Been sewing up a storm...

I have been sewing up a storm.  There is such nice Christmas fabric out there this year.  I never really had a desire to do a Christmas Quilt per say.  I always thought that the season was just too short.  This year after doing the Nine Patch Block swap, I decided to participate in a Christmas Star block swap. It sure has been fun.

Twenty five or six woman are making different Star Blocks using classic red, green, white and gold Christmas fabric. It was decided that we could you the white for the background.  SO I have been busy making my twenty-four blocks 

I have the Mariners Compass Star which happens to be a paperpieced block. It has been a long time since I did a paper pieced block so I needed to do some home work.  I went online and found a couple of different patterns but had trouble remembering how to contruct the block.  I got my foundation paper and made some copies but I just could not remember how to do the block.  Paper piecing can be a challenge for a dyslexic like me. With Paper piecing you are really construction the block backwards using a piece of vellum paper as your form, since a dyslexic already does things backwards in their brain this was difficult for me to remember how to do it.

After a week of wasting paper and fabric, I bought a book!  I found a block with a block which represents a different country.  I picked the Africa block because it was simple and had 4 colors. I made the first block per the instructions and it all came rushing back!  I remember how to do this !  I found my post card and before I knew it I was off and running!

Here's the paper pattern and the four Christmas fabrics which I used. I finished them in two weeks...and will be sending them off to Kim in Ohio today.  Sometime the first week of December or so she will send me one of each of the 24 star blocks that she recieves from all the people who participated and I will have the makings of a beautiful new Christmas Quilt.

I will share with you the all blocks that I recieve and the finished quilt sometime in 2011 when it is done.
I hope that you have enjoyed this.


I have been busy making 10 minute table runners for Christmas. I have one small wall hanging to finish assembling and then get it to the quilter...Since I do not have my macine yet and I am running out of time. I hope that you all enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday and the Christmas season as it begins in earnest.

Thanks for my many blessings!

Love,

Jan

Nine patch Swap

It was fun to participate in the Nine Patch Swap with the members of the Machine Quilting Professional Yahoo Group in September. I was disappointed when I first heard about the swap in August. I had so much to do to get ready for my trip overseas that I would have no spare time for making Nine Patches blocks. It was such a disappointment. I told myself, “Jan, you just can’t do everything!” And immediately remembered how often I had told my boys that when they were growing up. So I just put it out of my mind and figured that there would be another block swap that I could get involved with at a better time....
 
When I arrived home on the 21st of September and went thru by back log of email, I noticed that there were still posts about the Nine Patch swap. It looked like there were still people who were getting involved with it. They had decided to push the finish date out on the swap until the first week of October. ”Nine Patches are quick to make, in two weeks I can get a set done and get some for my beginner's quilt class too", I had thought. My class will start in November at the Material Girl in Crystal Lake. The more I thought about it, I could get a set done in a day or two. So I asked if it was too late to join and the swap organizer assured me that it was not. So I got some fabric and I was off and sewing. Before I knew it I had 8 completed for my sewing class and two sets of twenty blocks done for the block swap! It was so much fun.



I sent them just in time and anxiously awaited my return package!  The day that it arrived in my mailbox, my husband was in his sarcastic but playful mood when he handed me the package and said, "Oh so you are sending yourself mail these days!!!".  I just stuck my tongue out at him and grabbed my packaged....I tried to explain to him about the "self address envelope" and the quilt block swap but he did not seem interested in hearing about it. He just walked off to the other room in the middle of my explanation... So  ... I hurried off in the other direction ripping open the envelope as I went.  As I sank into the chair at my computer, I examined the new blocks I received.  They are very pretty and a wide variety of pretty batik fabrics. 

I have decided that I will set them “on point”.  I am hoping that they will appear to float on the quilt surface.  This Photo is of one half of the blocks.  I took them to my local Quilt Shop and found a fabric to use as the back ground and some possible borders.  What do you think?  It is a cream background with small letters and numbers on it which create a bit of a marbled effect at a distance.  This winter (after the Christmas rush) I will work on this one…I will keep you up todate on how this goes as I put it together.

In the mean time I have signed on again for another swap. This one is a Star Swap using Christmas colors of red, green, gold and white. I have the Mariner’s Compass Star. It is a foundation block. I have not done a  foundation block in a few years so I had to re-teach myself….But that is a dyslexic story for another blog.

Happy Stitchin’,

Jan