Ready but for the label!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I am thrilled with how this quilt turned out, and you all had a hand in it (with Marianne in lieu of Allison). I'm calling it Dancing Shoo Flies I, in the expectation that someday there may be II, III and more.

This weekend I finished sewing the binding and today I bought the prepared printer fabric for the label. To my surprise, there are two blocks I cannot attribute. One is Sharon's (but which one?) and the other is by another one of you artists. Would you please read what I'm preparing for the label and let me know (a) who did which of the mystery blocks, and (b) if I made any mistakes? I've deleted your surnames from this sample to preserve your privacy. Your full names will be on the label.

Added Jan 27: The jpeg didn't print well, so here's the text. "From top to bottom, left to right, the blocks were made by (Row 1) Suzanna, Solidia, Marianne, ???, (Row 2) Lesly, Jennifer, Lydia, ???, (Row 3) Claudia, Joan, Solidia, Jessica, (Row 4) Madeline, Dee, Claudia, Lydia (and Sharon), members of the online quilting bee The Incredible Shrinking Quilters. Based on Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking. Sewn together and machine quilted by Suzanna, Ottawa, Ontario, 2011."

The whole quilt is more vibrant than what you see here, especially Madeline's block in the lower left corner. I will take more pictures and post them to our flickr page in the next day or two. Unfortunately, the quilt itself is a little wonky because, for reasons I won't go into now, I had to sew on the binding before the quilt was quilted. Still, I'm going to enter it into our non-juried quilt show this spring.
Thanks again. Suzanna

Solidia's Block

Our final block---this one is Solidia's.  She chose some really cute fabrics, don't you think?  The block was easy and fun to make.  I'll put it in the mail tomorrow. 

~ Madeline

Ooohhh!

Debuting here!

The last little star is on the table waiting to be tucked in!

Princess Wee-kips taking a stroll and trying to decide which star she likes best!

Thank you all so much for helping me make this quilt top.

It will be a family treasure and personal favorite forever!

Starry Eye Candy

 

Here's a peek at the five blocks that I've received from (in order) Dee, Solidia, Jennifer, Lesly, and Lydia.

  If I didn't thank you before I'm doing it now.  They look amazing and will play nicely together, 

don't you think so, too?

I started this quilt then ran out of fabric.  I can't seem to find the fabric anywhere or anything that blends/matches tonally with what I have already.  Any suggestions?  What I was trying not to do is cut up the centre piece of toile from France since I like it intact.

Has anyone tried, or signed up, for the new WW PointsPlus program?  A little flyer I got in the mail shows all fruit as zero points.

A New Year, A New Project

Happy 2011, everyone!!!


Lady in the Lake quilt block

Sorry guys, I just had a "brain fart" and posted here instead on my own blog page.  I've moved the post there ... you can read here:  http://couchpotatoquilts.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-new-project.html.

Criss Cross-Apple Sauce

was the theme running in my head with Solidia's block.

What fun fabric to play with.  I love the fish!

Thank you Solidia for letting me play with all the fun, quiltey goodness!

In fact, I loved piecing this so much, and the way it looked, I'm using it as my block for the Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild bee I'm in.

I've been collecting oranges for a long time and just knew they had to be what this block was made from.

Plus, in cutting out one and having the other hst's returned to me, I'll have two quilts for my Quilts for Comfort project I've started this year.

For two years I've wanted to start making quilts for cancer patients at the center where my mom receives her treatments, but feeling frustrated because every time I'd try to start...Life and circumstances would not let me.

I finally have the opportunity and a new year to commit to this project that's near and dear to my heart.

So, thank you Solidia for the inspiration and the pattern to help me get started!

Happy New Year everyone!



I'm finished!

I had two blocks to finish up the Bee and was able to put both together yesterday afternoon.

Here's Madeline's:

I had a hard time initially cutting into her fabrics because I was afraid I'd mess up but I think it came out okay.  The center pieces are small and a bit wonky but the block turned out a scant "9, which is what she wanted, so I'm pleased.

