Finished Top and Vacation

June has been crazier than usual!  I had a busy last couple weeks of school, getting out June 9th and that weekend we had some company.  We spent a wonderful week in Hawaii and I got to one quilt shop on Big Island, Quilt Passions.  On Oahu, we had several activities planned and didn't take the time to go find a quilt shop.  I played in the ocean instead!

Sunset on our last night in Hawaii

Fish fabric as a remembrance of our wonderful snorkeling cruise

Floral print for a backing

I also bought a pattern and their last year's row because I thought it was cute. I was too early for this year's Row by Row.

Monday I got out an OLD UFO, from 2004/2005.  I knew it was in colors that would be perfect for a wedding gift.  The BOM was Lewis/Clark Bicentennial and there were fabrics made for this.  Since Lewis and Clark are HUGE in this area (they traveled through here and built their canoes across from my mom's house) I bought it back then and had apparently made the first 11 blocks pictured below.

The directions for completing the quilt were awful or non-existent.  I might not have printed them all at the time. I searched the internet high and low but couldn't find a completed quilt.  I have had a busy week sewing this top together.  I made the final two sampler blocks, the alternate star log cabin blocks, and then had to figure out borders.  I drafted one and cut all the pieces and it wouldn't work!  I have no clue what happened, but I ended up using all the pieces I had cut and just doing improv piecing for borders.  I needed to make it longer to be queen size and the lights are the only fabrics I had enough of left.  I had a plain brown in my stash I supplemented.  I will be doing a scrappy binding after I get it quilted.  I have it basted now and will start quilting this afternoon with an all over design.  Did I mention the wedding is this coming Saturday?

Lewis and Clark BOM

I didn't get my daughter Lisa's quilt finished before I left for Hawaii but it's mostly quilted!  My daughter Amy's is basted and next up for quilting after these two!

Lisa's brick and leaf quilt

Linking up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Progress on Quilt Tops

I have made some progress this week.  I am making both my daughters big quilts at their request.  I showed LIsa's last week, it is a queen size.  I couldn't get a great picture without things in the way but this is a sort of layout on the leaves.  There will be three vines randomly coming down and leaves will be on either side.  I wanted to see if I had enough.  They have fusible web on the back with the paper still attached currently.  The quilt will be bound in red.

Gentle Moments partially finished

I have this top in my collection for awhile.  The pattern was in McCall's quilting in 2001 and my friend Debi wanted to make it and bought the pink. She gave it to me along with all her 30's. Amy wants a quilt roughly 126 X 108 with a very thin batting and navy blue on one side so it can play double duty.  When she was here she saw this in my stash and said it would work.  I had set it aside because there was a booboo.  I had somehow mismeasured on the pink border and the quilt was not laying flat.  After taking the outer borders off and removing 2" off each side I got it back to this point.  Then I had to make two more white boders and then the piano key and finished it off with the only piece of 30's I had that had enough yardage.  It's so big I didn't have a place to lay or hang it.  It's in my lumpy yard so it doesn't look even and it's wrinkled so ignore that!  It was sunny so the color is a bit washed.

Gentle Moments 109 X 125

strange mushroom



Linking up with Patchwork Times.

We have woods behind our house and I have been going out and laying out trails for our dog to follow.  She is 15 months old and is doing very well at her search and rescue training.  I loved this mushroom, not sure what it is, and I love the purple flowers on the skunk cabbage.  

skunk cabbage flowers

Bricks!

It seemed to take forever, but I finally got the background done for my daughter Lisa's quilt.  The short mortar pieces between the bricks sewed up quickly but it took a long time to sew all those horizontal rows.  Now comes the fun part of drawing up leaf shapes to applique over the top.  They will be fused and stitched, it would take me forever and a day to hand applique.  The binding will be red.  

I did get several pieces sewn on my postage stamp quilt as leader/enders as I was sewing this!  I wish I had taken the time to cut more tumblers for my patriotic leader/ender tumbler quilt.  I need to see how many more I need to assemble that top.

