Still Quilting!

 I honestly have no excuses for not posting photos.  I did post some of them on Instagram.  I got very depressed with the holidays and things not being "normal".  I have nothing to complain about, we are healthy, we have jobs, our children and grandchildren are healthy, but working at a school and dealing with masking took it's toll along with winter blahs.  I do worry a lot about all the families affected by virus.  It has been a rough year for so many people, so I told myself to pull it together!

However, I did keep quilting, it kept my sanity!  I don't even have pictures of everything I made.  I switched phones and thought I transferred everything, but everything is out of order.  I also have a new computer.  Yes, nothing like new electronics to drive a person crazy!  

These won't be in the order I made them, but here goes!

A year ago when I visited my daughter and grandkids in Kentucky, she asked me to make a new tree skirt.  Their tree is decorated all with yellow duck ornaments (I also make or buy the twins yellow duck ornaments every year).  I had these navy Sparkle Suede fabrics and they seemed to set off the yellow ducks.  I had them for another project, obviously I hadn't started that project.  I drafted the pattern myself based on the size of their center opening in their tree holder.  It arrived in time to spend December under their tree!

I was commissioned to make a T-shirt quilt for a sort of relative by marriage. The weather was terrible and I didn't get outside pics so the pics are on my basement floor.  This is an original design/layout.

A friend and I participated in the Merry Mayhem New Year's mystery.  I am not a fan of green, but I loved the new line of fabric called Blooming Bunch for Maureen McCormick from the Brady Bunch.  I do like the layout of this mystery quilt and I really did piece it in one day!

From the same line of fabric I made three aprons.  The toddler size is in the picture.  I also made three tablerunners for my friend's quilt shop.

This is a topper/wallhanging I made this weekend.  It turned out pretty cute!  It is about 30" square.

The next two are for my friend's shop.

I made this tablerunner for a gift.  I loved the dimensional poinsettias.  I used red batiks.  It is hard to see the silver sparkles in the background.

Okay, I will try to keep up with reading blogs and posting on mine!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday.

Catching Up on Finished Projects!

Wow, the last post was in October!  This will be a LONG post!  To catch up since then... we took a trip to visit our daughters and grandkids.  It's so exciting it is now just a six hour drive to visit both daughters and my two sisters.  I went on a quilt retreat in mid November and worked on assorted projects.  A couple of them you will see in these finished photos!  I did a major house cleaning and hosted Thanksgiving with company for several days.  Now on to the quilt projects!  The first several photos are seven wallhangings (about 45 X 60) I quilted for a friend.  I tried to do something different in each one and not over quilt them.

crazy quilt fabric snowmen

closeup crazy quilt snowmen, preprinted fabric

Two identical quilts, quilted differently, black binding

Two more quilts!

closeup

Two identical quilts different setting fabric than above and green binding

closeup

For those that have wondered, I do not have a long arm quilt machine, I quilt everything on a many year old Pfaff Grand Quilter stuffing them in!  I quilted a large quilt recently on commission and forgot to get a picture!

The next projects are all gifts, but the recipients have them already!  I bought this kit called Town Square made with the Town Square fabric line by Holly Taylor and the kit came with a book by Doug Leko.  I had a gift certificate from turning in my row robin quilt first this year and put it towards the kit.  I pieced the blocks at quilt camp in November and then decided it would make a great gift for my boss Jenine (aka head teacher at our little school).  I quilted an allover design with a flannel backing as shown in the second photo.

Town Square large throw size quilt

Town Square backing

I am in a small online group and we did a secret sister exchange.  My secret sister likes gold and cream so I made the backing first using the 60 degree ruler and then made the front to fit!

tablerunner for a secret sister gift

tablerunner backing

This is what I received from my secret sister.  I had put 4th of July as my favorite holiday and now I have a patriotic tablerunner!  I am thrilled!

