Monday, March 31, 2014

2014 Finish Along Goals Completed

I listed my original goals for Jan, Feb, March Here.  Since then I have completed Tedi's Quilt, Tedi's placemats, Tardy Turtle,Tshirt Quilt, Baby Quilt, and Handle That,

The only goal I didn't achieve is Makena's pillow, which I will re-list for next time.  I am so happy I joined the 2014 finish along.  It has kept me in line:) Check out the big Blue button on the right of my blog if you want to join the fun!

 I probably won't be posting for a week.  My hard drive seems to have crashed and it will go out tomorrow.  No pics in this post except the links to the finished quilts because my husband's computer is not user friendly:(  If this is your first visit-please stop back by! To my regular visitors-be blessed this coming week!!!

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Tshirt quilt Bound!

My only March finish so far and I am running out of time if I want to finish anything else.  I am hoping to do a couple of pillowcases for my granddaughter after Church tomorrow-I hope. However it is on my list of goals for 2014 Finish Along (my original list)and the one goal for A Lovely year of Finishes.  Both buttons are on my sidebar if you want to join. It is helping me keep on track.  After we move I want to focus on quilting more slowly and make less utilitarian and more art focused quilts, but in the meantime, I have all these UFO's that I just want to bang out and be done!


My computer is acting up so am using my husband's and the resolution on the pic isn't wonderful but I like the finished quilt.

Today we had our 4th annual "Tea With Thee" that benefits our local Crisis Pregnancy Center.  I think we raised at least 3,500.00 and had a great time doing it. Sold out-160 ladies.


My Table with my aunt Dot's china that she left me when she went home to be with Jesus-I use it every year in her honor

I am most blessed to have such amazing friends Jackie, Tanya, Tracy and me

Would have been a great pic of the Beyers without the microphone.  The quilt was donated and was professionally quilted-it was really pretty.

My feet hurt so I may be going to bed early-a very worthy cause but I am tuckered out.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

My first Quilt (that wasn't an EB rip and stitch)

I started making things in my teens. I am thankful to my Home Economics sewing class in junior high for giving me a love of sewing and my mom (who didn't sew) for buying me a 1963 Singer portable (which I still use regularly) for encouraging my sewing adventure.  I made most of my clothes in high school and most of the Christmas and birthday presents that I gave.  I remember the first outfit I made in home economics because we had to wear it in a fashion show.  It was well made but the material was big bright flowers which I am glad I don't have a picture of today-the visual memory is bad enough.

Old Faithful-made in England-I love this machine

When I married at 21, I went on to make a lot of my husband's shirts (in calico of course because it was the 70's).  I also started to make applique pillows.  They were my own design and were really "art" pillows.  I also designed a wall hanging done in my rather funky style and gave it as a wedding gift. In the late 70's I took an Eleanor Burns "Quilt in a Day" class and made hand tied quilts for everyone in my family and me too.  I recently saw my son's quilt when I helped him move last year.  We used a lot of sheets for backings at the time-I have not saved any of those treasures (and neither did anyone else except my son and I don't think he saved it on purpose) but I do still have the first pieced quilt I made:

Faded and wear weary but still special to me
Hand quilted hearts


Appliqued hearts
It was made in the late 80's in my first "template" quilt class-I just came across my notes and cardboard templates I used and the name of the teacher (Ann Albertson) who happens to be a fellow guild member all these years later.  I also made another one in that class; an alternating snowball and 9 patch in calicos of course.  I had hand quilted it and was about one quarter finished when I put it away. I spent a couple of nights removing the lovely muslin backing and the polyester batting.  I will practice my quilting skills on that one.  Unfortunately I have packed it so I can't show it. 

I went to college about then and didn't fit quilting in again for almost 20 years.  Two years before I retired from a career in education, I took a class at our high school and made my first granddaughter a pink flannel baby quilt in the Irish Chain pattern and have been quilting ever since.  My favorite quilt so far is this one:

Middle of quilt pattern by Janice Ellertson

I loved the challenge of making this quilt and changing the materials and pattern to make it my own..  I had to completely dismantle the checked border (that I designed) to make it hang right.

I can't wait to see where my quilting journey will take me.  I feel as if I have just begun this experiment in fabric and only wish I were 30 years younger so that the ride would last longer-however, that could be dangerous:)  Quilting has become such a part of my life, I know I could never put it down again-it would be like losing an old friend.

I wrote this story because I love to read stories and I subscribe to Quilting Arts magazine and they are running a contest-you can check it out Here.  if I were fortunate enough to win the contest, I would want the Quilting Arts TV Series Premium Collection Download.


