  

Blogger Girls II Blocks caught up Plus 2!

Blogger Girls II 6 1/2" blocks

 I strung up a line for the display.  (Daylight photo-- softer lighting)

April's blocks close up.

I've made 12 blocks even though the actual up to date count is 10.  The middle block on the left doesn't really fit in and a couple others have mistakes-- so I have extra in case I don't want to use some of them.  There are only 2 blocks left to make in June!

April & May Blocks

Here's the Blogger Girls Flickr page in case you want to see some of the other blocks people have made.

Quilt Doodle April and May quilt along

I'm working hard to get caught up on the quilt alongs.

Here are the Quilt Doodle completed blocks.

  

 

At the beginning of each month, it's fun to see what block Cindy will unveil next!  

Stop by Cindy's blog if you want here.

Or go to the Flickr group!