Thoughts of a Grasshopper

January 2013 I joined a "Saturday Sampler" at a local quilt shop.  Each month you were given a block to do and the following month if you came back with the completed block, they gave you the next block to put together for free.  If you didn't have the previous block done, you could buy the block kit for that month.  I'm thinking it was $7 or $8.  I'm not really sure because I'm motivated by "free" to get things done. There was a Log Cabin bundle of material available to make 23 log cabin blocks.  I'm thinking the instructions must have said to make 24 because I had that many and only 23 were needed to make the quilt below. When I assembled this quilt, I wasn't in love with the yellow diagonal stripes but I did like how the blocks stood out.  I changed the layout of the blocks and used the 24th log cabin I had previously made to complete this new design.  I liked this layout but it was too yellow for me and I felt like the blocks were mu...

I've been so busy on another quilt that I put off working on this block.  I think I may have procrastinated on it because I wasn't looking forward to the doubling the triangle to get the 4 diamonds.  I should have pressed my seams open for it to lay better.  I managed to get it done in time for the Saturday Sampler.

This is not my favorite square.  It was easy to cut the pieces for the square, rather fast in fact.  The shop substituted one of the fabrics and it really would have looked better with the original fabric they had chosen.  The blue that is a shade darker on the "star" (upper right/lower left) is the same design as their original choice but it is a lighter shade of blue.  I think it needs to be darker because of the blue diagonal line going through and simply for contrast within the star. I'm going to ask when I go if I can buy a kit for this block and then I'll substitute it with my own fabric (if I have any of the original fabric they chose).  I need to check my stash before I go buying it.

This is block 7 of the Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown Quilt.  I'm not sure why Godspeed is the name for the block.  I am happy with the way it turned out.  I had my fabric in order on the table and when I was cutting and mistakenly grabbed the yellow fabric, cutting what should have been the green triangles.  Oops.  I cut the green triangles as I should have and then went on to the yellow fabric cutting the pieces I needed.  Fortunately I didn't have to dip into my personal stash for the yellow.  I was able to cut all of the needed pieces from what was left of my cutting and 2 of the triangles.  Now I have 2 extra yellow triangles for my scraps pile.  What I get for joking around with my son while cutting instead of paying attention to the details. I'm close to being done with the binding on my table runner.  I've been taking it with me to work on while I'm waiting at appointments, piano, etc.

I realized this morning that I never posted my square for June.  I was excited to do this block because from a distance it has a more curved appearance, however, up close, you can see that it is all straight edges.  Once again, the method for making it stretched me and I don't know that I really know the proper way that the instructions had but in the end, I did it and it came perfectly so I'm happy. I need to put the binding on the table runner I've been working on and then I'll share it here.  I quilted it Monday so I would have a little practice for my free motion quilting class on Tuesday. The table runner has straight lines forming a diamond that gradually enlarges.  I should have used the walking foot for that but I really wanted to practice with the quilting foot.  I still want to practice some of the designs (i.e., double flower, feather, etc.) we worked on there, but I think I did very well for it being my first time.  

This is block 5 of the Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown quilt.  I like having a block a month to work on.  I just signed up for another block a month that is a 10-month program for a quilt called "Mill Girls".  I'm really looking forward to working on it and reading the writings of some girls who worked there and what life was for them.

I mentioned back in January that I have started a "Saturday Sampler" quilt with a local quilt shop.  The pattern is called Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown .  I thought I would share what I've completed so far.  The quilt will have 12 sampler blocks that were named to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, VA and 24 log cabin blocks.  New Colony  Roanoke Island  Discovery  Virginia Settlement For the log cabins, I started off with 4 pieces sewn together to start the block and had the remaining strips laid out so I could grab them easily and keep on sewing.  I'd never sewn a log cabin block before and a friend told me it is better to do them at once because you have to think about what you are doing.  With this method, I was able to leave them and come back to it a week later and pick up where I left off. Log Cabin I have to admit I was happy when I finished that 24th log cabin block.  I...