Spud's Excellent Quilting Adventure

It just needed binding

2011-01-16T15:04:00.000-08:00

I've had this wallhanging done and just needing binding for quite a while. We watched Casa Blanca for the first time Friday night so I was able to do the binding. We have been trying to watch some classics but in most cases we aren't impressed! Thankfully they go back in the mail to Netflix.

I stitched the blocks last year from Alex Anderson's site and added colored pencil to them. I had a bunch of 2.5" squares of 30's fabrics so that was the setting squares.
block closeup

I received the blocks for these American Hero quilts last July and August and set them together into tops and finally got the borders on. One of my yahoo groups hosted a sew-in New Years weekend to work on blocks and quilts for the project. I mailed three tops off Friday.

Finished a quilt top!

2011-01-13T11:49:00.001-08:00

Finally, I got my act together and got my guild's fundraiser quilt together. A member had donated the center panel, but it was just fused so I did lots of threadwork. Other blocks were handed in fused but not stitched so I had to do some of them as well. I had the floral fabric in my stash and it worked wonderfully! Now to hand it off to someone else to quilt hopefully!

More Snow Pictures and Quilting Closeup

2011-01-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

Monday I took some more snow pictures, I just didn't get them posted! Also Jeanne had asked for a closeup on my hand quilting on the old zigzag quilt so I am showing that one first.
Standing at our mailbox looking west, our driveway is to the right.

From the mailbox looking up the driveway. Our house is hidden in the center, inlaws house off to the right.
Looking into the backyard from my inlaws. My lilac bushes look pretty sad.
Grain bins, shop, and my lilac bushes again. They look better from this side.
Looking west from the back deck to the old barn.

Finished an OLD quilt!

2011-01-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

My first finish of 2011! This is an antique top my late friend Debi purchased off eBay several years ago and started hand quilting. When her health started declining in 2005 she gave it to me to finish and keep. It has taken me this long to hand quilt it, as I don't sit and do that much anymore. Last night I decided I could do it, finish quilting that is and I did!

Over a year ago I had purchased some authentic time period fabric for binding from a dealer at a quilt show. This is a course weave quilt, but at least it was easier to quilt that way! This morning I put in a movie and got the binding done! I need to make a label.Last night I took a picture of the sunset out of my second floor west facing bedroom window. In the horizon are the Blue Mountains of Washington, a couple hour drive by road, although you can get to the plateau in about 1 1/2 hours. It's cool to see another state from my bedroom!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T14:04:00.001-08:00

Isn't January 1st the time for resolutions? I never keep mine so I just make suggestions to myself. Along with the usual losing weight, being happy, exercising more, finishing UFO's, I do want to be better at blogging. I still have tons of quilts to show, last year was a rough for me in many ways and I'm looking for a less stressful 2011! BTW I am trying to say twenty eleven instead of two thousand eleven.

This morning there was a gorgeous sunrise but I got sidetracked finding my camera and missed the better colors. I also didn't want to go outside in the near zero weather so I had to lean out the windows of the house!
So why do ducks duck? Because their pen gets too weighted down with snow! Sorry, can't see the ducks. I will have to get a picture of them another time. This view is out Amy's bedroom window with zoom on.I mailed this quilt off yesterday. I quilted it for someone on one of my yahoo groups. It was a swap we did last year of scrappy disappearing 9 patch blocks. I didn't do a closeup of the quilting unfortunately. The border is quilted with a free motion feather design.

Still Quilting!

2010-10-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since my last post! I got behind and then it seems like it was easier to let the blog go than catch up. However, I decided to give it a try now.

I threw a ring ceremony and reception for my oldest daughter Amy and her finance Nate August 14th in Orofino. The next morning Lisa and I had to take off at 3:30 AM for the airport to fly to Atlanta. She is at Georgia Tech for a two year Master's program. This photo is at her apartment complex.We went to Orem, Utah, Sept. 3rd for Amy's reception and to meet all of Nate's family. We weren't allowed to participate in the wedding in Salt Lake, so I don't have much to say about that. I took this photo after everyone else left. I did get Lisa's quilt finished in time for her to take it to Georgia with her.I also made Amy and Nate a quilt this summer. I pieced it at the Leavenworth retreat in June and had been working on it off and on all summer. I did finish it before their wedding! Amy had picked the colors and the pattern.That's enough for this post!

Today is my birthday

2010-07-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

Now normally I wouldn't make that the title of a blog post, but I just had to share this poem from friend Sue V. in Illinois wrote me, thank you Sue! I think it's fabo in your words!

Happy birthday our Julie H.!

Happy birthday to the gal who always has a smile
A cheerful note, a caring tone....
She makes the day worthwhile

Here's wishing you the best of days
From morning thru the night
A stack of fabric, spools of thread....
Whatever your delight...

May this day be warm and sunny
But never oh too hot!
May you find just what you wish for
And may it hit the spot!

For birthdays come but once a year
From them we can't steer clear
Counting numbers, OY to that!
A sneer, a guffaw, a jeer...

Happy b-day dear Julie
Happy b-day to you
I hope today is sunny
And your b-day skies are blue
I hope you enjoy the memories
Have cake and eat it to
And one more wish from this here state
(This one is just from me)
>From "corn" to "spuds" .....a birthday smile
May your day be all it can be!

Have a great day!!!

Sue V.

New Quilt Top and a Light Experiment

2010-07-23T21:58:00.001-07:00

This was a rough day dealing with a leaking hot water tank that ruined a couch the floor below it and all the chaos that comes from working on plumbing. However during all the commotion we managed to finished Lisa's college graduation quilt top! She designed it on EQ5 (even though I have 6 & 7 both here they are not installed!) Now to get it quilted...This is the school guinea pig we are babysitting for the summer.Tonight we went to test the theory that florescent tubes would glow under high voltage power lines. It worked! We leased some farm ground recently that has power lines coming from the dam headed to Montana. One picture is with a flash and one without.

Organized Sewing Room

2010-07-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

This was a major undertaking. I was so frustrated by all the "stuff" I have and spent over a week reorganizing and going through everything. We have a big unfinished rec room and my room is in a corner with one small window covered by a deck. I thought I was going to get to move into the rest of the basement but that didn't pan out, so I took a small portion.This is an 8' by 7' design wall, flannel covered Styrofoam. It is movable and is standing in front of my project shelves.
This is my boxes of fabric containing pieces 1/4 yard to 1 yard long along with some projects. I was standing in the doorway of my sewing room looking out.

More stuff outside my sewing room.

Sisters Quilt Show

2010-07-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to post pictures, but I have been having a stupendously marvelous fabulous time in Sisters, Oregon. We head home in a few minutes but I will post a picture or two. I just randomly picked a few and I will have to edit descriptions later.

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue

2010-07-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

In keeping with today being with the 4th of July I am showing some patriotic quilts I have. The first one is the oldest of the group. In the early 90's there was a block contest at a local shop. They sold you a packet of f abric and you made a block (adding one or two fabrics if needed). I was the lucky winner of the blocks and this was my original design for a setting. I purchased additional fabrics to finish it off.This next quilt is from a set of blocks I won. Now I feel bad that I can't quite remember the story, but I think they were from one of the first WASIQ retreats in Leavenworth WA and my friend Deb gave them to me because they were too "white". I know that sounds strange, but she was more into the muddier colors, creams, etc. I love this quilt!This quilt is one of my favorites. It's called Old Glory and I had ordered it as a BOM. Several people I knew bought the book and made their own versions, at least two of them were hand quilted. Mine is hand appliqued, but machine quilted.This mini was from a swap last year on the Quilting Gallery blog. It was a spring swap and my mini came from Holland! It just happened to be our patriotic colors and the windmill is so cute.

Quilt Contest

2010-07-02T19:11:00.001-07:00

I entered a quilt contest on Quilting Gallery called Friendships. The voting is open through Sunday. The first quilt I made using this pattern is shown on my webshots. I couldn't find a picture of it here, although I know it's on a CD somewhere so click on the link!

I have shown this before, but we are revisiting it. When my friend Deb saw the above mentioned quilt in 2008 she fell in love with it. That surprised me as she was not a big batik fan. For her birthday in 2009 I made her this version of the quilt. I used a very, very thin batting because with her emphysema she couldn't handle weight on her. Also in 2009 I pieced my own queen size one. I quilted it this year and hadn't shown a picture of it finished yet so I've included it below.This is my queen size version followed by a quilting closeup.

Time Flies!

2010-06-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I got really busy with the end of school and lots of things going on. I will start trying to catch up by starting with current stuff and going backwards! Even though I have several quilts to quilt for others, I take time to do charity work as I have shown before. I also went to a quilt retreat father's day weekend and had a great time. I brought home a quilt that was all basted and ready for quilting and did that in two days and mailed it off to the gift recipient, the organizer of the retreat. That is the first quilt I am showing here along with some of the border quilting. I did bunches of cat sayings. The recipient was thrilled along with my cat who thought it was his!!! I told the recipient the cat hair was a bonus!I had ordered another kit from the Downy Quilts for kids project and made the quilt up (it comes precut) this weekend and got it quilted and bound and mailed today. Another organization I support is American Hero Quilts. I won a set of lotto blocks at the retreat I went to in Leavenworth, WA and the layout was provided. I had some 2.5" strips of patriotic fabrics from Connecting Threads and saw a quilt in Quiltmaker and make my own version. I didn't follow their sizing, etc. I love how it turned out!

Quilt a day #49 and misc.

2010-05-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I skipped over a whole week of blogging! There has been so much going on it's hard to keep up. I do have a couple finished quilts, I just haven't taken pictures! I haven't dug into my old photos either.

