Sally's Angelworks

{summer medallion adventure - final edition Part 1!!}

And just like that, the summer is over...

And my time is once again wildly parsed out into the world of many activities!

But that's okay!!! Because I've finished my Marcelle Medallion quilt top...

...and I have a deadline to finish the whole quilt! yay!!!

Are you ready?????

*drumroll, please*

This is Part 1 of the final edition, because I will show off the actual quilted quilt all bound and snuggly in the next month and a half...

My deadline for finishing up is October 20th! Why such a random date, you ask?

Well, my darling friends Brooke and Julie are coming to Houston that next weekend to celebrate the International Quilt Fall Market, and I want to show it off to them in person all finished!! 

I also will want to snuggle under it on the couch while watching football, and it usually doesn't really get cold in Houston until about then...late October. (Okay, confession: my family keeps the fan on in the living room, and I freeze while lounging on the couch right now...thus, lots of quilts around to keep me warm, right????)

How did you do on the Quilt-Along? We're talking about planning another one!! We won't start right away. Brooke and I have a lot of market sewing and other shop projects we are working on right now. 

But if we were to do another one, is there something you want to make together? A fun neato quilt pattern you've been dying to start, but you need accountability to keep it going to the end? Comment and let us know! I have a few ideas of quilts I want to whip up, too!!

{Find Your Lula - img src}

For the next few weeks, I'll be immersed in several projects including a creative retreat to Utah called Find Your Lula!! I'm super excited about this time of refreshing and seeking direction for my creativity. We've already had photography prompts and illustrator lessons!!! what? So fun!! 

One of my goals is to be able to share better tutorials and patterns to bless you, my darling readers!! There are so many aspects to my creativity, and a little bit (okay, a LOT!) of focus will only help!! 

Stay tuned for lots of creative sharing right here! I'll probably take next week off from blogging (kinda like last week??? what????) But this week, I'll be here!

Don't forget to create using this sweet pattern...

Everyone who posts a link to a project using this pattern will receive a charm pack!! yay! You have until October 1st!! (hint: If it's hard to figure out, I'll post an actual pattern when I get back from Utah!)

Also, I'll be posting my Merry and Bright August random comment winner tomorrow, and I'll show you some fun sneaky peeks of what I'm doing this week, too!!!

I hope your fall is as full of inspiration, creativity and HOPE as mine is!! ♥

Blessings!!!

 

{summer medallion adventure - are we there yet??}

Is our top done yet?????

In my house, the answer is no!! I'm looking for some extra moments to sew! I have four projects I really need to get done in the next few days! Luckily, tomorrow is a sewing day! yay!!!

While we wait, here's where my quilt is...

Oh time, where have you gone????

To these beauties...

{my babies in Boston in April 2014}

They are worth taking care of, especially at the beginning of the school year! 

But it will be at the expense of creating! Creating a blessed life definitely includes nurturing our loved ones, and I am so very thankful for each one of these little faces!!

I'm praying for some focused sewing time this week! I have two stash bee blocks to send out and two new quilt patterns to test, along with my Summer Medallion Adventure!

And don't forget our Merry and Bright August! We are pulling up to the finish line! Let's finish well! Tomorrow, food!!! ♥♥♥

 

{summer medallion adventure - there is progress in these here parts!!}

Before I give you the downlow on our Summer Medallion Adventure, I get to announce my winner for my Emma's Garden Giveaway!!

And the winner (picked by Mr Random) is... comment #12...

Karri!!!!

Watch that mailbox, Karri!!! Yay!!!

And thanks for all of your wonderful comments. Isn't Patty's fabric the best? I had to get me a stack of half yards in Blush to make more fun stuff...Keep watching here for more projects out of Emma's Garden!!

As today is our first day of school, I have been a bit under the gun with all of my committments! And I've been doing even more than I thought I would at this time. It sure is making me focus a LOT!!! 

I've been doing stuff like...

recording with my band in the studio...

having surprise birthday parties thrown for me!!!

{here's Hilary's pic from the HMQG meeting last Saturday}

...playing Fat Quarter Bingo with a bunch of darling quilty friends!!

And...I have managed to get a couple of cross border blocks done for my Summer Medallion Quilt Along!!! eeeeek!!

 I am loving using solids for the crosses and my fun low volume stack that I've used throughout the quilt...

As you can see, I have a ways to go...about 24 blocks, to be exact. But little by little this week, I should have this border and border 8 done!

