Fourth Finish &

I love it so!

 I love this Ampersand Quilt from Imagine Quilts by my pal Dana Bolyard of Old Red Barn Co.

 I love the low volume prints and the little pop of colors making the ampersand.

I love that when you see the quilt up close...

... or all snuggled under it's warmth and crinkly goodness...you don't see the ampersand...

...until you step away.

I love the quilting!

   Gave it to my pal and coworker Kathleen to work her long-arming magic....do what you want pal!

She did and it looks fabulous!

I especially love the back...and that aqua binding.

Can you guess I love it?!!

~d

1st quarter 2015 list.

Giveaway!"imagine quilts" or Old Red Barn Co. Founder hits the big time!! Giveaway!

Giveaway!  Giveaway! Giveaway!

Did I get your attention?:)

I don't know where to begin...I'm giddy for so many reasons.  First that sweet girl Dana has a quilt book out in the world! A QUILT BOOK by our own Old Red Barn Co. chica who brought so many of us together out in internet world and real life!!

Here is the book in all it's glory...imagine quilts....yeeeefreakinghaaaa!! Check out that quilt on the cover....posy patrol...love it...great scrap buster!

This one is called princess crowns but for some reason I keep thinking about corn on the cob!  I must be hungry!  Don't you think this would be a great scrap buster too...maybe with all the centers one unified color...maybe corn yellow?:) Ha!!

But the other reason I'm soooooooo incredibly giddy is I pieced a quilt in this book!! Yep...little old me...I made the zip it! quilt top!!  Not only did I get the honor of being the only other person to make a quilt top for Dana's book....

...I also made the inspiration!  Round 12 at ORBC was scrappy Dresden Plate. Not having time to do a whole quilt I made a few pieces and after ironing them thought they looked like houses so I made the pillow on the right....which was Dana's inspiration for the zip it! quilt! 

Can we call this three degrees of Dresden?:)

Can't wait to get this home and partnered up with the Mega Button pillow made out of the leftovers...can you see the buttonhole  embroidered on the placket? 

I can tell you...Dana sure did come up with a great title for her book because I have been majorly inspired.

Yep...had to make dance floor!

First thing I thought of was all the texty prints and black on white or cream I have been collecting. Perfect for this quilt paired with a couple of great black tone on tones and pow!

dance floor a go-go!!

Couldn't stop there.  I just love an ampersand but went low volume.

Stacks of five inch low volume squares and the packs of Asbury charms won from Amy at 

During Quiet Time did the trick!

So many fun fabrics frolicking on this quilt. Yes, I said frolicking! The amazing thing is when you see the quilt  up close you don't notice the ampersand....

....but step back from it and like magic it appears!!!  I can't wait to get these quilted...Kathleen they are coming your way.  Guess I best look through my stash for backings!

You gotta buy this book but in the meantime a couple of you can be lucky winners!  One winner will get the ebook version AND this bunch of rainbow zippers supplied by the girl herself...

...famed author of imagine quilts!:)

I'm going to throw in this US edition of Mollie Makes and a surprise or two.

Second winner will get a paper copy of imagine quilts donated and...

...autographed by Dana plus a pack or two of my own personal scraps thrown in for fun!:)

To enter please leave a comment telling me if you could imagine yourself anywhere in the world right this second...some where you have never been...where would it be?:)  At this second it is really hot and humid so I would love to be up north along the coast of Maine!

Contest is open until Friday, August 29th at 6pm EST and of course international peeps are welcomed to enter!!  Make sure there is contact info or how in the world could you get your copy of 

imagine quilts ebook and all the other prizes?:)

Tell your friends about this Inspired quilt book!!!:)

Check out the other quilty bloggers and their giveaways riding along on the

  imagine quilts book tour bus! 

Congrats dearest Dana and thanks for taking me along for the ride!! xo

 Now back to doing other things!

~d

4th Finish and some decisions

 Finally done.  Fourth finish of the third quarter Finish Along 2014.

 It's been almost four years exactly since I pieced this top for Round 7 at Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along!  I think it is glad to be out of the closet!

