April OPAM Done!

Here it is 9:00pm and I've just finished the binding on my April OPAM project! This quilt was started a couple of years ago by my 2 good friends, Launi and Vangie. Vangie made all the star blocks for me. Isn't she great??? I think Launi cut out every piece of fabric and made several of the snowballs. I'm grateful for their efforts. Aren't quilters just the best people in the world? Thanks to both of you! I finished the snowballs shortly after getting the "parts" from them and then put together the top a bit over a year ago. Last year was not a good year for much more than piecing, so I'm thrilled to have the incentive of the OPAM project to get me moving on some of these tops that have needed to be quilted. There's still a few more so I'll keep moving along!

Have a great weekend!

Melanie

Top Left Kite

I finally got this one done! Been eyeing it for months now and wanting to get my hands on it! After the 2 tough blocks I made just before this, I felt I deserved to do this one now. Again, not perfect, but you know what they say...."Finished is better than perfect!" This was paper pieced, regular pieced and appliqued with a total of 41 pieces.

Think that was my 22nd triangle, so that puts me almost 1/3 done with those. Soon I will show you a picture of my DJ design wall in my sewing room to update my progress. It's coming along!

Have a blessed week!
Melanie

G8, Justin's Comet. Done and redone!

I really didn't expect this to be a difficult block. So I sat down yesterday and got to work and the picture above was the fruits of my labor! Pretty impressive, eh? This block was NOT going in my quilt so it was back to the drawing board! I really do not enjoy doing anything over, but I set my mind to it and gave it another whirl. For the second try I knew I was going to have to hand piece. I think this is only the second block of the 103 I've made that has been made with this method. Some day I might like doing it more, but for now, I've got too many projects to take the time to hand piece. Anyway, here's the redo. Still not perfect by any stretch but at least acceptable enough to make it into the quilt.


Next on the agenda, the top left kite. I've been waiting to get my hands on this one!

More later!

Papa's Star done!

This is G6, Papa's Star. My sister's and I took a class from Brenda Papadakis at Road to California in 2007 and during that class she started to show us how to do this block. I had gotten as far as the center star and was pretty proud of myself. That was until a friend, who will remain nameless at this time, pointed out that some of my star points were chopped off. So I wasn't very proud of myself any longer! So this weekend was it's time for a redo and I feel really good about having it done and pretty happy with how it turned out....no chopped off points, Rana! So what I find to be so amazing about this block is that the center star is a 1 inch block and has 17 pieces in it! That's pretty impressive, don't you think? This entire block was rotary cut and pieced, has 31 pieces, and is DONE!

If you are interested in seeing a really beautiful and AMAZING quilt, you must go here
and read about the winner of the Best in Show at Paducah this year. At the bottom of her page is the link to a picture of the quilt. It's really something to see!

Hope you're working on something FABULOUS this weekend too!

Melanie

Quilting, actual quilting (as opposed to piecing)

Here's what I'm currently working on. Need to have it done soon as it's my OPAM for April!!

Weekend Triangle

This is RS3 and was mostly appliqued, although there was regular piecing and paper piecing involved too. if I counted correctly, there are 20 pieces. It starts with a regular pinwheel in the center onto which 4 melons are appliqued. Separately, the top piece is made by sewing the bottom 3 pieces and then sewing that to the top piece with the 3 applique diamonds and then finally reverse appliquing that onto the pinwheel piece! Whew! Jane, what were you thinking??? I have one corner kite to do and 4 more triangles and I will be ready to put my first 5 rows together and start the hand quilting. I'm planning on hand quilting this quilt in 3 sections and hopefully I can get the top section ready in time to take it on vacation in June! Seems like there is plenty of time for that!

Keep stitching!
Melanie

Beautiful Day

Wow! What a nice day I've had already and it's only noon! First, we woke up early and headed off to the first service at church, then came home and DH and I made a nice breakfast together and then I toddled off to take a nap! I'm up and around again doing chores and thinking about heading down to the sewing room to tackle Papa's Star. Our weather is beautiful too here today, I think topping off in the mid-seventies. Nice....

For now, I will leave you with a picture of my finished block for March from Gail Pan's BOM. I just think these things are so cute! And just like the DJ blocks, you can't wait to make the next one! Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Tomorrow, I hope to share a some quilting on a quilt I've been working on finishing for my April OPAM project...

Melanie

Hattie's Hen House - G1

I seem to not post much during the week. The middle of the week seems so busy to me! By the time I get home from work, check email, walk the dog, have dinner, clean up, read the mail...it's time to just relax for 15 minutes before it's time to toddle off to bed! Okay, with the complaining behind me, I'll show you the block I managed to work on mid-week this week. It's called Hattie's Hen House (why??) and has only 8 pieces!! It was a snap! Just the kind I like.

