Testing, testing - again

I am a pattern tester for a few quilt designers. One of those designers, Aimee Leptick of The Little Bird Designs needed a pattern tested with a quick turnaround. It was a paper pieced pattern and since I had tested another paper pieced pattern for her, a landscape (you can find it here), I thought I would give it a go. I did have other sewing to do but I made the time to this.

This is the first part.

The pattern is 15" X 22.5" and since there are several large pieces in the pattern, I sewed a basting stitch in the seam of those pieces. As a matter of fact, I sewed  basting stitches on several smaller pieces just so things would be easier to sew together.

Here's my take on the finished block. The original pattern shows a pink truck on a background that is all one colour but since I like blue and have quite a bit of it, I made my truck blue. I also wanted it to be travelling down a road and the pattern pieces easily lent to changing the fabric evenly. I'm sure this would look great if I were to use trees as the overall background or maybe a fabric that had houses printed on it. There are loads of possibilities.

There is another version of this block that includes an evergreen tree in the back of the truck which would be perfect as a Christmas wall hanging or included in a Christmas quilt. It's a great pattern and you can find it here as a single truck or as a combination pattern which includes the evergreen tree. 

Both patterns and the bundle are on sale until the end of September.

Have fun with it.

New paper piecing pattern

There are some people who don't like paper piecing but I don't mind it. Although it's an old technique, it's not that old a use in modern quilting. I remember the first time I saw it used was in a quilt magazine. It could have been Quilters' Newsletter. I never did try it then but I have done several paper piecing projects since. Some bird patterns come to mind - like a crow. They are fun patterns and there are some quilt pattern designers who specialize in the technique. I am a pattern tester for one such designer. Her name is Aimee Leptick. She designed a cute pattern for last year's Row by Row Experience. It was a bull dog with earphones on his head. If I find the pattern in my files, I'll show you. That's not the pattern that I tested though.

This is the one I tested. It's called Evening Horizon and Aimee designed the pattern for the Stonehenge Fabric Anniversary. She has made it with two different fabric lines.

Pop on over HERE  to read about it and there's a link to the pattern which is half price for one week only. It's a 12" by 18" pattern so it's not that big or difficult to put together if you are at all hesitant to do paper piecing. I had fun with it and it will get quilted and hung on my newly painted walls.

Little finishes and continuing on...

Continuing on with one of my BOMs (blocks of the month.)

Seven stars have been completed for the April installment of the BOM at Quilt Doodle Doodles.

This is how it fits in with the two previous month's blocks.

 This little guy is a Cheeky Raven from Regina Grewe's  paper piecing site. He was all finished except for the bottom strip, his eye and his nostril. Now he is all complete but I won't quilt him just yet. He may just make it into a much bigger quilt.

I have finally gotten to the part where I am using the little Lion Brand Bonbons. This is actually a nice purple.

And lastly, I am going to finish this sweater for little Patric. I made sure that I started with the biggest size so I know that it will fit him. Since I have other things that I would like to start, this needs to get finished.

I'm linking up with What a Hoot! BOMs Away, The Needle and Thread Network and Esther's blog. Pop on over to see how other people are progressing on their projects.

 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I am still knitting up those little socks.

 There are now 8 complete ones. The brown just has to be sewn up and the light blue will then make ten completed. See the difference in the length of needles? I really do love those shorter ones.

These are just a couple of things I am playing around with. The tutorial is here. I don't know yet if I will make a block or just keep sewing. My ironing board is upstairs and so it's giving me some exercise to sew and iron these.

I just couldn't resist this little guy. As you can see, it's paper piecing. A freebie design from Regina Grewe. She has fun with her freebies. She gives you a bit of the design free (for a short while) and if you do it, send her a photo or a scan and she will then send you the rest of the pattern. As you can see, I did follow her instructions. It now has to be finished. 

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network and also with Esther's blog this week. There are, as always, lots to look at.