A few years my boss friend Jenine sent me a link to this Kaffe fabric kit on Craftsy.  I ordered it, but never got started on it.  I pieced blocks at quilt camp and realized I only had half the papers with me, but the tablerunner was turning out plenty big!  I have plenty enough to make another one.  Jenine is silly and said it's too nice for the table and hung it on the wall!  So yes, she got two quilted gifts from me this year!

Crazy squares tablerunner

In October I was in Spokane, WA for their big quilt.  I met several friends there and three of us bought this pattern or kit called Minnesota Flurries.  I bought the kit and got the piecing done at quilt camp and then have been working on the handwork.  All the stitching on the snowmen is by hand.  They are wool pieces that were included in the kit.  The buttons were also included.  It finishes it 20" X 20".  I gifted it to my friend/coworker Donna.  She is the afternoon aide at our school.

Minnesota Flurries

Minnesota Flurries closeup

Last year when I took my Row Robin quilt in first I also got a quilt kit with my winnings.  The same designer as the one for Jenine above, Holly Taylor, but this line of fabric is called Winter Song.  I had pieced the top last year and a friend saw it and said it was her colors, and loved it.  I put the top in my "to be quilted" stash and Saturday I got it out, basted, quilted and bound it!  My husband delivered it to her Sunday at Search and Rescue dog training.  She loves it!

Winter Song gifted to our friend April

Winter Song closeup

Each year we have the students at school make ornaments for their parents as gifts.  We made caribou ornaments earlier (half went to D.C. for the small trees in offices) and we did our annual swirled craft paint in glass ball ornaments.  The students really enjoy watching the paints mix and the color combinations they pick are interesting!  I have learned to let the excess paint drain out in egg cartons.  We have 25 students, grades K-6 at school.

swirled paint ornaments

In another post I mentioned the very large tree skirt I made for the USDA building in Washington D.C.  My cousin was in charge of over 18,000 ornaments and she made some out of wheat from our farm.   The fall of 2015 was the first year Huffman wheat was available for planting for harvesting in 2016.  This wheat was named after my son, Brad, who passed away in 2013. Here is a link to the story about the wheat naming in 2014.  The ornament is heavily shellacked and has chunky spray glitter on it.  I was given one when I delivered the tree skirt.  These ornaments are hanging on the Capitol Christmas tree on the west lawn in D.C.  My cousin got to go there for the tree lighting Dec. 6th.  I need to steal her picture of my tree skirt!

Huffman wheat ornament

Lastly, we have had a LOT of snow so far this year, not so much in total accumulation, but enough every day to be treacherous.  We have already had two snow days, one of them mostly because the bigger elementary school in town didn't have heat!  This picture was taken yesterday morning out my front door.  Thank heavens I have a pickup with 4 wheel drive and studded snow tires.  My car is all wheel drive, but I feel better in the pickup and it has higher clearance! 

sunrise Dec. 18th

Check out what others are working on at Patchwork Times and Main Crush Monday

BIG project complete!!!

I did it!  I finished the 11 foot tree skirt!!!  It was pretty intense and I had to let a few things go by the wayside and had LOTS and LOTS of interruptions, but it's done!  This will go to the USDA building in Washington D.C. as part of the Capitol Christmas Tree project.  This years trees are coming from Idaho and my cousin is in charge of the over 8,000 ornaments and tree skirts needed for 70 trees.  She asked me to make a tree skirt and this is what I came up with.  It's my original design.  What a process!

 Due to lack of time I am only adding two pictures at this time. We took it to my school gym to take pictures.  Doug was up on a ladder trying to get a good shot.  I put a piece of white paper in the middle as we took the pic on a 4 square painted on the floor and the black lines were distracting in the center. To hook the 8 section together I hand stitched cording down the binding and then wove ribbons back and forth.

From the outside in there are trees, river, 8 gold fabrics including potatoes that Idaho is famous for, wheat, which is what we grow and grass to represent pastures and grass seed fields.  Canada geese fly over and then of course mountains.  There are crystals of various colors since Idaho is the gem state. The finale are the syringas, our state flower.

