August UFO #7

Here is another quilt top I made from Washington State Internet Quilters (WASIQ) blocks.  This is the flower, fruit and veggies version and is smaller by a little bit.

August UFO #6

Swap Blocks from Washington State Internet Quilters.  We had an annual block swap of 9" blocks for a few years and I accumulated quite a few blocks!  This is the wildlife/tree version.  I included two photos as I couldn't get the whole quilt top in one picture.  It's queen size.  I have another top and had already made one quilt from the swap blocks.

Quilt finishes since January

Be warned, there will be a lot of pictures in this post.  I have gathered all the pictures of projects I have finished (complete with binding) this year since I last posted finished on Jan. 7th this year.  I guess I have been more productive than I thought!  A lot of the quilts have been donated to charity and were throw size.

From an internet swap a few years ago.  Corner hexis were made by a friend - donated.

Back of basket quilt

Scrappy baskets from an internet swap - donated

Northwinds in batiks - donated

Black and white scraps, no pattern - donated

Leftovers from Finger Lakes Log Cabin - donated

Wildlife Camper quilt for my mom Feb. 2014

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back of wildlife quilt, completely reversible

Quilt I made for my new granddaughter Nicole

Small wallhanging I made for Nicole

OLD round robin.  I finally elongated it and donated it.

Blocks were made over 10 years ago by my friend Deb - I set this into a top in about 2003.

Dresden Plate - started and finished in July 2014!  Sold

Butterflies - kit purchased on a shop hop, finished in July 2014

Salt Water Taffy - won the pattern and some fabrics March 2014

Row Robin from a few years ago - finally quilted

One Block Wonder - pieced about 4 years ago, finished and gifted to my sister in July 2014

Swap Without a Name from internet group around 2000, finally quilted!

Sunflower panel purchased on a shop hop.  Heavily thread embellished, couched yarn and beads.  May 2014

August UFO #5

This is a top I have had completed for several years.  I really should quilt it sometime as I LOVE it!  The pattern is Fossil Fern Fantasy and was in Australian Patchwork and Quilting in about 2004.  The magazine says volume 12 no 10, no dates anywhere.  I'm going by an ad I found inside for something happening in Feb. 2005.  My friend Deb had the magazine and gave it to me.  I made the quilt top at a retreat a few years ago and used Fossil Fern fabrics.  I love the colors and patterns of Fossil Fern, really dislike the feel and weight of them.  They weren't inexpensive fabrics but the they have no body.  Nowadays I would use Best Press to add body for cutting.  I used the leftovers at retreat and made a Sudoku quilt for charity.  Of course I still have more leftovers...

Fossil Fern Fantasy 64" square

New Wheat Variety Honoring My Son Brad

On July 8, 2014 my family was honored at the University of Idaho field day at Kambitsch Farms near Genesee, ID.  A new wheat variety was being released in honor of our son Brad.  Both girls were able to be here along with their husbands and Amy's two kids.  This is what I wrote regarding Brad's death.  His last college advisor turned boss, Jack Brown, worked hard on the release of this wheat that Brad had identified as having good disease resistance and good yield.  The new wheat is called UI/WSU Huffman and will be marketed by Limagrain and all proceeds from royalties that would normally go to the breeder are going into the Bradley Huffman Memorial Scholarship at U of I.  It is quite an honor and goes to show the respect the industry had for Brad, although he was only 22.  We miss him every single day and will forever and will always wonder at the how someone so healthy could die so suddenly.  Worse things happen to families but it's been a tough year.  Here are some links to articles and newscasts written about the event.

Capital Press

Western Farmer Stockman

KLEW TV video

Lewiston Morning Tribune - subscription needed so here is the text of the article.

New wheat honors UI graduate

Bradley Huffman, an enthusiastic student of plant breeding, died unexpectedly this past year at 22

Tribune/Steve Hanks

University of Idaho plant breeder Jack Brown talks with Julie and Doug Huffman as they look over the new soft white winter wheat that will be named UI-WSU Huffman in honor of their son, UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumnus Bradley Huffman, who died last year at age 22.

Posted: Wednesday, July 9, 2014 12:00 am | Updated: 8:24 am, Wed Jul 9, 2014.

By ELIZABETH RUDD of the Tribune |

GENESEE - Bradley Huffman's interest in plant breeding began at an early age - and to some, he was a natural. That's why Jack Brown felt it was fitting for the new wheat variety released jointly from the University of Idaho and Washington State University to be named after the recent UI graduate, who unexpectedly died in June 2013 at age 22.