Saturday, March 22, 2014

Purple Maze

This pattern is out of  Kathy Doughty's Making Quilts. Her original version is called Red Center and it is smaller than this will be.  Purple Maze will fit our Queen Bed, will be 21x21 4.5"squares with 2 borders: a skinny green and then a 4.5 inch piano key border left over from end of the row scraps.  I bought this fabric almost 4 years ago with another design in mind.  Still love the fabric and even bought 6 yards for a back which is beautiful on its own.  Then i saw Red Center and knew this was the design for that fabric.

Layed out 4.5 strips 6 deep and cut at 5" then cut through stack at angle near middle




I Then shuffled the pack, slipping the top left piece only-to the bottom of the pack.  Then you gather the pairs-making sure they stay pairs and assembly sew away.  Iron open.

      
All strips cut and laid in stacks of six


So nice to see something else on the design wall




All lined up and ready for today except I got "0" sleep last night because of not being able to breathe-so today will not be a sewing day as I hoped it would be.  Also-that is what tomorrow is created for:)
This is the project I am choosing for my April finish for A lovely year of Finishes..  Check out the button on my sidebar

Monday, March 17, 2014

Ta-DAAAA!

I think the title may be from Dora the Explorer.  It feels so good to get this quilted-only binding to go!  It caught in 2 places on the Gamill which I will have to fix-but non-the less-it feels good.  I almost wanted to take a picture of my empty design wall:)

top quilted in black-thought it would be more noticeable but it blends in nicely.

Back is a hot pink flannel-I lightened the exposure so you could see the quilting which is light pink

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Good Tshirt Quilt Progress

I jumped in but didn't drown.  I have had to rearrange some blocks and trim a few and even stand some on end to get them to fit into a sewable puzzle.  Just have to finish the bottom row as everything else is sewn together.  The heart will have to be appliqued.


Saturday, March 8, 2014

Jumping in Head First

I have been looking at the Tshirt quilt for several weeks-and it has been looking at me.  I finally just jumped into the murky water and held my breath.  So far so good but now I am getting to the hard part so I quit for the day.
Looks like I will be able to add a few more Tshirt logos which will make the recipient happy.  I am sewing them in chunks that hopefully will be easy to attach in the end.  The back will be hot pink and the binding-who knows!  One step at a time.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Star Light

I am noticing that things that used to not bug me now nibble at me until I fix them.  Sally Collins is rubbing off-or rather Susan Axelrod who channels SC.  I had to go back and fix the blue star near the middle after it was sewn in to the quilt top-couldn't live with the glaring imperfection-not that the rest is perfect as I lost a few points but I am happy with it now that it is fixed.  I have the backing/binding chosen and will now put it away and get to work on the T Shirt!

Star Light 23x27

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Goals are Good-but Sometimes Ignored

I really had planned to work on that Tshirt quilt that is heavy on my mind and on my design wall-but there it hangs-glaring at me.  I did get Tedi's placemats back:


But mostly I have been working on something that isn't even on my list but I have enjoyed working on it and have gotten lost in it's construction.  The book our "Tiny Treasures" come out of is:

This was December's block but I missed it so went back and started on it.  It has 12 blocks which are 4.5 each.

8 down-4 to go-bottom 2 are upside down
I am getting better at matching seams in these little blocks-have redone a few:

A couple of threads off on right one but spot on in the left center square.  These take a really long time to do to cover such a small area but I love the challenge to myself.


Monday, March 3, 2014

Enchanted Autumn

I have loved this quilt since I saw it hanging in a quilt shop south of Seattle 3 years ago.  I suggested it for our town's Quilting Club's (we are not a guild-nor do they want to be) Opportunity Quilt.  I organized the making of it but many ladies took home blocks that were turned and glued down so all they had to do was whipstitch around them.  I then sewed them all together when they came back to me.  Susie Johnson quilted it and Marilyn Hersey bound it.  Truly a group effort.  I think it turned out beautifully and it is hanging in the Crazy 9 Patch for the Quilt Run.  It felt good to hand it over to the ladies who will take care of ticket sales.

Enchanted Autumn by Verna Mosquera (Vintage Spools)

Saturday, March 1, 2014

March 2014 Goals

My one big goal for March is to finish this T-Shirt quilt before the young lady waiting for it is a grandmother.

I also would like to get it off my design wall and move on to something else.   I also need to make a pillowcase for each of my granddaughters and one fitted sheet each-have the materials-just need to do it!  lastly, I want to make a pillow with my kids' dog, Makena on the front using the Inktense pencils.  That's it.  Hopefully I will get those items done so I can get back to my Cow quilt!
February finishes: Turtle Quilt, Baby Quilt, Block for Becky

We have 183 members in our guild and if 1/4 do a block, our president will have a nice quilt.  The only requirements were use brights and it had to be 6.5 inches.  I used selvedge on Kaffe Fassett and the nursery material from Sloanie's bedroom.  However the pens that are not supposed to bleed- did!  Need to work on the writing and add some more.