Fossil Fern Fantasy and Baby Quilt

First, I finished a quick baby quilt.  I used leftover 9 patch blocks from 15 years ago (I can't believe I still had them, and I have a lot more) and fabric leftover from the Gemstones quilt.  I didn't get a picture of the backing, it is a cute pink cat flannel.

 I tackled one of the projects in my basting party stack.  I pieced this quilt in 2010.  The only reason I know that is I searched and found it on my blog.  Interestingly I also did a Google search to see if there were other versions of this quilt and I could only come up with mine!  The pattern was in Australian Patchwork and Quilting in 2004 and I followed their lead and used Fossil Fern fabrics.  The quilt is called Fossil Fern Fantasy.

Fossil Fern Fantasy

 Here are some closeups of the quilting.  I used Superior King Tut threads for the quilting.

Another old project is done!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Main Crush Monday

Metro Rings Quilt

This has not been the most fun week battling a cold and now a raging ear infection.  School was supposed to be on a two hour delay due to snow, but there is also no power at our school so we are canceled.  I am headed to Express Care!

However I did finish one quilt!  The pattern is Metro Rings and it uses the Quick Curve ruler.  I used half the blocks and made this baby quilt.  It's bound and ready for the shower in a couple of weeks.  The fabric is the Road Trippin line.  I had purchased the fabrics in December, not planning to make a baby quilt!

I found a sheep flannel that worked for backing.  The mom has a lot of animals including sheep.  She even brought six baby goats for show and tell at school last week.

Another sunrise picture from a few days ago.  Today was just all white out!

nrise

 Linking up to Design Wall Monday. 

Baby Quilts

I quilted and bound the Monkey Business quilt I made for my sister for her upcoming grandmotherhood.  The baby will be traveling from Kentucky to visit so she needed a quilt at her house.  I purchased the kit at a huge sale Dec. 21st and had it pieced before we left on the 24th and surprised my sister with the quilt top.

Monkey Business

I am invited to a baby shower in mid February and the mom doesn't know for sure if it is a boy or girl.  She basically wanted everything gray and yellow.  At the same sale in December I purchased the Metro Rings pattern that uses the Quick Curve ruler and gray and yellow fabrics from the Road Trippin line.  I decided it would make up two baby size quilts instead of one larger quilt and I have been working on it.  I have all the strips sewn and have been cutting arcs.  I found some cute flannel with yellow and gray sheep for the backing.

There is another woman I know who is having a little girl and I had a huge collection of six inch nine patch blocks from swaps YEARS ago.  I had leftover pink fabric from this quilt and there was enough for setting squares and a border.. I laid it out on the floor since my wall is busy. I will get it sewn up soon.  I have some cute flannel for the back of it as well.  

 Speaking of the floor.... last week I discovered an unopened jug of distilled water had leaked about a quart out onto some quilt tops that were stacked up to get in line for basting!  I didn't take pictures of the worst of it, but I had a red and white quilt with blocks from over 15 years ago (I was a very busy quilter in swaps 15-20 years ago).  The top was set on point and the reds had run all over the place on the setting triangles but not the blocks!  It was horrible.  My husband was sure it was ruined.  I washed it gently in OxyClean and nothing happened.  I had half a bottle of Synthropol from back when I was dying fabric twenty years ago and though I had nothing to lose.  I must say it is a miracle!!!!  I used about a tablespoon of Synthropol.  The quilt top is perfect, albeit very wrinkled.  Also I discovered these leftover Hawaiian blocks I had hand appliqued and although it is very hard to see, they are now also perfect!  All the excess dye was removed.  The first photo is wrinkly, but I didn't dare press it.  The second photo is the after photo.  I am so thrilled!

Another sunrise photo from my front deck with mist.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making

Baby Quilts and a Finished Top

This is a continuation of last week's post.  I quilted the two baby quilts and went to two showers.  There were two of us that were at both showers.  One was a cute little girl shower and my son's friends were thrilled to see me.  Their baby Annadelle is due in December.  I did find binding in my stash that coordinated.

flannel backing

Sunday afternoon I went to a baby boy shower for a young couple in our area.  I have known the father all his life and used to babysit him when he was young!  He is a young farmer and my husband has been mentoring him.  I have know the mom's family for a long time too.  I used minkie on the back and found a blue stripe in my stash for binding.  Baby Carter is due in December.

