Happy New Year 2016 and 2015 Recap

Happy New Year to you!  I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to my friends and readers for following me here or in our personal off-line lives. Staying connected is, to me, an important part of life, and the older I get the more I know and appreciate that. I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous New Year 2016 from the bottom of my heart.

2015 was, for me, a good, happy and productive year.  Creatively speaking, I was primarily a crazy quilter (crazy quilting; the art form that arose in Victorian times whereby women pieced together fancy fabrics in random patchwork and then embellished it with stitching, beads, etc) for the last 15 years. Crazy quilting is very time consuming (but enjoyable!). It takes a lot of time just to do one block. And while I did do embroidery and crazy quilting this year, my main focus was on traditional quilting. It is refreshing to have finishes come along more often!  

So, here is a pictorial of my finishes this year with minimum commentary. 

Quilt for son Shane

Birch Trees Quilt for DGS Easton

Pow Wow Quilt for DH Bruce

2-layer skirt for DGD London

Here I must insert a picture of Lori Holt, the quilt world’s own Farm Girl herself. I was lucky enough to attend one of her retreats in June.

Lori Holt

2015 was the Year of the Farm Girl in the quilting world, and although my Farm Girl Quilt is not yet assembled, I do have 49 blocks (of 49) completed. I still need to do our pillow shams and then shuffle around and decide on placement. The Farmhouse block, below, represents that huge effort. Watch for my Farm Girl Quilt and matching pillow shams to be completed in the 1st quarter of 2016

Farmhouse block

What Cancer Cannot Do Quilt for Cal

Pink and Green Patchwork Quilt for Emma

Several times during the summer, my dear granddaughter Lauren came to spend the day and we sewed. I have shown pictures of tote bags, zip pouches, etc, that we made during those fun times. But the Piece de Resistance of our combined efforts was this lovely school backpack that Lauren completed just before school started. I am so proud of her!

Lauren and her backpack

The one crazy quilt I finally finished this year was started in 2012. There will be more about this quilt in February after it is published.  I list it here just for a minor reference.  :-)  I also have another CQ finish which is not shown, but will also be in that magazine. Again, more in February.

The Black Needlepoint Crazy Quilt

Farm Girl Cozy Cottage Pillow

Four scrappy pincushions for Christmas presents

Two sets of clothes and quilted play mats for granddaughters

20-21 zip pouches for Christmas gifts (only a few shown here)

17 pillowcases for gifts. Again, only some shown. 

Lighted Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

Rainbow Orbs Quilt, Shams and bedskirt

Rainbow Orbs is, by far, my favorite finish of 2015. Its bright, in-your-face colors bring me joy every time I look at it.  The cats approve, too.

I Spy Quilt

Helen’s Garden Quilt

That pretty much sums up my creative year. What fun it was! And today, New Year’s Day, I will begin straight away on 2016 projects.

Hugs,

More Rainbows for a Snowy Day - Finished Euroshams

The weather outside is frightful......  it has been snowing virtually non-stop since before dawn. To say it’s a winter wonderland would be apt if it weren’t Monday. Sure glad it’s a day off for Bruce, and that I am happily retired.

But while it may be cold and snowy outside, it is very cheery and bright in our bedroom! OK, minds out of the gutter, please.  I mean my Rainbow Orbs quilt that I finished last week-ish. I have now also finished the two euroshams and the bedskirt.

Alfalfa (and Darla in other picture) OF COURSE had to be part of the action. Anyway, you can see the completed shams. They measure 24x24” and were each made with four 12.5 inch blocks.  The orbs in the quilt were 16” finished (four 8.5” blocks).  The shams have a slip opening in back for easy laundering.

The bedskirt is a small black dot on white (a Riley Blake fabric) that I used to make long strips which were stapled to the box spring. And I also (see picture) fashioned a pleat on each side.  The idea came from a tutorial I saw online somewhere, but after a week I’ve decided the industrial staples are not a permanent solution. I'll have to sew the skirt to a flat sheet (hello, thrift store).

The pillowshams were Goal #3 on my Finish-Along goals for the 4th quarter of the year, which you can see here.  This is the 7th finish out of my 10 goals. I may be able to squeak another one in before the end of the year.

I had to add the picture of Alfie and Darla above. I didn’t notice their expressions until I was editing and enlarging the pictures. It looks like Alfie is saying something and Darla is just rolling her eyes (“WhatEVer”)!

Continuing along....

I still consider myself a very new/green quilter. And this monster quilt (80x96” approx) was a real challenge to quilt on my Bernina home machine.  I started off doing long rows of alternating loops.  After a couple rows, a heart sneaked in and I rather liked it.

So I tried to include hearts in bright color areas where they would show up. Just because. And it’s kinda cool to search for the random hearts now and then.

