On a Roll!

After the big two week long cleaning session I got busy quilting!  On Martin Luther King Day I did a day of service by quilting two patriotic quilts to donate to the American Hero quilt project.  (With two serving nephews this is dear to my heart)  During the week I worked on bindings and more pin basting and as of yesterday I had completed 6 UFO's in a week!  Okay, two of them only needed binding (they were quilted in December), but the three patriotic quilts were all quilted and bound this week.  Then there was a tableunner that had the squares cut.

I did all the bindings by machine or I would still be stitching!  I must say polyester batting is not my favorite, I like the way cotton lays much better!  I have all my polyester batts used up now and have a roll of 80/20 and a roll of Quilter's Dream cotton.

I also set together my heart blocks I had shown in a previous post.

Here are my accomplishments for the week.

 Center and star blocks were donated to me and I set them together a few years ago.  Finally finished it!  Twin size.  Quilted in free motion star/loop design.

Two views of my Tumblers Leader/Ender project suggested by Bonnie Hunter a few years ago.  It took me about two years to assemble it!  Quilted in a wavy diagonal.  Twin size

Two views of Grand Illusion, a Bonnie Hunter/Quiltville mystery from a few years ago.  I love my fabrics, because I didn't do scrappy, but the design is too busy!  I extended the length with extra pieces and it measures 90 X 98.  Quilted by Gem State Quilting.

Two views of the 5 minute block quilt.  I made this about 10 years ago from my friend's stash of Pat Sloan fabrics.  It's a little too country for my taste, but I have friends who love it.  So it will be a surprise for someone!  I love the effect of this pattern and need to make another quilt!  It measures 88 X 103 and was quilted by Gem State quilting.

Another patriotic quilt.  These blocks were a block lotto at a retreat.  I assembled it years ago and finally quilted it.  I don't like the quilting I did  now that it's done.  It looks too much like a mattress pad on the back, but it will be a great snuggle quilt for an injured soldier.  Twin size

 This is the tablerunner I whipped up yesterday.  It was some charm squares I acquired somewhere and then I decided to add coral accents to my teal/gray/cream dining room.  It's perfect on my dining table!  I quilted it very simply with straight lines.

 This is the top I made from the blocks I mentioned in an earlier post.  They were sent to me from all over the country (and the center block came from Australia) after my son passed away unexpectedly in 2013.  I was in a couple of Yahoo groups at that time and they sent Hearts and Flowers blocks in times of loss.  I auditioned sashing fabric and this blue/purple batik said use me!  I love how it turned out!  Now I need to quilt it.  It measures 45" square.

IT has been a very productive week!  I still haven't actually typed up my UFO/WIP/HSY list I realized, but I have six things to cross off!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday

A Little Progress

I have had a lot of things going on, getting tax stuff ready, being sick, working, getting my house ready for new flooring, etc.  I have been sewing in my free time.  

I did finish my Tula Pink City Sampler, quilted and bound!  I entered it an Instagram contest, but there are a lot of great entries!

Tula Pink City Sampler - 100 Modern Quilt Blocks

quilting closeup

quilting closeup

I also have some tops together out of my BIG MESS in my last post.  I also have one more almost together and another one I am piecing as leader/enders.  I bought a bolt of backing and had hoped to do some machine quilting, but that hasn't happened yet.  These quilts will be donated to the American Hero project.  I will eventually do a couple for Quilt of Valor.

Blocks were all donated or won in a block lotto at a retreat 64 X 80

Center was given to me as well as two different sets of blue blocks.  I came up with this setting

We have had six snow days so far this year at school and more snow is predicted.  We do have some makeup days to do, but snow can also be pretty! 

one of our fields on the way home from work last week

 Linking up to Patchwork Times.

Finished Projects and a Big Mess

In an earlier post I showed small quilts that I was finishing during a quiltathon.  They are completely finished and I'm working on the last label.   Here they are with binding.

Deb's flower basket

quilting closeup

Christmas Wishes

Scrappy Bright Stars mini

I pieced the backing for my Tula Pink City Sampler using all the leftover fabrics.  I have just small scraps left.  Now to get it basted and quilted!

Today being it was MLK Civil Rights Day/Day of Service, I started a child's quilt using my box of 2" squares.  I don't have anything to show for that.  I also pressed my pile of hourglass units I have been working on as leaders and enders.  They were all triangle cutoffs from a large quilt I made for the American Hero project a few years ago.  I got them pressed, but not trimmed.

hourglass units ready for trimming

Now to the Big Mess.  Over the years I made many quilts for the American Hero quilt project.  I have collected blocks from people and made blocks and threw them all in a bin with assorted fabrics, a lot of them donated.   It's deceptive but that is a large gray tote underneath.  I am now switching gears and making a couple Quilts of Valor for a local presentation, then will go back to the American Hero project.  I have two Army officer nephews currently serving.  I had fully intended to dump out the bin and do some sorting today to see what I really have but other things came up today.

BIG MESS

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

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.

It just needed binding

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.

Time Flies!

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 #22

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.

My second quilt and others

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!

Another American Hero Quilt Top Finished

I just had the borders to add to this top and it would have been done long ago. It's a disappearing 9 patch from a great tutorial at this blog. Last night I didn't feel like machine quilting and decided to just cut and and sew borders. I had the previous top I made from an earlier post still sitting here so this morning I packaged them up and my son is mailing them off after school to American Hero Quilts.