A Couple of Finishes and a Visit

After my big basting spree (I actually added one more since my last post) I was able to quilt and bind two of the quilts and I am working on two more.  It feels so good to have some finishes!

A fellow teacher is undergoing cancer treatment right now and she has been so complimentary of my quilts and likes purple so I quilted this up from my basted pile and it was delivered to her last week.  She loves it and said the colors are perfect.  I have so many quilts it feels great to be able to gift them.  This is not paper pieced, it's one of the stack and slash style quilts.

quilting closeup, I had fun doodling

I pieced this top 4 years ago and 30's are not my style of fabrics!  My oldest daughter likes them so her room here at home is decorated with 30's quilts that I have accumulated over the years.  I had assumed I would put this there eventually, but I found out about a quilt shop owner that has never received the gift of a quilt and I enjoy her quilt retreats and I finished this quilt (Thursday night!) and dropped it off to her Friday on our way to visit our daughters.  She loves it.  I had a ruler and made 21 dresdens.  9 of them were made into a wallhanging and I sold it to my wedding singer.  I came up with this setting for the rest of the blocks.

quilting closeup

As I mentioned we made a weekend trip to visit our daughters and grandkids.  My husband finished the fall farm work and we hadn't gotten to see the twins since the end of July and the other two kids since the first week of August.

oldest daughter's kids 

My four grand-kids - two sets of cousins!

younger daughter's twins, almost a year old!

 We went for a family hike.

 Salmon River Canyon on the drive home.   My husband did a river search here with our dog for an accident victim.  This is actually on the straighter part of the drive home up through central Idaho!

linking up with Design Wall Monday

Basting, Basting, Basting

As I have mentioned previously, I have a LOT of unfinished projects.  A LOT!  I do all my machine quilting on a Pfaff Grand Quilter, no long arm, no mid arm, just stuffing the quilts through and moving them around. Because of that, my quilts need to be layered and basted together with some method before quilting.  I was on a roll this weekend.  I started pulling tops out of my cupboard and picking backings (and in most cases piecing them) and started basting them together with pins.  The two smallest ones are spray basted, not a method I use on bigger quilts or quilts that will be sitting before they are quilted.  I apparently had a LOT of safety pins!  I know I have acquired them from various sources, including my mother-in-law's sewing room when she passed away.

I ended up getting 11 quilts ready for quilting in 3 days (and that was taking time out for being gone parts of two days).  Most of them are smaller and most will end up being donated or gifted.  One of them is from at least 10 years ago.  The top has been sitting unquilted and I have some older than that!

I absolutely LOVE my Kwik Klip!  It is one of my favorite tools.  I am also fortunate I buy backing by the roll!

Now I need to start quilting!!!  Yes, two of the quilts are the same!  The quilt top on the wall is auditioning borders.

 My mom found this fabric in a box in her house and had no clue what it was for so I put it together with some "doggie" backing and quilted it and gave it back to her!  She can use it for some of the donation causes for the senior center she is active in.  I also made her two pillows out of a different dog print.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Finished One Block Wonder

I finished my "Memories of Hawaii" One Block Wonder quilt!  It's quilted and bound.  I meant to put a hanging sleeve on as I did the binding but totally forgot.  I usually sew one the top edge at the same time as I am binding and then just hand stitch the bottom edge.   I added a flange to the binding for a spark of color.

This project was a lot of fun and I am happy with how it turned out!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

One Block Wonder

I have been working on my ocean one block wonder.  I love how it is turning out!  I am in the process of pressing my strips (seams are being pressed open) and then will be assembling the top.  I am thinking of appliqueing the points down so I really have to work to figure out the exact size I need the length to match the side strips.  This is a lot of fun sewing with the panels to make this style of quilt.

I have one more panel I had originally purchased, but it is cut slightly differently.  I ordered the rest and knew I had better not chance them being the same and ordered enough for the 7 panels.  The extra one will be on the back.

 This is a closeup of some of the blocks.

I hope to get this assembled this week and will actually quilt it right away so it won't go into my never ending pile of unquilted tops!  It will be a great memory quilt of our snorkeling cruise in Hawaii.

I am linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I am entering my latest finish, my Baltimore Spring quilt.  This was purchased as a laser cut kit, but most of the pieces were just scored, not actually cut.  I sat at a quilt retreat for four days and cut apart and fused the blocks inside the border.  I did the border after I got home.  Then I rolled it up on a large tube I had on hand and it sat.  I finally decided to stitch down the appliques in August.