The backing was a mixture of white on black and black/white fabrics and the gray thread seemed a happy medium although it looks white in the picture below. The picture proves what a novice I am at quilting. I decided to show it, warts and all because although it’s not perfect, it is certainly good enough. And I am improving.

I’ll be back later in the week with a couple Farm Girl blocks to show you. I just need to photograph them first. And this afternoon I am quilting the I Spy quilt I threw together, so that will be something, too.

Until next time,

Rainbow Orbs Finally Finished!!

It is with great personal fanfare (LOL) that I announce the finish of my Rainbow Orbs quilt!  It’s been a year in the making, and I am so thrilled to have finished it.  This is my finish for the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. It was a blast, and I can hardly wait to start some projects for 2016.

Please excuse the pictures; I just threw it on the bed and did not stage anything.  I am planning to take some formal pictures with closeups of some of the quilting, etc.

There are 30 18” blocks, and the quilt finishes at 80x96”  The batting is Hobbs 80/20, and I quilted it with loopy lines, with occasional hearts interspersed. Again, I will show that, plus the backing, etc. in a future post when we take the formal pix. Oh, and the binding is a black and white strip (Michael Miller Clown Stripe), which was, to me, the perfect choice.

Come and see what others are doing and/or have finished with their scraps this year; join us at So Scrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday!

This finish completes Goal #2 of my 2015 4th Quarter Finish Along goals.

I will be finishing up the Rainbow Orbs shams this week; just need to sew the backs on. They are another of my Finish Along goals for this quarter. As well, I will get the polka dot dust ruffle on and get some final pictures of the ensemble on the bed.

Until next time,

What did the Lime Say?

What did the Lime say to the Lemon?  “You’re appealing!”  (a-peel-ing)   *insert collective groans here*

Well, I do find lime the color (and limes the fruit as well) to be appealing.  And even though I cheated and stitched these blocks a couple months ago, this is the first time I`m showing theme here for Scrappy Saturday with Angela.

Lime is such a lovely SUMMER color, isn’t it?  Where is my Margarita?

By making these ahead (knowing Angela had told us in May to save our light and bright scraps for later and that this color’s turn would come), I have been able to get my Rainbow Orbs quilt pieced.  Actually, I shared the below picture back in mid-October.

Models Darla (top) and Alfalfa (scratching an itch) on Rainbow Orbs

Now the quilt back is pieced and the entire thing is pin basted. I had to order a whole 25-yard roll of batting (Warm and Plush) from JoAnn’s. They had it on sale for 50% off  online (I believe they do that about once per calendar quarter) with free shipping. So it was a great deal. The Plush is a bit thicker than the Warm and Natural or the Warm and White, but like those it is 100% cotton.  I can’t wait to try it. I like a quilt that feels like a quilt. Yeah, you can tell I am an old-timer, LOL.

Anyway, the quilting will begin any day now. I’ve been saying that for a week, but the truth is I am not quite sure how I want to quilt it. It will be simple, though, because it is large (80x96) and I have a Bernina whose throat isn’t giant. And I do not enjoy the quilting part as much as the piecing and binding.

If you have scraps, or love scrappy quilts (or even just great fabric eye candy), why not join us at Scrappy Saturday?

Finished Zippy Pouches - Do they Multiply in the Dark?

I have been sewing merrily away on Christmas gifts over the last couple weeks. After completing lots of pouches (I lost count because some have already been gifted or used for other things) I thought I should probably snap a picture or two and declare this goal for my 4th Quarter Finish-Along Challenge completed. Item number 6 on that list was to finish six zip pouches (in addition to the three pictured in that list).

So here (above) are a dozen pouches that have been constructed so far. This does not include the ones I used for gifts already or those that are in progress (another six or so).

My son Shane is an artist who likes to paint cityscapes. I thought this fabric was plenty masculine and so constructed a long pouch for him to carry supplies in. Most of the pouches  will be stocking stuffers and will likely have other small gifts tucked inside.

Two of my daughters are getting these sweet pieced pouches of Lori Holt fabrics (Modern Minis). I love the sentiments on them!!

We have baseball fans and hunters and all sorts of other interests within the men and boys of the family, so all interests were covered. If nothing else, I’ll tell them these make great storage cases for cords and rechargers for tech gear when traveling. In addition to the pouches, I have sewn six individual pillowcases for grandkids. Next up I will start on the pairs of pillowcases for the couples. I started these on a whim to use up fabric (I’ll talk about that in a minute) and they are not on my goal list.

So, the zippy pouches become the 4th finish (of 10 goals) for this quarter. My Rainbow Orbs quilt has been backed and basted and I hope to begin quilting it this week.  It is looking as though that will become finish #5 when it happens.

