Finally, the 2015 Finale!

I have been very remiss in posting anything for several many months but I really have been quilting when time allowed.  We have had a very busy travel schedule this year.  We traveled to Florida for our granddaughter's spring break.  This was one way by car and one way by train.  We have also now taken our first cruise ever to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.  A one week in Bermuda takes six weeks to plan!  Who knew?  We had a grand time, and yes, I did find a fabric store and purchased 2 yards of pretty, seaside themed fabric.  No plans yet but I will make something special with this fabric!

Then, we traveled to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, one week in May and two weeks in October.  Again, these trips took lots of planning beforehand.  We also have a house in the Pocono Mountains and the great weather brought many visitors who loved to fish and just relax!  Our final trip took us and my sister to Georgetown, Kentucky for a 9 day visit with good friends.  Lots of barn quilts to see here!  One of our most exciting activities was to walk a part of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania! 

I visited lots of quilt shops in NJ and PA that were participating in the Row by Row event.  I managed to collect lots of the license plates from states including Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  They will be used to make a tote bag for my quilting supplies. 

But, I do want to highlight the quilting  related projects that occupied my time since the last time I posted, so very, very long ago.  Many of the quilted items were gifts and so they could not be posted until they were gifted.

These are two flannel, self-binding receiving blankets made for our niece for her new baby boy.  I had never made these before and could not believe how easy they were to make!

This is another of the Easy Striped table runners that I love to make.  The magic comes from using fabric with multiple repeats.  This one is for our mountain home.

This is my first "10 minute" table runner.  I bought this as a kit which came with the outer and inner fabrics.  It took a bit more than 10 minutes but not more than 30.  This was used on my foyer table during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I have other fabrics in my stash for a variety of holidays and seasons that would be perfect for this type of runner. 

This was another project for our mountain home.  It was made with fabric from my stash and is all fishing related fabric.  I had enough to make a pillow sham as well.  This was pieced from large sections of fabric since I did not want to cut the main fishing fabric into smaller pieces.  It was a very large queen size and is extremely warm, a good thing when the temps drop to below zero outside! 

These are two Christmas runners I made for my sister.  Her home was selected for the Christmas house tour and she wanted some runners to add to her décor.  These were placed in an "L" configuration in one of her rooms that was on display. 

This was probably my last project for 2015.  It was a Christmas gift for my husband but still needs to be quilted.  I did not have enough time to get it to the long arm quilter to have it finished before Christmas.  It will be brought to the quilter tomorrow.  It is made of 80 different food blocks.  We have an inside joke in our family that any trip needs to include a "food event" so I thought it was about time to make the Hubs his own "food event" quilt.  He loved it!   Although I realized that it is near impossible to surprise my husband with a quilt when we are both retired and doing things together all the time! 









I am looking forward to starting a new year with a plan to finish some of my UFOs along with starting a few new projects.  Sounds familiar, doesn't it?  My year will start off with a New Year Mystery Quilt where each step will be provided each hour.  I have chosen my fabrics (from my stash) and will have the initial cutting done by the morning of 1/1/2016.  I will post how that went in my first post of the New Year. 

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!!!

Love a Mug Rug!

My sister has recently retired and moved to Delaware to a beautiful new home.  I do miss her since we have always lived close to each other but she keeps telling me that she is only two hours away!  I will be making a pilgrimage next month when we will officially present her with a housewarming gift.  She visited this weekend so I wanted to give her a little something to use while she was reading or watching TV in front of the warm glow of her fireplace.  She loves a nice cuppa tea so what better gift to make than a mug rug!  Or two, or three, or four! 

Making the mug rugs was the easy part - getting the colors right, not so much!  It couldn't be just any blue, it had to be HER blue!  So, I was a bit nervous when I handed her the package.  I think I did ok!  I think.....  She did order two more!  That's a good sign! 

Here are the mug rugs that were stitched with love for her:

The photo on the left shows the front of the mug rugs.  I made two in shades of blue for her living area and two for her bedroom which is black and light tan. 

The mug in the picture was a gift from my sister so I thought it was appropriate to use it in the picture! 

The photo on the right shows the back of the mug rugs.  They all have a bit of quilting which shows better on the back side.   

These are so much fun to make and I certainly enjoyed making them for my sister!  Now, on to fill her order for two more! 

2015 Pat Sloan BOM - Update 1

The BOM seems to be working for me.  I thought when I started it that I would do one block and then get working on other things which would push the BOM blocks further down the priority list until I finally got so far behind that it would fall off the list.  I would end up with a pillow or two, but not the objective I originally had in mind. 

