Quilts Mailed!

I finished the quilts for my soon to be three year old twin grandkids.  I mailed them last week.   It cost a minor fortune to mail them from Idaho to Kentucky!  I also made a quilt top for a friend from a kit she had.  For the twins quilts I used three patterns by Elizabeth Hartman and figured out my own layout.

quilting closeup on Remy's quilt.

closeup of Finn's quilting.

Labels.  I do not have an embroidery machine, so I improvised with the lettering on my regular machine.  Their last name is covered for privacy.

This is the Tula Pink quilt I made for my friend with a fussy cut block closeup below.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Making Progress!

I have made progress on the twins quilts!  I had to do a lot of juggling to get all the pieces to fit, but ended up sewing blocks in units and adding filler strips where needed.   I also worked on a few other projects.  I also can't believe how cold it is and the snow we have already had this year!  I hope it is not a prelude of what is to come over the winter.  Work continues to be stressful, but at least we are in school every day, so I need to be thankful I am not teaching Kindergarten and First Grade via Zoom like last spring!

Remy's quilt top without borders.  

If you will notice there is a difference in this one.  I accidentally switched the unit with the green bear, it is supposed to be on the other side of the top!  I noticed after all six sections were assembled and I decided to leave it so it isn't the same as his sister's!

Finn's quilt top

I made 6 border stripe tablerunners for a friend.  They are quick and easy and use the quick turn or pillowcase method of finishing, no binding!  These use the 60 degree ruler.  The ones on the bottom are wider, using the bigger 60 degree ruler.  I didn't even know there was one, but a friend had it.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Almost 3 months, really?

There will be quilt photos at the end of this post!  

 

I seriously cannot believe it has been almost 3 months since I last posted!  I am still here really!  I got a new computer and I could not figure out pictures for the longest time, but now I hope I can blog again on a regular basis.  I haven't really even kept up with blog reading either and I will try to be better!  

I have made quite a few things during the time I was not blogging, some have showed up on Instagram.  My oldest daughter and kids were here in both July an August.  My sister and I drove a rental car to Kentucky to see her son and two grandkids (the baby was born July 6th in a fire station!) and my two grandkids and younger daughter.  We both flew back separately in August.

We had our harvest and Doug is planting fall crops.  School started at the end of August and we are in person all day.  We have 21 students K-6.  I now have Kindergarten and First Grade in the second classroom full time all day...  The staff and parents wear masks in the building, students do not, but we really try to keep them distanced.

Oh and don't forget the wildfire on Labor Day!  It was horrific.  We live at 3100 feet and the closest small town is 12 miles down the side of a mountain in a river valley at 1,000 feet.  First off in late August there was a wildfire on the lower part of the hill.  One house burned and my coworker was evacuated and kept out of her house for several days.  Then came Labor Day.  The winds were over 50 mph and Doug was not harvesting due to the extreme fire danger.  Our power went off and I immediately got the fire radio (Doug is a volunteer firefighter).  I also looked out and saw that a tree had fallen onto our Caterpillar tractor hooked to a plow (ready for plowing a fire break).  Doug went out to cut up the tree and yes the radio went off.  The winds whipped that fire around like crazy and 13 houses, 26 vehicles and numerous outbuildings on the hillside could not be saved.  It was horrible.  The fire came within 500 yards of our house, but it was across the road and a field with a fire break around it.  Doug was with the fire department down the road trying to save houses and my BIL used the tractor (after finishing removing tree limbs) to plow fire breaks around our houses.  Anyway, we live in a horrible cell phone reception area, and our landlines went out.  I borrowed a portable cell phone charger (I must buy one).  I had to go stand in a field to call anybody!  Our power was out 47 hours and our internet out 3 days and landlines 4 days, but we made it through (Doug hooked up a generator that Tuesday morning) and I feel horrible for the homes lost.  We had school on Thursday that week, the fire was under control by then and they were letting people on the road.  The fire burned over 1600 acres.

Now back to the land of quilting!  I am making bed quilts for my twin grandkids third birthday in November.  I finally got started!  I am combining a couple of patterns, my daughter picked out the blocks she liked (I took the patterns to Kentucky and we went to a quilt shop in Cincinnati).  

The kids will each have one block of each set either orange or yellow and then I am using teal, purple and pink for Remy and blue, red and green for Finn.

I participated in a summer sew along where all the fabric was provided.  Although I have made plenty of sampler quilts, I love the fabrics and supported the shop!

I am doing the Nebula block of the month starting in January.  The designer came up with six designs to work with the special rulers and it is called Journey2Nebula.  I am behind, but I made two tablerunners out of the first pattern because I couldn't decide on fabrics!

Here are 3 of the shop samples I made this summer too.  I made more and have other projects, but I need to find them on my phone amongst the grandkid photos!

Linking to Design Wall Monday.

Mystical Prism Quilt Top

I assembled the top for my Mystical Prism quilt.  I am shocked it is together after only having 3 blocks done last week.  It went together well and I am thrilled with the colors.  I took photos outside by myself and that was tricky as the wind came up!  The quilt is huge, 102 X 102.