Solidias:

I love scrappy quilting, and this was a fun block.

****

I'm looking forward to seeing some quilts now that many of us should have completed blocks.

Happy New Year !!!

Claudia

Lydia's Dove in the Window Block

Lydia's block arrived.  Isn't it so pretty?

Thanks.

Merry Christmas and

      (¯`O´¯)
        *./ | \ .*
   * .* *.
    * . • '* * ' • ,
    * . '*• •*'
 * *. ' *, • ' ' • ,* '
* .' * • * * • * '
 *  * , • JOYEUX• , * '
*   * ' • * * • ' * '
' * ' • ***  NOEL*** • ' * ' '
' ' * • * * • * ' '
  ( )
  ( )

~Madeline

Hope to hear from you...

Happy Holiday Happiness to you!  We have ice, beautiful to look at, treacherous to drive in.  Hope you are all ready for Christmas and keeping warm.  It's this season of yummy baking.

I've only received a block from Dee for the November block exchange.  I did hear from Alison that she's unable to make my block so I thought I'd better check with everyone else if there is a concern or problem.  Also, I haven't received Solidia's (December's turn for a special block) fabric and instructions yet.



~ Madeline

Catching Up

I have been dilatory!  Please forgive!  But I have caught up, at last - here are the blocks for Madeline and Claudia!

A Dove in the Window for Madeline

Here's my block, at last. It uses the white muslin and 2 patterned fabrics sent by Madeline. That paper piecing eats up fabric. I'm afraid I only have a teeny bit of the gold left.

Like Dee, I had trouble with the points, but only the 2 that were separate little squares; not those that were part of the long piece. Dee, was that where you ran into trouble? I wonder if it's the pattern. Anyway, I played with the seams a bit and they're not too bad now. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt.

Thanksgiving Blessings and a Block

Well, it came out on my first try.  LOL

I've been dreading this one because I hadn't had time to sit down and properly read the instructions and all that kept floating in my head was the combination of paper piecing and "hand" piecing.

I spent last weekend at my mom's helping her through her sleepy weekend after chemo.  I had packed up all my sewing stuff since I had two days where she would be napping.

I started working on a new project and read thoroughly through the instructions for Madeline's block.

Today was the first day I've had to sew a test block.

I traced the templates with tracing paper and worked off those.  It came out to the 9" unfinished block.  Thinking maybe my 1/4" seam is stingy?

Hope you like it ma mie!

Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating tomorrow and may we all have attitudes of gratitude throughout the year!

God bless!

Pratice Block for Madeline

I thought I'd share with you my practice block for "Dove in the Window"

After reading that there were problems with the paper piecing templates on quilterscache, I decided to print them out and take a look.  Math isn't my strong point, but I realized straight away that the templates were too small.  If you think of this block as a basic 9-patch to finish to 9", each "patch" should be 3" without seam allowances and 3.5" with seam allowances.

Since this appears to be a fairly simple block, I decided to draw the block on graph paper and piece in the conventional way. 

I used my triangle tool to cut the points ... and the block came together fairly quickly.

I'm assuming this is a 9" block, and the unfinished dimensions should be 9.5".  Madeline, if this is incorrect, please let me know!

Claudia

A fix for Madeline's block (I hope!)

Madeline would like an 8.5" unfinished block, and the pattern hasn't been cooperating all that well.

If you measure the length of one of the strips in Template A, you will find the block width, both finished and unfinished.
http://www.quilterscache.com/images64/doveatthewindowtempA.gif

If your template is not measuring 8.5" unfinished, you might want to try what I did. I eventually found that if I printed at 93% of the actual size (control P, look under preferences, then efffects) I'd have an 8.5" unfinished block. My grade-school ruler tells me that this block has a "1-inch test square" that measures 29/32 of an inch, which sort of looks like a smidge over 7/8".