Good news - I am keeping up with the blocks!  Even with all the other irons I have in the fire, I manage to keep up with the monthly block and plan a time to complete it.  All of the blocks will use the same palette of fabrics so that cuts out some time.  The particular colors for each piece are indicated on the pattern for the block so that decreases the decision making time.  So, I have been able to complete each block in a few hours at the most.  Here are the next two blocks that have been completed:

This is the second block and is called "Toes in the Sand".

There was a choice of making the chevron pieces using either half-square triangles or flying geese.  I like using the flying geese since is creates less seams. 

This is the third block and is called "Surf's Up"

This one came together quickly without a hitch!  Now, just waiting for April's block to be published! 

This is a picture of the three bocks together.

I am waiting to see if more of the "red" color in the first block is used in future blocks.  If not, I am considering remaking the first block since I am not too sure about how the blocks are looking together.  Well, it is a mystery after all!  And so, the mystery continues.

Tee shirt weather of a different kind!

It certainly has been colder than I can ever remember, and so not tee shirt weather but tee shirts have been part of my daily activities for a while now.  No, not wearing them - sewing them!  You see,  I have a very dear friend that has a job that takes her to magical places.  International as well as domestic.  I live vicariously through her and love to hear her stories about all these wondrous places.  Needless to say, she has accumulated a large number of tee shirts from her travels.  We worked together for 10 years and so she heard me regaling about all my quilting activities so it was only natural that she approached me about turning her tee shirts into a quilt. 

At that time I had one in the works for myself.  It was the first tee shirt quilt for me and although I had not worked on it for a while, I thought I would enjoy making one for her as well.  It took some time to work out the colors and layout.  All of these shirts came from Hard Rock Cafes.  We laid out the shirts and discussed colors she wanted for background, borders and backing.  One of the difficulties in doing this project was that I retired shortly after starting the quilt.  We made a lot of decisions over the phone or via text messages.  I would take pictures of potential fabrics while I was in the fabric store and text her for a yay or nay.  I took pictures of potential layouts as well for her opinion and approval.  Gotta love the technology!  Two situations that I had not planned on with the layout reared their ugly head early on.  One was that the graphics on the shirts were all different sizes.  The other was that only 10 of the 12 shirts had the location included within the graphic.  One of the things that she wanted was the location of the café with each shirt.  They all had the location on the front pockets though.  So, the two shirts that needed their location were paired with their pocket graphic.  It took a while to get a suitable layout with all the different sizes.  The background fabric had to be custom cut for each shirt.  It was truly a labor of love!  I had it quilted at my local quilt shop, Old City Quilts and they did a fabulous job.  The back of the quilt included all the other pocket graphics so it took some time to coordinate the back to the front so it was balanced.  Then it was bound.  It was delivered today!


 I folded it and packaged it in a pillow case that I made especially for her.  She loves flip flops! 

 
So, now I have come full circle - the original inspiration for the Hard Rock quilt was my tee shirt quilt which was still in pieces.  The Hard Rock quilt then became the inspiration to complete my quilt.  It is now quilted and just needs to be bound.  The binding is made so I am really close!  And, it now has a name - BTDT (Been there, done that, got the tee shirt).   These tee shirts were earned during a variety of events including department picnics, Corporate walks for MS, and bicycle events from the Princeton Freewheeler bike club events.  I was a lot younger then, as you can see, some of the shirts are from 1988!  I was able to do long distance bike rides then, 25milers were my favorite but I also did one 50 miler (1 was enough for me!).  All memorable events with wonderful friends. 

 

The backing I choose was appropriate for the times - at least I think so - since it represents some of my "wild and crazy days"! 

 

So, one more UFO can be crossed off the list!  I have several many more to work on, but now I am on a roll and have some large pieces out of the way.  Working on a few smaller projects in between these larger ones seems to be the strategy that works for me, at least at this point in time!  Let's see what's next......

Double Header Day!

I have been striving to complete my UFOs over the last several months.  So far I have been making good progress.  I have now just finished two small wall hangings that have been in my UFO pile for quite a while now, years in fact.  All they needed were bindings.  It took a while but I finally attached the binding.  Once the binding was attached, it was a long time until I found time to do the hand sewing part of the binding.  They just never seemed to rise to the top of the pile.  Until now. 

My strategy has been to work on the low hanging fruit first.  There was no overwhelming need to have them done.  They were not gifts, they were not needed for a holiday decoration.  But, in the scheme of things, they required very little time to complete so it made sense to finish these first.

These are the two completed wall hangings.  The blocks are the same and in the same arrangement in each one, but they are done in a positive-negative setting. 

 

This picture shows the back of the wall hangings.  The quilting was done by Karen Thompson.  She used the leaf pattern on the backing as an inspiration for the overall quilting.  It works very well! 