My pal and co-worker Kathleen did a bang up job with the quilting!

 No way this puppy is ever leaving our house!!

We have gone through a lot of colors thinking about what to paint the house. 

It is already Nantucket Grey but needs refreshing.

 Green was my idea but the kids said we are surrounded by green in nature.  

Yellow... but the farmhouse in front of us is yellow.

From out of no where...purple. Ooooh!:)  So many different purples!  But it was finally narrowed down to the five paint samples clipped in the middle.

If we are doing purple then we are DOING purple!

I know which one is the winner!!;)

The real winner this weekend was our niece. 

Hubby, his sister, our girl and myself helped her move into a new apartment. 

One truck, one car, one load! 

We Rocked it!!

~d

one + one + one= five....and a 1st finish of the 3rd quarter!

In a week the girl and I will be flying over the Atlantic to visit friends in the UK...you know who you are!:) The girl is staying with her friends and I'm bouncing about but it will be fun! Several days I'll be staying in an Oxford University room at Magdalen College where Oscar Wilde and C. S. Lewis did some creating! The other days I'll be staying with one of the girl's pals from The Story Museum...so nice of her to offer up their spare room.  Of course I need to show my gratitude.

 (Thanks for the great benches daddy!xo)

  Angled Frames to the rescue!  Yep, I made them a quilt and it's my first finish from this list of WIPS of the 3rd quarter

 Finish Along 2014! 

 The family has two small boys so I had the best time picking out fabrics.

How about Batman surrounding London...a bit of dinosaur eggs and Star Wars to boot.

There are robots, pirates, The Hulk and Clifford the Big Red Dog, Snoopy, books, pencils, rulers and Alice cards.  Just a bunch of fun for this picnic quilt. Now I need to roll it as small as I can and mush it into my suitcase!  That is number one...

Here is number two, one of the original eight samples tops I made for Round 15 at

 Old Red Barn Quilt Along.

 And here is number three...or rather....

three, four and five!  Yep, I had originally planned to use this fabric for a couple of quilts for my in-laws puppers but thought it would be a great larger sample.  So I made the above top...then cut it up and made three littler quilts.  The third went to the the boy's girlfriend.  All three doggies love their quilts!:)

See...I'm not so bad with math!

~d

Round 15 ORBC Quilt Along...Angled Frames Quilt Tutorial!

Welcome, welcome, welcome to Round 15 of the Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along!! I'm so honored to be hosting a second time, the first being Round 9~Ticker Tape Quilts!

This is ANGLED FRAMES!

 It's almost as quick as the Jelly Roll 1600 Quilt, not counting cutting the fabric, and is great for any width of fabric (wof) strips and big prints.

 Approximate finished top is 52"x60" but you can easily make it bigger or smaller.

Fabric requirements are:
 (1) 4 ½” x 12 ½ ” rectangle for the center and (20) 4 ½” x WOF (width of fabric) strips.  Total fabric is 2 1/2 yards.  You can have 20 different strips or four of five different fabrics or two of ten different fabrics...combos are endless!

 Once you have all your fabric cut mix them up! Set the center rectangle aside and sew the (20) WOF strips together like you would binding.  Use the above diagram if you have never done this before!:) Can't see the colors too good but the center solid line is the cutting line.

 I just grabbed two strips, put them right side together and eyeballed it. If you don't trust your eyes you can draw the diagonal line with your fav fabric pen/pencil. Here is a great opportunity to chain stitch your pieces, just grab the end of the top piece and sew your third strip on that one repeating until you have all 20 stitched to each other.

Before cutting the chain (if you want to) go back and sew 1/2" to the right of the first stitchline and these will become Half Square Triangles (HSTs)!

 Bonus!:)

I mean come on...these triangles are too big and too good to toss.  I'll show you a few ideas of what to do with them in my next post but I'm sure you can come up with something awesome yourself!

 Here is my chain of pink before I cut the strips and triangles apart.  Please forgive me for switching from one fabric combo to another.  I picked the photos that came out the clearest and they weren't all from the same top!

