A bit more progress....

I've got the first row of my "Summer Dresden Quilt" done.

I'm working on quilting my fourth block now.

Here is what it looks like right now.

My pictures aren't the best, since it's a very gray day outside.

I'm really enjoying making this quilt.

The quilt-as-you-go method I'm using is from the Happy Zombie tutorial here.

I hope you like it!

Hugs



A work in progress....

Hi everyone,

Last night I decided that I would start finishing my Dresden Quilt. I wanted to hand quilt this quilt using crochet cotton. I have a lot of crochet cotton. So, I dug through my bin of crochet cotton and found the two colors I wanted to use. I wanted to try a quilt-as-you-go method to put this quilt together.

Sew, I sandwiched my block and started quilting it last night. It is definitely more difficult to hand quilt using the crochet cotton. But the effect is definitely worth it. What do you think??



I'm almost done quilting this block.

Then, I have 11 more blocks to go.

This is my UFO project to complete for the month of February.

So, here's crossing my fingers that I can get it done.

Hugs

I'm a guest blogger at Stash Manicure today!!!

Hi everyone,

I'm guest blogging at Stash Manicure today.

Go check it out.

I share some of my first quilts and some of my newer ones.

Like this one!!

So, go on over to Stash Manicure and comment on my post.

Send me a little love over there! LOL!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Ariane

Just a quick post!

Hi Everyone!!!

This is just a quick little post to share the block I received from Brenda.

This is the block she made for me for the Maple Leaf Bee.

I love it!!!

I know this is going to be a gorgeous quilt when I get all the blocks back.

Here it is.



Well, that's all folks.

I'm exhausted.

Can't......wait.....to.....hit....my.......pillow!

Yaaaawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnn!

Goodnight!

Ariane

My 1st mug rug, and things to swap???

Hi everyone!

Today I decided to tackle my first mug rug.

The one I made is a little bit big.

It's 7.5 x 14 inches.

But I still like it.

This is only my first attempt.

I will keep trying and hopefully I will come up with just the perfect one.

This one is made out of pieces that I had left from cutting some dresden plates for my Bee blocks.

I thought it would be the perfect way to use them up.

I also worked on making some of my Bee blocks.

This first one I made for Austen.

I hope she likes it.

This second one I made for Brenda.

Unfortunately, I ran out of dark grey.

She didn't send quite enough.

But I enjoyed working on it.

I still sent it to her and she will be able to use her leftovers to finish it.

I do want to make this block again.

I am also hoping to find someone who would be willing to swap some fabric with me.

I have this Heather Bailey Pop Garden fabric shown below.

I would be willing to swap either fat quarters of each of the four prints, or even half yard cuts, for an equal amount of fabric.

I also have two Amy Butler patterns that I would like to trade for fabric.

I also have these four other patterns that I'm willing to trade for fabric.

I love all kinds of fabrics.

 Collections I'm trying to add to my stash are:

1) any modern fabrics. (not orange)

 2)some Minick and Simpson fabrics from any of their collections.

3) any Bonnie and Camille fabric

4) I don't really use batics, so I'm not interested in these.

5) I also love country fabrics.

6) I would also take scraps of fabric. LOVE scraps!!!

7) Red is my favorite color. But I like blues, greens, brown, aqua, pink. But not orange.

So, If any of these interest you, send me an email with pictures of what you would like to trade.

Hopefully someone will want these.

Hugs

Ariane

November is my month for the Maple Leaf Bee!

Hi everyone,

I joined the Maple Leaf Bee in August, when one of the other members had to drop out.

 I volunteered to take her place.

So, my month came fast and I had to decide what to ask the girls to make.

I wanted it to be a stash busting project, and a modern project.

So, I took out a bunch of my modern fabric and started cutting.

I decided to use my GO! Dresden Die since I love it so much.

I cut out all the petals for the girls.

I used 20 different fabrics, in aqua's, pinks,  and greens.

This is the test block that I made.

