i am such a poop

sorry for the long gap. first my machine broke and then i got so busy i let this project go. but i have a sketch and some time off so i will be back after the holidays with something to show.
peace.

kick off to word houses

here is my start for this class...at long last! I have a list of possible words for my word-house project...I am also open to your input for possible words...connected to house.
Fun House. Poor House. Hot House..you get the idea.

I am probably only going 4 letters as I still struggle to get my letters small enough - this block will be 8.5 inches square once I trim it up a bit more.

Hello

Hi! I've been given the invitation to be part of this group and I'm very excited. I fell in love with the houses last nite when I saw them for the first time and tonite I just played around with some fabric (can you tell I like black and white?) and made these little houses but I can see where these may not be good right now but the making of the houses could become very addictive!! Could be worse things to be addicted to. Again, thanks for the invite and I can't wait to read your posts and see all of the creative things. Judy

http://judy-judysfabricaddiction.blogspot.com/

Still here

I've been trying to catch up on UFO's and also deciding what I'm going to do for this class.

I think the Halloween quilt can wait until next year (sigh) and have decided to bring over to this class a top that I start in Tonya's Summer Class.

From Lazy Gal Summer 2008

I've going to try and get it sandwiched this week and then start quilting it asap.

working slowly....but still working.

I finally drew a picture of a chair...from a chair and I was able to do a better job on the proportions.

I finished this chair last night...my mind was all a buzz....I had so much fun and I am really in love with this project now. The chair and the stars, I never new that they could be so much fun. Such little scraps, make such a big impact. I made the 6 am a few weeks ago, because that was the only time that I was working on it. I think that I might put some more words in here....and I am trying to envision a house too....I think that it will come together and I am really looking forward to seeing this one get finished.

JMB

Advice from home is finished, I think

Here's a close-up of some of the house blocks in my Advice from Home quilt.

Each block has real or nonsense advice.

Here's the whole thing. It's about 55 by 60 inches, a bit more square than I was hoping for. I'm wondering if I should take off the bottom border and add some more words, or my son's name? I'd like it to be longer so he can use it as a throw when he's a huge man.

More Jars

Hi! Sharon from Indigo Threads here. I've been too busy to be able to get much sewing done lately, but I finally got a few minutes to finish some "Witch's Pantry" jars.
I'm not really sure about the lid on that block in the middle. I think I need to take it off and re-sew it, blunting the point on the 'square on point' to keep it anchored to the jar a little more. It looks like it's floating off in space! Any thoughts on that??

I found a list of spell ingredients on a Harry Potter web site, and picked out some fabrics that I thought would "work" for some of those ingredients. That's what those pieces of paper are that are pinned to the jars. I'll be making permanent labels in a more "witch-y" font to put on the jars before I'm done. (I guess my witch is kind of organized?? More than I am!)

I'm not real sure that my jars are as wonky as I'd hoped they'd be. I seem to be having some trouble "letting go" and getting wild and wonky. I'm open to any suggestions! Thanks!

I can't believe what I just saw in my last post...

I knew that I had 18 houses to go around my center square to make it come out even. But after I posted last and looked at it I realized...18 houses, 18 years of marriage! I didn't even plan it that way! Well that is going to make it even more special. Just goes to show you shouldn't plan ahead, just work on it as you go and see what happens. I love it even more now. How special. Can't wait to show my husband. I will surprise him tomorrow with it.

Rondi

I'm making progress...

I have several rows done around the center medallion. Right now it is about 45x49. I have a couple more rows I want to get around it. The last row will have our names. My husbands, mine, daughter and son. One on each side around it. I am going to try and post a photo of it. Kinda want to to it today, to celebrate tomorrow. It will be the 18th anniversary of the "Leslie Household".

Rondi

What Have I Been Missing?

I should have joined these challenges sooner. I am so loving this. I have been reading Tonyas 's blog for some time. I have made several items with her free-style letters. I have always felt I needed to follow a quilt pattern to the "T" and would mess up royally if I tried to do anything without a pattern! So scary, and what if it was wrong? It is great fun making the letters. Just recently I bought the book Collaborative Quilting by Moran/Marston. If you have not seen it you will drool over it. Now this combined with what I have picked up from Tonya has allowed me to step out of my box! On this challenge I am so happy with what I have done so far and always anxious to have time to work on it. My quilt for this challenge is going to be patterned in the medallion style. There are letters in the middle surrounded by houses then couple rows of blocks, etc. then the last border I am going to have letters again....
Of note...I have sewn since a little girl in school. I have quilted off and on for the last 20yrs. I enjoy everything about quilting, especially hand quilting. Right now I have a quilt I am quilting with Fans! I work outside of the home as a 911 operator. Most of my quilting habit has to be done on my days off, which are not enough! When I figure out how to post photos I will show you my challenge. Thanks again Tonya.
Rondi

Slow going

Maybe counting my houses was a bad idea.... since my last post I've completed exactly .5 houses... so much for my plan to do at least one every night!! And the half a house I've done is covered in baby spit up.... dilemma... do I wash it before putting the roof on?

