Another Finished UFO!

In my last quilt basting party I pin basted a quilt that has been waiting quite a few years for quilting.  The blocks were from years of swaps from a yahoo group called Washington State Internet Quilters.  I was a charter member of the group (started in 1998) and the blocks are representative of things in Washington.  I can see Washington from my bedroom window, although it is an hour drive!  I shop in Washington all the time since that is where some of the major chain stores are, all super close together.  Anyway this was my connection to Washington (along with going to college there).  I made so many wonderful friends from that group and have met a lot of them at retreats or quilt shows.

I have another quilt I made with some of the blocks and posted the top HERE.  That one is finished.  Now this one is!  I finished the binding Wednesday night and entered it in our county fair Thursday.  I am co-superintendent of the quilt department and spent 8 hours checking in quilts and afghans.  On Friday I was there for judging.  I was given a blue ribbon for the quilt and initially received Best of Show, but turned it down.  I did not make all the blocks, so I felt I should not receive Best of Show.  The person who received it was thrilled.

I custom quilted each block and did simple straight line quilting in the sashing.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

An Old Sampler Quilt

Back story:  In the late 90's I joined a yahoo group called Washington State Internet Quilters.  I did not live in Washington, but had gone to college in Washington and I live only an hour from the border.  I shop in Washington a lot, as that is where Joann's, Costco, Walmart, etc. are, crossing the Snake River between Idaho and Washington.  We abbreviated the group to WASIQ.

The group did a LOT of swaps.  We started a block swap where someone had a month and sent out fabrics to the others and got blocks back.  We didn't have a name for the group, it was called Swap Without a Name.  I shortened it to SWAN and it caught on.  We swapped for several years.  This quilt is made from one of those swaps.  I pieced the top YEARS ago!  The blocks were from 2003 or 2004.  It marinated long enough and I quilted and bound it and finished it this morning. 

SWAN floral quilt

detail photos

my dog Leia got in on the photo session

Interestingly two friends made me wallhangings to match the quilt!  I finished them and have been saving them all these years waiting to finish the quilt!  The first one was made by my late friend Debi.  She sent the top and I quilted it myself.  The second one was made by my friend Joann.  She asked for extra fabric and made a "big block".  I added the borders and quilted it.

I pieced this shop sample for Your Best Friend's Quilt Shop.  Christina (owner) had the stratas sewn, I cut them and assembled the top.

I am linking up with Alycia at TGIFF.

Easter, quilts and kids!

I thought I would share an Easter quilt I have had for years.  I used to do a lot of round robins, row robins, block robins, etc.  This is one I made the center for and was delighted with what I got back!  I should have steamed out the fold in the center.

center block closeup

I finished quilting this Washington State Internet yahoo group quilt.  I collected the blocks 13-18 years ago and have had the top in my stash for YEARS!  I custom quilted each block and bound it in black.

I was trying to show the blocks on the top row, but wasn't successful!  It was nice enough weather to go out in my back pasture for photos.

Last year I cut up a bunch of earthy batik strips and some sashing.  The pattern is in one of my Jelly Roll quilt books.  I was at a retreat last April and one woman ran out of projects!  Unheard of for me, I always bring way too much!  I handed her this packet and she sewed up a bunch of blocks.  Last week I sewed up a bunch more and got the top assembled this weekend.  Now it will go into my to be quilted pile and will eventually be donated.

My oldest daughter and two kids were here during spring break this past week.  Nicole will be 4 in May and discovered her mom and aunt's Barbies.  She had a field day!  They had so many growing up and LOTS of accessories.  Some of the things have gone by the wayside (like the Barbie car and beds) and a few more went away when I was cleaning things up, but wow, she spent HOURS and HOURS playing with them and has quite the imagination.  She was wearing her princess costume!

 I didn't seem to get any pictures of Jared by himself!  He is 6 1/2 and was with my husband continually!  He loves being Grandpa's shadow on the farm!

 The twins weren't here visiting, but here are a couple pictures.  They are almost 4 1/2 months old now!  Finn and Remy!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making.

Retreat Weekend

I went to a retreat that started last Wednesday for four nights.  It was a new to me retreat and the retreat was held at a hotel.  I had a lot of fun, there were 23 of us, including the quilt shop owner that sponsored the retreat.  She was very generous with gift bags and set up a small shop for us.  Her husband and kids provided dinners for us.

I was able to sew up 84 4 patch blocks for a couple of kids quilts and still need to cut them apart for a disappearing 4 patch, but my main project was my Baltimore Spring project I showed a block of in my last post.  It was intense, but I got all the blocks cut and fused. Some of those pieces are SOOOO small!  I was able to tape the pieces to a wall to watch the project grow.  I have been debating what to do next. I think I will go ahead and assemble the blocks, add the borders (yes a fusible applique one) and then thread paint with a thin layer of batting and then add another think batting layer and a backing and quilt the open areas.  That is my plan at least!  This is not the final layout, it looks too heavy on top, so I will do some rearranging.

