The Triangle Project

Here a peak of my newest project. It's coming along nicely I think. Do you recognize what it is? I hope so. If not, I hope you'll figure it out when the quilt top is complete. Many of the outer pieces are taped in place waiting to be sewn - see the tape? I add about 10-20 pieces to this each day.

I'm busy packing my car today with quilts, books, etc. Tomorrow I'll be setting up my booth at the Fountain City Quilt Show in Prattville, AL. I'm also clipping threads on my magazine quilt, getting it ready to ship to be photographed.

Next week, I definitely need to clean my studio. Oh, it is a wreck! I need to get my act together and now!

Triangles!

My hand pieced triangle project is coming along nicely.  All those green basting threads will come out eventually. The most difficult part of this project is picking out the fabric for each triangle. So is this an abstract art piece? Absolutely NOT! (Though I may make an abstract in this technique soon.)

Believe it or not, this is actually a portrait art quilt. I so hope it turns out the way I planned! If not, THEN I'll call it abstract - hehe! In another week or so (I hope!) it will start looking like something (or someone).

This weekend I'm going to have my own booth at a quilt show in Prattville, AL. So I'm working on gathering and packing and checking things off a long list to get ready. I hope to make a little banner today. Plus I'm getting my March hexie BOM ready to post in a few days here. So many projects going on around here!

Our life here in Auburn revolves around 3 seasons: football, baseball, and lake. We are now officially in baseball season. We have season tickets and go to lots of the games. The biggest difference between going to a college football game and a college baseball game? I can sew at baseball games! And I do! I pack a little bag with hexies or triangles, and I get so much done while I enjoy the game.

Hope you're having a great sewing day!

I'm Obsessed and Out of Control...

I finished my magazine quilt early in the week. Yay! I still have to write the article that will go with it, but I'll work on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've started a new project. It involves triangles. Lots of triangles. 214, to be exact. 

Every single triangle is a different size with different angles. I have to pick the fabric individually for every single triangle. Every single one.

After mulling over how to put this thing together, I finally decided to use English Paper Piecing.

Yes, you heard me correctly. I, who makes her hexagons WITHOUT using EPP, is now using it for triangles.

I could have broken the pattern down into sections and machine paper pieced it instead. But I hate machine paper piecing. And I love hand work.

So my dining room table is a huge mess and I cannot stop working on this quilt. I start in the morning before I pour my coffee. I work on it all day. I work until 11 at night. I am a mad woman.

I haven't been this excited about a project in a long time. I can't wait to finish it so I can see if it actually works! If if does indeed look like I intend it to look, it will be really, REALLY cool.

By the time I go to bed tonight I'll have about 39 of the 214 pieces sewn in place. I'm averaging about 20 pieces per day. Sigh. I'm a happy camper.

A Trip to the Antique Mall

I work very hard on my quilting every single day. Monday through Friday I'm home alone hard at work until hubby gets home from work. I do go to quilting meetings and luncheons every month, but a couple of weeks ago I was absolutely stir crazy from being home all week. So off I went to one of my favorite places - the local antique mall. Here are a few of the treasures I spotted.

I was drawn to this antique thread cabinet with glass front drawers. Here's the tag below. Note the price. EEKS!

I love this matte finish old Singer - really cool!  Price was $139.

I was really tempted on this metal Singer sign. It would be gorgeous in my studio. But at $125, I passed.

Another old machine, marked down to $50.

And this little sewing table was really calling my name. The top lifts to store thread and other little notions. That's one big drawer below to stow your project. Lovely!

Go check out The Hexie Blog to see how I fixed a ruined quilt.

Almost Done!

I'm hand stitching the binding on the magazine project! Yay! So excited that I knocked this out so fast...

Cooper loves to help me bind quilts.

I've Been Hibernating...

Last weekend, Hubby helped me hang some of my older quilts. I've been wanting to get more of them up and displayed. This is one of my all time favorites. I made it using the techniques I developed for my first book, Fabric Photo Play. Our girls had gone to the mall and came home with photo booth shots. I immediately stole borrowed the photos and made this quilt.  It's SO long that it's always hard to find a place to hang it, but it works well in this out of the way spot.

We hung this one over the back door way up high. It's called "My Blogging Neighborhood." I entered a swap/giveaway at a blog for house blog and was lucky enough to win 9 blocks from all over the world. I had fun putting this one together.

Where have I been lately? Hunkered down SEWING! I was contacted by a magazine a couple of weeks ago asking for a quilt in ONE MONTH! Yay! Yikes! I designed it quickly and have been working on the top since then. Today I finished the top!

This afternoon I basted it to the batting and backing and tomorrow the quilting will begin. Yippee! Though designed and made it so fast, it's really one of my favorites - a happy quilt!