I used a variety of threads, mostly Superior Fantastico.  I machine quilted it Labor Day weekend.  I can't believe it is finished!  I added a hanging sleeve to the back as it will be hung in my home on a quilt hanger a friend's husband made me.

Closeup  detail photos.

 I entered the quilt in our local county fair a couple weeks ago.  We have about 10,000 people in the county, and the fair and Lumberjack Days are a big event in town in mid September.  I won Best of Show and the photo below is hanging at the fair.

The third weekend in September is another fair an hour away.  Residents from surrounding counties can enter that fair, which is unlike our county fair.  I was surprised to win Best of Show again!  I also received Best in Class and Superintendent's Choice.  They put all the quilts behind plastic to keep people from touching them.  It doesn't make for good photography!

The most popular question I get asked is "How long did it take?"  I really should keep track sometime, but then again, that might take the fun out of it!  I am quilting obsessed and I think I will get back to piecing for awhile!

Panel Wallhanging Gone Wrong, but Fixed!

Several years ago I bought a panel that had two different large flowers.  The designer was Stephanie Brandenburg.  I loved the sunflower and made up the wallhanging using thread painting.  I ended up buying more of the panels and making them up for gifts but somehow I don't have pictures.  I did not have any problems quilting any of them.  I had one panel left and decided to quilt it up.  OH MY.  Distortion, distortion.  I think it is because I did not stabilize the flower first and then fill in with stitching.   Here is the sunflower I did without any issues.

I don't have pictures of my problem wallhanging in progress.   I had done a LOT of threadwork in the center and it was so wavy I thought there was no way I could get it to lie flat filling in the background.  I finally decided if I trimmed out the flower portion I could applique it to a new background.  I had to fuss with it a bit to get it to lay flat, but I managed to satin stitch it.  The background is made up of some leftovers from another project with some blue added for accent.  I am thrilled with the way it turned out and it finishes at 24 X 24.  I used two kinds of yarn with an overlay of tulle in the center.  If only I could take straight pictures!

embellished poppy panel

stitching closeup

I hand couched red embroidery floss next to the binding for an accent.

 I started a new one block wonder quilt.  I started with 7 of these panels, six of them are cut up and sewn into half hexagon ready to place around this panel.  I am anxious to see how it turns out.  It is a great memory of our snorkeling trip in Hawaii.

Our county fair is this week and I am entering six quilts, two of them wallhangings. 

I am linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Quilters Meet and Greet

Click on the graphic to meet other quilters!  I am happy to be part of this Quilters Meet and Greet.

Hello from Idaho!  I have been quilting for 31 years.  I always say it's all my husband's fault.  We moved to Idaho for the summer to help out on the family farm and he told me I had to go to his mother's weekly hand quilting group.  I had a baby and the youngest person was in her early 60's.  I went to the group off and on that summer and I learned to hand quilt before piecing anything.  Over the years I hand quilted many quilts, but it's been years since I have now.  I just don't have an interest anymore.  

This is one of my early quilts, from a class in 1988.  Hand quilted!  It's faded and well used.

I have been called a prolific quilter.  Who ME?  Yes.  I discovered quilting magazines early on and PBS quilting shows.  I learned everything I could and tried every technique!  I made quilts for family and friends and in 1998 I started doing block swaps on the internet.  Wow, I got addicted!  I never had an unfinished project until then (okay it had only been ten years).  I still have a couple projects from the those swaps not finished!  

I was a charter member of a quilt guild that formed in 1993 and I have belonged to several yahoo groups, and now Facebook groups.  I do spend an amazing amount of time in my quilt room, even though I work full time at a school.  I do enjoy my summers off!  Click HERE to go to my blog post about my reorganized quilt room with pictures!  Peruse my previous posts for inspiration as well.

My favorite quilt to date does not even use my favorite color of purple!  It's my Fire Island Hosta.  It's a pattern by Judy Niemeyer and uses mostly Artisan Shimmer fabrics.  I machine quilted it myself on my Pfaff Grand Quilter.

One of my other favorite quilts is my Finger Lakes Log Cabin quilt.  The pattern is by Judy Martin and it is NOT paper pieced.  Some of the pieces finish at 1/4" wide!  I think it has 5,206 pieces.  

Here is a collage of a few of my other favorite quilts. Since I have made close to 500 quilts from minis to wallhangings, to throw size to king I have a lot of favorites.  I have about 250 quilts in my house.  I donate a lot and gift a lot of quilts.  I need to finish even more and find homes for them.