 

This is one of the wall hangings finally on the quilt rack on one side of the fireplace!  It is actually hanging very straight, the Hubs is an engineer, so the shelf is perfectly level and centered.  I just didn't take a very straight photo!  The other wall hanging is on the opposite side of the fireplace.  Unfortunately, it hangs behind our flat screen TV so you only get to see the top block and half of the second block but you get the idea.  The quilt racks were purchased at a quilt show sometime in 2009.  They were custom made and stained to match our furniture.  The shelf is the perfect place to display some of my Jim Shore pieces. 

 

 

Next "fruit" to be picked is a small lap quilt that needs to be bound.  The binding strips are cut but need to be sewn together and attached to the lap quilt.  This binding will be all done by machine.  I think I see a pattern here!  After that is completed, there are two small table runners that need to be sandwiched, quilted and bound.  I won't go more than those three projects ahead since you never know when Murphy's Law will rear it's ugly head! 

 

Stay tuned!

 

My Intentional UFO!

I am trying to balance my time between large projects like bed quilts, finishing up several lots of UFOs, and starting a new project.  I think I probably share this problem with many others.  I have joined several quilting groups on Facebook and have started a BOM on one of them.  I have never done a BOM before and so far I am enjoying this one.  All the fabrics have been selected and the January block is complete.  The pattern for the February block has been printed and reviewed and will be done next week when I know I will have some extra free time.  I also participated in a challenge from this group to use up 2.5 squares.  I originally completed one 6x6 square block and thought I was done when I found out that the challenge was to complete at least a baby quilt size from the scraps.  This meant cutting 432 squares from my stash.  I did end up cutting all the squares, assigning them to a block (I have never been able to just pull a block from a bag)  and sewing 6 of the 12 blocks.  I finally realized that this was more than I wanted to do because I had so many other irons in the fire that needed my attention and I had no current need for this particular quilt.  So, the challenge was put aside for now.  It will be finished within a few weeks however. 

So, after much deliberation, I have decided to do a Farmer's Wife sampler quilt.  I was intrigued with this quilt since it is made from 6.5 inch blocks and the pattern has 111 blocks.  Some I have made already, but most I have not attempted.  I like the idea of trying new blocks.  I think this keeps the excitement in the project, especially since this will most likely end up being a queen size quilt.  The blocks are inspired by the letters written by farm wives to respond to a question posted by a newspaper in 1920 which wanted to know if mothers wanted their daughters to marry a farmer.  The letters were reviewed and several winners were chosen.  The cash prizes ranged from $200 to $1. 

The book "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt" book was authored by Laurie Aaron Hird who was inspired by the letters received.  She then selected 111 blocks which were inspired by the letters.  These include Broken Dishes, Broken Sugar Bowl, Steps to the Alter, Farmer's Puzzle and many more. 

 

Now that I have decided on the project, the next hurdle was to choose the fabrics.  I am on a stash reduction path right now so I wasn't planning on buying new fabric for this project.  But I also wanted to use a coordinated pallet of fabrics.  Then I remembered that I had quite a collection of 1930s fabric fat quarters.  I have 42 FQs of the Storybook Classics collection from Windham Fabrics and 33 other FQs that were collected over the years. 

 

 

I think these will do very nicely! 

 

My next step was to choose the blocks I wanted to make first.  I needed a selection method.  Do I make them in the order they are in the book, by name, by number, by number of pieces?  And the winner is....drum roll please.....by number of colors per block!  I went through the book and selected all the blocks that used two colors regardless of number of pieces.  You can see all the yellow page markers in the photo of the book above. 

I think this will give me a nice variety of starter blocks. 

 

The book contains a CD with all the templates needed to make the blocks.  It's been a while since I used templates so this will be an interesting part of this project.  My next step is to review the CD and determine which templates are needed first.  I may attempt to find some alternate cutting options since 6.5" blocks are pretty common and many of these blocks have been around for a while. 

 

There is no definite schedule for completing this project.  I am hoping to make 2 blocks per week, but this is not carved in stone.  My target month for my first block is March.  We'll see how that goes first but I think that is very possible "God willing and the creek don't rise!"

 

 

 



My next table runner project - or two, or three!

First, let's be clear, I am the first to admit that I have a long list of quilty things to do start and finish but I think these are some good choices to put in the top 10 for this year. 

I really like love table runners!  I find them easy to make, quick to finish and I can quilt them myself which increases my confidence with machine quilting. They can also be made in a variety of widths and lengths. Plus, i can buy fabrics for every holiday!  Now that we have two homes, I have plenty of places to put them.  Many of the quilt shops carry these as kits with the striped fabric already cut and the backing fabric included.  

