Quilting Catch Up - 5 months really?

I seriously cannot believe I have not made a blog post in 5 months.  I wasn't reading blogs either, but I am trying to catch up.  I got in a funk and it was hard to focus.  Instagram is more instant and easier to share so most pics are posted there.  Winter is not my favorite time of the year and with holidays and being busy, I just forgot my blog.  We did get to go to Kentucky the week of Thanksgiving to see our daughter, husband and twin grandkids.  Our other daughter and 3 kids came up right after Christmas in between blizzards! 

I really have been quilting, but it doesn't seem like it!  Going back through my pictures I realized there is more than I thought!  Be prepared for photos!

Brown Bag mystery from last year called Double the Fun.  I still haven't added a border!

I don't remember the name of this pattern, but it was fun.  I made this for a friend.

One Block Wonder.  I do not have a picture with borders on!  I do not have this quilt either!

This was a fun quilt, but lots of pieces.  It is called Scarlet Stitches and the block centers are panels.

Table topper I made and designed for a gift exchange at Christmas.

One Block Wonder I gifted to my boss at work.  She owns a lot of my quilts!  The center is a fun panel.

I finished this UFO!  It is the result of two block exchanges.  I wasn't thrilled with all the blocks I got back when I requested purple and blue, but I added lots of Kaffe black and whites and it turned out to be interesting! We had just a bit of snow when I took the picture.

One of my favorite finishes in a long time!  I saw this quilt pattern on Instagram and loved the low volume look of it.  It was a lot of fun and I am ready for next Christmas since it is Christmas prints!  It is the Chamomile Quilt by Woodberry Way.

My husband's cousin is cleaning things out at their great grandparents home.  She brought over these crocheted pieces along with a crochet hook and thread.  She also brought some old quilt blocks.  I don't enjoy crocheting and then had the urge to make a modern style piece.  I made a checkerboard of bright Snippets fabric, quilted it, and attached the doilies adding a button center.  I then stretched the piece over a 24 X 24 canvas. 

A non quilting friend likes to buy fabric (she said it's addictive!).  This is the third Quilt of Valor style quilt I have made for her.  I had the panel in my stash.  She cut out a bunch of 5 pointed stars, but they did not have a fusible.  505 spray baste to the rescue and I zigzagged around them.  

I have a pink loving friend and she has been going through a lot of medical issues.  She is having surgery in a couple of weeks so I made this quilt from Lori Holt fabrics.  She received it last week and loves it.  I did not have a pattern, just made 6" churn dash blocks and put them in a 12" block and added a piano key border from leftovers.

I saw this beach bundle and thought of a friend that lives in Portland and loves going to the beach.  Her birthday is actually today and the quilted arrived at her house last week.  It is just a lap/throw size.  The bundle came with the panel and I decided on flying geese to use the other beach prints.  I had the two blue framing borders in my stash. 

Okay, that is it for now!  Stay tuned, I am currently working on six baby quilts for Quilts for Kids.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday

Christmas Decorating and Quilts

Be prepared, this is a long post!  I took a bunch of photos of some of the Christmas things I have on display currently.  There are a lot of things on walls and on shelves that I didn't photograph, like my collection of Christmas mugs and salt and pepper shakers!

Here is my tree.  Very traditional, lots of memento ornaments.  I made the tree skirt in 2006.

Old fashioned phone that actually worked until recently between my in-laws house, our shop and our house.

 Santa made by a friend.

 Tablerunner that I hung on the wall!

 My pewter tree with mini ornaments from my mom and other relatives and friends.

 An old nativity set that I love.

Stockings, even though we aren't having anyone here this year.  One of these days we are going to replace the 20 year old fireplace doors with something prettier.

Christmas village on top of my grandmother's Howard piano, circa 1895.  She was born in 1899 and the story is that she traded a cow for this piano in 1910.  It's been in various places since and needs refinishing but the piano tuner said it's in good shape considering all it's been through!

 Small Christmas village, mostly pieces my mother in law gave me as gifts.  Part 1.

 Part 2.  I have a harder time hiding cords on this one.  It's on my built in china hutch.

 Dining room light.  I LOVE purple.  This year I decided I was going to do some purple!  I swirled craft paint in glass bulbs to make the ornaments and found the others on clearance last year.

 A mini white tree with purple ornaments on my dining table under the light, with purple lights in the window.  I found this all on clearance last year too!

 Another wall in the dining room.  It doesn't coordinate with the purple but I love my toile quilt and snowmen collection.

 Stairwell with a nativity quilt and my lame' fabric angel wallhanging.

 Family room wall.  A friend gave me the shelf hangers.  Santas are on this one with my one block wonder quilt.

