Wednesday, August 29, 2018

My House



The challenge for the next issue of Curated Quilts was house blocks using a specific color palette.  I ran through several ideas in my head, on paper and even one on fabric before I decided on this one.



There were quite a few threads to bury with my concentric circle quilting but I really like the effect.  My favorite part, though, is the heart.


I've done these challenges every time and my quilts have yet to make the cut.  While I hope to get a mini in Curated Quilts some day, part of this is just to experience the challenge and step out of my comfort zone.

My mini finishes at 12 x 12''.  I'll be linking up here.


Have a wonderful day! Patty

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Participating in a Craft Festival


I've written before about how much I enjoy being a part of my local Modern Quilt Guild - the Triangle MQG.   This past weekend, we took advantage of an opportunity to participate in the annual Lazy Days Arts & Crafts Festival.  This festival is a huge 2 day outdoor event with hundreds of vendors.  It attracts 50,000 visitors!

And we were so happy for any of those people who stopped by to visit us.


We were in a good location for foot traffic as folks were dropped off by the shuttle buses and I sat where I could great people if they glanced over at our booth.  For my own amusement, I enjoyed putting people into categories based on how they responded to my greeting about raffle tickets:

First, there were the people who are not quilters -
  • But appreciated quilts and bought lots of tickets
  • Or they took pity on me sitting there on a very hot day in the sun and donated a dollar.  (This happened twice.) 
  • Or were doing their holiday shopping.  I overheard a wife say to her husband "This will be perfect for Janie for Christmas!"
  • Or (the largest group in this category) people who want to learn how to quilt and wanted to know if we teach how to quilt at our meetings  (I referred these folks to the local quilt stores.)
Second, there were the quilters.
  • Those who already have too many quilts - most couldn't imagine even spending a dollar on a raffle ticket 
  • Or a few who looked at the quilt, told their friend they could make it themselves so why would they spend a dollar?
  • Or (my favorite kind) those who stopped in their tracks, eyes lighting up as they came over.  I knew what they were thinking.  "I've found my people!"  Some shared photos of their latest projects or talked about new techniques.  Other loved the photos on our handout of other of our quilts.
I was exhausted by the end of each of my shifts but really did enjoy myself - meeting new people and chatting with fellow guild members staffing the booth!


We are selling tickets for our quilt on-line if you are interested.  The quilt measures 70 x 70'' and we call it Cardinal Migration.  Tickets are on sale through end of the year and the winner will be chosen in our January guild meeting.  You can read more and purchase tickets here.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Saturday, August 25, 2018

One Monthly Goal August Finish Link-up

Ready to link up your August finishes?
Don't panic - this link-up is open until August 31 at 11:55 pm ET.


My goal for August was to assemble my HRTs into my 16" blocks.  I got that done plus the whole quilt top assembled.  (Read more on this post.)



There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, Make Modern Magazine is offering a 6 month subscription to their digital magazine and Elizabeth Hartman is offering one lucky winner an awesome prize - a copy of five of her fabulous patterns - Delightful Desert, Lisa the UnicornGreenhouseSwan Island, and Arctic Feathers .  


Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (
August Goal Setting Link-up.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  


Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

Congratulations to Marly, Anne & Rhonda - our lucky winners for August.  
(Note - winners were notified by email.   Updated 9/2







Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Friday, August 24, 2018

Bias Tape Applique


I made my very first successful bias tape applique project!

The pattern is Airshow and was part of a workshop taught by Latifah Saafir hosted by my local Modern Quilt guild.

Latifah is such a wonderful instructor.  She was patient, personable, knowledgable and encouraging.  She bailed me out at the ironing board when I couldn't quite get the technique down of making the actual bias tape.

When it came time to demo the step of sewing down the bias tape, my machine was ready to go and threaded so she actually did some of my first loop as part of her demo!


(I love my Janome 3160 - it is so portable and lightweight as compared to my regular Janome 6600.*)

My project is going to be a pillow. (I am really into pillows right now!)  I've not yet decided how to quilt this.  I may go with straight lines and then add some FMQ in some places.  The real question is whether to do something special in the loops or just treat the whole piece the same.

If you ever have the opportunity to take a class from Latifah, do so!  She is the best.  (Her dress looked so good - she made it with her own fabric!)


