End of 2015

I just realized that though I started several posts for 2015 I never actually posted any of them. They were all in draft format.  I spent 2015 doing some reorganizing of my sewing space and finishing up or making progress on my UFOs, as well as starting a few new quilts and other projects.

PROJECTS STARTED and WORKED in 2015

Wandering Star Quilt (in progress)

Blue Marti Michelle Log Cabin (4 blocks done)

Hexagon (English Paper Piecing)

Six pillow cases (incomplete)

Anniversary Waltz - blocks completed

 

 
  



Caravan Sewing Machine Cover ( needs seam hand stitched)

Mini Tree Quilt for Joel (pinned and ready to quilt)

Strip Quilt

Large Tree Table Runner (two blocks in progress)


COMPLETED TOPS:

Summer Solstice

Christmas QMU Swap

Daisy Days

Granny Square

Olympia

Split 9-Patch

Hedge Hogs

Crazy Hearts Lap Quilt

2015 PROFESSIONALLY QUILTED AWAITING BINDING:

Split 9-Patch

Doreen Speckman Fabric Mystery

Daisy Days

Lemoyne Stars

June Strip Club

Romantic Get Away

Blue and Yellow Mystery

DONATED QUILT TOPS:

Spirit of the West

Monet Print Swap

Hole in the Barn Door Swap

Pink and Teal

Clay's Choice


2015 FINISHES:

Argyle Beauty - completed 1/24; gifted to Lauren Boone 7/2

16 Patch Swap Quilt - donated

Hedge Hogs = completed in 5/11; gifted to Sarah Chaikin and Baby Tessa in June

Olympia - completed 5/15; gifted to Carolyn Costanza and Baby Christian in May

Simply an Illusion in Teal - completed 6/30; gifted to Theresa MacKay in July

The Road to Paradise is Paved with Bumps - completed 7/26 - for me.

Old Books and Scattered Pages - completed 8/2 - gifted to Judy Kern 8/2

Hexagon Pot Holders - completed 18 for Christmas gifts and the ski club auction 8/30

Three fleece scarves for ski club auction

Four Table Runners - completed for the ski club auction 8/30

Six pillow cases for Christmas gifts

Oak Leaves Quilt - completed 9/5 - set to side for gift.

Snowman Quilt - completed 9/19; for me

Olivia's Quilt - completed 10/12; Flannel Commission Quilt done for Katie as gift for her sister

Mini Tree Quilt - completed 10/20; gift for Bryce

Mug Rugs x 2


Overall I think this is pretty good considering that we traveled for 9 weeks this summer and I have not been able to sew since October 28th because of hand surgery and then falling and breaking my right wrist.

I have several other quilts not listed that are also awaiting binding. The binding is attached, I just need my wrist to heal so I can get back to hand stitching.  There are many other projects in progress, from past years that I plan to work on moving forward in 2016 along with the ones listed above.

The End of 2014

I finished several projects in 2014 and and started many new ones. Some were moved forward to tops and others are quilted and awaiting binding.  I have many in different stages of piecing and some that are simply cut and awaiting piecing. Those will move forward to 2015 and will be moved forward into tops and into quilts.

As for finishes in 2014 I made roughly  100 pillow cases for our troops that were sent to  troops stationed overseas in several countries along with those made by other quilters. I still have more cut out and ready to sew if we continue as a group to do this, if not I will find a way to pay it forward with them to either another organization to support our troops or something local.

I also made five rag flannel baby quilts that my dear husband snipped.  The recipients were happy with the blankets and that is the important thing. I also made one flannel receiving blanket for a friend.

I also finished one small Pick-Up Sticks quilt which I gave to a friend for her two year old daughter when I gave her one of the rag flannel quilts for new born son.

I finished Day Dreamer, a Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt on New Year's Day on our train trip from LA to Seattle.

Later in January I finished Q is for Quilter, another Debbie Caffrey mystery that had been in topsville for several years.

In August I finished a strip club quilt and donated it to the Arctic Valley Ski Club Auction, where in brought in a nice price and made the new owner happy as he now had a gift for his wife.

In November I completed Raining Daisies and Hockey Star for my niece and nephew.  Both were very happy with their quilts and the matching pillow case sets.

I think that about covers my year in quilting.

Quilted with Love for Two Very Special People

I realized today that it has been a long time since I last posted. Life as they say has gotten in the way.  It has been a busy fall with subbing, and sewing and travel.

I started a quilt for my niece, Paige, and was planning to make it for her as Christmas gift and was thinking of what to make her brother, Joey, when I was out with a friend at one of the local quilt shops and saw a fabric that just yelled :JOEY!" at me. It was hockey fabric, with a  panel that was perfect for the center.

I had Paige's quilt all planned out in my mind and roughed out on paper and knew that I was going to use the Moda Marble Ombre in Purple for the background of her quilt. I also knew I wanted to do it like a strip quilt but using wider strips. I cut them 4.5" instead of 2.5". I ordered Me and My Sister's flower applique templates to use for the white daisies that I wanted to rain down the quilt.  My idea was clear in my mind, though the final quilt did not come out exactly as I had it pictured I do love it.  I originally thought to hand applique the flowers, but time constrains lead me to do raw edge applique instead.  I kind of like how it turned out as this is  the first times I have done raw edge applique on a quilt. I did do it once on a wall hanging.  I pulled the border fabric from my stash and used a teal grunge on the back which was a great pick as I found out that besides purple she likes teal.  I made the label on the back very special also, triple layering two daisies using the ombre fabric. I am very pleased with the quilt overall.

