Make It Monday 5/20/2013

Fabric for new music themed quilt for organist friend Bob P. Bob enjoys playing and listening to classical music and I found a great fabric in that theme. I chose the blue because the combination of blue and gold reminds me of royalty, and I imagine the composers would have performed before kings and queens.

ElectricQuilt sketch of music themed quilt. Piano keyboard border, often in alternating colors or scrappy, was designed to look like a real keyboard. Tan areas in center and corners will be filled with music themed fabric. Center will be one large panel of the fabric, not cut up.

I've started a new quilt for organist friend Bob P. Bob and I have been playing music together at our church for a very long time - nearly 30 years. I am excited to make this music-themed quilt for my longtime friend and fellow musician. 

I'll start working on the keyboard border tomorrow evening.

Debbie

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Make It Monday 5/13/2013

Main part of quilt top - fundraiser quilt

I haven't posted for a little while. I've been busy during the past week playing piano for a local stage production of Peter Pan, which ended last night. Also my sister Cass from Illinois was here for a few days, for the funeral of our aunt Alice. Somehow I've managed to do a little sewing each night. Currently I'm working on a fundraiser quilt to benefit my daughter-in-law Laurie's Mothers of Preschools group at church. The pink animal print is the same that I used in the In Love With Animal Prints quilt and the white-on-white fabric is leftover from past quilt projects.

Tomorrow I'll attach a narrow black border, then a wide border of the pink animal print. The deadline is very soon. It will be down to the wire on this one.

Music fabric

The classical music fabric I ordered has arrived but I haven't had much time to come up with a design yet. Right now I'm thinking of using a large panel of the theme fabric as the center, then surround it with a piano keys border, which would be great for my organist friend Bob. I'll think about the quilt more once the animal print quilt is done.

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 5/1/2013

Binky Patrol quilt top

Tonight I did a pillowcase finish on the Binky Patrol quilt, turned right side out and stitched all the way around the edges of the quilt. Thursday or Friday night I'll tie knots. By the way, I used a bright orange for the back - a twin sized sheet from Wal-Mart for $6. I often use sheets for the backs of charity quilts.

Pink leopard fabric from In Love With Animal Prints to be used in fundraiser quilt. I'll make the quilt next week.

Just ordered this fabric to make a quilt for church organist and good friend Bob P. No design in mind yet, but will let the fabric inspire me once it arrives.

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 4/24/2013

Quilt top - part of a set that was sent to me by friend and Vacaville Binky Patrol coordinator Marilyn L. (North Hills Quilter)

Dark green print from stash, for border

I removed a section of the quilt top so the finished quilt so the finished quilt wouldn't be too long after adding border. Section is actually twice as wide as pictured.

Shortened quilt top

Dark green border attached

Close-up

Taking the leftover section of quilt top to make a coordinating pillowcase. Light yellow is from stash.

Light yellow trimmed to size - Dimensions/directions found at AllPeopleQuilt.com. Can't say I followed the directions, but the dimensions provided were very helpful to me.

This is the look I'm going for. Section from the quilt top folded in half width-wise so it is very long and narrow.

Sewed right sides together, then zigzagged over the edge.

Seam pressed. Not shown: sewed two remaining side, zigzagged. Turned pillowcase right out.

Finished pillowcase

Pillow inside

I plan to finish the quilt this weekend. The quilt and pillowcase will be donated as a set to Stanislaus Family Justice Center, which offers counseling to abused children. Each child gets to choose a quilt to keep. There are a few more quilt tops from Marilyn waiting to be finished. I'll get to them in due time.

Debbie

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Sew Thinky Thursday Weeks 7-9

 

I haven't quilted since I finished Cherries Jubilation. I was all geared up to sew a sleeping bag for my granddaughter Piper last week, but couldn't find the IKEA fabric I bought. The last time I remember seeing it was a few months ago, when I was at Jo-Ann's looking for fabric to coordinate with it. I found the bag containing the fabric I bought that day, but I didn't find the IKEA fabric. It's quite frustrating. I'll be going to Sacramento on Saturday for my quilt guild meeting, so I'll stop at IKEA and buy the fabric again. Hopefully they'll have some on hand.