And I wanted to invite you to do two additional borders with me!

Over at Lucy and Norman, a fun blog, Megan has posted her finished Marcelle Medallion, and she added two borders. I'm going to artistically copy her!! You can join me! (We aren't plagerizing, because we aren't selling the pattern, and we are totally giving her credit for the other two borders!)

Here's how I'm doing to the last two borders (a la Lucy and Norman):

My last border (border 8) should measure out to be 57" square. If yours doesn't, measure it and divide one side by 12. That is your finished block size for border 9! My finished block size is 4 3/4" blocks.

Border 9: Cut 52 squares at 5 1/4". Sew 12 together and then sew it to the side of your quilt. Do the same for your other side. Then sew 14 together and attach to the top of your quilt. Do the same for the bottom. 

Border 10: Cut random 1.5" strips of low volume fabric (You may have these laying around from your cross blocks like me!). Sew them together on the ends and then attach to the top and bottom of your quilt. (You can follow the directions for border 5 except only use one strip of bricks!!) Join more together for your sides, adding a 1.5" cornerstone block at the ends (HINT: Do this after you've measured the finished length of your sides!!)

I hope you join me in finishing your quilt top this week so we can discuss quilting next Monday!!! yay!!! We've got to hurry (in a non-stressful way, of course!!)...summer is almost over!!! eeeeek!!!

Enjoy your process!!!!

Blessings!!

{a merry and bright august - quick gifties for your friends!}

{See my Emma's Garden Blog Hop Post here!!!}

Happy Tuesday!!! 

Well, it's time to get a good start on that gift list for friends and family!!

And while I'm at it, I wanted to share where I was with my Summer Medallion Adventure! This quilt would be the ultimate gift for someone you love dearly!!!

Yep, I'm still at this point, BUT...I've picked my cross fabrics!!

Look at the wonderful blending of the solids and the patterned fabrics on the quilt and the low volumes...

I'm going to do the crosses in solids and then low volumes around! Love!!!

Check out all of the Summer Medallion Adventure posts to see the progression on the Marcelle Medallion quilt this summer!!! 

Here's a fun fast gift for your friends...

Decorative towels for your guest bathroom!

Here's how you make them (in 20 minutes!!):

Measure your towel across where you are going to put your decorative fabric.

Add an inch to your measurement. Mine was 16" so I cut my deco fabric 17" long and 4.5" width.

Iron a hem on the long sides first - 1/4" hem. Then iron your sides with a 1/2" hem.

Pin, pin, pin your deco fabric right where you want it on your towel.

Using a zigzag stitch, sew all around your deco fabric.

Once you've sewn all around, your towel is done!

I've picked this awesome April in Paris fabric to match my soon-to-be repapered guest bathroom!! I'm going to decoupage book pages all over the walls soon! Once school gets going and we're in our new routine...anyone want to come and play?

Perfect fun gift! You can add buttons if you want, too...

Here are some other fun quick gifts {follow the links to the tutorials!}:

Jelly Roll Race Quilt!

Mug Rugs!!

Super Tote by Noodle-Head Patterns

scrappy make up pouch by Noodle-Head

Reusable Produce bag

Roll-up tote

Yep! I need a few weeks (months!) to get going on my sewing!! This is a great start to fun list for quick sewing projects!!

Check out my "stuff i want to make" Pinterest board for more fun makes!!

What other fun projects are you making for Christmas gifts?

Remember, each comment on each Merry and Bright August post goes toward winning two charm packs of Christmas fabric!! yay!!!

Blessings!!!

 

{summer medallion adventure - getting bigger and bigger!!}

Quick post for me today!

It's the start of a very busy week here at the Keller's!! (Not like the rest of the summer hasn't been busy! LOL!) It's two weeks away from school starting, and I'm in a slight panic mode!!  I have been trying to sew like a crazy woman, so that when school starts, I can really focus on my kiddos!!

So, I did finish the two borders that I hadn't finished last week. 

I'm in love with how this is turning out. (My design wall has push pins in it that are causing a little wrinklage! Hopefully I'm not too off on my squaring up!!)

Next border, the crosses!!! Check out Brooke's post from today where she gives some tips!!

My tip for today is if you are having trouble with your fabric choices for the cross border (like I am!! so wishy washy today!!), go to Flickr and/or Pinterest and search Marcelle Medallion and see what pops out at you!!  There are so many fun ideas out there!!! I even found one girl who added two more borders on hers! I may totally copy her. I posted a link in our Summer Medallion Adventure FB page here!

