Gift quilt and Odds and Ends

Have you ever lost things and think you are going crazy?  In the last six weeks I have lost my two favorite rotary cutters, a good pair of scissors, my 60 degree ruler and my jar of modge podge I bought to try the applique techniques in the book Crafted Applique.

I mention this because I was desperately looking for my 60 degree ruler to make a border print tablerunner.  My mom had asked for donations to the gift baskets they give at the Senior Center fundraiser.  I looked on youtube and managed to cut them out (with errors) using my regular ruler and the 60 degree line.  I had a couple issues, but managed to make a tablerunner and a topper.  After they were done I moved a pile and found the ruler.  I also found the modge podge, but not the other 3 missing things!

 A friend had these scraps leftover over and sewn this square background and gave it to me and said do something with it for the seniors.  It languished for a few months and then I decided to add applique.  Seriously it looked like it matched well when I was making it, but now it looks washed out.  I think I did my duty with donating 3 items.

 I finished the square dance quilt and mailed it off Friday to a friend who recently completed her master's degree while teaching and being a mother to three kids in school.  She did so much for us when my son passed away and I have always wanted to give her a quilt.  I thought a master's degree deserved one!  I originally met her through quilting.  She hasn't had time in recent years for it. 

 Wavy line quilting closeup.

I found the perfect backing online for a science teacher and the colors were a perfect match for the front!  I had a matching sort of stripe for the binding.

In October I took 4 quilt tops to a friend 3 hours away.  She has a longarm and was trying to get her business going again.  I have MANY quilt tops.  I was able to pick them up Saturday since I had other errands to do about an hour north of her.  Yep, it was a long day!

I got all 4 quilts trimmed and ready for binding.  This quilt top belonged to a friend who passed away and I inherited it.  It's not really me and I will be donating it after I bind it.  The blocks were all made by members of a quilt group we belonged to online.

 The same friend loved country fabrics and years ago Pat Sloan had a couple lines of fabric that Debi purchased.  I ended up with the fabric and it's not my favorite but I made this queen size 10 minute block quilt.  This is what I consider my ugly quilt, but I would like to make one out of batiks.  It's quick and easy and fun!  I know the top is as least 7 years old.  I will also donate it.

Another friend from South Carolina passed away and had wanted me to have her featherweight.  Her sister shipped it to me along with a bunch of unfinished projects.  We had been in this row robin together (my row is the 3rd up from the bottom).  It's pretty, but I didn't have extra fabrics and decided against borders and will just bind it with red.  I do like this quilt!

 This is the last Bonnie Hunter mystery I did.  Grand Illusion.  I dislike it intensely.  I LOVED my fabrics, but they didn't work well here.  I only used 5 fabrics and maybe that was my problem  I added pieces to the top and bottom to make it rectangluar.  It is quilted in an allover design.  I will probably donate it unless I find somebody who actually likes it!  It is queen size! I haven't done any mysteries since.

 Last, but not least, here is the pillow I received in the pillow swap on Instagram.  I love it!  I have never had a desire for an embroidery machine, but I do love the effects!  I have been busy photographing my Christmas decorations and Christmas quilts so that will be my next post!

Quilt a day #46

I have been distracted and haven't posted for a couple of days. Friday we went to our daughter Lisa's senior Engineering Design Expo at University of Idaho. Here she is at her booth with the clarinet reed maker she and her team made. She is a Bio Engineering major but there weren't any projects in her major and she had played clarinet in school so this is the project she ended up on. It's hard to believe my second child will be a college graduate in two weeks and her sister her graduated from college in 2008.I am working on a bunch of scrap projects and machine quilting. This is the quilt I am machine quilting for my friend Jo. I saw the June/July issue of Quilt magazine on the newstand and the cover quilt grabbed me. It was done in more Kaffe Fassett style fabrics, but I decided to make a smaller version in my state flowers fabrics. I had to improvise on a couple of them since I didn't have the full collection and I had gotten scraps from my friend Tamra. I had little dots on them to make sure I had one for every state. I had thrown them up on the wall but I am not sure why I am keeping up there, because I need to rearrange them anyway after sewing colors around each diamond.Last, here are a couple of "pin holders" a neighbor made me years ago when we still had the weekly hand quilting group here.

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.