Christmas Carpenter Star

 

Christmas Carpenter Star on the Fence

I am giddy with how out it came out. The Carpenter Star pattern was a gift from a quilting friend while we were on a retreat together. It has been fun to see what the other gals have made with their Star and the different fabrics used.

 

Border Print is Pine Cones and Needles - Looks great hanging in the pine tree in my back yard.

Binding with a Flange

 Karen's Quilts, Crows, Cardinals - Red Bird Co. has a great tutorial on how to make binding with a flange. For this quilt I had to make some adjustments as I didn't want quite the over lap of binding on the front as per her instructions. It simply would have covered some of my free motion quilting design. On another quilt, not having quilting so close to the edge as mine, it would be gorgeous with larger width of binding. Can't wait to try it again. Thanks Karen for such a wonderful tutorial and showing us another great way to enhance our quilts. As Karen did I used 12 wt. thread to stitch the flange down. It nicely shows off the stitching.

Metallic Gold Thread Gridwork 

Not shown here the cornerstones on the red narrow frame were also quilted with metallic gold thread in even more smaller grid work. My plan was to incorporate more metallic gold but changed my mind.

 

Feathers and Grid work

Ribbon Candy and Scallop Designs

If you go back to the first picture above you will see that the piano key stitching ended up being every 1 inch vs. every 2 inches which helped the scallop border to be more prominent.

Ribbon Candy

I just love the Ribbon Candy design! It took some practice and penciled in lines 1/2 inch on each edge to make the curves in the "S". Ribbon Candy seemed quite appropriate on the  Christmas Carpenter Star quilt.

Linking up with:

Show Off Saturday 
Monday Making 
Main Crush Monday 
Linky Tuesday at Free Motion at the River 
Lets Bee Social 
Crazy Mom Quilts
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop! 

April 27, 2016  - An Addendum - Christmas Carpenter Star  was a quilt on my list to finish in April! I met the challenge of completing the biggest project for OMG - One Monthly Goal at Red Letter Quilts. 

I wrote about entering the quilt as the goal to finish - here. And here is an in between message, a progress report - here.

I also wrote about finishing the flimsy for the Christmas Tree wall hanging. I have 3 more days and it looks pretty iffy at the moment. Progress has been made where I reinforced the pattern in order to paper piece it after cutting out the pattern sections and ordered more fabric needed to complete it. 

Again thank you to Heidi for hosting OMG - A Monthly Goal! Need any encouragement to finish those unfinished projects? If so join us at her linky parties. She is giving away prizes too,nice ones at that! Though that is great, the best is getting those projects   completed!

It's Coming Along!

Each step I made a decision as to what the quilting design would be, not planned ahead. So far I am quite pleased. I was planning on zigging every other block in the grid, but realized somewhere along the way the grid was not equal on each side. Any additional stitching would only highlighted that the grid was off center.

There are 2 layers of Warm and Soft batting which gives the star a trapunto effect. I used my hopping/darning foot to free motion quilt the feathers. This is the foot I have been using for years to free motion quilting.

In the latest issue of APQS magazine I was reading about a free motion quilting foot that fits a Janome. I had not idea that there was such a thing. And of course I went web exploring and found it on Amazon, one that would fit my low-shank Janome. So I found it, bought it and received it in 2 days! I only experimented with it but I can't wait to use it on the borders of the pictured Carpenter Star Wall Hanging. Actually I am naming it my Christmas Carpenter Star Wreath.

Since I was using my hopping foot I used monofilament thread so the stitching didn't show too much. Oh I should say so my imperfections didn't shine.

The center of the star with the grid work is done in gold metallic thread. I am thinking about using it in the red border as well but not sure about the design yet. Remember I said no planning, just designing as I go along.

 

My new toys! Can't wait to try them out! The far right is a 1/4 ruler foot and a small open toe foot. Now I will have to see what I can find in free motion quilting rulers.

Linking up at:

April OMG Projected Projects to Complete

Christmas in April

April is going to be a very busy month for me business wise.  Therefore, I am choosing a rather small uncompleted project to finish this month.  For certain I plan to complete the Carpenter Star flimsy by sandwiching it, quilting it and binding it. It was a gifted pattern while on a quilt retreat last September. Many of the attendees made up this same pattern having  seen some lovely pillows completed and other blocks in a variety of different colors and fabrics. I chose Christmas fabric and decided to make a wall hanging to adorn my walls at Christmas. My version has 3 added borders to the block.  Better to get it done now than wait for the busy season when stretched in December. I have some other ideas brewing on how to make it more Christmasy.

And just in case I have underestimated myself on how much is possible to complete in April I plan to complete another Christmas flimsy using Tall Trim the Tree pattern purchased at the same quilt retreat as mentioned above. Fabric in the picture below is from Thousands of Bolts. They were having a great sale on fabric. I am so excited about making this in order to have yet another quilt to decorate my walls come Christmastime.

