Design Wall Monday

This quilt just sings spring to me. There have been sunny days with wind and rainy days with no wind and a few days in between typical spring weather.  I think I will add 3 inches of border of the pink on the left in the top photo.  The back is going to require some piecing to sew all the pinwheels into the backing. I am still thinking on how best to do that, I could square up each and sew to a horizontal strip or I could sew them all into one vertical strip.  Decisions, decisions......  Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday.  --Ann--

On the Needles

I've been sewing more than knitting the last week and not even watching much tv in the evening because sometimes I would rather read, but there is progress on the sweater . The yarn is a 75 cotton and 25 wool blend, the pattern is Antler by Ankestrick.  I have only started this sweater 3 or 4 times in 3 different patterns.  This is the one! I got caught up on the Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber, She always has some great quotes about knitting at the beginning of some chapters.
Life is too short to knit with ugly yarn.  
You have to knit a couple ugly sweaters before you knit a pretty one. 
 If you don't like it, its just not done yet.
The sun is shining here beckoning me to sit outside and knit and then I look at the thermometer...... cold air is still coming down from the north.  I'll sit by the window instead.  linking to Judy's OTN --Ann--

All my favorite color combinations

 Blue and yellow...........yellow and blue

 Pink and yellow............pink and green

 Yellow and pink.............pink and blue

 Green and pink............blue and white

 Is there any color that doesn't go with yellow? or green?  Just take a trip to the green house and see.

Just some of my favorite blocks...................Ann

A little rain a little sunshine and a few blooms

I know these are a weed but they are the first yellow flowers of spring.  They are yellow, I love yellow flowers no matter where they rank on the gardeners scale of friend or foe.

 What a difference a little rain makes and then a couple days of sunshine with warmer temps.......

 I don't think there is any flower more cheerful than the daffodil.

My fern leaf peony is going be be early this year as long as it doesn't get nipped by frost. They way the buds are nestled in the foliage always makes me smile, like a fuzzy duckling or gosling or a creature from a Dr. Suess story.

And then I walked out to the garden and found a few stalks of asparagus  finders eaters.  

Hope your spring is full of cheerful blooms--Ann--

Pastel pinwheels

The blocks are all sewn the look like pinwheels in the garden shop.  And a few blocks that didn't make the cut.  I'll have them tumbling across the back of the quilt. Sun is shining today but to muddy to start garden work.  --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

The dark clouds rolled in the end of last week along with the rain so out came some bright fabrics for another baby quilt.  This pattern was in a book by Fons and Porter back when they were making scrap quilts. I sewed 2 inch strips together and cut 12 equilateral triangles using Sara Nephews 60 degree tool. Each block has an identical opposite twin would that be an evil twin?  Half of the hexagon is sewn together then it will be sewn in strips keeping everything in order. Such fun on another rainy day.  linking to PatchworkTimes  --Ann--

The Red Eye Ta Da Done

This quilt was so much fun to finish, the bright colors, the fun backing and the striped bias binding.  The wind went down so I could take pictures outside the temps are rising so probably won't need to wrap up in it until next fall! Yippee it feels like spring here!!  Coffee on the patio to celebrate!  --Ann--

Machine Quilting the Red Eye

The Red Eye quilt kept winking at me while I was working on the white on white, beige and grey north wind blocks.  (last Mondays post looks the same this week only smaller with more seams) I had thought about quilting The Red Eye with the Baptist fan, traditional and an all over quilting pattern but wasn't completely sure that was what I wanted to do so out came all the quilting design books.  I flipped through them looking for a similar quilt then looked through more slowly considering the possibilities, and so many possibilities.  The feathers, fluff and frufru were not right for this quilt. My concentric tear drops that I do so often would have been alright but I really wanted to accentuate the piecing.  Sometimes the piecing get lost with an all over quilt design.   I want the quilting to enhance the piecing because so many hours have gone into piecing and arranging the blocks.  Crop circles on the blocks would be perfect!  At first I was placing the half circle templates on half the block and maneuvering under the needle then I had an ah ha moment and moved the template to the quarter circle placement.  Much easier to hold in place and move the quilt all at the same time.  As long as no one uses a caliper to measure my circles or the space between the circles it looks pretty good.
My favorite quilt design books:

