Design Wall Monday Plus!

Even though things have been crazy, I have made some accomplishments.  Last Monday I posted fabrics for a Quilt of Valor and I am happy to say before the end of that day I had the top completed!  This was a donation kit and not my normal style at all.  I am just not sure of the striped fabric, but I followed the instructions.  I wanted to make sure I had enough fabrics that were included.

Quilt of Valor

This week I also finished the top to Gentle Moments, but realized I messed up the outer borders going vertical.  I had measured but not written the measurement down and thought I knew the correct length and sewed the border on.  With all the bias it sewed on great, but now makes the quilt wavy!  It's 2" too long on each lengthwise side so that will be fixed.  I can't believe I did that!  I will still add another border around to make it queen size, but don't have yardage so that is in the thinking stages.

Gentle Moments

During the process of sewing Gentle Moments and other blocks I have been sewing 2" squares together.  I sewed most of them in groups of 8.  I was originally going to make a block that was 8 X 8 squares (12" finished) and then sash them but started doodling on graph paper and came up with this.   I have some of the pieces on the design wall below.  I need to sew more pieces and the fabric in all the blank areas will be the purple shown.  It will be a donation quilt for a child or teen.

bright strips and background

The other big news is my new sink and faucet.  I asked for a new faucet for Christmas (Doug needs help in the idea dept.) and thought I asked in plenty of time to get the faucet for Thanksgiving when we hosted his family.  Nope, then because of the care needed for his father, it didn't happen at Christmas either.  Doug's dad passed away New Year's Eve and January has been rather busy.  We are also now fixing up our rental house and went off to Home Depot Saturday.  Sunday was spent installing the new sink and faucet!  I LOVE it!

old sink

new sink and faucet!

 Linking up with Patchwork Times!

An Amazing Gift

I realized I had not posted about this incredible gift of a quilt we received from my friend Melissa Devin in December.  Last year she asked if she could make us a quilt out of my son Brad's t-shirts.  For the story of his death in 2013 go here.  Brad was not a super involved person but had shirts from track (districts and state), U of I shirts, Mexico trip shirts, Geography Bee shirts and other miscellaneous ones.  I got the shirts to Mel in August and in December an incredible package arrived.  She was so worried about the quilt because she somehow has the idea I can quilt well, but she did AMAZING!  I LOVE the design, I LOVE The fabrics and I LOVE The quilting.  Yes, I am yelling!  The wheat fabric she used is phenomenal.  She used dog prints and outdoorsy flannels on the back, two of his great loves.  For the story of Brad's involvement in wheat breeding go here.  Thank you Mel, we love the quilt and it's very snuggly.

backing and one leftover shirt

wheat fabric sashing

Design Wall Monday and Day of Service

I have today off work and to remember MLK I will be making a quilt for Quilt of Valor.  I have made many quilts for the American Hero project, but this will be my first QOV.  I received the fabrics last year in a kit from Idaho Public TV. It will be a rail fence quilt.

Last week I showed the pattern and strips for this quilt.  This is what I have so far.  I sewed and sewed and sewed!  Since I was enlarging the pattern I needed more squares.  There will be a white applique strip around the center, pink frame around the whole top and another applique strip on the top and bottom to elongate it to queen size.  I will need to add one border around the whole top.

 I am linking up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday - New Projects

I have been saving this pattern since June 2001.  It was in McCall's magazine.  My late friend Deb loved it and we each planned on making it for the other one we found out later, although neither of us started it.  She came closer, buying the pink fabric which she gave to me.  I am in the process of making some quilt tops to give as gifts, letting the recipients pick from a selection.  I am altering the pattern somewhat and making it queen size so we will see what it looks like in the end.

image from the magazine

It's hard to tell, but there are 15 strips hanging there.  They aren't pressed yet.  I am making 5 more to make the center.

This is another new project!  Quiltmaker started Itty Bitty Blocks this month.  Each bow-tie finishes at 3".  The idea at the end of the year is to have a row quilt.  I made 8 blocks very quickly out of bright and black and white scraps.

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times, a fun place to find more blogs to read!

Grand Illusion Mystery Finished!

I finished the top to Quiltville's Grand Illusion Mystery!  I chose to not go scrappy with this quilt and I also wanted to enlarge it a bit to be rectangular.  I somehow had extra pink and blue half squares so I incorporated those into expanding a top and bottom border.  I love the graphics of this quilt.  I coudln't get away from adding purple somewhere, it's in the polka dot black print!

I'm linking up to Quiltville Mystery Monday and Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.