New Year's Eve

After a couple of days to myself where I attempted to catch up on laundry and other fun things like having to have the water heater replaced, the next round of company arrives today.

I wanted to take a minute out of the busy-ness to thank all of you for your support and friendship.  It means a lot to me...

The Plan

During the creative hiatus this past fall, I didn't stop thinking about quilting... au contraire.  I thought a lot about it.... especially the part about how I promised myself that I would finish every project begun and would not let UFOs pile up.   Ha!  So, I took stock of works-in-progress and made a list, which will be my resolution for the coming year.

1.  Almost finished blue-and-yellow quilt.  One of the first I did and before I started blogging.  It's partially quilted but I stopped because I realized that I had goofed big time with the outer border, which is wavy, altho not as bad as this example I found online...

 

I was discouraged at the time because I didn't want to rip the border off and start again and I didn't know how to fix it.  So... on the shelf it went.  I learned from my mistake and don't have wavy borders anymore and I've even found an idea for quilting the border "as is"... so, wavy border quilt is first on the list of UFOs as the oldest one lying around.


2.  The quilt top from a 2013 QAL is hanging from a clothes hanger on the door to my sewing room along with the backing material.  It didn't get turned into a quilt because I couldn't find a backing fabric I was happy with.  This quilt top nagged at me all fall and started me thinking about the amassed UFOs.  So, the second item on the UFO list is the Aiming for Accuracy quilt top.

3.  The quilt top from Barbara Brackman's Civil War QAL is still a just a top. Why?  Because I had no idea how I wanted to quilt it... and still don't.  What I'd like to do is to send it out to be quilted in a Baptist Fan but my Scot ancestors are protesting at the cost.  I need to decide something and get this quilt top turned into a quilt.  Finished is better than perfect.....

4.  Pastel flower-star quilt....ran into a wall when it came to arranging the blocks.  My OCD tendencies kicked in and I balked at having two the the same fabrics in adjacent blocks.  I need to get over that and get 'er done.

 

5.  The final UFO on the list is the 1800s repro fabric hourglass project.  No problem with it; I just got side tracked.  It needs to get done!  No more quilter's ADHD... 

I do have one project planned that needs to be started/finished by May when my SIL graduates so I will not be restricted just to UFOs.  Hopefully, having a published UFO list will keep me from procrastinating in 2015.  So... my resolution for the coming year is to finish these five quilt projects.  Wish me luck!

Christmas Break

The first round of company has departed and I have a day or two before the next crew arrives.  It was a lovely Christmas with a house full of family, good food, and fun games.  My favorite moment was when my daughter's father-in-law spotted the chocolate-covered marshmallow Santas and commented he hadn't had one since he was a kid.  I told him to help himself... and even sent another home with him.  It really is the little things at holidays that make it special.

For example, a dear friend sending one beautiful blue-and-white teacup with some tea and a charming quilty card.  Definitely a surprise and I love it!  Thanks, Doniene!

Another surprise in the mail was this gorgeous tea towel with a blue-and-white china print.  Love it and I will definitely enjoy using it.  The giver made this, using a wave-stitch to hem all four sides... perfect choice since she lives on the coast!   Thanks, Cindie!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of small things that made you smile!

Christmas Eve

It's been raining all day... lots of rain.  Cooking has been going on and I've just one more dish to prep tonight.  A strand of lights has gone out on the tree and I need to fix that so when the grandchildren get here tomorrow... all will be perfect...   or as perfect as it's going to get anyway.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season....

Blogging Hiatus

I did get a project finished during my hiatus from blogging.  Yea, me!  I had made it a goal to finish the Monster Quilt this year before the weather got cold so I buckled down and got to work.

I'll probably never quilt a quilt this large again and will plan to do so in sections that are then joined together.  Too bad I didn't figure that trick out before this top was completed.

Because of the size and amount of fabric that needed management while quilting, I did ditch-work, which is incredibly BOR-ing to me.  I wanted to do something different on the outer border and opted for a big loop design.  It's the first time I've done a loop like this and the loops are not perfect... but I kept telling myself that finished is better than perfect... and this quilt will never be in a quilt show.  And, if it's keeping me warm on a cold winter night, who cares?

To keep up the loop pattern I did a triple loop in the four corners... again, not perfect but who cares?  The backing is a vintage Jinny Beyer blender, gifted to me by a friend who started quilting in the '80s and no longer does so.  I'll remember Carlene every time I see this lovely fabric.

It's Aliveeeeeeeeee!

Without going in to a 40 page description of the past two months and boring you silly, let's just say there was a Bermuda Triangle-type fall here.  If it could go wrong, it did.  For example, my camera bit the dust.  This means that I have to decide what I want to replace it with, find time to purchase one, and get it up and running.  Not as easy as I would have liked.  Not at all.   Anyhoo...   I'm alive and appreciate my BlogLand friends checking on me.

I've not had much time to sew/quilt as I would have liked but I did tackle one crafty project (link).... one I found on Pinterest.  Again, getting all the stuff together did not go as smoothly as I would have liked... who would have thought that finding wooden (or other) letters would be so difficult?  Here is the first "draft" of my efforts....  I won't talk about the paint on my slacks or tablecloth... although it did come out in the wash.

Although the project poster swore this was a quick and easy project...  it wasn't, at least for me.  Blending paint round the letters was difficult, especially since I hadn't gotten a small enough brush to do it properly.  (Read:  Back to the craft store.)