IKEA fabric that has gone missing

I don't have a looming deadline at the moment, so it's hard to get motivated. Also, I am playing the piano in a local stage production of Peter Pan, and have been busy with rehearsals and personal practice. Hopefully I'll get back to sewing soon.

Meanwhile, I'm behind on Sew Thinky Thursday posts, so I'll try to catch up. Here goes!

Week 7: Bad sewing habits. Do you have them? Share with us, what are your worst habits when it comes to sewing?

I don't like to re-do seams. I'll fudge one in rather than rip out and re-sew.


Week 8: Who do you like to sew for the most?

My favorites to sew for are my family: daughter, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughters. For them, my one-quilt-per-customer rule doesn't apply.


Week 9: If you were a quilt block which one would you be?

Sixteen Points block - from Electric Quilt

I think of myself as being a versatile person. I design one-of-a-kind quilts, customized for the recipient. I play different styles of music. So I would be a block with a large open space in the center that could be filled with a solid or a print. The center would be surrounded by lots of little triangles and/or squares that could be shaded and colored in many different ways. There are plenty of blocks that fit this description. I like the quirky look of the Sixteen Points block above.

Debbie

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Make It Monday 4/8/2013

Cherries Jubilation

30" x 38"

Blocks adapted from Sandi Cummings' book Think Outside The Block

Original layout

Free motion machine quilting

Entirely from stash and scraps

Completed 4/8/2013

Close-up

Back of quilt

Close-up of back

This is all that is left of cherries and white-on-white print.

For the binding I substituted a different but similar white-on-white print.

You probably couldn't tell unless you looked closely.

I'm happy with the way the quilt turned out. It's a little wide for the space I intended to display. I may try it anyway, or find a different spot.

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 4/3/2013

Cherries Jubilation quilt top finished

Close-up

Tonight I attached a narrow white border, which finished the quilt top for Cherries Jubilation. I'd like to get the piece quilted and bound by the end of the weekend.

Debbie

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Make It Monday 4/1/2013

Cherries Jubilation

Main part of quilt top sewn together. Narrow white border to be added.

During the past few days I attached border strips to the wonky blocks. I started with a narrow strip of white print, then pieced strips made of white print and little squares of the cherry fabric. I wanted the cherry squares to be wonky and unevenly spaced, to go with the carefree spirit of the wonky blocks.

Tonight I sewed the main part of the quilt top together. A narrow white border will be added to complete the top. I am thinking of doing some free motion quilting in the white spaces and cherry centers.

I came up with a name for the quilt, too. Cherries Jubilation, a play on Cherries Jubilee. The word jubilation means an act of rejoicing or an expression of joy, and I think the piece has a lot of joy.

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 3/27/2013

Wonky blocks finished tonight

Changed up the placement of the strips on the second row (bottom and left sides). Did the same for the fourth row. First and third rows have strips on bottom and right sides. Wanted to create a dancing effect with the blocks and not so lined up. Hoping the border will look somewhat wonky, too.

One of the blocks in the second row turned out a little small, so I added a narrow scrap, then trimmed.

I've really had a hard time getting motivated to sew this week, for a variety of reasons. There's no deadline on this quilt, and I really work better with a deadline. I'm hoping that I'm out of my slump and will get this quilt done in a week or so.

Debbie

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WIP Wednesday 3/20/2013

Tonight I worked on wonky blocks, adding fabric and then trimming to make them all the same size. Since I don't have a lot of the white print, I decided to sew two wider strips to each block, rather than four thin strips.

Sewed a strip to the bottom

Trimmed even with the right side of the block

Sewed a strip to the right

Trimmed to 8.5" square

Top three blocks are done

I'll do the same to the remaining six blocks, then work on the border.

Debbie

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And the Winners are...

The winners of drawing for the Nancy Drew blog hop are:

Yellow: Linda W.          Pink: Dolores S.