My oldest daughter Amy is a teacher in Utah and just recently got engaged. She is getting married in late summer and mentioned she would like a Double Wedding Ring quilt! I'm still in thinking mode about the technique I want to use for that. Do I use Judy Niemeyer's Wedding Star (I adore paper piecing), do I use the Quiltsmart interfacing or do I use the Marti Michell templates?

My second daughter Lisa graduated from college this past weekend and I helped move her furniture to her little brother's apartment. It's going to be weird not to have Brad here for the summer! He is an Undergraduate Research Assistant in Crop Science. I hope I got that right!

Back to quilts: I am leading 4-H quilting and here is one of the projects that is being worked on. Her father collected law enforcement patches from trainings, etc. and she has them all appliqued (with invisible thread) to the backgrounds. She is putting a 1" finished sashing between them. It will be a large wallhanging.I got out my Hawaiian blocks to stare at and realized I don't have enough of the blue fabric to do the setting triangles. I ordered some and it was too light. I ordered some more from Fabric Depot this weekend and they called today and said it's out of stock! I got the fabric quite some time ago (like five years) so I'm leaning towards some darker blue. We shall see. The other option is to take out one blocks and do a straight setting and that is too boring.

Quilt a Day #48

2010-05-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting to post a picture! I have some down below. You can skip the next couple of paragraphs if you don't want to read about my ongoing medical saga!

Yesterday was a long day, with a 6 hour round trip drive to a new specialist and a long Dr. visit with more tests. The Dr. was great and he has never actually treated someone with my exact diagnosis which is Sarcoidosis with the TINU subgroup. Sarcoidosis is inflammation in the body usually caused by a virus and settling in joints and lungs, hence me going to a rheumatologist. My Sarcoidosis didn't do that, instead it was in my kidneys and eyes which is the TINU portion. Less than 200 people have been diagnosed with this since 1975!

If my SED rate is still headed downwards I will not have any medication, just blood monitoring, if it's gone up they will give me a medicine to take for awhile. I had a chest x-ray to check for glanulomas (I think) on my lungs. After my visit we went across the street to the hospital to visit a 4 yo neighbor boy who got a severe infection from falling off a scooter and had to have surgery. I have his older brother as a student. The boy is doing better and hopefully will be home in a week.

My middle child graduates from college a week from today and my youngest is finishing his first year of college. My oldest is teaching Math in Utah so in honor of them I am posting their graduation quilts all in one group. All three were class valedictorians.

The first quilt is Amy's finished the day of her graduation, May 28, 2005! However, this is just a photo of the top, somewhere I must have the completed quilt, but couldn't find the photo. she is into the country look and we picked up FQ's here and there for about a year before and she picked the pattern.
Next is Lisa's finished a couple weeks before her graduation May 28, 2006, exactly 30 years after her dad and I graduated from the same high school! Lisa loves bright colors and we collected her fabrics and she wanted a star quilt. The cat wouldn't get off the quilt!Last is Brad's quilt. He wanted something simple and outdoorsy. He would have liked a little more blue, but these are the fabrics I accumulated. It has a flannel backing.

Quilt a day #47

2010-05-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

I had a busy day with a teacher appreciation lunch and 4-H leaders meeting and sitting in on Doug's search and rescue meeting which lasted an hour longer than mine did. However, I did manage to finish this top I showed in progress a couple days ago. I am debating borders or no border and just quilting and binding. It will take some auditioning to get to that point. I am absolutely thrilled with this quilt. I used the State Flower fabrics from many years ago and all the frame strips were from my scraps. There are 50 big diamonds and then I used some of the fabrics to fill in around the edges. Right now it measure 38 X 55 approx.

Quilt a day #46

2010-05-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

I have been distracted and haven't posted for a couple of days. Friday we went to our daughter Lisa's senior Engineering Design Expo at University of Idaho. Here she is at her booth with the clarinet reed maker she and her team made. She is a Bio Engineering major but there weren't any projects in her major and she had played clarinet in school so this is the project she ended up on. It's hard to believe my second child will be a college graduate in two weeks and her sister her graduated from college in 2008.I am working on a bunch of scrap projects and machine quilting. This is the quilt I am machine quilting for my friend Jo. I saw the June/July issue of Quilt magazine on the newstand and the cover quilt grabbed me. It was done in more Kaffe Fassett style fabrics, but I decided to make a smaller version in my state flowers fabrics. I had to improvise on a couple of them since I didn't have the full collection and I had gotten scraps from my friend Tamra. I had little dots on them to make sure I had one for every state. I had thrown them up on the wall but I am not sure why I am keeping up there, because I need to rearrange them anyway after sewing colors around each diamond.Last, here are a couple of "pin holders" a neighbor made me years ago when we still had the weekly hand quilting group here.

Quilt a day #45

2010-04-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today was a surprise when I woke up to snow outside! My pretty tulips were all buried under snow and the roads were a mess. The snow has melted but the winds have been atrocious.

I have had bits and pieces of time and cut up a bunch of scraps and have been making scrappy 9 patches for a swap and some for when the blocks come back and then I further cut up a bunch of scraps into 10", 5", and 2.5" squares. My batiks are being cut into different pieces because I had a quilt in mind but now can't remember what!

When I went to put the 5" squares in the drawer I realized all my 3" finished 4 patches from several months of guild swapping were there. I laid the out and then made some more to fill in to a certain size. I haven't added borders yet, but this is what I have so far. I will donate it to a charity.

Quilt a day #44

2010-04-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything exciting to say but decided I should post a photo since I forgot to last night. I was too busy sewing 4 patches trying to finish an old UFO. I knew I couldn't concentrate on machine quilting so I found something tedious to do!

This is a quilt I made for my niece several years ago. Oh my, it's been 10 years now. My SIL bought all the fabric and did a lot of the applique by machine. I finished the blocks, assembled and quilted it.This is a wallhanging I made many years ago as a gift for my friend Lynda. It's a really bad photo. It's probably 12-13 years ago that I made this from a Pat Campbell design.

Quilt a day #43

2010-04-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

I went to a quilt show in Clarkston today and put a few pics on my webshots account. I was taking inspirational photos of black and white quilts and 30's quilts. I usually take more photos at a show but I kept running into people I knew and getting distracted. I didn't buy a thing, which is unfortunate for the vendors, but nothing grabbed me and I have a lot of fabric and UFO's!

When I got home from the show I took a photo of my tulips. It was cool and windy so they weren't open. My son had parked his sister's car in front of the house so I had to take a side view! Later on I will plant petunias between the crocuses and tulips. This quilt is a Yellow Brick Road I made for my friend Joann several years ago when she graduated from college.

Quilt a day #42

2010-04-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Amy and Nate left today, Doug took them to the airport while I went to work. It was a great visit and now I have a three day weekend. I had 4-H here this afternoon and will tomorrow as well. I am leading both quilting and sewing for four girls this year so it's a challenge.

These are a couple flannel quilts I made several years ago. One was a Thimblerries design for my friend Deb and the other is a queen size trip around the world quilt that is on my bed in the winter (along with 4 other quilts)!

Quilt a day #41

2010-04-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

I found the picture of this baby quilt I made 15 years ago! It was for my nephew Austin. It was so fun with all the different animals and the dimension.

Quilt a day #40

2010-04-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Amy and Nate are here and we went to my mom's for "snacks" tonight. We are stuffed to the brim and brought home a box of food, a big box! My mom loves to cook.

I didn't have time to peruse my photos much, but here is a quilt I bought as a precut John Flynn kit and I disliked it. I donated it as a baby quilt with a cute flannel backing.

Quilt a day #39

2010-04-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I was too busy playing cards with all three kids home and one extra to post to my blog. One daughter checked this morning and said I didn't post last night!

I have this quilt hanging in my hallway now and had to stand in my laundry room for an unsquare picture. This was a block robin many years ago. I did the cabin block and several fill in small blocks but I got an awesome assortment of blocks, a lot of them beautifully hand appliqued. Love the dogs! They are modeled after the maker's own dogs. It's a fun quilt and I loved using the floral print for the sashings.

Quilt a day #38

2010-04-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

I was too busy cleaning last night to post. My oldest daughter and her boyfriend are flying in tonight and we are leaving in a few minutes to make the two hour round trip to pick them up.

I have already driven over 130 miles today, what's another 100 miles? At least my husband is driving this time, it's hard to see still, although I got to stop dilating my eye last night. I still have to do the steroid drops.

This wall hanging is from a class I took in July 2008 from Terrie Kralik. It's called Flora and Fauna and I love the colors. I was recovering from surgery and didn't know if I would be up to the class so I wasn't very prepared, but I love the finished project!

Quilt a day #37

2010-04-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

I had 4-H members here today for sewing, one finished a skirt and one started a quilt. She was a bit scary because she likes to hurry and teaching a 9 yo to cut safely with a rotary cutter takes a lot of patience and nerves! I also have to hold the ruler at the ends for her.

I made this top two years ago on commission for my friend Deb to give as a wedding gift to her niece. She had tried to get a feel for the color choices of her niece and sent a bunch of pics of quilts and everything was very definitely country and this was in one of Kim Diehl's books Simple Blessings. Everyone was thrilled with it.

Quilt a day #36

2010-04-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

I totally spaced posting a picture last night! I think it was because I was cleaning my basement on commercials of Dancing with the Stars and when it was over it was bedtime!

Here are two tops I made at the retreat. One is a Suduko I solved and made out of leftover Fossil Ferns from the previous top I posted. I love the bright colors of this quilt and have no clue what to do with it. It measures 42 X 58. I might quilt it and donate it to the Kiwanis Burn Camp or see who puts dibs on it.