Both quilts were quilted simply with free motion squiggles.

 I have the top together for my Square Dance quilt from the book Strip Your Stash.  I will have to audition a binding from my stash when I get it quilted.

Square Dance from Strip Your Stash

 Connecting up with Design Wall Monday.

Three New Projects

A quick update:  My daughter is still having contractions, but she is home and on complete bed rest.  She is bored, but it is worth it for the babies to not be born yet!  

A year ago this month I spent the weekend in Spokane for the quilt show.  I posted pics of this year's show in my previous post.  Last year I retreated in a hotel with a friend and another friend met up with us and we went to The Quilting Bee.  We each found a jelly roll and challenged each other to make a quilt.  I am a little behind the other two on their projects, but this week I decided it was time!  I had waffled on what to make all year, but finally decided on the pattern Square Dance in the book Strip Your Stash.  I have a bolt of Kona white so that is what I used for the background.  My jelly roll is called Summer Fest by Moda.

jelly roll block

 I have all twelve blocks done and there will be white sashing between them.  The blocks are on the design wall.  There isn't even any purple in these quilt blocks!

I have two baby showers coming up this next weekend.  Due to time constraints I decided against making baby quilts and ordered gifts.  Well......  Saturday I had an epiphany.   This summer I had purchased a jelly roll, Rainy Day by Me and My Sister designs for Moda.  I love the bright cheerfulness of the fabrics.  I searched online for a pattern and found a free one on Craftsy that would work.  I pulled out the "girl" fabrics and the "boy" fabrics.  I have the two tops ready for quilting .  For the girl one I found a background fabric with small color splotches, for the boy one I used plain white. 

purple/version 46.5" square

block closeup

I thought the previous quilt turned out too big, and I didn't have as many strips for this version.  I prefer rectangular quilts, but these will make nice playmats.  I have minky in my stash in blue and a pretty flannel in turquoise, pink and purple.  Perfect!  I still to find some binding in my stash.  This is the problem of using almost a whole jelly roll in the quilts! 

blue/green/orange version  40" square

 Linking up for Design Wall Monday with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. and Monday Making.

Row by Row Finished and Other Happenings!

I have had a lot of things going on, which is the story of my life.  We had our family here and had another family wedding and then we kept our 5 year old grandson for an additional week.  I took him home (six hour drive) and went shopping with my daughters and sister.  It's convenient that both my daughters and both sisters live in the same metro area!  We were shopping for baby quilt fabrics for my younger daughters twins due Dec. 5th.  They are a boy and a girl!  This is what we ended up with. The boy fabrics will blue to orange and the girl the yellow to purple, so four fabrics are the same and the gray is the background.  I have plenty of white and black in my stash so they aren't in the picture! The staff at Quilt Expressions in Garden City, ID was very patient and we took over a table in the back laying out fabrics for over an hour!

 I did finish my Row by Row On the Go for 2017!  I was the first one to my local quilt shop (third year in a row) and this quilt uses 16 rows!  I made a lot of thread changes while custom quilting this quilt.  I's HUGE, 94 X 105.  I received a nice gift certificate and I will show what I bought later.  For scrappy I guess it turned out okay!

I took a picture on a piece of equipment in front of our old barn.

 As I was taking the picture I had to quickly grab the quilt as my husband went by in a combine cutting lentils!  You can see the dust stuck on the combine!

 Laying in my yard.

 A few of the rows.

My finished 16" pillow cover for a swap on Instagram.  I have not yet received mine.  I should have put the pillow form inside for the pic!

 Many pieced backing for the Row by Row.  I did not want scraps leftover!!!

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  Check them out for other great quilts!