One of my favorite patterns for table runners uses striped fabrics. These are certainly the easiest projects to do since they are made with only 5 seams!  I have made several of them which can be found by using the label "runner".  

Those table runners were made with the Easy Striped Table Runner pattern designed by Karen Montgomery.  I have fabric to make several more from that pattern.  

The other table runners will be made from the Triangle Frenzy Runner pattern by Bunnie Cleland.  These are new to me.  One is called "Runner" and the other is called "Swirl".  These patterns also have instructions for left-handed cutting which is a big plus!  

In addition to the striped fabric and the pattern, the other required tool is the 60° ruler.  I have two sizes of this ruler, the Creative Grid 8" (CGRT60) and the Creative Grid (CGRT12560) 12".  I used the smaller ruler for the Easy Striped pattern.  The Frenzy pattern calls for the larger ruler.  

These rulers can also be used to make a hexagon table topper.  There are several good ones out there.  The pattern for the Triangle Frenzy indicates they have one available.  I don't have that one - yet - but I do have this one by Sew Biz.  

I know these rulers are a bit expensive so it is nice when you can use them for several purposes.  I bet this one can be altered to make a Christmas tree skirt!  

The fabrics I have on hand to make several of these table runners (or table topper) are suitable for both everyday use and holidays.  I have fabrics for fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as everyday runners.  I will most likely make the Easter table runner first, followed by the birthday runner.  

I also have these fabrics that were recently purchased from The Village Quiltery near our cabin in the Poconos.  They had such a wonderful selection of these striped fabrics.  I also purchased backing fabrics to match.  

It may sound like I have an overabundance of runner fabrics, (they now have their own bin!) but considering that the runners take about an hour to make, I can make several in a day.  They do not require binding, although that is certainly an alternative to the "pillow case" finishing technique that I use.  I finish mine off with decorative top-stitching.  They are perfect to use for any occasion but they also make wonderful gifts!  

End of 2014 - Start of 2015

So, a new year has arrived.  A clean slate.  A new beginning.  It was a very busy end of year however.  I started some new things and finished some things.  I think I built up some momentum for the next few months.  Here is what I was working on since the my last post.  My time was mostly occupied by helping the Hubs recover from cataract surgery, traveling to the Outer Banks for 2 weeks in October, my birthday, our anniversary, Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I'm lucky I found time to think about quilting, let alone get any done.  But, I did accomplish a few things. 

I saw a quilted box on one of my quilting groups on Facebook and fell in love with it.  It is a simple project made with 2 squares of fabrics of various sizes.  I chose 10" squares.  Great for using up some scraps.  I found a wonderful tutorial on seaside-stitches.blogspot.com.  The size of the box changes with the size of the squares you use and how deep you make the corners.  I had such fun buying buttons too! 

As I was going through my stash of holiday fabrics to use to make more boxes, I came across a holiday table runner kit that I remember purchasing at a NJ Shop Hop location.  It came with the fabrics for the top, backing and binding.  It took less than an hour to sew and about 2 hours to bind.  I was so glad I finally got this one done!  I wonder how many other simple-to-do kits I have hidden away!  Will know soon, but more on that later. 

This was a wonderful surprise from a quilty friend who is travelling the country in a spectacular RV and quilts on the road.  I love this and found a template to make it on the Missouri Star Quilt Company website.  It is the wacky web (periwinkle) template.  This uses the 5" template and is perfect for charm squares.  I loved this so much I made some for gifts.  I used fat quarters for these, but have plenty of charm squares that I can use to make lots more.  They were quick, easy and lots of fun!  They make great mug rugs, candle mats or table toppers.

This was the last quilt I made in 2014.  It was made for a dear friend's grandson who was born in September.  His dad is a big Yankee fan as you can tell.  I designed the quilt around the center logo square and machine quilted it with stitch-in-the-ditch and echo stitching.  The piecing was done in 2014 and the quilting and binding were completed by January 2nd. 

Now for the new stuff! 

I started a block of the month project, an event created by Pat Sloan on her Facebook group, Quilt Along with Pat Sloan.  The list of supplies was provided in late December and the first block pattern was given out on January 1.  A new block pattern will be provided each month through September.  I am using the fabrics shown here. They are from my stash.  

I finished my first block today!

 

 

The new year is off to a good start! 

2015 Pat Sloan BOM

I started a block of the month project, an event created by Pat Sloan on her Facebook group, Quilt Along with Pat Sloan.  The list of supplies was provided in late December and the first block pattern was given out on January 1.  A new block pattern will be provided each month through September.  I am using the fabrics shown here. They are from my stash.  

I finished my first block today!