New Year's Eve

Here it is, the last day of the year 2018.  Hard to believe!  I have made my list of projects I will post tomorrow, in the meantime I have binding to finish on two projects to end the year with!  I have not actually counted my finishes of the year, but it's close to 40.

We had a great Christmas with our daughters and grandkids.  The twins turned 1 in November and were a lot of fun and Jared is 7 and Nicole is 4 and they love presents!  I also got to see my sisters.  On the way home I snapped a couple pictures.  We had pretty good roads, just a bit of snow close to home.  It is a six hour drive each way.

Payette Lake, McCall, Idaho

Highway 55 in central Idaho

My tree is several years old and I had it working when I set it up and now it has blank areas that should be lit up by lights!  I am taking it all down today.

 My sister is going to be a first time grandmother in May.  I will be making a quilt for the baby, but I saw this kit on Dec. 21st at Quiltreasures and bought it.  The new mother to be loves giraffes and my sister loves monkeys.  I thought the baby needed a quilt at Grandma's house since she will be born in Kentucky!  I pieced it over the weekend and had it ready to take to Boise on Dec. 24th!   I brought it home to quilt it, which will happen sometime!

 Since we got home I have been in my quilt room.  I had leftover flannel squares from a quilt in my last post.  I couldn't bear to throw them away so I whipped up this 18" pillow.  I had a pillow form on hand and the pillow is now on my couch in the family room.  I photographed it on part of my cutting table.  The quilt in the background was made by my friend Melissa and the collection of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls were given to me by my boss over the years.  She collects them at yard sales, although a couple were made by a friend years ago.

 Last summer I participated in a Christmas in July log cabin swap and the blocks are still not assembled in to a top.  I had leftover strips and I have been sewing them together as leader/enders for a few months.  I then had to decide what to do with them!  I had this green rick rack in my stash and have no clue what I originally got it for.  It was huge!  I now have a scrappy wallhanging, complete with sleeve.  I quilted feathers in the scrappy strips and finished it Friday.

 I showed this wallhanging in a previous post and it is now quilted and bound!  I look forward to hanging it next year!  I did an allover swirl pattern in the quilting.

I finished quilting this twin size quilt.  I twas over half done and has pretty simple quilting.  I have the binding sewn on, but not stitching down.

 This is a tablerunner made of leftover triangles from another project that is not completed yet!  I straight line quilted it on the diagonal and have the binding ready to stitch down.

I think that is all I have for now!  I have another week off work and I look forward to more quilting!
Happy New Year and I will quietly be ringing in the new Year at home.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday and Monday Making.

Quilted Gifts

December has been really busy and I made a few gifts.  I wanted to get some of my decoration photos done but never got to it.  Time flies by and work has been super busy.

I found this cute panel that I cut apart and adding sashing and borders to.  It is a nice wallhanging size but not quilted yet!

I designed this quilt in the reverse.  I found this cute vintage camper fleece and my boss loves the design of vintage campers. I picked colors of woolies flannel from the fleece and made a simple pinwheel quilt. It is a nice throw size and her husband is using it while recovering from surgery.

 The quilt below is about 45 X 60 and was a kit from Starr Fabrics many years ago.  I had pieced it a couple years ago and added the 3 dimensional prairie points and final border recently.  I added a farm theme backing, quilted it and gifted it to a neighbor who has cattle and chickens and is our school bus driver.

 This was a jelly roll of Woolies flannel and I had no clue what to do with them.  I had a few more on hand and designed this simple block.  I used a flannel on the back.  I gifted it to a coworker.

 This is not my favorite color combination.  I was using up some batiks (actually a friend at a retreat did a lot of the sewing a few years ago).  I had made it into a bed size quilt top, but really disliked it.  I took a seam apart in the middle and made two throw quilt tops and I quilted this one and added a fun flannel print on the back and gifted it to an amazing volunteer mom at school.  She was going throwing through a rough time and the colors looked like her.  She loves it and is so thrilled.  She usually gifts me wine!  :) 

Thati's it for now.  I did finish a quilt top last night, but I am gifting it to my sister unfinished.  She is going to be a grandma.  Pictures in my next post.

Quilting Spree

I have had a lot going on, but I did go to a quilt retreat recently.  I took my Grand Quilter and did some machine quilting.  The room is big with great acoustics and several people use Juki machines and machine quilt at quilt camp.  I made a small dent in my basted pile!  By noon Saturday I was ready for a new project and I had this tablerunner kit.  It was all laser cut but difficult to figure out piece placement. I worked for 8 solid hours on it (with a dinner break of course). It is all fused and thankfully another quilter had brought her applique pressing sheet!

 I ordered the kit from Shabby Fabrics.  It will be trimmed to have rounded corners and I have a packet of embellishments to add after it is quilted.  Quilting will be a challenge!

Here are some of the my projects I have recently quilted at retreat or home.

disappearing 4 patch

quilting closeup

disappearing 4 patch (twin to above quilt)

straight line quilting

These two disappearing 4 patch quilts are going to be gifted to two sisters.  

This simple one patch quilt was made from leftovers of another project.  It is the perfect size for a patient in a wheel chair.

fun flannel backing

I received these blocks in a guild UFO exchange.  There were more, but not made as well and this will also be a perfect care center patient quilt.

fun cat print backing

Laurel Burch panel.  This is all quilted in the ditch.  I am the world's worst quilt photographer.  My quilts really are straight!