I have no idea why this picture is sideways. It is right side up in Flickr and in my phone, but it works.

Raining Daisies Label

Paige was very happy with her quilt and pillow cases and immediately put them on her bed.  I caught her later for pictures as I wanted one of her with her quilt.

Sorry that this is on its side, for some reason the picture is coming in this way even though it is right side up in Flicker.

Joey's quilt was a fun one to make using the hockey panel as the center. I bought all the coordinating fabrics and knew I wanted to put the hockey pucks and sticks around the center, but was not sure what to do beyond that, so I emailed a picture to a friend and asked for her help. I questioned whether to use stars and if so what kind or a checker board. She has EQ and put it in her design software and emailed me back several options that would work. I liked the friendship stars best, and the quilt was ready for me to figure out yardage and start cutting after a trip back to the fabric store to pick up a little more fabric.

I used a panel for each of his pillow cases. and the mail print  with the hockey players for the backing. 

I decided that "Hockey Star" was the perfect name for the quilt for two reasons, one because I used stars in the pattern and two because my nephew is a shining star.  I started by adding the two inner borders to the panel and then calculating the number of stars needed to encircle the center.  I used 2.5" strips for the stars and alternated colors between blue and red, which worked out perfectly for me. I bordered it with the hockey player fabric and used the red, white, blue, and black fabric cut on the bias for the binding.

Again I have no idea why this picture is sideways.

I used the extra stars I had made for his label.

Joey was patient as I did not finish hand stitching the binding and label down until Thanksgiving day, but as soon as he got his quilt he wrapped up in it and went to sleep. 

I am very happy that they both liked their quilts and that I was able to give them some love after all they have both been through this year.

Alaska State Fair Quilts

We went to the state fair and I really enjoyed the quilts that were on display and had to take pictures and share them here on my blog. It was hard to choose just a few, so I hope that you enjoy the ones I have included.

                                                                   This one is very Alaskan.

I have included pictures of the quilts that caught my eye because of the colors, the pattern, the quilting, or a combination of the a fore mentioned items.

I have never had the "guts," so to speak, to enter a quilt in the state fair, but I love going to look at those that are entered.

I love the floating pinwheels in this quilt

This quilt makes me think of chocolate covered cherries.

I really like this quilt and want to find the pattern and do one one for me.

love the colors in this quilt.

I really like this Celtic Knot.

Love the colors in this quilt.

I took this mystery and did the  basket of flowers in the upper right hand corner of this quilt. I am planning to make mine into a small wall hanging.  I may do other parts and make them into wall hangings also.

I love all these stars.

The fish on this one caught my eye.

These painted daisies were so colorful. They just seem to dance around.

I may do a second post with more of the quilts I liked.

Leftover Binding

Pat Sloan had a great post, Did you ever...a Binding Saga, on he extra binding you have at the end of binding a quilt and what you do with it. Of course there were the usual comments related to using it on small projects or making scrappy bindings for scrap quilts.  Other answers included stuffing it in a drawer, or a baggie, and rolling it on on water bottles, or repressing it to use in scrap quilts.  Two unique answers included making a rug and using it around the edges of pies to keep them from burning and to help hold in the juices. Now that is what I call getting creative with the extra binding. I will have to store that idea away fro the next time I make a pie.

One person said they roll the extra binding up up and store it in a drawer, which is what I use to do until I hit upon a great idea. I do not remember where this idea came from. I could have read it somewhere, in a magazine, on another blog, who knows. It might be something I dreamed up, but I have started using my extra binding in a new way that helps me to prolong the life of items I use everyday.

We all have towels and those towels often get worn along the edges and start to fray, while the main body of the towel itself is still in very good condition and usable. I decided there had to be a way to extended the life of the towel and then saw my drawer of left over bindings and that is when the idea jumped out and grabbed my attention.

Now, as I said before I could have seen this idea somewhere else and just do not remember because I filled it in the back of my brain for future reference. After all I taught middle school and high school, primarily, for almost 30 years and raised two boys, and have read a ton of books and magazines over the years so who knows where the idea came from.

I try to match the binding color to the towel color when I can or at least make sure that they complement each other, as I really do not want them to clash and look ugly. I am of the school of white towels are a pain to keep clean , so all of my towels are colored.  In fact color coordinating towels is one way I kept my boys from fighting over whose towel was whose when they were younger. If you have white towels then you  don't have to worry about the binding clashing with the towel.

So far I have just done bath towels, and I do have a few that I need to totally replace and am thinking that I may just binding the new ones to start off with so they don't ever start to fray. I like the look of my towels and it adds a little more decoration to them. Since I have a ton of left over binding I am thinking I will attack the hand towels next and maybe move on to the kitchen after that.

I have also thought of binding some new towels for each of the boys as part of their Christmas gift this year, after all we can always use more towels.  I know I have some extra red and blue binding that I can use up on their towels.

Just in case you are wondering, yes I do still color coordinate their gifts in their favorite colors when I buy things that are the same. It's a mom thing.