Tetris

I finished piecing my Tetris quilt today!  I'm trying really hard to get it into the Tetris parade on the 11th, but I'm not sure that I'm that fast at quilting.  Hopefully.

The front (sorry about the weird angle).  The pieces on the border correlate to the order that I put them on the grid (until I didn't need anymore little pieces).  So the one that's folded over (blue square) was first.  The green piece was second, ect.

Here's the back.  I played an actual Tetris game with the pieces.

I guess that, technically, the piecing isn't completed.  I put one of the sides on the back on upside-down.  The good news is that I can just take out that small section and resew.  But it's still annoying.

Check out the other Tetris tops at Happy Quilting!
Also linking up with Whoop whoop Friday.

Back to School Blog Hop

First of all, welcome to the blog hop and a huge thanks to Michele at the Quilting Gallery for organizing it!


My husband recently surprised me with a mid-arm quilter as a gift.  Since it was so completely unexpected, I don't have many quilt tops ready to quilt on it.  Therefore, I am giving away the quilting for two quilts.

These are the designs that I have practiced and feel confident in doing, although I would be happy to consider other easy designs.

From top to bottom, left to right: palm trees (which also look like seaweed or upside-down water lilies), back and forth, squares and rectangles, basic stipple, meandering stars, meandering loops.

I have done a quilt with squares and rectangles and am working on one with the basic stipple and palm trees.

There's some fine print though.
1) I'm still a beginner.  If this is a quilt top that you really love or you want intricate work done, you may not want to enter.
2) The maximum size that I'm willing to do is a queen size.
3) I'm only giving away my time to do the quilting...if you win you can either send me batting and thread also or you can pay me via paypal to use the batting and thread that I have at cost.
4) I am not going to ship outside North America (unless you are willing to pay for return postage).
5) I will guarantee that the quilted quilt will be in the mail by Dec 10.  If you need it earlier, I will do my best to accommodate you.
6) Did you notice that I'm still a beginner?


There are two ways to enter:
1) Tell me which design(s) you would like on your quilt top and what size it is
2) Be or become a follower (and leave an additional comment)

The winners will be chosen Sept 3rd.

Tetris, AQS quilt show

Here is my last Tetris block!  I really wanted to get one of the long ones to go sideways, but it just would not work.  Once I removed that block things came together much better.

I went to the AQS show in Grand Rapids yesterday!  Unfortunately, I also read their photography policy which requests that I not post any pictures from the show.  There were lots of beautiful quilts!  We got there at the opening and I'm really glad that we did...by the time we left it was packed.  I didn't buy much...partially because I don't have a project in mind and partially because there were so many cool fabrics that I didn't know where to start.  I did get one panel though that I think I'll turn into a book.

FMQ practice

I did several sample pieces over the last few weeks of FMQ.


The basic meander along with squares and rectangles.

Seaweed.  Or Palm Trees.  Or, if you look at it upside-down, water lilies.

Meandering loops and meandering stars

Back and forth and echo. Echoing a pattern was harder than I expected...it's hard to keep the long lines straight.

Linking up with Plum and June and Quilting by the River.

Tetris, Block 5

There's only one week left!  Here is block 5.  It isn't as bright as some of the other blocks, but I still like it.

In case you're wondering, if this had been a real game of Tetris where lines disappeared as you filled them up, this is what my grid would look like.

I'm also linking up with Whoop-whoop Friday.

Behind the seams: a mistake

This month's Behind the Seams features a mistake.

My mistake is recent and has to do with the green coasters I was making. 

I put them together, only to realize that there is a huge lump in the middle.  I then used two pieces of batting and cut a hole in the middle of each one.  The first one looks nice.

But if you put a flat bottomed drink on the coaster, it has a significant tilt...way to much to be useful as general purpose coasters.  They'll work for mugs, at least.

Sigh.  I still want to finish them, but am not feeling very motivated about it.  Since this is a recent WIP, I'll also be joining WIP Wednesday.