For fun I thought I would revisit some older quilts in future blog posts. I did it a few years ago and had fun.  I finished this one in 2003.  It was a series quilt in the old Foundation Piecer magazine and made completely with Moda Marble fabrics.  It's still one of my favorite quilts and I usually take it to quilt camp.

A Little Progress

I haven't made progress on the Farm Girl Vintage quilt because I decided it needs to be longer, so I have to take a row off and make six more blocks.  In the meantime I did get my One Block Wonder pieced.  I love it!  I am debating borders, nothing is really grabbing me, so I may just quilt and bind it as is.  However it gets added to my long list of "to be quilted" for now!

One Block Wonder

I also started piecing my daughter Lisa and husband Kevin's quilt.  They designed it and there will be red vine applique over it.  There will also be "mortar" between the rows, for design wall purposes it's not there!  I have the rows on top sewn together.  It's split in the middle on the unsewn rows strictly for layout purposes.  I don't like to have pieces over the two pieces of design wall, they don't stay as well.

Lisa and Kevin guest room quilt

That's all my excitement.  11 days of school left, and we leave for Hawaii 4 days after that.  

New Project!

Yes, I have lots of projects that need finished, some with time goals, but I couldn't resist cutting a new project yesterday.  I had hoped to sew most of Mother's Day, but other things took over and I didn't have much time.  

Last year I was in a quilt shop and saw this gorgeous Hoffman Spectrum print from the Bright Christmas line.  The feel of the fabric is fabulous.  I bought enough for six repeats and it has been staring at me for months and months.

I knew I was going to make a One Block Wonder so yesterday I got the repeats cut and stacked and ready to sew the half hexi's together.  I can't wait to see what it looks like sewn together!

Other than that nothing too exciting is going on.  I am working on borders for the Farm Girl Vintage quilt I posted last week and hope to show that next week.

Check out Patchwork Times for other inspiration!

Farm Girl Vintage blocks

I was on a fabulous quilt retreat this past weekend at Reflections Inn.  The owners go out of their way to make our retreat amazing.  The most we can have is ten and that is what we had this year.  I am terrible at taking pictures during retreats and my very old camera died and without cell service and limited internet my phone was off most of the weekend.

Last year I joined a Sew Along for the Farm Girl Vintage blocks.  I only got three blocks made.  While trying to figure out a project for retreat that was compact I decided to cut out the remaining 45 blocks.  That was an undertaking in itself!  The blocks finish at 6".  

I managed to get all the blocks but one made at retreat and I also learned rug hooking with wool strips.  I will take a picture of that later.  I inherited a massive amount of wool strips for rug braiding, but they can be cut down for rug hooking.

I had a quilt for my daughter cut out, but didn't get to that!

I have my Farm Girl Vintage blocks on the wall.  Excuse the wrinkles, I crammed things in a bag to come home, silly me!  I took the first picture and as much as I love the "Gingham" block on the right side, it was glaring at me.  It's all I could see so I remade it this afternoon and rearranged a few blocks in the second photo.  I did change a couple since then too. The orange pumpkin still sticks out, but that is the nature of the block.  Now to get it assembled, several borders added and quilted for my granddaughter.  She turns two on May 7th. No, it won't be done by then!  The backing has horses on it.

I am linking up with Patchwork Times and Main Crush Monday.

April is Flying By!

Where has the month gone?  I haven't a clue.  My daughter and grandkids visited for 8 days and the next weekend my other daughter and husband were here.  I went to two quilt shows and did yard work.  Now I am getting ready for a quilt retreat this weekend!  It's taking me awhile to cut out my project, the 6" blocks for Farm Girl Vintage.  I have 3 blocks made and will take the other 45 blocks with me to sew up.  It is time consuming to cut out sampler blocks!   

My big finish for the month was my Fire Island Hosta.  Below are photos of it with closeups of the quilting.  I had fun with free motion.  It's hard to stuff a 100 X 100 quilt through my Pfaff Grand Quilter, but I did it!  I set up extra tables around me to hold the bulk.

