Work day - fun with a panel...

Today was my second day of work at Threads That Bind this week.  I continued working with the fabrics that have come in this week, including the Mystic Ocean panel by Three Wishes

It is pretty spectacular!  I got these panels all cut and priced, then helped a customer choose some fabrics for borders to make a good sized lap quilt.  Here is what we came up with

She really wanted to add a dark purple, but it was pretty overpowering.  I suggested a binding in the purple, so we'll see once she gets the borders on.  There were a lot of options for borders, which was fun - we auditioned tons of fabrics.

When I got home I worked on fixing an antique luggage rack that needed new straps.

The green Greek key was the old strapping that was starting to get rotten.  I think the owner will like the look of the red and it will look great with her decor.  It was a trick getting the old straps off - they were put on with narrow staples that were doubled - the first ones were horizontal and the second ones were vertical, so I had the dickens of a time prying those out!  There were a total of 40 staples in all that I removed.  Whew!

I also got the package for the winner of my last giveaway ready to mail!  Congrats to Susan G. - you have a wonderful package of goodies headed your way!

I also got caught up on the phone calls and texts I missed while my phone was dead over the weekend as well.  It feels good to not be behind for a change!  I even got out the fabrics from that Surprise package from Island batik and made some plans...so much fun!  I am going to love making the project I have in mind - and I have the perfect spot for it in my guest room.  It's going to be so hard not to share it for so long!  Oh well - there will be plenty of fun projects to share in the meantime.

The Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop continues on!

Here are today's posts...

Wednesday Feb 20th:

Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts

Suzy at Websterquilt

Nancy at patchworkbreeze

Karrin at karrinscrazyworld

Denise at craftraditions

Maybe it's time to go check my bookshelf again, I'm loving seeing the wonderful projects everyone is making!

New Sample for the Quilt shop

I took some time off working on my own projects to finish up a new sample for the quilt shop.  When I saw these pretty fabrics I thought they would be perfect for a simple quilt - Nine by Nine.

The bright pink really livens up the gray and deep blue in these prints! 

I used the gray print for the backing as well.  I quilted it an allover meander using a soft blue-gray Aurifil thread in 50 wt.  It looks so soft and cuddly!

While I was at work today, one of my students from Saturday's Jelly Roll Rug class dropped by to show me her finished rug after blocking!  So pretty! She had so much fun with the project, she went home and made some placemats using another set of strips:

Aren't they pretty?  I forgot to take a picture of mine - it's on display in the shop now, so I'll try to get a shot tomorrow!

I might be making a new sample of my Mountain Dawning pattern using this great Hoffman Pop!  I think those prints would look great.  We've really been increasing our pre-cut section and it's been fun thinking of projects I could make using them all - notice the beautiful color in the corner on the left?  That's our Island Batik section!

Our customers have been commenting at how nicely the Island Batik Stacks (10 inch squares) are presented.  You can see all the of the fabrics because the corners are turned down slightly.  I think the packaging is very effective and attractive.  It makes me happy to see that the shop is carrying Island Batik now!

I didn't get any sewing done, but had a wonderful time playing wth fabric at the quilt shop.  And catching up on today's posts for the Dust Off a Quilting Book Blog hop!  You can see the great projects at the following blogs:

Tuesday Feb 19^th

Cindy Stitchin at home

Jennifer at curlicuecreations

Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns

Kathy at Kathysquilts

Shasta at high road quilter
Theresa at bumbleberrystitches

I hope you got to play with some fabric today, too!

Welcome to the Dust off a Quilting Book Blog Hop

Hello and welcome!  I'm happy to be part of of Bea's Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop, and can't wait to see what kind of projects everyone shares!  I've been busy trying to clean off my bookshelves, so it was perfect timing to go through my old books and look for something fun to make.

This book is an old favorite of mine - scrap quilts have always been a favorite of mine - my very first patchwork was a simple stacked bricks when I was in my teens, and I think I'll always love a scrappy quilt. Marti Michell has a lot of great tips in this book for making scrap quilts, including easy ways to cut for more than one quilt at a time. I was inspired by the World Without End quilt.  I have to admit that I didn't use the instructions in the book for my quilt because I saw that the pieces would be perfect for cutting with the AccuQuilt Go! Qube set for 8 inch blocks.  So I did that instead.