Pictured below is another project in the works. It isn't a quilt planned to be finished this month or next month, or the month after that.The blocks are paper pieced and it takes me about one week to make 2 blocks. While in the shower the other morning I wondered how a stripe set-in-block would look in "Bird's Nest in Wyoming Valley"  It looks rather Christmasy too, though not intended. Ivory shows off the blocks more and frames it bit while the stripes brightens the quilt up. The green set-in blocks with larger borders looks great too!

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

OMG! I Did It - Baby Woodlands Quilt is Finished

Once again I learned that setting a goal works! You might not think that it should take the better part of a month to complete a baby quilt.. In March I received 3 new major business projects to complete. Many mornings began at 5:30 a.m. at my computer. Actually it is now 4:55 a.m. as I write this blog to announce a completed quilt, one that was completed last evening by sewing on the name label.

  Woodlands Baby Quilt Finish!

Big Thanks to Red Letter Quilts 

Hosting OMG One Monthly Goal!

 Linking up with:
 Red Letter Quilts:OMG
 My Quilt Infatuation Needle and Thread Thursday

Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!

Quilting Projects in Progress

Thank you to all who commented, helping me to make a decision on the Woodsland Baby quilt in its beginning stages. Your suggestions helped!! Since I asked about the color of cornerstones, Michele, Irina and O'Quilts said go with the orange ones.  I had to agree it needed a pop color. Rather than orange cornerstones I added a 1 1/2" orange border. It definitely brightened up the quilt.

Marlene and Kathy said no sashing. I liked the quilt without the sashing, but I needed to make this quilt larger. I didn't want to make anymore blocks. The sashing did tone down the green fabric almost too much. So the orange border brighten it up, and the medium green cornerstones gave more color, while pulling in color from the blocks. Actually the orange border also pulled in color from the log cabin variation blocks as well.

Then I added another border using the same green used in the Shoo Fly block, which also brightened up the quilt. So what do you think?

I now have two sewing stations and am able to have a least 2 projects going on at the same time. Currently, I am using my large quilting table to quilt the Woodsland Baby Quilt.

In the evenings I have been paper piecing another quilt that was designed on Electric Quilt. It will have 37 blocks that will be set on-point. It takes about two evenings to complete a block and will take several months to complete all the blocks, but that is okay.  It keeps my hands busy sewing rather than facebooking on my Ipad, and snacking in the evenings.

The fabric in this quilt has lived in my stash going on five years. It was intended for another quilt pattern which I don't want to make now. Do you do that purchase fabric for a particular pattern and end up using it for another quilt?

As I have mentioned above I now have two sewing stations. My husband purchased this small sewing table on Amazon and I put it together myself. The leaf on the table folds down and can be easily stored in a smaller room. It is so much easier to sew on the sewing table rather than on 2 tv trays butted up together and sitting at my recliner. We had an extra small desk chair on rollers so I didn't need to buy another. Did you notice the sewing table has castors? So much easier to move than having to push the tv trays out and holding on to the sewing machine hoping it didn't fall off.

My favorite part of the day is when I can say good night computer, eat dinner, then turn on my sewing machine in the bonus room, and watch NetFlix with my husband. What a great way to make more quilts. It feels like I more productive too!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

With green cornerstones?

I think I have it narrowed down as to which is my favorite variation. I called my husband into my sewing room and requested his opinion which he happily gave.

So now I am asking your opinion on which sashing, with or without sashing, what color for the cornerstones and fabric for the border?

 No cornerstones?

 

With chocolate cornerstones?

No sashing?

Which border?

With ivory narrow sashing & orange cornerstones?

With sashing and green cornerstones

With plaid like sashing and orange cornerstone?

 Thank you for your input!!

It's March and Time to Plan Next Project to Finish

Oh my Gosh! February went by in a hurry, and now it is time to plan the next project to enter in OMG, A Monthly Goal.

It wasn't too difficult to decide which one it would be as I need to complete a baby quilt for a gift in March. My inspiration came from a picture of the nursery already in place having a woodland theme. The couple is so excited that it is going to be a boy! They have 3 girls, precious ones at that! Father and grandfather have great plans for this newborn baby boy with visions of hiking and fishing in the woodlands.

I found this cute fabric with woodland animals which is in the color scheme of the nursery. Stroke of luck or was it divine orchestration, but anyways happy to have a focus fabric to plan the rest of the quilt. As you can see I fussy cut the animals for the center of each log cabin block. The top part of the log cabin represents trees and the sky. Isn't that too cute?

There will be another block that will be placed alternate to each of the log cabin blocks. The block is Shoo-Fly. I am still in the design process and still need to make the quilt a bit bigger, possibly sashing or more than one border. Maybe a border that is another block pattern. Wouldn't that be cute?

I actually purchased a pattern that inspired me but I ended up redesigning it using Electric Quilt. I replaced the appliqued frog with the log cabin blocks but using the same Shoo-Fly block for the alternate block as the pattern used. 




  


Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!