I thought I would do a little tutorial for the girls, in case they had never made a dresden block before.

Here it is.

First you want to fold the petal right side together at the wide end and stitch it across.

As you can see above, just chain stitch all the petals. It goes pretty quick this way.

Once you have all the tops stitched, then cut them apart and trim the point to about an eighth of an inch from the seam you just made. This just helps in turning the tip of the petal.

Turn all the petal tips right side out. You may have to use a tool to get the tip out all the way. I used the tip of my scissor just to push it out a bit. Then, iron the tips of the petals. I have the petals all layed out the way I want to sew them. See below:

Now, I will start to sew the petals together in pairs. You can chain stitch them to make it quicker.

I use my 1/4 inch foot to sew the petals together. I started sewing from the edge of the petals. I find that this makes for a nicer finish. You just match up the top corners of both petals and start stitching. Once all your pairs are sewn together, you want to iron the seam open.

Once all your pair seams are ironed, keep sewing the pairs together, and ironing your seams open, until you have your dresden sewn together as below.

This is what the back should look like.

Now, you can see that mine isn't perfect. Just do your best when sewing them together.

It's time to get the circle ready for the middle. I cut a five inch circle of fabric using the GO! Circle die and included a 4 inch cardstock circle cut using the GO! Dresden die circle, to help you turn the edges for the circle.

I like to stitch this with the sewing machine. So, set your stitch length to the longest setting and with your 1/4 inch foot, start stitching all around the circle as shown below.

You are going to leave the starting and ending threads long enough so that you can sinch the fabric around the cardstock circle.

See how I sinched the fabric around the cardstock. Now you want to iron it well on both sides. I used a bit of spray starch on it before I removed the cardstock circle.

See how nice the edges are turned, and it's a perfect circle.

You now want to sew this circle onto your dresden using a blanket stitch or zigzag.

Once you have it sewn on you can pin your dresden to your background fabric and stitch it on using a blanket stitch or a zigzag stitch.

And you are done.

Isn't is nice?

Well, I hope this little tutorial is helpful.

Wishing all of you a Happy Hallowe'en.

Hugs

Ariane

My red dresden quilt top is DONE!!!!

I just want to say thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments about the progress of this quilt top.

I'm just so thankful for all the support you guys all give me in my quilting journey.

It really makes my day!!!

So, I've been working on the borders this afternoon.

I put of solid cream border that finished at 1 inches wide.

Then, I decided to pull out all my little strips of red and cream fabrics. I cut them 2 1/2 inch long. I used all different width of strips from 1 1/2 inches, to 2 1/2 inches wide.

Then, I chain pieced a cream piece to a red piece until all my pairs were sewn together. Then, I divided all my pairs into four piles. Then started sewing all my pieces together to make four strips.

When my strips were long enough, I sewed them on to my quilt.

So, these borders were pretty randomly pieced.

But, I really like the way they turned out.

And I busted more of my stash of reds and creams.

Yeah!!!!

So, now I have to figure out what I'm going to use for a backing.

I hope you like the way it's looking!!

Hugs

Ariane

My little red dresden quilt!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all having a nice weekend.

I worked on my little red dresden quilt last night.

I finished the hst border that I had started.

Then I decided I wanted to put the block on point.

I didn't have enough of one fabric to make the triangles.

I'm a scrappy quilter. I usually only purchase fat quarters.

I don't buy a lot of yardage, unless it's on sale or I need a backing.

So, I'm thinking....ughhhh.....I'm going to have to buy more fabric.

Then, I had a lightbulb moment.

I'll make myself a bigger piece of fabric.

This is a stash busting project after all.

So, I cut some squares of light fabric from my leftovers from the Jack-in-the-pulpit quilt.

I made 2, 4 patch blocks and cut them on the diagonal to make four triangles.

Then, I stiched them to my block.

Then, I decided I wanted to use my GO! Circle die.

 So, I backed scraps of red fabric with fusible web,

and cut the circles out using my circle die. Easy peasy!!!!

