LOG CABIN COWS

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!

A lovely holiday season with such good memories:

• our daughter married in Seattle...our new son-in-law to love...
• having Christmas with our son from San Diego and the almost-newlyweds...
• celebration times with family!

Market Bags made from my otherwise discarded rice bags

 

Concluding 2014...

These bags are too lovely to throw!

I participated in a Holiday Art Faire in another artist's home at the beginning of December and I made some money (so I can resupply!). I found customers and other artists at the Faire most interested in: 3-dimensional houses, market bags, holiday-themed coasters, wall decor, homemade ornaments, a prize-winning red and white tablerunner, and machine-embroidered hand towels.

After the Faire, I've continued English paper-piecing hexagons and other shapes (an easy activity to travel with and I find hand-sewing calming).

One of my current goals in the next few months is to bring some quilts to completion. I added another border to my heart quilt and would like to quilt it on a longarm machine if I can find one to use. I have at least 3 other quilts of various sizes to complete.

Log Cabin Cows

My neighbor, knowing that I like to quilt, offered me some of her fabric scraps a few years ago. Some are probably about 30 years old because they are obviously children's prints from years gone by. The motifs of a few of the fabrics inspired me to combine them. I fussy cut the farm animals, in this case, cows, featured in the center of the log cabin block (surrounding fabrics: red with tiny white dots, black with white "cow" spots), each one being a little wonky at 1.75"x 1.75" (more or less):

Log Cabin block with fussy-cut wonky cow centers measuring about 10" finished

When I put all the blocks together, I have fun combinations like these:

I've run out of the feature fabric in the center, so I had to "cheat" or improvise on 2 blocks by using a plain blue square of fabric in the center so I would have an even twelve 10" blocks. I think they're cute and I love the many patterns log cabin blocks can make. These are not quilt-quality fabrics, but they'll have to do. I'm a bit worried about the red fabric running in the wash someday. I might presoak the blocks in vinegar to set the colors.

Happy creating!

Connecting with friends like you via:

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Block Party and Stack the Deck Quilt

Wednesday is the day to share & link at "Works in Progress" on Freshly Pieced!

I've been productive!! Fortunately our small city has an equally small group that's been meeting as a Modern Quilt Guild. I began attending this month, and have had the fun of participating in two "Sew In(s)" locally, as well as the Portland one I enjoyed at the beginning of January with my sister and niece. That makes three!! With projects and sewing machine in tow, I show up, pay a small fee and sew all day, visit with other creative people, and have NO INTERRUPTIONS (unless I choose them). At our last local sew-in, we could have even left the machines, irons and ironing boards, cutting mats, tape measures, etc. behind, because they were provided. Wow! How convenient is that?? Almost like going on a retreat without having to go very far, and for a fraction of the cost. Especially nice are the designs walls to use throughout the room. Another quilter and I joked about renting the design wall space so we could keep playing with our quilts day after day. Someday I'll get mine put up.

I decided to join Eleanor Burn's Mystery Quilt "2014 Block Party." She's a bit quirky, but she's got some good ideas and techniques. I'm intrigued by this latest project, so I paid my fee and got started.I wanted to test the block out and pulled out fabric I already owned from In the Beginning ("Chickadee"). I ended up liking liking the result so much, I think I'll use them for the mystery quilt after all.

4 "Marianne" blocks, named for Marianne Fons, her guest

So at the local sew-in last Saturday, I pulled out my blocks for a quilt I wanted to give me husband. True confession: I started it at least 5 years ago! I already had the blocks made, based on the book Stack the Deck! by Karla Alexander. 

   
First, iron the seams of the sashing ...     

Seams are pressed...it looks kind of folksy, doesn't it?

Throw them on the design wall, with purple sashing 

& sew vertical rows together

The hearts are appliqued by machine on each block (which is a shuffling of fabrics in the green theme). And even though "Blogger" thinks it's smarter than me and it won't let me arrange my photos in the order I want them, the photo of the blocks without a caption are now on the bed, being assembled to their vertical sashing. Then I will sash the sides, top and bottom, put another border around that, and then it's time to sandwich and quilt. It's been a fun project. Better late than never, huh?

Happy quilting!