After some false starts, and tearing of seams, I have completed a few stars... Does anyone have any suggestions for how to do stars? I'd like a variety... 5, 6, and more points.

I think I'm going to have to do a house assembly line to catch up. Soudns like a good thing to do while watching election coverage!!

Honesty is the best policy

Some weeks ago I eagerly joined the House, Home or Pantry quilt-together. I thought it would be fun to try wonky letters, houses and homes. I have been sketching and stitching, discovering it’s not my piece of cake, being too much of a perfectionist.

I had to enforce myself and that’s not the intention of a fun project like this. To liberate myself from the stress and because of an overload of work and projects I decided that honesty is the best policy. I have given up on my wonky attempts.
I will be back though to follow your experiments and projects!
Good luck and have fun!!

Nicolette

Busy today

I have been busy today and I wanted to share what I have done. I put the letters for Merry Christmas together. I was so afraid I would discover I had spelled it wrong! I added a border around the house block. I am going to put small houses and Christmas trees up each side. I have a beautiful piece of fabric that is a winter scene. I can't decide whether to use it as a border or for the back. I am going to take the other house blocks I made and put them together for something else.

work has started...

Hi there,
I have been enjoying all the work that has been going on around here....that is a seriously awesome castle! I finished a big quilt at the beginning of October and I have been stuck in a creative lull. The silence is deafening.

SO, I turned 34 and decided that I needed to just get myself out of bed an hour earlier and start the day off right, with exercise or quilting....well, I can do the quilting. I have been working on this for a few mornings, not a lot, but I am in love with these chair quilts ,they are magic to me. I was pleased with my first attempt...but all my husband could see was houses. Back to the drawing board...

these are also my first wonky stars and I LOVE THEM...very easy and a great way to use the end scraps from binding. This all will coalesce somehow...it might be called 6am...because that is when I have been squeezing in time to work on it....maybe some letters...

JMB

Quiltpixie here... my castle now is as complete as it gets until I add word borders.

Thanks for all the great ideas re the dragon. For some reason my mind was stuck on needing a novelty print of a dragon. Duh, just build one! As you can see I took the suggestion to be somewhat subtle about it and only show his/her snout...

I changed the front door of the castle too -- the other was just too small -- this one is fused on top...

When I went to put on the thin borders I decided it would be wise to measure the edges as well as through the middle to ensure I was getting the piece nice and square.... Come to find out it was a dang good thing... the top edge was a whole inch longer then either the measurement through the centre or the measurement across the bottom! Found the spot that the seam had started to spread, and solved the problem... If only middle age spread was so easy in real life to solve :-)

I'm thinking the words might end up being "meddle not in the affairs of the dragon; for you are cunchy and taste good with ketchup" Its fun and playful which I find appealing... Other ideas are welcome....

Thinking warm thoughts...

It is getting cold outside...
but I am inside, thinking warm thoughts...
like Hawaii warm...

like beach warm...
almost felt like I was there, until I sit in a skating rink for an hour this afternoon!!!

More warm thoughts or blocks to come...

Trees and forests

Brenda here with a forest of wonky trees. I'm quite liking these trees -- they remind me of the American Elms that form an archway along my street. I borrowed the idea of someone else in this blog. Thanks. I've made lots of pine trees, but after sewing all those triangular sky pieces to the house roofs, this was a nice change. I used a bit of curved piecing on the tree trunks, and some of the trees also have words on this, advice or otherwise.

First Houses

Robyn here - So these are my first 12 houses, (in no particular order)... I figure I'll need about 28, so I have a ways to go!! I still don't think it'll fit on the spare bed like my husband would like, but it should be a nice sized lap quilt for cuddling under and reading. I'm enjoying piecing on the fly! Very fun.... though I've had to rip out a few seams to go back and add more background fabric so I don't end up cutting rooftop corners when I do the final piecing... it should be interesting trying to get these all together!

