JemJam

Stars

I finished the baby quilt last week!  Yea!  I love how it looks!  

 

 Thinking of offering a few to sell...  

 

 

Also,

 

Yesterday was the day that QuiltCon's registration opened!  Boy, was that stressful!  I am enrolled in the classes that I want, I decided not to make an alternate list and that worked out for me!  In another post, I'll talk about what I am taking.  

 

Cheers!

It's the last summer weekend with my monster who is starting kindergarten next week, we have a lot of things to do today--buy ballet & tap shoes, birthday gifts for a party, finish inventory for a local shop, make a dress for the first day of school!  I think I can, I think I can.

We are celebrating the end of summer at the river, have a happy Labor Day, folks.

Baby Monsters

This week, I am working on a baby quilt for a friend that is attending a baby shower at the end of the month.  I'm doing wonky stars, as you can tell.  It was a lot of fun to gather fabrics for this project!  

Here, I have cut out all of my squares and triangles and they are ready for piecing.

look how adorable these monsters are!

 

Jimmy recently bought a foam core board for me, I covered it with flannel and now I have a design wall when I need!  How was I living without this thing?

I have plans to finish the blocks by Saturday, I think I can!  

 

For the first time ever, after wanting to do it for a long time, I'm linking to Freshly Pieced's WIP posts.  

 

 

I wanted to challenge myself to blog a little more and participating in regular posts like this is just what I need!  Go check out the linky party over there and see what others are making!

At the Cabin

Each summer, the 3 of us take a few trips to my husband's parents' cabin.  They go out year-round, but with a school-age daughter, we find it convenient to go when school is out of session.  

 

E likes to wake up at 6:30 and watch birds feed, they get a lot of hummingbirds ("honey birds"), gold finch, and nuthatches. Roger & Sally drink coffee on the deck, talk, and read, E enjoys hot chocolate while she observes birds (and the occasional fox!), reads, but mostly, talks.

 

 

 

Jimmy wakes up in time to take E to breakfast and I enjoy sleeping in or just lounging around in silence. 

Sometimes, after breakfast, Jimmy will float with his dad or brothers, lately, they take kayaks.

 

Recently, we played croquet at night, from 8:30-10:30!  

Here is E, kicking back (meditating?).

 

I always bring a hand-sewing project and stitch away on the porch and watch E at the playground, it's fun when other children are out.

Time at the river is usually after lunch, followed by naps for all just in time for dinner.

 

 

Sometimes, we go to cocktail parties, and maybe I'll show up with sangria. Maybe we drink it all.

 

 

I've barely covered what all we do, but, this is the first time that I've taken pictures out there!  We go out to just "be" and it's lovely to do so.  

Ahhhh.

Ahhhh.

 

 

 

 

Small Town Checkers--a Tutorial

I have a quilt block tutorial today, it is based on a block called "Country Checkers," my version is called Small Town Checkers.   I prepped this at night, so, the pictures are icky, maybe I'll do it again during daylight, but, that's a challenge with a five year old wanting to do stuff like "hang out" and eat and shower.

Gather some scraps that are at least 2.5" in desired colors.  To make one 14.5" block, you will need:

13- 2.5" squares in a solid

12- 2.5" squares in various prints

Arrange your squares like this, your top and bottom rows should have 3 solid squares.

 

Sew your squares together for each row, I chain piece.  After you have sewn them together, press seams to one side--alternate directions for each row. For example, the top row's seams are pressed to the left, second row's seams are pressed to the right.  This will make aligning seams in the next step less bulky and they will line up nicely.

 

Carefully sew your rows together.  Press these seams open.  Square up block, if necessary.

 

We are going to make this block a "square in a square" now.

 

Get 2--7⅞" squares.

Cut in half diagonally.

 

With right sides together, sew one triangle on an end of your block.  Next, sew other half of square to the opposite end of block.  Be sure to trim your "dog ears" after sewing on each triangle.  In picture below, my triangle is not right sides together, I just placed it there to show where it is going.

 

Now, take your last two triangles and sew them to other ends, for the best results, I fold my triangle in half to make a crease and I do the same to my 25-patch, then I match the markings and begin to sew.

 

 

Press well and you are done!  Yay!

Block measures 14.5."

 

We are using this block for my first month as a quilter in do. Good Stitches!  I'm so excited to be a part of this group!  You can read about DGS right here!