So, what's your mistake?  Were you able to salvage the work?  Does it now give it character or is it obvious that it is a mistake?  This linky party is ideally supposed to be a subject that you can post about if you need some interesting post material.  (Or if you just find the subject interesting.)  I found that I just wasn't making enough progress on my quilts to justify another progress post and wanted something different to post about sometimes.  Here's how it works:

1) The linky part will be open for a year.  I'd like to encourage you to post within the first month, as I'll be reminding people to go back and look at the posts, but it isn't required.
2) I'll be announcing the topic and opening the party on the 15th of each month.
3) Feel free to link posts that you've written in the past.

Thanks for joining me!

Behind the Seams: ironing board

Welcome to the second Behind the Seams!  This time we're talking about our ironing boards.

I'll admit - mine is one of the ugly ones. I cut right through the fabric in one spot.  (It turns out that rotary blades are sharp!)  There are water stains all over it. 

It is also the small size ironing board, with a length of about 2.5 feet.  While this can be annoying when I'm dealing with large pieces of fabric, it is also about the right size for me to put on my lap.  So not only is it an ironing board, but it is also my portable work station.  (You can see it in action here.)  Maybe I should clean off my desk so that I can use the desk instead, but I've found that when I put my ironing board on my lap it is a really nice height for cutting and pinning.  And it is easier to watch Netflix at the same time. :)

This linky party is ideally supposed to be a subject that you can post about if you need some interesting post material.  (Or if you just find the subject interesting.)  With that in mind, I'm making a few changes.

1) The linky part will be open for a year.  I'd like to encourage you to post within the first month, as I'll be reminding people to go back and look at the posts, but it isn't required.

2) I'll be announcing the topic and opening the party on the 15th of each month.  (I'll open the next one up tomorrow.)  This way you can write the post and link immediately.

3) Feel free to link posts that you've written in the past.

Thanks for joining me!

Tetris: week 4

So here I was at my sewing machine last night, chain sewing my Tetris blocks together.  I get ready to cut them apart only to realize that the bottom bobbin ran out of thread.  And that the middle two rows weren't sewn together.  Nor were the top two rows.  In fact, I had only managed to sew the first block in the bottom two rows together.  :(  There should be a warning beep when the bobbin is gone.

But after rewinding some bobbins, I got the block done!  I think this is my favorite one so far.

I laid everything out.  I'm excited about how it's turning out.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and Tetris QAL.

Pets on Quilts: Flurry

Meet Flurry, my quilt tester.

She makes sure that all my quilts meet her lazing and napping standards. 

She also does a pre-quilt inspection on most of my fabric, just to make sure that everything is looking ok.

My pass rate is still 100%, so I must be doing something right.

See more !

July accomplishments, August goals

Happy August!

Here was the list for July:
1. Finish the mending.  Done!  Hurray! 

2. Make leaders for the quilter.  Done!
3. Practice with the quilter.  Done!


And...I finished all of these within the first half of July.  Which meant I had plenty of time to work on some of the other things that I wanted to do.

4. work on the heart quilt. I am currently working on the red hearts, so 7/21 hearts are finished.
5. participate in the Tetris quilt-a-long.  I am staying up-to-date.  This has been a really fun QAL.  Here is my lastest block:

6. finish the coasters I found some batting that is the right size.  Does that count as progress?
7. start an I-spy quilt I started cutting out pieces for this.  I laid them out this morning to see how many more I needed.  (I wasn't looking for actual order, so I don't like the placement of most of them.)  And I already have too many...with lots of fabrics left to cut!  So I need to either 1) have fewer fabrics in the quilt, 2) add a border of novelty fabrics instead of a solid border or 3) make another maze on the back.

8. quilt the baby quilt  Done!  It doubled as quilting practice, so I was able to cross off two things with one item.

9. come up with a design for the fabric I won - still thinking
10. Make a pattern for the heart block - I think the templates are ready, but I want to put together one or two more first. Then add some instructions.

So my top three for next month:
1. Stay up-to-date with the Tetris blocks
2. Finish the coasters
3. Practice with the quilter.

And the other things on my list:
4. work on the heart quilt
5. work on the I-spy quilt
6. Come up with a design for the fabric I won
7. Make a pattern for the heart block
8. Quilt my MILs quilt.
9.  Shower curtian

My list is getting shorter!

Linking up with the Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet, Just Three with Traceyjay Quilts.