sewtakeahike

Made with speed...

(Bag inspired by Chase's bag, here)

One of the things that impresses me most about my Juki is it's speed.  So I decided to do a speed test on it and the best way I thought to do this was to do a little quilt as you go bag.

I cut a piece of batting roughly 25X25 (the bag didn't end up this big!) and started out.  Now way back, when I made this quilt, each square took about 2-3 hours and they were only 14.5" squares. 

The end result was, quilting a 25 inch square on the Juki took me about 3 hours (I get pretty wound up in fabric selection so this took most of my time!) compared to 2-3 hours for a 14.5" square.  I have to say, I'm pretty happy to be able to quilt something 3 times as big in the same amount of time!

 

And if you haven't entered your name suggestion for my Juki yet, bring it on!  There's still time!

Happy Saturday!

~Penny

Brrr! bear paw! aka "paw paw"

 

 

Paw paw is one of those quilts that got me excited right away and made me want to put it together quickly.  Well, quickly for me is a couple of weeks! 

To make it, I used a 9.5" unfinished bear paw block pattern.  I fussy cut the larger bear circles for the main square and the smaller bear circles I didn't get as fiddly with when I cut them.  The rest of the prints were used for the paw claw section.  I have the backing fabric picked out and hope to quilt it in the next week or two.

Thank you all for your awesome comments on the excitedly constipated post!  Just know that I am celebrating with each and every one of you who are grateful for the things (big or small!) in your life!!

And the winner of the Brrr! fq bundle is:

 Tong!!  who said:  Best thing this week for me was the fact that I finally got over this cold I'd had for a long time. It's great to not feel like passing out all the time!

Go ahead and email me your address Tong and I'll get the fq bundle sent off to you.

Penny

**edited to add**  I've had a request asking for fabric requirements to make this quilt, so here goes.  The blocks are 9.5" unfinished and you will need 49 of them and the quilt will be 63X63".

You will need:

• 49 squares 6.5" each from small and large bear circle fabric (paw part of block)
• 98 squares 3 7/8" each of supporting fabrics cut in half for hst's (paw claw part of block)
• 98 squares 3 7/8" each of background fabric cut in half for hst's (paw claw part of block)
• 49 squares 3.5" background fabric for solid corner square

 

"superstar"!

 

Is d.o.n.e!

 

And a gratuitous quilting shot:

 

Here are a few things I learned from making this quilt! 

one.  that I am pretty good a free motion quilting if I take my time.

two.  that I can sew squares together with matching seams and little or no wonkiness if I press the seams to the side for the rows, but then press the seams OPEN when sewing the rows together.

three.  when doing hst's, to cut the initial squares 3/8" larger than you want them to end up.

 

So what weekend finishes do you have?  Even if it was just unloading the dishwasher, I want to hear!

One more thing,

 

I'm working on this Brrr! bear paw and just might have a fat quarter set of it (courtesy of Laurie Wisbrun.  Brrr! should be hitting the stores in June I believe!) to give away later this week.  I'm just sayin'.

Happy Monday to you!!

~Penny

 

Fairy Tale Sailboats

 

 

I am so excited to finally get to show you all one of my latest creations. 

It's called "Fairy Tale Sailboats" and I designed it using the Fairy Tale Friends line by Sandi Klop that will be out in October.  It's featured today on the Moda Bakeshop along with the pattern and tutorial, so I would love it if you stopped by my post at the MBS to let me know what you think!

 

 

Happy Saturday to you!!

~Penny

a slice of Ringo Pie

 

 

I'm finally servin' up my Ringo Pie dresden!  It's only been in the making since April and I'm so glad to have it finished.

I started it to go along with Lynne's dresden QAL and quickly fell behind.  Well, that's not hard to do, it's impossible to keep up with her!  I think she's started and finished two more QAL's since then.

Anyway, this last week I picked myself up and finished it.  It's a huge dresden, at 24" across, and I'll be adding it to my "all things kitcheny" quilt from the Ringo Pie bee.

These are some of my very most favorite fabrics, some given to me by friends and some purchased. 

So what fabulous projects have you picked back up lately and are happy you did? 

Happy Thursday to you!

~Penny