Quilting Spree

I have had a lot going on, but I did go to a quilt retreat recently.  I took my Grand Quilter and did some machine quilting.  The room is big with great acoustics and several people use Juki machines and machine quilt at quilt camp.  I made a small dent in my basted pile!  By noon Saturday I was ready for a new project and I had this tablerunner kit.  It was all laser cut but difficult to figure out piece placement. I worked for 8 solid hours on it (with a dinner break of course). It is all fused and thankfully another quilter had brought her applique pressing sheet!

 I ordered the kit from Shabby Fabrics.  It will be trimmed to have rounded corners and I have a packet of embellishments to add after it is quilted.  Quilting will be a challenge!

Here are some of the my projects I have recently quilted at retreat or home.

disappearing 4 patch

quilting closeup

disappearing 4 patch (twin to above quilt)

straight line quilting

These two disappearing 4 patch quilts are going to be gifted to two sisters.  

This simple one patch quilt was made from leftovers of another project.  It is the perfect size for a patient in a wheel chair.

fun flannel backing

I received these blocks in a guild UFO exchange.  There were more, but not made as well and this will also be a perfect care center patient quilt.

fun cat print backing

Laurel Burch panel.  This is all quilted in the ditch.  I am the world's worst quilt photographer.  My quilts really are straight!

This one is currently what I am quilting now!  I am about half way through the blocks.  It is set aside for now as I have been deep fall cleaning my house and we are hosting Thanksgiving for about 30 people and some will be staying a few days.

Quiltville Mystery

I am doing the Bonnie Hunter mystery on Quiltville this year.  I did Easy Street two years ago, still not quilted, but the top is done.

Bonnie's quilts are typically scrappy, but I decided to just use yardage.  I bought a light green for a background and a black with polka dots for the black, but everything else was from my stash.  I had 3 yellows to choose from and finally settled on this one.

 I don't have all the units sewn together since I just started this project Sunday night but here are some of my first units.   I am linking up to the quiltville page here.

We had a busy Thanksgiving week with our daughter Amy, her husband Nate and their two kids here for the week.  Our daughter Lisa and husband Kevin arrived Wednesday.  We hosted dinner for 34 people, with WAY too much food!  Everyone brings several courses.  Here are pictures of the grandkids before they left Saturday.

Jared - 3

Nicole - 6 months

Where did November and December go?

Time just continues to fly by! November was really busy with the major house cleaning and painting spree getting ready for Thanksgiving. That went well, there were 31 of us here.

However the weekend before Thanksgiving I managed to go to a retreat. I worked on a few things, one of them was this wallhanging. I had printed out photos on Printed Treasures fabric and then used lots of thread embellishing to enhance it. I love the way it turned out. The photos were all from my yard and were taken by my daughter Amy and myself. Here is a closeup of one of the flowers.
Another project I worked on was this wallhanging. 9 of the blocks were made for me in an exchange from a small yahoo group. I made three more and set the top together for a calendar quilt and got it done by the deadline of November 30!


Yet another project at the retreat was this tablerunner for a Christmas exchange on this same yahoo group. The recipient asked for cardinals and I had a picture of her dishes.
This is the one I received in exchange last week.