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......