All done but 3, ran out of time and didn't get pictures, that is a job for tonight. Maybe. Taking DH and DGS to air port, have to leave middle of the night Tuesday/Wednesday, will have to help get him packed and all that. But then.......... I'll be batching it for 2 weeks!! I am going to appologize to Groovy. I had never met a block I couldn't conquer, til now! And not enough material to redo. I think it will "pass", but I try to make them much better for you guys!! I have the same result, but a little different method. LOL If you will tell me the name of that fabric (the one with the dots) I will see if I can find it somewhere. I've never been afraid of set in seams, don't know what happened here.
You know, I can be pretty darn dense some days. I spent a pretty fair amount of time last night trying to figure out whatI must have done with the 3 missing fabrics. OMG!! How could I have been so stupid to loose something so important. DAH!!!!! Bee and Groovy. Why did I think you each had multiple entries? Grrrrrrrrr. My bad!! LOL This has been a LOT of fun.

Morning All . . .

My apologies to all for such a 'stinker' of a block - All pretty blocks are not always friendly! ! !
(lesson learned)

If you're really not feeling good about it's construction, make a block that feels good to you. The Vets are going to love'm anyway.

And BUSLADY . . . No worries . . . make your favorite block FROM YOUR STASH (won't let you blame a trip to your favorite quilt store on me. . .:D ), smile, & mark it down as done. There are lots of Vets, so I'll be able to use whatever block you send my way. . . .GP

Good morning one and all. JUst a reminder that all blocks must mailed out on April 15 so that I will have them a few days later. Are you getting excited?????? I am.

Groovy!! That block is very pretty and I absolutely didn't mind the challenge, just wish I had used some scrap fabric for my first try!! I hate that I messed up YOUR fabric. And I guess I didn't really mess it up, it just isn't perfect! Then again, what is? LOL

I liked GroovyPiece's block too. I thought it might be tricky, so I made a practice one first! :-)))) It's one to use in a child's quilt, where I put in the middle a 9-patch instead of making it like the original pattern. Here's what it looks like.
I've put my blocks in the mail. I've had fun making blocks for all of you! It's especially nice to come online, chat with you, and see your progress on our blocks. :-)

WOW Givio, that is great. Looks like a present with a ribbon and bow! You are right, that would make a beautiful childs quilt.

All blocks are on their way. Got pkg in the mail today. That was fun.

It is getting more exciting to see April has arrived. I hope that most of you are seeing spring buds everywhere. although I just saw a picture of friends living in Colorado and they still have snow. Sigh. Don't despair, spring really wants to pop out. Here in Southern CA it was cold yesterday. I know, I know, don't feel sorry for me. I had to wear a sweatshirt for the first time this year. Had to look for one as I couldn't remember where I packed them. LOL
Went to Church last night and I fell. Couldn't believe it. Totally missed the step down as I was walking through the court yard. Landing on my knees and rolled to my side. Darn, I am too old for this. Of course you feel silly as all get out and cautious look around to see if anyone saw you. Nope, all alone am I. I sat there stinging from the afront on my knees. Ouch. No blood. So I guess I was ok. Today I am just a little sore in the knees, that is good.
Why do we feel embarass when we fall? I wonder if we just realize that we can be helpless at times when we grow older. Sigh.....gotta watch those steps next time......they have a habit of sneaking up on you.

OOOOO! I hope all is ok! I fell like 3 times last winter. This winter, not yet. Knock on wood! You are right, the first thing we think is "did anyone see that?" Who cares!! LOL My DH said he fell on Sunday, same reaction!! I hope your knees aren't too sore for too long!!

Barb....looks like you need a big "boo-boo" sticker! You got the ouchies! I agree falling is disconcerting no matter how old we are....from birth, we humans just don't like falling down! And especially when it results in pain and bruising. Maybe its the fear of loosing control. As a person with Parkinson's, I can so relate to "the hope no one is watching" feeling. I function is first gear most of the time, but I still arrive on time. The good thing about maturing is the extra batting we accumulate along the way :). Hope you are on the mend. I know my day is coming, so I've decided to just roll with it! :)

the extra padding does not help with the knees. No matter how I trip/fall - it is always the right knee. Going up stars is not good.

