For a bird based on her, I gave her really long legs. She is very focused on the environment, so this bird is green.
If you would like to make some of your own birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.
For a bird based on her, I gave her really long legs. She is very focused on the environment, so this bird is green.
If you would like to make some of your own birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.
The second Nightingale quilt is back from the longarm quilter and has had the binding added and is now complete. This one has a home and it will be going there soon.It's bound with bright dots on a black background.
So here is the first one, it has a dinosaur on it, so CLEARLY it is to commemorate my granddaughter. And I gave this bird long legs because she is going to be TALL!
I have been thinking about how I would make birds for each of my siblings, my niece and nephew and of course, Mom's boyfriend.
Stay tuned!
PS, if you want to make birds, and lemme tell ya, you really do, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away, and it's a great way to use up scraps.
I finished sewing the Big Red flimsy together. I knew I would add a red binding to it, so I added a white border. When I started this quilt I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. But now I really like it.I picked up three quilts from Janet-Lee Santeusanio, my long arm quilter. This is the second Nightingale quilt.
I've done a tiny bit of rearranging, and then I started sewing the blocks together. I'll finish sewing this together in the next few days.
I've got to pick up a couple of quilts from my long-arm quilter over the weekend and add the binding to them.
I've also got some long planned work being done in my house next week and I have to clear out some areas so I have had to figure out where I am going to put the stuff I have to move.
It'll be a busy two weeks, and I may not post as regularly, but I'll do my best to keep up!
When I was cutting blocks from the Lights bin, I was surprised to find how many red-on-white fabrics I had, or how many blocks I cut. It seemed obvious to make a RED quilt. So after I finished sewing up the Nonchalant flimsy (White Macnas) I went through all my bins and cut up red Macnas blocks. I cut up blocks that were mostly RED or Red with White.Then I sorted the blocks by print. After that was done, I started pairing blocks, matching a white one (at the top) with a red one below. I started at the upper left of the white stacks, took one piece, then picked the red at the top left of those. I matched up the next white with the next red, and kept going that way until I had 112 pairs. I need 270 for a quilt the size of the Nonchalant quilt.
The Nonchalant Macnas Quilt is a flimsy. It is 56" x 72". I guess there were more creamy WOWs than I expected. The sun was hiding behind the clouds when I took this picture.But the sun came out briefly so I could take this photo of the quilt in the sun!
I use a laser level I bought at one of the big box hardware stores to establish a horizontal line on my design wall. This is it.
After some very minor tinkering (removing some blocks I thought read as too dark and moving some darks and lights around so I'd have a better balance) I decided this is what I will sew together.
The quilt also has a name: Nonchalant, because this quilt is not full of itself, and not overly fussy.
So I started where I could reach, and sewed the blocks together in largish chunks.Once I decided to actually DO the Macnas dance, I had to work out how big it would be and set a vertical and horizontal line so I could properly line up the blocks on my design wall. A plumb line helps me work out the vertical line, a laser level helps me set up a horizontal one. Then I set out some blocks to help me work out how many across (14) and how many up and down (18.)Then it was time to start making blocks. To do that I had to cut more WOW Macnas rectangles, and I did that from yardage. Once I made a bunch of blocks and pressed them, I literally put them in a stack and started working from left to right, one row at a time, and I put the blocks on the wall in the order they were in the stack, so there was no rearranging or designing. I just wanted to fill the space. It took about an hour to match, sew, press the blocks and put them on the design wall.
Last Monday (June 16th), I texted Julie and asked her if the Macnas rectangles were 2-1/2" x 4-1/2". I had been looking at her blog posts about her Macnas quilts. (duh)
"I am thinking of going through the big bins and cutting up those scraps into that sized pieces and making them into a bunch of semi-scrappy quilts."
As you know, I have been doing that.
A few days later I texted Julie again, "You know what would be pretty? A White Macnas. Half White with colors and... half Cream with colors. Or half of the first with WOWs."
Julie said she'd go with WOW and White with prints.
I couldn't go with either because I was still sewing up the Green Deco quilt. Before I made blocks for anything else, I had to get the green quilt off the design wall. Which I finally did.
Before I sewed up any of the rectangular pieces I needed white rectangles. So I dug out my WOW scrappy bin and cut a whole stack of rectangles from that box. I also got rid of a lot of stuff I couldn't use (like long strips less than one inch wide...)Anyway I finally grabbed some fabrics, paired them up and stuck them up on the design wall to see what it might look like.
It shouldn't surprise anybody (certainly not my regular readers) that Julie and I influence each other. She is now making a pinkish version of the Deco quilt and I have been cutting up my scraps into rectangles like her Macnas quilts.
I have a big bin in my studio that has scraps of light fabrics. Some leftover backing bits, some pieces thatThe Green Deco quilt is now a flimsy. It is brighter and a bit lighter than these photos show. I am really happy with it.
Then I cleared my work table and set out the Kangamangus quilt and added the binding to it. This photo shows the gorgeous quilting. I quite love it.