Sew Sunshine

I am so excited to have this finish. This is an improv piece I did for our local Modern Quilt group challenge.  I was not sure how this was going to go. I started out just piecing a few things and then the more I added the more it brought back memories of the bridge that crosses over the Missouri River near my childhood home. It is a rare double decker bridge that believe me, struck fear in my heart more than once growing up.     This is a view from the South Dakota side. The risers were running that section up and down until the 80's.  The lower level was originally for rail traffic but than never happened by the time the bridge was almost finished so it is one way traffic on top and bottom.  The bottom has a super scary metal grate for a huge portion of it...thus the plaid fabric representing the grid near the bottom of my piece.       Upper level with an up close view of the structure of the risers. I tried to include some of this structure in my piece as well

Last night our guild met up and had a little make and take mug rug project. I made this one up for the sample and just had the binding to finish.   I have been so out of tune with sewing for the whole month that it just feels good to actually finish something no matter how small.  :) Finally have a bit of sunshine to go with that little accomplishment! I used Allison's tutorial on how to bind back to front from her blog Cluck Cluck Sew Linking up with Lorna for Let's bee social and Lee with WIP Wed

I am getting way ahead of myself these days. I signed up for two classes in one week, I belong to 3 guilds now, and I am helping to host some improvisational sewing days at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.  The Saturday class I am taking there is with Victoria Findlay Wolfe and I can't wait!! All of this leads to little getting done and lots of things started and little getting done...did I say that already???? :) So my class yesterday was with Tony Jacobson, designer for Fons and Porter Magazine.  He designed the 3 Tours star quilt and so I signed up. It is a beautiful quilt design and very fun. However I am pretty much on a budget and wanted to do more from my stash.  Mine is not going to be the traditional look of red, white and blue but I think it will be pretty just the same.   I did manage to finish all of the star blocks and started to work on my striped section when suddenly our time was up.  So fun to sew with others so if you have never d

Well it is already 7 days into the month and I think I will need an easy finish for my goal. I have most of the front together on this one and waiting for some backing to come from Massdrop. I am not sure how I am going to quilt it at all so if you have any ideas???? pass them on to me. Keep in mind straight lines are really more my thing but that is because of a few limitations (I choose to believe that anyway) at the moment. The slide on tray for my Bernina is cracked so I am waiting for a replacement table with a big flat space to do some fmqing practice on. Not sure I want to risk anything too hard on this quilt though. This is going to be for a very special little great nephew! The pattern is Kite Flight by Robert Kaufmann. Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes @Bittersweet Designs and Fiber of all Sorts

"Something from Nothing", a scrap quilt 51 x 52 1/2" Leader and ender method started early 2014 650 2 1/2 squares with bits and snips of binding ends   My goal was set HERE   I love all the bright snips of fabrics and I especially love that this was all throw away scraps. I should have made it bigger but with the mess of the stacks of 650 of these little blocks was enough AND this little guys is plenty heavy!! I spent all yesterday blocking it so it can hang on the wall. We will see if I get that done.   All stash scraps and scrappy stash backing too.  My stash is getting a work out this year and I am so happy!   My trouble on this one came with the straight line quilting. I knew I had to only quilt straight lines where the scrap corners were not. This is pretty bulky even though some of the seams are ironed open.   I started out with the idea of stitching down and then turning and stitching back up. I quickly saw that the top, no matter

I finished this little "Streak of Sunshine" quilt for our local chapter of Lincoln Quilts for Kids  charity that gives quilts to kids in local hospitals.  I usually do bright but I had these soft cute peace sign prints in pink and green so went for it. Not great photos but I had to snap these before I gave it away. Hopefully it is on its way to help comfort a sick child.  Linking up to WIP Wed with Lee @Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee social with Lorna @ SewFreshQuilts

  The Final Challenge for Project Quilting @ Persimon Dreams is "Isn't it Charming".  The entire front of the quilt has to be made of 5" charms.  I happened to have two Bobbins and Bits Charm packs and 1 coordinating FQ and some I had to make some Kona snow 5" squares because all I had was white white.  I felt a bit silly cutting 5" squares then sewing them back together then cutting them in half for my border but I felt to use up the last of the charms in the border (cut these into 4ths) because it was so scrappy I needed that solid break.  I did not have a pattern for this just made wonky stars with the 5" size block an went from there. This was fun and relaxing which was great because I had limited time this week and just wanted to make it work.  All the fabric is from my stash as well as the charm packs. "Charm Stars" measures approx. 48" x 48" Made in Ne.  Straight line quilting with Aurifil off white. Bac

One of the things on this weeks to-do list is this cute little Economy block for the SewCanShe Classic Blocks-Fresh Fabrics group HERE. I love this fabric and thought it might be fun.  See the scrap of the owl...well both ends of my fabric cut has half cut blocks. Why? Not useful but I still might use them somehow because they are too cute to throw away. Next up... A whole bunch of strips were made for this Robert Kaufman Kite Flight pattern. I don't really like how it is put together but I have started so must continue. And a recap with our winning quilts from the LateNight quilters SuperNova Friendship Block Swap. Jennifer Under the Juniper tree and I got together with our two quilts and too some fun photos.     Yep, there we are ...just two sewing sisters. So happy to have met Jen and that we live close enough to hang out! Whoop Whoop!! So many things to work on and so little time. It is National Quilting day at the International Quilt Study Center and

I have to say this was another dream quilt for me. I love ogee/gula shaped quilt patterns. I found this one a while back and filed it away as a someday project.  When Kim announced the PQ challenge this week was our favorite fabric I floundered because I love so many many different fabrics. I just happened to see ogee quilt pattern by Rebecca Johnson called "French Connection" and bells and whistles went off in my head. I have/had a bag of Little Black Dress II and some other fabrics  (like grunge...mmmmm) collected that are sort of frenchy flavored bits of yum and I knew I had to put this together.  note: the sun going down made it a little washed out here. You can see the lovely gray greege colors, cream and black and beige. All of these worked really well together. This was a bit hectic this week to figure this out and do all those curves in one week but I kept at it.  I probably have a little bit less hair on my head but I love love love this quilt. All of t