More Goodness From Brenda Riddle Designs...

Brenda Riddle Fabric and Pattern Assortments

Aren't these colors sweet? They're all the fabric and pattern designs from my friend, Brenda Riddle of Brenda Riddle Designs. 

I've created quilts from her designs before. This is a post I wrote about some of the books and patterns of hers that I own. You can also click HERE to see a quilt I made for my sister, Diana. It came from Bren's book, Home Comforts.

Brenda Riddle's Grace Layer Cake Fabric Assortment

I don't think you'll be at all surprised that I recently purchased Bren's pattern for her fabric line Grace. I received more fabric from the Grace line this week. More gorgeous fabric for the collection. 

I'm going to create the quilt shown in the above pattern. I'm quite sure the historic name for the block design is Courthouse Steps, and I love Bren's take on it. I can't wait to make a quilt with these fabrics. 

Now that I've reviewed my posts of all the patterns and fabrics I own from my dear friend, I think I can safely say that, at least as far as quilting is concerned, this might just be the year of Brenda Riddle Designs quilts! Stick around this year, and I'll show you as they take shape.

Diana's Scissor Keep...

I started (and finished) the scissor keep for my sister, Diana yesterday. She loves purple (and Marvin the Martian, but I'll save that for another time), so that's how I decided on her colors.

I made a queen-size quilt for her for Christmas 2010, so I used a few scraps from that project for this one. (In case you're interested, here is my post on her quilt.)

Instead of calling this a geranium, it could be a lilac blossom. Or perhaps a little hydrangea. Or a generic lavender bloom of some sort. I'll let her decide.

I'll put it in an envelope today and send it on its way to Minnesota. (Di, you'll have to use your own scissors. These happen to be one of my favorites!) I know. So much for the surprise. Oh, well.

Happy Summer, Sissyhead!

Making A List...

It's time to start working on my Christmas sewing list. It's not as extensive as it was last year, so I should have an easy coast to get my projects done by my self-imposed December 13th deadline.

Chenille bedspreads (cutters), which will become something warm and sweet. One might even appear in my Etsy shop if I have time after all of my own projects have been wrapped.
Gorgeous blues with an ocean theme to become a cozy quilt for a special young person in our lives. It won't be too large, and I'll machine quilt it myself.

Now that the queen size Lavender Dreams quilt has been completed, I'm confident that finishing the rest of my projects on time will be easy peasy. Care to follow this year's journey?

I'm Positively Giddy...

Yesterday, I finished the tote and then bound the Nantucket quilt. Two major projects finished! I'll share the quilt tomorrow, but for today, I have to share how positively giddy I was last night at the Guild meeting.

When I got up yesterday, I was determined to finish assembling the Sweet 16 Challenge piece for our Disconnected Piecers Quilt Guild meeting. I got into the studio early and completed it before lunch time.

For all of you who guessed that the song was "House of the Rising Sun", you're right! It made the Top 100 list in 1970, and although there were other songs I could have chosen (the processional for our wedding was "The Long and Winding Road" - also a hit in 1970), there is a special story behind this song. I also figured I could do something more visual with this one, which also helped me decide.
My father's younger brother, Larry, was only five years older than I, and although he was my uncle, it always seemed like he was my older brother. It always seemed weird to call him "Uncle", as we were so close in age. He was in a band when I was 16. He had an electric keyboard and drums set up in my grandparent's basement, and he played guitar.

When we went to visit one weekend all those years ago, he, my brother and I headed for the basement. I played keyboard and my brother played drums. Larry showed me the chords for "The House of the Rising Sun" and said that I should just play the chords and repeat them...then repeat them again...until the song is over. I'd do alright for a while, but then, I'd lose my concentration and we'd have to start over. He was so patient with me. I still hear Larry's voice saying, "Come on, Dee! You can do it!"