(* Note: affiliate links.)

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

720 Half-Rectangle Triangles


My family spent a week - as we do every summer - at a house on the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

I arrived with all of my HRTs made and assembled into strips of 8 or 4.  Blocks were kitted to avoid (in theory) two of the same of similar fabrics touching.

Once the blocks were made, my daughter helped with the arranging.


My quilt top measures 72 x 80'' and I am just in love with it.  All the fabric is from Sweetwater by Moda - there are at least twenty fabric lines represented including their very first Authentic.  (See list on this post.)

Wind made the photo shoot of the quilt top a bit difficult but nothing beats a photo by a lighthouse!


I'll be quilting this on my domestic machine but no plan yet on how to do this!

My HRTs were 2 x  4 '' finished.  I wrote a tutorial on the process of creating this really fun block.


The lighthouse pictured is the Hatteras lighthouse, iconic for North Carolina.  My husband and son climbed up while my girls and I waited below and waved!


Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, August 20, 2018

Oh My Darling


"Oh, my darling... oh, my darling,...oh my darling Clementine...."

(Sorry to plant that song in your head!)  This is my latest finish, gifted to my daughter in honor of her birthday and her new apartment at school.

The block patterns were part of Fat Quarter Shop's Clementine QAL - this year's charity quilt.  I choose a different setting for my blocks than the QAL and am in love with how it turned out!



Each month, you made one large 20'' block and a smaller 12'' block.  I chose to put 4 of my 12'' blocks on the back of the quilt.  The remaining blocks (1 large, 2 small) will likely become couch pillows.


To quilt, I did straight line quilting with my walking foot on the diagonal, leaving three gaps (roughly 5'' wide) that I filled with one continuous feather.  The quilt measures 68 x 68 ''.


My daughter loves the quilt and will enjoy using it on her couch!  (That said, her couch is going to be yellow - belongs to her room-mate.... not quite sure of the shade of yellow though!)


You can ready more about the QAL and get the finishing instructions on the Jolly Jabber and read more about the Clementine QAL.  



I'll be linking up my finish with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee SocialMidweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Friday, August 17, 2018

Quilters Planner QAL Blocks

Wanted to do a quick check-in on my blocks for the Quilter's Planner QAL.  (I won a prize from their QAL recently from my posting of my July block!)

Here is August - downsized to 6'' finished.


And all 8 blocks together - I love them!





Have a wonderful day! Patty

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Some Bags

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know I love making bags.

I made two recently - one for me and one for a friend!


For these, I used Anna's Wide Open Zippered Pouch tutorial.


And they sure do live up to their name.  This is the middle sized, boxed at 1 1/2 ''.

I also made great progress on a Sew Together Bag.  I enjoy making this bag but only if I spread the construction over several days.  Here is what I have so far -


Hope to finish this one up soon. 

PS - Clearly I like this fabric as a bag lining.  I'm using up bits left over from a quilt back.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, August 13, 2018

Hand quilting

I've decided to hand quilt my hand pieced double wedding ring quilt (see a photo).


My friend Paige sent me all this beautiful 12 wt thread to work with - most of it Sulky with a few from Aurifil.  After trying it out, it was clear that this was perfect for my quilt - I added a few more colors (purples and oranges) and am ready to go.


My original plan was to quilt in the ditch around the wedding rings with hand quilting thread.  I did one ring and have now decided it has added no value so won't be doing it again!  The big stitch quilting should be enough.  Not sure I'll remove what I did (at least not now).

I watched several big stitch tutorials before starting - this technique is the one I am using.  More on that and the frame I'm using in a another post later this month.

Until I've got more quilting done to show you, I'll just share another yummy photo of the thread.



Have a wonderful day! Patty

Thursday, August 9, 2018

A cozy cup of tea

Fat Quarter Shop is revisiting their tutorials and invited me to make a cup cozy (or is it koozie!)

A good excuse to open up a mini charm pack of Overnight Delivery by Sweetwater. 


I had so much fun making the first one, that I made another - the second from scraps.


Aren't these fun?


The hardest part was selecting which mini charms to use - I laid them on top of the template as I made my choices.


For the one made from scraps - and these were some small scraps! - I sewed them onto a piece of fusible batting cut to the shape of the template.


