Disappearing Nine Patch, Second Generation!

I have been wanting to try this next step to the very easy D9P.

The Fabrics for "Bee Challenged"

are 1/4yd. pieces in red, white and black

and I thought that with the addition of some bits from stash I would have plenty for a quilt and decided that it would be perfect to try out the Next Generation pattern.

For any who aren't familiar with this pattern, What follows is a simple tut.

Assuming [always a risky business, lol] that you already know how to make the 9 patch, you then cut it through the middle in both directions as for a basic D9P.

Take one of the resulting squares and place it on a tone on tone, solid or other contrasting fabric square the same size, right sides together.

Draw a diagonal line corner to corner across the block as shown, being careful to mark exactly as above, with the line below the small center patch, in this case the solid black.

Stitch 1/4" either side of the drawn line .............

and cut apart on the marked line between the stitching.

These are the two blocks you will then have. Fun and easy and here's a way to set them.

I have used controlled scrappy fabrics in my three chosen colors.

So there is another fast, easy and effective design and another way to use up small yardage pieces and scraps!

Finished For Friday

I am linking up with Finished For Friday.

Friday is the end of the work week for many and not just for those who work outside the home. The weekend can bring a more relaxed life, or a busier time for those with children and spouses and all kinds of extra activities.

Either way it's fun on Friday to celebrate what we have accomplished during the week!

Another of Andee's quilts came off the longarm and is ready to deliver to her on Saturday. It took me about two hours to "bury the tails" on this quilt after the quilting was done.

Custom quilting usually requires a lot of stops and starts leaving threads hanging - sometimes it's possible to simply snip some of them off, depending on the quilting and the thread used.

It's quilted with leaf wreaths in each block and leaves trailing around the borders and in the sashings. It can be a challenge to decide just what design to use to compliment the piecing but the leaf motif came to mind fairly quickly as I pinned the quilt onto the leaders.

The batting is Quilter's Dream "Dream Angel", genetically engineered to be non- flammable, lovely to quilt and it drapes nicely. The threads I used are SewFine on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin, both by Superior Thread company.

I prefer the time consuming method of threading the tails back into the quilt "sandwich", it's neater and more secure. There were a lot of thread tails on this quilt which is why it took me two hours!

VTT

Any guesses as to what this odd looking item is?

If you hail from the NE area you may know that it is a lobster pot buoy. This style was used many years ago and has now mostly been replaced with a new shape. The buoys not only identified the location of the pots but also showed ownership. They came in a variety of color combinations and I am guessing this too helped the lobsterman to more quickly identify his traps. There are different sizes, this one is 36" overall, the wooden part is 24" long and 3.5" thick.

See the initials "L.A"? They stand for "Lloyd Atwood", DH's second cousin. He used to lobster fish off Brantrock, MA. and when DH was a kid he would go out on the boat and once tried to help remove the lobsters from the pots but managed to tear off the claws rendering the lobsters almost valueless so cousin Lloyd put a stop to that!

This is a weight that was used in the pots, it's just a brick and usually three or four of these would be needed to to keep the pots on the ocean floor.

We found a similar buoy for sale on the internet for $85, just for an old beaten up piece of wood, LOL

I am linking up with Vintage Thingies Thursday sponsored by Colorado Lady and Time Travel Thursday where you can find other odd treasures displayed by vintage and time traveling bloggers!

The Gardener's Apprentice

Quilting On The Orient Express

This was the theme for the Fall retreat of the San Juan Quilt group and on Saturday an intrepid group had planned a thematic dinner appropriate for the Orient Express.

They used their wonderful quilter's imaginations to come up with the meal and all of these wonderful decorations.

Fabric fortune cookies with quilt style quotes inside.......
Coolie hats on the drinking straws..........

Miniature take out boxes filled with sweet treats........

the Orient Express steaming along the buffet............

the Asian style buffet...........

and a Panda bear with his sleeping mask because we all needed extra sleep after this weekend!
The Uncompahgre Bed and Breakfast, an historic building in Montrose, CO. was an old schoolhouse, now a charming Bed and Breakfast with accommodation for 26 overnight, so it fit our quilt retreaters very well. We set up shop in the large dining room, and all weekend our machines whirred as laughter and chatter filled the building from early morning to the wee small hours[ for a valiant few!]

Some of us gathered for a photo-op Saturday on the front porch, I remembered how to set up the timer on my camera so I was able to run back and hop in the picture [that's me on the far right in front!]

These first two pics in black, white and red are my work, they are to be single bed size for our two older grandsons. Obviously I still have a ways to go to get them large enough but they don't have to be finished until Christmas so I think I can do it! They are taking a little longer because I have to mostly make up the design as I go to fit around their chosen logos, the Knight's Cross [or Iron Cross] for Daniel's and the Arizona Cardinals Logan's favorite team.

The following pics show sewing progress from some of the other retreaters:

Catching Up!

I have been AWOL from Blogland, though involuntarily!





This afternoon I got into Phoenix from Montrose, Colorado, ten hours on the road.

These pics I snapped coming through the mountains near Telluride, the leaves are turning and there is new snow on the mountains.

I went directly to the car wash to remove the bugs and dirt, then to the gym, then home to unload and get cleaned up so we could go out for a quick meal. Phew!

The past ten days I have had limited internet access, only when I went to the Coffee Trader, and even then I could not send email only receive! Seems that Cox does not support Entourage, a MS email program for Mac, but they do support MS Outlook, go figure eh? More reason to make the change to Macmail.............

So I have pics and news from the quilt retreat to post as soon as I get a chance.

I have the baby Matthew tomorrow and Saturday is the AZ Enduring Freedom memorial dedication to service members from AZ. that I will be attending along with Loretta, AZ. HOB Coordinator, so it may be a few days before I get all caught up here.

I have missed making my regular blog rounds too so I will be catching up with all of you in the next few days.

Meantime, blessings to all in blogland!

Huggy Bunch Wednesday

Such a lovely group of quilty ladies and I do miss them when I am in AZ. The absence of two of our beloved members, Sharon and Claudia, is sorely felt. I reconnected with them this week and here's what they were up to quilt-wise.

Norma with a quilt for charity......

Sue and her embroidery machine making dinosaur blocks for a child's quilt.......

Kaye's baby quilt almost finished.......

Pat hard at work........

Elma working on a baby quilt..........

quilters standing watching ............

Lynn's embroidery machine working!

Pat rotary cutting, cutting, cutting................

and our most senior member, dear little Rebecca, 94 years old........

Today our Fall quilt retreat begins, three days at the Uncompaghre Bed and Breakfast

Reunion Dinner Cruise Picture!

Forgot to post this last week I was so excited about all the lobster and quilt shops,LOL!