November 23, 2009 by rosewillow
The most fun part of quilting for me is making blocks. Just sewing along, block after block. Most of my UFOs have been abandoned in the block stage, and now, when I am trying to finish them up, I can’t remember what the big plan was. Maybe there was no plan. Just blocks.
Here are these guys again, the purple-green-orange family. There are 48 of these blocks — 8 each in 6 different fabrics, 8 in. square finished. I have received so many helpful and creative suggestions on how to set them — thank you for that. 
I like the “no sashing” setting very much. These blocks are the same Corn and Beans pattern used in my Harvest Festival quilt, and that quilt is set without sashings. However, if I use the “sashings and cornerstones” setting to pad out the blocks, I will be able to make two quilts measuring approximately 56 x 70 inches, so I have decided to do that.
The blocks will be shared out equally, and I’ll have two quilts something like this. Maybe with more borders? I like to end the last round with a dark colour, and I don’t think the binding will be wide enough to qualify.
Those aren’t my actual fabrics, of course, or even the actual blocks, but they’ll do for illustration purposes.
To see what others have on their Design Walls today, please visit Judy Laquidara’s blog, Patchwork Times.
Happy Sewing!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, Quilting and Sewing | Tagged corn and beans block, Design Wall Monday, Harvest Festival quilt, quilting, sashings and cornerstones, scrap quilts, Sewing | 1 Comment »
November 22, 2009 by rosewillow
One day I was helping my grandmother, and I looked in a dresser drawer. She had a beautiful handbag, two lacy slips, and a photo album, all brand-new and neatly wrapped in tissue paper. I said, “What are these? Are they yours?” And she said, “yes, but they are too good to use.”
I’m my grandma’s girl. I have fabric that I can’t bring myself to cut for the same reason. And there are lots and lots of quilters out there just like me!
My quilting friend Katie told me that if I make a quilt from my 1997 Hoffman Challenge fabric, then she will make a quilt from her most-cherished fabric, as well.
We would like to invite all of our online quilting friends to join us in a “Too Good to Cut” Challenge. The rules are very simple — mainly because there aren’t any! 
We’ll start on January 1, 2010. Choose a beloved fabric that you have been saving for a long time. You select your own pattern and work on your quilt at your own pace. There’s no pressure and no deadlines. This will be just friends sewing together and comparing notes if they want to. If you have a blog, we can visit each other’s blogs, and if you don’t have a blog, it doesn’t matter. I will see about getting us a flickr or Photobucket site where we can share photos.
January 1 is a Friday, so we can post our progress on Fridays without interfering with other weekly blog reports that many of us participate in. And we just need to finish our quilts by the end of 2010. At the end of the year, we’ll figure out a way to judge our little quilt show, and I will give prizes, like gift certificates for online shopping that can be honoured in most countries.
If I have forgotten anything, please let me know! This is my first time to host a challenge.
You can email me at
rosewillow at rosewillow dot org dot uk
Happy Quilting!
Posted in "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, Quilting and Sewing | Tagged "Too Good to Cut" Challenge, 1997 Hoffman Challenge fabric, quilting, Sewing | 7 Comments »
November 22, 2009 by rosewillow
I didn’t buy any fabric from the shops this week, but I have been shopping in my stash.
This is my favourite-ever fabric, and my very first “expensive” quilt fabric. It’s “Kaleidoscope,” the Hoffman Challenge fabric from 1997. The Hoffman company still has the information on their website.
I’ve been collecting companion fabrics for years, just waiting for “the moment.”
My #1 Goal for 2010 is to make a quilt using this fabric. I’ve always been afraid to cut it. What if my “most gorgeous” fabric ended up in an awful quilt? Well, I think my self-confidence has grown enough now to try it. The moment has come.
My Stash Report totals are the same — I’m in the Positive column, with 67.5 yards used.
Please visit Judy Laquidara’s blog to see other quilters’ Stash Reports this week.
Happy Sewing!
Posted in Quilting and Sewing, Stashbuster Report | Tagged Hoffman Challenge 1997, Hoffman fabrics, quilting, Sewing, stash report | 11 Comments »
November 16, 2009 by rosewillow
These blocks are still on my design wall this week.
