Quilting and Snow

I can't believe I didn't post last week.  Oh well.  I do have some more finishes to share.

The first one is a row robin from MANY years ago.  I furnished a lot of the fabrics and it sat for a long time because the rows were wide but not very many of them.  At a retreat several years ago I finally set the top together and now it's quilted.  I am not sure what I will do with it yet, I may be gifting it to a friend.  Another old UFO bites the dust!

Srping Row Robin

This quilt was made several years ago from a pattern on Craftsy.  The directions were really bad and I emailed the designer and she told me I didn't know what I was talking about.  I am an experienced quilter, so I threw away the pattern and made it my way!  However, then I HATED it.  Yes, strong word.  I really do not like this quilt.  I am not a fan of green and I tried to liven it up by quilting it with a shiny thread.  I will definitely be trying to find a home for this quilt!  But another UFO bites the dust!

Christmas Candy

A friend owns a quilt shop about an hour and a half away.  I volunteered to help make shop samples.  She sent me two kits for the same pattern.  The first one I made is Hoffman Wolves.  I am not a fan of wolves, but this came out great.  It's taller than my design wall.  Much bigger than I thought it would be.  66 X 88.  

 The second one is a fox and this is really cute.  The pattern is easy to follow.  I will be making some more shop samples for her at an upcoming quilt retreat.

 We had a backyard visitor last week.  The photo was taken out my upstairs bedroom window.  Icicles are hanging down!  My coworker saw a moose over the weekend and thinks it might be the same one.

Doug had to plow again last week.  My deck is about 3 feet off the ground for a depth comparison.  I'm ready for spring!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

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!

Spring Break and Machine Quilting

I am on spring break this week!  I started my vacation by finishing machine quilting and getting the binding sewn on by machine on my Folk Art Album wallhanging Thursday night.  It looks ruffly, the binding and sleeve are not stitched down.  I did a lot of texture quilting, which is not really visible but I showed a block in my last post.  I still haven't tacked down the binding. This is such a special quilt to me!

Friday I had major oral surgery.  I must say the relaxation drugs worked well, and I don't remember much of Friday.  By Saturday I was up, although in pain and decided to machine quilt instead of stitching binding down. I was supposed to "take it easy" and what's easier than machine quilting!  I know it stresses some people.  I had this quilt basted and ready for quilting.  I have someone who wants to purchase it, it's a row robin from the Pat Sloan group around 2000.  It also needs its binding stitched down now.  I did some different texture quilting in the rows and border, I will get a better picture when the binding is finished.

I want to get started machine quilting my Fire Island Hosta and needed a backing.  One of my goals this year is to not buy backing.  I had to for the Folk Art Album quilt as I wanted a nice flannel.  Other than that I have a huge amount of fabric I need to use!  I took all the leftovers and figured out to cut them in multiples of 4" finished and then started laying them out.  Some pieces were a full 20 1/2" so that was my goal block size for assembly.  The backing is 104 X 104.

This is another quilt I may have shown before.  It's simply straight line quilted and it's from leftovers of another project.  It needs binding stitched down too and will be for a donation.

Our oldest daughter and two grandkids are coming for a visit late in the week. We haven't seen them since Christmas.  We are very excited to see them. Nicole will be two next month and Jared is 4 1/2.  His vacation from preschool is next week.  He called yesterday with plans for he and grandpa.  He loves our farm trucks!

Check out Patchwork Times and Cooking up Quilts

Prepping for Quilt Camp

I get to go on a quilt retreat this coming week, 4 nights!  I am very excited to hang out with friends and quilt.  My hip is getting back to normal after two months of therapy (we still don't know why it went wacky, but oh well), and that will help my comfort level of being able to bend and walk!

For my main project I decided to take my Fire Island Hosta quilt I started last year.  I LOVE this quilt.  I had the center sections done and this weekend I cut the outer two paper pieced borders and have this part assembled.  It will end up being 100 X 100 when it's finished.




I have a large sewing room and the adage of filling more space if you have it is true.  I am not the neatest person when it comes to my fabric. I think I need a little chaos to create.  However my cupboards of unquilted tops were a bit out of control. Several had fallen out while looking for something else.  I took a before picture and an after picture. The tops on the left side have backings with them.  Altogether there are 42 tops there.  Then I remembered two tops that were in a bag I took to guild for show and tell!  YIKES 44 unquilted tops!!!  

A friend who sang at my wedding 32 years ago saw the pictures on Facebook and picked out two quilts she wanted to buy.  This is one and I have it basted and ready to take to quilt camp and will machine quilt it there.  I do all my quilting on a Pfaff Grand Quilter.  This top is 54 X 78 and was made in about 2000.  I was involved in the Pat Sloan yahoo group and had a couple friends that were very "country".  We did a row robin exchange.  The backgrounds are all Buggy Barn Fabrics and there are several Pat Sloan fabrics in this quilt.  I really am not a "tan" person so I am glad this will find a new home!

I have another quilt cut out using Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I am almost finished with the hand applique on my Folk Art Sampler wool applique wallhanging.  I will be taking that along to machine quilt too. I think I will be busy and probably won't finish everything!

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Main Crush Monday.

August UFO #14

Today I made a Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Coconut Zucchini Bread.  Wow is it good.  Doug doesn't eat such things so I have the whole loaf to myself, like I really need that!  It's negating all my FitBit steps!  I made him a batch of prune dumplings he can eat instead.

Today's UFO is another oldie (do we see a theme here???).  I was in the Pat Sloan yahoo group over 10 years ago and thought I liked the fabrics because friends did.  This was a row robin and the rows are gorgeous and so well done and I love the border I added.  It's just too tan for my usual tastes.  I will quilt it (we have heard that before too!) and then decide what to do with it.  It was getting too long and skinny so I bit the bullet and did not add the swag border on the top.  I am normally someone who likes balanced designs.

Mini Row Robin starting

I am in a group that is just starting a miniature row robin. I finished my row and will be mailing it off Monday to Virginia. My row measures 3" X 15.5" right now, but will finish at 2.5" X 15". I'm kind of wishing I had made 2" finished baskets but oh well! I am sending along the black and the multi batik. I look forward to working on the other 4 members rows!