Making Progress

I have not totally finished anything in the last week, but I have been sewing!  I mentioned in my last post about a contest to guess the number of quilts in my linen closet and instead of picking a quilt out of there for Chelsea, I found a top in my stash and quilted it.  Chelsea said she liked outdoor things, but also purple and teal and bright colors.  Years ago (more than 10, less than 20!) my guild had a block exchange where you picked the pattern and could provide fabrics and other members made blocks.  I chose a tree, but not in your typical greens, I chose turquoise.  I call it Blue Spruce.  I had the top together, but it was in my massive pile of unquilted tops.  I found some flannels for the backing in my stash (I will get a photo of those for my next post).  I have it quilted, and the binding stitched on, it just needs stitched down.   The interesting thing is that Chelsea's great grandmother was in my quilt guild for many, many years and recently passed away at age 95.  She made a block in this quilt!

I have been a charter member of a local quilt guild since 1993.  The guild has changed and lost a lot of members due to various reasons and they also moved the meetings to daytime.  I cannot attend with my work schedule except for two months out of the year.  Over the years we have done several quilt shows and I have been involved in several of the fundraiser quilts.  

A few years ago as a challenge we were each given a piece of fabric and asked to make something outdoor themed for a raffle quilt.  We didn't have a lot of members and didn't get a large amount of blocks back and the blocks have sat for a few years.  I made the larger center block with my challenge fabric.  This year the members made some 18" finished log cabin blocks  to try to extend the size of the quilt.  The idea was that the quilt could be finished and given to the recipient of a Habitat for Humanity house.  

I was asked to assemble the quilt as putting together odd size blocks is one of my specialties and I have given guild programs on this.  I played with the blocks for a while and finally came up with this arrangement.  I had to make 5 more log cabin blocks and adjust some others.  I am very finicky and blocks should measure the correct size at each step of the process as you are making log cabins and they didn't.  I square mine up after each round.  The quilt top now measures 90 X 108 and the last I heard the group was going to have it machine quilted and then raffle it off afterall and donate the proceeds.

Clearwater Quilters Opportunity quilt top assembled by me

closeup of my block based on a book I can't find right now!

There were 4 leftover disappearing 4 patch blocks and one applique block that didn't work in the quilt.  I made 6 more disappearing 4 patch blocks and assembled this top.  It is 38 X 48 and  might be used on the back or as a quilt for a care center resident.

I have been spending most of my time working on the row by row quilt.  I have 11 rows done and plan to do 5 more.  I actually went to all 16 of these shops!  I am making this quilt queen size.  This is not the arrangement I will use and it will have sashing.  I have more one more vertical row and the others are horizontal.  This is my third year and next year slap me if I decide to do this.  The instructions are generally quite awful and to support the shops I purchased kits and I was short fabric on more than one.  I do have another bright  row that I hope will offset the one bright one.  There was one that was all pastels and I redid it.

pastel row that doesn't fit in the row by row quilt

Fancy Fox is the pattern my daughter brought me in April to tell me she was pregnant and that was the pattern for her baby quilt.  I have not yet purchased fabrics, I will go visit in a couple weeks and do that, but for her I get to make two quilts, yes twins!!!!!!!   The fabrics pictured are for a quilted pillow cover swap on instagram.  I am making a small version of the Fancy Foxes with these fabrics.

Linking up for design wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Quilt a day #41

I found the picture of this baby quilt I made 15 years ago! It was for my nephew Austin. It was so fun with all the different animals and the dimension.

Quilt a day #40

Amy and Nate are here and we went to my mom's for "snacks" tonight. We are stuffed to the brim and brought home a box of food, a big box! My mom loves to cook.

I didn't have time to peruse my photos much, but here is a quilt I bought as a precut John Flynn kit and I disliked it. I donated it as a baby quilt with a cute flannel backing.

Quilt a day #25

It was another busy day. I went to a baby shower this afternoon and Tuesday I had decided to make a quilt for this shower. I started it that night by prewashing fabric. I finished the quilt Thursday and that is today's quilt to show. That baby's colors were light blue and brown and I just used the Warm Wishes pattern. It is super quick and easy.