Words of inspiration from Brenda

I've been making words for my Advice from Home quilt and this is today's word. It helps me remember that I make quilts for fun, and to enjoy playing with fabric and shapes and words.
Here's all my words of advice for my sons:

Back to letters

I've got my the blocks for the center of my quilt assembled - I don't usually make square quilts either but at this point the center is 72 inches square and I'm going to finish it with my pieced letter border that will go around the entire quilt.

I've really gone round and round about the size and shape of this quilt which is silly, I'm going to just let it be the size it wants to be. The blocks I wanted to use are all there and when the borders are right I'll know it.

The construction crew returned to my castle today :-) Wish the stars were out in the sky, but maybe a fused one tomorrow as its all sewn together now :-)

My castle has a little middle age pread going on towards the top, but its all squared up and works for me :-)

Its about 20X 23 inches, so not huge... I am glad I don't have to climb all the stairs that must be inside it though -- or pay the hydro bill given the number of rooms with lights on! :-)

I've been toying with a couple of ideas around this castle. One would be a fun fire breathing dragon in the sky... I'd need to find the right fabric and do a fused applique. I don't have the right fabric in my collection, so I think this idea is likely to burn up before happening.

The other idea is words -- specifically "In my Father's house there are many rooms". I'm concerned that that may be too many words for the castle size though...

I'm also thinking I may add a large fused door or two on the right hand bottom panel area -- I think the current door will get pretty swallowed up when I add more fabric on that side, and it feels a little small for a castle of this size...

More Progress

I worked on the Home Sweet Home quilt this weekend. So far, so good. Tonya was right, those Ms and Ws look fine now that they are sewn into the top. I added some hearts to it, I got the 'center' together. Now it is measuring almost square, so I think I need to add more to it as I am not a huge fan of square quilts and I think I want this a bit bigger. Not a lot, but a little. I'm thinking a row of something along either the top of the bottom then a zig zag border around the whole thing. I'm not going to have a chance to work on it again until this weekend, but I'm thinking about what to add and would love to hear suggestions.

Greetings from Oregon!

Hello! My name is Cindy and I am a traditional quilter from Oregon. I have joined the 'winter class' to learn how to push limits and try something without a pattern.

I am anxious to learn more about wonky. I have watched it for a couple of years. Guess it is time to take the plunge. I look forward to group comments and support.

On a Roll!

I have been so busy the last two days. I have made some Christmas houses and I have Merry put together. I am going to do Christmas tomorrow. The grandson's other grandparents are here so I am getting a break.

We took my 90 year old mother and the grandson to vote today. I want him to know how important it is to have you say. you can't complain if you have had your say. I feel like this election is going to be remembered for a long time and I want to be able to tell him that he went with his great-grandmother to vote.

I love the houses I made. Now I have to figure out to put it all together. Do you think we could all get together at my house one afternoon!

Still here too

I am still here too. I have been doing a couple of things and trying to encourage Bridget, my creative muse, to come home. I think I have convinced her to come back. I did some Tonya letters yesterday and it was so fun! Her letter tutorials are great fun to do and to read. She writes them as if she was sitting beside you talking you through the process. I had not done much with letters before. Tonya makes it easy and fun. I am away from my machine and fabric this weekend so sorry no pics.

Coming up for air

Hi everyone

I'm still here, but haven't started my project yet. I decided that I really needed to clear some UFO's from Tonya's summer class before I started on this one so I'm busy hand quilting to clear the backlog.

I'm getting floss/perle threads together for the Halloween quilt I showed in my first post. I found some wicked glow in the dark white floss the other day which I can't wait to use!

More as and when.

Aloha!!!

I am NOT in Hawaii! I repeat... I am NOT in Hawaii!!! (I might wish I was... but I am not!)

But rather, I can be found in frosty, chilly upstate NY...

where there are lots of leaves to rake..but it is sunny....
I don't really have a plan set for this quilt which I plan to have raffled off in January but this is what I am up to so far...

Do you all start with a sketched plan???

How about a free pieced hibiscus??? ideas??? I am trying things out in the sewing room but am not sure how it is going to turn out, stay tuned.....

I know not what I am doing!

Hello. I'm LauraJ. I live in Atlantic Canada with my son.
I've joined this group project/class to make something.
I have no plan in my head what my finished quilt will look like.
I'm stumped.
Although, the pile of neutral strips I cut out look pretty in the basket.
It's a start right?


Until next time...my goal is to figure out how to make wonky houses.

