Piecing and Piecing

Things are the usual crazy busy here!  I have had some distractions, but have managed to piece a bit.  I went to a retreat a couple weeks ago and worked on a couple projects.  Neither of them are done, but that's the story of my life! 

This is a quilt I am working on for my brother.  It needs borders.  It was a kit I purchased with my brother in mind and I'm finally getting to it.  I worked on it at the retreat.

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I saw the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine with the pattern Sew Many Strips.  I cut out hundreds of 1.5" strips and pieced them at the retreat and started making blocks.  These are NOT my normal colors at all.   Most of these are Bonnie and Camille fabrics, except I added other low volume backgrounds.  I only have 27 blocks left to make and then the pieced border.  I have no idea what I am going to do with it when I am done though!

I pieced three more tops for my friend's shop.  I couldn't get great pictures, but here they are.  Lots of work with panels.

My younger daughter came to visit and brought the twins!  They are 16 months old now.  My older daughter will be here later today with my other two grandkids!  Spring break!

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

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.

Hawaiian Quilt and Christmas Eve Table Runner

I had two complete finishes this week and one almost finish that needs binding. 

Last Monday we ended up with a snow day from school.  It started out as a two hour delay, but was soon canceled.  To hide out from the storm I was in my basement quilt room.  I decided since I had a free day I would tackle quilting my Christmas Eve tablerunner.  The kit was from Shabby Fabrics  I had done the layout and pressing at a retreat in November.

I layered the top and one layer of cotton batting and loaded my machine with Superior Monofilament thread on top and So Fine in the bobbin.   I free motioned around the edge of every single piece on the quilt!  With the Monofilament I could travel without having to stop and start a lot.  I finished that and then added a backing and quilting the dark sky background with swirls and the outer snow so it would lie flat.  Then on to the bias binding and embellishments and it was done!

The next day I started in on my pile of basted quilts.  I quilted a row robin quilt, but it is not bound.

Then I tackled my Hawaiian applique quilt.  This was a long term project.  I hand appliqued the blocks MANY years ago.  My original plan had not worked out and I put together 9 of the 13 blocks into this 54 inch wallhanging.  It sat and sat and sat some more.  I decided to do free motion echo quilting and it's not perfect but I like the effect.  The problem I ran into was I was echo quilting each block individually and didn't have sashing and I disliked how it looked at the seam.  Some were worse than others at looking disjointed. 

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My solution was to make a 1/2" strip and topstitch it over the seam as a pseudo narrow sashing.  I used my 1/2 inch bias tape maker my mother in law had given me at least 25 years ago and I had never used!  I used straight grain fabric though since there wasn't any curves.

 Here is my finished quilt!  I love it now!  It has been through the washer to remove glue stains.  All but one came out.

 I am linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Fossil Fern Fantasy and Baby Quilt

First, I finished a quick baby quilt.  I used leftover 9 patch blocks from 15 years ago (I can't believe I still had them, and I have a lot more) and fabric leftover from the Gemstones quilt.  I didn't get a picture of the backing, it is a cute pink cat flannel.

 I tackled one of the projects in my basting party stack.  I pieced this quilt in 2010.  The only reason I know that is I searched and found it on my blog.  Interestingly I also did a Google search to see if there were other versions of this quilt and I could only come up with mine!  The pattern was in Australian Patchwork and Quilting in 2004 and I followed their lead and used Fossil Fern fabrics.  The quilt is called Fossil Fern Fantasy.

Fossil Fern Fantasy

 Here are some closeups of the quilting.  I used Superior King Tut threads for the quilting.

Another old project is done!

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Main Crush Monday

Metro Rings Quilt

This has not been the most fun week battling a cold and now a raging ear infection.  School was supposed to be on a two hour delay due to snow, but there is also no power at our school so we are canceled.  I am headed to Express Care!

However I did finish one quilt!  The pattern is Metro Rings and it uses the Quick Curve ruler.  I used half the blocks and made this baby quilt.  It's bound and ready for the shower in a couple of weeks.  The fabric is the Road Trippin line.  I had purchased the fabrics in December, not planning to make a baby quilt!

I found a sheep flannel that worked for backing.  The mom has a lot of animals including sheep.  She even brought six baby goats for show and tell at school last week.

Another sunrise picture from a few days ago.  Today was just all white out!

nrise

 Linking up to Design Wall Monday. 

Baby Quilts

I quilted and bound the Monkey Business quilt I made for my sister for her upcoming grandmotherhood.  The baby will be traveling from Kentucky to visit so she needed a quilt at her house.  I purchased the kit at a huge sale Dec. 21st and had it pieced before we left on the 24th and surprised my sister with the quilt top.

Monkey Business

I am invited to a baby shower in mid February and the mom doesn't know for sure if it is a boy or girl.  She basically wanted everything gray and yellow.  At the same sale in December I purchased the Metro Rings pattern that uses the Quick Curve ruler and gray and yellow fabrics from the Road Trippin line.  I decided it would make up two baby size quilts instead of one larger quilt and I have been working on it.  I have all the strips sewn and have been cutting arcs.  I found some cute flannel with yellow and gray sheep for the backing.

There is another woman I know who is having a little girl and I had a huge collection of six inch nine patch blocks from swaps YEARS ago.  I had leftover pink fabric from this quilt and there was enough for setting squares and a border.. I laid it out on the floor since my wall is busy. I will get it sewn up soon.  I have some cute flannel for the back of it as well.  

