Show and Tell

Turtle quilt - a once again late gift to celebrate an addition to a co-worker's family.

Dinosaur quilt - will be a gift to celebrate an addition to a co-worker's family

 

Frog quilt - a late gift for my great-niece Brooke.

I just love the quilting that Ginger did on each of these!  Can't wait to finish the binding and make deliver them to their new homes.
Happy Quilting!
Julie

STaR Raffle Quilt

This is the second quilt that I "forgot" about ... oh how I miss my mind!  At any rate, in the Lost Time Again! post I told you about this quilt.  I finished the blocks last night!  I will actually have this quilt to Ginger for quilting very close to March 1.  Hot D*mn!!

I found the pattern at Country Fabrics in Shiloh, when Vicky and I went on our Bargello fabric acquisition trip.  Just fell in love with it.  There are sixty four blocks: sixteen are all blue; sixteen are all brown; and the rest use both colors.  I went traditional and used a red batik for the center of each block.  I also decided to make the logs a little bigger, since I wanted the finished quilt to be bigger than 78" square.  While I only added 1/2" to the logs, the finished quilt will be close to 108" square.  In this case, and since it's a raffle quilt, I decided that bigger is definitely better.

I will assemble the top tonight, and, if I have time, will also get started on the back.  I'd love to be able to drop it off for quilting by Friday, but will probably wait until next Tuesday night as I'll see Ginger at the last Gadabout class.

This also means, that I'll have my fabric cut, and be started on the prep work for the Mystery Quilt workshop this Saturday.  With the exception of the Mystery Quilt, I'm planning to focus my quilting energy on catching up with some very behind projects.

More about that in my next post ...
Happy Quilting!  Julie

New York Beauty

I found this lovely pattern in a mag of a New York Beauty.  OMG.  It was gorgeous.  So I decided to make a block for my sampler.  The pattern is paper pieced.  I'm not a big fan of paper piecing.  I've tried it before but never had much luck....well this pattern was different.  The direction were clear on how big to cut the pieces that would fun the points.  It went together easily.  I did it while our Quilt Kvetch was at my house.  I got the four pieces done.  I'll post pictures later.  Forgot to take any yesterday
When it came time to put on the outer curve...i didn't understand the directions. It showed the curves and said something about 'take away for piece d'....what did that mean. well it was only after I used the 'take away' pattern piece and tried to sew it to the paper pieced arc that I figured out it meant I had to cut a 9" square and use the 'take away' piece as the pattern to remove the fabric where the arc goes...DUH!

Lemoyne star fabric

While talking to Julie the other night, I was cutting the 1 1/2" strips for our strip quilt and I found this cream print fabric.  This is for the pattern by fons and porter called links.  Here is the pattern.  It has two sizes of lemoyne stars and an interesting layout.

Then I dug through my stash and found these fabrics to use for the star points.  The multi- colored fabric will be used for the background on the smaller stars.  In the pattern they used an orange for one of the backgrounds.   

I'm excited for the possibilities of this quilt.  I still have to find another background for the larger stars but I have a couple weeks for that.  Maybe I'll find another treasure while I'm working on another project.

Julie hasn't commented on my choices. What do you think?

Better late than never ... right?

I take lots of quilting classes at Millstream Career Center, via the Community Education side.  This is week 5 of 6 for the Gadabout class, a pattern by Eleanor Burns.  And I FINALLY got my prep sewing done!  It's not a difficult pattern, and the prep work is what takes the most time ... and as you can see, it's a fun block. 

As I don't necessarily follow patterns exactly either.  The pattern was written to use four fabrics, and the examples are really quite lovely.  But June and I are trying to use the fabrics we've already acquired.  So, I went for a dive!  I had purchased these at Forever In Stitches, a local quilt shop, so they were already together.  I didn't have enough to only use four fabrics, so I decided to change it up a little.  I'm quite happy with the result ... and as I opted to make the twin size version, I only have 36 more blocks to make.

Interestingly enough, I'd like to make another one (or maybe two).  One with a less subtle pinwheel, and one that sticks to four colors but lots of fabrics for a decidedly scrappy effect.  Yes, I do smell another J&J Project in the works, too!

