A sneak peek...

This is the western/native american quilt I'm making for my BIL. Months ago, I made the beginning of this quilt and then decided I didn't like it so I sent it to the scrap heap. This is the center of the new one. The colors are much nicer this time... more what I had in mind. The darker fabric that is in the HSTs is something I found in a sale scrap bag. I would love to find more of this fabric so if anyone knows what it is... or who sells it, let me know. It's a nice cotton but looks like suede and the color is so rich and warm, kind of a golden rusty brown. Not sure the computer does it justice.

The center is a 6" preprinted piece that came on a panel with lots of other nice squares. I may use some of the other later in the quilt. It's hard to tell but the beige in the outer HSTs are a creamy beige "crackle" fabric. I just love the antique look that gives it. I used my trusty SPEED GRID for the HSTs and had them finished quickly. The next part will be to keep this block on point and add corner triangles of a sand color with appliqued cactus... after that ....hmmm...not sure...

November Roses?

I just had to show you what is growing outside of my sewing room door. This IS November isn't it!?! LOL

Making EASY Half Square Triangles for a quilt

Maybe it's just me, but I just love these Speed Grids! I found this one at a resale shop and thought I would give it a try. WOW! It's so easy! I haven't ever noticed these in the quilt shops but I'm sure they must still sell them. I had to make 64 HSTs to make to finish up a border on a quilt that is on my UFO list. I put it off because I was dreading these. But, boy, this was easy...

I was thinking that if I've never noticed this tool before, maybe there are others that haven't seen it :)

This is a really fast, easy applesauce recipe. I double, triple etc the recipe for each 5 large apples I have. Yesterday I had to multiply by 6 for my 30 apples.

Here's the recipe:

DEB'S EASY APPLESAUCE

5 Gingergold apples ( you can use any apple but may need to adjust the sugar)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

pinch of salt

optional: cinnamon to taste

Peel and core apples. Cut into large pieces and add to a pot along with the lemon juice, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until apples are starting to get good and hot. Put lid on and turn down to medium low. Let them steam and cook until semi soft. Mash up any large pieces and taste. Add more sugar if needed. Add optional cinnamon.

This makes a nice side dish served with pork....mmmmm

Quilting and Making Applesauce

Today was a perfect fall day... perfect for quilting and making applesauce... I had 15 pounds of apples left from my 50 pound bag I bought a couple of weeks ago at the farm market. It was quite a deal... 50 lbs for $5!! Couldn't pass that up!

I cut up MOST of them... still have a few left... and they filled the pot to the top. Almost couldn't get the sugar and cinnamon in.
Some of the apples had brown spots and were getting a little soft... doesn't hurt the sauce a bit :) Sure tastes yummy! The extra apples will just have to go into a pie.

APPLESAUCE RECIPE

Now back to the sewing room.....

Neutral Basketweave

At www.blockcentral.net/eve we are doing a neutral strip swap. I've pulled out an old UFO that will be finished up now thanks to this swap.
I started this one LONG ago and kind of forgot about it. It's a basketweave in all neutrals. I am hoping that once the quilt top is done, I can applique some big bold flowers on it, right over the basket weave... but first I need to get the neutral part done. This is a REALLY easy project. The quilt is 64" square. I think I might add an 8" border to all the sides so that it's 80" square. The main part takes 64 strips, 2-1/2" x WOF (width of fabric).

Sew 4 of the strips together... I put the darker strips on the top and bottom and the lighter ones in the middle. I think this will give it more of a 3D shading when finished. Now cut up the long piece into 8-1/2" squares. I have a NIFTY template called "Get Squared" that is exactly that size so it makes cutting them up VERY EASY! You need 4 squares from each long strip. You'll have some leftover pieces... I just add them to the scrap pile for my next crazy quilt.

I stack them in piles and label them. There are 8 rows and 8 columns. Rows run side to side and colums are up and down.

The easiest way to put it all together is to lay it all out on your design wall (or floor as I do :).

I lay row one, with 8" spaces between the 4 blocks. Then I layed out row 2, but these go under the empty spaces. Then I put down column 1, starting under row 1 and skipping spaces. Then column 2.

You want every other block of row 1 to be the same, every other block of row 2 to be the same, etc. Same with the columns... every other block in the column is the same. I used somewhat lighter blocks going up and down.. and deeper ones going across. I'll post a picture of my completed top in a few days. Guess I need to get sewing!

