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I cut the 42 pink, red and burgundy fabrics for the 24 kits.  This photo shows 132 squares so far.







I continue with a mock up to see what is missing as I continue cutting.












This is all of the left over end pieces so far.  I have several little bags full of the leftovers from previous kits I have cut.











I will be sending the skinny little leftovers from die cutting to a friend who needs them for a project.







I gathered and pressed the fabrics for the 6" hole in the barn door a/k/a churn dash ...

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The only sewing I got done yesterday was this postage stamp block sewn in one direction while I caught the noon news and weather.






In the cutting category first I cut the grass.  I had to move my blade up higher because the grass was so long.  The humidity level dropped a lot so it was a good day for mowing.

Then I cut red, coral, pink and burgundy fabrics for the colorwash kits for my Colorwash360 class.  Each of those fabrics is on a stack of 6 layers.  My 2 friends are coming over to sew today so I ...

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I had to go shoe shopping yesterday, shoes for my granddaughter's wedding next month.  I found a pair that is so comfortable....and so expensive.  They will be my dressy shoes for the rest of my life.

I sewed the last batch of Hunter Stars and put the last 2 batches up on the design wall with the first group.  There will be lots of rearranging and in fact the blocks will probably come down off the design wall because this is a long range project.  There are 64 blocks here and I need about 130.
I got the ...

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Last night I sewed some Hunter Star half blocks.  I will have the iron on today and then I can press them and sew the half blocks together.





I kept thinking the half blocks look like fish so I laid them out in vertical columns to see how the dark and light halves of the blocks would work together.  I think it might work better if all of the lights were a consistent value.  I have worked mediums in as both lights and darks as I am making the star blocks.

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I finished the binding before noon yesterday and then went to the basement for the photo shoot.  This quilt is 44" x 68".  I used a pattern "Keep Out" by Maple Island but I made changes to the border












I mentioned a couple days ago that the backing was 57" wide so I could use as is without piecing.  The backing fabric is a little heavier and stiffer than usual so this one needs to be washed right away to see if it will soften.










Here is another WIP that I need to finish.  I didn't have enough of ...

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Photograph by American Quilter magazine. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Today I introduce you to Zen Life, my quilt just published in the September 2019 issue of American Quilter magazine. Since I received it back from the publisher, I have had it in front of my office so I see it all the time. The vibes!

Zen Life measures 70-3/4" x 83-1/2" and the blocks finish at 9". I worked with the amazing Tonga Vivid batik collection by Timeless Treasures and the quilting was done by Melissa Kelly from Sew Shabby Quilting.

The blocks are made up ...

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I kept finding other things to do and didn't get a lot done on this binding.  I have a little more than 2 sides done, stitching by hand.  I will finish it today.

We got a little rain yesterday and now it is supposed to be cooler with low humidity for a few days.  That is going to feel great.  We had a hot weekend.

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Yesterday morning I quilted the 1990s batik rectangles quilt that I loaded on the longarm Friday night.







It is all trimmed ready for binding which I cut yesterday afternoon.







I also cut the binding for this Marcia Derse fabric quilt and finished sewing it on all by machine.

Info about the pattern for this quilt is on this post.



The binding is sewn onto the colorwash rail fence quilt too and I'm hand finishing it.  I have 1 1/2 sides done.






My red petunias in pots are doing great.  I have to water them every day.  We might ...

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What is it with batiks this year?
My Guild had their annual garage sale yesterday. I bought a book, a pattern, some batting and a batik bundle, all for under $6. The batiks were tied together. I couldn’t tell what was there except that it was all red with one green piece (not a batik). All together it was 4 yards.
This is my third batik haul this year. It must be the theme for 2019.
You’d think being hopelessly in the hole would be discouraging, but it’s actually motivated me to sew more. I have projects ...

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I'm always cutting scraps for my colorwash quilts but I don't take time to sort them by color and get them to the trays right away.  I was tired yesterday afternoon and decided it would be a good day to do some sorting.  These are the batik rectangles.