"Brad Huffman, to many people, is a name you're not familiar with, but to the people at UI, it's a name you've been familiar with for quite a long time," said Brown, a UI plant breeder.

Brown announced the new soft white winter wheat variety named UI-WSU Huffman during a field day Tuesday at UI's Kambitsch Farm off of U.S. Highway 95 near Genesee. The field day also had updates on wheat variety trials, as well as discussion about the collaborative research and breeding efforts by UI and Limagrain Cereal Seeds, including an agreement to license and market the Huffman variety exclusively. Limagrain Cereal Seeds is a joint venture among the French Farmers Cooperative, Limagrain through Vilmorin and Co., and Arcadia Biosciences in Davis, Calif.

Brown told a crowd of farmers, researchers, students and community members that he sincerely thought the Huffman variety was one of the best-looking wheats because of its disease resistance, high quality and high yields capability. He said he anticipated seeing high production numbers of the variety in the next couple years once the wheat becomes commercialized.

Huffman grew up on his family's farm near Cavendish and graduated from high school in 2009, before attending UI, where he graduated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Huffman's parents, Julie and Doug Huffman, said their son expressed interest in plant breeding as early as junior high. The couple said Tuesday they were honored to have their son remembered with the wheat naming, though it was an emotional day.

"It's certainly mixed feelings," Doug Huffman said. "It's a tremendous honor. At the same time it's because of his death, so it's mixed feelings."

Doug Huffman told those in attendance Tuesday that he and his family were able to gain insight into his son's life through the photos Bradley took. Some of the last images he snapped included this particular wheat variety.

"It's been a really tough year for us," Doug Huffman said.

Brown said Bradley Huffman was actively involved in UI's wheat breeding program, even before he started college.

"He was extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable," Brown said, crediting Huffman's farming background.

Huffman was in the wheat breeding program for five years and his involvement continued after his graduation. Brown said he's confident that in different circumstances, Huffman would have been a great plant breeder.

"He took to it very well," Brown said. "He was a natural."

The seed royalties from the UI-WSU Huffman, which would typically go to the breeder and College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, will instead go toward the Bradley Huffman Scholarship for Plant Breeding and Plant Sciences to help support students studying in the Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences, said John Foltz, dean of the college.

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Rudd may be contacted at erudd@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-8465. Follow her on Twitter @elizabeth_rudd.

Design Wall Monday, August UFO #4

On my design wall is the quilt I put up yesterday for my August UFO#3. It's going to stay there until it's finished and the story behind it is on yesterday's post.  I also have some leftover bits of the two quilt tops I finished last week.  I put them up to see how they would look and I like it.  However I think my brain really needs graph paper to plot and plan after I finish sewing some more 4 patches and count all the pieces I have available.  I think it's the anal math part of me coming out instead of trying to just wing it. Below these two pics is my August UFO #4.  I grabbed a top out of the cupboard of MANY quilt tops to be quilted and laid it on the floor.  I LOVE this quilt top, now I need to quilt it, yeah along with my daughter's wedding quilt and all the other quilt tops I have! 

Linking up to Judy L.'s Design wall Monday here.

Folk Art Album - wool applique on flannel

Bits and Pieces of Mocha Meringue leftovers

Sand Castles - UFO #4  this is an OLD quilt top and I forgot how much I loved these florals!

August UFO #3

UFO #3 is a goal I have to finish before the end of August.  I hope I can make it!  The pattern is called Folk Art Album by Primitive Gatherings/Lisa Hoefler Bongean.  My late friend Deb bought this as a BOM before she died but never got it started.  She gave it to me and passed away Feb. 10, 2010.  It's wool applique on flannel and stitched with Valdani variegated pearl cotton.  When I finish stitching the borders I will attach them and then fix the corners.  I'm getting there, two of the borders are done!  Excuse the threads and such, I just threw this up on my design wall.

August UFO #2

We had a horrific storm last night and my computer was shut down so I didn't post my UFO for August 2nd.  Here it is.  This quilt has been in the works for YEARS!  I actually made 13 blocks and planned an on point setting but didn't plan ahead on needing extra fabric and couldn't find any anywhere years later, imagine that!  Plus it was still an awkward size and will be a nice wallhanging and the others a tablerunner.  These are all needle turn appliqued.  I will definitely be machine quilting this some time.

Unfinished Project a Day for August

I have a goal for August, to show a picture a day of an unfinished quilt project.  I am hoping I can do this, I will have to learn dating posts ahead for times I am gone.  The first thing to show is just fabric.  It's actually almost a completed top but since it's a wedding present for my daughter and husband I am not showing it until they receive it.  Their wedding was July 12th and I have simply procrastinated.  These are the three fabrics. 

