Happy New Year

Feet up  and binding second quilt in two weeks.  Quiet evening in with our youngest and our four legged family members. 

Hoping 2014 has great things in store.  My daughter will graduate from high school and move on to her college of choice. A confident and wonderful young woman who makes me very proud.  My son will become a freshman in high school, he is very ready for this next step as well as he grows into a tall, talented teenager. 

Helper or inspector?

Meet Lola, she is often by my side while I work at my machine and keeps my chair warm while I am gone.  Tonight she is getting very up close and personal. 


I have had a very productive couple of weeks. 
* One basted, quilted, bound and delivered.
* One quilted, binding sewn and waiting to finish.
* One basted, quilted, waiting to sew binding and finish.
I feel very accomplished as far as my quilting projects this year.  Working full time and life with busy kids doesn't allow to much time for me. 

Delivery

I have a very dear friend that is having surgery today.  I am blessed to be able to make this for her to wrap up in during her rest and recovery.  Hugs to her and her family. 

Only a few more days

Are you ready?  I have some more shopping to do but the big stuff is finished.....ready for some down time with family and friends. 

Is it time?

Getting ready for Christmas.  I confess I haven't quite found my holiday mojo.  Here's a pic of my front porch.   Inside needs more attention,  perhaps this eve I can try to get some of that done.

A Nap

Nothing like a nap with a warm comfy quilt on a cruddy weather afternoon!

Finished Part 2

I found a few more photos of my projects.  Some of these pictures were taken before the final product was delivered but you get the idea.  I'm glad I have taken a few pictures.  I know there are others that did not get photographed before giving away.  I had forgotten about a few of these.  Documentation is always good for the aging mind.

 

 

 

 

This was made for Chandler, my husband's nephew for his High School Graduation.  Although he graduated in June 2013 the gift was not delivered until August 2013....busy much?

 

 

This was given to friends of ours for the birth of their first baby.  Split Rails Pattern

 

 

This was given to another family for the birth of their first baby. I believe this is a small version of a Turning Twenty Pattern.

 

 

Another baby quilt for the  great-grandbaby of the wonderful woman who watched my children when they were in elementary school.  Carolyn will be loved in our family forever.  I don't remember the name of this pattern but it's quick and easy.   Do you like the legs on this quilt?

 

 

Bonnie Hunter made a Cheddar Bow Tie quilt....I thought I just had to make one of these.  Boy did I get into a deal with this.  I decided to make the bow ties on point.  I crawled around on the floor most of my time off between Christmas and New Years deciding on the layout....so that no two colors were side by side and if you look closely at the bottom row, the bow ties are all solids.  I put the solids around all four edges of the quilt.  Sounds easy?  Not!  This is still waiting to be quilted.  The piecing was completed December 2012.  It will fit on a queen size bed.  What was I thinking??

 

 

Another Bonnie Hunter inspired creation.  This is a Chunky Turn Dash.  I pieced this several years ago, swapping scrappy fabrics with friends at a quilting retreat weekend. This is one of my favorites and is actually draped on the back of a chair in our living room.

 

 

I made this several years ago as a fundraiser for my son's Cub Scout Pack.  Tickets were raffled off and I believe we raised over $200 for the group.

 

 

 

Another graduation gift.  This was made and given to my husband's niece for her High School Graduation in June 2012.

 

 

I love this one!  Scrappy colors, Irish Chain Pattern.  Another waiting to be quilted.  And I plan this to be a keeper.

 

 

I gave this one to Mallory.  I love the pattern although I don't remember the name.  Another one that require a bit of crawling around to plan the layout.  I used an old blanket for the batting in this one.  Isn't that the way some of the antique quilts were put together?

 

 

This was for a co-worker.  She had a tough couple of long months dealing with the illness and eventual loss of her parents.  A couple of us made blocks and I brought it home and put it together.  Another co-worker used her long arm machine and did the quilting.  

 

 

 

And yet another baby quilt.  This one was for our Pastor's daughter.  I love the colors...if you look closely it kinda has a Vera Bradley look to it.

Finished

Here are just a few quilts I have completed over the last few years.  I don't keep many, most are gifts.  I'm going to go in search of pictures of others.  There are many more.

This one is still a top waiting to be quilted...a Bonnie Hunter design made in a class the Summer of 2012.

 

This was completed a few years ago and given to a friend who was recovering from surgery

I use this every night on my bed....all year round.  As I am much more cold blooded than my other half and need the extra layer on my side.

 I started this and gave the top to my mother several years ago.  Last Christmas I finally gave her the finished product and it is on her bed now.

 Another Bonnie Hunter class  taken Summer 2013.  Top waiting to be quilted. 

Another graduation project

I have mentioned that my daughter will be graduating from High School several times.  She has two very dear friends that are like family that I am making quilts for....I really am happy with the progress  I made with this one.  Just some final details with some fun meandering and I can begin the binding....purple and yellow are her favorite colors.  I have the other top finished, need to layer and begin the quilting.  Then on to the one for my husband's niece.  She is graduating also....gheeze.