I decided how I wanted them to be placed on my corner pieces,

ironed them on, and

VOILA!!!

This is where I'm at.

I'm thinking, I'm going to put a thin solid cream border around this.

Then, I'm going to use my scraps to make a sort of, piano key border.

I only have so many scraps left. I may have to be a bit creative with the outer border.

We will see what I come up with.

I was asked, about the GO! Dresden die and how many petals I used.

I have 20 petals on my dresden. This is my first time ever making a dresden block.

So, you may ask, how did I get it to work out.

Some people have been having a hard time using only 20 petals, and have used 21 up to 23 petals.

I think it's due to seam allowance. I used my 1/4 inch foot to make sure that my seams were all even.

So, What do you think of my stash busting little red dresden quilt top.

I think this may end up as a Christmas present.

I hope you like it.

Hugs

Ariane

I love the GO! Dresden die!!!!!!

Hi everyone!!!

I'm feeling better today.

I decided to get some scraps out and try out my GO! Dresden die. I love red, and had a lot of scraps left from making the Jack-in-the-pulpit quilt last summer. So, I took them out and started cutting.

It was so fast and easy to cut.

Then, I started sewing the tops into points.

 I just chain sewed them. Very quick.

Then, I ironed the tips and started sewing them together in pairs.

 I sewed the pairs together until I had a full circle.

I machine stitched the dresden plate to a cream background.

I was so excited. I just love the way it looked.

So, I have the block done, now what do I do with it.

I had some leftover hst's from the Jack-in-the-pulpit quilt.

I decided to use those to make a border. 

I have two borders done. What do you think?

I'm going to turn this into a little table top quilt. I think it's going to be so nice.

And it is all made from my stash. Isn't that fun???

I just love the GO! Dresden die. I'm going to be making a lot more projects with it.

I also got some amazing mail today.

I received my pincushion from Krista for the Pincushion Pass.

She had made me one and it got lost in the mail.

So this is the second one she made me. She also sent some wonderful fabric and a  sourdough starter from Alaska. Such a great package!!

I love it. Thank you so much Krista!!!!

Well, that's all for today.

I have to get up early in the morning.

So, to bed I go.

Hugs

Ariane

Almost a week has past....

I know!!

It's been busy around here.

I had the weekend off, but had so much stuff to do.

 Non-sewing quilting related stuff.

Then, I went back to work....night shifts on Tuesday night.

I'm really hating night shifts right now!!!

Last night, I went in to work, stayed until midnight and came back home.

I was so sick.

I spent the night in the bathroom, hugging the toilet bowl.

Yuck!!!!!

I'm exhausted this morning, but couldn't sleep.

My stomach is still queasy.......ughhhhhh!!!!

Okay, enough about that.

I did get some great mail yesterday.

My GO! Dresden plate die came. Yeah!!!!!!

I haven't tried it yet. Need to get my strenght up.

But I'm very excited none the less.

It should be fun to play with.

Also, my daughter B-Sew Cute got some great mail too.

Barb sent her two amazing fat quarters, to encourage her with her sewing.

She just loves them.

You are so sweet Barb!!! Thanks so much!!!!

I was reading Jodie's blog @ Pleasant Home.

She is having a Sew Scrap-A-Long on her blog over the next 4-5 weeks.

She will be sharing ideas on how to use up your scraps.

I'm totally on this bandwagon already.

I'm trying to just use what I have and not shop too much.

I've been doing relatively good.

So, I can't wait to see her ideas.

Another thing going on in blogland soon is the Blogger's quilt festival.

I love this festival. It's for anyone to enter, from a beginner to a seasoned quilter.

I love seeing all the quilts and getting inspired. Amy from Amy's creative side always does an amazing job getting it organized. She always has great prizes too. So, spread the word, and pick a quilt to share with all of us.

Well, I need a nap!

If I get any sewing done later, I'll let you know.

Hugs

Ariane