I had some leftover pieces of brown and teal Island Batik fabrics left from a previous project and thought they would look gorgeous in this project - and I was right!  I added some different blue-green and brown fabrics (also Island Batik)  I love the secondary design when you put four blocks together.

And then there were 16 blocks, and I decided that was enough for a charming little quilt.  So it was time for basting.  I had a lovely brown piece of Island Batik that I used for the backing, and another piece from the Heirloom Natural batting from Hobbs (I got quite a few quilts out of that queen size batt!) 

I pulled out a spool of Aurifil 40 wt in a nice brown for the quilting.

It looks pretty on the back, too!

I just did some straight line quilting with my walking foot to follow the lines of the piecing.  It didn't take long to finish my little quilt, and the teal binding was just the right touch.

Thanks again to Bea for hosting this fun hop!  Make sure you go see what my fellow bloggers are creating this week to show you:

Monday Feb 18^th

Turid at densyendehimmel

Pamela at Pamelaquilts

Joan at Moosestashquilting

Anne at seems like a plan

Susan at Desertsky Quilting

Selina at Selinaquilts

Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

Tuesday Feb 19^th

Cindy Stitchin at home

Jennifer at curlicuecreations

Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns

Kathy at Kathysquilts

Shasta at high road quilter
Theresa at bumbleberrystitches

Wednesday Feb 20^th

Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts

Suzy at Websterquilt

Nancy at patchworkbreeze

Karrin at karrinscrazyworld

Denise at craftraditions

Thursday Feb 21^st

Anita at Domestic Felicity

Leanne at Devoted Quilter

Jennifer at Dizzyquilter

Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks

Lee Anne at Podunk Pretties

Andree at quiltinglearningcombo

Lyndsey at Sew Many Yarns

Friday Feb 22^nd

Bea at Beaquilter

Barbara at Bejweledquilts

Laura at slice of pi quilts

Sherry Powered By Quilting

Pat at Life in the Scrapatch

Carol at Just let me quilt

Kathy at Kathy's Kwilts and More

Marian at seams to be sew
Brenda at songbirddesigns

What book do you have on your bookshelf that you would like to make a quilt out of?  You should go get it started - you'll be glad you did!

February Mid Month project update

So far this month I have been pretty productive - and my sewing room is looking a little less like a bomb when off in there!  Unfortunately I woke up yesterday to a dead phone, so that's going to throw a kink into my day since I think I am going to go need to purchase a replacement phone.  I taught a Jelly Roll Rug class yesterday and I would have loved to take some pictures of the finished rugs.  They came out so cute!

Here's a picture of mine at mid point!  This isn't the finish, but you can see how pretty it is.  I used a set of batik strips from the quilt shop to make it.  Even my husband was impressed!  I think I might make each one of us a rug for our bedroom from my stash.

I turned a bunch of Island Batik 10 inch Stack squares into swiss cheese using the AccuQuilt GO!  That was sure fun and fast.  Not too much left after cutting the pieces I needed for my quilt blocks, but I did get four bonus triangles to use in another project later.  This will become my March Island Batik Ambassador challenge - Vintage Reimagined.

  AccuQuilt did a fun blog post:  See How We Surprised the Island Batik Ambassadors and featured my video.  It sure was a wonderful surprise to get this cutting system and I absolutely love it!

Tomorrow I'll show you what I made for the Dust off a Quilt Book Blog hop.  I had lots of fun going through my book shelp (which did really need dusting!) to find an inspiration!

Lots of Island Batik on my design wall!

I'm ready to put the final border on the Brothers and Sisters Quilt this week, so I'm looking forward to getting that quilted!  And the cutting instructions for the Daisy Chain Quilt Along will be posted this week, too - this is my fun project for the spring.  There's still time to pull fabric to quilt along with us!

I'm still working on tidying up the sewing room.  I do need to get rid of some of the excess in there, but it is hard!  I do love all my "stuff" but there is simply too much of it and I will be much happier when it's cleared out a bit.  I'll have a nice big bag to donate for the guild's raffle table in March for sure!

With that, I suppose I should go do some sorting in there today.  I hope you have a pleasant day, go do some quilting!