I liked the subtle letters blended into the paint with the shadows...  I let the painting "sit" for a couple of days while I studied it, deciding I wanted the "sea" to be higher and lighter at the "horizon."  

It's overcast and rainy today so photo-taking is difficult but you can get the general idea.   I like how it turned out, especially since it is my first ever attempt at painting.   This will be a Christmas gift for someone special.

Floor Pillows

The grandgirls wanted pillows for their rooms and I decided to make the pillows large enough for them to actually sit on them on the floor.... or lie on them on the floor... or prop up in bed and read.   

I used BlockBase (link)  to resize the blocks I chose to 27" finished.... love doing that!  So easy, no math...

These are actually pillow covers so DD can remove the covers and wash them when needed.

The dolphin pillow top was quilted with wavy line in an attempt to have the dolphins swimming thru water and the crab pillow top was stitched-in-the-ditch.  

Now... on to another project!

Quilt Show (part four)

There was a cool quilt displayed that I thought was "made" by the quilting...  I loved the colors and the pattern.... but this quilt was about the quilting imho.

Although it was a throw-size quilt, I don't want to even think about what it cost to be quilted!

This entry was called "Blue Desert" but because of all the blues, I saw "beach" instead of "desert."

Lots and lots of thread painting...

It was for sale but I did not inquire at the boutique about the price.   

Thus ends my photo review of interesting (to me) quilts at the quilt show.  It was fun seeing photos friends took.... there was very little overlap of what we each found interesting enough to photo.

Quilt Show (part three)

Another quilt my eye was immediately drawn to was this one...

 

Blue Kaffe Fassett prints... what's not to like?

Another interesting quilt was this heavily quilted entry.

The center panel was embroidered and there is a pleated ruffle between each panel.

Very pretty but I would find it difficult to use this type quilt... 

 

Another mini.... this one appliqued.  You can get an idea of the size by the pin holding the label to the quilt.   I forgot to get a photo of the whole label... there were 5-6 people in the little nook the minis were displayed.

Quilt Show (part two)

There was one intriguing quilt that was hung so that the farthest you could get away from it straight on was four feet... so it was impossible to get a photo of the entire quilt.   I was lucky to get any photos because of the crowd.

 

I took this photo at eye-level (and I ain't short) so it will give you some idea of how large it was.  I figure "eye-level" is appx. 5'6".... you can see the top of the quilt at the far side... and where the quilt is draped onto the floor at the bottom.   Yup... it is a big one!

What made this quilt interesting was that it was made from antique Dresden quilt blocks found in 1967... and turned into a quilt in 2013.

This photo shows one of the rescued blocks that didn't make it into the quilt.  Each Dresden plate was removed from the original background and appliqued to a new background.

Using 1930s repro fabrics, a yoyo was added to the center of the Dresdens and sashing was added.

Quilt Show

This weekend, the Sandhills Quilt Guild held their annual Quilting in the Pines quilt show (link) and I attended with two quilting buddies and a young woman who we are attempted to lure to the dark side!  *lol*  There were a nice variety of quilts and more than usual vendors.... and a LOT of people viewing quilts so it was difficult getting photos of my favorites.

I love blue & white anything and this was a charming quilt that caught my eye.

As usual, not the best photos but I did try to take clear pictures.

This quilt didn't "wow" me the first time but it did draw me back for a closer look... and it became more impressive as I studied it.

Everything.... and I mean... everything on the outside border was cut out of whole cloth and appliqued, including the basket strips/lines.  Each was appliqued separately... it was amazing.

This quilt caught my attention because it was 1) fabulous, and 2) my blogging buddy Janet O. makes minis!

Yes, this is a mini.... and here's my hand for a comparison.

There are 1406 pieces in this little quilt... and ALL the quilting was done by hand with the tiniest stitches I've seen.  At first, I thought it was machine quilted but it wasn't!

I'll share some more photos tomorrow....

A Quick Project

Sometimes, one needs to do a quick project because closure is a good thing!  So, this weekend, I made a table runner from soft neutrals that are supposed to resemble beach sand.

I had enough to make a matching table topper too.

Finishes are good for the creative soul!

Swoon Block #1

After cutting out the two FQs for the first Swoon block...

...I read thru the assembly instructions again and then tackled sewing everything together.   Let's say I learned a lot.

Hopefully, assembly will go more smoothly for the second block.

Off on a Swoon Adventure!

I've never liked the cutting-out part of any project whether it be something for someone to wear or cutting multiple pieces at one time for a quilt.  But for this Swoon project, there was no way to get around the amount of white background fabric that needs to be cut... so I bit the bullet and got it done.

In this photo, there are 234 squares/rectangles and 18 WOF sashing strips.  The prints I can cut as I make blocks but the white is ready to go.   Yea, me!

Quilter's ADHD Redux

When I started the tiny house project, I wondered how long it would be before I got bored.  I'm not bored but... I think I'd like a change for a while. Instead of 4.5" finished blocks, how about 24" finished blocks?  That would definitely be a change!

I already had the Swoon pattern by Thimble Blossoms (link) and I had a fat quarter bundle of Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms sitting in the stash.

All I needed was some white fabric and something for a border because and 80"x80" quilt is a bit small for a queen bed.

I've selected the 18 fat quarter's I'll be using and ordered the periwinkle dots fabric for the border.  I've even cleared the cutting table.

Let the fun begin......