New Patterns and Shop Hop!

This year I'll be doing quilting demonstrations at Quiltworks Northwest during our Western Washington Shop Hop, so stop by and say hi, I'd love to meet you!  I'll have patterns with me as well as extra books, just in case the shop runs out:-) The samples are at Gathering Fabric, along with patterns as well.

Just in time for our local shop hop, I have 2 new patterns!  With shop hop starting tomorrow, I’m hoping to get them up on my website later today, as well as an updated snail mail order form.

Summer Bounty:

This is my idea of summer!   The piecing is quick and easy, and weaving fusible strips of fabric for your basket for texture is fun, especially when you add some paint to it.  Fuse your fruit and flowers in place, and you’re ready to quilt.  After you’re finished quilting, add some beads to the flower centers to make it sparkle, and you’re done.

Fall Basket:

By the end of summer there are so many flowers blooming in the garden, I just had to create a basket full of them!   The piecing is quick and easy, and weaving fusible strips of fabric for your basket for texture is fun, especially when you add some paint to it.  Fuse your fruit and flowers in place, and you’re ready to quilt.  After you’re finished quilting, add some beads to the flower centers to make it sparkle, and you’re done.

I hope this is enough

yarn for a sweater (or vest), that is.  In a few minutes here and there, and then a massive attempt to get it all plied, I've manage to finish 3 huge and 1 medium skein of dk / worsted yarn from that warm gray wool.  I'm in need of a break from this color,  because I'm tired of looking at it and after putting it around my neck like a cowl and looking in the mirror, I believe it will be headed into the dyepot before knitting.  so it's washed and dried and I'll try out my McMorran balance to see what yardage I might have after it has been dyed (it could change during dyeing process).  Here's what I have at this point:

My Cuffs are Finished!!!

I'm so happy with my cuffs!  The beaded ruffle was challenging, but lots of fun to do, the only problem is waiting until fall to wear them:-)

And the Winner is...

After plugging the number of comments into RANDOM.ORG, it chose #4, so the winner is Delighted Hands!  Email me your snail mail address and the book will be on its way to you.  [My email can be found on my website at:  http://lynnmajidimehr.com/contact/contact.html , although it needs to be typed without the spaces.]

Almost there...

A few weeks ago, this was filled with weeds (really one big mass), but I finally got the weeds out (okay, there will always be more sprouting) and have a lot of mulch spread.  The mulch not only makes the garden look better, but helps retain moisture, which really helps in the summer.  I think one more weekend and the major work will be finished!

We have lots of fruit and vegetables sprouting in the vegetable garden!

Another Bracelet!

This bracelet is not my design, but was a fun, learning experience and I love it!  It took about 2 hours for me to make it, although it could have been finished much quicker if I had not made so many mistakes and had to find the right size mandrels for the curves.  As it was, I tried various pliers until I found the one that worked with the length of wire that the pattern called for, because they come in so many different sizes and the pattern didn't have a size specified!  If the designer had measured their pliers, I would have been able to measure mine and not waste as much wire - or time. 

Some of the pieces that didn't come out right were able to be made into charms, or saved to possibly be used in another project, but I also created a pile of scrap wire, so I'm really happy I'm working in copper instead of silver!

Figs and Ginger - more blocks

Progress is slow right now, but at least I'm making some progress and eventually, I will have two finished quilts!  I thought you might like to see the way I calculated the number of each block colorway that needed to be made from my diagram, so here's a picture of the chart (remember I had to double the numbers for two quilts, and make full stacks of fabrics - that's how I ended up making as many additional blocks as the pattern said to cut for the original size):

My cut and shuffled decks:

If you were wondering about the colorful papers in the stack, I use them to separate each deck and also to make moving the stack in progress closer to the machine easier.  Once I complete these blocks, they can be organized and sewn to the bottom of my panels to complete them and then the borders can be sewn on!

Jewelry and Quilting

The second Figs and Ginger panel has been pieced!  After doubling my calculations and tallying up the squares needing to be cut, I looked at the cutting for one of the panels and found the number of pieces I need to cut are exactly the same as if I was making another panel from the book!  Of course, I won't be using all the blocks in the quilts, but still need to stack, cut and re-sort the decks in order to make the additional blocks I need.  I'm hoping I'll be able to make a coordinating pillow or two with the extra blocks.

On the jewelry side of things, I've been wire wrapping beads and made this set from copper wire and stone beads.

I'v

Quilter's Newsletter Reviewed my Book!!!

Quilter's Newsletter has a reviewed my book in Staff Pics in their June / July issue!  They also have a short review of my book on their blog and are giving away a copy!  Here's the link to their post:  http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/blogs/insideqn/2011/06/06/book-giveaway/

To celebrate, I'll also give away a copy to someone who posts a comment to this post on my blog by Monday, June 13th!  So you have 2 chances to win a copy!

New Necklace

These beads have been in my stash for a while now, waiting for inspiration.   They could have become a bracelet with small jump rings between them, but I decided I'd rather have a necklace.  I made S links and a clasp, and then joined the links with pairs of twisted jump rings. 

Apron UFO - more details

 Delighted Hands said...

Finished it great-nice work on the apron-what kind of fabric is it to have the shine like that? Is it oilcloth?

I guess I should have provided a bit more information about the apron - yes, it's called oilcloth.  I bought his fabric and a couple others at local quilt shops and it is much higher quality than I have seen in the past.  It is quite different than those sold for tablecloths - very soft and would also be wonderful for tote bags.  I'll be making another apron and a bag from the other pieces eventually.

Apron UFO - finished!

This apron must have been cut out at least a year ago, but has been sitting around waiting for the binding.  Now it's finished and I can use it when I'm doing messy things, instead of wearing my old clothes!

I used a pattern that I bought in a quilt shop ages ago, but widened the shoulder area for more coverage, because I'm planning to use it when dyeing, fabric painting, working with bleach and also grinding glass.

Figs and Ginger - doing the math

Since I'm making the quilts for twin beds, I decided they need to be longer.  I took the first panel and laid it on one of the twin beds and decided I wanted to add 3 rows (my blocks were trimmed to 6-1/2" instead of 6" as the pattern states).  In order to figure out what blocks needed to be made, I used a post-it note below the layout diagram in the book and extended the chart, labeling what blocks would be next (the blocks are continuing in a diagonal from right to left, so it was easy to extend the block colors that were in the bottom row.  To figure out what colors would fill in the lower right corner, I looked at the pattern in the rightmost column and extended the repeat.

I've been piecing the rows for quilt number two, and have two left to piece and then I can put the panel together.  Once the panel is the same as quilt one, I will go back and cut out the additional blocks I need to extend the quilts.  I'll need twice as many as I have in this chart, because I'm making two quilts, and although I did have 6 blocks left from when I originally made blocks, I'll need to cut fabrics in groups of 3 each color for each block set, because of the block technique, so I may still have extra blocks when I'm finished, but maybe there will be enough to make a nice pillow?