Seashore Splendor - Part One!

Today is the day we start!  I have the first block of Seashore Splendor ready for you, and it works out so that we will finish right at the end of the year, so it all will turn out great in the end!  This year I will be using my Payhip shop to share my downloads.  I've created a collection section for all the patterns, so if you miss one, you will be able to find them there.  You'll need fabric so here are the details on that part of it:

Seashore Splendor

60 x 72 inch quilt

I designed Seashore Splendor with my overflowing stash of blue fabrics in mind, so the yardage estimates are generous.  You can work from your own stash, purchase fabric in small amounts equaling the total needed (1 ½ yards would be 6 fat quarters) or purchase straight yardage.  I think scrappy looks fantastic, so highly recommend that, but if you prefer to use one fabric for each color, please feel free to do so! 

The blocks will be released every other week, and the finishing instructions will come out at the end of the year.

 

We will be making a wide variety of block sizes, most of the blocks will have a nautical theme, some of them are traditional blocks, some I have designed.  Most of the blocks you will make one of, but there are some that you will be making several repeats.  This will be all basic piecing, no applique needed! 

Thanks so much for your patience as I dealt with a few roadblocks to getting this started!  I am looking forward to a fun year of sharing these blocks with you, and I hope you like the finished results as much as I do!

Make sure to follow my blog for the block tutorials:  PamelaQuilts.com

Sign up for my newsletter to have the instructions delivered to your inbox:  Newsletter

Yardage:

Light Blue:  1 ½ yards each Sea and Sky

Medium Blue:  1 ½ yards each Sea and Sky

Dark Blue:  2 ½ yards (Sea)

Yellow, Red, Green, Black, White, Gray: ¼ yard each.

And now for Block one:  Lady of the Lake:

This is one of those bucket list quilts for me.  I love the way all the triangles shimmer like waves on the water!  This is a block that is beautiful in a quilt:

This block has five horizontal and vertical units, so I decided to make it a 15 inch block for my Seashore Splendor Quilt.  All the units are triangles, so it's actually pretty simple!

First you have your large triangle.  You can use a 10 inch square to cut these, then use the leftover half to cut four of the small triangles.

I wanted to use the fabric in my dark triangle for all of my small triangles, but there wasn't enough.  No worries, this is a scrappy quilt, so I chose another fabric and made 8 of each.  I figured if I didn't care for the looks of it I could always remake it. 

Looks great to me!  Make sure you measure and trim your triangles so they are all the correct size.  And definitely lay everything out before you sew!  It can get a little tricky to make sure all of those triangles are pointing the right direction.  I was careful, and my seam ripper stayed in the drawer for this block. 

A nice finish!  Larger blocks are great for that feeling of accomplishment...

When each block come out I will show you the progress toward the finished quilt - as you can see, we have a long voyage ahead, but it's going to be great fun!  Go download your block now, and get started - I've also included the printable page for the fabric requirements for you so you can print it out. 

Download Block here

Thanks for playing along with me!  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions - I'm happy to help.

Mystery Quilt - Pulling Fabric for Daisy Chain Mystery

There are so many fun quilt alongs, mysteries, and block parties going on right now, it's hard not to be tempted to join in with all of them!  (Not to mention starting my own Block of the Month this week)  I guess it's part of the fun of quilting - after all there's not many things as fun as starting a new project.

This week I finally pulled my fabric for the Daisy Chain Mystery Quilt Along!  I decided to do the crib size since maybe I can actually keep up and finish this size.  I decided to use some of my Island Batik stash since most of the fabric requirements are 2 1/2 strips - I have some fun brights that I am going to use with a pale blue background and a beautiful piece that I received in the latest box called Peacock.  Well - I'll just show you what I have:

The pink is my accent.  I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll be making - it's bound to be pretty with these lovely fabrics!  You aren't too late to join up, too - just go to Little Bunny Quilts and start pulling your fabric - cutting instructions will be coming out next week!

Two for One...PQ10.3 is a Magnificent Mini!

