Shouldn't start anything more !!!

I really don't need to start any more projects and below is the proof!!! I also have a few I didn't even take pictures of including:

Double Irish Chain King Size
Alyssa's I-Spy Quilt still needs quilted and bound.   http://mudpotter.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-spy-alyssa.html
A very old log cabin I started a very long time ago!
and probably some others - and then there is these:


A 4-patch posies that I tried and just didn't care for - but will finish it.
This one is further along than it shows - but you get the idea.  I ended up using the gold for the sashing, but once I got this all together - it just doesn't talk to me.  This is the first try at 4-patch posie and I need to improve on the fabric selections.  This just doesn't give enough definition of the different blocks for me.  I've loved other people's results so I just need to keep trying.

These are 6" 4-patches that I've used as leaders and enders as I worked on other projects. I now have 70+ of them so plenty enough to make a throw for the car or the couch. This is all stash busting material - either left over from another project, scraps, or old fabric that I really just need to use up. The green fabric is very old.....I used to have curtains made in this fabric. It almost has a wood grain to it.

7 1/2" denim squares that I'm adding stars to. I have 45 of these finished and if I mix them with some plain denim, could have a healthy sized quilt!

There are 36 of these 6" squares - using up little bits of fabric that are too small for anything else.  I'm not making much of a dent in the box that holds those little bits though....I'm going to have to keep working on them.  I think they breed during the night or when I'm not looking!!

I thought I'd do something like the top photo of 4-patches, but they just don't look right on point.  I'll probably just do them in a regular setting.

This is the boxes that hold the "Morning Star" in progress.  While I have a plenty of the nickel blocks for this quilt, the little sashing pieces are taking me forever to get done.  To the left of the upper box is 100 in those 2 stacks, but I figured I will need close to 240 to make the size I'm wanting for a full size bed.  You can see some of the sashing in progress in the middle of the top box, and those waiting their corners to the right.

Have you ever thought of computer keyboard boxes for organizing your projects?  They are fabulous and don't take up much room.....thank goodness!!



This is my latest 'start'.  It's a Dresden Plate quilt that will have 3 different sizes of Plates.  The large one is made out of 7 1/2" blades (have 4), the middle size is out of 4 1/2" blades (have 7) and the small ones are 2 1/2" blades (have 7).  I have no idea how I'm going to put them all together, but I fell in love with the Kansas Troubles Butterfly Garden and these are all out of one layer cake.  I still have 42 nickels left out of the layer cake and haven't even cut into the Jelly Roll!!! 

Oh my - just thought of two more- but they're gifts - so I can't show them here yet....so the UFO count is 13!!

Dresden Plate from Butterfly Garden

I didn't really need another quilting project, but I did need something portable that I could work on when I was away from my sewing machine and had free time.  I just hate sitting doing nothing - whether is watching a TV show or movie (drives the DH crazy) or traveling in a car, or just sitting waiting on an appointment etc...

I've been intrigued with a couple of quilt blocks.  One is the Grandmother's Flower Garden and the other was the Dresden Plate.  I love that both of these are fairly old designs, made by our grandmothers and before.  I recently purchased a Layer Cake and Jelly Roll of the Kansas Troubles Butterfly Garden that was on special online and while I was at it I ordered the easy Dresden Plate ruler from http://missouriquiltco.com/shop/.

I got the order so quick - and when I did I just loved the fabric.  It is so soft and wonderful and the colors are just what I'm drawn to.  I just found out that the designer of this fabric lives only about an hour away from me!
Anyway - I couldn't wait to tear open the Layer Cake and see what I could do with it.

I cut each of the 40 pieces in 1/2 then one of those pieces in 1/2 again - ending up with 40 5"X10" pieces, and 80 5" square nickels.  Then I took each of the 5"X10" pieces and cut 2 7 1/2" Dresden plate blades  for 80 blades.   Today I'm putting the blades together and making 4 large plates.  I'm having so much fun!
Click on the pictures to make them larger. 

And now there are 4!  These went surprisingly fast for me.  I started at a landmark...on the above one it was the upper and lower light blade, then I just worked my way around chain sewing picking up the next piece as I went.  The background pieces are 20" square.

I haven't decided yet how I will put them together in a quilt, but I'm looking for a smaller Dresden plate that maybe doesn't have as many pieces to put between them and separate them out somehow.  I would welcome any suggestions or ideas.  I still have nickels and a Jelly Roll in this fabric to work with.

Day & Night baby quilt delivered

Our first grandson is here!  Even though I was counting on him waiting till my birthday to be born and be my birthday buddy, we're thrilled that Brian Thomas has made his appearance on the 17th and everything is going great.  I just got pictures of him with his quilt that I made him.

I put minky fabric on the back to make it super soft then hand quilted it.  I still have to quilt in the big stitch mode, but that worked out just fine for this quilt. 

The Day & Night pattern gives you 3 quilts in one.  The main quilt above, and 2 smaller quilts with the leftover pieces after you've cut the first pattern.  I made DGD a quilt for her dolly to match her little brother's quilt.  Here she decided that little B needed to cover up - so she went and got her dolly blanket to put over him.  I think this is just adorable!! 

The baby quilt has warm and white batting.  The dolly quilt has no batting. 

Fractured Sky

Close-up of sky:

There was questions about how I created the sky for this quilt.  I got the idea from a method shown on You tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYkIh_fsyiE
Cut out several 14" x 14" pieces out of 4 different fabrics for the sky and stacked them up together.  Then I cut an off kilter line across those squares. 

*Take on piece off the right side stack and put it on the bottom of that stack.  Take these two stacks to the sewing machine and start sewing the top piece from each stack back together and press the seams.    Stack them all together again and make another cut.  (Repeat from * until you get the look you want.)

In the end, I ended up adding little scraps here and there, cutting some of the 'fractured blocks into strips, and just played around till I was happy with all the chunks on the design wall.  Then I sewed them up and attached them to the rows of mountiain fabrics.

While this method isn't something I'll likely do again real soon, I like the effect it gave to the sky over the original piece of all sky fabric.

(Click on any of these pictures to view them in a large size.)

Virginia Quilt fabric is now a Quilt Top

     The fabric we bought nearly 2 years ago is finally made into a quilt top!!  I don't know yet how I will have it quilted, or if I will do that myself either by hand or machine, but at least I've got it this far.  My original post about these fabrics was back at:  http://mudpotter.blogspot.com/2008/07/these-are-prints-dh-and-i-picked-up.html
     May of 2009 when hubby and I drove to Virginia to meet the new grand-daughter, we were very impressed with the endless mountains.  Once in Virginia we found a quilt shop and began picking out fabrics to commemorate our trip.  All of the greens/browns in the main part of the quilt were bought in that Virginia quilt shop.  Since then I found the border print that I knew would be perfect for finishing off the frame of the quilt.  One of the blue sky fabrics was also purchase at that quilt shop, but I've since added a couple of others so I could create the broken, chopped up sky that I wanted to do.
     I learned several things with this quilt.  I learned that the ruler that I thought was a true 60 degree triangle really wasn't and I had to be careful about how I placed them in the quilt.  I didn't realize this at first and forgot a couple times along the way, so had to take out several seams before I got it right.  I also learned that the overall look of the inspiration quilt wouldn't be achieved because it incorporated a lot more lights intermixed with the darks to give the effect it had.   I also learned that sewing when my shoulders hurt or I was just tired wasn't usually very productive.
     We specifically picked out one fabric with the little white flowers, because we kept seeing lots of little white flowers along the roadside.   If you click on the above picture, you can see the larger version of the above picture.