Yay!!

I have never been so happy to be posting!

I've been working on this quilt for more than a year now. I made it last summer during my first, eye opening, self hosted, quilt along. Phew. and then it sat on my shelf. and sat some more till last month I decided I would finish it no matter what well that didn't inspire me as much as it should have and it still took me another month to finally finish it! The good thing about having a project on your machine that isn't getting done very quickly is that you get a lot of other things done!

I've rearranged bedrooms, and visited friends, and helped a friend clean out her art room, and more. All because the projects I wanted to sew on I couldn't because this was on the machine!

I'm thrilled to have it done though and I love the way it looks! I love the hidden cars and the trees and houses!

I even added a sun next to one of the smaller houses :D Can you find it? I'm excited to have something that my little boy will be able to play on and that my girls can have pretend barbie adventures with! I just hope they're as excited as I am! Oh well, I'll enjoy tracing the cobblestones while I eat popcorn if no one else does :D

I'm in the trenches.

I've decided I have to finish my log cabin quilt.

*sigh*

I still love it. I'm just not excited about it. And pebble quilting takes a long time.

Ok I'll quit whining. But next time I am sending my big quilts to the long arm wonderful people that I love *cough* MSQC *cough* It will be wonderful!

Now it's time to stop dreaming and stop quilting. Oh and I can't find my cameras cable to get my pictures off my camera. No worries I will use my old picture it still looks the same. A little further down the quilt but as a picture. About the same.

Oh I hope this goes quickly.

See you on the other side!

To my sweet friends...

I feel I owe you an explanation for my *ahem* month long absence,

I've not been feeling well (if I add a cough does it seem more real? :D ) and sadly this is the only sewing picture I have to show you!

It's the cobblestone streets of suburbia and, no, it's still not done. I'm telling you, it was in the "it's not finished because it's so daunting pile" for a reason!

This is the other reason I've been gone...

Following those little feet around all day and keeping them out of trouble takes way more time than I remember! He's a little troublemaker. Which means all scissors, pins, knives, napkins, candles, etc. must stay out of sight at all times lest they fall into the hands of the wicked er, baby :)

Anyhow, I've still got a sore throat and I'm supposed to sing in church on Sunday, and my husband is out of town for the weekend. Yes that means valentines day too! Yuck, huh!

Well, let's see what I can get done today! I hope to see you again before v-day!

Happy Day!

*I'm off to clean up something that the fingers belonging to the little feet shown above just spilled. Yes, that's all the time it takes. :)

Populating Suburbia

Does anybody remember my Log Cabin Suburbia quilt along way back last summer?

Well that's what I pulled out of my unfinished because it's so scary pile :)

I've been wanting to finish this for awhile but I wanted to do something fun with the quilting,

so, I decided to do it.

I knew I could and I'm not finished yet, but,

I am in the process of populating suburbia!

Hehe! It makes me giggle a little to think about it like that :D

I've got 5 kids I've populated quite enough thank you!

For my quilt I wanted it to look a little like a town so I'm quilting sketchy little cars all around the sashings like they are driving around town!

Old trucks at the corner,

and a convertible speeding down the road, unfortunately that's not what I'm driving.

But that's ok because I have a house.

Yes my cute little sedan is pulling up in front of my adorable little house with the flower box windows.

Just a little starter house for me and my hubby, but it has a fireplace! Apparently.

And a circle window, that I think is way cool :D

I'm still working on finishing out all the streets. When I'm through the cars will probably be somewhat hidden and probably only the one quilted house some things are still to decided.

Hopefully I'll be showing you bigger pictures of my little town in a day or two!

I better watch out though, my daunting project is in danger of becoming seriously fun!

Log Cabin Backing

Before I start I'm thrilled to say that one of my Favorite Quilty Heroes was and is having giveaways to celebrate her 100th post and I was privileged to be one of the winners! I have to say it was quite a funny picture this morning of me in my pj's gasping and bouncing around while my husband stared on in wonder :D hehe! Anyway go check out her site she's amazing and maybe you'll be jumping around in your pj's soon too!

So, remember that post I was confessing my sins of the only sewing that had happened in weeks...

Well this is what it turned into!

I'm preparing to back the Log Cabin Suburbia quilt and I think it looks great! (personal opinion ;) ) I think I'm gonna try out some spray on basting for this one. Does anyone have a favorite brand? Spray on basting loves and hates? Let me know please! I'll being doing that soon or I'll chicken out because of the size and just visit the Missouri Star Quilt Co. with quilt in hand and see what there long arm can do for me! We shall see :)

Anyway this has been blogged over at MSQC and will be posted later this afternoon and you'll be able to cruise over and see more pics for now you can check out my sister's T-shirt quilts she has been doing for clients in Missouri that are currently being blogged on the MSQC blog The Cutting Table. Enjoy!

Log Cabin Suburbia - Quilt Block #3 and the sashing!

OK So it's not done completely but my Log Cabin Suburbia quilt top is done!!!

I don't want to re upload all the instructions on here so here are the links to my posts on the MSQC forum

Sewing the Courthouse Steps Block

Sashing the Quilt or... Adding the roads to our Log Cabin Suburbia

This is the whole quilt top all together! I love it! I used Amy Butler's Quilting Solid in Slate to sash it and I think it's fantastic! I can't wait till I get to quilt it!