Huckleberries

I grew up eating and picking huckleberries.  They are a small, tart berry and grow in the woods.  It's a tedious process to pick them properly (there are ways to comb them off the bushes, but that is not the way my family does it).  The University of Idaho sells huckleberry bushes and my late son Brad bought me 10 of them his last Christmas (2012).  Half of them are still living and it would be awesome to have my own patch in my woods!  This year I have gone picking twice.  In mid July I met my sisters in McCall and this past week with my mom outside Pierce, ID (the patch is secret of course!).  Here are a few pics of my adventures!

Driving east on Hwy 12 to Kamiah

My sister Lori

My sister Sue

Me with some of my berries, I picked two gallons

Payette Lake from the Point - our cousin Pattie took us on a driving tour after a great dinner.

Left to right oldest to youngest - Julie, Sue, Lori

Berries in MCall

My mom picking near Pierce

taller bushes but much steeper hillside

There is a lookout in the center of the photo.

Looking down the road we need to travel to get back home!

Neutral Twin Quilts

Two posts in one week, I'm on a roll!  My birthday was yesterday, July 29th.  I am trying to set some fitness goals, but I personally really dislike exercise.  With my foot issue I can't run, but I have been walking so I I did my morning walk.  I got to spend quite a bit of the day in my quilt room.  It is so much cooler in my basement room than the rest of the house.  Harvest started Monday so Doug had a long day in the field cutting wheat.  I LOVE to go out to dinner, but that won't happen until there is a break so I made potato salad and BBQ chicken.  Can I say food allergies are the pits?  I would love to eat dairy and eggs, but they are not good on my sinuses.  I ended up sewing the last borders on one quilt today. Both quilts were supposedly cut out for my retreat last weekend, but I didn't have all the pieces nor the extra fabric!  Both quilts are twin size and will go in my basement rec room, aka old sewing room.  I need to liven up that room a bit.

Mocha Meringue Fabric, pattern was free from Marcus Fabrics to go with the line.

Pattern is "It's Good to be Square" but I made double the amount of blocks.

Scattered Thoughts and Quilts

I had good intentions of getting back to blogging after posting about my son but the best laid plans get interrupted by just simply being too busy or too lazy!  I am going to try this for the first time linking up to Judy L.'s blog for "Design Wall Monday".  These are blocks I worked on at a quilt retreat I went on this past weekend at Rather Be's Quilt Shop near Pomeroy, WA.  Eight of us had a great time quilting, eating and laughing. I made half of these blocks, but didn't have the rest of the pieces cut so I finished them today.  It will have two borders.  I am making another quilt of these "Mocha Meringue" fabrics and they will go on the twin beds in my basement.  They are WAY different than my usual colorways.

I had these two quilts already pin basted for quilting and I got them quilted at the retreat and bound.  The 30's one has a story.  A couple of weeks ago I stopped in at Material Girls Quilt Shop in Orofino, ID and they had 20 luscious new 30's prints.  I have a bin of 30's and they aren't my favorite fabric choice, but they were so soft and lovely and other women were making dresden plate quilts out of them.  I bought all 20 prints and background and came home and used my Dresden ruler (I can't find that style available online, it was on clearance years ago) and made 20 pointed dresden blocks.  I was contacted by someone wanted to buy a wall quilt and she loves 30's.  I sent her a picture of a couple blocks and 2 other quilts and she wanted the dresden.  So I set together 9 of them and have that quilt ready to go as shown. I made one more block so I now have 12 to go in to a twin size quilt the way I designed the next one.

I bought this quilt kit at Wild Hare Quilt Shop in Orofino, ID (yes, there are two great quilt shops in one little town).  I purchased the kit on a shop hop and got it pieced together at a retreat in April.  It's all finished, yes another UFO bites the dust!

Finished quilts

On August 11, 2013 I went through my two cupboards of unquilted tops and took photos and measured all of them.  There was a whopping 53 tops, from mini to king!  About half had backings with them.  I started in machine quilting some of the smaller one and was surprised when I counted them this week and found out how many I have completed since then.  I have finished 16 of them!  I have only added one top to the collection, but it is the big one that is the background photo on my blog.  These are some of those quilts, some have already been donated without getting finished photos.

throw size using Quick Curve ruler

Full size Crazy Stars 

Foundation paper pieced flowers

Half Yard Challenge Mystery wallhanging

Kaffe Hexagons wallhanging

Mini Sampler

Oak leaves made by my friend Vicki, given to me after her death

Picket Fences throw

Scrappy Trips lap/throw

String pieced donation quilt

Table topper or wallhanging