The table runner is made from a Little Charmers pattern and was a Charm pack with extra for the triangles. I have never used a charm pack and I don't know if I would again. It's too controlled with different colorways of the same print. I see some areas of color that were hard to see before I stitched it together. I am planning either a brown or red binding. These aren't my usual Christmas colors for sure.

Quilt a day #35

2010-04-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

I am home from a wonderful quilt retreat. My eye cooperated, although my right eye has to do all the seeing, at least the left one didn't hurt! I hope I can cut the dilating to once a day at night and see better!

I did get quite a lot accomplished. I quilted my larger than queen size Canyon Dance quilt. It took a 2,000 yard cone of Superior King Tut thread and lots more time than I anticipated! It was getting down to the wire on thread, but fortunately I changed thread on the border. I want to get the binding on and then take good picture.

I made this top below and another one Saturday. The pieces for this one were all precut last weekend. My friend Deb had an Australian Patchwork magazine and had sent it to me years ago along with some fabric telling me I had to make this quilt. I finally did and although I absolutely love the quilt, I discovered I really dislike working with Fossil Fern fabrics! It's completely Fossil Ferns (the bacckground is a pale gray). The pattern is called Fossil Fern Fantasy. I decided to make a Sudoku quilt out of some of the leftovers and still need to put the outer borders on. I will continue to be posting photos!

Taking a hiatus

2010-04-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

With my serious eye issue and leaving for a retreat Thursday-Sunday I am taking a break from posting quilt photos. I just hope I can see when I'm there! I don't have time to get things set up to post while I'm gone since I have to go back to the eye Dr. for the third day in a row tomorrow. It's a several hour trip by the time we do other errands.

I need to work on packing things and getting stuff done around here. I'll be back to posting next week!

Quilt a day #34

2010-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

Some of you know I have had an ongoing medical saga since Jan. 3rd of this year. I have one more chapter to add, if you are interested it will be below today's picture.

Today's weather was wild. There was a major snowstorm, but it warmed up twenty degrees and melted in a couple of hours.

This quilt is one I saw the pattern for in Colorado a couple of years ago called Merry Meadow. I didn't get it then, but ordered it later and then used some pastel florals for the background. The applique is by machine except all the yo-yo's that I made and hand appliqued. I love the soft look of this quilt.I have another chapter in my medical saga! I woke up yesterday with intense sinus pain and some eye pain. I was able to dull it and make it through the day. This morning I woke up in horrible pain in my nose and eye and my left eye vision was blurred. My eyeball was extremely sensitive. My husband was sure I had a blockage in my sinuses so I went to Express Care after working this morning. The Dr. flat out said "I don't know". He was concentrating on my eye and finally said I needed to go see my eye Dr. ASAP as my vision was 20/60 in that eye with my glasses on. I went to the eye Dr.'s office and they were able to get me in right then. I have "iritis". The eye Dr. was very, very concerned when I told him about all I had been through recently. Iritis is caused by inflammation in the body! I left with a dilated eye and had to get two prescription drops. I was alone and had to drive home with worse vision in my eye than when I went!. I have to go back tomorrow afternoon to be checked but DH is going with me this time. My iris is stuck to the lens in my eye. It's so bizarre! I never dreamed something this would happen in my continuing saga! The eye Dr. wants to know what my SED rate is next time I have my blood checked (which is next week).

Quilt a day #33

2010-04-04T21:57:00.001-07:00

Easter dinner was nice today with mom here. We had a lot of food! I cut out a new quilt tonight to take to retreat to piece. Thankfully I did a test block. The pattern was in an Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine and it's one Deb thought I should make and had sent me fabrics for it years ago, all fossil ferns. I had collected the rest I needed, 21 colors plus background. I knew from previous experience that somehow I don't piece grandmother's fan blocks well and this was no exception! I got the template adjusted.

This was a mystery quilt from Cindy a couple years ago. The pattern is at her site. It's probably on my blog, I just didn't go backwards. I took this photo hanging at my guild's show last summer. I love the quilting I did on it, but I doubt it will show up!

Quilt a day #32

2010-04-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! It will just be my mom joining three of us tomorrow but I think we will have plenty of food! Ham, rolls, potato salad, jello eggs, deviled eggs, bbq green beans, and bunny cake and I'm sure some misc. things too, pickles, olives, etc.

Today I finished all the things I wanted to get done on spring break so that feels good. I also started getting ready for the retreat. I'm going to Palouse Divide Lodge (Sharon had asked). It's about an hour and a half from here, it used to be a ski hill. We have a small group so we will be in the old lodge but the meals are in the main lodge. We have booked the same weekend with another group for the third year in a row and we have a joint show and tell Saturday night.

My friend Sharon has a top I assembled on her blog for today. Check it out!

Since it's Easter tomorrow today's feature is my Easter quilts. The first one is a round robin from several years ago. I was thrilled with this one. I had to stand in my laundry room to take the picture since it's hanging in the hallway. The quilt hanger is straight it really is! The second quilt is small and one I purchased one finished at a UFO auction for $5. I quilted it, added some beads and bound it with a dimensional strip next to the border.

Giveaway winner!

2010-04-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

We have a winner in the "guess how many quilts" contest from a couple days ago. It is Liz who guessed 149. The correct answer is 156. I had another person who submitted a second guess of 150, but I went with her first one (sorry Val!). Liz, I wrote to you to get your address, so watch for my e-mail.

I enjoyed all the guesses. Additionally I have 67 quilts spread around the house that were not in the closet. I have 4 on my bed alone! I have racks, shelves, 6 beds, tons of wall space for quilts, etc. It helps to have a big house without other stuff for decoration! I have given away a lot of quilts so I guess all in all I have made a lot of quilts over the years!

I really should compile the pictures and lists in a better organization system. I was really, really good when I first started quilting, but as the years went by my pictures fell to not being organized. I have boxes of pictures of my kids too, but this is a sad state when I have more pics of quilts than I do my kids!

Quilt a day #31

2010-04-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

Last night and this morning I pin basted a quilt belonging to Jo for quilting. I am excited to see a block I made in it!. Check out her blog post to see a picture of it, it's the first quilt. My block is the second block down in the middle, a potato surrounded by delectable mountain blocks.

I am going on a quilt retreat next Thursday and a year ago I made my Canyon Dance quilt top and I have decided to machine quilt it at this retreat. People like to watch me quilt on my regular machine (although I do have a Pfaff Grand Quilter now). I didn't have backing so today I got out a bunch of the fabrics/colors in the top and made a pieced backing as shown below. I just threw it up on my design wall to take a photo. The quilt top measures 94.5" X 104.5" so of course the backing is bigger. Yikes! That's going to be a monster to quilt! Here is a refresher on the quilt top.Here is the backing thrown up on my design wall and it's way too big. My design wall is 7'H X 8'W.Here is a finished quilt, MUCH smaller! The blocks are 4" or 4 1/2" high. I can't remember the occasion I made this but there was something going on at my guild and I just made my blocks smaller.

Quilt a day #30

2010-04-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

I'm loving all the guesses for how many quilts I have in my closet! One person is pretty close but I'm not going to say who! I am waiting to see who wins to customize a squishie for them. I counted all the quilts currently on display or piled on beds in my house this morning and then promptly forgot!

I am completely fascinated by the eggs my friend Sharon "tie dyed" today. Check out her April 1st blog post.

This quilt is not one I intended to make, nor bought fabric for. My friends Deb and Vicki conspired to make this for me. However Vicki passed away before they did anything more than get the fabric. At the same time Deb wasn't doing much quilting and although she traced a couple of the blocks and had one fused, she ended up sending me everything so I made the quilt and quilted it myself! I absolutely love it, being purple is my favorite color! It's currently hanging at the top of my stairwell.

Quilt a day #29 and a giveaway!

2010-03-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

The giveaway is at the bottom! This morning I finished binding the two latest quilts for the Downy Quilts for Kids project. I had a girl here for 4-H sewing this afternoon and decided to tackle my linen closet. First is the photo of all three of the Quilts for Kids I made, one I showed a couple days ago. The other two have different backings, but other than that the same fabric. I am mailing them off tomorrow.I started pulling quilts out of my linen closet and had this mound and still bunches on the shelves as indicated by these two pics. Now the almost finished closet! I need to refold sheets and pillowcases on the shelf above (there are actually two shelves up, the top has REALLY old blankets and pillows and stuff. I have quilts categorized by Fall, Christmas, Valentines, patriotic, mini, large quilts, and small quilts in several piles.

Now the giveaway! Guess how many quilted items are on these shelves! Post a comment or if you don't have a google account send me an e-mail to jlhuffman@cpcinternet.com . I will draw a winner Saturday if I remember! Remember I like to make minis so the piles could be deceiving!

Quilt a day #28

2010-03-30T22:01:00.000-07:00

This morning I dug into that bin of strips I showed yesterday and sorted them into paper bags by type. I think I can make string quilts for forever! I do have one grouping of purple, that one will be for me! This afternoon I ran to Lewiston with Doug, first time I have ever been to town and not needed to go to a store! I was able to get the two baby quilts I pieced yesterday quilted and just have to stitch down the bindings so I will show them tomorrow.

These are two round robins I did. The first one was my center and others added the other borders around it. I love blue and white as you can tell from the second photo. It was a row robin and my original row is the second one from the bottom. One over achiever of the group did the applique in the center depicting the scene on blue willow dishes. It's fabulous! I happen to have two blue willow plates. I have these two quilts in my dining room. The row robin is draped over a chair.

Quilt a day #27 and a mess!