Larry passed away when he was 52 years old (8 years ago). To this day, I can still hear his voice. When I went down the list and saw that this song was in the Top 100 for 1970, I knew I'd be doing my challenge piece based on this song with such happy memories attached to it. This is my loving tribute to him.
Why am I giddy, you ask? Out of sixteen entries at the Guild meeting last night, my tote was chosen by the members to receive a Third Place ribbon! All entries were anonymous, as were the votes for Member's Choices. With all the gorgeous interpretations, I was shocked that I won at all. Truth be told, I didn't even know they were going to judge the pieces. I only thought it would be fun trying to figure out the titles for each of the entries.In case you're interested, the other songs were: Twilight Time (wall hanging), Hummingbird (pillow), Swing on A Star (hanging), Three Coins In A Fountain (wall hanging), Red Red Wine (wall hanging), Tears Of A Clown (wall hanging), Heard It Through The Grapevine (wall hanging), Deep Purple (wall hanging), MacArthur Park (a windowpane wall hanging), Our House (wall hanging), Spooky (wall hanging), Yellow Submarine (wall hanging), I Saw Her Standing There (wall hanging), my House of the Rising Sun (tote), Brown-Eyed Girl (wall hanging), and Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces (wall hanging).

THEN, there was a contest to see how many song titles you could guess from the entries. I won a prize bag for having the third most correct answers! My prizes were a Bali batiks jelly pack (worth over $30!!), another cut of batik fabric, a box of pins, a tape measure and a quilt pattern book. My entire prize package had to have been worth at least $65! Thank you to Nora and Kathy of Sandy's Quilt Shop for donating the prizes.

AND, they also had a raffle last night. As we walked in the door, we signed our names to the attendance book and were handed a raffle ticket. I won a fat quarter pack of baby-themed flannels!

So, I guess yesterday was my lucky day, and I didn't see it coming at all. (Darn! I should have bought a lottery ticket!)

Tomorrow, I'll share the finished Nantucket quilt, and if I'm really ambitious, you'll see the finished Lavender Dreams quilt, too! (Kathy told me at the meeting last night that it was ready to pick up.)

Kessie is feeling much better. She's even wagging her tail! Fez is being really sedate, considering that he could be a real pest if he wanted to. We're all really grateful that he's behaving and giving Kes time to heal. I'm sure he'll tell you all about it on Friday!

Ready For The Fancy Stitching...

Yesterday was actually a beautiful day. The sun was shining, temperature was moderate with low humidity (I love days like that here in south Florida!), and I finished the Lavender Dreams quilt top! I assembled the backing, packed everything up and took it down to Kathy. She will take the top, add the batting and backing, and mount it on her frame so her long-arm machine can do all the fancy stitching that will really make the quilt sing. When she's finished with her work (next week), I'll add the binding and it will be all done - just in time for me to present it to Miss Snoopy Pants' (aka, my younger sister, Diana) when she flies to Florida in December to celebrate my birthday with me. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and good thoughts for Kes. The little stone passed yesterday morning while she was at the vet's office, however the larger stone was going to pose a problem. I love our vet and her entire staff, so I didn't fret about Kessie's care at all. I knew they would take good care of her for me. Kes underwent surgery early afternoon on Friday and is now resting comfortably at the 24 hour emergency clinic in Sarasota. She stayed overnight for pain management and IV fluids. I'm told I'll be able to pick her up later this afternoon or Sunday. Of course, I'm hoping that it's today. I want her back here at home! One last photograph to share with you from Thursday night's concert. You can see that Handsome and I were on the stage at the same time. It was so much fun doing the Veterans' Day program! (You can click on the image to see a bigger picture, and I even drew arrows over each of us!) Have a great weekend, guys and dolls. See you tomorrow with Kes updates.

36 Blocks...

Yesterday's Block Party was a huge success! I began sewing all the squares together at 9 am, and when I quit at 10 pm all 36 blocks were finished, and I had decided on the layout. (Apologies for the night-time photo, but I just had to show you how much I accomplished in one intense day.)

I'll get the quilt top assembled this morning, along with the back for the quilt, and then I'll drive it down to Kathy in Harbour Heights so she can quilt it (assemble top, batting and backing with the fancy quilt stitching) for me. After she's finished, it will come back to me to finish off with binding.