Have to blame this entirely on Kim - she suggested to the Island Batik Ambassador group that our monthly challenge would also suit this week's challenge for Project Quilting...oh yes, a double challenge!  (Fabrics and thread for this project were provided in my Island Batik Ambassador box)  With that in mind I set aside my original idea, went to my Miniature Quilt Magazine collection and pulled out an issue at random with the intention of choosing a project for my Magnificent Mini.

I quickly found one that suited me, and met both challenge guidelines - Bigger Than a Breadbox (over 9 x 18 inches) and smaller than 24 x 24 for the Island Batik Challenge.  Of course I chose a project that required 128 one inch finished half square triangles and 32 two inch finished triangles!  That's a lot of cutting!

I started out by cutting all the small triangles...so tedious!  I did put some Slip Stop onmy Easy Angle Ruler, and that helped keep it from sliding, but it was still a long process to cut sew, and trim all those triangles, even if I only had to trim one side.

I decided to get out the Go! cutting system to cut out the 2 inch finished triangles. (provided through Accuquilt as part of this years Island Batik Ambassador program) I knew it would be accurate, but I really didn't think it would save me that much time since I was cutting them from sctraps, so would only be doing two matching pairs at a time.  Well, I was more than amazed when I realized that I actually cut 32 pairs in about 15 minutes.  And really, the waste was not that much, even from scraps.  I would have thrown out just as much if I had cut them all with the rotary cutter.

Now I really just want to dig in and cut up a bunch of my scraps into useful pieces for quilting.  But, wait...I have a challenge to finish first!

Lots of sewing happened, and of course the seam ripper got pressed into action a few times as well.  It's hard to tell when you get a triangle going wrong in these blocks until you look at them all together!  Finally I finished the top, added borders, then quilted it as suggested in the magazine using a light blue 40 wt Aurifil thread.  I pieced it using 50 wt cream from Aurifil as well - they, and Hobbs Batting are industry partners with Island batik and have been providing supplies for us to use as well!  My batting was another piece of the Natural Cotton batting I've used for the last several challenges.  And here it is my finished quilt:

The pattern is Blues Bayou by Carol J Lewis.  It is in the Fall 1993 issue of Miniature Quilts magazine.  I got many of mine on e-bay, they are great magazines with lots of patterns!

It was as easy as sewing pairs of triangles into blocks -

And arranging them just right to create the diagonal lines!  I did a pretty good job of matching up all those points:

I love the depth that using various backgrounds gives!  I made a small dent in my scrap bags with this quilt, and it was fun seeing different fabrics from various projects make an appearance in this quilt.  I just love scrap quilts for that reason.

I'm calling my quilt Coos Bay Winter Blues, it measures 21 x 21 and was made by me - Pamela Boatright - in Coos Bay, Oregon!  It my Magnificent Mini that's Bigger than a Breadbox :)

Thanks to Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting and Accuquilt!  And Kim of Persimmon Dreams for the great challenges!

Linking up with Connie at FreeMotion by the River for Linky Tuesday.

Well, it has been an interesting week here - we've had snow days, work days, last night was quilt guild and today was Bunco!  That didn't leave a lot of time for sewing, but that's ok - I did manage to get my new Island Batik fabrics all snuggled into their spot in my sewing room and am ready to start working on the Mavelous Mini challenge.  I even have a pattern picked out and fabric pulled, so I just need to start cutting!

Are you ready for that giveaway I promised?

I have some leftover 10 inch squares (27 in all!), a couple of stash builder rolls, a hunk of Buttercream foundations and an Island Batik Pin!  This will make a nice little bundle for someone to play with.

I thought it would be fun to have this giveaway go through Valentine's Day and I'll do the drawing the day after.  I really appreciate all of you for reading along and encouraging me in my quilting adventures (and all the other odds and ends that go on around here!).  It wouldn't be near as much fun to write my blog if no one were reading it!

Oh, and in other good news, I'll also start this years Block of the Month next Friday!  I had a bit of a delay due to the changes at Craftsy, and dealing with that set me back a bit, but now I am ready to get started.  Seashore Splendor will feature a nautical theme, with blocks in different sizes.  I'll send a new block every other week, and will give you the layout for the finished quilt at the end.  I'm loving the design, and I hope you will too!

Here's that giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hope you have a great weekend - we are wondering if we will get snow or not...I'll let you know!