 My Jim Shore mini nativity.  I LOVE the quilt designs painted on the figures and I have some of his ornaments.

 A scrappy shoo fly quilt from many years ago along with a wall-hanging made by a friend.  This one I put on my daughter Lisa's bed.

Sorry about the light streak on it, the sun was shining through the closed blinds!  This is a sampler I made in 1995.  My guild members made blocks and I came up with this setting and made a swag border and it is hand quilted!  This is in my daughter Amy's room.

 Snowman collector quilt.  I made this quite a few years ago.  It's on the bed in my son's old room, which my grandkids have taken over.

 My Snippets quilt I finished earlier this year!  I love these bright cheery fabrics from Bonnie and Camille.  This was in my daughter Amy's room, even though it's the bed quilt in my room for the season.  I just didn't want to clean off my nightstand!

A wallhanging made by a friend many years ago.  I made her one as well.  We sent each other fabrics and the center was a pine tree, then we got to do what we wanted.

 Snowman wallhanging at the top of my stairs.  The blocks were from a swap.

 This is in my guest room.  Years ago my mother in law saw this quilt in a Fons and Porter magazine.  She really liked it and I got the magazine and made it for her.  She displayed it once or twice, but Alzheimers set in.  After she passed away I got the quilt back.

A little stocking wallhanging.  The beading detail is not showing the pictures, but there is a LOT of beading on it!

 Wallhanging from a block of the month several years ago.  I love it.  I had to stand in my laundry room to take the pic and the washer wouldn't move out of the way to get a straight photo!

I have several more Christmas quilts, I will have to work on another post!

Two Christmas Quilt Finishes!

In my last post I showed that I was quilting on my Snippets quilt.  I finished it last week.  I did pretty simple quilting, straight lines until the border where I did feather and curly q quilting.

Snippets by Cottonway pattern

 The striped binding was a great finish I thought!

 Closeup showing some of the Jingle fabrics, along with others from my stash.

 After I finished that quilt I was still in the Christmas mode so I quilted my One Block Wonder.  I LOVE this quilt!  It is not huge.  I just quilted a simple, quick allover design with a pale gray thread. The fabric is a Hoffman Spectrum digital print called Poinsettia.  I loved it so much I ordered more of the fabric off ebay, I couldn't find it anywhere else!  Then I was at a quilt shop an hour away Friday and found enough left on the bolt to make another one so I bought that too!

One Block Wonder

 I added a lime flange and red binding to finish it off.

 Closeup of some of the blocks.

 Next up is my Bonnie Hunter Easy Street mystery quilt.  I really am trying to finish UFO's!

I finally received my pillow cover from the Quilted Pillow Cover swap on Instagram. I sent the Red Fox Faces pillow I had posted earlier to my recipient.  She was supposed to send to another person and that person was supposed to send to me.  This was all secret at the time.  Anyway the third person had not posted updates and would not respond to emails and the hostess had my recipient send to me instead.  We had filled out forms stating color preferences, styles, etc.  The funny thing I had commented on Instagram that I thought this was too busy when she first posted fabrics and I thought it wasn't that cute, not knowing I was going to get it!   But, wow!  She turned it into an artistic creation!  The quilting is impeccable and it has amazing detail!  I am so impressed and thrilled to receive it!  I am just glad she had been told to wait and not sent it to the person who flaked out!   

School started last week and it was tiring!  I also spent two days this weekend refinishing my front and back decks.  I usually hire it done, but couldn't find anyone.  When we built our house the composite decking was just coming out and we went with the cedar.  It's great except for having to refinish it occasionally!  I'm glad that is done before winter sets in.  

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll quilts, check out all the inspiration from other bloggers!

Making Progress!

I was able to finally turn my 110 Canyon Dance blocks into a quilt top.  In an earlier post I had auditioned sashing, but decided against it.  I already have a Canyon Dance that is a little brighter, I was just trying to use up some of my batiks!  I will probably eventually donate this quilt, when it makes it to the top of the "to be quilted" pile!

Canyon Dance

I spent quite a bit of time piecing a backing out of leftovers for this quilt.  I LOVE these fabrics.  I pieced this top in November, 2015 and I want it done this year for Christmas, so I thought August 

was a good time to do it!  I am ready for machine quilting now.

Snippets by Cottonway pattern with Jingle fabrics and a few others!

 I had picked up a couple pair of eclipse glasses earlier in this month and took them to work today.  My husband had another viewer at home that was free in the paper.  My coworkers and I stood outside and watched the eclipse.  We are north of the area of totalality and had about 95% coverage.  I did not take pictures of the eclipse with my cell phone, but thought the crescents in the shadows of a tree were pretty interesing!

Linking up with Small  Quilts and Doll Quilts and MCM and Oh Scrap!