I hope you will continue to follow my quilting adventures and visit other bloggers in this meet and greet.  Click on the link below to enter a contest for prizes!

Finished Baltimore Spring quilt!

After many, many hours of stitching this past week I finished my Baltimore Spring quilt.  I stitching every evening after work and all day Friday and Saturday.  Saturday evening I applied binding.  I added a hanging sleeve as it will go onto a quilt hanger a friend's husband made me.  It's a bit heavier than I had hoped and I need to block it I think, but it's done!

Baltimore Spring

detail

detail

I started cutting up panels for a One Block Wonder and will have that on my design wall soon!

Be sure and check out my blog tomorrow for a special post and and links to many other bloggers for a meet and greet!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday and Monday Making 

Machine Quilting/Applique

A few months ago I finished this top.

It was a laser cut kit from Keepsake Quilting.  The pieces were just fused, not stitched.  I got it out this past week to start stitching.  I layered the top with just one layer of Quilter's Dream Request loft batting and nothing else and I have been free motion stitching around the edges, changing colors of thread.  I am using a lot of Superior Fantastico thread.  

There were some VERY, VERY thin vines that wouldn't fuse well and when I tried stitching I had a huge mess.  I kept going (stupidly) and finally decided I could not live with it.  I worked hard to get all the vines out from under one row of stitching.  Then I decided to just free motion stitch a stem.  I like it so much better!

 The cherry stems are just drawn on, but I will stitch over them and make it connected!  I still have lots of stitching to go!

After I finish this part, I will add another layer of the Request loft batting and backing and stitch all the background.  That is going to take time too!

It was back to work today,  I always forget that we really do have a lot of rules and routines!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Retreat Projects

Last week I was at a quilt retreat hosted by Quilt Treasures.  I worked on 4 different projects.  I didn't have a lot of space, sharing a 6 foot table and no room to set up my little ironing table as I was on the inside so I sewed as many blocks together as I could.

Since I have been home I have assembled all the tops and added borders.

The first project I worked on was a batik throw quilt called Rip Tide.  I had purchased a kit, but exchanged out some of the fabrics.  This was a pattern by Karla Alexander where you stack up fabrics, slice them apart, move fabrics in your stacks and resew them.  It was fun and nothing to match up!  I loved that!

Rip Tide throw size

The next project I worked on was my 1930's Farmer's Wife.  I am a Farmer's wife, but samplers are not my favorite.  I also have the regular Farmer's Wife quilt in progress.  I am not sure what I was thinking!  Anyway I had 21 blocks done and there are 99 in the book.  I lost the CD with templates and I decided to do the lap size setting in the book and needed 32 blocks.  I went through and kitted up 11 blocks and got those sewn and I had precut the setting triangles.  I added a narrow border and I have a quilt top ready for quilting!

six inch block closeup  LOTS of pieces

Next I worked on a disappearing 4 patch.  I had a bunch of bright 10" squares and thought I would make a throw quilt for a gift.  I got all the blocks done, but couldn't lay them out at retreat.  After I assembled the quilt top at home, I HATED it!  It was too much, too intense, too something.  It was an 8 X 10 block setting.  I had decided on the alternating design, but I think I should have set it together like Ramona did.  I decided since it was too big for what I wanted, that if I split the quilt top in half it would work better and it does!  I added a border from fabric on hand and now I have two nice lap sized quilt tops!

disappearing 4 patches

The last project I worked on at retreat was a Scrappy Trip Around the World.  The pattern is found on Quiltville's site.  I had a bundle of Bonnie and Camille's Vintage Holiday fabric.  I just loved the pinks and aquas.  I added a few other fabrics and since I am not a true scrappy quilt lover, I made sure reds went through the center.  I am still contemplating a border or not.

Scrappy Trip Around the World

Scrappy trip closeup - sometimes matching fabrics came together!

School starts back up Monday.  I have worked this week and have open house tonight, but then have the rest of the week off. 

Triangles and a Gift

I didn't accomplish much this week since I was busy prepping for quilt camp.  However I did sew together the cutoff triangles from the quilt in my last post and decided to make a tablerunner.

I received this amazing wallhanging from my friend Melissa.  I am thrilled with it! 

Excuse the unedited photos.  I am on my phone and away from home at quilt camp!  I forgot to edit them before doing my blog post!