2021 Projects

 My goal this year is to finish several small projects and to move several UFOs forward.

So far this year I have finished

Two Pot Holders

Three 5-Minute Runners

Two Lemon Hexie placemats

A Kitchen Scarf

A Hot Pad Runner

Four Hexie Hot Pads

I also finished putting together the Fall Quilted Cow Mystery to which I need to add borders. 

I started and finished my Winter Solstice quilt.

I plan to make Hexie placemats to match the hot pad runner  and another hot pad runner to go with them.  If I can get more of the fabric I want to make Hexie pot holders to match.  I am also working on a Jenny Kingwell’s BoHo Heart quilt and looking at fabrics to possibly start a Spiral Lonestar by Jan Krentz.  My other goals for this year include moving several of my UFOs forward. I have a couple quilts I am looking for backings so I can send them toe my favorite quilter.

I am enjoying spending more time with my quilting and have been working on designing quilt patterns also.

Happy Quilting!

What I’ve Accomplished This Past Two Weeks

This past week I have been busy finishing the second memory quilt top.

I’ve also been busy working on my Gypsy Wife Quilt blocks and have made several more blocks to use as fillers. I still have some larger blocks to make as I am enlarging the quilt, then I can begin putting my top together as I plan to vary the layout of the blocks some and am still thinking about the layout.

I’m having fun with this quilt, choosing from my scraps left from other projects, and Fat Quarters that I had laying around. This is a great quilt for playing with color and design ideas. I have made several changes to the setting blocks and added a few blocks to the quilt that were ones I liked, I only eliminated one block front he quilt as I did not like the design. I may still go back and add it in before I layout the top. I plan to make extras of a couple of other blocks that I really liked in different color ways of course as this will help me with enlarging the quilt.

Stay tuned for more progress on the Gypsy Wife and I would love to read your comments on my colors and block choices.

Have a wonderful quilt week!

The Second Memory Quilt

I’v spent more time in my sewing room this past week and have actually gotten further on some projects than I thought. I made progress on a UFO and on my Gypsy Wife quilt blocks.

This last weekend was devoted to UFOs, one of which is the second memory quilt. This one is for my friend’s younger sister. It is also made with the pajamas. I started with the extra block I had from my friend’s quilt that I went around log cabin style. Please excuse my toes peaking out on the left side.

I am added a border of four patches all the way around the quilt. I then added a border of the background.

The inner border is another knit from the pajamas and the outer border is from my stash. 

 I want to thank my neighbor for holding the quilt up so I could take a picture. THat’s her feet peaking out on the bottom of the quilt. The wind kicked up out on the deck last night when I was trying to take a picture, and I hope to get a better one later this week.

I need to find a backing and send the quilt off to the quilter. The quilt is roughly 60” finished. A nice lap or throw size. 

Memory Quilt

I received a huge box of pajamas from my best friend in May of 2018, after her mother passed away. I had told her to send me some shirts and such and I would make her a memory quilt.  She also requested one for her sister, which I am working on currently.

I had a pile of pajamas of all different fabrics; knits, fleece, satin, and such. I picked the Cozy Quilt pattern Circle Back as it reminded me of the circle of a mother's arms and love.

I started with deboning the pajamas so I could cut them into sections.  Then I began pressing interfacing to each section and that took a long time. Once I have the fabric section prepped so they were roughly the size of a fat quarter I began cutting strips and sub cut them into pieces so I could begin stitching them the background pieces. That took the most time.  Then I started sewing and there were like 168 pieces of pajamas and roughly the same for background pieces to sew together. It took me quite a while to get them all together. Once I had that done the blocks went together fairly quickly in sections and then the sections were sewn together to make the 16-inch blocks. I trimmed them to 15.5 inches as they were not perfect due to the fabrics being used which often slipped, especially the satiny ones.

Once the blocks were together the top center when together easily. I then had to start with interfacing the fabric that I choose for the inner border. I had to piece it in sections and sew them together to get border lengths so there are quite a few seams in that border.

Once the three borders were attached and the quilt was pressed I boxed it up to send it off to my awesome quilter Shirley Jackson for her to apply her magic to the quilt.

When it returned home I trimmed and bound the quilt so I could have it done to hand carry to Los Angeles to deliver it to my oldest and dearest friend when we embarked on our twelve-day cruise to Alaska.

I know she will love it and be surprised when I hand it to her as I wanted to deliver it personally, rather than mail it to her.

You might think there is a lot of red in this quilt and there is for a very special reason. Red was her mother's favorite color.

Here is Theresa with her quilt. She was surprised and she did love it! She loves it and is very happy to have gotten it.

Now I will continue to work on her sister's quilt, which I am using a different pattern, or rather a variation of two patterns to make.

Saying Good-Bye before I was dropped off at 3 terminal for my flight. She was at terminal 5.