I feel like I’m on UFO Overload — just flitting from one project to another, not making any significant progress, and wasting my precious sewing time, which is never as much as I’d like, anyway! 
I’m going to put everything away except this one project and just work on it for a while. (seems like I’ve said that before…..)
I can’t decide if this quilt should have sashings. My husband likes it the way it is, but I’m thinking about using white sashings with purple cornerstones. It could make a nice secondary design. Or, it could look like the blocks are floating in space with no anchors. Hmmm…
I’ve added a new page to my blog called My Sewing Machines, if anyone wants to look at pictures and compare notes. I love to talk about sewing machines almost better than anything!
Please take a look at Judy’s blog to see what other quilters have on their design walls today.
Happy Sewing!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, Quilting and Sewing, Sewing machines | Tagged block settings, cornerstones and sashings, design wall, Design Wall Monday, quilting, Sewing, sewing machine collection, UFO Overload | 8 Comments »
November 15, 2009 by rosewillow
I didn’t buy any fabric this week, but I did buy another vintage Singer sewing machine. This one is a Model 27K, one of a group of 100,000 manufactured between January and June 1908, at the Kilbowie Factory in Clydebank, Scotland.
She used to be either a treadle or a hand-crank, but she’s been converted to electricity with a little white motor on the back. The electrics look a bit dodgy and the cord is frayed, so that will have to go.
At the moment, the machine is sitting in a treadle table, but the cast iron treadle mechanism has been removed which causes the table to be rickety and unstable. I don’t think this was her original table, anyway — she doesn’t fit exactly right. The top opening is much too wide for her base, and on the interior of the cabinet, several notches and slots have been sawed into the wood to fit her shape when she is folded down.
Luckily, her shuttle and several bobbins were included, along with a complete assortment of feet and attachments. She also has her original instruction book and both slide plates.
So! This is will be a wonderful project for an amateur sewing machine restorer like me. First I’ll clean her up and then think about how to proceed from there. Someday she will be a thing of beauty again, and we will make quilts together.
My Stash Report totals this week are unchanged. Next week I need to get busy sewing if I’m going to make that 100 yard goal!
- Bought this week: 0
- Used this week: 0
- Bought Year-to-Date: 24.875
- Used Year-to-Date: 92.375
- Net Used: 67.5 yards
Happy Sewing!
Posted in Sewing machines, Stashbuster Report | Tagged quilting, Sewing, sewing machine restoration, Singer 27K sewing machine, stash report, vintage Singer sewing machine | 3 Comments »
November 9, 2009 by rosewillow
I am now officially moved back into my sewing room after not having the use of it for a while this year. My design wall has a new home, too, and it has grown to fit the new larger space. It’s now half of a folded tablecloth, instead of a quarter!
This used to be our garage, and my husband had it converted for me a few years ago. The room itself is 9 x 12 ft, and there is a 9 x 5 ft box room at one end. No windows in there, so that is where my fabric stash lives, safely away from sunshine and dust.
At the front of the main room is a lovely large window, and there stands my Lillian. She is a Singer VS2 (vibrating shuttle) treadle sewing machine, manufactured in 1888, and she sews a beautiful stitch. I use her sometimes to piece blocks and make small projects like pillowcases.
I found lots more UFOs when I was re-organising.
I’m glad I had the presence of mind to label these pieces. Otherwise I might never have figured out where they are supposed to go now!
I found these colourful blocks and thought they would look cheerful and nice on display. It’s great having a permanent design wall now — it’s very inspirational to see the blocks from a new perspective and also fun to use them for decorating!
Here’s a larger group:
The fabric scraps from this project were used to make a very special quilt…
for my little dog, Nigel.
To see what other quilters have on their Design Walls today, please visit Judy Laquidara’s blog, Patchwork Times.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, Quilting and Sewing, Sewing machines | Tagged design wall, Design Wall Monday, Judy Laquidara, Patchwork Times, quilting, quilting UFOs, Sewing, sewing room, Singer treadle sewing machine, Singer VS2 sewing machine, vintage Singer sewing machine | 10 Comments »
November 8, 2009 by rosewillow
A finish, a finish, I finally have a finish!
