Design Wall

What's on my design wall right now? Here are a few of the things I'm working on:

This is some kind of free form piecing. I love mosaics, so I thought I'd put a little grout between my pieces of fabric.

Here I'm auditioning a piano keys border to go around my mosaic tile quilt. So far the vote in the family is unanimously in favor of this border. I always make everyone come into my quilt room and vote. I have to see their reaction sometimes before I can move forward. So I'll trim it up and add it to the sides.
In the meantime, I also managed to finish another pizza box square for one of my fellow Material Girls. Wish I had paid attention to which way the stripes were going, but as I look at it now, it kind of adds interest to the card tricks square. I'll just say I did it on purpose...

Pizza Box block

Just finished my next pizza box block for the Material Girls Idaho block exchange. This month I got Jeanie's box. I made one square using the disappearing 9-patch method. Hope she likes it.

Block for Bee Scrappy group

Here's a block I made for my Flickr group, Bee Scrappy. This month we're making a whimsical block for one of the member's who requested trees, houses, birds, etc so she can make a quilt for her 9 year old son. I hope she likes it. I saw this block on
Flossy Blossy's blog and made some variations to it so it will fit a 12" square.

Green Room

My oldest daughter (14 almost 15) has agreed to share a room with a younger sister. We made a deal with her that if she shared the room, she could pick the decor of the room. Well, here's the chosen colors. I actually love it and thought it turned out really cute. My husband had a hard time seeing the beauty of it while helping us paint, but he couldn't deny the enthusiasm and anticipation in the girls' faces.

The nice thing about this is that it's pretty minimalistic. Both girls are not leaving things out (so far) because they don't "fit into the chosen color scheme". We'll see how long that lasts. We'll even be adding some black floating shelves on the walls-probably next month, but until then, I popped my black and white quilt up on the wall for some interest. The flowers on the right are just the peel-off removable stickers.



The great thing about being a quilter and having scraps is that I usually have whatever color we need for whatever project is at hand. With my black and white scraps I covered 3 canvases. Notice who still gets number spot on the board-ZAC!!



I love all the new stick-on-the-wall art that's available now. The best part is that it peels off and can be moved so easily. This was a roll I got from Home Depot, so I just stuck it on top of the dresser to see how it looks. I think we'll keep it there. I'll also be adding black, white and green knobs on the dresser later.
When I go in their room now, it makes me smile-can't say that's what it did for me before. So this has been a fun project. After all, they're only young girls for such a short time...

Dresden plate chargers

I saw this tutorial on Moda Bake Shop and instantly knew I wanted to try them. They were easy, fun and I would definitely make them again. I think they would make a great gift. The tutorial calls for wool as the background, but to save some money I used felted fleece and it worked beautifully.

Disappearing 9-patch

Another disappearing 9-patch, but this time I added sashing. The bad news for me is that the fabric I want to use as a border is from the new Moda line Lily and Will and won't be out until September. I used 2 new charm packs for this top from Moda, Lily and Will and also Pure. So away it goes until September and now onto the next project in the lineup. If I can get a 22 1/2" wedge ruler, I would like to make some dresden plate placemats.

July Menu Board

I've loved having my menu board this year. It helps me keep organized and the kids can easily see what's for dinner. I even find curious changes in the board once in a while when someone has secretly added their favorite meal to the week's menu. At least I can see what they're craving.
Each month I change the paper in the background and it's been a lot of fun, but when I put the paper in for July, I instantly loved it. The yellow/gold background I chose for the words and the calendar remind me of mustard, which of course is a must at any summer picnic. I like it so much that I may keep it up during August too.
I first posted about this menu board in January of this year. Here's the link to get to it quickly-Menu Board

Jello Art

Little Birdie Secrets gave me this fun idea for the kids. Even my older kids thought it was pretty fun. This is Jello art. Make copies of the picture above, paint each fruit with Elmer's glue (just use your cheap paint brushes), sprinkle the corresponding Jello flavor to the fruit (we had to label our containers because so many of them look alike) (also, we couldn't find any banana flavored Jello-is there such a thing?),




shake off the excess and tada-you have a wonderfully fun smelling work of art. The bowl and leaves can just be colored or markered in. Here's how my daughters' pictures turned out.

Charm pack disappearing 9-patch

I bought a couple charm packs from Moda, Pure and Lily and Will, so I decided to make another disappearing 9-patch. This time I thought I'd put sashing between the squares to make the quilt a little bigger. So I'm auditioning fabric that I have. I'd love to be able to use up some of my stash. I'm leaning toward this green as a sashing. Then I need to decide on something for an outer border and I'm looking for something with a brown as a background. Browns can really vary in shades and tones, so I'll need to take the top with me to a quilt store if I don't find anything in my own stash.

Asiatic Lillies

Wouldn't these be great colors for a quilt. I love the Asiatic lillies when they bloom. Wish they lasted all summer.

Banana Split quilt

I made this quilt from a pattern called Banana Split by Country Lane. You basically make a nine-patch, cut it in half horizontally and vertically, then put those together. I was lucky enough to pick up a large piece of yellow minky fabric from my sister Jan, so I put it on the back. I didn't even add any batting since it seemed heavy enough without it. I quilted it on my regular machine at home, which was pushing the limits of my abilities. This was a pretty large quilt to get under the machine and it was difficult to move around with the minky on the back, but I love how it all turned out. Because it's so soft and colorful, it has become the favorite for the family to grab while watching tv.

Star Table Topper

In last month's Material Girls' Meeting, we learned how to make these table toppers. They're fast and easy and I managed to find a remnant of Christmas material to put on the back so now I have 2 table toppers for the work of one. There are lots of shapes that this flip and sew method would be good with, so I may try coming up with my own design for the next one. The hardest part was putting the binding on with those sharp points of the star. There are some good tutorials out there, but of course, I got too anxious to finish and tried plodding my way through it on my own. Got it on a table just in time for the 4th of July.

Material Girls May mtg

Here are the pics from my quilt group Material Girls Idaho. Our new block exchange called the Pizza Box Exchange looks like it's going to be a hit. We each made one block of our choosing and put it in a pizza box. After each meeting, we take home a different pizza box and make a block that will go with the original block. After about 12-15 months, we'll take home our original box and will have a beautiful assortment of squares with which to make a quilt. We look like we're having a huge pizza feast each month as we bring our boxes to the meeting! Here's my original block and I've suggested that any other blocks are also made using a raw edge applique technique. Can't wait to see what my talented quilting buddies come up with.

The rest of these are pictures from our show and tell. Enjoy.





























The yummy parfaits...