New Living Room Wallhanging

 I had to replace my living room wall hanging.  I recently washed the old one and it shrunk up on the corners.  I should not have put that darn thing in the dryer.  Doing dumb things.  That's me.  

The replacement is a big star.  I used Missouri Star Quilt Company's video tutorial found here.  It a super easy block and it a lovely large size.  One block makes a gorgeous wall hanging.  The cool thing about this pattern is that if you adjust the size of your squares to any size you can make the block the size you need.  Using 10" squares of fabric for my block, I have a star that is 24" square.  

I love stars and this big star is easy to make.  The light blue fabric is the fabric I used to cover my ironing board, so my wall hanging matches it.  I made this in about 5 hours from fabric cutting to adding the hanging sleeve on the back.  

Two Quilty Items

Here are two quilty projects I have shared before.

This dresden plate wall hanging was made to fill up the alcove.where my TV sits.  It was originally supposed to be a fireplace, but I wouldn't use a fireplace so I elected not to add it to my mobile home and they gave me a nice alcove instead.  It's the perfect size for a long dresser and my TV and small stereo live there.  I made the dresden plate using four turquoise fat quarters, the dark blue was from stash and the backing fabric was a piece of batik from stash.  I didn't quilt this piece, I just hand sewed the plate to the brown batik and hemmed the backing fabric making a casing at the top for a curtain rod.

  

   I made this block into a small quilted piece to decorate my front door in between holidays.   I can't remember where I got the block from.   This one is quilted and bound.   Edited to correct my previous statement.  This is a Missouri Star Block and I got the tutorial from the Amanda Rolfe at Three and Three Quarters Blog.  Here is a link:  Missouri Star Quilt Block Tutorial

Pattern Purchase

   I had to have this cute pattern.  I'm going to put this on my to do list for next fall.  This is called Patchwork Pumpkins by the Crafty Quilter.

Embroidery Hoop Wall Art

   I bought three sizes of embroidery hoops a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to make some wall art with some cute fabrics I have.   Here are three of the animal prints I found in my stash.

    I will finish the back with a piece of white fabric hand sewn to the fabric sticking out of the hoop.  I did this for another project and it worked really well and it doesn't take that long to do.   I have to get some plain white fabric, I'm all out.

No Paper Piecing For This Project

   I planned to make a paper pieced star block for my living room wall hanging.  I printed the instructions yesterday but they were way too intense for me.  I looked around for a pieced star block and settled on the simple sawtooth saw block for my wall hanging.  I used the instructions here  for the 12" blocks.  I did make one change,  I switched out the print center block for the light center.  These blocks were quick and easy to make.

   I made twelve flying geese for the points of three star blocks

   Then I put them together like this with a nice frame around the whole thing.

   I had a half yard of each of these two fabrics and I used up just about every last bit on the top of this wall hanging.   Now I just have to sandwich it, quilt it, and bind it, then it will be ready to hang.

Cutting Christmas Tree Appliques

  I have cut twelve Christmas tree appliques for my Christmas tree decoration wall hanging.  I drew the wonky Christmas tree pattern myself.   I was going to put a couple of trees on several wall hangings so I could put them all over the house, but I have decided to put all twelve trees together on one wall hanging.  I'm going to give each a brown fabric trunk, and I want each trunk to be a different fabric.  I need 9 more pieces of brown fabric to finish the trunks and it will be ready to assemble and sew up.


   Here are the twelve trees.

2016 - The Year Of The Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

       I just went through pinterest and found nine applique designs for Christmas tree wall hangings that I want to make to decorate my home next Christmas.

     I don't put up a Christmas tree anymore.  I love Christmas trees, the lights and the decorations, but ever since I got the cats 10 years ago I gave up Christmas trees.  I never wanted to find out just what they would do to one.

  So next year I will spend some time making small wall hangings featuring appliqued Christmas trees.  I'll be shopping for lots different shades of green fabric, some red fabric for bindings and decorations, muslin for background and backing, small beads, sequins, and maybe some green yarn because I have an idea for a tree that involves crochet.

Rag Quilts Are So Much Fun To Make.

  I finished my rag quilt this morning after snipping all the seams to help them fray.  It was awesome!  I washed the quilt this evening (cleaning out the dryer vent every 12 minutes).

 Snipped but not washed.

Washed and officially ragged.

I also made these two blocks into wall hangings.  They came in a panel of 4.  They measure 17 3/4" x 17 3/4" before binding.  I've had them stashed for a few months.  I wanted something feline for the wall in the hall by the cat's room, one will go there, the other hang on the inside of the front door.  These were fun to quilt and bind in one afternoon.

Blue Wallhanging

   I bought this kit from an ebay seller last year.  The pattern for the table runner was actually stars made with a 9 patch and the points were supposed to be made with half square triangles.  Unfortunately, all the pieces for the pattern were all pre-cut and they cut all the squares the same size which did not work for half square triangles making the points of the stars.  The half square triangles came out too small.  So I changed the pattern and just ran the white gold fabric around the nine patches I started.

    I made this to hang on the wall in my living room.  My favorite part of this project is the quilting.  I did something I haven't done before which was pretty easy for a small project.  I drew a simple flower pattern on tissue paper.  One thing I can draw is a simple flower.  The flower is the size the block that makes up the runner, there are three of them, each block is separated by sashing,  I pinned the tissue paper where I wanted it and free motion quilted the flower in each block.  I had a good time doing it and it came out pretty good.

   I quilted the sashing and the borders with a wavy vine and some pointy leaves on each end.  Easy to do and worked great.

   My quilting buddy, Taffy Morgana, loves it.  She said, "Nice work, Mom!"

Crocheted Flowers on Brown Fabric

      So I crocheted these flowers a couple of months ago and last week I finally finished this project.  Not exactly as I had envisioned it.  I had a really hard time figuring out what fabric I wanted to put the flowers on and I ended up with this brown fat quarter that I pulled out at the start of the project.   I hand sewed the green buttons I bought especially for this project into the quilt sandwich to secure the flowers and I free motion quilted around each flower to give it some stability.  I'm planning on hanging this somewhere, I just can't decide how to hang it.  It will sit for a few months while I think about it.

    I'm working on making a quilt ladder and I have to start a new fabric project.

Button, button, who's got the button?

  I do!   I do!

   Today I ordered buttons in bulk.  I ordered green buttons, red buttons, multicolored buttons, and heart shaped buttons.  I ordered buttons form Artist Supply Source and from Amazon.com.  I can't wait to get my buttons.  Here is the variety of green buttons I will be getting.  These are from Artist Supply Source.  I decided that I wanted green buttons to put in the center of my pink flowers so I can finish my wall decoration up.


  

  Here is one of the pink flowers (I have 16 of these little beauties) that will be enhanced with a green button in the very center.  So pretty.

Union Jack Block Is On The Wall

   I finally put this wall hanging up.  This block has been finished for about two weeks, but I have been looking for a dowel stick to use in the back for hanging and I was having trouble finding one that was longer than 12".  It's now on the wall in the bedroom and I love it.  I backed the block with solid pink and created my binding by folding the extra allowance of backing fabric to the front and machine sewed it on the front.  I have never done a binding like that before and it was hard to miter the corners, but with a little internet help I figured it out.

 

   I'm working on my Christmas quilt this weekend.  I should have pictures of something later today.