Late gift

My quilting buddy Judy and I don't get together too often. During the year, we do attend a quilt show or two but the last one we were to meet up at never took place. Judy lives an hour and a half away and this quilt show was almost half way from her place and my home. Unfortunately, her daughter had the flu that day and fainted and they decided to go to the clinic. As a result, I didn't go to the quilt show on my own. We were to exchange birthday and Christmas gifts. Judy's b-day is in Sept. and mine is in Oct. Well, I just received Judy's gift this weekend. My husband was in her town and picked it up. He had delivered mine to Judy's home the last time he was in her town, which was the day we were to meet up.

Gorgeous fabric, isn't it? Almost too nice to cut up. The pattern was part of the gift too. It's a Canadian pattern company, Quilters Clutter, and one I had not heard of before. They have some really cute patterns.

The paper pieced elk is part of our paper pieced North American animal exchange (mammals only, no birds.) It's been going on now for several years. We are in no hurry with our challenges and exchanges. We realize that life gets in the way and also that we have other things we like to concentrate on. One day we'll find that we have exhausted all the foundation pieced North American animal patterns out there and then start to make the quilt.

I'm looking forward to opening up her Christmas gift - but that won't be until the big day.

Now, I still have a three things to finish sewing so I should go and utilize my time wisely.

I have finished my Christmas shopping so at least that's out of the way. I do want to bake some cookies for Santa, though.

Just a little sewing

This is an ongoing project. My quilting buddy Judy and I decided to exchange paper-pieced animals. They had to be North American mammals and we eventually will make a Canadian-themed quilt. We take turns making two paper-pieced mammals, keep one and give one to the other person. The last time I made one was July, 2009. I know because I just checked my archives. Since I am meeting Judy this morning, to go to the quilt show, I figured I may as well get a move on. The pattern has been sitting on my sewing machine for months.

My donkey. I haven't quite finished mine yet but it will be the same. It wasn't a difficult pattern at all but taking the paper off after was not fun. I forgot to shorten my stitch length.

I also decided to make more of the full body bibs for little Luc. Now that the big quilt is finished, Marg, Ann and I have been going through bags of fabric that have been donated to us. Most of it is quilt worthy but some of it isn't or else we just didn't want the pieces. We donated a lot to the guild. I think this fabric was waiting to be made into a baby quilt or the backing for a baby quilt. There really wasn't quite that much and would have had to be pieced with something else but it was perfect for me. Marg hauled this out and gave it to me when I mentioned that I wanted to make the little guy some bibs.

So, I used some of the double fold bias tape that I have and here it is. The dimensions are roughly 11" X 19" and the tie is 24". I used a saucer to mark the curve for the neck. Sorry for the quality of the photo but it's really dull out. We got a bit of snow last night - just a dusting.

There was enough fabric to make 4 bibs exactly with nothing left over. The first one I made only had a backing fabric but even though the top fabric was a bit heavier, it still needed something more. I had some flannel handy and cut it up and it worked well - not too thick and not too thin.

I think I'll go see if there is some other fabric I can use up. I want to make Luc a summer hat.

Everything old is new again and more diversions

This is a picture of Maili, my middle daughter, who used to live and work in California. She is wearing a sweater/shrug that I purchased eons ago. Her little sis found it in my closet and confiscated it one day and then it sat in her closet. Maili found it and now it's 'cool' to wear. I thought, when I bought it, that it would have made a nice little sweater for special occasions like a wedding and seeing as how there is one that we are attending this weekend, I may just borrow it back.
Maili is the one that put the faces on the heads I made. I have been busy with the things below and so the bodies/body have not yet been made.
My quilting buddy Judy and I decided to exchange paper-pieced animals. They had to be North American mammals and we eventually will make a Canadian-themed quilt. Judy, of course, is further along than I am. I have to make one more of these little blocks - a lot of work.
Since Maili has been going to parties (it seems there are a lot of birthdays this summer,) she has been very creative and making cupcakes to bring with her. I will post pics of horses, owls and hamburgers just as soon as I have them. This little apron above is one I whipped up for one of her friends as a b-day gift.