For those of you who DJ, I think my next block is a re-do of Papa's Star...Hope it doesn't take up the whole weekend! Haven't decided which triangle to tackle this weekend. LS4 looks almost as difficult as last week's! I might do the top left corner as I've been really wanting to do that one for a long time!

Oh, I got new glasses this week too, well, yesterday...They are transitional lenses. My sight really is not all that bad, but the time that is hardest is when I'm appliqueing or embroidering in front of the TV. These old eyes have real difficulty trying to keep up with the focusing close and then far off. The transitional lenses are a challenge in their own right! The gal at the eye doctor's told me I would need to wear them all day, every day for 3 weeks before I really would have my brain trained on how to use them. Wow! I'm sure I'll get them worked out eventually, but I'm pleased with them already for the purpose I bought them for. Oh, if you're thinking about getting this kind of lense, save up 'cause they aren't cheap!!

I'll be back later this weekend. I've got another block finished to show you then!

Melanie

New Triangle

This is that triangle I've been dreading for over a year. Now it's done! It probably took me 3-3.5 hours to get it "right" if that's what you want to call it. Mine is not exactly like Jane's, but it's close enough for me to be able to live with it. Oh, it is LS1, called Nancy's Fantasy (?, wink wink) and was paper and regular pieced and I think it ended up with 29 pieces. Jane's may have a a couple less, but as Brenda Papadakis says, "finished is better than perfect."

I'm hoping to get a start on some applique blocks this week along with some machine quilting.

Hope you have something great planned with your projects this week too!

Melanie

Weekend DJ Blocks

Good Morning! It's a lovely day here in my part of the world. Sunny and no wind that we have been having the past couple of days. It's going to be in the low 60s today so will be a perfect day for planting the flowers I bought for the front yard a while back!

But first, wanted to get my finished blocks for this week up here. F11, called On Target was ppd and hand appliqued as was F12 Starburst, both have 16 pieces each!

Well that's it for now, I'm off to do that planting and walk the dog. This evening we are going to go out to Morro Rock to see a Christian band, What About Sunday, play. They are recording a CD and they are fantastic! If you live in the area, come join us. Concert starts at 7:00pm and there will be plenty of seating. Hoping to see some newly saved souls tonight! Happy Easter!

Melanie

More DJ Blocks

The green one is F8, Church Window and has 37 pieces, was regular and paper pieced. The red one is F10, Potholder, ppd with 25 pieces. It's interesting to me that some of the ones that look like they will be easy and fun end up being boring while some of the ones I really dread doing turn out to be fun and some of my favorites! Was able to actually get one block done during the week this week! This RARELY happens with all the other things in life demanding my time. Another is half done and that is my ONE HUNDREDTH BLOCK! I think that makes me golden or some such thing... On the agenda for this weekend is to finally tackle the dreaded triangle, RS1. I think it's name is Dee Dee's Delight or something equally deceptive. I hope to be able to show it to you by the end of the weekend.

Back to cleaning the house and then hopefully back to the sewing room for some actual machine quilting.

Have a blessed Good Friday!

Melanie

Garage Sale-ing!

Is that a word??? Doesn't look right, but you know what I mean! So I shared this weekend that I spent some time with friends hitting as many garage sales as we could muster on Saturday. I was only able to handle about 15-20 and I was DONE looking at other people's junk! I've got enough of my own!

So here are the few things I bought: A lovely Mexican plate that reminds me of a quilt block, an Amish cook book and some sweet embroidered hankies!

DJ Triangle

Here's the triangle for this weekend. It's LS3 called Connies Brownies, is paper pieced and appliqued and has 16 pieces and was EASY, which I needed this weekend.

Yesterday I worked on a new little project with my DJ scraps. There's enough of those scraps for SEVERAL other projects. So....I better get back to the sewing room. Want to get one more block done this weekend if possible and maybe get started on next weeks blocks!

M

BOM block finished...finally!

This was the block from Anne Sutton's A Tisket, A Tasket BOM from January. I started late, so had to go back and do this one. For some reason it seems to have taken a really long time to get this one done! But, done it is!

Today my friend Rana came over with her friend, Teresa and we hit some garage sales here in my little town of Morro Bay, CA. Our population is about 10K and on this weekend every year there are hundreds of garage sales. So I did as many as I could and then came home for a bit of a nap. They are going to call me for lunch though. I mean, I DO have my priorities!

The rest of the day is for stitching! Tomorrow I'll show you the treasures I purchased today....

Melanie