I have decided to go on a “Fabric Diet” for a few months (with the exception of end-of-year sales where I plan to pick up on some solids for backgrounds).  So far in November, I bought two quarter yards of special interest fabrics to finish four pouches. (+1/2 yard), but have already used 9.5 yards in fabric for the gifts and 6 yards to back Rainbow Orbs. I will do a full accounting of my fabric ins and outs at month-end.

Finally, I am listing some older fabrics in my Etsy shop. No, I will not be counting those listings/sales in my Fabric Diet. They were selected for listing weeks (if not months) ago, and I am finally just getting around to doing it.

I will be back later in the week with a post about my bright green blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge November color of the month, and a progress report on the Rainbow Orbs quilt itself.

Enjoy the lovely autumn!

Pincushions Done; Scratch one off that list!

In my last post, I outlined my ten goals for the 4th quarter of this year. I am participating in Andrea’s 2015 Finish Along and decided there was no time to waste in getting to that list.

Here are my four scrappy pincushions, which were #4 on that list.

Fronts. Can you tell I was trying to use up that black gingham??

Backs: I was also using scraps here.....

So, they are not the cutest pincushions ever created, LOL, but some have vintage buttons (they are going to family for Christmas) and the best thing - THEY ARE DONE!!   One down, nine more items on my list to go........

And here are some blocks that represent progress on my Farm Girl Quilt.  I have another couple to do for the quilt before beginning to piece the top together. But that is OK; I love this process of selecting and making the blocks. Still thinking I need a turkey and an apple core and/or half-cut apple.

Corn and Tomatoes II

Bumblebee. He still needs his antennae embroidered.

Woolly Sheep

And still more progress. I have sewn all 30 blocks (16” each) together on my Rainbow Orbs quilt. Right now it measures 80x96”, and as you can see from the pictures below, it already has the Feline Seal of Approval. That is very important you know.

Rainbow Orbs is resting while I finish my black needlepoint/CQ for a photo shoot. And then I will begin piecing the back for Orbs - you may remember it will be that Hoffman digital cityscape print, with color gradation around it. I am thinking I will bind the whole thing with some black and white stripe; you can never go wrong with a striped binding!  :-)

So, as you see, I have been busy. We are also finalizing our wills and trust with the attorney this week and next, so there is never a dull moment.

OH! I almost forgot! I have been so darn lucky these last couple weeks.  After the Quilt Adoption from a couple posts ago, dear Cynthia Brunz of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework notified me that I had won a pair of Gingher 9” scissors she was giving away for participating. Then, one morning last week I got an email from Angela of So Scrappy telling me that I had won the August bundle of hand-dyed fabrics from Vickie Welsh. An indigo bundle! (check out her amazing hand-dyed fabrics!!).  As if that was not enough, that very afternoon, I got a private message on my iPad from Meg Cox, Editor of Quilt Journalist Tells All and the President of the Quilt Alliance; I had won her monthly newsletter drawing. My prizes? A copy of the newly-released Spoonflower Handbook and a six-month subscription to Creative Bug.  I am just totally beside myself!!

Thanks to all the wonderful people I mentioned in the paragraph above! I linked to everyone so you could check out their wonderful services and products. The world of quilts and the people in it are just amazing.

So what I am going to do now?? QUICK!! I am going to buy a lottery ticket and enter Missouri Star’s birthday bash giveaway....  (just kidding; I will give you all a chance.......)

Hugs,

Quarter Four Goals for 2015 Finish-Along

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over the list I have prepared for myself of Things to Finish for the fourth quarter of this year.  But Adrianne has encouraged us by reminding us that there is no punishment for not finishing them! It is just a guideline or roadmap. So, maybe if I list more I will be more productive.  Last quarter I had 5 goals and finished 3 of them.  In my own defense, however, I had several other finishes that were not on my list. PLUS one of the projects was was totally written off and given away as an orphan for someone else to love.

But, my creative juices are flowing, and I am nearing the end of completing the two major quilts that I have been working on for the majority of the year. So, without further ado, here we go.


1.  Black needlepoint and crazy patch quilt. OK, I saw you roll your eyes! Yes, it has been on my list all year. Every. Single. Quarter. But I will tell you why I am going to finish it this quarter. Because I have a deadline. And no excuses (like “it’s summer - too hot to work on black and wool!"). The stitching is done and the top is sewn together.  The batting and back are all ready to go. A couple hours and it could be done. And so it will be, before the weather turns and I lose all opportunity of taking decent pictures outdoors.