Red and White

Or is this white and red?  Our guild group had a red/white challenge a year or two ago.  Although I had this pieced together I wanted to hand quilt it.  I just gradually keep adding more hand stitches.  All the stars have three rows of outline as does the inside of each block have one row of outline.  I am almost finished stitching swirls in the sashing.

So is this red and white or white and red?

Another season change

As we move into another season and a cold weekend I look at the pile of leaves waiting to be collected.  100 feet of leaves, and another pile the same size on the other side of the driveway.  I love my trees in the summer, but not so much this time of year.  I find muscles I forgot I had after spending days raking, blowing and mulching. 

Great day for progress

Saturday I took a class with Mary Huey http://www.maryhueyquilts.com/index.html.  She was teaching her quilt pattern called Mississippi Mud.

Well...my daughter will be graduating from High School in the spring.  That creates a mild panic for a quilter who has established the pattern of gifting quilts for this occasion.  She has two very close friends who I would like to give a quilt. One of which is to the stage that it is sandwiched and waiting for final stitching and binding.  The other of her friends now has her quilt in progress thanks to Mary's class.  I love the colors and will be having a hard time passing this over.  But I know it will be loved.

 

I think I'll call it "with a twist of lime".   More pics will come as I progress.  Since I have a hard deadline for this one it won't be a UFO for long.

 

Another cool thing....Mary contacted me after the class ended and asked if she could use pics of my blocks to put on her blog......WOWZA.

 

 

Off they go...

Today I mailed the  100  2.5" squares to my "swap partner".  These names were matched by those of us who follow the http://thecuriousquilter.wordpress.com/postage-stamp-2012-charm-swap/faqs-and-basic-info-about-2012-psq-charm-swaps/  blog. 

I am anxious to make a postage stamp quilt...like I need another project!  I'm a newbe at this, should be fun!

The cool thing about my swap partner, turns out she lives very near the town where my mother grew up and I have family in the same area of the Mid West.  What a small world!   Loving this!

Getting ready for another mystery

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville is preparing to share clues to another mystery quilt.  Yeah!  Colors look great for this one.  Check it out. 

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/10/2013-mystery-time-introducing-celtic.html

Looking forward to making the 111x111 size for a king size bed...hoping to also do a makeover in my bedroom this winter so this might just be the final touch when that project is all finished. 

Mystery revealed

October 2012 I began working on a mystery quilt with my local quilt guild.  It finished at about 60x60.  It still took a year to finish piecing the top.  So add yet another to the pile to be quilted. 

Postage Stamp anyone?

I just signed up for a postage stamp block swap.  I have always wanted to do a postage stamp quilt and I hope this helps me with the kick start needed to work at this a little at a time.

 

Check out her blog if you are interested.  Sign ups begin 10/12/13 and run through 10/20/2013.

 

 

 

 

 

I would love to have something that looks like this when I'm all finished.  I plan to use 2.5" blocks that will finish at 2".  And it just has to be huge to look this good, wouldn't you agree?

Setting up

My son performes (and practices) with our church's praise band.  Today I caught him in action when he wasn't looking.  He is helping to set up for the service today.  Extra set up required because of being on a different location than they usually perform.

Back at it

Back to working on the mystery quilt from fall 2012.  Mega rain falling here over the last two days.  Planned yard work was swapped for sewing time.  The last time I worked on this quilt top I didn't see the mistake here.  So I have to begin with some un-sewing before I can continue with any progress.   

Life with a teenager

Life with a teenage daughter has it's ups and downs.  Anyone with a teenager can appreciate that.  My daughter is a senior in high school this year.  My downs are seeing the last of many experiences as she moves on to the next stage in life.  My ups are that she has grown into a very confident lovely lady (on most days!)

This morning was not one of the lovely mornings.  A day where you didn't want to breath the same air as her for fear of infighting the flame of her horrendous mood.  I warned her younger brother to stay out of her space until she left for school.  I do have to say there are not too many of these kind of days...but today made up for those we have missed.

But then there is this...how can you be mad at this?  She is raising a puppy to be a guide dog for The Seeing Eye.  Here is a picture of them working together this week at puppy training class.

Somehow I missed it.

I had a rainy day at home and had time to be one with my machine.  I got in a groove listening to an audio book and multi tasking by getting some laundry done.  Starting laying it all out and realized I was short one block.  Dread.

Lazy or tired?

My daughter is raising a German Shepherd puppy that will become a Seeing Eye guide dog.  Her name is Irma.  Today she had such a busy day playing she couldn't stand up to eat.  She's a quick learner and doing great with the house breaking concept, but still a puppy that wants to chew and pounce on everything.  Cats aren't too crazy about her. 

Scrappy Trip is finished

I have finished the top of my Scrappy Trip Around the World.  This is another design by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.com.  She is wonderful with super creative designs using scraps.