 Speaking of the floor.... last week I discovered an unopened jug of distilled water had leaked about a quart out onto some quilt tops that were stacked up to get in line for basting!  I didn't take pictures of the worst of it, but I had a red and white quilt with blocks from over 15 years ago (I was a very busy quilter in swaps 15-20 years ago).  The top was set on point and the reds had run all over the place on the setting triangles but not the blocks!  It was horrible.  My husband was sure it was ruined.  I washed it gently in OxyClean and nothing happened.  I had half a bottle of Synthropol from back when I was dying fabric twenty years ago and though I had nothing to lose.  I must say it is a miracle!!!!  I used about a tablespoon of Synthropol.  The quilt top is perfect, albeit very wrinkled.  Also I discovered these leftover Hawaiian blocks I had hand appliqued and although it is very hard to see, they are now also perfect!  All the excess dye was removed.  The first photo is wrinkly, but I didn't dare press it.  The second photo is the after photo.  I am so thrilled!

Another sunrise photo from my front deck with mist.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making

More Basting and a Top

Since I finished all 12 of the quilts I had pin basted in my October basting party, it was time to do it again!  On my January 1st post I listed all 41 tops that I still need to quilt.  I have been piecing backings and even fusing some batting together and so far have 8 pin basted this weekend. I had some things come up so I didn't get as many done, but I have today off work and have plans to get three more done today.  I might be out of pins by then but we will see!  I do plan on ALL the tops having batting and backing ready for the next pin basting session.   I might run out of batting.  I started with 40 yards on hand.  Some of the quilts are from the mid 2000's and several from before 2012!  Time to get them out of here.

This is a mystery quilt top from this past year.  I am not thrilled with it, but it is growing on me.  You picked light or dark Kaffe Fassett fabrics and everything was provided.  I picked the dark version.   I wish it was longer, I am not in to square quilts so I am trying to figure out if I want to add a border or just quilt it.  It is 83" square. The background is a light blue polka dot.

Kaffe Mystery Quilt 2018

This is a pile of 8 quilts that are basted for quilting.  The quilt top in the background is about 70" square and I made it in 2010.  The pattern was in an Australian Patchwork magazine and it is done with all Fossil Fern Fabrics.  The name is Fossil Fern Fantasy.  The fabrics are feeling flimsy and will need a nice pressing with Best Press.  Strangely, I had not stitched down the applique in the middle and it is sticking well.  I will blanket stitch that before basting it for quilting.  I have the backing ready.

The quilt on top of the pile has 9 Hawaiian applique blocks.  I originally hand appliqued 13 of them in 3 different colors and had an on point setting planned and because it took so long to applique the blocks I didn't have enough fabric and got discouraged.  I finally used 9 of the blocks and will make a table runner out of the others.  I was also discouraged because the Roxanne Glue Baste It I used turned oily and put some stains on the fabric.  But now it's time to quilt it and throw it in the washer and see what happens.  I had all the blocks done in 2010.

One morning on my way to work I saw this to the east.  My house is in the trees on the left of the photo and I headed west but stopped and took this picture behind me.  I really liked the V from jet streams.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Monday Making and Main Crush Monday

More Finishes!

Just a little note, if you have not received a personal reply from me to your comment it is because you are a no-reply blogger or your address no longer works.  I try to respond to all comments, so check your blogger profile!

Now to what I have done this past week!

I have now quilted all of the 12 quilts I basted in October.  I have a 4 day weekend coming up and it's time for another basting party.  I bought 25 yards of batting and will have to piece backs for some of them, but that's okay.  I will be using up fabric!

This quilt was 11 years in the making.  My late friend Deb purchased the fabric in 2008 and the Quiltsmart interfacing.  I was supposed to make a wedding quilt for her to gift to her niece, but she changed her mind and gave me the fabrics instead.  They languished for a few years and finally in 2013 I made the top.  The interfacing is an interesting method and the rings are machine appliqued with a blind hem stitch and invisible thread.  It is a nice throw size, but not my favorite.  I posted a picture on Facebook and my wedding singer (almost 35 years ago!) said she LOVED it.  I am sending it to her!  She has purchased some quilts from me in the past, but I am gifting it.

Double Wedding Ring

The weather was great yesterday and I managed to take some outdoor photos, although the sun was getting a little low by the time I got outside.  We still have a bit of snow left, but we have had a strange winter so far!

I was influenced by a couple of friends and started making this 1930's Farmer's Wife quilt a couple of years ago.  (6 inch blocks).  I got bored with it and lost the CD with the templates.  Forget that!  I had to cut a couple in half for this setting, but I really like the zigzags.  It's a small throw/lap size.  I had fun with the quilting though!

1930 Farmer Wife

quilting closeup

backing

 Both quilts together in the old corral in our pasture.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday.

Strippy Triangles

I machine quilted one of the last few quilts I had pin basted on my twelve quilt basting spree I posted about here.  I had mentioned 11 in the post, but the one pictured in the background was also basted and I showed it finished in my last post.

I made this top a few years ago.  I had picked up a FQ pack of modern fabrics and had no clue what to do with them.  I cut 2.5" strips and sewed 4 strips together and cut triangles using my 60 degree ruler.  This is what I ended up with, no pattern.  I used scraps for the border.  I quilted it with a variegated yellow King Tut thread..  I didn't have any of the fabrics left, but I found a striped fabric in my stash that I think made a great binding.  Another UFO bites the dust!

Modern Pyramids

yellow flannel backing

border and binding closeup

A few hours after hanging the quilt on my design wall I looked and saw this. My design wall is only 7 feet high (it was in a different room that had furnace ducting in the ceiling) and this quilt layed over onto the floor in length.   My dog appears out of nowhere and I don't usually even see her in my sewing room.  She is also usually very hyper.  I guess she likes the quilt, but now I have black dog hair on it! 

Linking up to Design Wall Monday.