2010-03-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

Some unexpected things happened today but at least I looked at the linen closet I need to reorganize. I also got out my box of strips and I'm contemplating making string quilts for charity.

I did finish a baby quilt this morning and pieced two more baby quilts so I have made some quilting progress. I sent for a kit from the Downy company and it was all precut and and very easy to sew. They send the backing also. This is the finished baby quilt. It's got square corners really!Here is a picture of my overflowing strips box. I think I can make a couple quilts out of it! This is a VERY embarrassing picture! This is my walk-in linen closet in it's current state. It started at Christmas (those quilts are on the bottom of the heap) and for some odd reason it's just exploded. I will take an after picture when I get it done this week.

Quilt a day #26

2010-03-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

I thought I would finish another baby quilt tonight, but I need to stitch down the binding by machine so you will see it tomorrow. I have a couple more minis to share, the first one is deceptive because it's pretty small about 13" finished.
This one is larger and has much bigger pieces! I think I gifted it to someone, but I don't know who! It may in my collection upstairs, which is a total mess at the moment. I "might" take a picture of my linen closet before I start in on refolding and reorganing my quilts. That is one of my goals for my vacation this week.

Quilt a day #25

2010-03-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

It was another busy day. I went to a baby shower this afternoon and Tuesday I had decided to make a quilt for this shower. I started it that night by prewashing fabric. I finished the quilt Thursday and that is today's quilt to show. That baby's colors were light blue and brown and I just used the W arm Wishes pattern. It is super quick and easy.

Quilt a day will be back

2010-03-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

I had done well posting pictures until yesterday! I was busy machine quilting until 10 PM and had turned off my computer and forgotten to post. I had to head out early for a quilt show in Kennewick, WA and it was a long, but very, very fun day. I'm too tired to post a quilt photo tonight but I will make up for them this weekend!

Barb Sherrill was the featured quilter. She does fascinating work, very contemporary.

Quilt a day #24

2010-03-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

My husband borrowed my laptop today and that was tough on me! LOL I was able to check my mail on his desktop, so I wasn't in total withdrawal!

I have to go to one conference in the morning and then I'm on vacation until April 5th! Quilting here I come!

This quilt is one I made a few years ago for a friend. She had wanted to make one when Pat Sloan did a swap on her list (my friend was a moderator on Pat's yahoo group) but Vicki was undergoing cancer treatment. I made this quilt and sent it to her and she was thrilled to pieces. Unfortunately Vicki lost her battle and I hope someone in her family is enjoying her quilt. Vicki did want me to have her Featherweight and her sister knew that and contacted me after her passing. I just had to pay shipping of $25 and I got it! Her sister threw in a bunch of projects and fabric of Vicki's also. I wish I had a closeup of this quilt!

Quitl a day #23

2010-03-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

I had to run to Lewiston today for more blood work and misc. stuff. I have spent the evening cleaning my sewing room in preparation for the start of 4-H sewing and quilting starting up. I have 4 sewers that I know of, three of them first year.

These photos are old small but they are Sunbonnet Sue quilts I made my girls in the very early 90's. They are hand appliqued and hand quilted. Amy liked pink (still does) and Lisa liked purple.

Quilt a day #22

2010-03-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today was just the usual stuff, work, chores around the house, etc. I am mailing off three tops to the American Hero project tomorrow so those are today's photos.

The first one was a New Year's mystery on one of my yahoo groups. I finally got the borders on it Sunday, although it was pieced on New Year's weekend!The next one I started quite a while ago. I purchased a box of precut plaid strips in various widths at a UFO auction for $5. They were intended for a pineapple quilt, but I just made a string pieced quilt out of them. There are enough strips for another one. I finished the quilt top this past week and got the borders on.The last one is a packet of charm squares my friend Tamra sent me. They finish at 6" and I sewed them together randomly along with a few more squares I had to cut to make the top big enough. I like the effect of this quilt with the browns added.

Quilt a day #21

2010-03-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

I was actually going to show a couple tops I finished pressing the borders on today, but I haven't gotten them photographed yet. So hopefully tomorrow! This quilt I made several years ago for my friend Deb. I love the graphics of this quilt. It will now be residing with Deb's sister, she fell in love with it.

Post #100 and Quilt a Day #20

2010-03-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

I realized this is post #100, finally! I don't have any cute ideas for a giveaway at this moment, I've been too busy with other things. I will have to think on this one!

My guild tied more quilts today, but didn't have as many people show up today and I had to leave and go do some 4-H judging for awhile. I think for the two days 8 quilts were tied so that was pretty good.

This quilt is called Star Struck and is a Jackie Robinson design. I didn't purchase the kit, but rather my own fabrics in similar colors because I love purple and green together. I don't like green on it's own but teamed with purple it's fabulous! It's very dimensional and weighs a lot and Sally Howard of Seattle did an awesome job on the quilting quilt a few years ago. I just didn't think I could handle the weight in my home machine and it's a very large quilt. It was fun, but time consuming to construct!

Quilt a day #19

2010-03-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

8 of us in my quilt guild showed up to tie quilts today. We finished 4 and have another one partly done. We will be going back tomorrow. We are getting quite a large store of quilts on hand for Helping Hands, which is good. We really don't want to have to give them out because that means something has happened that requires them.

I am showing a couple of wallhangings that I made for my late friend Deb today. The first one is a mini that I altered from a Foundation Piecer magazine and the other one was a challenge we did with each other. She sent me fabrics and this is what I made. I can't remember where the pattern was.

Quilt a Day #18

2010-03-18T20:36:00.001-07:00

I still haven't gotten all the borders on the American Hero quilts yet. I've been playing games and cooking with Lisa and Brad home. For the next two days I will be tying quilts with my quilt guild for charity in honor of National Quilting Day Saturday.

Here are two wallhangings that I made before November 2002. I think I must have been on a big photography session then. The hummingbird was a stained glass pattern and I really enjoyed making it. I sold it last year. Someone asked if I happened to have a hummingbird wallhanging on hand and I did and she was willing to pay for it. The second wallhanging was one I struggled with in the technique and it was made so long ago that I dislike the fabrics now. I love purple irises though!

Quilt a day #17

2010-03-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I wore my green and white polka dot socks to work today, forgetting I was also going to the Dr. in Moscow afterwards! Oh well, it was fun! My boss gave us all dill pickles this morning for something green. She couldn't find green frosted cookies at the store! Most students at school love dill pickles, except the two kindergartners.

Today's offerings of quilts are just random photos again. I saw the pattern for this first quilt in a magazine a long time ago. I was just starting into the liking yellow phase. If you look closely you will see a mistake, something I didn't notice until it was completely done. My weekly hand quilting group quilted this one, so I know it's older than 7 years old, we disbanded then. There were only three of us left and I was working.
I saw this quilt in a magazine also. I made it in about two days, working intently. It's called Winter Rose. I had the border fabric and desperately wanted to use it. It's machine quilted and machine appliqued and is a large wallhanging.

Quilt a day #16

2010-03-16T21:50:00.000-07:00

I can hardly stay awake but I remembered to post a photo! We watched National Treasure II tonight and I tried to hand quilt on an antique quilt but I had to pay attention to the movie!

Here are a couple of Pat Sloan wallhangings I did a few years ago. The first one is Katie's Summer Day and the second one is Katie's Tulips. I gifted Katie's Summer Day to my friend Cynthia, but I have Katie's Tulips. I was inspried by the border print.

quilt a day #15

2010-03-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

I have been sewing on an American Hero string quilt today and decided to post more mini quilt photos. The first one is about 13" X 16" and was a pattern I picked up several years ago at a quilt show. I started it and then set it aside because I got confused on the pattern but then finally just changed it to suit myself.The next one is one that didn't start with a plan. I just started sewing batik strips together and sliced then and this is what I came up with. It's about 16 X 20 and I gifted in a Christmas stocking exchange on an internet group.The last one is done with Buggy Barn In the Pink fabrics. I can't stand the color brown or dull colors normally, but I was attracted to this grouping of fabrics and got some FQ's. I made log cabin blocks and they are hard to see but I appliqued some random leaves on the light color. It's 22" square I think!Lisa and Brad are here on spring break and they helped their dad move a "new" combine home today. It was a 7 hour round trip as combines don't go that fast!

Quilt a day #14

2010-03-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

I decided to post some miniature quilt photos today. This trip around the world is one I made on Mother's Day sometime in the late 90's. Doug took the kids away for several hours as my present and I got the whole thing made and quilted. The squares finish at 1".
I have no idea what year I made this but it was in the late 90's. I made three of them, gave two as gifts and kept one for myself. It is hand quilted. Without running up two flights of stairs my estimate of size is 12" X 15".
This quilt was made in 2002. I saw the quilt in American Patchwork and Quilting and decided to make it but in a smaller scale. The church dash blocks finish at 2.25". I love the color combination of this one and I used to not like yellow at all! The flowers are fused on and I just stitched them down as the quilting. The quilt is 20" square.

Quilt a day #13

2010-03-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

Today was boring housework and playing games with the kids. Tonight I decided to make an American Hero quilt out of some 6.5" charm squares and had to cut more fabrics to have enough squares. Now the squares have to go up on the design wall to distribute the colors.

The first quilt is one that was in Foundation Piecer magazine as a series. It took quite awhile but it was worth it! I usually take this one to put on my bed at quilt camps (even the ones that provide bedding because I never have enough blankets). I made this in 2003 and it's machine quilted.
The next one is a wallhanging I made in the late 90's. Well I started in the late 90's and finished it in 2001! I was going to make some more blocks and just never did so I finished it as a wallhanging.

quilt a day #12

2010-03-12T19:42:00.000-08:00

My trunk show at my guild went very well last night. I think it would be fun to present it to other groups sometime. Today was a busy, but fun day. I went to my small art group and it's always fun to see everything. We have a variety of artists in there, I'm kind of on the outside looking in most of the time, but it's still very fun!

