Fall in my neck of the woods

Just a few photos of our walking trails. This is a gorgeous time of the year to be outside. It is also the reason I have sore arms and can barely quilt. All these leaves have to be racked sooner or later.
But the sewing machine will be busy soon.

Block Buffet and X-mas block

The AQS: American Quilt Society is having a mystery quilt  Called: "Block Buffet" by Linda Hahn. This mystery will finish on November 23, 2011. I have been making the blocks for the past 4 weeks. But have not shared them. I was not sure of the fabrics I have chosen. It is a bunch of fabrics that I have bought all over the planet.  This is the center of my quilt. I think it is about 20 inches. I am liking it more and more as I work on it. It is not a difficult quilt to make so far. You can check more photos of other people that are working on this quilt at My Quilt Place.com. I am not a member of this group. So I am not linking it.

There are a lot of little squares that will be sewn on the next step. I can't wait to see the finished quilt.

 Below is a 12" block I made for a block drawing at my guild. Every year we buy the fabric, make the block and hope for the chance to win all of them. This is an African fabric and I added my own red fabric.
We always have one more traditional fabric and one ethnic fabric. I have not made the other block yet. Don't know if I will have time to make it either.

Orca Bay Mystery quilt

Photo 1

The 2011 mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter has started. If you want to participate check it here: quiltville.blogspot.com on Fridays. The first "clue" is to cut strips 1 1/2" wide and make hourglass blocks. I am using the same colors as Bonnie, since I have a lot of these fabrics on my stash. But I make my blocks differently from her. I do use the Companion ruler to cut the triangles. I pair a light and a dark strips right sides together. Using the Companion ruler I cut the triangles. Than I cut the "dog ears" using an acrylic template. See photo 1. I do stack up to 4 strips to start with.

To sew the triangles together, I take one pair with the light triangle on top and one pair with the dark triangle on top; and sew them like the photo above. Make sure you are sewing on the short side of the triangle and that they are positioned this way. Abut the 2 pairs as close as you can. The other short side of the triangles should touch each other. This is really important. I did sew the triangles above already, and staged the photo above so you can see the sewing line. Do NOT separate them.

After you sew them; finger press the seams to the dark triangles. Use the thread that hold them together as your "pin." Align the 2 sides together and sew this new seam. The thread from the previous seam is holding them perfectly in place. See photo below.

Take your seam ripper and cut that top thread (photo on left). Using your fingers open that seam and you will have a center like the photo below.

Your block is ready with a perfect center, without stopping for pinning. Trim as needed. This one is done. Only a couple of hundreds more to go Ü.

Of course I do mine assembly line style.

This is great to sew 4 patches and 9 patches also.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Progress on BOMS

These are my new blocks.
The top one is the 6.5" for the Sylvia Bridal's quilt. I made 4 blocks this week. Yey!
This one is "Duck and Ducklings." It was fun to make and is the one I sent in. Every Monday we get a new block assignment from the website. It is great to keep me going.
The block with the black background is 8.5". It is block number 2 BOM for the cvquiltworks quilt along.
I have also started the "Block Buffet" from the AQS website. This is a mystery quilt. The clues come on Wednesdays. This week we got clue 3/6. I am using only fabrics from my stash. It will be a donation quilt. It's my way to force myself to make more quilts for others. Photo soon.
Thank you for the comments you leave here or by e-mail. It is so fun to read them Ü

Sharing on Fall 2011 Quilt Festival

Happy Halloween! Belated one.
I am sharing this quilt on this post to link it to amyscreativeside.com.
She has a "Fall 2011 Blogger's Quilt Festival," where you can see some amazing quilts in one place. No need to look around for them. They are all there for inspiration.
My quilt was a part of a block exchange. I love Halloween (not the scary part), and requested my blocks done in Halloween fabrics. My friends did not disappoint. This quilt has won several ribbons. I quilted it on my old sewing machine, something that does not come easily to me. Great learning opportunities there.
I love to know that people that I love have made part of this quilt. It is still hanging on my wall even though the calendar says November. Ü