I have 3 blocks left to do. And I am home alone for nearly 2 weeks. I think I will be fine!! Can't wait to get home tonight and start my weekend! Already have 2 of them cut out and the third one material chosen. I usually do one at a time, but jumped on these the other night!! Can't wait to get them back and put them with the fast and furious group so I can make this quilt. Making it extra big for my king size bed. I'm thinking of doing it in quarters for the quilting and then sewing the quarters together. I'm thinking this will be easier to handle on my home machine. Anyone tried this before?

Buslady! Wow, I thought the same thing... I want to machine quilt, but don't have the energy to tug a big quilt around using my home sewing machine. I don't mind a baby size quilt, but I just don't have the desire with something larger. I've put together a quilt top in sections and now I'm going to try doing as you suggest. It's my first time doing it that way. Any tips, anyone? I thought I'd quilt the pieces, then sew the seams for the top, hand stitch the seams on the back, then bind it. I'm not too excited about it because I like the quilt lines to be flowing across the top, and with this option they will stop abruptly at the seam line. So, it's sort of a practice thing that I don't care about very much... I want to see how it goes.

I quilt in rows. I do the first row. then I do a second row and sew those together. I have to hand sew the back down but it looks fine and I can handle that. Doing rows is not so heavy and hard to deal with. It does get heavy when you get near the end of the rows but it is not like having to deal with the whole top all the time. then I add the broders and it really is easy doing the borders. I just scrunch up the quilt and work on each border to quilt. Then I add my binding.

If you all need a picture of one that I have done I will take one.

Nelco.....tripping up the stairs is always a huge ouchie. I landed more on my left knee and rolled. LOL. I have a bruise now but I am ok.

Here is mine so far, just to give you an idea of what the quilt will look like. I am embroidering tea cups in the centers. I think that it is going to look really nice.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]470154[/ATTACH]

Today I am going to a workshop. We are going to be doing a reproduction of an olde quilt but we will be using scrappy squares of today's fabric. Plus it will have a medallion center. I had to cut 72 6 1/2 inch blocks. Phew. And they all had to be different. Mine is definitely going to be scrappy. The problem with medallion quilts is that I quilt as I go so I have to do the Medallion first and then quilt each border as it is added on. So I may not totally put this quilt together and then maybe I will as we have a lady near here who will do the large quilts in a meandering pattern for $45. I might just cough up the dough for that. I'll decide as I put this puppy together today. LOL

urgodschild2, sure! I'd love to see how you QAYG. Could you take some pictures? How does your seam look on the back? How close to you quilt to the edge of the row, near where you will make the seam for the next row? Does it mean you don't have quilting for about an inch around both sides of where the seam to put them together goes? Do you go back and quilt in the ditch for where you sew the rows together? If so, how does it look on the back then?

Ok tomorrow I will take some pict. and show you how I do it.

Ok, I'll check back to see how you do it. I'd like to machine quilt, but I don't like struggling with a big quilt! I've seen several methods, including sewing the complete top, then quilting from the center out, adding the batting and the back in pieces...

Count me in....would love to learn how to do this. I have quilted 3 large quilts on my machine. Tiring! And not much control of free motion stitching!

I'm thinking that I would stop the quilting out from the seams a couple of inches and go back in and quilt that little bit after it is sewn together. That would reinvorce the "joint" and make it look like it was done all together. Depending on the type of quilting you do, this could be simple, or not. But definitely better than fighting the entire big quilt the entire time!!
Finished up my squares this weekend. Have them with me to mail, but not the address. Could somone please PM me the address I am supposed to send them to? Thank you.
Gonna try and post pictures today, but really need to get some work done, first. LOL

OOOOOOh!! I love the teacup idea!!!

Done!!
 

:o Here goes, in no particular order

2 more
 

Last 2 wouldn't fit in last post. LOL

Now that feels good!!

ok here goes. I have never taught anyone how to do this so bear with me. this is how I do it. It took me about three quilts to narrow it down to this technique and I am sure that i will keep tweeking it as I make more.

