The Start of Another Week

Here is my Design Ironing Board for 7/30/12.  Here are 6 of the 10 completed blocks for a swap: two more to go.  These have not had their final press so they hare not in the BOM box, yet.  I still have 12 blocks for a second swap to sew but they are all embroidered and the pieces cut so it will just be assembly line sewing on Wednesday to have them ready for the mail.


My real accomplishment was my apple core placemat.  I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with my apple core experiment but this past weekend I decided that it would make a great table mat and decided how I was going to accomplish it.


The first thing I did was to find a backing fabric: a fat quarter from stash.  Then I pinned the cores to the backing, right sides together, along with a leftover piece of batting.







I realize it is hard to see one piece from the other so here is a close-up of the one pinned to the other.









I then sewed all around the outside of the apple cores, 1/4” away from the edge, leaving about a 4” opening at one end.






I then cut the new sewn together three pieces right at the edge of the cores. 







Next I cut the outside edge of the batting as close to the stitching as I could get.






Now tell me, doesn’t this look funny?  This is what my mat looked like while I was turning it.
Before I turned it I trimmed the corners to have as little bulk as possible.



After sewing the turning hole closed (whip stitched) it was time to quilt.  The first thing I did was to stitch in the winding ditch.  I did this on my domestic straight stitch machine that has a pinstitch feature.






But once I had the ditches stitched I decided to add some echo stitching.  And I must say I really like how it looks.  I, however, did decide that when I make a larger apple core quilt, I will not quilt it this way.






And here it is in it’s new home on the deck.

My apple core GO die has arrived at my LQS and I will be picking it up Wednesday but even though I really enjoyed making this mat, it will be a while before I start a full sized apple core quilt.  I have way too many on going projects to start that anytime soon.


This week I will be working on my Carol Doak BOM block, the rest of my swap blocks and the borders on Henrietta.  Let’s see if I can get most of that done, shall we?

Deck update: 
I bought another hanging plant.  It is not easy to find orange flowers so when I saw this it had to come home with me.  We have also be sitting in a lot of rocking chairs but it is hard to find one that fits and rocks well so we keep sitting and sitting.

Now, if you are not too tired, why don’t you hop on over to Patchwork Times to see what a bunch of other quilters are working on.

Design Wall Monday and More

My Design Wall contains Henrietta  Whiskers.  All of the blocks are done and the borders are cut.  Here some of them are on the wall so I could see how they played with the blocks.  Now, nothing is sewn together.  My plan is to sew the cream and small brown borders together first so I can do the applique that is supposed to be on them.  I must say that I usually do not follow the designer’s plans for their blocks but in this case I am going to try to come as close as I can.





I do have one finish, this visor.  This is my Color Challenge piece.  And the visor came from a tutorial offered by Vicki.  It is a wide-brimmed visor and is pretty easy to make.  I plan do to a couple more (I do drive a convertible, you know) but will probably make a smaller brim for car use.







You may notice that my fabric has all of the bright colors and to get the purple in, I used purple thread for the quilting on the brim.










On Sunday I started cutting my “ugly” fabrics.  I cut strips that should fit the paper piecing pattern I created last week.  I still need to cross cut these strips but I feel I am on my way.









And, while I was doing all that cutting, I started on my first Christmas project.  Don’t hate me!  I just got what I think is a great idea, found what I needed so there was no reason not to get started.  And, of course, I am more than a little proud of myself. 









I have set up some temporary seating on the deck but now I am on the lookout for a set of rockers.










But while I look I found some hanging basket flowers for the roof.












I have always wanted hanging flowers and was really excited to find these that offer color in our gray and green world.    I plan for more plants, maybe after I find the rockers.  Can you tell I am still excited about our covered deck?