 Cut between stitch lines. Should be 1/4" seams right?:)

 Pile of ONE HUMONGOUS STRIP and HSTs!

Using ¼” seam allowance take the center rectangle (4 ½” x 12 ½” piece) and your humongously long strip placing right sides together sew along 12 ½” side. Before opening cut even along bottom of center piece. Now you have the center and piece A.

 I like to cut mine before I stitched past the needle but if you don't want to do that...

(this photo is the next step!:)

...you can do it on the table or on your cutting mat with your straight edge. I'm just lazy!

 Rotate this a quarter turn and putting right sides together with WOF strip sew along bottom and trim before opening. Now you have the center with piece A + B.

 Really, it's easy to cut it just before finishing the seam and so much faster. I'm holding the camera with my left hand but usually it would be holding the bottom strip up for easy cutting.

 .
Repeat quarter turn putting right sides together sew and trim right side of center for strip C and repeat along bottom for piece D.  Now you have “framed” the center! Basically all you are doing is making a huge rectangular Log Cabin block!

 It really doesn't matter which way you go around, just start on the 12 1/2" side and keep going around until you have "Framed" the center six times. There may be a wee bit leftover.

I didn't bother ironing the top until I finished!  I just made sure the seams kept working out from the center.

Whatever way I stitched the angled seam I made sure to keep it in that direction when stitching the other side so they would iron flat on both sides.

I have only quilted one of the tops.  I hand quilted with #8 perle cotton starting from the center rectangle and working my way around and around. It was soooo quick and I'm sure would be even quicker with the sewing machine!

 Because WOF can vary I always made sure I had an extra for standby!  This one took 19 and a teeny tiny bit of the 20th strip.

 This one took 20 and I tried to control the colors a bit by putting them in ROY G BIV order and making sure the last five pieces were basically all blue.

This top has two strips each of six prints from Doglandia and four strips from two colors of Fusion Mist.

Twenty-three strips make this top because the center is a little bigger. I didn't want to loose some of those great flowers and a few of the strips weren't quite WOF...cause I had used a bit of them for something else. Go figure!:)

I especially love how this one turned out. It is all from Moda's Hearty Good Wishes.  I made this for my Dad-in-law. It has 21 strips and a small square for the center. I didn't go around evenly so the square isn't in the center.

With the above I want you to notice the contrast with that very light lower right corner. I don't mind how that looks but if that's something you may not like then make sure your last five or six strips are darker. I'll use a darker binding for this....it's the next one that needs finishing!!:)

Here is one for all of you with TONS of Fat Quarters, eleven FQs to be exact.  Eleven FQs cut into four long 4 1/2" wide strips each for 44 strips.  Sewn together just like the long ones. I used 45 strips cause I messed up and stitched two pieces backwards...twice!

Lastly are a couple of baby quilts.  The one in the middle is above.  These used 10 (on the left) and 10.5 (on the right) strips.  I sashed the larger center square of the top on the right so that's why it took a bit more.  Such a great quick way to make a baby gift!

These are just a few examples of what you can do with Angled Frames. My mind just reels with all the other ideas I have for this top.  

What if you make it and then cut it in half at an angle and add a strip then turn it and do the same thing...and do it again a few more times?!

What if you make the top then cut it into a bunch of squares rearrange, sash and sew back together?

What if you sewed two different tops and cut them into squares and mixed them up?

What if you only used four fabrics?

Did I tell you once you cut your strips you can sew this top together in less than 1 1/2 hours?!

Oh there is so much more I could say and I would like to tell you the reason Angle Frames came to be in the first place. I'll tell you that story and show you some things made from the bonus HSTs....next post.

Bonus Half Square Triangle units.  What can you make with them?

I hope you play along with us.  Let's see your fabric selection and progress shots at 

Old Red Barn Quilt Along and of course your finished top!

Any questions ask here or on the Round 15 discussion at ORBC and hopefully I can help!:) But this is so easy....I'm sure you won't have any problems at all...except picking fabric!:)

Thanks for playing and tell your friends!!

~d

Oh...and the gang at ORBC want you to post in Instagram... #angledframes or #ORBC  ....do it!:)