Last Finish of 2019 – Looking Forward for 2020

     I finished quilting and binding the last giant rainbow star quilt. If it looks familiar that is because using Leah Day's construction plan creates the HSTs for 2 rainbow quilts. Check out my tutorial if you want to make 2. 

I quilted a different mofit in each color diamond and 

Angela Walters flower motif in the background. 

I got tired of quilting it but made it to the end.  I will probably not use it again background even though it creates and interesting texture.

      As I review the year's quilting projects, I finished 22 and worked on parts of a few more. Five were given to charity organizations and 11 for church comfort quilts. Four were gifted to family and friends which leaves 2 added to my supply at home.

No other projects are close to being finished in 2019 such as the leader/ender Jewel Box quilt in progress.

I still have one UFO that has been a finished top for at least 7 years. It will be a priority to quilt in 2020. A couple of QOVs have been requested and I want to make them. The rest of my list for 2020 is still developing.  If I look very hard, I'm sure I will find several WIPs that have been hidden away.  Several projects in progress have adopted blocks and one the whole kit. I plan to work on some but they will not be a priority.

Hope you are happy with what you accomplished in 2019 and look forward to a creative 2020.

Have a Happy New Year!

Enjoying the Holiday Season – Mostly

     Not a lot of sewing or quilting has taken place in the past week because I was enjoying time with family. The granddaughters and I spent an afternoon decorating small gingerbread houses as is our annual tradition.

 

    

       

I also went along for their visit with Santa.

Will cooked a great lunch and we celebrated out Christmas Sunday.  

     Monday I arrived back home to find that the deluge of rain had caused problems and I spent several hours of worry until it was resolved.  I am especially thankful for quick responding plumber who installed a new sump pump.

    This morning I was able to relax and actually finish the quilting and binding on this comfort quilt that was started before knee surgery so it was delayed by more than one issue.  I used a poly batting with some loft so it does not lay very flat. 

I chose red binding because I thought it went well with the front and backing.

This may be my last finish for 2019.

Hope you enjoy some special time with friends and family for the holiday season.     Merry Christmas !

Busy Week of Finishes

    My life is getting back to normal after knee surgery as I have done some quilting. Today  I have several wonderful finishes to share with one being mine. Wednesday was the last meeting of the year for my church quilt group. 

    Mary Ann brought 2 fabulous finishes.  Here is her Trip Around the World. She chose the colors from the border fabric.

She also finished this cowboy quilt from a kit which was pulled together to use some orphan blocks.

    I finished this lap size giant star quilt. The black background floral fabric came from a deconstructed unfinished skirt a member donated.

I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday and Whoop Whoop Friday.     Hope you see some inspiration. 

 I hope all your holiday projects are nearly finished. Happy Holidays!

Moving from Thanks to Advent

      As I put away some of the fall Thanksgiving décor and prepared for Christmas decorating, I thought it was good timing to put the Thanksgiving holiday just before the Christmas season. It is a good transition of remembering all for which we have to be thankful to preparing for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

We enjoyed beautiful weather here for Thanksgiving Day and I was blessed to enjoy it with a couple of friends and one son. I have much to be thankful for. My leg is healing well and I have been able to spend time at the sewing machine and cutting mat. No quilting yet.

     I worked on Jewel Box Star blocks. 14 blocks are finished and more 4 patches have been pieced.

I plan to make 80 blocks for an 8 by 10 setting twin size quilt. I pulled squares from my nickel stash for all the HST units needed.

The block was the 2018 leader/ender challenge block by Bonnie Hunter. You can find her free pattern here.

    The weather continues to be cool and lovely. I cut units for step 3 of the Seeing StarsSew Along and now the quarter square triangle units are finished.

     I am enjoying my cacti blooms in my garden window. Three colors all blooming at once is beautiful.

     As we move toward Christmas, I continue to be thankful for my many blessings and look forward to spending time with family and friends. Hopefully there will also be time to enjoy some sewing and quilting without stressing on finishing projects.

Wishing you all the joy of the wonderful holiday season.

No Sewing This Week

      A week ago Tuesday I had a partial knee replacement. Before my surgery I planned to do some handwork if I could not use the sewing machine.  Some time ago I started a second crazy quilt project that stalled.  However, I could not get motivated to do any handwork. The only thing I have to share is a top pieced before surgery.  As I was cleaning and sorting scraps, I pulled together some leftovers from a couple of quilts and coordinating scraps. A few were orphan blocks from a 2010 quilt. This is the resulting pieced scrappy top.

I have plenty of other scraps and more orphan blocks which I hope to sort and use. Hope we all can find inspiration to use some scraps to make something.

Enjoy the cooler temperatures and enjoy some time sewing and quilting.

Just in Time for Halloween

    I finished the Halloween table runner 

and it was put into use the day before Halloween. 

At least it will be available for future years to decorate.  Here are a couple of close ups of the blocks.  

My GDs close the designs from a couple of different designers.  The wild cat is part of a free project from FoxChapelPublishing (You do have to sign up with an email address) and selected parts from Marjory A Peck’s “Spooky Hallows” quilt.   I edited and planned the layout.  All block designs were made using fusible applique and stitched down with the quilting. 

   

     A few years ago I used printed panels and made these 2 placemats. 

I recently decided to make a couple more with leftover motifs from the panels.  My GDs planned their blocks. 