This is what the finished quilt looks like. I picked this one to show you because the quilting is not fancy
[ATTACH=CONFIG]470564[/ATTACH]

I put a row going across together or you could do it in columns. So the most you are dealing with is a 12 1/2 strip of fabric. If I am doing a design, I mark it with the Frixon pens that you just iron off when you are finished. They work great for me. On this quilt I did not need to mark anything until I got to the borders.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]470565[/ATTACH]So going across I just sewed inside each piece. I leave about an inch at the bottom so that I can attach the next row. Then I do the next row by itself. Then I attach the two rows by sewing tops back to back.
Then I turn the quilt over and by hand I cut off excess batting and material so that I have enough there to turn under to attach to each other. Then I hand sew across. I also will on some quilt use the machine to stitch in the ditch across where it is attached. I did that on this quilt.

Sorry about the blurry picture. Next step
[ATTACH=CONFIG]470566[/ATTACH]This is the back. don't know why it is showing red there because it is bright yellow.
Because I used the same material it is difficult to see the stitching across but you can see the machine work.
I repeat this process. As you get down to the last rows you are now getting heavy work but at least it wasn't heavy all the time. I only work on the row side so it is easier going through the machine.

when I am done. I add borders. Borders are easier sort of. Grin. I take the border material for the front and the backing and attache them to the quilt. Then I cut the batting and fix it to fit the border. I spray baste it down and then I quilt it. I am only working with the outside of the quilt so it is easier. I did put a feather pattern on this. I am practicing and learning how to do free motion quilting with m darning foot. When you use this foot it frees your material to move where ever you want it to go. The practice comes in being consistent in your stitching. I am not perfect on this yet. I know they tell you to practice on scraps but I have to practice on the real thing.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]470567[/ATTACH]Hope you can see it. I hope this helps all of you. I know some people do each square at a time and that was too much for me. Then someone here on the board said they do it by columns......so I decided why not. I did columns on my grandson's quilt because of the design I picked. I will look for a picture of that one and post it.

Great tutorial!! Thank you! I mailed my blocks out, got the address!! Thanks everyone.

Buslady~ Thanks! I like the block you made for me! :-) Are they all flowers-- or is the one in the center something else? It's sort of hard to tell what that middle print is. I can't wait to see it in person!

urgodschild, So how close do you come to the seam with your quilting? Do you leave an inch space not quilted in order to sew the next row on? Or can you quilt closer to the seam than that? Or is it just an experiment for how close I'm comfortable? I think if I quilt out to the edge, leaving only 1/4", then try to make that last 1/4" into the seam it will be too much of a struggle, or will it? I could see all your pictures and directions well, thanks. I didn't think about sewing both the top and the back when I got to the border, then stuffing the batting in afterward. Good tip!

I used all florals, but now that you ask, the one in the middle was a garden scene and had more than just flowers. I hope it is OK. I was a little confused as to wheter or not I was supposed to use those background fabrics at all in the flower part. You didn't mark them to be cut from floral, but you removed them from the cutting chart for the background. I like the way it turned out and I think that quilt is going to be georgeous!!

Buslady, Yeah, I think my instructions were not very clear. But I'm glad that everyone seems to understand that I was hoping for floral prints! Since the name of the block was 'Grape Basket,' maybe it's traditionally fruit prints in it, but I like flowers! :-)

Good morning to all of you. We are getting down to the wire with only 6 days left until all blocks must be mailed to me. Just to check, I have received the following

The MamaHauser
Moonrise
Nelco
Gaijin
givio
LJDugas 31
Paperpieceme
Pbadder
Bee Beatty

She got mine yesterday!! Yeah!!!!

Your directions were fine! Just open to interpretation! LOL

It's getting exciting! I hope soon the blocks will be coming home! :-)

Me too! Can't wait for the "big squishy" to arrive!

Bee is buzzing!

Bee-- Your sense of humor amuses me. :-) Just thought I'd let you know!
...I think you must be a fun friend to have. :-)))

Givio,

Thank you for the very nice compliment! I love to find the humor in life and share with others. I enjoy Quilting Board...a great place to share a chuckle or two....a smile in the busy day. Looking forward to more giggling and swapping with you in the days ahead :::)))

(Buzzy) Bee

Oh my goodness. where did the time go? It is April 14 and tomorrow is the day. The big day. Can you all believe it. Tomorrow is the day to mail your finished blocks to me. For those who are still out there and if you are having trouble meeting that date....pm me so that we can know. Excited to see them all here.