Baltimore Spring BOM all fused

Before the retreat the quilt shop owner had a mystery quilt pattern and and quilters had a chance to participate.  She picked fabrics and had them in a bag based on their color preferences.  I did not participate but enjoyed seeing the wide variety of finished quilts from the same pattern!

The previous weekend I got the this quilt top out and added the prairie point border and the final border.  I had pieced it quite some time ago at a retreat.  It was a kit I bought many years ago from Starr Fabrics.  It is a small throw size.  I also have a kit for a queen size version!  It is fun to sew up and I like the mottled effect.

I also pin basted this quilt top to ready it for quilting.  I had gotten word that my friend Kathy had passed away unexpectedly and she and I were co-moderators on a yahoo group for twenty years called Washington State Internet Quilters.  The list owner Melissa is a dear friend and the three of us "ran" the list.  As Facebook and other social media took over the group had dwindled in recent years, but many friendships were formed from this group.  They had many sew ins, retreats, swaps, round robins, etc.  These blocks were from one of the swaps, and in memory of Kathy I got out this quilt top and readied it for quilting.  I have another one as well and still more blocks to be made into quilts!

I think I am going to be busy for awhile!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Main Crush Monday and Monday Making.

August UFO #20

I have a huge mess in my sewing room.  Huge.  I had just gotten it cleaned up and all I was trying to do was make a tiny little mug rug for a swap that was 6" X 10" finished.  I have fabric everywhere and in the process I got out some swap blocks from years ago.  A lot of these belonged to my friend Deb and I have already made two quilt tops out of the same type of blocks and I posted them recently.  Some are duplicates so I put those on top of the other ones.  These were from the Washington State Internet Quilters group over the course of a few years.  Counting the duplicates there are 87 blocks.  This will be interesting to see what I decide to do with them! They are 9" finished.

The two mug rugs are from a swap on Quilting Gallery.  Summertime Memories was the theme and mine were mailed off to a recipient in Australia.  She will be sending me two mug rugs as well. 

 

August UFO #7

Here is another quilt top I made from Washington State Internet Quilters (WASIQ) blocks.  This is the flower, fruit and veggies version and is smaller by a little bit.

August UFO #6

Swap Blocks from Washington State Internet Quilters.  We had an annual block swap of 9" blocks for a few years and I accumulated quite a few blocks!  This is the wildlife/tree version.  I included two photos as I couldn't get the whole quilt top in one picture.  It's queen size.  I have another top and had already made one quilt from the swap blocks.

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 a day #9

What a busy day! I subbed for my boss this afternoon and then raced off to a special, early school board meeting. I didn't really want to go that bad, but decided to be community minded and endured sitting on hard bleacher seats to watch the chairman of the school board not get his way so that was fun! I made two quilt blocks for my guild's charity project this evening but didn't take a picture.

The first picture from my files is a quilt from the book Four Seasons in Flannel, but I made it in regular cotton and donated it as a fundraiser for our county 4-H program several years ago. The person that won it was so thrilled and called me to tell me she was re-decorating a room in her house for the quilt! It's queen size and completely machine done.
This quilt is one I saw as a BOM many, many years ago called Old Glory. I ordered the BOM and caused a SUI (shopping under the influence) on my Washington State Quilters group. It took years but I hand apliqued the quilt and then machine quilted it. It's a large wallhanging/throw size.

More About Quilts

I received this awesome quilt a couple days before Christmas, only it was wrapped so I didn't peek. The pattern is Fractured Stars and made by my friend Lynda in Nevada. She had been a neighbor and quilting buddy and then moved away. We lost contact for about five years and this year we re-connected. I sent her a gift of a quilt for our joint birthdays in July and she said I inspired her to quilt again and I got this really, really cool quilt!
This is a top I pieced this week. The blocks were made by members of WASIQ and sent to my friend Debi on her parents passing. She had an awesome blue batik in her stash and this summer I brought it and the blocks home and finally assembled a top for her. I plan to quilt it this week.
In August I went on the Crazy Eight Shop here in northern Idaho/Eastern Washington. I saw this border print and a book called Cabin Fever at The Crazy Quilter in Deary Idaho, an awesome shop in a teeny tiny town. I cut it out Friday night this week and finished it yesterday. It has minmal quilting and the applique stitching down is done as part of the quilting to make it faster. My oldest daughter loves it, and really I made it with her in mind!
This is a quilt I finished quilting this past week. I didn't make the top, my friend Joann in Arizona made the top for her oldest daughter designing it as she went. I volunteered to quilt it and had a lot of fun doing different designs. My closeups didn't show well since the thread color blended too well! Joann received the quilt Friday and already has the binding on!