You can play with your printer's settings to see what percentage you need to arrive at 8.5" across. Then use the same setting to print Template B. http://www.quilterscache.com/images64/doveatthewindowtempB.gif

One word of caution: by shrinking the templates we will be leaving Madeline with seam allowances between 3/8" and 1/4". If you normally use a generous seam allowance you may need to print Template B a little larger (moving up to 94% might be enough). Please consider making a trial block, or at least a trial centre section.

I'll report back in a day or two once, I've finished mine.

Good luck!

Crazy Patterns

Hello ladies.

Suzanna sent me an e-mail that the template that I printed from Quilter's Cache site and sent to you is off.

She said they are a bit smaller than expected.  I asked for a 9" block, and Suzanna says the individual squares should measure 3.5" but they are not quite 3.25".  If you use the templates the block will be  about 8" finished and 8.5" unfinished instead of the 9" I'd originally asked for.

I'd like the 9" block.  Please don't stress---this is supposed to be fun!  and I'll make it work.

~Madeline

 

November Block

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

Colorful Fall Greetings to you. 


I can't believe an entire year is almost over and it's my turn.  Thank you so much for making the November block for me.  We will be using April Cornell’s Prayer Flag material to construct the Dove at the Window 9” block found at Quilter’s Cache website.  It shows it as partly paper pieced.  I’ve printed off the templates (if you need them) and included it with the fabric that I'll mail out tomorrow.

Please put the light material on the outside and the patterned material as the star points.  For the centre section of the block I’ve sent a second patterned fabric and a strip of the light fabric.

The Prayer Flag pattern I’m going to adapt is at Moda under Free Stuff > Patterns (6th picture down
in the first row). 

I hope it’s a fun block for everyone. 


~ Madeline

Lesly's "Le Soleil"

Such a fun little block to make and such sweet fabric.  The sun came out in all its bright glory while I was making this

block so I'm calling it "Le Soleil."  It squared up nicely, too.  I'll put it in the mail tomorrow, Lesly.

I didn't have a very good time with Claudia's Ohio Star.  (shameful since I've made a ton of them in the past AND I'm originally from Ohio).  Where was the sun?  I swear I took my time cutting the pieces, got all of the triangle points together, nice and crisp,  pressed them, and went to sew them to the 4.5" corner and ...

gosh, be darn, drats, crud and other choice words.  

The sewn triangles were an inch smaller than the corner pieces.  Now, how did that happen?  duh.  I just know I must be the only math challenged person in the group who can't count out the difference between 4.5" and 3.5".  

 Claudia answered my confession e-mail so I'm thinking she forgives me.

Lesly, my dear!

I finished your very fun to make block Saturday and will sending it off in the mail this week.

Thank you for the pattern and the chance to work with such beautiful fabrics.  I was very good and put all the scraps over 2" in the envelope for you.  I will admit to some small, stray pieces, strings really, making their way into my scrap boxes.  But mind you, I was obeying the letter of the law!

No need for you to know how badly I wonkered this up the first try.  But, I think I got it here.  I'll claim being on cold medicatins as the reason.

Beautiful quilt in the making and I can't wait to see it from you soon!

Post Office Love

Claudia and Lesly:

Your fabrics both arrived today.  Claudia, if you sent a second package I'll return it to you with the finished block.

P.S. Love your fabric choices.

~M.

It's October!

After agonizing over all kinds of potential block patterns for my month, I've settled on a classic; the Ohio Star.


Ohio Star

A couple of days ago, I sent out the fabric - a mix of 30's repros and contemporary prints in yellows, oranges, greens and reds - you will receive 2 prints and solid white for the background.  Instructions are included but can also be found here:  http://www.quilterscache.com/O/OhioStarBlock.html.

This is a very simple, straightfoward block, but if you have any questions, let me know.

Thanks, Shrinking Quilters'!

Claudia