I'm hoping that Fezzik will share photos of the finished quilt top with you tomorrow. (Perhaps if I give him a little extra kibble?) I'm never quite sure what he wants to write about until he starts pecking away on my laptop. He's so smart!

I'll be picking up the Nantucket Quilt, which is now ready for binding, too. The next time you see that, it will be ready to ship to our hostess on the island.
This evening is our Veterans Day concert for the Concert Band and Chorale. (Remember, this will be my first concert with the Chorale.) It's going to be quite inspirational and patriotic. I wish you could all be here to enjoy it. I'm really hoping that someone is going to be recording it. I'm usually the person to do that, but I'll be singing this time, instead.

Happy Veterans Day to all the servicemen and women,
and all of our veterans who sacrificed so much
that we might live in freedom.
My family and I are very grateful.

Before I sign off for today, I also want to apologize for not responding to your daily comments or making my usual rounds to say hello to my blog pals. The design for the Lavender Dreams quilt was really a lot more involved than I anticipated, and with the deadline to get it to Harbour Heights, I've really been behind the 8 ball I sort of bit off more than I could chew.

You know how much I love stopping in to visit and leave my notes on your blogs...and likewise, how much I appreciate each and every comment. I want you to know that I read all of your notes as they come in, and I promise I'll get back to my regular schedule very soon. I'm hoping to get back to normal by the beginning of next week.

Til then, I hope you'll accept my blog posts as my "conversation" with each of you, and know that I'll be back to what passes for normal around here before you know it.

Surprises From Vermont...

I just had take a break from sewing to show you what came in the mail yesterday. Surprises from Vermont, and my beautiful friend, Denise. She explained in her note that she'd been collecting things, with me in mind, as she traveled around her home state this summer.

Beautifully wrapped packages were nestled in leaves, fall-themed tissue paper, and acorn fabric! The wrappings were gifts in their own right!
Then, I opened her packages to find a vintage squirrel print (already mounted behind glass); a crewel chipmunk holding an acorn; and the sweetest, vintage squirrel salt and pepper set! The packages were also embellished with buttons (See the acorn button? So cool!); and Denise had told me that she'd also collected a lot of acorns, only to have them "hatch" a bevy of insects. (YUK!!) She thought better of shipping them. (Thanks a million, Denise! I'll cherish the thought.) But, you'll see in the photo that she couldn't resist sending a cluster of acorn caps! I almost forgot...there was a package of delicious Vermont maple candy, too. That disappeared. Hmmmm. I think Handsome got it! (Denise, you know how much he loves that candy!)

I just have to be one of the luckiest girls around to have a friend who would spend vacation or precious free time in search of surprises for me. I'm going to create something special just for her to show her how much her thoughtfulness means to me.

Denise, my friend...If you read this post, please know how dear you and your generous heart are to me. I so appreciate every single part and piece of the gifts you sent south. Thank you. Thank you!
Quilt update: Still sewing. Completed eleven blocks so far. Twenty five to go. Hoping to be back tomorrow with news that the quilt blocks are completed (Assembled top would be better still!) Wish me luck!

Time For A Block Party...

I miscounted the number of squares I made for the Lavender Dreams quilt. I told you there were 288, when there were actually 576. Man, I thought they were multiplying and I'd never get this step finished. Now I know why...Twice as many as I thought. I've been calling this portion of the assembly the "Square Dance".

All of the squares are assembled, ironed and then, well...squared up. You can see in the first photograph just how that was done. Where I've placed arrows, you can see how the fabric of the finished square hung out behind the ruler.

I lined up the diagonal seam on each square with the diagonal line on the ruler. Then I checked to see if there was fabric sticking out behind the ruler. If there was, I cut it off on two sides and then turned the square around to repeat the process for the other two edges. 576 times. I am so over this step!

