Feast or Famine

Well, my retirement didn't start out exactly as I had planned.  Within one week of my retiring, I ended up with gallbladder surgery which really knocked the wind out of my sails for several weeks.  Of course, there was no other option other than the surgery so I just rested, recuperated and relaxed. 

With that out of the way, I am now knee deep in quilting projects.  Some are oldies but goodies but some are new.  I am trying to finish up some older projects that just needed quilting and binding.  But I am also selecting and cutting fabrics for some new projects, mostly baby quilts.  Now that we have a mountain house in PA, I am doing all of my hand sewing of bindings and hand piecing projects there and all of the cutting and piecing steps at our NJ home.  That may change in time but for now I have enough to keep me busy in both locations. 

This week we are in the mountain house so I brought a binding project to complete.  This was an older project that was an online mystery quilt project.  I finally brought it to the longarm quilter with three other quilts so it is now ready for binding.  I haven't decided where this quilt will eventually "live" but it is one of the few quilts in progress that isn't a gift for someone else!

My next project will be binding two wall hangings that I may use in the mountain house.  I am auditioning one of them this week to see if it works here.  Here is a picture of one of them.  Both wall hangings are identical. 

These will be bound in the burgandy fabric which will make them stand out nicely on the wall.  I will post pictures when the binding is completed on both of these.  This is hung using a "Hang it, Dang it" quilt hanger.  Easy to use and it hangs on one nail!  Self leveling to boot!  Love these! 

I should have two more projects to post soon.  These two are gifts so I don't want to post the pictures until they are given to the recipient. 

I will say, it has been feast or famine this month but having a mountain house has certainly kept me motivated to keep things moving so I have something to sew when we are here.  But hey, whatever works in my quest to quilt!

Need to update my blog!

My profile will need some revisions since I am now retired as of yesterday!  This hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm sure it won't take long.  I have completed and delivered the quilt shown in my last post and I have dropped off 4 other quilts to the quilter.  They should be ready for binding in about 4 weeks.  Now, I need to get my projects listed in priority order.  I am very excited about having more time to quilt!  No more work means no more excuses!  Stay tuned! 

It's a New Year - Resolution

Well, here we are with a New Year and I think the perfect time to get back to my quest to quilt.  I have been doing some quilting over the past several months but couldn't find a spare 5 minutes to blog about it.  Lots has happened since my last post though!  The Hubs retired in July and we bought a cabin in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania in September.  Both good things to be sure, but I am still working full time so I had a pretty full plate for a while.  We closed on the cabin in mid-December and we've been setting up our new retreat ever since.  This is our first full week staying at the cabin and was the best way ever to greet the New Year! 

I have several quilts ready for binding so I decided that I would bring them to the cabin to complete the hand sewing part of the binding.  This is a baby quilt that I made for a co-worker's new daughter.  It's a yellow brick road pattern and the fabrics were chosen to coordinate with her nursery's decor - butterflies. 

Here are some pictures of this quilt in various stages:  this one shows the completed top.

 

The photo below shows the top contrasted against the backing fabric. 

The photo below shows a close up of the pretty butterfly backing.

 

The last photo shows the quilt after quilting in a butterfly pattern.

The binding has been sewn to the front and is ready to stitch to the back.  That is my project for the next few days. 

 

A great way to start the new year!  Stay tuned, one day down, 364 to go!

Timesaver Tablerunner

This tablerunner was so easy to make but I forgot to mention it! 
We have friends that purchased a shore house recently and we were invited to spend a weekend there in late July.  I wanted to make a special house warming gift for them and thought of a tablerunner.  As it turns out, we keep our boat at a marina about 10 miles from their shore home.  And, our marina is about 3 miles from a wonderful quilt shop, Quilting Possibilities.  After a day of boating, I was able to visit the shop to look for the perfect fabric for the table runner since they have a great selection of shore related fabrics.  It didn't take long to find what I wanted!  And it was blue and white, their favorite colors!  The pattern uses striped fabric to create the center motif in these tablerunners.  I loved how this one turned out so much, I purchased other striped fabrics, mostly holiday patterns, so I could make more. 

This shows the backing fabric

Completed top on my display board