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

One Block Wonder Class Prep

This is my second post of the day with some actual finished quilts!

I will be teaching the One Block Wonder technique next week at Your Best Friend's Quilt Shop.  Our area has opened back up with social distancing.  Because of the response, and everyone needing space, I will be teaching the same class two days in a row.  I don't know what to expect, but I hope it goes well.  It's a hard quilt to make in class, but if everyone gets the idea of what to do and gets blocks cut and sewn together, they can  then assemble them at home.  I have been working on samples for it.  One is for the shop, but the other three are mine.  I have previous ones for examples at the class as well.

I fell in love with this Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric being a purple and flower fanatic!

Here is the quilt, completely finished.  I used a yellow from my stash for accent and binding.

Finished One Block Wonder

 This next is made from 7 panels from the quilt shop.  This is a display sample for the shop.  It was fun to make.

closeup

 I purchased the fabric for this one a couple years ago at a retreat sponsored by the quilt shop I am teaching at, along with a coordinating border print.  This one only had a 12" repeat so the quilt was very small and even with the border is about 45 X 60.  The fabric had windmills and red pickups and canning jars, very fun!  The plaid inner border is part of the border print.  It is quilted and bound.

 I purchased 7 patriotic panels a few years ago and now was time to make them into a one block wonder!  This one was hard to blend, but I think it turned out well.  It is quilted and bound.

Along with these projects I completed the blocks for this disappearing 4 patch quilt.  I had been using them as a leader/ender project.  I love the cute Me and My Sister Designs fabric.

This week I had a break and decided to work on something but I had no idea what.  None of my MANY, MANY projects looked interesting so I started something new.  The pattern is Buzz Cut out of the book 12 Pack Quilts featuring fat quarters.  I used Kaffe fabrics in my favorite colors.  I still need to assemble the blocks, but it was very fun to make. The blocks finish at 7.5". I added two additional rows to the pattern.

I have also done a lot of yard work and gardening and spent several days cleaning my sewing room.  So yes, even though I have been missing from blog land I have been busy!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Patriotic Quilt Finish and a Few Tops

I made a few more quilt tops for my friend's shop, Your Best Friends Quilt Shop, I will show at the end, but I also had a start to finish this past weekend!  I have a non-quilting friend, who wanted to make a quilt for her son in patriotic colors.  He was in the military for many years and was in the Reserves and called up a couple of times.  It is not an official Quilt of Valor though.  She bought the fabrics and had a basic design idea and I made that quilt a couple years ago in queen size.

She had leftover fabric and wanted to make a quilt for her grandson who is currently serving.  She cut a bunch of 5 pointed stars but then didn't know what to do.  She brought everything to me and I had this panel.  She loved it and I designed around it, fusing 1/4" wide fusible web to the stars and blanket stitching them.  Fortunately she had a large piece of red and I was able to use only her fabric, other than the panel.  The 4 corners are a fabric her mother had had and I had included some of it in the previous quilt.  I pieced and appliqued it Saturday and quilted and bound it Sunday.  I do all my quilting free motion on a domestic machine with a 9" throat area

 Spring is coming!  There is still a little snow in our woods and I can't wait for leaves to come out on the trees!

Here are the tops I quilted for the quilt shop.

This quilt uses a cloth book panel cut up.  Closeup is below.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday.

A Quick Quilt and a Finish

For those that were curious there are 199 quilts of all sizes in that closet in my last post!  I posed an impromptu guessing game on Facebook but didn't tell people I was giving away a quilt!  My son's classmate Chelsea guessed 198 and is thrilled to get a quilt.  I still have to pick one out for her.  They were co-valedictorians in high school and friends.

On Monday there was a request for 8 teen boy quilts for Camp Erin, a grief camp that will be held in mid July in Washington.  They have more campers than usual and were short some quilts.  I dug into my stash and came up with 8 fabrics and made this disappearing 4 patch quilt.  I had a flannel for the backing on hand and have it ready for delivery tomorrow.  I quilted it with an allover leaf and loop design.  The quilting took about 30 minutes!  I volunteered for this camp last summer and it was a very rewarding experience and wanted to be able to help out.  I am not going this year.  I took advantage of the hay bales in the field in front of our house, but the 100 degree heat is a bit much!

I quilted this strip quilt at the retreat last month, but finally got the binding on.  I love this one and it is mostly leftover jelly strip pieces.  I named it Leftover Salmon.

I took this picture on July 4th.  This is one of my patriotic quilts.  It was a block robin from 13 or 14 years ago.  I made the very center vase/flag block and the rest of the blocks were made by others.  I love this one!  I didn't take any block closeups.  I was involved with MANY round robins/row robins/blocks robins with this particular group fo women and the hand applique blocks are stunning!

                       

Getting my Quilting Mojo Back!

I am getting my quilting mojo back and it feels great!  This weekend I was able to get several lap size quilt tops ready for quilting and got three of them quilted as of this evening. I will post photos once they are done.  They will be donated to our local care center or other organizations my guild donates too.  

I realized I had not posted my finished top of leader/ender tumblers.  It is busy, and it took a couple years, but it is a great size for a veteran or injured soldier, depending on which organization I donate it to when it's quilted.  It didn't turn out like I had planned!

 Here is my completed top from the pattern Rhubarb Pie by Madison Cottage Designs.  It is about twin size/large throw.  I added leftover strips for borders pieced together and on person I made the top/bottom and sides different.  I named mine Blue Hawaiian after an adult beverage I had in Hawaii last year.

lumpy yard

on the front deck

back deck with my crazy dog herding a piece of drain tile.  Farm buildings in the background.

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.