Now these 2 are ready to be sandwiched and finished. 

The GDs had fun with the neighbors last night.

Enjoy the cooler temperatures and enjoy some time sewing and quilting.

I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict

and Alycia Quilts.  

Finish and Work in Progress

      The past few weeks I have not spent a lot of time quilting.  Since the weather is cooler and we have had a couple of nice days of rain, I took the opportunity to work in my flower beds hoping they will be lovely next spring. 

       I have worked on quilting for my church group.  This one is quilted and just needs binding. 

I am counting it as finished even though I don’t have enough of the brown fabric for binding. I will find something.  

Here is a close-up of the quilting of each block.

I used a pastel variegated thread. I stitched in the ditch to move from one area to the next without breaking thread. It took planning to move to the next area with the shortest distance stitching in the ditch again. After I trimmed the quilt and took a photo, I saw one block that I had skipped the half feather above the fan so had to go back and quilt that.

       

      I quilted the diamonds of this giant rainbow star top and the faint blue marker is my plan for quilting free-form feathers around it. 

You can see the free-form feathers on a similar quilt in this post.

I enjoy quilting them but would like to find a new special quilting motif for large plain areas. Especially since I have 2 more of these giant star quilts to quilt. 

    I spent one day sewing a baby bunting for an expected great nephew.  The fleece is especially soft.   

   

I linked up with Alycia for Finished or Not Friday.  

Have a great day and enjoy some time sewing and quilting.

Family Doll Artist

    I have been doing some quilting but today I want to share about my sister, Irene, the doll artist.  She is the one who started me quilting but now days she spends more time making dolls.   

    My very talented sister Irene is a member of the High Country Doll Artists.  For the past few years she has taken a week long workshop with art doll teacher Ankie Daanen. You can find more about her here.

  

The end of September the doll group had a booth at West Jefferson’s “Art on the Mountain” day.  Here are the dolls she had for sale there. 

   

 

     I love her dolls!  They range from magnificent art dolls with parts sculpted from air dry clay which is hand painted  to more simple fabric dolls.  Something that makes all of her dolls special is the time she spends to embellish each and create their unique personality. You can see more of her dolls and those of other members on their Facebook page. 

    In the past I have shared some of her dolls from the group’s exhibit at the Arts Council.  You can find those posts here and here.  

Enjoy some time sewing and quilting.

A Pile of Finishes

    A couple of months ago I decided to work on improving my curve piecing and started a couple of projects. I have finished my Strips and Curves quilt that was inspired by quilts of Louisa L. Smith. I used strings from my stash.

Here is a close up of the free-motion quilting.  I used the same motif in each unit. 

 

    I quilted this for my church group.

This was the first time I have used a loopy meander overall.

 It was pieced by another member.  The pattern is Fair and Square from CrazyMomQuilts blog.  You can get the free pattern here. 

    After making fabric postcards, I was inspired to make some fall mug rugs.  Here are some finishes. 

    Carole at FromMyCarolinaHome blog is hosting Autumn Jubilee again and sharing a variety of projects. Check out the new projects or ones from past years like this mini quilt that I just made. 

Directions can be found here and here.

I guess I need to post more often so I don't have so many different things at one time; but then I would have to take time from sewing. 

Hope you enjoy some time sewing or quilting.

Projects for the Week

   

   Monday our craft group met to learn and make a few quilted postcards.  I shared my process and examples I received years past in a swap.  The 4 by 6” face of the postcard can be constructed many ways.  You can piece or applique.  You can also use a theme fabric whole cloth, quilt or thread paint, plus embellish with flat items.

Steps:

• Place the top fabric on a layer of batting and quilt.
• Fuse to top side of Timtex or heavy stabilizer.
• Fuse muslin to the back side.
• Retrim to 4 by 6”
• Zigzag or satin stitch around the edges or stitch ribbon folded over the edges as binding.
• Use permanent marking pen to divide back and label as postcard. 

Here are some I recently made.

   

 At church quilt group Wednesday we got so much done.  Our member who passed suddenly last week had 2 quilts in progress.  She had almost finished the quilting on this one so I added a little more and sewed on the binding.  We plan to give it to her family especially because her grandson visited out group during the summer to watch her sewing it together.  I hope it will hold special memories for him. 

She had a jelly roll top pieced.  A member sewed on the border and started quilting it.  Sorry I did not take a photo.

     I pulled backing and pieced 2 backs.  Then we sandwiched 2 other lap quilts which I brought home to quilt so I have plenty to do.  I have not worked recently on quilting my Strips and Curve quilt. I hope to get some done today because I will not have time the rest of the weekend.

Hope you make time to enjoy some sewing and quilting.

How the Week Went

      This week has flown by.  I did spend some downtime thinking about a quilting friend who passed suddenly Tuesday evening.  We will miss her. 

    I quilted one day on my Strips and Strings quilt. So far I have quilted some darker areas with dark green thread. I have much more to quilt.

 

I prefer to quilt when I am fresh in the morning. With 2 mornings this week taken up with an appointment and guild and an afternoon lost to appointment that only left a couple of afternoons to sew. 

   I pulled out this paper-piecing UFO and made good progress.  All the paper-pieced units are finished.

    That is it for this week. Hope you enjoy a great weekend and also find time to enjoy some time sewing or quilting.