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.

Finishing Off a Few Things

I am finishing off a few things this week so that I can mark them as done!  One group I am in has been doing a two week finish things up the challenge of sorts to get us motivated to get-er-done.  I have finished two quilt tops and am working on finishing more before Monday, including the memory quilt for my best friend from high school.

I discovered that some people were finishing pillowcases and post them as finishes so I threw in a couple of those that I needed to finish as well.

I am working on binding a few more quilts while I am at it and hope to top off my rain gauge soon.

Busy Week of Quilting

Crazy Anne 2

This week I have been busy in my quilting room. I finished binding one quilt, worked on my Gypsy Wife and started binding the memory quilt, while also working on the second memory quilt.

I finished binding Under Cover in Houston early this week and started in on the binding of the  memory quilt, which will be revealed next week.  Under Cover in Houston is a quilt I started in the 1990s or early 2000s when Debbie Caffery was still living in Alaska. She designed the pattern and taught the class. I love her patterns and she is a wonderful instructor.

 I took it as mystery class.  For those that are unfamiliar with quilt mysteries, you know what fabrics and how much, but not the pattern design, just the name. In this case, we needed a light, a dark and a couple of medium prints if I recall correctly with set amounts of each. Prior to the class, you are given cutting directions and sometimes some pre piecing directions as well. You show up to class with your fabric cut and any pre-piecing completed and are given the first step or if there was pre-piecing the second step and you go to work stitching away. As you finish each step you are given the next step and this continues until near the end of class or until someone is near the point of finishing. Then there is the big reveal. The instructor then brings out their finished quilt to show you.  Every quilt is different since no one knows what the quilt will look like. My quilt is different even than the designer’s as I decided to set mine on point, rather than in rows.

I picked my fabrics to go with my background fabric as I wanted it to be fun.

One of the things I always like about mysteries is that no one could copy the instructors color way. Too often in quilt classes, there are multiple people who copy the instructor's colorway and all the quilts look the same or very similar. There was only one time I came close to that and it was because the colors were the colors of the person I was making the quilt for.

I attached the binding to the front of the memory quilt and have been working on hand stitching it down off and on this week. I have about one and a half sides done. The label is on and I hope to have it finished before I head down to Los Angeles for my cruise on the 22nd.

I have been working on the second memory quilt, which is for her sister. I am doing it in a variation of a log cabin. I started with a center block and have been adding logs around the outside. I have several more to add before I will be done, though it will be a smaller, lap size quilt. I have to interface almost all the pajama fabric as it is knit and then piece the logs to the centers, so it takes more time than just cutting and piecing.  I am not sure if I will finish it before I head out in a week. Please forgive the toes, but with all the interfacing because these are knit fabrics it keeps curling up on the edges.

Today I wanted to relax so I pulled out my Gypsy Wife blocks that I had previously cut out and also cut out a few others to go along with them.  Over this last week, I pieced the From the Heart block, two Crazy Anne blocks, the star block, and a couple of other blocks I am adding to the quilt as I am enlarging it to fit my bed. I believe I have most all the blocks pieced for the quilt, except for the filler blocks, though I may add a few more blocks to enlarge the quilt once I start playing with the layout and piecing the sections together.

Crazy Anne 1

Heart Block

My Extra Star

The Star Block

I also have pictures of the infinity scarves I made last week. This is a gift for my friend to keep her warm when we are at the glaciers.

I apologize for being late getting this out. Life got in the way and I forgot to transfer my pictures until now, so I could post.

Wishing you a quilty week,

Wanda

This Weeks Quilting Report

This week I subbed four days so did not get as much done as I would have liked, but I did make progress.

I completed one quilt, almost finished binding another, and got the binding attached to the front of the memory quilt as well as the label.

I finished the binding on my July Mystery.  This quilt is one I designed and shared as a mystery with a group of friends last summer. I also have a mini quilt or table topper that I shared from the scraps. I still need to border and quilt it.  This quilt was quilted by my wonderful quilter Shirley Jackson.

I also finished the two infinity scarves I started last week.

My goal for next week is to finish the binding on Under Cover in Houston and work on binding the memory quilt and my Gypsy Wife quilt.

March Wound Down and April Sprang into Being

March was a slow month for me quilting wise as I was gone for a week and subbed about three full weeks so my quilting time was minimal.  I did make some progress though.

I completed the memory quilt top for my friend Theresa and sent it off to the quilter. It returned and trimmed it and cut the binding.  No pictures until I deliver it later this month.

I worked on binding Under Cover in Houston, an old Debbie Caffery Mystery, that is not quite done but will be done this month.

I also trimmed eight other quilts and cut binding for five of them.

I bound "No Such Thing as Too Much Fabric" and added a hanging sleeve to it.

I also pieced and pressed the binding for another quilt and started to attach the binding to it.

I made two infinity scarves using the leftover minke backing from trimming one quilt.

I have to pick the binding for the four other quilts that I trimmed and get to work on binding them as well as the rest of those I trimmed. Since I only completed on binding in March I have to complete three in April to stay on track as my goal is to get two bound a month so I can move the ones I have waiting into Donesville.