Still Hidden Wells Crazy

It's been practice practice practice for me. I am busy figuring a time line for teaching a class. Just how much can we expect to accomplish is how many hours??????  Then there are the little things that I have managed to pick up along the way to make the project easier. Starch is a definite. The stiffer the better, and finally I think I have managed to find the answer for seam directions so these little babies lock together. I was ironing them at first, then discovered that if you just flip them down as you sew, it saves on a lot of heated finger issues!  :-)  Hopefully all these little discoveries are going to make it easier for my prospective students. Having never really taught a class before, I am not sure just what to do, or expect, but I would rather be way over prepared that under prepared.

In the mean time I have been playing with some different layout possibilities. It's provided me some great practice pieces for free motion quilting too. Some will become trunk show pieces and others, "well" friends (no pun intended there)

guess what you are getting.  :-)  :-)

This is such a fun little project and so little fabric is required, that I hope everyone takes a little time to put one of these together. It's a great scrap buster. Approximately 1/4 yard of 5 fabrics will make a nice table runner size quiltie.

More Hidden Wells

Oh that Alexander Henry. He has done it again. OR I guess I should say they have done it again. I'm guessing that there is not a little man named Alexander sitting in a corner, designing, off the wall designs.  It's probably my favorite fabrics on the market. Most are a little off color, just the way I like it, and some a little irreverent. Even better yet!  :-)  :-) Many push the envelope. Here is a new find, to me anyway. "The Ghastlies" that was released in 2009. I just happened to be in my local quilt shop as they were putting out their Halloween fabrics last week. With my passion for Hidden Wells right now, I just had to do something with this line of fabric.

Here is my latest little "Well" quilt. Who would use this Avocado green and pink in a Halloween print you ask? Well it is a little off the norm, but this line comes in the Green, a Pink, and the traditional Orange. I have to tell you the traditional just didn't ring my bell like the other 2 did. But we all have our own taste. I am so excited about these "hidden well" quilts that I am going to teach a class at my LQS. I have 4 others ready to be quilted. Gosh I bet it comes as no shock to you that I am, well, in Hidden well Heaven right now! I tried the same technique with just rail fence blocks and spent my day yesterday chopping up scraps to make a scrappy "well" quilt.

What next you ask?  Wait and see!

"HIDDEN WELL" crazy

Hidden Wells that is. Someone posted a link for a freebie pattern on the Stashbuster group, and leave it to me to have gone nuts for this pattern. This is my first time playing with this fun pattern. I was so enchanted with the designs that emerged, that I couldn't help but wonder what it would look like if I changed out the sizes and placements of the strips. So a second one just had to happen!

I learned that the top and bottom strips really controlled what the blocks focal point would be.

Also that keeping a wider strip toward the middle would keep from those little micro points that emerge and are a beast to piece from happening. A closer look at the top quilt shows the tiny little piece in the middle of the orange. Not so fun when they don't match up perfectly!

Since this pattern uses strips of fabrics, scraps is all you need. I used an assortment of 1 1/2 to 3" strips. All I needed for this size was 5 strips of each color (if your using the full width of your fabrics). I have a ton of old fabrics that I just can't seem to get rid of. Some are at least 15 years old. I had to get up and dig thru them yesterday, to see what I could come up with. And yes! There is a 3rd quilt now. These  fabrics that were definitely dated and while they weren't horribly ugly, I really didn't have any idea just what to do with them until now, and I am so thrilled with this little picnic cloth.

I admit that I am a Stack and Whack addict. I just love seeing the patterns come together, but this is so much better, it takes so little fabric and the thrill is just as great! I see many of these little guys happening soon. I have enough fabric in my stash to probably make one for everyone on the planet. Wonder if I will get tired of them before I get that many made????

If you are wanting to take the challenge and play, here is the link for "Hidden Wells".  Make sure to make your "best friend" starch. You will be glad you did! Nothing is hard, but your working with a lot of bias edges.  Enjoy!! 

Yikes that's Bright

OK! So the Mariners of days gone by, probably would be running to get their pair of sunglasses on, I know! But I just had to play with my fabric dyes and see just how outrageous I could make this Mariners Compass quilt. I do say, I think I have succeeded in that task! I happen to love it, even though it takes a bit of getting used to. A pair  of cool shades "do" help the situation.  :-)   It's a flimsy as of now. I am trying to decide just how to quilt it. I am guessing that trying to downplay it with thread is not going to really help this guy! Any ideas out there?????? I would love to hear your advise! Please put on your thinking caps for me will you!

11th Hour

I've only had months to work on my project for the "Another Little Quilt Swap" swap, but did I get it done with time to spare! Of course not. I was scrambling to get it done and photos taken before the July 1 deadline. Whew, I can rest easy now, I made it. Actually part of the reason, I was behind the 8 ball so to speak was that I just didn't have a vision on just what to do for this swap. After taking Karla Alexanders class a few weeks earlier, it came to me. Leaves. It was so fun to put one leaf into a block that I decided to play with setting in multiple leaves, and this Little Quilt was born. I put to use a little bit of everything in this guy. The green and white inner border was a hand dyed white on white print and the black background I played around with some Shiva Paintsticks and rubbing plates. Now that was from a class a year ago now. Nice to see that I actually "can" use all the things that I think I just have  to have! Anyone with that sickness too?????  :-)

I finished it off with some free motion quilting.

Wavy Borders! Now why didn't I think of this sooner? While it was a design element for this guy, it just might save the day on some quilts when square really doesn't seem to happen! Hummm I am definately going to have to keep this idea in the back of my mind for future projects. :-)