ROADRUNNER...BEEP BEEP!

I finally finished this Patchwork duffle bag!

ROADRUNNER STYLE!

I love it. 😍 

I did NOT want a patchwork bag and this large

Charley Harper Roadrunner Fabric was perfect!

I had enough  black cork for the bottom section of the bag.

I like to think outside the box..or the bag in this case. 

My Mom loved to run the roads and

‘Roadrunner’ was her nickname.

This is year Mom has been running the roads in heaven, 18 years!

I know she would love this bag and very happy that I continue 

her ‘road running’ tradition.

What she wouldn’t like is that when I run the roads 

perhaps, not home by dark’ 

Sew, here is the exterior bag…and I used soft and stable for the interfacing. 

Each side of the bag will look like this.

Charley Harper at tops of exterior sides and the 

Black Cork makes a nice bottom for the duffle!

These are bag the end pieces with cork making the pockets.

I had to piece the cork from scraps..but looks ok to me. 

Layer the exterior, soft and stable and LINING before quilting. 

I was thinking separate lining (as with most bags I make)

and didn’t do that.

Later, I fixed the mistake on all the pieces. 

I had pieces and parts ready but stalled. 

This bag was my nemesis.  

I did find the fun ‘ready made strap’ at QuiltCon.

I wasn’t thinking of this bag when I bought it

But apparently my sub-liminal mind was! 

BEFORE  I could put on the outside handles, 

I fixed my quilting mistake.

Put the lining behind the finished quilted pieces and 

quilted again, over the quilted lines. 

 Then I made tubing for the polystrpping.

That was a pain but straps look good on the bag.

Sewing the sides to the bag was extremely tedious!

And adding a bias binding to cover these seams

 INSANE! 

Finally finished!

GROWING BIRCH TREES

How does one grow a scrappy grove of birch trees?

It’s fairly easy and a wonderful way to use scraps!

Yes SCRAPS!

I decided to use my tiny Charley Harper scraps.

I added in other scraps that read as solids and

Played will with the CH fabric colors. 

After making 3 larger quilts with his fabric…

I had plenty!

Maybe I didn’t need the pattern and could have emulated the design but

Supporting our designers is sew important. 

I love Amy Smart’s patterns and a fun fav is

“Birch Trees”

You can find her pattern here 

Sew at quilt retreat last year I made one test block.

The hard part is deciding where to randomly make the vertical cuts

As the scrap steps are inserted kind wonky.  Couple tips…

TIP #1 don’t get too close to left and relight edges for making cuts

TIP #2 make the background color squares larger than pattern says

and trim to size once all blocks are made. 

The left and right side cuts should have been closer to middle strip.

I don’t have much seam allowances as shown in this picture. 

Keep that in mind when cutting your vertical angles.

I decided to use various solid FQs for backgrounds.

Plenty to choose from in my stash. 

The key to scrappy is STOP being a control freak.

I tried to use various size pieces in the strips (trunks).

Try NOT to use the same scrap more than once in each strip (trunk).

Mx it up..and remember strips (trunks) can go be flipped vertically

when designing the layouts for each block. 

You will make your strips (trunks) using all kinda size scraps

THEN trim into straight strips (trunks)!  

Once I had enough strips (and I made extras…

I grouped strips (trunks) together.

Be sure to mix these up by prints and width sizes. 

As I built my blocks..I did switch a few strips (trunks) around.

That’s the fun of designing with scraps. 

Once all blocks were complete 

I trimmed all to same size and 

Placed on design wall to determine 

background color placement.

Then sew, sew, sew.

I decided 12 blocks was plenty, 

but the pattern offers several sizes!

This can be a small lapsize, a nice baby/toddler size

OR a wall hanging. 

And the top is complete. 

I made a backing using GRUNGE

I will quilt this in my Bernina 740. 

That will happen this summer.

I love my Charley Harper scrap birch trees.

Now go find some scraps…I know you have them,

 and grow your own birch trees! 

12 CHARLEY HARPER BIRDS WERE PLELNTY!

Remember the 20 block CH Winter bird top.

Well I decided I wanted to make it a bit smaller.

WHY?  Many reasons 

I am having a solo quilt show later this year

at Inniswood Gardens. and I want to make this a wallhanging.

I can quilt a smaller size a bit easter.

I will probably sell this one.

Sew 12 Blocks of CH Winter Birds seems plenty.

And I was lucky to get this pic with a snow fall.

Ohio did not have too much snow this year, not complaining.

You can see here I set my Bernina 740 to use an enlongated "serpintine" stitch.

I just eyeballed the widths apart.

I like to snap a pic of the machine screen so I don't forget the stitch info.

Length was 3.0 and width 6.4 (B740 has a 9 MM wide option)

The gray thread looks great

It looks great hanging in the guest room.

A perfect wall hanging size.

And here's my sweet hubby posing for his traditional and  "obligatory" pic.

I have taken a pic of him with every finished quilt for

many, many years.

My solo quilt show is the entire month of October, 2023

Meet the Artist event is Sunday afternoon

Oct 15, 2-4 pm

BIRDS IN MY BELFRY...or BEDROOM

Don't worry!

Its a bedroom full of Charley Harper birds!

Many years ago someone gave me a set of CH coffee mugs

for Christmas.  That began an obsession and love for all

things Charley Harper.

I have a guest room that welcomes visitors

who never hear a bird peep.

I made a king size CH quilt to use as a bedspread.

And you can see the bed runner and toss pillows 

also made with CH fabrics.

I painted an old chair off white

and covered the seat with CH fabric.

I made the mini Nested Churn Dash quilt many years ago

This wall hanging was one of the first quilts I made for this room.

I have an antique armoure that holds many of my quilts.

I am thinking about chalk painting this.

Lots of little CH items live here!

The nightstand has some fun CH items.

The bear in the birch trees mini was a gift.

I have a quilt stand in the corner.

The hoop holds some CH marine animals.

Hoop close up!

Lots of CH bird in frames.

I bought all the frames at thrift stores/

and framed CH calendar prints.

These Moose remind me of my friend MOOSE

who left this world (and me) in 2021.

I hope you enjoyed my guest room.

I even sleep in here on occassion.

It makes me so happy!

If you think this is fun...

JUST WAIT til you see my CH Christmas Tree

and winter birds wall hanging,

that will be in this space!

I WAS IN STITCHES!

Why did I not know...there was a fabulous quilt shop in Cincinatti OH

Called STITCHES?

When my friend Kathy Guenter took me there, 

my first thought was..."man this is small"

Nope...don't let that storefront fool ya!

It was narrow but deep...lots of rooms all the way back.

We found lots of notions.

Modern patterns/designers

3 Shelves of Charley Harper fabrics

Solids on Sale!

A great sale area

with these 1/2 yd cuts at $6

And I found a remnant of a Charley Harper

Racoon Christmas print

Yes...I was in STITCHES and will go back!