 I had pre-entered the quilt in the Palouse Patchers quilt show in Moscow, ID.  I am not a member of the guild due to distance but this is the third time I have entered in their show.  I am glad I had the deadline or I wouldn't have gotten it finished!  The photo below is a bit blurry, but you can see my ribbons I shockingly won!  All voting is done by members before the show and viewer's choice is voted on Saturday by quilt show attendees.  Since I had company I didn't get to the show until Sunday and I also needed to pick up my quilt that afternoon.  I won Viewer's Choice - Large quilts and First in Machine Piecing!

Below is my favorite quilt in the show.  I loved all the detail and I didn't get the name of the quilt!  I like to take pictures of the tags so I can remember these things and I didn't do it.

detail of the above quilt.  I loved the rivet accents.

I got this old UFO quilted in March and finished the binding in April.  It was from 2000-2001 and was a row robin with the Pat Sloan Yahoo group back then.

This is also the last picture of our cat I accidentally  took.  I had him put down last week at age 17 1/2.
We got him at 5 weeks old.

quilting detail in the border

I also finished my Folk Art Album quilt in memory of my friend Debi.  She gave me the kit.  I started it in 2009!  I hand stitched all the wool applique onto flannel.  I just stippled the backfround for some dimension.

Folk Art Album

quilting and stitching closeup

an outdoor shot of the quilt

I went to the Seaport Quilters show last weekend in Clarkston, WA.  It was fun to meet up with my friend Mary from Washington!  I was also with three local friends, and had a great day.  

Now to some non-quilting pictures!  My husband loves to take our grandson on adventures with a neighbor and his grandson.  They were dressed as Daniel Boone and went looking for treasure with maps and yes, that is a pretend hatchet!   They walked a long way through fields, woods, crossed a creek and there was a clearing where they somehow found the makings for grilled cheese sandwiches, Jared's favorite food!  The boys found a treasure box with chocolate coins and real coins and thought it was great fun.

My daughter and I drove to Sandpoint, ID, my second trip that week, seven hour round trip!  We picked up sandwiches and ate them on Lake Pend Oreille. Nicole went with us, and was a pretty traveler.  She loved the sand and the play equipment at this park.

Nicole at Lake Pend Oreille

Jared was a Fireman for Halloween last year and brought his costume so he could go to the volunteer firefighters meeting with Grandpa.  He loves to be with Grandpa and we were doing some farming during the time he was here which thrilled him.  He rode in trucks and tractors.    

Doug, Jared and Nicole.  She was actually dressed for bed but loves being outside.

When our younger daughter was here the next weekend we went for a walk. This windmill was originally put up by Doug's father and grandfather in the early 30's.  They sold the property in the 40's and we acquired it in 2010.  There is a house on the property we rent out and we farm the fields.   Doug rebuilt the base for the windmill and all the blades are in good shape.  It doesn't actually pump water now, but it's a great keepsake.  In the field behind it we have the first release of Huffman wheat planted, named after our son Brad.  Here is the link to the blog post I wrote about the wheat. 

Check out Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.

Road Trip and Quilting Progress

Yesterday I needed to go on a road trip to Sandpoint, ID, 7 hours of round trip driving, but it was a beautiful day, with beautiful scenery. As a reward I stopped at Bear Paw Quilting in Coeur d'Alene.  It is a gorgeous shop with so much variety!  From 30's to wool to Kaffe to modern to batiks and everything in between.  I have no business EVER buying more fabric, but I get bored sometimes.  I have so many projects to work on.  Both daughters want certain quilts, my granddaughter a needs a big girl quilt (she will be 2 in May) neighbor "kid" needs a wedding quilt July 2nd, and lets not mention those 40ish quilts that need quilted.

Don't laugh (I have one friend that will laugh!) but this is SOME of my fabric storage.  Yes, it is exploding!

We won't mention strings and strips.  I did make two cute blocks as leader enders when I was piecing the backing for Fire Island Hosta.  I will continue with this project but if Judy D. thought she had a lot of strings, she hasn't seen mine yet.  I'm afraid to put them all in one place because they will NOT fit in one big bin.

So back to my trip, I have been wanting to find fabric to make Tula Pink's City Sampler, 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.