I didn't have as many print cotton fabrics but they are sorted now too.  Now I will get them on their trays and be ready for the next piece.
My lonely surviving Coreopsis is the 2 color variety.  I planted about 8 plants 2 years ago but I haven ...

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Good morning, friends! Thank you for participating in the Electric Quilt software giveaway! I loved reading and responding to your comments - we all began it the same way: with paper and colored pencils. As I said in one of my replies, EQ 8 is like graph paper in steroids! I love it and cannot envision my design work without this powerful tool.


Here is the winner:

***
1 Set of 1 Unique Number
Range: From 1 to 36
Set #1

9
OhioLoriJune 6, 2019 at 6:47 PM

I use graph paper... I haven't designed a pattern really, but ...

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I'm motoring right along with my projects. I wish I had more time for that darn UFO that I'm working on for the UFO group. That's going to be after my classes this coming week. It's going to be tight to get my commitment done on time, but I refuse to cough up another $10.

Speaking of our UFO group, sometimes we get the before pictures of what the person is going to do. Sometimes we don't. All I can say is that Shelly has a HUGE task ahead of her this month. She wants ...

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I finished sewing this quilt top together last night.  It ended up 40.25" x 54.25" so it is a small throw quilt.  It will need just one width of fabric for the back which makes me happy.









I saw a black and white bird chasing some other birds away from the bird feeder and wondered what kind it was.  Then about a half hour later I saw the red and knew it was a Rose Breasted Grosbeak.

It is so hard to hold the camera still for the extra zoom feature on my camera but this didn't ...

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I made 10 more blocks to add to the quilt blocks I showed yesterday and added a lot more light value batiks in them.  I thought it was a little dark.  They are 8" blocks so it is 40" x 48" if I sew it right now.








I am thinking about adding a batik stripe border on the top and bottom to lengthen it to 54".  I folded and pinned the fabric to the bottom and I do like it.  It is folded 4" wide but I think 3" would look better.

I have an insurance adjuster coming today to ...

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As I was cleaning up the trays of rectangles and re-sorting them I came across a lot of rectangles that I cut 15 years ago that really don't work for colorwash.  There weren't as many batiks available in the early 2000s as there are now so I was cutting from a lot of the 1990s batiks.



I decided to  make blocks using 8 rectangles and put them up on my design wall edge to edge.  I happen to like busy quilts so even with this odd assortment of fabrics I really liked it.  I know there are some ...

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I spent a lot of time yesterday preparing for my last live broadcast today for the Colorwash360 online class.  In between gathering things and writing notes I looked through fabrics for the back of Downtown.  This is one of Hoffman's earliest batiks and I have enough of it for the back.
Here is a distance view of it by the quilt top.













A close up shows that the lightest color has a turquoise tinge to it.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to use it.







I was looking out at my bird feeders and see my little raider ...

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I knew I had to trim the stripe blocks but as I held the ruler up to the others I could see I needed to trim all of them.  At first I worried that the vertical strips wouldn't line up from block to block.  Then it hit me, the windows in all of the buildings in a downtown wouldn't have windows lined up perfectly with each other.  From there it was trim, trim, trim.
I'm actually quite happy with it.  When I originally made the blocks I didn't think the rosy/brown blocks fit in with ...

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I was too tired last night to get out of my chair to take a photo so you see it from my sewing chair.  I added all of the stripe blocks which added another row.  I need to trim the stripe blocks because they are just strip piecing made to slice to make more blocks but that didn't get done.  I think this might end up about 43" x 52" so it is going to be a small quilt.  I have no interest in going any farther with it.  If I had to come up with a name for ...

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I pulled out some old blocks that I started in Sept. 2017.  I was inspired by Maria Shell's book "Improv Patchwork, dynamic quilts made with line and shape".







I had some half blocks too so I worked them into the layout.










I added the last blocks and contemplated whether to make some more blocks.









I had made some stripe blocks in the same general color range too so I added two of them so I could finish the bottom row.










I switched the 2 stripe blocks with each other and put them in a vertical format.  I think that ...

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Photographs by Amerian Quilter. Used with permission.

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