My daughter Lisa had great news today. She was one of a few accepted in Georgia Tech's master's degree program in prosthetics and orthotics. It's going to be a long way from Idaho this fall and lasts for two years and the thought of her being in Atlanta is kind of scary!

Many years ago McCall's magazine ran a series (they have run several of them since) in this Grandmother's Country Album quilt designed by Robert Callaham. I made the quilt in the colors pictured, although they weren't my normal working style. Everyone has to branch out sometime! It is machine quilted.The other quilt was made in the early 90's sometime, and is called Blockbuster Baskets. It very definitely has the calico look! It's based on the book Blockbuster Quilts by Margaret Miller published in 1991. I hand quilted it and it's about 56" square.

quilt a day #11

2010-03-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get this done early today since I have a guild meeting tonight. I think I got carried away on gathering up quilts for my trunk show. I had to take several out. I have two suitcases and a quilt carry bag to take. I figure it will be good practice just in case I ever get invited anywhere to show quilts!

We celebrated pi day today, since we won't be at school Sunday. Lisa and Brad will be on college spring break next week and Lisa asked if we had the ingredients for pie, since Sunday is pi day. Yes, I have math geeks for family members!

This first quilt is one I got a kit for at our local quilt show several years ago. I had made up the top and had it, but it's not really me. My brother desperately wanted a new quilt and even though I didn't have their name that year I gave it to him at Christmas anyway, a year early! It took pressure off to make something the next year!The next quilt is one I gave to my other brother and SIL. I did have their name that same year and SIL wanted a red/white/blue quilt star quilt, in the darker tones. Oh I just figured out the year I made these two, it was 2006.This is one of three Laura in Redwork wallhangings I made and gave them as gifts. I had hoped to get one back on my friend's recent passing (my friend made me say which quilts I had made that I wanted back), but I didn't get it. That's fine, I still have the pattern!

quilt a day #10

2010-03-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

I changed the picture on the previous post to the finished quilt instead of the quilt top for the 4-H fundraiser and I found the year was 2006 that I made that quilt. I thought I was posting the finished quilt the first time!

A busy day with work, dentist, yet another blood draw and major grocery shopping.

This quilt was one I had totally forgotten about and I forgot how much I loved it. I donated it to the 4-H program in 2005. Fortunately we were able to stop doing raffles after the next year, because I was really donating a lot and had a hard time saying no! I am a huge believer in volunteering and I still do lead 4-H sewing and quilting projects.I have no clue when I made this delectable mountain quilt, possibly around 2002. It's not a great photo, it was taken at a quilt show. Sally Howard in Seattle machine quilted it for me and did a fabulous job. I had seen it in an old issue of Quilting Today magazine.

quilt a day #9

2010-03-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

What a busy day! I subbed for my boss this afternoon and then raced off to a special, early school board meeting. I didn't really want to go that bad, but decided to be community minded and endured sitting on hard bleacher seats to watch the chairman of the school board not get his way so that was fun! I made two quilt blocks for my guild's charity project this evening but didn't take a picture.

The first picture from my files is a quilt from the book Four Seasons in Flannel, but I made it in regular cotton and donated it as a fundraiser for our county 4-H program several years ago. The person that won it was so thrilled and called me to tell me she was re-decorating a room in her house for the quilt! It's queen size and completely machine done.
This quilt is one I saw as a BOM many, many years ago called Old Glory. I ordered the BOM and caused a SUI (shopping under the influence) on my Washington State Quilters group. It took years but I hand apliqued the quilt and then machine quilted it. It's a large wallhanging/throw size.

8 days in a row!

2010-03-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

I am proud of myself for posting this many days in a row!

We went out to Mexican food tonight, it had been a long time and I am thrilled to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Here are a couple pictures from my files. I made the New York Beauty quilt in 1996. I used over 60 fabrics. It's a Karen Stone paper pieced design and I just couldn't bring myself to do the pieced border she had in the pattern.The other quilt is more recent and it's behind the picture of me on my blog. I took a class from Helene Knott several years ago and this is her pattern of Multnomah Falls. I got engaged there in 1983 so it's special to my husband and I. I gave this wallhanging to him as a Christmas gift. I just haven't checked the back to see what year I made it!

Pansies

2010-03-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

It was another busy day here. So much for my afternoon of quilting! I wasn't able to be home. I did get a bit more done outside this morning.

I just have one quilt to show today. I was remaking my bed yesterday and this is one of four quilts that is on it. I took it into my daughters room to take a photo. I made this in 2003-2004, testing a pattern for a friend. I used the fusible interfacing for the appliques and machine blind stitched them own. I found a great pansy fabric for sashing and border to coordinate.
It's back to work tomorrow, then a very busy week ahead! I was inspired by my blog and for the guild program this week I am doing a trunk show of my quilts! We have a lot of members who didn't know me "way back when". I am a charter member of the quilt guild formed in 1993.

Following a theme of color

2010-03-06T20:09:00.001-08:00

I did some yardwork today in the beautiful weather we had and my husband and son were out in the fields working. Farming season has begun! I also did some machine quilting, but I'm not ready to show that yet.

Apparently in the mid 90's I was following color theme. I showed one of my favorite quilts yesterday and here are two more in those colors. This kaleidoscope was also based on a quilt I saw in Quilter's Newsletter. I just made mine a lot smaller! I don't recall if I paper pieced it or sewing all those odd angles. I know I had a ruler so who knows! It's hand quilted and made in 1993.
This was a free pattern by Marti Michell before she started all her templates. It came with a magazine renewal or a calendar. I changed the pattern since I didn't like a couple of the designs in the original. It is hand appliqued and hand quilted in a cross hatch pattern and made in 1995. A photo of this quilt appeared in a magazine special called Applique Quilts in 2003 with the pattern designer credited correctly. There was a little write up about me and another of my quilts as well. That will be shown at a later date.

One of my favorite quilts

2010-03-05T15:56:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite quilts. I do have quite a few favorites, but this was my most time consuming quilt at the time I finished it in 1993. It was based on a quilt I saw in an issue of Quilter's Newsletter magazine and I ordered the back issue from 1982 with the pattern in it. I love the contrast of fabrics and I hand quilted it with pink thread. I sent a photo of this quilt to Country Woman magazine and they published the photo in 1995 in the blue ribbon winners section.
This is a top I finished the borders on this morning. The blocks belonged to my late friend Debi and they were from a swap in 2000. She gave the blocks to me last summer and after she passed away last month I got them out and had them on my design wall. This was her layout and her border/sashing fabric. It's a little busy, but it is a special memory quilt as the blocks were made by a lot of people we both knew.

Table Runner

2010-03-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is a tablerunner I made last weekend. I just wanted to do something quick and springy and had this pattern sitting here. It was supposed to use charm packs so picking fabrics was tricky, as I don't have any charm packs. It turned out more pastel than I wanted, but I am still happy I was able to make the whole thing in one day including binding!
I am too tired to do much of anything else. I just have two borders left to sew on a top, but I have all weekend to get more quilting done!

Some Oldies

2010-03-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

I'm having a forgetful week, forgetting to take my purse to town Monday (it's hard to buy anything with no money!) and I definitely didn't speed! Today I forgot to put sugar in the Snickerdoodles I was making. After that I couldn't remember where I put the mixing bowl to make a new batch of cookies after throwing the others away. I finally found it in the microwave after looking for 20 minutes!

In the early to mid 90's I got going on a lot of small projects that could be finished in a shorter amount of time. This little Grandmother's Fan is 12" X 16". I made it in 1993 and added ribbon for an accent and hand quilted it.This wallhanging is about 18" square and also made in 1993. the leaves are dimensional and the violets are gathered yo-yo's with french knot centers. I think I needed a little practice at having a square quilt! The pattern was in Miniature Quilts magazine. It's hand quilted.
I saw this quilt in a Christmas quilting magazine in the mid 90's. I didn't date the quilt unfortunately. It is paper pieced and I just had to make it. I machine quilted it on the diagonal with metallic thread. It's about 32" square.
I actually took these photos tonight. As I said my photos are going to be random based on what I feel like posting and some days you will get more than one!

My second quilt and others

2010-03-02T20:44:00.000-08:00

So I don't make myself crazy, I am going to randomly be posting photos of quilts in no particular order. I am not actually taking a photo a day, just posting one!

I can't seem to find a picture of my first quilt in my files, I still have the quilt, but I do have a photo of my second quilt. I took a class with my MIL and a friend of hers and made this Irish chain quilt. Picking fabric was very hard, I am much, much better at it now! I still have this quilt also. It's hand quilted and made in 1988.
This one below is a photo transfer quilt I made for one of my coworkers. The 16 students at my one room school took photos (some of them brought some in from home) and we made greeting cards out of them and sold them as a fundraiser. I took the file of pics home secretly so I could make my two coworkers Christmas gifts. They were thrilled with them.
I made this mystery over New Year's with my WA State Quilters online group. I made it in patriotic colors to donate to American Hero Quilts. I still need to add borders and get it sent off!

It's March, wow!

2010-03-01T20:21:00.000-08:00

With our lack of snow this winter it's hard to fathom it's already March! I just hope the rain comes at the right times for farming through the spring and early summer.

