Design Wall & Quilt Show

My design wall is covered with several different projects right now and looks like this:

I'm all caught up on the Marcus Brothers Sew Along - one more block next Friday and then will start sewing them all together.

And the little quilt that Jeni Gaston from the Woolen Willow is sharing with us is looking good - I'll stitch down the wool leaves on today's block when I watch TV tonight.

A few months ago I found a fat quarter of this Christmas fabric on clearance. It depicts the Twelve Days of Christmas.

To use it, I fussy cut each of the circle motifs and made a scrappy churn dash block for each of them.

The completed size is about 15" x 20". Need to get it quilted and bound - maybe by December? LOL At first glance it doesn't look like a Christmas quilt at all, so maybe I can get away with displaying it at other times of the year....

I've spent several hours the last few days cutting 1-1/2" strips so I can get started on making 180 little 3" 9-patches for a new quilt. Whew! That's a lot of work!

Yesterday I attended a local quilt show and saw some great quilts. This was an opportunity quilt that caught my eye because each block only measured 2" square - cute with the embroidery in the border.

These are the ones I liked the best from the show. Love this Tree of Life, although I think a different border would have contained the quilt better.

This Courthouse Steps quilt (below) is in an old issue of AP&Q magazine and has been on my 'to-do' list for years and years - each log is only 1/2" wide.

Jeanna Kimball is a local designer who is well known for her traditional quilts and this quilter used  hand applique and hand quilting to make an heirloom - just beautiful!

  Tiny little pieces in those center checkerboards.

I was also able to wander around a classroom that was in an open common area and got to examine the projects they were working on - floor rugs. The teacher had used linoleum and prepped the backside with two coats of black paint. Then each student was using Mod Podge to apply fabric in the design of their own choosing - it was amazing to see all the different ideas. Afterwards, another coat (or two) of Mod Podge will coat the finished surface. A couple of them really appealed to me, which you can see below.

Ugly Ducklings to Swans

Over a year ago, I was shopping the clearance area at my local JCP and I found these hideous Christmas ornaments (orange - really?). They were originally priced at $16 each, marked down to $.97 - the day I was there they were an additional 60% off, so I bought five of them for 40 cents each. Because they were made of wool I knew they had potential -  how could I resist at that price?

I removed the embellishments and already they looked better.......

Six months ago, my small quilt group decided to do pass around projects. Each of us assembled parts & pieces for a fiber related item and each month we worked on someone else's project. I put my orange balls into a shoe box and added some pretty colors of embroidery thread - asking each person to add stitching to one wool ball. The finished pieces exceeded my expectations when I received them back about a month ago. I just finished stitching MY contribution to the project so they're all done now and I wanted to share with you. I suppose I could have dyed the wool balls a different - more desirable color - or kept the orange and gone with a fall/autumn theme using gold/green/brown/red threads, but I'm so very pleased with they way they turned out!

The gals in my group spent several evenings each stitching while watching TV and their efforts are SO appreciated! They look lovely displayed in a wooden bowl now - and can be used year round! Thanks ladies!

Now, the appliqued hearts that I removed in the beginning, I stitched down onto a piece of soft yellow wool to make a small quilt. I will add red borders and maybe add a green vine around the outside with leaves added.

Much better than they started out, yes? I'm sure glad I bought those ugly Christmas ornaments!