Wow, August is Almost Over!

 This has been a super busy summer.  I don't even know where to begin!  So I will be random.  Quilts will be in the post!  I had more company and also met my daughter halfway to pick up my two oldest grandkids so they could have a bit of harvest.  Our weather has been so dry harvest was very early, and the yields were down quite a bit.  While the kids were here and because of the super dry summer, fires have been rampant in the norhwest.  On Wednesday, August 11 a fire started several miles from here and quite a bit lower in elevation.  It quickly went out of control and into the wooded canyons.  My husband is a volunteer fire fighter and had already plowed fire breaks around our house and fields.  By Friday night we were in danger, but I didn't realize how much!  The fire traveled 8.7 miles up the canyon and was stopped by a backfire .7 miles from our house!  It did not cross the highway thankfully.  My husband was out fighting fire and the biggest danger was flying embers with the dry ground and lots of trees.  These pictures are from one of our fields on the edge of the canyon.  Thanks to hundreds of firefighters, including farmers and loggers the fire was contained at 11,205 acres.

I have gotten several shop sample tops done and have actually worked on some of my own projects, but not too much!  I helped my 7 year old granddaughter sew an apron when she was here.  She was very proud and wanted to bake.  Only it was so hot and we don't have air conditioning so I was avoiding the oven!  She did enjoy setting the table in her apron!

The pictures below are all shop sample quilt tops!

The fabrics glow in the dark!

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.

Ending 2019 with Quilting and Family

Time flew from Thanksgiving on!  After traveling for Thanksgiving I quilted 3 small quilts for a friend.  I am trying not to overload this post with too many photos, but there are quite a few!

Two of them were You are My Sunshine quilts that I did thread painting on.  It was a lot of fun.

detail of quilting

 The backing for the Santa quilt was a minkie/velour type fabric.  The dimension of the quilting on the backing was amazing!

I participated in a Secret Santa Swap and made this tree wallhanging for my assigned person.  I used an Improv tree tutorial.  It was fun to make and I would love to make another one with bigger blocks for myself.  Unfortunately I have yet to receive a gift so that is sad.  The person keeps saying she will mail it but she had "forgotten" who I was!

 Every year at my school we make these paint filled glass ornaments.  They are so interesting to see the color combos and how they turn out.  Next year I think I am going to leave black out of the options of paint bottles. 

 I also organized these lighted snowman ornaments. 

My oldest daughter and husband and 3 kids came to visit for Christmas.  We hosted some of my husband's family for Christmas Eve.  It was fun to have kids here!

This is Kathryn - age 5 months.  The quilt is an old one on the back of the couch.

 My grandson Jared is 8 and loves machines of all types.  Since it was not farming season he saw my Brother Innovis BQ 350 machine and it has a touch screen.  He loves to figure out how things work and he taught me things about my machine!  He wanted to sew so I got out my pile of pre-cut 6" scrap squares.  Some of the fabrics are less than pretty and are an accumulation from several sources.  He was very diligent and we ended up with three machines set up and Nicole was in charge of putting squares together for others to sew.  The first top was quite interesting and my daughter Amy sewed it in offset rows as the corners would not have matched well!  It needs squared up and borders added and then finished and donated!

 After Christmas my husband and I were scheduled to fly to Kentucky to visit our younger daughter and her family.  Unfortunately my husband woke up very ill and couldn't make the trip.  I was a bit paranoid during my all day trip (3 planes) that I was going to get sick, but did not.  Several people from our Christmas Day dinner with relatives (not at my house!) got the stomach bug. 

On the first full day there we walked across the river to Indiana!  I have added two states to my collection of those traveled in.  We did get to visit with a niece who lives about an hour and a half from my daughter.

Finn loves slides!

Remy is a lefty and loves coloring

Look for another post soon with my first finish of 2020!

Quilting and Snow

I can't believe I didn't post last week.  Oh well.  I do have some more finishes to share.

The first one is a row robin from MANY years ago.  I furnished a lot of the fabrics and it sat for a long time because the rows were wide but not very many of them.  At a retreat several years ago I finally set the top together and now it's quilted.  I am not sure what I will do with it yet, I may be gifting it to a friend.  Another old UFO bites the dust!

Srping Row Robin

This quilt was made several years ago from a pattern on Craftsy.  The directions were really bad and I emailed the designer and she told me I didn't know what I was talking about.  I am an experienced quilter, so I threw away the pattern and made it my way!  However, then I HATED it.  Yes, strong word.  I really do not like this quilt.  I am not a fan of green and I tried to liven it up by quilting it with a shiny thread.  I will definitely be trying to find a home for this quilt!  But another UFO bites the dust!

Christmas Candy

A friend owns a quilt shop about an hour and a half away.  I volunteered to help make shop samples.  She sent me two kits for the same pattern.  The first one I made is Hoffman Wolves.  I am not a fan of wolves, but this came out great.  It's taller than my design wall.  Much bigger than I thought it would be.  66 X 88.  

 The second one is a fox and this is really cute.  The pattern is easy to follow.  I will be making some more shop samples for her at an upcoming quilt retreat.

 We had a backyard visitor last week.  The photo was taken out my upstairs bedroom window.  Icicles are hanging down!  My coworker saw a moose over the weekend and thinks it might be the same one.

Doug had to plow again last week.  My deck is about 3 feet off the ground for a depth comparison.  I'm ready for spring!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.