I'm gonna try and get ahold of some more Alexander Henry Camden Fair Fabric to bind it! Clap, Cheer! Yay!

Wow, I think I just finished my first tutorial :)

Log Cabin Suburbia - Quilt Block #2 - Square in a Square

In preparation for the third block coming out this week I thought I'd put up the Square in a Square block instructions originally posted on the MSQC forum. Also, more good news :) , you no longer have to be a member of the forum to see what's going on with the quilt along! Yay! So cruise on over and check out the Sew Together, Far Apart forum to see details on the Missouri Star Quilt Company's first ever quilt along!

OK ladies today we learn my version of the Square in a Square Block!

This is going to be pretty simple since the method is the same as our last block but a little less brain work because you are sewing rings of color instead of having your colors separated corner to corner.


First you'll want to get out your strips from the bag labeled Square in a Square and arrange 1 set of strips as a layout guide.




1. Place the 2" squares right sides together you should have one Secondary and one Primary for each of 7 blocks




Sew and press open



Repeat for all 7 blocks remember chain stitching is helpful!

2. Your Secondary color (the center block) should be at the bottom. Lay a 3.5" Primary color strip on top of your sewn pieces right sides together.



Sew & press open remembering to put all your blocks through facing the same direction!



You can stack and lay them out like we did for the traditional Log Cabin last time if you found that helpful... I do
Your blocks now look like this -





3. Attach the next Primary colored 3.5" strip in the same manner. Sew & press open!



See it's "sew" easy!

4. Attach the 5" Primary colored strip to complete the second row.





5. Start on the third row by attaching the 5" Secondary color strip.





6. Attach a 6.5" Secondary color strip.





7. Attach the next 6.5" Secondary color strip.





8. Finish your row by attaching the 8" Secondary color strip.



Yay! It's looking so cool!

9. Attach the 8" Primary color strip to the top of your block.





10. Attach a 9.5" Primary color strip.





11. Attach the next 9.5" Primary color strip.





12. Attach the last strip! The 11" Primary color strip.





Look at these awesome blocks!



I love doing cool things with cool fabric!

The Log Cabin Quilt Along

Well I posted the instructions about the Log Cabin Block several weeks ago on the MSQC forum... in fact I've already posted the Square in a Square block instructions there too! As I was getting ready to post them here I realized I'd forgotten to post the Log Cabin instructions. So, I'm posting them now and I'll post the square in a square in a few days :) *oops*

So, Anyway, Here's the log Cabin Block!


This block is fun because basically what your doing is taking strips in graduating sizes and starting from the center you simply add a piece, & turn your block, add a strip, turn your block, add a strip, etc! Really pretty simple you just go around and around the center square until all the strips are on and your block is as big as you want it!



First you'll want to get out your strips from the bag labeled Log cabin

and separate your stacks by size.



I found it helpful to lay out my block on the table in the order that it would be put together. I'll reference sizes in the post but you can use this picture as a reference.



step 1 place the 2" squares from your Primary and Secondary colors right sides together

It's helpful to chain stitch these.

I still have one block laid so I can see what direction my pieces are going together but I chain stitch each group to save time and thread
sew and press open.

Woohoo! Your on your way! Your block now looks like this...

Your primary color should be at the top. Repeat this step for all seven sets of 2" squares. (chain stitch!)



2. Lay the 3.5" Secondary color strip on top of your sewn pieces right sides together.

sew & press open. Repeat with all seven sets. To assist in chain sewing I lay my blocks out in front of my sewing machine all facing the same direction

Then I lay the next piece on top

and send them all through the machine one after the other. This helps assure the they all get sewn facing the same direction. This is particularly important as you get more & more strips on. You want to make sure your pieces are sewn to the correct side
Here we are!




3. Lay the 3.5" Primary color strip on top of your sewn pieces right sides together.

When you lay out your blocks for chain sewing make sure they are all facing the same direction


Lay the 3.5" Primary on top

sew them all to the same side

& press open.

Repeat with all seven sets.



4. This time you'll add the 5" strip to your sewn block. Use the pieces you have layed out to reference which side. From this point on the strip you add will always be added to the side where it touches three strips. All the other sides only have 2 on the outside. (If that doesn't make sense don't worry! Just continue to use your layout and place your blocks carefully ) Your blocks are getting big enough now that it will be hard to lay them out individually for chain sewing. Instead you can simply stack your sewn block's so they face all the same direction & line up the new strip next to it on the side that it will be sewn to.




And just put each set together as you sew them. As long as they're lined up right it works just fine You'll continue adding strips in this manner using the block layout as a reference.
You've now got your first 2 rows of your log cabin up! (I'm including the center square )




5. Add the 5" Secondary color strip




6. Add the 6.5" Secondary color strip




7. Add the 6.5" Primary color strip




8. Add the 8" Primary color strip




9. Add the 8" Secondary color strip (sorry forgot my picture )



10. Add the 9.5" Secondary color strip




11. Add the 9.5" Primary color strip




12. Add the 11" Primary color strip





Hurray! You did it! What do you think of my block? I can't wait to see your's!!!
Let me know if you have any questions!