~ Happy Quilting ~

Julie

Designing Diva Challenge

So ... I joined the Stitchin' Time Quilt Club this year ... And for the March meeting, they're having a Designing Diva Challenge.  I wasn't to sure about it at first, but decided that it would be a nice little break.  Yes, we only need one ... and following directions can be overrated so I started looking through my scrap pile.  I'll use a couple as fun little gifts for my nieces Caley and Cheyenne as they quilt with me. 

At any rate, it ended up being more fun than I thought it would.  And while they're not quite finished, I am glad that I took the detour and went for a dive!



Chili Fest Quilt

Yay, I finished the binding on this year's Chili Fest Quilt ... It will be raffled on Feb 23 at Washtington Elementary School.  Official stats are 59"x89", which makes it's officially twin size.  

I need to say thanks to my co-workers for their assistance in holding it for the picture.

... A close up view...



Of course, the next question is, what block to use for next years quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Julie

Julie's visit

Julie is coming for a visit in 6 weeks.  We've already been discussing what we plan to do.  We usually work on at least one quilt pattern together.   Julie usually brings a car load of fabric and leaves the majority of it here.  This year I asked Julie to plan scrappy quilts using my stash.  The ultimate stash buster!  Thankfully she agreed.  The first quilt we decided on was the LeMoyne Star.  Julie is star crazy.  But in this case we both were looking at the same pattern at the same time.  I saw a show on Fons and Porter and fell in love with the way they put it together.  It is called "Links".  It was in their magazine in 2012.  Fortunately I have a dear friend, Mar, who keeps her magazines and she had that issue.  So I now have the pattern.  I'm going to do it, but with the scrappy twist.  Julie has another LeMoyne star pattern that is gorgeous and is scrapy, so she'll probably do that.  We'll decide when she gets here. 

The second quilt is a strip quilt.  Julie wants to use pattern ease, something I've never done.  I'm excited to learn a new technique.  We're preparing strips, cutting them 1 1/2".  We'll throw all the stips together and it will be really scrappy.  I'm excited.

Then the third quilt...if we get this far...is one called Opsie daisy.  Julie brought this pattern with her last year.  It is two blocks one is a 32 squares for each block alternating with a flower applique in the other block.  The pattern shows pastels.  I can't wait to see what fabric Julie wants to use.  It should be fun to see the differences in our fabric choices. 

So this is our plan so far...but life changes things.  We need to stop looking at stuff online...hehehehe

What a beautiful day...to Quilt!

The weather outside is frightful....yes it is Minnesota and it's snowing.  It supposed to be pretty bad, worse up north but what a great day to quilt.  So that's what I did.  I finsihed the borders on the auction quilt.  I wanted to duplicate the nine patch in the corners so the borders kind of fell into place.  Here is the finished top.

Now to decide how to quilt it.  I'm not sure if I'm going to send it out or quilt it myself.  I've been practicing free motion continuous quilting on paper.  All the other quilts I've quilted I follow the pattern.  This quilt has a lot of white space so I'd like to do something special in the spaces.  The maple leaf leave me with wonder.  Again a lot of space to add some special touches.  I'll play a while.  I've never played with quilting motifs in EQ, maybe I should try that.  I'm always trying to learn new things, this would be a great time.

Finished the binding on the vegetable basket quilt.  While I was sewing on the binding I noticed a flower pot in the quilting.  Ginger is so talented.  Talked to Julie and she said there were gardening implements throughout.  So I went on a hunt and found several different implements.  That was so cool and fun to uncover.  I'm not sure where this quilt will go or who will get it, but it has been fun! 

Introducing Chloe

Well, since you're read a book about Chloe, I thought you might also like to meet her ...

The picture above was taken January 8, she was still catching up on her missed sleep from the overnight hospital stay.

The picture below was taken last fall.  I was working on the binding of a quilt for my great-niece Brooke.  Chloe was not impressed with the fact that I wasn't paying any attention to her.

Lost Time Again!

It's been one of those years already ... I know, it sounds horrible to say that this early in the year.  But it's also true.

