Design wall 5/31

Today I am hiding out in my sewing room. It is a quiet refuge in a house full of college kids. My son decided it would be fun to host the annual Memorial Day gathering of his friends. We have a large yard with a pool and a good grill and can easily accommodate a crowd. But the weather is not cooperating. Strong thunderstorms hit this morning, knocking out our power. Fortunately, the power company had it restored around noon. Not that it would have stopped this gang of kids. It has been raining on and off all afternoon, so the kids are all inside my house, broken down into small groups playing cards, board games and video games. I am debating border additions to my lantern quilt top. I would like to make it larger without purchasing extra fabric. This is what I am considering for now. I'm just not sure I like it.

The background fabric would continue behind the zigzag, so that it will keep it's straight edges. To see what others are working on check out Judy's blog.

...and the living is easy

Kick back in a comfy chair on your deck and enjoy your holiday weekend. It is the unofficial start of summer here and the weather is gorgeous! My most recent project is inspired by an episode of Quilt in a Day, featuring projects from the Egg Basket Quilts book . It was soooooooo quick and easy.

Design wall May 24

I am settling on a plain border for this one due to a lack of extra fabrics. This top is only half the size it was intended to be. There was some confusion in the cutting instructions and I cut half of my blocks incorrectly. So, I decided to salvage the project as best I could by making two smaller quilts. This one has the blocks cut the correct size. I plan to start making the rest of the blocks, slightly smaller, today.


Edited: Here are the completed blocks. They spin in the opposite direction, giving this quilt a totally different look. :)

Check out Patchwork Times for more design wall links.

The another update from the sew in

This is what I got done from last night's sew-in. The lantern blocks are stitched into rows and the border blocks are done. I'm trying to decide if I want to add the tassels as the pattern suggests or just omit them. If I leave them off, then I will need to remove some of the background from the bottom to even things out. I am also considering adding some extra borders to make this bigger. I have a bit of extra fabric to work with, but I'm not sure there is enough. I think that will be a good project for tomorrow.

Progress Report

Here's where I'm at with my quilt tonight. The lanterns are taking shape and I'm working on the flying geese units for the border. I still need to play with the arrangement of the lanterns a bit before I stitch them together. Back to the sewing room for me. :)

It's time for another Friday night sew-in

I have been cutting all afternoon so that I can actually sew during tonight's sew-in. It has been a few months since I have been able to participate, and I can't wait to get stitching. I'm going to be making a version of this. It is a free pattern by Monica of Happy Zombie. The pattern features her new fabric line which doesn't hit stores until June or July. So I will be using a collection of Asian prints from my stash. I think these will look cute as lanterns.