Be sure to join me tomorrow for some fun Christmas excitement!!!

Blessings!!!

{summer medallion adventure - tigers are my favorite!!}

 

Check out the Folk Art Holiday Christmas in July Holiday BlogHop post HERE!!!

Happy Monday afternoon!! 

I have been sewing a LOT lately, but oh, I'm a bit behind in my Summer Medallion Adventure!

The beauty of this quilt-along is that we are calm and open to our own timing! We want to get this right, not rush through throwing together just anything!

I did cut out my fabrics for border 6 (the brick border)...

and my border 7? my favorite Cotton and Steel fabric...

From Alexia Abegg's Hatbox line, Tiger Strips in Blue! My cornerstones will be from Lotta Jansdotter's Mormor. 

While I wait to finish up these borders this week, I'm also finishing up this fun weekend project that I just didn't get done...

I'm up to 20 blocks done with 7 more strips cut and organized!!

Off to finish two borders and another top...and to start another big project that will be finished by Friday!! (stay tuned for my wip wednesday post this week!! :))

How are your projects coming along???

  

 

blessings!!!

{summer medallion adventure - the sauntering version}

What an awesome project this is, huh?

I am loving, loving, loving it!! 

Here's where I am so far...

I have finished border 4 - the flying geese border...

I know some may have the geese in a holding pattern...(okay, that really was Brooke's pun!), and that's totally okay! Sometimes summer is crazy! I'm just so thankful that I may have this done before we start school again!!! (Homeschoolers often have reverse thinking when it comes to summer and children and school starting, etc!!! :))

This week, we are going to start thinking (and doing if you are there!)
about the 5th border! The bricks. I've picked out 23 new fabrics from which to make 4 bricks each...

Brooke also had a great tip about using the same fabrics that you used for border 4!! 

What makes you pick certain fabrics for your Marcelle Medallion quilt? I am trying to coordinate a bit with the aquas and the burnt yellows, with a hint of pink. This has been so fun to dig in my stash and find lots of different fabrics from which to choose. And it makes me fall in love with each border as I sew it on. 

This particular border will be heavy on the blues and aquas...which I'm totally okay with!!

Remember, keep breathing as you sew and as you plan. The journey is the best part!!!

If you have any questions or comments about our Summer Medallion Adventure, post in our FB group!! (Or comment here!! :) )

Blessings!!

{summer medallion adventure - duck, duck, goose!!}

Happy Monday!!!!

Haven't these summer Mondays been so exciting? I love a fresh new week! Especially when your to-do list keeps growing! eeeeek!!

But it happily is getting done, too!

And today, I have some tips for this week's Marcelle Medallion installment!!

So you have your borders 1 and 2 on, right? This week, your task is border 3 and border 4!!

When choosing fabrics for my solid borders, I have been thinking how to make my pieced borders pop! So I chose this fun pink border for border 3! Love it!!! (and the little black Elementary squares for the end of the border!)

Border 4 is a bit trickier...(not really, but it is much more involved!)

Alexia's instructions have you make 64 flying geese! Thank God for chain piecing, right???

Her instructions are great and are probably faster than how I did it, but mine felt faster! You know how you take a different route somewhere that feels faster because traffic is actually moving? I guess you just have to live in Houston to get that...LOL!!!

I used this tutorial HERE and adjusted the size so that my geese ended up 3 7/8" x 2". 

Here's how I did it (so you don't really have to look at the tute if you don't wanna!):

I picked 16 featured fabrics and 8 background fabrics:

 

I cut a big 4.75" square from my featured fabrics (so 16 squares total)

and cut 8 2.5" squares of each of my background fabrics...(64 total)

Place your little squares on your big square like so (above) and using a cool ruler, mark 1/4" on either side of the main diagonal line from corner to corner. You can just mark the middle line and sew on either side, but I like to sew on a line and not think while I'm sewing on my lines! LOL!! That way I can watch tv while sewing mindlessly!!

Cut in between the two seams creating two pieces...

Press the trianges out and place your last two squares just so (above) and mark the lines again and sew, cut and press! You will have 4 flying geese just the right size when you are done! Do that 16 times, and you'll have 64 flying geese!! It only took me one evening to finish off my borders...

Another tip from me...

