Quilts #87 & #88

I made these two bullseye quilts for Megan and Emily. I am telling them these are the last two that they are getting that are alike. From now on, when I want to make them quilts I will let them pick a pattern individually and go from there! I also made two doll quilts today to match their quilts. I think they will like that. I quilted these on Marie's long arm - certainly is easier than quilting on my home machine but I am not really sure how much I like it. I think it depends on the quilt. And of course it would be good if I could learn how to do something other than a meander. It was very windy outside when I was trying to get the pictures.

 

 

 

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Quilt #86

This is absolutely my favorite ever. It is a Christmas present for the best daughter ever. I realized that I had never actually made a quilt for her. When I saw this herringbone pattern on the blog, 13 Spools, I knew I wanted to make it. It is quite labor intensive, but fun to make. And so pretty and bright! And for the back I found this fantastic black and white with wine bottles. Each bottle has the info on a type of wine. I also included a black and white herringbone block. I quilted it on my home machine with the walking foot and it worked really well. The pictures do not do it justice. I'm going to try to get some better pictures.

 

 

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Quilt #85

I actually have a few quilts finished but only have pictures of one, so here is quilt #85! I made a baby quilt for the niece of my friend and old college roommate, Scherry. Ashley is having her first child, a girl, in January. So a quilt and some spitties seemed in order. I started a quilt with some pinwheels with floral fabric and I really hated it - so some orphan blocks were made! Then I went to plan B and love how it turned out! I quilted it with variegated thread in the white spaces in a spiral. Here are the pics.

 

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Turkey Placemats for the kiddos

From a Christmas table runner to thanksgiving placemats. I have had this pattern for a couple of years and finally decided that the kids would probably like the turkeys this year. They turned out a lot cuter than I thought they would be. They also turned out to be more work than I thought they would be! But, I'm pleased with the finished product and can't wait to give them to the grandkids on thanksgiving.

 

 

 

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Finally a finish

I have 6 quilts waiting for my turn on Marie's long arm - hopefully I will get at least one done this week! But last week Marie and I went to a quilt shop and I saw a Christmas table runner kit that I thought would be great to make. So last night I finished sewing on the binding! Not a big finish but I am just glad to have finished something!

 

 

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Quilt #84

Matthew is playing soccer this year so he needed a soccer team quilt, even though, at 3 they all sit on mommy's lap when they aren't on the field. The first week, Matthew cried the whole game and would not even get on the field. The second week, James got him on the field but he would not move. Then came week three, and as soon as the ball was kicked off he went after it and never stopped! He scored 3 goals! It was amazing! Don't know why he suddenly decided playing soccer was a good thing! But he seems to really like it which makes making his quilt worthwhile! He was really excited to get it today. And his oldest sister was excited to get her two soccer team quilts! And, little Miss Emily, who was the first one to get a soccer quilt for her team, the Sprinkles, may be quitting soccer this year. But today, she got a pillowcase ans a Halloween doll bed quilt! She seemed happy enough with those! Here is the Lightning quilt!

 

 

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Quilt #83

Finished the Raiders quilt for Megan.

I really like the quilting over the name - looks kind of like a soccer net. But, when I washed it I found that the quilting did not hold down the letters well enough - so, on th plan B! I figured the Shockers quilt would be the same when it came out of the dryer. It wasn't as bad, I think there was more shrinkage behind the letters on the Raiders quilt. But plan B was to go back and sew down the letters even though the quilt was finished. Wouldn't win any quilt show ribbons but the 6 year olds will love the quilts - especially if it ever gets COLD! Since Matthew's Lightning quilt hadn't been quilted yet - that is tomorrow's task - I sewed his letters down! Nice to be able to do one in the correct order.

 

 

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Quilt #82

Finished the first of three new soccer quilts. Megan is on a rec team, the Shockers, and an "instructional" team, the Raiders. So she needed new quilts for both new teams. And Matthew is playing soccer this year, too, so he needs a quilt got the Lightning. It will be finished next week, as will Megan's Raiders quilt. And it is a good thing too, since I leave for Pittsburgh a week from Tuesday! The Shockers are royal blue this year, but when Megan played with them this summer they were pink. So I made the back of the quilt pink.

 

 

 

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WIP - there seem to be a lot of them!

Thought I would post a works in progress blog post since I seem to have quite a few. And there are still others that have ended up in drawers and closets that may seem the light of day in the future.

First is the flimsy that has been complete for a very long time from the Judy Neimeyer class that Marie and I took at Quilt Asylum. It is the Desert Sky pattern.

