15 minutes

What can I get done in 15 minutes of ironing and cutting ?

Pinwheel blocks and 2.5" ironed open. 

 Cutting those strips into 4" chunks.

 15 minutes of sewing produced 10  squares ready to be ironed and cut into triangles. Also produced my 4" chunks of strips put together into 4 pieces.

  15 more minutes of ironing and cutting













 I hate it when I make a mistake, take a look at the purple and brown pieces.. one is a pinwheel and the other are flying geese of sorts. :P time to get the ripper out and put the pinwheel back to together correctly.

Finished up ironing these pieces and I do not know what I am going to do with the yet.. border on  a quilt perhaps, or a coin quilt. hmmmm Choices galore.











Now to see what else I can do in 15 minutes.. Have the egg timer all set up..

Happy stitching.

Its a Wednesday and Jacobs Ladder block.

Dang where is the week going? Bonnie is giving away 2 issues of the Quiltmaker magazine, both have her absolutely wonderful pattens, some tips and techniques.

In order to enter the giveaway, you HAVE to go to her page and leave a comment HERE!! so what are you waiting for head on over and enter the giveaway. Have a safe, fun and wonderful trip Bonnie.


Now what else can I share with you.. ohhhhh lets see how about a Jacobs Ladder . :D
Its for my Mom's quilt top. Its a 2 yr old WIP ( work in Progress).. Many mistakes have been made. Lots of learning and relearning of how to do things.

Draw line from corner to corner

 Lets start with the basics. 5" charm packs can be used, with this one though I have cut my own 5" squares. Draw a line from corner to corner.

Sew 1/4" on either side of line.

Line up the foot so you will be sewing 1/4" on one side of the line that you have drawn. Once you get the other corner, you can flip it around and go back down the other side of the line.

Line up your ruler on the line.

 Line up your ruler on the line and cut these apart.




But don't do like I did and let the ruler slip, otherwise you run the risk of splitting your seam.

Don't let the ruler slip.

Love it when you take pictures during the process and don't find out about the mistakes until after you are done and you are processing the pictures.. lol

It is cut a bit close, but I can still use it. If you get to close, you might be able to run a scant 1/4" or just to the outside of the line, going up til you meet the old seam line.

2 Half square triangles ready to be used.

And this is what you wind up having, 2- 1/2 square triangles ready to be used.







The Jacob Ladders pattern also uses 4 patches.

4 patches and 1/2 square triangles.

Here are a bunch of 4 patches and a few 1/2 square triangles.. Once you have enough to put together..
You will need to lay them out and then sew them together, I will see about getting some pictures of doing that. I started using the webbing technique that I learned over at Quiltville on Bonnie's blog, in the techniques and tips tab.. Found HERE!!!!

Jacob's Ladder block.

Once you have it all together, it should look similar to this block.

I learned how to cut and make this block through Youtube, Jenny Doan over at the Missouri Start Company put together a really neat video showing how to do it. The video is located HERE!!!!!

This is a sample block had to test out the pattern. :D




Enjoy and happy quilting.

Tammy Jean

Hand sewing area, new toy.

Hand sewing supplies

This little container has all my hand sewing supplies in it, including various colors of thread, although I use mostly off white or a light grey cotton thread, some new needles that I want to try out, some painters tape, which I found out when looking they don't have the 1" wide, its all over an inch or just under an inch. But I did find some stick up note tape that said it is 1" wide. Need them to attempt to get my lines a bit straighter, hoping it works lol.

Mechanical pencils, so that I can begin drawing some designs on the lap quilts.

Where I do all my hand sewing and crocheting at.

Love my rocker that a good friend gave to me about 12 yrs ago. It has been repaired 2 times. But it is very comfy. My hexie kits are set up there on the table.



The Green and black crochet piece on the back of my chair will be going to my daughter Dawn once it is long enough and attached to the other part of it. It is made out of Hunter Green and Black by RedHeart yarn.

New toy, rotating cutting mat.

This ought to make it a lot easier to square up blocks. In theory that is what happens in my mind, we shall see if I can apply it. lol






Keep on stitching..

Tammy Jean

What I have been working on this week.

 2 things I have been working on this week. Just put Easy Street under the needle of my Janome Harmony Domestic machine.

Easy Street was the Mystery Quilt 2 years ago that Bonnie Hunter put on over at the Quiltville blog, and it is coming out soon in her new book, you can pre order her book More Adventures with Leaders and Enders
go read her blog posting about the book and take a look at some of the fabulous quilts that can be made.




This 2nd piece is one I started about 2 years ago. The quilt has been stewing in a tub with more fabric that I had bought in the last 2 years, I also had to play froggy with the quilt because I ran out of the white on black rose pattern and of course I couldn't find it. So bought another black on white, so now to mix the blocks up a bit more.

I took the table runner off the needle, and put it in the hoop so I can hand quilt the border. I think I will attempt to do some hearts along the border. I believe that my hand quilting is a whole lot better than my machine quilting lol. All it takes is patience and loads of practice.
I will take a picture of the machine quilting I did on the table runner and post it when I am finished. Its not pretty but it will work.

What are you working on this weekend?

Goals for 2014

I'm a little late in doing this, but have decided I need to get my rear in gear and attempt to get things done.

1) Finish up Easy Street, all it needs is the backing, batting and to be quilted.

2) Finish up the Jacob Ladder's quilt that I am doing for my mom. Have 5 blocks done, need to finish up putting the blocks together, backing, batting and get it quilted.

3) Finish crocheting my daughters blanket for her king size bed. She has been waiting on this for over 10 yrs, about time to get'er done. Have it just about 3/4 of the way done. I'm really sorry it has taken so long Dawn.

