Time for an update!

Well, I have not been posting very much lately, but I have been quilting quite a bit.  So, I guess an update is warranted. 

I finally finished two youth sized quilts for a wonderful friend and her two granddaughters.  I had started these a while ago but retirement, buying our mountain house and unexpected health issues got in the way of completing them in a timely manner.  But, with everything else out of the way, it was once again back to sewing!

These two quilts were made from the Baby Log Cabin pattern but have different looks due to the fabrics used.  All the fabrics were purchased at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ and they were quilted by Karen Thompson who always knows the best patterns to use on my quilts! 

The first quilt is called "Buds and Birdies". 

I also made one for her little sister which will be shown, hopefully, in my next post.  I also just heard the great news that I will be making one for their little brother who will arrive in a few months!

I have more to share but it appears that Blogger is not cooperating with my browser (or Chrome) these days so I am going to quit while I am ahead at this point.  Hopefully I will be able to resolve these issues without throwing anything against the wall!

Happy New Year - Let the quilting begin!

Hoping the first 18 days of 2014 have been good to everyone!  I have been busy quilting and knitting and enjoying both.  The holidays were crazy around here and the tree is still up though the external decorations as well as the decorations in the other rooms have been taken down.  The Hubs loves the tree lights so I chose to leave it up a while longer.  It is very soothing. 

So, my last post was about the table runners I was making for Christmas gifts.  All have been gifted and very much appreciated.  My sister decided we would not do gifts this year since we both have grands, and I agreed.  But she said nothing about New Year gifts!  She has also just purchased a new house in Delaware and she said it would match her decor perfectly.

Since I had purchased yardage for this table runner and not a kit, I had enough fabric to make two table runners.  In a kit, there is generally a 22" x 54" strip of fabric which makes one runner.  I decided to use the stripes in different ways to get two different looks.  Here's the result:

The first picture shows the runner made for my sister with the backing and quilting.  The second picture is the same runner along side my sister's runner, although a bit smaller to fit one of my tables.  One was made with the dark stripe inside and the smaller one was made the dark stripe on the outside which results in a darker inner band.  I like them both but I think I prefer the smaller one with two dark bands.  That one will be used in our cabin. 

With the triangles that were removed from the ends of the runners, I was able to make a candle mat.  My sister liked that idea so that will go to her new home as well.  I like this pattern since there are very little scraps!

Here are pictures of the snowman runner I made for my sister-in-law who is also a quilter.  These pictures show the front, back and close-up of this runner.  I have cut several of these cuties and will finish them for next year so, hey, for once, I am ahead of the Christmas rush! 

This fabric was purchased during a NJ Shop Hop.  It was odd to find Christmas fabric in April, but the shop said it was delivered late and should have been there for the previous holiday season.  The timing was just perfect for me!

Snow Time Makes Sewing Time!

Well, this will most likely be our last trip to our cabin in the Poconos for 2013.  We bought our cabin just about a year ago and spent a lot of that year fixing the place up and making it our own.  It was in wonderful shape when we purchased it but we turned the hot tub room into a 3 season room with new carpet and wicker furniture, transformed the bunk room into a family room, replaced the kitchen sink, installed all new window treatments,  and most recently, painted the upstairs bathroom and replaced the vintage medicine cabinet and light fixture with new ones.  Now I can get busy sewing! 

The first project I started and finished this week was not a quilting project but is part of my quest to find a way to give back to the community in some way and also to have projects I can work on when watching TV with the Hubs or when I am between quilting projects.  Two New Year activities on my list are to make knitted caps for Newborns in Need and little quilts for Project Linus.  I have quite an inventory of both yarn and fabric so I am set to go on both activities.  Since I have not knitted baby hats in quite some time, I decided to knit a prototype cap this week.  I have heard that using double pointed needles after a long hiatus is like riding a bike and I found that to be true.  I made a tiny cap for a preemie which took less than a day and was a perfect practice piece.  I was able to maintain my gauge and produced a hat 5" tall with a 10" circumference.  It is the size of my fist.  This was made with variegated yarn and size 3 double pointed needles.