When you are attaching the strip of geese that you've sewn together, you can adjust your seam allowance to make your strip fit exactly on the edge of your quilt. After you do two opposite sides, when attaching the corner squares, attach one square and then sew down the side until you get about 4 flying geese away from the bottom and then attach the bottom square exactly where that seam needs to be. 

For some reason my pic makes it look a little whomperjayed, but it's pretty even. I'm super happy with the way it turned out and how I didn't have to use my seam ripper as much as usual! I erred on the side of too long (smaller seam allowance to begin with, so easier to adjust as I sewed!). 

**I will also say, if you want your geese to have perfect points (I still believe only Jesus is perfect, just sayin'...), I'd stick to Alexia's instructions in the book for the geese...and sew slow! (I'm a race car driver sometimes on the machine! just ask my guild!! eeeeek!!)

I'm super happy with the way it is turning out!!! Let us know your progress this week, too!!!

Be sure to post in our FLICKR group and our FB page!!

 

Blessings!

{summer medallion adventure - start your borders!}

Hi everyone!!! Have you finished up your middle medallion yet???

Here's mine before this week's assignment!

So it's on to the borders...Border 1 and Border 2!!

I chose this fabric to use for Border 1...

Cute cute kitchy fabric!! :)

For Border 2, I chose 20 fabrics out of which I'll cut 40 triangles...

They are an eclectic mix!!! 

And then the low-volume fabrics on the right are the setting triangle fabrics.

Aren't they yummmy!!! I got them while quilt-shop-hopping in Dallas this weekend!

So, let me let you in on a few things to help with your border piecing this week:

First of all, your seam ripper is your best friend! It does not mean you have failed if you use it. Keep remembering this! An artist's greatest tool is his eraser!!!

When piecing the 2.5" squares on your border 1 strips, measure like a crazy person (5xs!!!) and use the 1/4" seam that gives you the most accurate 1/4" seam! (I set my stitch width setting to 3.8...that's how much my needle needs to move over to the right to get my not-too-big 1/4" seam!)

Sew your borders on slowly...

Not perfect, but perfect enough for me!! And I am LOVING the color scheme!!

I also found that I was pulling the medallion sides as I sewed the strips on there and causing the bias to stretch. Go ahead and use a bunch of pins! It's fine!! Mindful sewing is awesome!!!

When cutting out your pattern pieces for Border 2, made a template to make cutting easier...

I used heavy cardstock.

And marked my template, too! 

I'm excited to get this put together later this week!!! And I'll share on our FLICKR group and our FB page!! yay!! 

Can't wait to see how you are doing, too!!!

Blessings!!!

{summer medallion adventure - the medallion issue}

And we are knee-deep in summer, quilting, and our fun blogging quilt-a-long!!

This week we are concentrating on the medallion itself!

There are a bunch of ways you can piece this middle medallion. Brooke and I happened to choose to use a paper-piecing pattern adapted by my sweetie pie friend, Hilary over at Youngtexanmama.com! (Yep, I know her in real life!!) Scroll down on her blog and you'll see her fabulous Marcelle Medallion quilt!

Here is mine!!

So, here's what I learned when making this medallion section:

1. Have enough fabric. Don't skimp at all!! (Brooke had already told me this, so maybe that's really her tip! But it was a biggie for me!!) I had a couple of places where I had to piece it after I had sewn it onto the paper because I estimated pretty badly! LOL!! 

2. Be fully aware of what piece is going to go where when it is finally put together!! So, I finished putting the block together completely, and my navy and my solid teal was switched on one of the middle pieces! Eeeeeek! I had to think...can I live with that for the rest of my life? Out came the seam ripper and a delicate piecing that turned out my humility portion of my center piece! (see above!!)

3. Go with your gut as far as color/fabric choices!! I adore this block so much because of the Cotton and Steel fabrics by Alexia Abegg (her line is called Hatbox!! Those tigers...ohhhhhh!!!) and the outside triangles are from BariJ's Emmy Grace! You'll be seeing a lot of both of those in the coming weeks!!

4. If you are using a paper-piecing method (there are a bunch out there!!), take the paper off before you piece the blocks together. I did this and felt like I could match my seams better! (Don't look too closely...only Jesus was perfect, remember!!)

5. Love the process!!! I sure did!! Even the seam ripping! And that's really what it's all about with this quilt along!!!!

Be sure and post in the Flickr group and on Facebook with your finished center!!!

Blessings!!