Here is my version of “Freeze Frame”, a Quilt for an Hour pattern designed by Judy Laquidara.
Here’s a better look at some of the fabrics used in the quilt.
I am estimating that I used 7 yards of fabric for this quilt top, calculating from the fabric requirements given in the pattern and counting the fat quarters that I used for the squares.
I loved making this quilt, and I am already thinking of another version in other colours!
My Stash Report totals for Week 45 are:
- Bought this week: 0
- Used this week: 7 yards
- Bought Year-to-Date: 24.875
- Used Year-to-Date: 92.375
- Net Used: 67.5 yards
To see Stash Reports by other quilters and to find the pattern for “Freeze Frame”, please visit Judy’s blog, Patchwork Times.
Happy Sewing!
Posted in Judy L's Quilt for an Hour, Quilting and Sewing, Stashbuster Report | Tagged free quilt patterns, Freeze Frame, Judy Laquidara, Quilt for an Hour, quilting, Sewing, stash report, stashbusting | 9 Comments »
November 2, 2009 by rosewillow
In the Spring, I started a little Ice Cream wall hanging as part of a design challenge on someone’s blog. I have lost the original instructions, but I think we were limited to two colours and a background with some embellishment. I made a little drawing on my computer of what I thought the tiny quilt would look like:
I got six blocks made, and then one thing or another came up, and I didn’t finish the project in time for the deadline. Today I’ve been looking at those blocks and wondering what I could do with them now.
Aha! I could set the Ice Cream Cones like Crossed Canoes! And I could use some other ice cream colours to make enough blocks for a lap-sized quilt…
and add some embroidery and maybe some little buttons to look like sprinkles.
What fun! The planning is almost the best part of quilting!
To see what others have on their Design Walls today, please visit Judy Laquidara’s blog, Patchwork Times.
Happy Quilting!
Posted in Design Wall Monday, Quilting and Sewing | Tagged Crossed Canoes, design wall, Design Wall Monday, ice cream cones quilt, ice cream quilt, Judy Laquidara, quilting, Sewing | 8 Comments »
November 1, 2009 by rosewillow
What a shock when I realised this morning that there are only 8 weeks of Stash Reports left this year. There are still so many unfinished projects on my To Do list for 2009! I felt a surge of panic — because, silly me, I am always setting unrealistic goals for myself.
Then I took a deep breath and remembered that it’s not The End Of The World if I don’t get every single thing finished. I’ll just do the best I can and try to remember that quilting is a hobby for me, and it’s supposed to be fun!
This week I have continued to work on “Freeze Frame,” Judy Laquidara’s Quilt for an Hour project. I am about halfway through Hour 11. The last step is Hour 12, so the finish line is in sight!
I haven’t finished anything this week, and I haven’t bought any fabric this week, so my totals remain:
- Bought this week: 0
- Used this week: 0
- Bought Year-to-Date: 24.875
- Used Year-to-Date: 85.375
- Net Used: 60.5 yards
Please visit Judy’s blog to see how others are doing with their Stashbusting this week.
Happy Sewing!
Posted in Judy L's Quilt for an Hour, Quilting and Sewing, Stashbuster Report | Tagged Freeze Frame, Judy Laquidara, Quilt for an Hour, quilting, Sewing, stash busting, stash report, unfinished projects | 3 Comments »
October 30, 2009 by rosewillow
My husband and daughter had a good time carving their Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns last night. I just wanted the pumpkin seeds for toasting, and they did all the hard work for me!
Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks has a wonderful recipe for Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, and I used her basic method for making my own little snacks. Using spices from my own cupboard, I made four savoury varieties:
- Garlic with Herbes de Provence,
- Curry,
- Chili, and
- Black Pepper,
each with a light sprinkling of salt.
I also made a sweet version for my little one — after toasting some plain seeds, I tossed them in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
Yum!
Happy Sewing — and Happy Halloween!
Posted in Holiday projects | Tagged 101 Cookbooks, cooking, Halloween, Heidi Swanson, Jack-O-Lanterns, quilting, Sewing, toasted pumpkin seeds | Leave a Comment »
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To see what others have on their Design Walls today, please visit Judy Laquidara’s blog, Patchwork Times.