I am not a green fan, never have been, BUT I was drawn to black, gray and lime green.  I bought the bottom 8 fabrics at Bear Paw and then stopped at Stitches and Petals in Moscow.  I bought the two fabrics on the top row left side.  Amazingly I found the next four from the left already in my stash in a FQ grouping from the Wild Hare in Orofino.  I then picked the final 4 fabrics on the top row right from my stash.  The most amazing find was 5 yards of this Kona gray for background already in my stash!

Now back to fun things, like defrosting my freezer and cleaning house! I did make a bit of machine quilting progress on Fire Island Hosta.

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

Machine Quilting and Wondering

My design wall was empty so I put up some 9 patches made from leftover Kaffe fabrics and the black mini dot fabric that is my new favorite background.  I had been sewing them as leaders and enders.  I have no clue what I am going to do them, so they will marinate on the wall, waiting and wondering what they will be, until I need the space again!

I started machine quilting my Folk Art Album, quilt yesterday.  I found a post about this quilt from 2014 hoping to have the quilt done by the end of that month.  I'm only about a year and a half off!   I'm getting closer now!  

Here is one of the blocks quilted.  The color is more true in the above photo.  I am just doing a stipple in the background after free motion quilting around all the shapes.  I am doing a continuous line in the sawtooth sashing.

Linking up to Patchwork Times.

National Quilting Day

Today is National Quilting Day.  I came down with a nasty virus yesterday, courtesy of students at school I'm sure, but I persevered and did some sewing.   
I finally finished the top of my QM Bitty Blocks.  It's still longer and skinnier than I wanted, but it's okay.  It now measures 56 X 89.  I struggled with border ideas and finally just used the same black mini dot fabric that is used in the sashing.  I will bind it with a scrappy multi color binding.

Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks Row Quilt

I also pieced a backing for Fair and Square I posted last week.  I had LOTS of strips left over and they were all sewn end to end as that is how the quilt was made.  I started sewing them together like the jelly roll race quilt (aka 1600) and then decided I should really have a plan and see how much I needed.  I have only scraps leftover!  The blue was in my stash but needed to be bigger.

backing for Fair and Square

Now I need to make the backing for my Fire Island Hosta.

Recap of my year on the Quiltmaker Scrap Squad

I have shown my versions of these quilts over the last year but as a recap, in January, 2015 I was selected as one of six members to join the Quiltmaker magazine blog as part of the Scrap Squad.  We were assigned quilts from an upcoming issue to make in scrappy colors.  I was delighted to be a part of this group, hoping to diminish my scrap collection.  That didn't really work as they keep multiplying, but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.  I invite you to go to the Quilty Pleasures blog and type Scrap Squad in the search and go back to February 20, 2015 and peruse all the quilts forward from there.  I only included the ones in this post that were from the same pattern I made to see the differences.  Other group members made another choice from some of the issues.

My first assignment was based on Pointed Prisms.  

Original Pointed Prisms designed by Kari Ramsey

Here is my version I named Gemstones and Kathy and Pam's quilts.

Julie's Gemstones

Kathy Wagner's Pointed Prisms

Pam Snow's @ the Circus

My next quilt was based on Chop Suey by Scott Flanagan.

Original Chop Suey by Scott Flanagan

Keri Blankenship Under the Northern Lights

My Chop Suey in Batiks

I loved the movement of our next assignment.  I played with ideas in EQ7 on changing the colors.  I made two versions of this one. Hero's Homecoming was designed by Janice Averill.

Original by Janice Averill

Donna Hanna

Emily Klaczak Hamptom Court

Kathy Wagner

My Dogwood Blooms

My Hero's Homecoming

Next up was Boxing Match by Nancy Mahoney.

Original Boxing Match by Nancy Mahoney

Emily Klaczak Colors of Summer

My version Deb's Oriental Garden

Pam Snow Summer Breeze

Quilt number five was based on Candy Cane Crush by Sandra Clemons.

Original Candy Cane Crush Sandra Clemons

Kathy Wagner Cool Hues

Donna Hanna

Keri Blankenship Quilt as You Go

My version Violets

I posted my last quilt yesterday!  Check it out at this link.