Stella Blue Friday

Hello everyone, Happy Friday!!

Dianne at Suburban Stitcher and I have been working on our Stella Blue quilts. I’ve been chipping away at a stack of Flying Geese all week. There are lots to make as I’ve talked about before. I like this part of the quilt making process, because it’s somewhat mindless. You can just sit down and start chain piecing these triangles to your heart’s content, and when you get bored, pick up something else for awhile.

These geese are all of the border geese.

I've started cutting the large star geese now.

I am using Rural Jardin fabric by Moda for this quilt. It is a fat quarter bundle, and I love that I am using so many different fabrics, it’s giving me the scrappy look that I like so much. I am also using Best Press, a spray starch on this quilt. I’ve never used spray starch, and lately I keep hearing about how much nicer it makes your fabric to work with. Since this requires a lot of triangles (bias cuts) I thought this is a perfect time to try it. So far, it’s been great.

Trying to get back in the groove

I needed a little pick me up, the quilts I am making right now are big and require lots of thought. My brain has been shut down these past few weeks. So, I pulled out a coin purse pattern I've had, and decided to give it a go.

The pattern is called Cash & Carry by Atkinson Designs. I thought they were cute, and I like finding new ways to make little bags. My favorite was the one that held the cards on the outside pockets, so this is the one I tried first.

I made a few mistakes, and realized half way through that I should have been using a walking foot.. but I plan to make several more soon! I got my practice one in now :D

Playing Catchup!

I have been MIA for quite sometime now. I feel like April was a blur it flew by so fast for us. We were out of town all of last week for a fun and much needed family vacation. Do you have friends where their whole family is friends with your whole family? We are lucky enough to have a family that we love to be with and are lucky enough to call our friends. The Jarvis family invited us to go to Mexico with them and stay in their vacation home with them. The rain here in Portland has been endless and we were all wanting some sun! The house is near Puerto Vallarta, we swam in the ocean, played in the sand and just rested. It was heaven!

We got home to me being sick with allergies... Yuck! I am just feeling normal again *love Claritin*. I also had my bithday this past week. My family is so sweet and got me gifts for the new deck in the backyard.

So it is needless to say that I haven't sewn for two and a half weeks!!! I miss it and finally started up again today.
Dianne at Suburban Stitcher has been working hard on her Stella Blue quilt. I started in on making some flying geese. There are a lot of them and we are going to be pros by the end of this quilt! I am using the fit to be geese ruler to make them. The ruler does make perfect geese!I have three quilts to baste quilt and bind by June. I hope to start working on them this coming week. I can't wait to start quilting them.
Here is to a productive week! Have a good weekend everyone!

One more thing, I am selling a lot of cross stitch charts at a great price, go and check it out!

Inspiring Friends

We had quilt class at church a few weeks back, and I took some photos of what my friends are making, because they make some awesome stuff, and more people need to see their hard work. They inspire me to keep trying new things, and to keep sharing what I love.

Karen has been working on this quilt for a few years, I was with her on multiple shopping trips when she was collecting all of those blue fabrics. The pattern is American Pie by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company (I made the same quilt in Red and White) I love it with blue too, now I may have to make it again LOL!

Karin loves to make her own patterns, these fabrics are Bliss fat quarters, she cut them wonky and sewed them back together. I love it!

Karen is getting hooked on cross stitching, and is making this adorable bib for her nephew.

Victory has had fun putting this quilt together, it's very scrappy and gorgeous. Wait until you see the pinwheel quilt she is making right now, it's going to be awesome.

Closeup.

Victory brought a design wall with her to the class, so we could hang our blocks up and check them out. These are Karen's blocks, in black and white.

These are my blocks in orange and aqua, it's been fun so far.

The blocks I taught in class are these two, teaching how to cut and sew quarter square triangles two different ways.... fun!

Cross Stitch Charts for Sale!!

All charts listed will have notes whether they were used, or not! They come from a smoke free home and have been taken care of! Shipping will be determined upon sale, and will be very inexpensive. Please email me: oregonsurfers@gmail.com if you are interested, or leave a comment.

Little House Needleworks:

Faith Kit: with 5 Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

America $3.50

Never Used

Garden Pleasures $3.50

Gently Used

Apples with Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

Blessed are the Peacemakers with Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

Pineapples with Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

Colonial Homes $3.50

Never Used

Quilt Time Sampler SOLD!

Never Used

Starlight Sampler $3.50

Never Used

The Bookshelf $3.50

Never Used

Lizzie Kate

#F21 February Flipit with Charm $3.50

Never Used

Country Cottage Needleworks

Forest Snowfall $3.50

never used

JBW Designs

French Country Apple SOLD

gently used

Heart in Hand

Star Spangles Summer Chart $1.00

Never Used

Shepherd's Bush

ABC Complete Kit: Threads and Linen $8.00

Never Used

Bee Scissor Fob Kit: Scissors, Threads, Linen etc. $20.00

Never Used

Chanukah Chart $1.00

Never Used

My Garden Chart with Remaining Silk Threads $3.00

I stitched this kit, only threads leftover remain, which is enough to stitch again

Long May She Wave Needleroll: Complete Kit $9.00

Never Used

Americana Needleroll: Complete Kit $9.00

Never Used

Waxing Moon Designs

Apple Harvest: No Buttons $3.00

Bent Creek

Educated $1.00

Never Used

Mill Hill

Holiday Weathervanes: Gingerbread House Kit $5.00

Never Used

Mr. Snowflake Complete Kit $5.00

Never Used

Star Snow Charmer: Complete Kit $5.00

Never Used

The Victoria Sampler

Satin Hearts: Complete Kit $5.00

Mistletoe: Complete Kit $5.00

Never Used

Please email me at: oregonsurfers@gmail.com, or leave a comment if you are interested in purchase these kits, shipping will be very inexpensive!! Thank you for looking!!

Stella Blue Friday

Stella Blue construction has begun! I am starting with the many flying geese, there are three different versions of them, so I starched and ironed my fabric (for the first time!) and am getting the squares and all cut out.

I had to try out the "Fit to Be Geese" Ruler too, it does work nicely! Carrie has a tutorial of how to use the ruler. I had to sit down and re-figure the pattern to cut the flying geese out, because using the ruler requires different sizes of squares.

While cutting out strips to cut into squares, I took some photos of how I speed up the process, I am sure it's nothing new to many of you, but I found it helpful. I learned it while making a pattern by Eleanor Burns.

First you cut your strips, then lay them evenly out on your cutting mat.

Lay down your ruler and cut off the selvages. Line up your ruler to the size of square needed and cut through all of the strips. Repeat until the strips are used up.

And Viola! A nice stack of squares that were made quick!

Today is my son Curren's birthday, I can't believe he is 10 years old!! Tomorrow is my daughter Jessie's birthday, she is 9! Life is sure going fast, but we are having a lot of fun :)