Machine Quilting and Christmas

I started quilting a HUGE and I mean HUGE quilt before Christmas for a friend of a friend's sister.  It was much bigger than I anticipated, like a king size batting needed a couple inches pieced on one end!  Yikes!  It was tough to push through my Pfaff Grand Quilter, but I did it without any puckers on the back thankfully!  I pin basted it well, stretched over banquet tables.  Here is a photo of the quilt being quilted.  Pay attention to the background, it will be mentioned in a bit!  I quilted a lot of stars in it, but did thread work in the center panel.  I finished it yesterday and my husband is going to deliver it to the friend today.

center panel

spread out on my daughter's queen size bed.  

I have a 460 square foot basement quilt room, it's not all showing in these pics., but this is PART of what I am dealing with.  It's driving me NUTS!!!!  If you look at the picture above and one to the right you can see my TV is now mounted on the wall.  I only waited two years, but DH got it done this week.  I have another week of vacation from school so I am going to dig in and purge, rearrange, etc.  I have WAY, WAY, WAY too many books and magazines.  I have purged magazines many times and I am only getting one subscription now.  Basically I have a HUGE mess.    I wish I had cupboards to hide everything in, but that is not in the budget or time table.  I have a lot invested in plastic!

I went to Costco yesterday and bought 2 sets of these project bins.  Such a deal on price, only $19.99 for 5.  I already have a couple sets and I'm hoping it will help me me able to grab a project to work on.  This year's colors are so much prettier than my previous ones!  Costco is an hour away in a different state, but Clarkston, WA is where I do a lot of shopping!  Oh, I bought food when I was there too....

I will do a year's end wrap up post later today.  I had a goal of finishing 50 projects, not sure if I made that!  I will have to look at my blog and pics!

Now pics from Christmas!  We traveled to Boise and stayed with my oldest daughter,but spent Christmas Eve at my younger daughter's house.  Christmas dinner with all of us was at my sister's, so it was quite the family trip!  The roads were pretty good until we were close to home on the return trip.  It's a twisty drive to get to the southern part of the state up and down out of river canyons.

We bought Nicole a set of twin baby dolls and a double jogging stroller.  She named the twins Finn and Remy after her twin cousins!  She is a girly girl for sure and loved this gift!

We bought Jared a remote control Kubota tractor.  He LOVED driving our Kubota this summer. 

Jared (6) and Nicole (3) with their cousins Remy and Finn!  Remy and Finn were 5 1/2 weeks old in the pic.

We didn't know Jared paid attention to clothes until a couple years ago when he insisted on having Grandpa shirts.  Plaid flannel!  Lisa found a plaid onesie for Finn so here is a pic of Doug and his grandsons in Grandpa shirts!

 Nicole dresses herself....

 Remy and Finn the day after Christmas.

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 Plus!

Even though things have been crazy, I have made some accomplishments.  Last Monday I posted fabrics for a Quilt of Valor and I am happy to say before the end of that day I had the top completed!  This was a donation kit and not my normal style at all.  I am just not sure of the striped fabric, but I followed the instructions.  I wanted to make sure I had enough fabrics that were included.

Quilt of Valor

This week I also finished the top to Gentle Moments, but realized I messed up the outer borders going vertical.  I had measured but not written the measurement down and thought I knew the correct length and sewed the border on.  With all the bias it sewed on great, but now makes the quilt wavy!  It's 2" too long on each lengthwise side so that will be fixed.  I can't believe I did that!  I will still add another border around to make it queen size, but don't have yardage so that is in the thinking stages.

Gentle Moments

During the process of sewing Gentle Moments and other blocks I have been sewing 2" squares together.  I sewed most of them in groups of 8.  I was originally going to make a block that was 8 X 8 squares (12" finished) and then sash them but started doodling on graph paper and came up with this.   I have some of the pieces on the design wall below.  I need to sew more pieces and the fabric in all the blank areas will be the purple shown.  It will be a donation quilt for a child or teen.

bright strips and background

The other big news is my new sink and faucet.  I asked for a new faucet for Christmas (Doug needs help in the idea dept.) and thought I asked in plenty of time to get the faucet for Thanksgiving when we hosted his family.  Nope, then because of the care needed for his father, it didn't happen at Christmas either.  Doug's dad passed away New Year's Eve and January has been rather busy.  We are also now fixing up our rental house and went off to Home Depot Saturday.  Sunday was spent installing the new sink and faucet!  I LOVE it!

old sink

new sink and faucet!

 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.