Congratulations, ladies! I have received your mailing addresses and your fabric will be mailed soon. Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone for visiting during the blog hop and for leaving so many kind comments. See you again soon!

Debbie

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Make It Monday 3/18/2013

With no looming quilt deadlines, I decided to pick up a project I began last October during my annual quilting retreat by the sea.

I made 10 of these cute little blocks last fall. They are "Freeform Units with Inserted Strips" from Sandi Cummings' book Thinking Outside the Block. Recently I sewed together two more to make a set of twelve.

One of the blocks trimmed up, not worrying about whether it's square or not.

Twelve blocks laid out on the design wall

My plan is to add a narrow, over-sized border of white to each block, then trim to a consistent size. For the border, I'm thinking of white, dotted with small squares of the cherry fabric. I don't have much of the cherry left, so I'm hoping I'll make it all the way around the quilt.

Debbie

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Nancy Drew is a Clue Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog! I'm so glad you stopped by. I'm delighted to participate in the Nancy Drew is a Clue Blog Hop. Be sure to check the end of the post for giveaways.

The Mystery of the Missing Library by Debbie Allred

Someone has stolen a beloved set of Nancy Drew books. Mrs. Brown, the prime suspect, has a new piece of artwork on display in her home.

Mrs. Brown's new artwork

Take away the painting...

Aha! There are the missing books, hidden in a secret room behind the painting! Mystery solved.

I came up with the idea of building a mystery into my quilt. I decided to hide Nancy Drew books behind a painting, in a secret room. I didn't know what painting I would use, but as I was finishing Rosa's Travel Quilt, I got the idea to use one of the small leftover panels for the painting.

Four smaller pictures were left over from Rosa's Travel Quilt. I chose the bottom right (Central Park) for this project.

I added a burgundy frame, then quilted. This is a finished quilt.

Back of the "painting"

Backing fabric is left over from Larry, a quilt I made last year

On to the second quilt. Using the framed painting as a guide for size, I cut out a section of Nancy Drew books fabric, then made an Attic Windows block, to give the illusion of the books being in a hidden room.

I spray basted the books piece to background fabric - chosen because it reminded me of wallpaper. I did an escape hatch finish, turned the quilt right side out, then zigzagged in black around the books piece. I did a little bit of quilting in the books piece. Like the painting piece, this is also a finished quilt.

I needed a way to attach the painting to the books quilt, that would make it easy to remove and easy to replace. I spent a lot of time thinking about it - snaps, skirt hooks, magnets, etc. Then just last night I found out about clear Velcro, so I tried it out on this project.

The bottom strips are transparent.

I stuck a transparent square in each of the corners just above the books. Sorry about the blurriness.

After trying to guess how to line up the back side of the painting quilt, I finally stuck both Velcro pieces together, then pressed the back side of the painting to the sticky back of the Velcro.

Ta-da! The squares are lined up just right. By the way, after I finished, I saw on the package that the product shouldn't be used with fabric. I'm not worried, because I don't plan to wash the quilt.

Once again...

The Mystery of the Missing Library

For Nancy Drew is a Clue Blog Hop

21" square

Original design

Partly from stash

Completed 3/10/2013

Back of the books piece

Now for the giveaways. You could win one of the two fat quarters below. 

Yellow with tiny white dots     Pink stars

For a chance to win one of the fat quarters, simply leave a comment by the last day of the Blog Hop (end of Friday, March 15). Be sure to mention whether you prefer Yellow or Pink. For an extra chance to win one of the fabrics, leave another comment mentioning that you are a new or existing follower OR that you have Liked my Facebook Page. Two winners will be drawn on Saturday, March 16.

Be sure to stop by and see today's other Blog Hop participants:

Monday, March 11, 2013 

Dancing thru-threads

Traveling Quilter

Jane’s Quilting

More Stars in Comanche

Moose Stash Quilting

Quilt Doodle Designs

Cate’s Linens

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Grandmama’s Stories

Judy At That Other Blog

Full Schedule

Debbie

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