So far, this part took much more time than I expected. I'd hoped to finish the quilt top assembly by last Sunday. Now I'm hoping to get it pulled together by Wednesday
There are 96 squares of each fabric pattern. Enough to make 6 star blocks in each pattern.
I love how the blocks are going to look. Oh, and Miss Snoopy Pants has seen my posts, so the cat's out of the bag. I really don't mind that she found out. She and I were on the phone, and she was almost crying at my fabric choices and the quilt pattern. She said she can't wait til it's finished and on her bed. I can't either.

So, the Square Dance is over, and now it's time for a Block Party. Let's see just how many days this party lasts!

Stopping To Smell The Roses...

Doesn't much matter what I'm doing or where I go around the house. I take two steps, look down, and this is what is looking back up at me.

"Mom. Do you think you could stop what you're doing and play with us for a little while?"

What would you do? I've got a project with a deadline, and I have to keep working to get it done in time. I could step around the dogs...or I could get down on all fours and wrestle around with my two favorite doglets for just a little while. Just a few minutes to make them happy, and then they go lie down and I go back to work. It's like stopping to smell the roses...sort of.
I've been making lots of squares...one hundred ninety eight finished so far. Ninety six to go. This step will be finished today, and then I'll square 'em all up. I switched out one of the fabrics, too. That dark purple just over-powered the rest of the fabrics. It's good to be flexible on the choices I've made, and best of all, at a point when it wouldn't require use of a seam ripper!

Do you agree? Did I make the right choice to remove the dark purple (seen in the photos in this post) from the blocks on the front of the quilt? I'm still going to use it for the back of the quilt, but I think the front will look better in these fabrics in the lighter colors.

Gotta run again. Back to the studio to meet that deadline...after I snuggle the dogs again.

Doing The Math...

Yesterday I finished the first six blocks of the "Lavender Dreams" quilt...one in each of the six different fabrics I've chosen for the design. Then, it was time to do the math.

The first photograph shows all six blocks, with close-ups of those blocks in the second and third photos. Remember, you can always click on each picture for a closer look, too!
There are sixteen half-square triangle squares in each block...eight 5" squares in the patterned fabric and eight 5" squares in the tan marbled fabric. These combinations will be used to create six 16" blocks in each pattern. That means I need forty eight 5" squares to do all the blocks in each pattern. I've used up eight for each of the blocks shown here, so I needed to count out forty more 5" squares for each colorway.

Bored to tears yet? Sorry. I know. I'm just doing the math.
I made sure that I counted out all the 5" squares before I quit working in the studio yesterday. All are now neatly stacked and waiting for me to go on to the next phase.

I've been taking chances posting this much. So far, Miss Snoopy Pants hasn't seen any of these images yet. I think I'll stop showing you what it looks like in progress now, and will save the next quilt update for when the quilt top is completed and ready to go over to Kathy over at Sandy's Quilt Shop. It's just safer that way. Don't you think?

Today is Election Day. I'm off to vote!

Lavender Fezzik Friday - 20 Weeks...

Mom asked me to help her in the studio yesterday. She said that I could be her model for the "Lavender Dreams" quilt she's working on now. I was really worried that she was gonna put a hat on me or something silly. She says that I do "silly" really well.

I'm glad I didn't have to wear any props this time. She said all I had to do was relax on her work table and show her first block for the new quilt to all of you. She didn't say that I had to stay off it, though.
Isn't it a pretty block? This quilt is really comfy, and Mom's only made one block so far. She said, if I think it's comfy now, I'll want to roll all over it when it's all finished!
Mom said that she'll be making six blocks out of each different fabric, with the creamy color in this block repeating in every block on the quilt. There will be a total of thirty six blocks, each taking her about an hour to make. That means it will take her at least thirty six hours just to make all the blocks.

Then, she'll have to decide on placement for each block and sew them all together. She's a little worried that she won't get it finished by the end of next week, but I believe in her. I think she'll do it!

Each block measures 16" square and the finished quilt will be queen size. Rats! I was hoping it was going to be "corgi size"!

Gotta run now. See you next week!