I want to try something new, posting a quilt related photo a day. I got this idea from both my daughter Lisa's 365 photo project last year and my friend Sharon. Now obviously I can't make a quilt a day, but I have lots and lots of quilts to choose from. I have an overflowing linen closet of quilts and they are all over my house as well. I usually have between 30-35 on display at any one time. I have been quilting for 23 years and spent a few years being quite prolific. I started out with machine pieced, hand quilted bed quilts and would manage to do a few a year. Then I discovered wallhangings and from there machine quilting and wow I could make a lot more things! I am one of those that calls anything that has a top, batting and backing, and is finished a quilt, no matter the size.

I just randomly went into my files of projects worked that haven't been posted here yet. This quilt top is one I assembled last fall from some swap blocks. I was thrilled with how it came out with the different size leaves. I'm not a fall colors person, but since I decorate for the seasons this will fit well if I ever get it quilted!

I'm back from blogger hiatus!

2010-02-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

I hope I can keep up blogging now that I decided to take the plunge and start again. My daughter Lisa told me it had been six months since my last post. Really? I told her I had a plan to start on March 1st but I am doing it a couple days early!

I don't know where the fall went and then of course was Christmas and mostly I just did quilting for others. I will slowly try to catch up on photos.

January and February have not been great with several health issues (mono was just the start and I'm still fighting the tiredness of that) but I managed to finish a quilt top today. I started the embroidery after Christmas from Alex Anderson. I used colored pencil to fill in the embroidery and really enjoyed that. I used a bunch of 2.5" 30's squares from my friend Deb, who unfortunately passed away recently. I should have tried to brighten the photo a bit.

On the way back from Deb's memorial service in central WA I stopped at Palouse Falls. I love waterfalls and the landscape around this is so impressive. My friend Robin had not been there before and it was a nice break in the drive.

Quilting Finishes

2009-09-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten very many things accomplished recently, but here are two quilts I finished in August for my friend Deb.
The blue one is a hearts and flowers quilt. The blocks were made by members of the WA State Internet Quilters in memory of Deb's parents. Deb had the mottled blue batik and I came up wtth this setting using almost every scrap of the blue! I machine quilted it and bound it and included a quilting closeup.
The second one is an antique Double Wedding Deb purchased off ebay. I machine quilted it with warm and natural batting, then threw it in the washer and dryer. Deb was astounded when she saw the quilt! I must admit, the washing really added to it. The binding was tricky, but I managed!

I went to visit Deb and delivered the quilts in person and that was fun to see, since she had no clue I had finished the Double Wedding Ring!

I spent two nights in Ephrata and took off early on the 22nd to head to Seattle. I was at Lisa's dorm by 10 AM and headed out of Seattle with her and a very loaded car by 10:30 AM that day! This was taken from a rest area on I-90, loved seeing Mt. Rainier!

Another picture try

2009-08-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

I played with the colors a bit and I'm trying again to see what this picture looks like. Compare it to the one below and I this one is a little more accurate, but still not right.

Table Runner

2009-08-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

I have lots and lots of tops to machine quilt but Sunday something came over me and I had to start a new project. Friday and Saturday I had gone on a shop hop, we went about 400 miles with 12 official shops on the hop and an extra that was too new to be part of the hop. Each shop gave a block pattern out, and I have made many sampler quilts over the years and didn't really need another sampler with 12" blocks.

I decided to use 10 of the blocks and size them down to 6" and found some fabrics in my stash and started sewing. I sewed the borders on last night. One block had 63 pieces in it and he star points were 3/4" finished at the 6" size! The two blocks I did not include were a Drunkard's Path and a very cute heart vase and heart flowers block from the Quilted Heart. I would love to make that up into something else.

The tablerunner is a bit dark but is great for fall and I love it. It must be my monitor, this looks very pink. It's not, it's orangy red, rust and pruple based with sage green!

Some Scrappy Quilts

2009-08-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

I always have good intentions to get back to my blogging but then time flies by! It's been a very different summer. There is always something going on with not much quilting! I'm trying to fix that though!

I thought I would start trying to catch up on blogging with posting my most recent finishes. In late spring I participated in a block swap with a small internet group and we were provided a paper piecing pattern for scrappy strip blocks. I guess I got carried away rough cutting pieces! In July I got the quilt together from the swap and here is the photo.During my rough July I randomly sewed the leftover pieced together, trimmed them to a usable width and added sashings from my stash. I quilted all three of them on my new Pfaff Grand Quilter last weekend and I LOVE that machine! I didn't do fancy quilting, just got the hang of controlling the machine. All three quilts are being donated to a cancer clinic for patients undergoing chemo.

Will I Ever Catch Up?

2009-07-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

Life is so complicated right now it seems. Good and bad. In June I was gone for almost two weeks traveling and having a spectacular time! Here are a couple pictures of my trip to New York. Three days in city area and 3 days in the West Point area where my nephew reported on the 29th. More details on that later. Before that I was on my 25th anniversary trip with my husband in Canada. I have pics of that trip also.Here I am at the Statue of Liberty.One of the many gorgeous views of part of West Point and the Hudson River.

My dad passed away on July 4th so I have been doing a lot with helping with that. We are having a Memorial "party" on July 18th. Dad didn't like funerals (but went to tons of them) and liked parties so that is what we are doing. More of a celebration of life. Dad was ill and had no hope, it just wasn't expected that he would go when he did, but it was a blessing. He is free of the intense pain he was suffering.

I have a new Pfaff Grand Quilter and it's still in the box!

Busy Life!

2009-06-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

I have several things to show from the last month or more, but I am still short of computer time so I will just show a surprise gift I made for my friend Deb. I mentioned on my earlier retreat post that I made something else and couldn't show it, this is it. I cut and pieced this at the retreat and finally quilted it last weekend and mailed it Monday. Deb received it Tuesday and was thrilled to pieces! She had fallen in love with the version of this quilt I made last summer for my friend Lynda and I used my batik stash to make her one. I used Thermore batting to be lightweight since she can't have weight on her with breathing issues. As for everything else I will start getting caught up, with school, Brad's graduation, quilt show, 4-H, etc, commission projects, my life is hectic.

Miniature Row Robin

2009-04-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

I posted pictures in earlier posts of rows in my miniature row robin group. I have finished the last two rows for the group. This one belongs to Diane and her row is on top and finishes at 2.25" high! Next is Nansi's row, then Candy's then mine which also finishes at 2.25". I really should have put a ruler next to this!
Below is Virginia's grouping. Her fabulous log cabin row is on top and those strips are TINY! Next is Diane's row, then Nansi's string piecing and then Candy's dimensional row, and lastly my row, Dutchman's Puzzle. It finishes at 2" wide, and is paper pieced.This has been a lot of fun and a great challenge!

Fundraiser for a Friend

2009-04-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Jo is raising funds for her husband's heart surgery. Read the complete story here and how you can help and win a quilt! I had a hand in this quilt since I machine quilted it. It is a very wonderful, cheery quilt and I am thrilled to have quilted it for Jo.

Tops from Retreat

2009-04-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

My daughter Amy has been here this week and along with self-imposed stress to finish a quilt to enter in the Palouse Patchers show this weekend and doing things with her, I finally got Brad and Amy to hold up some of the quilt tops I finished. The one that is in the show I didn't get a photo of, but I will tomorrow. It is the Prickly Pear from the post here. I had all the blocks done and set it together last weekend and quilted and bound it this week. I tacked down the sleeve on the way to Moscow early Friday morning as Amy drove!
I had Brad's graduation quilt precut and got it all pieced the first evening. It is a bit blurry, but it's a log cabin and you can see the fabrics here. The next quilt was the Canyon Dance quilt that I showed the fabrics on a couple posts ago. This is a large queen size quilt and I got it together on Friday. That's what sewing for 13 or 14 hours will do. These quilts are super easy to piece. I used templates to cut them out and they just sew together quickly and I didn't even pin.
I have another quilt top I pieced Saturday but it's not quite finished yet, it needs borders. Yes, I did get told more than once I was an over achiever!

Back from a Retreat

2009-04-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

I left Thursday for a quilting retreat at Palouse Divide Lodge and returned Sunday. My group was small, 11 of us and there was another group in the main lodge. We were there the same weekend last year also and had a joint show and tell Saturday night both years. It's fun watching the two groups intermingle and see all the wonderful quilting and other projects. We have a painter/potter in our group and a jewelry maker. We have the same weekend booked together next year also. I will get pics of the tops I pieced later this evening, but for now I have pics of my walk I took. The retreat center is the former North/South Ski Bowl and when I was there with another group in November I had hiked up to the top of the hill but it was too foggy for pics. I hiked up there Friday in the snow and took some pics. The views are fabulous!This is the lodge. The roof you can see on the right is the old ski lodge and that is where my group was. There is a nice room and rooms to sleep 13 with two bathrooms. The main lodge straight ahead has a large eating area on the left (two meals a day are prepared for you) and the large room on the right is the conference room. Bedrooms are on the main floor and it sleeps 40.Looking east.This is from the mountaintop cabin area, the old chair lift is still there. The cabin on top of the mountain is gorgeous! I went inside and looked around. This is it below, it has two floors of living area.
The view from the deck is where I took the lodge picture.This is the view to the north.

Cutting for a Retreat

2009-04-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

I spent Friday evening and Saturday cutting pieces for two quilt tops to take to a retreat this coming weekend. The first one was Brad's graduation quilt. I had posted the fabrics here and decided this would be a great weekend to get the top stitched up. The log cabin strips are cut 2.5" so it will go pretty quickly with only 20 blocks.

The next quilt I cut is a bit more challenging. I am making Canyon Dance in queen size. I had made one in lap size for a friend in a different color scheme shown here. Here is the photo of my selection of fabrics (55 of them needed for this size!) and my piles of cut pieces.