Going through my quilts...

I decided to go through some of my quilts today and check to see if I signed the backs of all of them. As I went down memory lane, I took a few pictures. Thought I would share this one with all of you. I made this one for my hubby and I also made a similar one for one of my brothers that loves fishing and boating. This was a pattern for a wallhanging that I expanded to make a bed sized quilt. I love how it turned out.... but then I LOVE PLAIDS.

My round robin top comes home!!

Today I had the BEST day! The mailbox was filled with all kinds of squishy and quilting goodies.
First of all, my round robin came home today!! Don't you just LOVE it?! It matches my living room PERFECTLY. I made the center and 5 friends from www.thequiltandneedle.com, each added a border to it. There's one more special friend that wasn't in my group, that will be adding her border to it and I'll do the same to her top. After that, I want to add a few more borders of my own so that it's bed size. I LOVE MY QUILT!!! I just so happy with how it turned out... CAN YOU TELL?!! LOL

The other things in my mailbox were: a beautiful Christmas stocking block, a couple of FQ squishies from a wonderful friend with a nice note, a fabric wallet made by another sweet person :), some purple squares, a thank you card from my sis (I shared some fabric with her and now she's a fabricholic) and a Quilt Mania quilt magazine (this is my favorite magazine). Feels like Christmas here!

Gumdrop Twist Block Pattern

Here's my block for the December Favorite Block at http://www.blockcentral.net/eve. We're doing CHRISTMAS CANDY blocks!

This one I've called Gumdrop Twist (12" finished). VERY EASY!
You cut (5) 4-1/2" squares and (8) 1-1/2" squares (mark these with a pencil on the diagonal) of the white background, (2) 4-1/2" squares of the green and (2) 4-1/2" squares of red.
Then if you are familar with the snowball block, same method... All reds and greens are done the same....sew a small white square in the two top corners, sewing across the white block diagonally. Trim the excess off and fold/press the white back to complete the block. Put them together like a 9 patch.. SIMPLE! Just be sure to aim the gumdrops like mine so that they are dancing around the block :)
Email me if you need how to on the snowball corner... northerndeb@ymail.com

Civil War/ 1800's Quilt

I've started a new quilt! AGAIN! BUT, this time I finished a quilt before I began a new one so I feel okay about it. This is the start of my Civil War Fabrics Quilt. I am SLOWLY collecting some very pretty civil war and 1800's repro fabrics.

I'm not sure how I'll be putting this together just yet. I have two options... I might make 16" blocks with this plate in the center and then just do a straight setting OR I might use this as the medallion center and work lots of different blocks around it. I'm leaning towards the second way since I get bored easily. I would be able to do some hand worked blocks and some machine ones to surround this.

I still need to decide on a background to set this on. I'm leaning toward a lightly printed muslin if I can find one in civil war prints that I like. Otherwise it'll be plain muslin. I also need to decide on a fabric for the center circle. I'll applique that to the plate, after I applique the plate to the background.

Pour mes visiteurs français .... Merci beaucoup de votre visite sur mon blog.

1/29/2014 Update: I've had LOTS of questions and interest in this block. This is my own design but there are some patterns out on the market that are similar. I have an old Russian sunflower block pattern (1950's or older) that inspired me. I used a template for the petals from a company that is no longer in business but you could use any Dresden template. I folded long thin triangles in half and inserted them into the seams to get the white part. This quilt is one of my UFOs now... I used this as the center of a large block and have added rows to surround it. I am slowly making a medallion quilt. One of these days I will update with a picture. Thank you for all the interest. 

Al's TV quilt made by Lisa!

This is the quilt Lisa made for my hubby, Al, for his TV/movie room. The sashing looks a little pink in my picture but it's kind of a gray/beige.

Al is a car guy, a fix-it guy, and a former state champion of foosball (we're talking WAY former ... as in the 70's). Lisa put all of his favorites into this quilt. He loves Ford cars and trucks, sports, Dots candies, and Route 66. She made this as a gift for him to have in his movie/tv room downstairs. She loves vintage/retro stuff so the TVs are designed as vintage ones. She put paper pieced foosball guys in two of the corners (her and I designed these just for him) and she put some really nice embroidery into the other two corners. One is a Corvette emblem and the other is his nickname, done the way he had it painted onto a shirt back in the 70s. Can you tell she put lots of love into this?! He's crazy about it, of course!