Hi, I'm Tab

I live in central Wisconsin. I'm married with 3 boys. I've dabbled in quilting for quite a few years, but really started actually accomplishing things in the last year or so. I'm obsessed with mini quilts lately.
I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do for this quilt along. I have 3-4 ideas in my head. As soon as Halloween is over I plan to start.
Tab

Sorry I have not posted

Life and work just get in the way of playing and quilting. I finally finished the car quilt I was working on for my grandson. My husband is happy with the cars but hates the rest of the fabric. My grandson and granddaughter actually picked most of the fabric and especially the cars and drivers. Such fun.

I started on my houses for my project. I obviously have a lot to learn. I am sure with practice my houses will get better. I guess I should read the tutorial one more time. What do you think?

I have so many ideas in my head, but they are harder than I expected to turn into a quilt. Guess thats what keeps me trying

There's no place like home

Knit One Quilt Too Kristin here. After a couple of hectic weeks, I finally have time to show my progress on the red and white quilt. I immediately thought of Dorothy and had to do the Wizard of Oz theme. I put in four houses for the four of us. Each representing us in some way (me- the quilted window, Chloe- the house with dog bones and a heart, Ryan- the trains, hubby- the lovey dovey words. I then had to make a wee house for Scrabble. It was a lot of fun and I finally got to make a bunch of wonky trees to go with them. I can't figure out how to put the words on. All together at the top or bottom, or going around the borders? Any thoughts? There will be one more tree to fill out the middle space on the top, so it will be more or less square.

This second little top came about when I decided to do another of Chloe's sweet little houses. I'm not sure what I'll do with this yet. I'm enjoying seeing all the amazing creativity here!

Introducing myself

Hi All! I'm Robyn from Erie, Colorado. I'm working part time, and really enjoying the rest of my time home with my 7 month old (tomorrow) baby girl. I'm very new at this quilting thing, but loving every minute of it, (and spending every free minute I have!) So far everything I've done is pretty much off the cuff, but I love the wonky look and the idea of quilting, and designing, on the fly.

I've always sewn... just little things for the dolls I made when I was a kid. And for years now quilting has been my goal. I'm currently finishing up my third - and definitely best - quilt. It'll be done before Sunday for sure, (when I have to give it as a baby shower gift!!)

I have a vision for my class quilt... I'm going to go with House. I want to make many little houses around the border of a starry sky background. So that means many stars as well. I foresee many scraps!! If I am really ambitious, I may put some words around the back edge as well. My husband wants this quilt for our spare bed, which is a double. I guess it just depends on how many houses I can make!!

Nice to meet you all! And I look forward to quilting with you!

Get Well

Ok, I'm back at it... I took a break on this... I have to say the letters went together so quick and easy. but setting the stars in the sky really twisted a few hairs on my head... Anywho, yeah, it's more complex, But I just knew what I wanted for this, and I will be so happy when its done and it's put to use! My hubby has first dibs... I asked him if he could at least give me aheads up when he plans on getting sick...

I've gotten to practice my houses, letters, wonky stars, crosses, bottles, apples,curves, and a challenging nurse... (And a good amount of patience...) But it was worth it.... ;-)

now on to quilting...

Home Sweet Home

Well I did it...this weekend I sat down and actually started sewing this project! I made the words HOME SWEET HOME, and a block with a house and tree. Its not that impressive compared to what some of you have done, but I am very pleased. My little m's and the w are a little strange. I might fix them or maybe not. We'll see. I need to play around with placement and figure out what else to add to them. I'm thinking maybe some hearts and some sort of triangles. I don't want to complicate things too much right now, or I'll get overwhelmed and this will never get finished.

More advice from home

My neighbourly advice is expanding to take over most of my sewing room floor. I think there's 21 houses, some huge, some little, including that tiny one at the bottom right with no words, but just an apple with a bite out of it. (Advice: An apple a day...). I'm hoping to get this to throw size. I have a few more words to make, then I'll attempt to put this puzzle together. Wander over to my blog to see more houses for another project -- these aren't wonky, but they're still fun.

First Attempts...

and mixed results!
Sharon here. Here is my first attempt at doing the letters. These are just a test. I'll be doing something else for my project. I thought these were harder to do than I expected! I'm not entirely happy with these. I think the "H" is too small for the rest of the letters, and the "M" is too big. I've even cut it down a couple of times! I suppose that I'll get more consistent as I do more. The letters do look better when put on the background fabric!

These are my first attempts at making the jars. They were harder than expected too! But I think they came out pretty good. Not quite as "wonky" as I was hoping for, but OK.

My project is going to be a version of the witch's pantry. I'm thinking of saying "Come in and sit for a spell". I'm currently researching what ingredients one might find in a witch's pantry and trying to match that up with some of my fabrics.