Now I have to get the leftover fabrics put away. It called for FQ's but some of the pieces I had more than a FQ of. My batik containers are already overflowing and I can't figure out how I am supposed to fit more in. I need to stop collecting them I guess. Oh say it isn't so!

I will spend the week working on one of the many commission tops I have here. I am going to spend the rest of the day working on my Prickly Pear quilt and basting one of the commission quilts. I machine quilt them on my Janome 6500 without a frame setup.

Small Project Finished

2009-04-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

Friday I am hosting a small group here at my house. Last month one of the members showed us how to do sashiko by providing a piece of fabric with a design traced on it and the thread and needle also. I finished my piece and made it into a 16" pillow top so I have something to show tomorrow!
I chose to NOT take pictures of that horrific snow we have. We had several inches of new snow today again. It's April and my spring break is almost over!

Beat the Deadline!

2009-04-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

On one of my yahoogroups I host a UFO challenge and our deadline was March 31 for this round. I finished a project at 9 PM last night! I had gone to Moscow with my son earlier in the day and he drove so I could work on the binding. This was a mystery quilt last year from Cindy in Seattle who has lots of great free patterns. I put a quilting closeup on there. I just wanted to have fun with it and I knew this was going to be a wall quilt. Sometimes quilting can get too stiff. I quilted it in two days. and it's actually one of my own quilts!

Spring Break, Really It Is!

2009-03-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of my poor lilac bushes in my backyard this morning. Below is a picture of my crocuses that were actually blooming earlier in the week. I thought I would be getting my flower bed prettied up during spring break! I think not.

I started off the break by being sick. I came down with a nasty cold virus but I can't complain. I have had a fairly healthy winter and I work at a school! When a kindergartner coughed on me I jerked back and scared the poor kid!
Over the past week I have been working on this quilt top. My friend Cheryl passed away in December and last Friday at my guild National Quilting Day activities her sister Carol showed up and asked me to go to her storage to get "some fabric". She had donated "a truckload" to the Lewiston guild of which Cheryl had been a member and had three boxes left and a bunch of books and magazines. This quilt had six blocks pieced and most of the rest of the pieces cut. I got the urge to go ahead and finish up the quilt and will offer it back to the family. Cheryl didn't finish very many larger projects.

Mini Row Robin progress

2009-03-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

I finished my row for Nansi's row robin. She wanted a red, green and white theme for Christmas. Nansi's row is on top, then Candy's and then mine. All the row's measure 2" finished and 10" finished wide. There are five of us in this mini row robin.I didn't get a picture of the last set of rows I had here, but Virginia posted them. My piggies didn't quite show up as I anticipated after they were pieced. I hope you can get the Three Little Pigs idea from them! Diane has also posted some photos. Congratulations to her for having a quilt in the Paducah show!

Pulling off a Surprise

2009-03-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

I am terrible at keeping secrets, just ask my kids! I could hardly keep from telling them what their presents were. However, I pulled one off. A couple weeks ago my sister in Scottsdale mentioned coming up here this week. Her boys were on spring break and it would be a good time for her to get away by herself. We decided to not let my parents know she was coming! My other sister was involved and I told my SIL and some friends and even an interent group, but didn't tell my parents!

I didn't lie, but did say I was coming by Sunday afternoon. I picked up my sister at the airport and we came up with a plan, although my dad was napping and mom was on the computer when we got there so it changed a tiny bit. Lori was able to sneak into the house and was sitting in a chair in the family room and mom walked by her and back and forth around and didn't notice her. In the meantime I was totally hysterical and mom thought I was losing my mind! When mom finally noticed her she about went into shock. She was crying and laughing and I was worried about giving her a heart attack. Dad came out of the bedroom and stood there shaking cobwebs out of his head and finally said "What are you doing here?" He wasn't as shocked as mom!

Lori has been doing some work around the house and helping out and my daughter Lisa went down yesterday to help do some deep cleaning. I showed up after work and played cards!

Since I like to have pictures with my posts, here is a picture of my house last week after another snow storm. Come on spring!!!

Some finished projects

2009-03-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is a "summer stashbuster" quilt from a swap on one of my small yahoo groups last summer. I spent my retreat at Dee's in Leavenworth last June piecing scrappy courthouse steps blocks. They were swapped out and I set it together with a bolt of cobalt blue I have and last Wed. I decided to try to machine quilt it. I had it done and bound (by machine) by the next night and at my guild meeting donated it to the "quilts for chemo patients" project one of our guild members started. Below is a closeup of some of the quilting.

I quilted this log cabin quilt for my friend Jo. I went back and forth on the quilting and finished it awhile ago finally and there is also a picture of the quilting. Jo received it today.
I did the quilting on this baby quilt in between the other two above. I went to a neighbor's who has a Viking Mega Quilter and frame setup and had fun playing with it. I must say I think I prefer my "stuff and fluff" method of machine quilting, but I got a project done! I bound it and have it ready to donate to someone as soon as I figure out who gets it!

My New Quilt Project

2009-03-14T21:37:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some machine quilting and miscellaneous blocks. I decided yesterday to start a new project for me just because I wanted to! Yes, I have a large amount of unfinished projects, but they aren't going anywhere. I have several quilts to machine quilt for others (on my Janome 6500) but I needed a me break.

A few months ago I bought the Prickly Pear kit from Bold Over Batiks. I couldn't figure out the directions at first, but finally read them again and it made sense. The designer is Karen Stone and I love her paper pieced patterns but hadn't made any of her applique patterns. I took a before and after picture of one of the blocks and it's amazing the difference the stitching makes.

I am using decorative stitches on my Pfaff 2040 with Madeira Polyneon and Superior Rainbow threads with Superior Bottom Line in the bobbin. It's working wonderfully. Maybe by the time I am done with all 12 blocks I will be able to figure out out to turn corners easier and at the right time!

Webshots Update

2009-02-25T16:27:00.000-08:00

I updated my webshots account, will be tweaking it as time goes by, but I put a lot of pictures up there for the last two years of quilting projects!

Giveaway!

2009-02-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

Pieceful Afternoon: Drawing Soon - and one more great prize
My friend Jo is having a givewaway on her blog. I am trying to link to it! I just love her hand painted fabrics!

Thread Struggles

2009-02-22T17:35:00.000-08:00

I have spent a few days trying to quilt this wallhanging size quilt, or small throw. I was really not thinking and decided to use Superior's Poly Quilter because it had a thickness I wanted to use. However, I didn't have a Topstitch size 16 needle, only a 14 or a denim 16 and really struggled with thread breakage. I think it also had to do with drag on the thread, two layers of batik (and seams also), dense cotton batting and spray basting. I went through all the troublesheeting stuff on the Superior site also.

My kindergarten unit right now is "Stick to It" aka persaverance so did persavere and and finally got the right combination of needles, speed, tension, etc. and finished! I bound it and now have another finished project.

The top is from a "Bag Lady" swap. You send a gallon size bag of fabric/blocks, etc. and get back a finished top. This one was made by Sharon in WA and I love it! I had those two oddball blocks and sent them with a bunch of fabric and I'm thrilled with the results!

I thought this was going to be a quick project in between some commission projects. I have several of those lined up and told myself that I would quilt one of my things in between in each of them.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

I am actually taking time to post today! It's been a rat race lately it seems with work, meetings, etc. My appointment with the tax man is behind me for the farm and our stuff, I have one out of three kids taxes done. I haven't gotten much in the line of quilting done, but here is what I have accomplished recently.This is a quilt I recently machine quilted for my friend Jo. Most of the quilting is straight lines except for around the motifs in the seed packet blocks. There were some areas left for tying also, which Jo had requested.
Last year my small design group had a UFO auction to raise funds to buy some instructional and technique videos for our group. One member had this walhanging made and even had a piece of batting with it but didn't quilt it. I bought it for $5 and decided to finish it up last week. I added some beads for eyes and lots of fun background quilting and even some metallic thread.
This project has a story. I think I may have posted about it last year, but to save you (and me) the time of digging in my archives I will repeat it! This was a round robin in about 2001. It went missing, supposedly mailed, although the person hadn't done it herself. Early last year the woman who was the last person to see it was home when someone knocked at her door. A woman had been cleaning out her son's bedroom to make a sewing room coincidentally and he was in prison. He had been in a lot of trouble over the years and she found this package in the back of his closet! It had Sue's name on it, so she showed up with it, taking a chance. It wasn't in it's original envelope with my name on it. It turns out the package was in a vehicle and the son had stolen the package looking for something to cell for drug money they assume.

I quilted it several months ago but wanted to add beading and finally finished that up this past week.

My Baby Graduates this Year

2009-01-31T11:14:00.000-08:00

My third and youngest child graduates from high school this year. It's also our 25th wedding anniversary three weeks later so it's a milestone year. Brad is following in his sister's footsteps and graduating as valedictorian (how did we get so lucky?) and will be going onto college majoring in agriculture/plant breeding. Doug and I graduated together from the same high school as the kids in the top ten, but we can't remember ever speaking a word to each other and we had a class of 93 students! We met again five years later, courtesy of my sister!

I digress, I stopped in at a little LQS to start collecting fabric for Brad's graduation quilt. We had decided on a log cabin quilt in a "nature" theme. He is an extreme outdoors kid and has studied forestry in 4-H. Little did I know I would walk out of the shop with all the fabric for the quilt including the backing!
Three greens for one side of the log cabin plus the center fabric, ignore my sewing room floor! The carpet was a renmant and is covering concrete!Three browns for the other side of the block along with the center fabric again. Oops this one is blurry, those are pine prints, except the top one which is wheat. The fabrics are in the washer, I will have to replace this photo!The backing. I will be adding a dark green strip and putting the moose piece down the middle and strips on either side of the bear. These are flannel, a request of Brad's since he likes to use my flannel quilt watching TV!