During the summer I had signed up for an exchange to support Ovarian cancer research.  we were given an 8" piece of teal fabric to be used in the quilt in some way and assigned a partner.  I made this wallhanging using the teal in the leaves.  I based it on a pattern by Laura Heine.

This is the wallhanging I received from my partner.  I love the ombre fabrrics and polka dots!  We think alike in our color likes, the brighter the better!

Check out other projects at Patchwork Times.

City Sampler blocks

I am still working on the tree skirt and decided to not show progress right now. I am not happy with it at this stage and I know it will come together, but I need to keep it to myself awhile longer!  Since I am doing it in sections, it's hard to visualize it altogether. I need to have it to my cousin to be shipped to DC by October 1st.  

In the meantime I took a bunch of wheat from our field and met her for lunch Friday (she lives 3 1/2 hours away and we picked a town in between). She thought she was getting wheat elsewhere and I happened to post a picture on Facebook of one of our combines in the wheat field and she contacted me right away.  She is making ornaments out of it along with the thousands she has in progress with her committee of all kinds of state symbols.  She brought some for my students to assemble as well.  This is the project she is working on.

Here is the pic I posted.  The next day I was actually driving this combine!  We have been farming for 30 years and I have never had to drive before.  Both of our hired hands wanted the day off.  I wasn't about to drive the semis!

The tree skirt is extremely time consuming, but I have managed to keep up on the Modern City Sampler on Instagram, 100 blocks in 100 days. Here are the first 20 blocks.  Totally not my usual colors!

Today I made relish out of my garden cucumbers, zucchini and peppers.  I usually have onions but had to buy those this year.  This relish will last a couple years!  I also made zucchini bread.  I have some food allergies, so this is the recipe I used. It is really good and I forgot to take a picture!  I am severely allergic to dairy and eggs.

The first week of school was interesting, and I was exhausted!  Hopefully we will get into a routine soon.

Row by Row and Shop Hop

Last week I turned in my 2016 Row by Row quilt to Material Girls Quilting, Etc. I received my gifts and got lots of oohs and aahs from customers and other quilters there for an open sew day.  The quilt is on the  Idaho Row Experience Facebook page.

Finished 2016 Row by Row Quilt

The shops I visited were all in northern Idaho except one across the border in Washington.  I purchased all the shop kits to support the shops and while making the rows I cut up the leftovers into 2 1/2" squares with the intent of doing a scrappy border on the sides to make it a bit wider.  Stupidly I did not have the sashing done yet and hung the borders up beside the rows and thought YUCK!!!  So I found a fabric in my stash and used it and then thought how dull.  So I pinned the pieced borders over the top and thought yes.  I was talking to a friend in CO at the time and kept walking by my design wall.  I ended up taking out the green border as you can see above but had to cut down the scrappy border a bit to fit because I didn't want to redo the top and bottom borders!

with green border

with pieced border pinned on top

This past weekend we had the Crazy 8 shop hop in Idaho and Washington.  I went with 4 friends and had a great time.  I bought quite a few odds and ends including Terial Magic.  I had never heard of it, but I'm anxious to try it.  I also bought a Trolley Needle Thread Controller.  I hadn't seen one of those either.  I just have to get used to using it!  

I am making a giant tree skirt and chose these fabrics.  I need to add a red, I'm not sure why I didn't think of that, but I need a garnet red since Idaho produces garnets and I have been to a garnet mine.  The tree skirt will be representing Idaho.  I have a plan, just have to get going on it!

I also bought a bag pattern and these fabrics.  These are my all time favorite colors, so rich and deep.

I also decided to do the Magic of Christmas sew along from Lisa Bongean.  I had this leaf fabric in my stash for YEARS!  I found a couple Fairy Frost blues and they looked great and on the shop hop I purchased the silver and lavender Fairy Frost fabrics and made the first block.  I am thinking I will just use blue as the accent, perhaps a star setting, but I will see how this progresses.

Magic of Christmas sew along

Magic of Christmas block 1

Check out Patchwork Times for other great projects.