4) I have about 3-5 circle of comfort quilts to finish. I also need to get active at the Missouri Star forum again. 1 of the quilts just needs a binding put on, 1 needs a backing, the others I need to finish putting together. These were to go to West, Texas to comfort those most impacted by the fertilizer plant blast. 

5) Begin blogging more, at least once a week with updates and things that are going on.

6) Work on my cousin's quits, Evonda's and Charlie's. Charlie's needs the binding put on it. I have blocks to finish putting together for Evonda's.

 This is a part of Evonda's quilt.

 Charlie's lap quilt. All Roads Lead to Home.






7) work on my Grandson's quilt.

8) Begin working on putting together a triple Irish Chain quilt ( something similar to this quilt) for my daughter Dawn. Getting fabric together

9) Begin working on my daughters Cathy and Tracy's quilts. Still getting fabric put together to do these. Farmer's Granddaughters 

It is the variations of The Farmer's Daughter quilt blocks.

10) Finish crocheting Tracy's shawl. I started this a month before she was to be married, 2 yrs ago, it still isn't finished. So sorry Tracy.

11) I have 3-5 items that are really close to be finished, crocheting edgings around the outside perimeters, or putting bindings on. Need to take time to get them finished.


And that is just the start of it all. First up getting everything reorganized, which I will be working on today. Almost finished with this part, just cleaning off my work surfaces.


And who knows, I may be able to get Celtic Solstice started also.

So Until next time. :D

1 down and a few dozen to go.

Instead of working on Bonnie's mystery quilt this week, of which I now have 3 weeks of clues to work on. I worked on my sisters bedroom set, which includes 2 pillow cases, a quilt and a dresser topper. It has all been washed and I see that I need to redo the binding on the dresser topper, missed 3 spots in folding it  over.. Other than that it turned out pretty good.

I still have problems with pin tucks underneath. But I'm going to leave them. Its still a learning process for me and I know that she will love it any ways. It was quilted on my domestic machine, Janome Harmony 4052, in the ditch or as close as I could get to it.


As I was stitching all the bindings on I came to the conclusion that it is going to have the Tammy Element added to it and probably every piece I do from here on out. Its not perfect by no means but its good enough for me, for this set. Next set will hopefully be better..

I need to slow down a bit when doing the straight lines of stitching, but this will come with practice. And I plan on have a lot more practice as I will be producing lap quilts, kids quilts, and more bedroom sets for my family and a few close friends that I know will appreciate all the work that goes into producing them.

Now you can head on over to Quiltville and take a look at how everyone else is doing with the mystery.

Easy Street Wk 3 Linky up

Holy Cow, the week has flown past, but then again this whole year has.
I didn't get much done on Easy Street last week, until about Friday or Sat., then I got another 50 Flying Geese done, so now I have 88 of them flying around, and have another 40 to make.

Here they are in the bin with the 4 patches.








On one of the quilt cams last week I decided to make some string pieces, another thing I have never done before. May as well learn.. lol Using phone book pages as a foundation. I got 3 done.

Not to bad for my first times.






Last night I went ahead and did up about 5 of the new units and the 4 green triangles.

I'm getting better with the angle ruler.. Practicing is the key in my book.






I did get all the inside squares of my sister's quilt done now to finish quilting up the borders. Then to bind it up, I hope to get it done this week.


Head on over to Quiltville to see what everyone else is doing, we have some new bloggers check them out. Along with the other 249 bloggers that posted in last weeks Linky up.

Today's Agenda

It is now pin basted and started to stitch in the ditch.
It may take me a couple of days to do this one.


And to pick colors for the "Easy Street" mystery quilt, since clue #2 comes out in the morning.

On looking at my list of recipients, alot of them like the blues and greens, now for a 3rd color.. hmm reds, purples or oranges..

What color do you think I should do?

Remember Bonnie is doing Limey greens, blues, and purples. My greens will be different shades of color as will the blues. 
My reds and purples will also be different shades of color. Time to get sewing and pulling colors.

Today's agenda

 Is putting the binding on this Jelly Roll Race quilt that I made for my B/F way earlier this year, I finally got brave enough to machine quilt after listening to him complain it was taking to long to hand quilt it.. lol.

 Its made out of the Sand Hill Plums line of Jelly Rolls by Kansas Troubles for Moda Fabrics
and the Double Cappuccino Sushi Roll by Princess Mirah Design for Bali Fabrics
.. I bought both of these lines from Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Happy to say that the binding is now on the top, now to spend the next few nights hand sewing the backside. :D

 Next project up is my sisters quilt. This was a mystery I did back in May, June and July. I got her quilt top done and table runner top done, now to get the courage up to quilt them.. sighs, first pin basting them together.

And the Mystery Quilt begins

Lets see if this will get me to posting at least once a week to keep up with all the other fantastic quilters out there.

Over at Quiltville.com, Bonnie Hunter has started her yearly mystery quilt, this one will be taken down on June 1st, 2013 when it goes into her next book. So be sure and save and/or print each set of instructions.

Here is the link to part one, if you click on the Easy Street link at the top of her blog you can find the instructions for all the material yardage you will need. Each week you will find the instructions at the Easy Street tab at the top of her blog.

Now the picture up at the top was the first mystery quilt I did, that will be going to my sister Verna, its part of her bedroom set I have made. I put it up there to illustrate the 192 4-patches that we get to make for the first week of "Easy Street". Once I have them all or nearly all of them put together I will post them here and on FB  so everyone can see what I am doing.

Now to get started on cutting 2" strips.. lol this will be loads of fun. What a great way to spend black Friday. :D
I do have some other updates to post also, but need to get the pictures upload and resized.


Happy Sewing