1. Skillbuilder Mastery for Quilting by Machine and Machine Quilting Design Builder  by Renae Allen lots of ideas for quilting various blocks, setting squares and triangles and borders Great book if you want to show off the components of a block, sashing and borders.
2. Quilting Possibilites freehand filler patterns by Sue Patten variations of designs to fill a variety of blocks
3. 250 Continuous Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz  lots of pictorial and theme designs
4. Quilting Makes the Quilt by Lee Cleland  There are 10 quilts in the book she has sewn 6 of each and quilted them 6 different ways, some traditional, some edge to edge designs, some very contemporary, her book really shows how the quilting can enhance the piecing or over power it.
5. Freemotion Quilting by Judy Woodworth basic how to's for contemporary and traditional designs also how to use templates, and information on thread, tension and batting.
6. One Line at a Time by Charlotte Warr Anderson how to mark a quilt and make templates for geometric designs.  I might try these on a very small quilt to fill in the background.
7. Heirloom Machine Quilting a Comprehensive Guide to Hand-Quilted Effects Using Your Sewing Machine by Harriet Hargrave the title says it all, lots of thorough information on turning your quilt top into a quilt.
8. Encyclopedia of Designs for Quilting by Phyllis D. Miller how to for a wide variety of designs for hand quilting but adaptable to machine quilting.
9. Quilting with Style Principles for Great Pattern Design by Qwen Mortenson and Joe Cunningham also a wide variety of designs and how to mark a quilt for geometrics, cables, fans, feathers etc for hand quilting but also adaptable to machine quilting.

While I have been working on the Red Eye I have been thinking about how to quilt the white on white, beige and grey northwind quilt.   Thinking ahead .  --Ann--  linking to Judy's DWM

Off the needles

Two finishes this week socks for darling daughter and gloves for her too.  Gloves are not difficult to knit, just awkward and fiddly then you have to stitch in all those ends.  I made progress on the sweater two more rows then I can divide for the sleeves.  Right now it doesn't look like much, maybe next week.  The sun is shining, the wind is taking a breath, I'm sure it will be full force again later today, there was frost on the grass, my daffodils will burst into bloom as soon as we have a warmer day, the buds are so plump, and there is a robin in every yard.  Linking to Judy's OTN. --Ann--

ta da done

 My 7th ta da done for 2016!!  I just quilted with my favorite free motion concentric tear drops.  A warm soak, spin and tumble and its ready to go off to its new home and new baby this weekend.  --Ann--

Design Wall

I spent the weekend machine quilting the pink and yellow shoo fly and I put the boring neutral north wind blocks back on the wall.  I sewed a few more blocks then did some grouping by value.  I need to sew a gazillion half square triangles for the border.  Back to the sewing room and linking to Judy's DWM.  --Ann--

April Fools Day we have snow!!

What a surprise to wake up to see the ground white.  I started a different pattern with the sweater and was going full steam ahead then I counted my stitches and I'm way off.  This saddle shoulder sweater has short rows in the back to make the collar higher in the back so there were fewer stitches in the back section to accommodate the increases and short rows and foolish, blaze ahead, leap before looking me did my short rows and increases on the front section.  I have 14 more stitches on my back than on my front, as of yet I still have Mrs.-Adams-dance-instructor-straight-posture, no hunching over for me, so rip again.  Good thing yarn is so forgiving.  While I was sorting my error out in my head I started another pair of socks, sometimes plain knitting is the way to go. Another great day to knit or sew or read or a little or a lot of each today as I watch the snow fall and melt.  Linking to Judy's OTN.  --Ann--