Next is a flimsy from a Quilt University class called Entwined Star that I took in 2013. Finally, this summer I bought the grunge material ( that I have never liked) for the border and it was perfect!

Next I have two bullseye flimsies made from the mirror ball fabric for my two granddaughters. Can't believe I picked such a labor intensive quilt to have to make two of - but I link how they turned out. When I finally get around to it, I am going to quilt them with vertical straight lines.

 

Then there is the soccer team quilt for the Raiders - Megan's new soccer team! Still have to make one for Matthew's soccer team. Glad it is not cold yet! Hope to get this one quilted quickly.

And on the design board, is my latest WIP. Really love it, but talk about labor intensive. Found this pattern on a 13 Spools tutorial called Improv Herringbone.

Last, but not least, I am working on a redwork Christmas quilt. It may be a few more Christmases before it is ready!

 

Besides WIPs, I have been working on the charity pillowcases. Thus far, I have made 14. We are going to take them to Love of Quilting to turn them in on Sept. 19th. Hope to have a few more by then. Here are a few of the finished ones.

 

 

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Quilt #81

This is my "ugly quilt"! That is what I have been calling it. I bought this jelly roll quite a while ago and the strips were cut TERRIBLY! Some less than 2 1/4"! It was very frustrating! Then I put it away for a while after deciding I really didn't like it. Then in April, I broke my arm and I really couldn't use my rotary cutter and these blocks were all made. So I put the quilt together. And since it was my "ugly quilt" when I took it to Marie's to use the long arm I just went wild. Since I have only used a long arm a couple of times I decided to just do whatever sounded good at the moment - no worries about crossing lines or making mistakes. I actually kind of like the randomness of it all. Here are the pics.

And it found a home.

 

 

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Quilt #79 Update

I now have a picture of the beautiful baby girl on her quilt. So here it is. I tried to edit the original post but technology once again defeated me - easier to do a whole new post!

 

 

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Back to School

I made back to school pillowcases for the grandkids. I bought this material last year when I went to the Houston Quilt Show. We went to a lot of quilt shops and one of them had this fantastic sale building - not room - building! I saw this material and thought the girls would like them - 1st grade and kindergarten on Monday. I figured Matthew needed one too even though he still has 2 years of nursery school! I also bought them sketch pads and colored pencils.

 

 

 

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Quilt #79 Update

I now have a picture of the beautiful baby girl on her quilt. So here it is. I tried to edit the original post but technology once again defeated me - easier to do a whole new post! Of course technology is still winning - can't figure out how to rotate the picture!

 

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Charity Pillowcases

Marie and Ann and I have decided to meet the last Thursday of every month to sew pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer charity which gives pillowcases to kids in local hospitals undergoing treatments. We met for the first time Thursday and managed to complete 10 pillowcases. Their directions make what we would consider substandard pillowcases so ours may be much nicer than some. Really enjoyed getting together and sewing to hopefully brighten some kids' days. I was able to find lots of 3/4 yards in my stash and then went to the fabric store to buy coordinating cuffs. Here are the 4 that I made on Thursday. Looking forward to next month. As for quilts - well, I have a few WIPs but none finished yet.

 

 

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Machine died!

Guess I have been sewing too much. Have a bunch of WIPs that are nearing completion and sat down to sew and the machine just said NO! Took it into the shop on Thursday - hope to get it back tomorrow (Tuesday). I borrowed my daughter's machine - just a basic Sears Kenmore like I had used until I got my Janome about 3 years ago. Boy, have I gotten spoiled in the last 3 years! I really didn't realize how much difference a good machine makes. Sure will be glad to get it back. Hopefully I will have it by Thursday when I have a charity pillowcase sewing date with friens!

Quilt #80

Back in January I took a class from Ruth Blanchet called Knot of Squares at the Academy of Quilting. I opted to make a totally scrappy queen size quilt which required that I cut 2025 2 inch squares! Wow - that was a lot of squares! Then to put it all together, I sewed various nine patches per the instructions and then sewed the nine patches together and voila the knot of squares appears! I finished the top in a timely manner BUT then it sat. And sat. I finally out the triple border on and quilted it on my friend's long arm. Even though people say you can quilt a queen size quilt on a sewing machine, I think they are crazy. I am very glad that Marie has a long arm. I used a queen size sheet for the backing - I've heard both sides of that argument but I really didn't want to have to pice a back for this one. Seems to have worked fine - we'll see how it holds up. Just glad that it is finished and ready to sleep under come October!

 

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