2.  Rainbow Orbs.
I love this baby. It has been an all-year project working with Angela and her Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2015.  The top is all pieced and mostly sewn together. The picture at the left shows exactly half of the top. The bump under the dark green patch is Darla. Alfalfa is on the nightstand watching her.  The quilt is made up of 30 - 16” blocks.  If it were just a matter of adding a plain backing, quilting and binding, I could finish it next week. But, I am adding a fancy back to make it reversible, and that backing is complicated. It is a Hoffman digital cityscape print (see HERE) and there will be quite a bit of piecing around it to create a gradient of color. I have not yet decided if I should piece those colors in squares, rectangles or crazy-patch.  Regardless, it is still just a part of this one project.

3.  Pillow Shams for Rainbow Orbs Quilt.  We have two large Euro-shams that I will cover with one giant orb each. Bruce has requested red (his favorite color) and mine will be orange and pink, bright. These are separate from my quilt, and therefore I am counting them as such.  :-)

Scrappy Farmgirl Pincushions

4.  Scrappy Pincushions.  These were on my list last time, and I have sewn on them. The problem is I have to put them away for our weekly sewing circle (with my cousins) because the pincushions are for them. Then I forget to take them out..... excuses, excuses. One good hour and they would be sewn, stuffed and embellished.


5.  Helen’s Garden Quilt.  This is another carryover from my last quarter’s list. And I have changed the pattern that I am using for it. the prints are so large that I wanted a pattern that would show them off better. And I want to finish it this quarter, because the only quilt I have for me to snuggle with in the living room is a Christmas Quilt. That is fine for this quarter, but I don’t want to go another year without some variety!  I LOVE this line by Tamara Kate (called Helen`s Garden, after her mother) because my mother was a Helen, too. And that dragonfly print!!!! It will be a happy quilt.

6.  Six Zip Pouches.  I love zip pouches. They are easy, versatile and so useful. I have already made five of them since Labor Day.  Two were sent off to my daughter in Seattle (no picture) and the other three finished ones are in the right part of the picture at right.  But I have AT LEAST six more to make, so this one list item is for six pouches.  Those pincushions above? They are going to be gifted in the zip pouches along with some other goodies, so those are 4 of the six right there.  Isn’t that bird fabric cute? It was a sample from Spoonflower, and that one will be for me. The baseball ones are for guys in the family. We have found the zip pouches to be a handy way to carry along chargers and cords for phones, iPads, tablets, etc when we travel.


7.  FARM GIRL QUILT.
The Farm Girl Quiltalong by Lori Holt started in May and just recently wrapped up (although we are going to keep going on other Farm Girl stitchy pursuits).  I need 49 12” blocks to finish my quilt, and currently have 45 done. I will show my latest blocks in a separate posts.  The final blocks I will do are: bumblebee, hand mixer, another  apple or two, and ??. Anyway. These will be sashed, with cornerstones, which has me doubting my sanity. But there is a first time for everything, and the point of this quilt (besides being fun and making a bed-sized quilt) is to grow and learn.

8.  FARM GIRL PILLOW SHAMS.  Since this will also be a bed quilt, we will once again have pillow shams to consider. This time, they are long (picture king pillows), although I do not have the exact measurements handy. Bruce wants a tractor, and Lori Holt has a great tractor pattern that will fit.  My sham will consist of 2 - 12” blocks; a house and a flower.


Are you still with me??


9.  Doll Dress-up Play Pad and clothes.
There is some cute fabric out there by Dear Stella called Dress Me Up.  Check out the tutorial for a cute play mat (quilted fabric) and clothes here.  As you can see in the picture, I have made one set of these already.  I originally bought enough to make 4 sets, but two sets are going to the young sewers in the family to make as gifts, so the last one, which is my goal #8, is for my granddaughter London. And the fabric on the back will be a lovely pink floral from my stash called, oddly enough, London, by Dena Designs.


10.   Aria bed quilt.

This is a line of fabric from earlier this year called Aria by Benartex (not the blue one). I am in love with it. (PSA: another line of fabric named Aria by Kate Spain will be coming out next year). The pattern will feature big blocks of the multi-colored paisley print, and my plan is for the broken sashing (which is shown in the pattern in white) to instead be done in orange and teal. that may change if it looks bad, but we will see. This should be an easy cut and sew once I get started.


11.  Lighted Christmas Tree Wall Hanging.

This is a kit I purchased last year from Missouri Star Quilt Company and should be a fairly easy sew.  Naturally, I would like this one done by the end of November so I can hang it in December.  I have everything laid out and ready to quilt, which is the first step (unless one adds to it). But this will be hung on an interior door, so I don’t want it too wide.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So, that’s it. Ten items on my list. Ten doesn’t seem like a very high number, but there is a lot of work involved in each one. Truthfully, I will be pleased if I get 6 or more done.  And now, I am off to get working on one of them.......

Linking up to Adrianne’s blog, On the Windy Side, where we are all setting out our goals for the 4th Quarter Finish-Along.

Until next time,