You can find the pattern and a video tutorial here at Fat Quarter Shop.  A few other bloggers are making some too - check it out!



Have a wonderful day! Patty

Monday, August 6, 2018

Small Pieces - MQG challenge


The Modern Quilt Guild hosts a charity quilt challenge every year for local guilds and individual members.  The charity quilts will be displayed at QuiltCon.

The prompt for QuiltCon 2019 is Small Pieces (read more here) and the required fabric colors are all these pretty shades along with white and cream.

I am a member of the Triangle Modern Quilt guild and we've chosen to build our quilt with improv house blocks made with small pieces (an inch or less).  (The blocks are inspired by a quilt by Jaquie Gering.)

What fun I had making my blocks!


I've got some fabric left and may make one more!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Friday, August 3, 2018

July Temperatures


It has been a warm summer!


The first column (of color) on the left is January 1 through 15, next column January 16 through 31 etc which means the last column on the right is July 16 - 31.  I'm using a low volume fabric to fill in months that don't have 31 days plus surrounding the overall temperature quilt.

The quilt measures roughly 32'' x 22''.

No days over 100 degrees yet here in NC - is it strange that I am hoping for at least one?   We did have a day in July reach 99 .... so, so close!


Here is the mapping of color to temperature range - 



I'll be linking up my wip with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee SocialMidweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

One Monthly Goal - August Goal Link-up

Welcome to August!  We had 108 projects linked up in July - let's see what this month brings!


New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project, some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post, an Instagram post (tutorial) or a post on Flickr and add that photo to the link-up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.

We have wonderful sponsors this month - three (3) winners will be randomly chosen from those that link up in both the goal and the finish event.  Plus anyone linking up will earn an entry for the bonus prize.  (Bonus prize to be awarded in October - you can earn up to 3 entries by joining the link-ups July through September.) 


Fat Quarter Shop offers a tremendous selection of fabric, notions, books and just about anything you will need for your project. Consider their Sew Sampler box to receive a monthly surprise delivery of fabric and fun.  Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant.

Make Modern is a digital magazine launched by a collaboration of quilters based in Australia. Their magazine is filled with modern quilt designs and a wonderful source of inspiration. Make Modern is offering a 6 month subscription to one lucky participant.


Aurifil is home to a beautiful rainbow of thread in all weights, perfect for any of your sewing and quilting needs.  My favorite product is the designer collection boxes which coordinate with various fabric lines.  Aurifil is offering a thread set for the third quarter bonus prize.


I am so very excited to introduce Elizabeth Hartman as our August designer!  

Elizabeth is a quilt designer, fabric designer, teacher, and has authored several popular quilting books. Her first book - The Practical Guide to Patchwork - contains all the information she wishes she had known when first starting out as a quilter almost 20 years ago.  Her designs have been featured in multiple magazines.  

Elizabeth designs fabric for Robert Kaufman - her latest line Arctic will be available soon.  

I absolutely love all of Elizabeth's patterns and know you will too.  These blocks are traditionally pieced - no paper piecing involved.  The instructions are very clear and you can't help but smile when the blocks start filling up your design wall.
Credit: Elizabeth Hartman 
Elizabeth is offering one lucky winner an awesome prize - a copy of five of her fabulous patterns - Delightful Desert, Lisa the Unicorn, Greenhouse, Swan Island, and Arctic Feathers .  

You can visit Elizabeth on her website Elizabeth Hartman, her blog, on Instagram and in her pattern store.

My goal for August is to make 19 of my 16" HRT blocks.  A stretch goal is to get the quilt top assembled!  (Read more about my HRT quilt.)

Now it is your turn to link up - what is your goal for August?  (A goal could be to finish a quilt but it could also be to attach a binding.  Whatever it takes to help you move forward and make progress on your projects!  And as long as the project involves making something with a needle and/or fabric, you can link up!)

Make sure you visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 
 Your blog post (or Flickr post) must contain a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and a link back to Elm Street Quilts.  Your Instagram post must include a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and the tag #onemonthlygoal.  (Entries which don't contain the required information may be disqualified.)

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month.   (The One Monthly Goal accomplishment linkup will be available on August 25.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link-up from your blog.  Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post: 
 




Thanks for linking up!




Have a wonderful day! Patty