New Sew Along and an Old Project

School starts next week so that will be the end of my summer vacation. Officially it ended today as I had an all district meeting to attend and tomorrow I have a day long math training.  Even though I am considered a paraprofessional, aka aide, I teach Kindergarten and First Grade.  Per district requirements we are adding all day Kindergarten and now my hours will be extended.  Not sure how that is going to work out as I am used to most afternoons off, so we shall see.

I spent two days last week cleaning and reorganizing my sewing room. I didn't have time for a full gut job of getting rid of stuff, although I did get rid of a few things and some "yucky" feeling fabric.  I need to sort through my vast collection of books as I know there are some I will never ever use.  I am working on the tree skirt I need to get done, overwhelmed by it's sheer size, but I am doing it in panels.  Hopefully I will have some of it to show by next week.

One project I found was in a pizza box and had belonged to one of my best friends who passed away in 2010.  I acquired a lot of her stuff including a sewing machine, quilts and fabric.  She had shown me this project on a visit and I knew her intention.  The blue and white print in the cornerstones belonged to her grandmother.  There was a chunk in the box for backing and it said General Fabrics.  The weave is nice but the feel of the fabric is coarse.  I looked at it during my clean out and thought wow, only three dimensional flowers need appliqued down and the strips were all cut for a piano key border.  So I did that.  There wasn't anything for flower centers, so I added some buttons I had on hand.  Now it's a 22" wallhanging ready for quilting!  

Deb's Flower Basket with Memories of Grandma

I joined another sew along.  In a post in March I mentioned purchasing Fabric for Tula Pink's Modern City Sampler.  A sew along started on the 17th and I thought wow, I can do this!  The blocks are being sewn in order and you can follow along on Instagram at #100blocks100days or check out the directions.  I am julie.huffman on Instagram.  Catchy I know!

First Six blocks from Modern City Sampler 100 blocks in 100 days SAL

I am in a small group swap of 6" 9 patch blocks with 6" friendship star blocks.  I made a few extra, but will be sending one of each block to the other swappers.  I have LOTS of Christmas scraps!

Check out other fun projects at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday and Scrap Squad posting

My design wall is exactly the same.  I haven't touched the blue and green charity quilt from last week. However, I had school district meetings and made a t-shirt quilt from start to finish.  This is being made as a favor for someone and there are lots of Fire related t-shirts as the person was on fire crews. The quilt turned out to be a wide throw.  The sashing is lightweight denim and I didn't take a picture of the pine cone flannel on the back.  I used a lightweight polyester batting and it's still pretty heavy. I did very simple straight line stitching in the sashing and then custom quilted in each t-shirt print with matching threads so not cover up the print.

My big news is last week my quilt was featured on the Quiltmaker Quilty Pleasures blog!  It was a fun quilt to make and one I hadn't been able to show that I worked on.  Check out the blog for my post, but here is the quilt.

Deb's Oriental Garden

Check out Patchwork Times for other great quilt ideas!

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!

August UFO #3

UFO #3 is a goal I have to finish before the end of August.  I hope I can make it!  The pattern is called Folk Art Album by Primitive Gatherings/Lisa Hoefler Bongean.  My late friend Deb bought this as a BOM before she died but never got it started.  She gave it to me and passed away Feb. 10, 2010.  It's wool applique on flannel and stitched with Valdani variegated pearl cotton.  When I finish stitching the borders I will attach them and then fix the corners.  I'm getting there, two of the borders are done!  Excuse the threads and such, I just threw this up on my design wall.

Finished an OLD quilt!

My first finish of 2011! This is an antique top my late friend Debi purchased off eBay several years ago and started hand quilting. When her health started declining in 2005 she gave it to me to finish and keep. It has taken me this long to hand quilt it, as I don't sit and do that much anymore. Last night I decided I could do it, finish quilting that is and I did!

Over a year ago I had purchased some authentic time period fabric for binding from a dealer at a quilt show. This is a course weave quilt, but at least it was easier to quilt that way! This morning I put in a movie and got the binding done! I need to make a label.Last night I took a picture of the sunset out of my second floor west facing bedroom window. In the horizon are the Blue Mountains of Washington, a couple hour drive by road, although you can get to the plateau in about 1 1/2 hours. It's cool to see another state from my bedroom!