Let me start by saying that Chloe is acting like her normal self, but I started January with a very sick dog.  Chloe will celebrate her 13th birthday on March 19, and until this year she's never had many medical issues.  Just the typical stuff.  After she didn't want to eat or drink for a couple of days, I decided it was time to see the vet.  I got a huge surprise when Dr. Tyzzer called to tell me that her liver counts were high, enough so that they wanted her in the hospital at least overnight so they could give her fluids and IV meds. 

She came home with presrciption dog food, liver supplements and a request to have bloodwork done in 2 weeks.  I had to make broth to get her to drink, and added water to her food.  The repeat blood work showed an increase in the liver counts, so an ultrasound was scheduled ... results showed a very enlarged liver.  The radiologist report indicated chronic pancreatitis ... talk about very bad tummy ache.  And, the request for yet more tests. 

Well, I decided to not put her through any more tests because she was starting to become very anxious ... Dr. Tyzzer and I agreed that at almost 13, she gets to be pampered until she lets me know otherwise so she gets her new, special food along with liver supplements.

Chloe also had an arthiritus flair up ... she woke up one morning and could hobble on her hind legs.  They just didn't work at all.  Another trip to see our favorite vet!  This time, liver friendly anti inflammatories were added.  She gets the lowest dose, and while it hasn't completely fixed the problem she is back to being Chloe.

I also have to add that Dr. Tyzzer is just wonderful!  She has learned more about my life than I'm sure she wants to know, and still is eager to help in anyway that she can.

Now, by this point, I'm sure you're asking "How does this relate to your quilting?"  Well, I almost forgot to make a raffle quilt.  It's for the Chili Festival that is hosted by the PTO at Washington Elementary School where my youngest niece is a student.  I've made a quilt that is raffled that night every year since 2008.  It hit me about two weeks ago ... like a brick ... I didn't have one made yet!  I made a harried call to June, panicing that I needed to get a top made that weekend so I'd have time to get it quilted and back to finish the binding.  Thankfully, June had a calming influence and via the phone helped me pick out fabrics, all from my stash no less.  I used the block from the pattern Cheaper by the 1/2 Dozen and made a twin size quilt.  I had enough left over to make a pieced backing, binding and a pillow case to match!  Ginger is a dream!  I pick the quilt up tonight after work, and will get the binding on it and the pillow case made tomorrow.

And if you think one quilt is bad ... yes, you guessed it, there's another!  This one isn't a twin size quilt, and the pattern has to be a star.  This one will be kinq size.  Yes, back to my stash for a dive I went.  This time I pulled out six batiks and am in the process of making log cabin blocks that will form a carpenter's wheel when the top is put together.  I've got this ... 

Well, maybe ... Chloe's had a bad week as I think her tummy is hurting, and I'm fighting another sinus infection ... which equates to not as much sewing as I needed to get done.  I've talked to Ginger so she knows about the quilt.  And will be working on it tomorrow as well.  Thankfully, I have until the end of the month to finish it and get it delivered to Ginger for quilting ... Yes, I do believe I really can do this! 

Until the next panic ...
Julie

I've made some great progress.  Two quilts came back from the quilter.  Yeah Ginger.  Gorgeous work.  I finished the binding on this one.  It's a kalidescope.  I played with the border a lot.  I had sewn on several different patterns, but then decided to go simple with strips.  I like how it turned out.  What you can't see is that in the corner is one kalidescope block in each corner.   I haven't named it but it is going into our room at our son's house.  I'm using it on our bed at home for now until the next time we visit our son.



The other one is made using vegetable prints.  As soon as i finish it i'll post it.  Julie gave me all the vegetable fabrics.  it turned out wonderful.  I worked on the binding during the Super Bowl, but lost interest in that at half time..in the game silly not the quilt! 

The latest quilt I'm working on is for my husband to donate to the IMEF (Internation Milling Education Foundation).  They have a silent auction and I created one two years ago and I wanted to do a different one this year.   The meeting will be in Canada this year so I decided to do a red maple leaf.  I added the irish chain to break it up.  I'm thrilled with how it turned out.  I love the red and white.  I've been looking at several other quilts that i can do using two colors.  I'll probably do a couple of those next. 

Here's the maple leaf quilt top.  I just finished it tonight.  I now have to decide what to do with the borders.  I was thinking a 1 1/2" in red then a 2-3" white.  i would like to do corner stones but haven't decided if I will work.

 

quilter off center 2