The second project that I completed, also in one day, is a Christmas table runner for the dining table at our cabin.  It was made using the Easy Striped Table Runner pattern by Karen Montgomery.  This is the second table runner I have made using this pattern.  You can see my Timesaver Table Runner here.  (This table runner was a gift for a dear friend who just bought a canal front home several months before Hurricane Sandy hit the area.  Their home was under 4 feet of water but the table runner survived!  It took some time but they have restored their home and were blessed to enjoy it this summer.)  When using this pattern, it is very interesting to see the variations resulting from the way the fabric is cut.  My next table runner project will illustrate this.  The table runner finishes to 16" x 45" so you could get two of them out of 1.5 yards of fabric.  This runner was made from a kit of pre-cut yardage which measured 22" x 54" and included backing fabric as well.  I also used 18" batting which I purchased from a roll of batting during last year's NJ Shop Hop.  This is a perfect size for table runners and results in very few scraps.  

The candle holder was a recent gift from my sister-in-law.  It was made from the trunk of a tree that grew on the front lawn of the house where she and her 5 siblings were raised, my Hubs being one of those siblings.  The tree was planted in the early 50s and recently declined into poor health which necessitated it being felled.  Each of the siblings now have a wonderful memory of that house and that tree. 

            

And of course, I had a group of QIs watching my every move while I was stitching.

Got to run back to making these wonderful runners!













Time to be Thankful

Well, it's the end of November - how did that happen?  I have finished a few things, started a few things and planned a few things.  But before I get into those topics, I want to correct an error from my previous post about the barn quilts.  It appears that the NJ barn quilt page is down.  I have inquired about an update but have not heard back yet. 

But on that note, I have finished my own version of a barn quilt which will be hung on our cabin in the Poconos when the weather warms above freezing!  Here is the finished product:

It is appropriately enough, a log cabin block!

 

 

I have also finished, well except for the binding, two little quilts (42" x 59") for a friends two grand daughters, ages 2 and 1.  They were fun to do and were quilted by Karen Thompson.  These are on schedule for completion the next two weeks. 

 

 

 

 Her bedroom is done in pink and brown and I was lucky enough to find this fabric at my LQS. 

 

Here is her sister's quilt:

 

 The binding has been started and I decided to try these little clips rather than pinning.  I will let you know how that goes. 

 

This quilt has "back art" included on the back.  This was a, um, design flaw.  The fabric requirements were a bit fuzzy on the pattern for this quilt so I was short by a few inches.  I had extra of the coordinating fabrics so I got creative.  I like this pattern so I rewrote the fabric requirements for my own future reference.  I did not have this issue with the first quilt since I already had that fabric which turned out to be more than enough. 

 

So, for my planned projects, there is a quilt for my son for no particular reason other than my sweet grand daughter asked for it.  On a recent trip to Florida to visit them, she asked if I could make him a Florida Gator quilt that he could use when he was watching the games.  We shopped together for the fabric and found Florida Gator themed fabric.  I may have enough for a pillow case as well. 

 

Then there are some table runners on the list for Christmas.  One will be made using a template from the Missouri Quilt Company.  I have recently gotten hooked on their You Tube tutorials.  I have a lot of holiday fabrics so this should be a good way to use some of them. 

 

As part of my always on-going organization of my sewing room, I have now taken inventory of my rulers and tools.  An eye opening experience.  I will put this in a database of sorts that can be stored on my smartphone so I can minimize duplication of rulers which I discovered has been a problem in the past!  I will share my totals in a future blog - but trust me, it will be a bit of a shocker. 

 

Well, enough for now.  We are packing up to go home to the NJ abode after a wonderful birthday week at the cabin.  Got lots of snow but I was also able to get lots of quilting done!  I like those weeks! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family!  It is certainly a time for me to be thankful on multiple levels. 

 

My quest to quilt continues!