This one is currently what I am quilting now!  I am about half way through the blocks.  It is set aside for now as I have been deep fall cleaning my house and we are hosting Thanksgiving for about 30 people and some will be staying a few days.

A Couple of Finishes and a Visit

After my big basting spree (I actually added one more since my last post) I was able to quilt and bind two of the quilts and I am working on two more.  It feels so good to have some finishes!

A fellow teacher is undergoing cancer treatment right now and she has been so complimentary of my quilts and likes purple so I quilted this up from my basted pile and it was delivered to her last week.  She loves it and said the colors are perfect.  I have so many quilts it feels great to be able to gift them.  This is not paper pieced, it's one of the stack and slash style quilts.

quilting closeup, I had fun doodling

I pieced this top 4 years ago and 30's are not my style of fabrics!  My oldest daughter likes them so her room here at home is decorated with 30's quilts that I have accumulated over the years.  I had assumed I would put this there eventually, but I found out about a quilt shop owner that has never received the gift of a quilt and I enjoy her quilt retreats and I finished this quilt (Thursday night!) and dropped it off to her Friday on our way to visit our daughters.  She loves it.  I had a ruler and made 21 dresdens.  9 of them were made into a wallhanging and I sold it to my wedding singer.  I came up with this setting for the rest of the blocks.

quilting closeup

As I mentioned we made a weekend trip to visit our daughters and grandkids.  My husband finished the fall farm work and we hadn't gotten to see the twins since the end of July and the other two kids since the first week of August.

oldest daughter's kids 

My four grand-kids - two sets of cousins!

younger daughter's twins, almost a year old!

 We went for a family hike.

 Salmon River Canyon on the drive home.   My husband did a river search here with our dog for an accident victim.  This is actually on the straighter part of the drive home up through central Idaho!

linking up with Design Wall Monday

Basting, Basting, Basting

As I have mentioned previously, I have a LOT of unfinished projects.  A LOT!  I do all my machine quilting on a Pfaff Grand Quilter, no long arm, no mid arm, just stuffing the quilts through and moving them around. Because of that, my quilts need to be layered and basted together with some method before quilting.  I was on a roll this weekend.  I started pulling tops out of my cupboard and picking backings (and in most cases piecing them) and started basting them together with pins.  The two smallest ones are spray basted, not a method I use on bigger quilts or quilts that will be sitting before they are quilted.  I apparently had a LOT of safety pins!  I know I have acquired them from various sources, including my mother-in-law's sewing room when she passed away.

I ended up getting 11 quilts ready for quilting in 3 days (and that was taking time out for being gone parts of two days).  Most of them are smaller and most will end up being donated or gifted.  One of them is from at least 10 years ago.  The top has been sitting unquilted and I have some older than that!

I absolutely LOVE my Kwik Klip!  It is one of my favorite tools.  I am also fortunate I buy backing by the roll!

Now I need to start quilting!!!  Yes, two of the quilts are the same!  The quilt top on the wall is auditioning borders.

 My mom found this fabric in a box in her house and had no clue what it was for so I put it together with some "doggie" backing and quilted it and gave it back to her!  She can use it for some of the donation causes for the senior center she is active in.  I also made her two pillows out of a different dog print.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Finished One Block Wonder

I finished my "Memories of Hawaii" One Block Wonder quilt!  It's quilted and bound.  I meant to put a hanging sleeve on as I did the binding but totally forgot.  I usually sew one the top edge at the same time as I am binding and then just hand stitch the bottom edge.   I added a flange to the binding for a spark of color.

This project was a lot of fun and I am happy with how it turned out!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

One Block Wonder

I have been working on my ocean one block wonder.  I love how it is turning out!  I am in the process of pressing my strips (seams are being pressed open) and then will be assembling the top.  I am thinking of appliqueing the points down so I really have to work to figure out the exact size I need the length to match the side strips.  This is a lot of fun sewing with the panels to make this style of quilt.

I have one more panel I had originally purchased, but it is cut slightly differently.  I ordered the rest and knew I had better not chance them being the same and ordered enough for the 7 panels.  The extra one will be on the back.

 This is a closeup of some of the blocks.

I hope to get this assembled this week and will actually quilt it right away so it won't go into my never ending pile of unquilted tops!  It will be a great memory quilt of our snorkeling cruise in Hawaii.

I am linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I am entering my latest finish, my Baltimore Spring quilt.  This was purchased as a laser cut kit, but most of the pieces were just scored, not actually cut.  I sat at a quilt retreat for four days and cut apart and fused the blocks inside the border.  I did the border after I got home.  Then I rolled it up on a large tube I had on hand and it sat.  I finally decided to stitch down the appliques in August.

I used a variety of threads, mostly Superior Fantastico.  I machine quilted it Labor Day weekend.  I can't believe it is finished!  I added a hanging sleeve to the back as it will be hung in my home on a quilt hanger a friend's husband made me.

Closeup  detail photos.

 I entered the quilt in our local county fair a couple weeks ago.  We have about 10,000 people in the county, and the fair and Lumberjack Days are a big event in town in mid September.  I won Best of Show and the photo below is hanging at the fair.

The third weekend in September is another fair an hour away.  Residents from surrounding counties can enter that fair, which is unlike our county fair.  I was surprised to win Best of Show again!  I also received Best in Class and Superintendent's Choice.  They put all the quilts behind plastic to keep people from touching them.  It doesn't make for good photography!

The most popular question I get asked is "How long did it take?"  I really should keep track sometime, but then again, that might take the fun out of it!  I am quilting obsessed and I think I will get back to piecing for awhile!