I dug out Amy's graduation quilt photo from 2005. She picked all the fabrics and pattern. I copied it from webshots so it came out small! Amy has already graduated from college and is teaching Jr.High math.
Here is Lisa's from 2006, notice how radically different the color choices are! Smokey the cat loves quilts! Lisa is a college Jr. majoring in Bio Engineering.

I still need to get all my quilt photos off the other computer and onto my thumb drive so I can access them easier.

My other news is there is also a new LQS in my small town of 3,000 people and I also stopped in there and was asked to be featured quilter for March. I am trying to support both shops because I like everybody and I like fabric!

Mini Row Robin starting

2009-01-30T16:59:00.000-08:00

I am in a group that is just starting a miniature row robin. I finished my row and will be mailing it off Monday to Virginia. My row measures 3" X 15.5" right now, but will finish at 2.5" X 15". I'm kind of wishing I had made 2" finished baskets but oh well! I am sending along the black and the multi batik. I look forward to working on the other 4 members rows!

Working on another UFO

2009-01-28T22:11:00.000-08:00

I set together another set of blocks. They were from a monthly swap group and one was dated 2006. I originally was going to set the with alternate blocks and a pieced border. I finally decided size wise it was going to be big enough with just sashing. The yellow just screamed use me! I will be using that same yellow fabric as a piped border next to a purple binding when ever I get it quilted! Taking a pic on my design wall with a fluorescent light right above isn't the best choice!

A Little Progress

2009-01-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

This week I have worked on assembling 18 basket blocks from a monthly block exchange group into a top. I used all my red scraps in the sashings and borders and had to get into my box of reds to cut more. The swap took 18 months, getting one block per month. I underestimated the size and it's just about queen size.
I also put borders on a scrap baby quilt. During Christmas when I was organizing my fabrics I cut up a bunch of bright scraps into 2 1/2" squares. My daughter Lisa wanted to piece something so she got most of it pieced before going back to college. I just had to sew a few more rows and add borders. I finished it up today after the red quilt. I will donate to as of yet undetermined charity after I quilt it.

Finished UFO!

2009-01-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

I actually finished a project. It should make Lisa happy, but I have a few more UFO's to get finished to get down to my age! I had a round robin from about 2001 that I loved but was wonky. Too many borders had bias edges and more borders were just being added without measuring through the center. I took off one border and it was the right size for a shower curtain for my new lavender bathroom. I'm thrilled to mark something off my list!

Fabric Shopping

2009-01-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

I REALLY needed more fabric. Yeah right! However at 50% off how can one resist? Fortunately I was on a time limit (I am the one that said how long I needed) or I might have purchased more. We were at the Spokane Valley Joann's, it's not even a Super Store, but they still had a different selection than the Joann's in Lewiston and Moscow. The feel of some of this fabric is way better than it used to be and the regular prices are higher too. I am taking after my friend Joanni and showing my purchases!
The red with stars is for American Hero quilts and the polka dot is for my polka dot collection. My daughter Lisa (who is doing the 365 photo thing) likes polka dots and so do I.This is a large scale print I thought would look awesome in a One Block Wonder quilt.I absolutely fell in love with the tiger lily print on the left, my friend Kae Ann did a gorgeous color crayon tiger lily in a class we took (I failed coloring!) and she also had the florist put tiger lilies in a bouquet for me during my surgery this summer. I got the other florals as coordinates for something, I just don't know what!

Road Trip Handwork

2009-01-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Let's just say this hasn't been my favorite week, but things are looking up now. There are so many people in the country losing their jobs and I'm lucky that I don't have to deal with that. The things I have going on seem insignificant in comparison to what is going on in the country right now.

I spent a couple evenings cutting up scraps for a Sister's Choice quilt. I am in a small group that we send out fabric and a pattern monthly and get back a finished block and in turn make a block for others.

I did accomplish some handwork while going to Spokane this weekend for two days to visit my dad in CICU. He is finally better and out of intensive care as of today. I took along a block I had prepared for embroidery from the Winter Wonderland pattern by Crabapple Hill Sitting in a hospital gave me time to work on the block and I finished it today.
On the trip home Doug and Brad were doing more combine shopping and I dug under the seat in the car and found a hand piecing project I hadn't touched for two years or so. I had two blocks done and hand pieced the other three on the trip home and even had time for a nap in the car! I got home and got out the 23 blocks I had done and found out the 5 blocks I had in the car are spinning the wrong way, along with two of the blocks I already had here at home. This is a very long term project I saw years ago in Quilter's Newsletter. Now if I could find the picture of the quilt! I am doing it as a charm quilt, so even though some of the fabrics look alike, each one is different.
These are the spinning the wrong way blocks. Next will be my fabric shopping trip today!

My weekend quilt project

2009-01-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

Other than more snow, then rain and melting snow, boring housework and bookkeeping this weekend, I did pretty much make this whole quilt top. It belongs to my friend Deb, and it came to me with a box of fabric, six finished blocks and a pattern. I made six more blocks and did all the setting this weekend. It will be interesting to figure out how to quilt it for her! The pic is taken on my wobbly design wall, it really does have straight edges and hangs well!

New Year's Resolutions (Or Not)

2009-01-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

Every year I try to make resolutions and never keep them, so this year I just made suggestions to myself, not resolutions. One suggestion was to get organized in my sewing room. To that end I spent days and days organizing my fabric. It was a major undertaking. I always prewash, but don't press, because I was so far behind in it I figured why bother. Now I will press (but really don't need to purchase fabric for a LONG time) because I have neatly organized boxes containing my quarter yard to one yard cuts.
I also have organized shelves with my project boxes and fabric.Next (well maybe) on my agenda will be tackling my scraps. This is a few of them!I did finish another UFO before the end of December!

More About Quilts

2008-12-28T12:30:00.001-08:00

I received this awesome quilt a couple days before Christmas, only it was wrapped so I didn't peek. The pattern is Fractured Stars and made by my friend Lynda in Nevada. She had been a neighbor and quilting buddy and then moved away. We lost contact for about five years and this year we re-connected. I sent her a gift of a quilt for our joint birthdays in July and she said I inspired her to quilt again and I got this really, really cool quilt!
This is a top I pieced this week. The blocks were made by members of WASIQ and sent to my friend Debi on her parents passing. She had an awesome blue batik in her stash and this summer I brought it and the blocks home and finally assembled a top for her. I plan to quilt it this week.
In August I went on the Crazy Eight Shop here in northern Idaho/Eastern Washington. I saw this border print and a book called Cabin Fever at The Crazy Quilter in Deary Idaho, an awesome shop in a teeny tiny town. I cut it out Friday night this week and finished it yesterday. It has minmal quilting and the applique stitching down is done as part of the quilting to make it faster. My oldest daughter loves it, and really I made it with her in mind!
This is a quilt I finished quilting this past week. I didn't make the top, my friend Joann in Arizona made the top for her oldest daughter designing it as she went. I volunteered to quilt it and had a lot of fun doing different designs. My closeups didn't show well since the thread color blended too well! Joann received the quilt Friday and already has the binding on!

Christmas

2008-12-28T11:11:00.001-08:00

Christmas happened. Not too exciting but here are a few pictures.
The first quilt is one I made for my boss, the head teacher at the one room school. She had to have an emergency appendectomy this fall and I took squares and fabric markers to school and the students were given instructions to make a "pretty" block. The artwork is interesting! I set it together and gave it to her for Christmas and she loved it. In fact she had been hinting! It was pretty funny. We have 19 students, grades K-6 so the lower hand block is one I made just saying the name of the school and my name, date, etc. In essence a label on the front of the quilt.

Next is a wallhanging I made from a kit from Keepsake Quilting . I actually made two of them, one is mine and one for my daughter Lisa. I love that the black was all precut, you just peeled the paper and fused!
This is our tree, a prelit one we bought the day after Thanksgiving at Home Depot. We have 8 foot ceilings and with the star on top it almost touches.

The fireplace mantle with many of the stockings I have collected or made. For a few years I was in stocking exchanges on a yahoo group, but didn't do it this year due to lack of time, but I have a few stockings. There are more to the left you can't see hanging on hooks under a shelf.

My "big" Christmas village. I have a smaller set too that is on the China Hutch.

Minneapolis in December

2008-12-28T10:39:00.001-08:00

I had a chance to go with Doug to Minneapolis the first weekend of December. He was representing shareholders at an annual meeting and I thought I needed to get away. Despite the cold weather we had a fabulous time. Two other wives and I went to Mall of America on the train and the people of Minneapolis were all fabulous at giving directions. You just stood there in the Skyway system looking lost and they asked where you wanted to go, including a UPS man who walked us there!
Doug had a free afternoon the last full day there so we walked through many blocks of the skyway system to get closer to the Mississippi River before we had to go outside and brave the elements. The picture above is me at the southern edge and we walked across the bridge and the picture below is Doug on the northern edge. Well more or less, directions were hard to figure out in that city since things aren't laid out straight and the sun wasn't always shining! We took a scenic path back and and walked across a historic stone arch bridge (not pictured) that is longer open to traffic.The last night in Minneapolis the CEO took the other six of us from the Lewiston division out to dinner at a fantastic Brazilian place. Then as we were walking back to the Hilton we came across a Christmas parade. We had taxied to the restaurant and most of us weren't prepared for standing in a snowstorm but it was pretty to watch! I took quilting along but didn't have a chance to touch it!