Mystical Prism Quilt

I love the effect of taking a picture of the backside of the quilt top as it was blowing in the wind.  I had it clothes pinned to our old duck pen.

 Linking up with Alycia for Finished or Not Friday.

June is almost gone!

Wow, where has time gone?  School got out June 11th and I was ready!  I have been going to work one day a week since to reorganize my room, after already doing the art/supply room.  With such a small school it is amazing how things can get in disarray!  We ended the year with 19 students grades K-6.

I have done quite a bit of sewing, but no actual finished projects, only tops!  I still need to have a basting party and get some tops quilted.

Earlier this year I went to a quilt retreat sponsored by the shop I make samples for.  It was just before all the shutdowns began.  There were shops across the country offering a brown bag mystery.  You could see the focus fabric but that was it.  I purchased two kits, yes crazy me!  The first one is Kaffe fabrics and I had extra of the focus fabric already on hand that made a perfect border.  It is framed in green, hard to see.  The design was very fun.  There are six different white on white backgrounds.

Brown Bag mystery Kaffe fabrics

 The other bag contained batiks.  There were six lavendar backgrounds and then three other fabrics.  I am not a yellow/orange person, but the contrast is wonderful!  I used every scrap in the border with random size strips.  These are nice lap/throw size tops.

Brown Bag mystery batiks

 I recently made some more shop samples.  This one is fun, I love old pickups and the blue really adds a lot to this fall print/  The center is a panel and the geese are pieced.  The fabric line is Rake and Bake.

Rake and Bake tablerunner and six placemats.

This is a cute row quilt, made with some 30's style fabrics for another sample  30's are not normally my style, but this is a cute, bright fun quilt top.

Christmas Row quilt

This quilt top is also a sample called Barn Dance and I thought it would be more difficult than it was.  It is made with a reproduction style fabric, again, not my normal fabrics, but for a sample it was interesting to work with.  

Barn Dance quilt 

 Riley Blake Spring time Bunnies. Very fun and cute to make, yes another sample. 

Riley Blake Springtime Bunnies

Now to my projects!  The quilt shop is doing a summer sew along.  They are providing the fabrics for the blocks and setting fabric and you could see the fabric ahead of time.  Every week you get a block kit mailed and the 13th week will be the setting.  I have the first four blocks done.  I told myself I wasn't going to make any more sampler quilts, but the fabrics were so pretty.  The setting/border prints are lemons and very pretty.

For a year I received a BOM from Stitchin Heaven called Mystical Prism.  I had made the first 3 months, but then set it aside.  this weekend I decided to work on it.  I made huge progress and just have borders to go.  In between the outer border blocks is more piecing.   There is one fabric in the BOM I disliked but I told myself I wasn't going to sub anything.  I was a little disappointed some of the fabrics were changed toward the end, but they blend together so I will live with it.

Mystical Prism

Below are just a few random flowers.  I love flowers.

 

Linking up to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.

One Block Wonder Class Prep

This is my second post of the day with some actual finished quilts!

I will be teaching the One Block Wonder technique next week at Your Best Friend's Quilt Shop.  Our area has opened back up with social distancing.  Because of the response, and everyone needing space, I will be teaching the same class two days in a row.  I don't know what to expect, but I hope it goes well.  It's a hard quilt to make in class, but if everyone gets the idea of what to do and gets blocks cut and sewn together, they can  then assemble them at home.  I have been working on samples for it.  One is for the shop, but the other three are mine.  I have previous ones for examples at the class as well.

I fell in love with this Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric being a purple and flower fanatic!

Here is the quilt, completely finished.  I used a yellow from my stash for accent and binding.

Finished One Block Wonder

 This next is made from 7 panels from the quilt shop.  This is a display sample for the shop.  It was fun to make.

closeup

 I purchased the fabric for this one a couple years ago at a retreat sponsored by the quilt shop I am teaching at, along with a coordinating border print.  This one only had a 12" repeat so the quilt was very small and even with the border is about 45 X 60.  The fabric had windmills and red pickups and canning jars, very fun!  The plaid inner border is part of the border print.  It is quilted and bound.

 I purchased 7 patriotic panels a few years ago and now was time to make them into a one block wonder!  This one was hard to blend, but I think it turned out well.  It is quilted and bound.

Along with these projects I completed the blocks for this disappearing 4 patch quilt.  I had been using them as a leader/ender project.  I love the cute Me and My Sister Designs fabric.

This week I had a break and decided to work on something but I had no idea what.  None of my MANY, MANY projects looked interesting so I started something new.  The pattern is Buzz Cut out of the book 12 Pack Quilts featuring fat quarters.  I used Kaffe fabrics in my favorite colors.  I still need to assemble the blocks, but it was very fun to make. The blocks finish at 7.5". I added two additional rows to the pattern.

I have also done a lot of yard work and gardening and spent several days cleaning my sewing room.  So yes, even though I have been missing from blog land I have been busy!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.