Coffee Break

Today's free quilt pattern is Coffee Break. This is an original block and I really like the way it turned out. I'm a coffee girl. Every morning I have one cup of instant with caffeine. I love Nescafe because that's the brand my father always drank. My husband think's I'm crazy, but the stuff he makes is too weak.








This morning I began machine quilting my second President's Quilt. I've been struggling with the quilting pattern. I really wanted a feather pattern, but couldn't find a feather template that would fit, so I altered a feather from a Sue Nickels and Pat Holly book. I tried many different tools to carve my drafted feather into template plastic but none of them worked. I finally ordered some quilting paper. I traced my feather onto the paper, then hand basted the paper to my quilt. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but I don't mind extra work if the result is good. The first picture shows the quilt after I quilted, but before I tore off the paper.






The second picture is harder to see. It's after I quilted and after I tore off the paper. So far I'm pleased with the result. In fact I think it looks so good, I 'm ready to use contrasting thread. I don't want to count the number of times I have to do this because that will be too discouraging. I didn't have too much trouble tearing away the paper. I think I will just trace, quilt, and tear paper, one feather at a time, otherwise any one part will be overwhelming.


The Michigan State/Michigan game just started so it's time to go (Green!). Till next time....Happy Quilting!

Mosaic

This week's free quilt pattern is Mosaic. It is a variation of the very common Ohio Star block. Its history is the perfect example on why it is impossible to come to a definitive name for any quilt block. I found more than 40 blocks that were either named Mosaic or had Mosaic as part of their name. Click on the free pattern to see four pages of blocks all called Mosaic.

Saturday was a beautiful day for football. Tom and I went to the game and were disappointed with the score, but we did have new whitewalls on the Tandem! It's a green Schwinn with white S's, vintage 1967, it's a great ride.

Till next time....Happy Quilting!

Town Hall

I love house blocks. I think for my next block exchange quilt I'm going to choose a traditional red and white school house. It's also fun to change a line or two here and there to come up with a new building. I call this one Town Hall, but add a bell or cross and you have a school or chapel. The construction is also fun because all the shapes that are cut are rectangles. By drawing on diagonal lines that you stitch on, then cutting away the extra you get great shapes with no biases to stretch.

What a beautiful weekend here in Michigan. On Saturday I gave a quilt tour at the MSU Museum to some members of the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild. We had a really good time. On top of the $15/per person fee, they made a generous donation to the Museum. Thanks Ann Arbor Quilters! After the tour Tom (the husband) and I took a bike ride on the River Trail. They've just added a branch that goes from the Potter Park Zoo to Hawk Island Park. The ride was about 15 miles and very fun. We got home just in time for the MSU football game against Northwestern which we won! All in all a great day.

Today was my annual visit to the Country Wood Mill in Potterville. There's nothing like fresh cider and a donut.

During this week I started to practice machine quilted free hand feathers. They weren't great, but they weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. I also purchased some papers you can trace on, then machine quilt over. I'm not sure whether I'll like them, but I know my free style machine quilting is not as good as I want it to be, and I'm anxious to finish some projects.

Till next time.....Happy Quilting

Hull's Victory

It's Sunday afternoon, my favorite time to quilt. After this blog I'll be machine quilting some stars. I just bought two new light bulbs for my Bernina, but they aren't working. I've rigged up alternative lighting until I can get the lights repaired.

Today's free quilt pattern is Hull's Victory. I think the Hull in the title refers to Isaac Hull, captain of the Constitution aka "Old Ironsides." It seems Isaac was a little on the hefty side and split his trousers during the battle. You can read more on the free pattern.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for football as Iowa fell to MSU, Go Green! Inside the stadium is always 15 degrees warmer than outside the stadium, so 50 degrees is great football weather.

On Thursday I went to see Barrack Obama speak at MSU. It was three hours of waiting before he began speaking. It was cloudy, but did not rain and I enjoyed being in a crowd of so many college students all interested in voting. In person Obama is much more engaging than he appears on TV. All in all, a fun week.

Till next time....Happy Quilting!