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue

In keeping with today being with the 4th of July I am showing some patriotic quilts I have. The first one is the oldest of the group. In the early 90's there was a block contest at a local shop. They sold you a packet of f abric and you made a block (adding one or two fabrics if needed). I was the lucky winner of the blocks and this was my original design for a setting. I purchased additional fabrics to finish it off.This next quilt is from a set of blocks I won. Now I feel bad that I can't quite remember the story, but I think they were from one of the first WASIQ retreats in Leavenworth WA and my friend Deb gave them to me because they were too "white". I know that sounds strange, but she was more into the muddier colors, creams, etc. I love this quilt!This quilt is one of my favorites. It's called Old Glory and I had ordered it as a BOM. Several people I knew bought the book and made their own versions, at least two of them were hand quilted. Mine is hand appliqued, but machine quilted.This mini was from a swap last year on the Quilting Gallery blog. It was a spring swap and my mini came from Holland! It just happened to be our patriotic colors and the windmill is so cute.

Quilt Contest

I entered a quilt contest on Quilting Gallery called Friendships. The voting is open through Sunday. The first quilt I made using this pattern is shown on my webshots. I couldn't find a picture of it here, although I know it's on a CD somewhere so click on the link!

I have shown this before, but we are revisiting it. When my friend Deb saw the above mentioned quilt in 2008 she fell in love with it. That surprised me as she was not a big batik fan. For her birthday in 2009 I made her this version of the quilt. I used a very, very thin batting because with her emphysema she couldn't handle weight on her. Also in 2009 I pieced my own queen size one. I quilted it this year and hadn't shown a picture of it finished yet so I've included it below.This is my queen size version followed by a quilting closeup.

Quilt a day #42

Amy and Nate left today, Doug took them to the airport while I went to work. It was a great visit and now I have a three day weekend. I had 4-H here this afternoon and will tomorrow as well. I am leading both quilting and sewing for four girls this year so it's a challenge.

These are a couple flannel quilts I made several years ago. One was a Thimblerries design for my friend Deb and the other is a queen size trip around the world quilt that is on my bed in the winter (along with 4 other quilts)!

Quilt a day #37

I had 4-H members here today for sewing, one finished a skirt and one started a quilt. She was a bit scary because she likes to hurry and teaching a 9 yo to cut safely with a rotary cutter takes a lot of patience and nerves! I also have to hold the ruler at the ends for her.

I made this top two years ago on commission for my friend Deb to give as a wedding gift to her niece. She had tried to get a feel for the color choices of her niece and sent a bunch of pics of quilts and everything was very definitely country and this was in one of Kim Diehl's books Simple Blessings. Everyone was thrilled with it.

Quilt a day #30

I'm loving all the guesses for how many quilts I have in my closet! One person is pretty close but I'm not going to say who! I am waiting to see who wins to customize a squishie for them. I counted all the quilts currently on display or piled on beds in my house this morning and then promptly forgot!

I am completely fascinated by the eggs my friend Sharon "tie dyed" today. Check out her April 1st blog post.

This quilt is not one I intended to make, nor bought fabric for. My friends Deb and Vicki conspired to make this for me. However Vicki passed away before they did anything more than get the fabric. At the same time Deb wasn't doing much quilting and although she traced a couple of the blocks and had one fused, she ended up sending me everything so I made the quilt and quilted it myself! I absolutely love it, being purple is my favorite color! It's currently hanging at the top of my stairwell.

Quilt a day #21

I was actually going to show a couple tops I finished pressing the borders on today, but I haven't gotten them photographed yet. So hopefully tomorrow! This quilt I made several years ago for my friend Deb. I love the graphics of this quilt. It will now be residing with Deb's sister, she fell in love with it.

Quilt a day #19

8 of us in my quilt guild showed up to tie quilts today. We finished 4 and have another one partly done. We will be going back tomorrow. We are getting quite a large store of quilts on hand for Helping Hands, which is good. We really don't want to have to give them out because that means something has happened that requires them.

I am showing a couple of wallhangings that I made for my late friend Deb today. The first one is a mini that I altered from a Foundation Piecer magazine and the other one was a challenge we did with each other. She sent me fabrics and this is what I made. I can't remember where the pattern was.

Quilting Finishes

I haven't gotten very many things accomplished recently, but here are two quilts I finished in August for my friend Deb.
The blue one is a hearts and flowers quilt. The blocks were made by members of the WA State Internet Quilters in memory of Deb's parents. Deb had the mottled blue batik and I came up wtth this setting using almost every scrap of the blue! I machine quilted it and bound it and included a quilting closeup.
The second one is an antique Double Wedding Deb purchased off ebay. I machine quilted it with warm and natural batting, then threw it in the washer and dryer. Deb was astounded when she saw the quilt! I must admit, the washing really added to it. The binding was tricky, but I managed!

I went to visit Deb and delivered the quilts in person and that was fun to see, since she had no clue I had finished the Double Wedding Ring!

I spent two nights in Ephrata and took off early on the 22nd to head to Seattle. I was at Lisa's dorm by 10 AM and headed out of Seattle with her and a very loaded car by 10:30 AM that day! This was taken from a rest area on I-90, loved seeing Mt. Rainier!