"Wind Over Water" a quilt for Patricia

I can not believe that this quilt is done!!!  It has been over a year, the longest I have worked on a quilt.  I learned MANY lessons while I worked on the quilt.  Always use the same 1/4 inch foot from start to finish.  My BIg Shot from Sizzix makes making half square triangles a breeze.  Using a walking foot to make the HST is critical to a square finished product.  Thank goodness I love my sister so much or I would never have undertaken this project.  When I first started I was so bored with the monotone colors and I must admit they are not my cup of tea, but, this is what Pat wanted so this is what I did.  I like the finished product and I think it suits Pat.  This is a queen sized quilt 80 x 90.  Now just to make a label and get it delivered.

Almost Done

This is UFO #7.  I really thought is quilt would never get finished.  I was sick all last week and had a lot of time to think.....  I decided to work just one half hour a day on this quilt.  If I would commit to,that the quilt would get done, right?  Well the half hour led to longer time and in a week I had the center of the quilt done.  I must admit that my new toy the "big shot pro" from Suzzix made making the half square triangles sooooo much easier.  Here is how it looked at the middle of the week

Here is how iit looked last night

I started the borders today.  Looks like my sis will actually get the quilt before her birthday, it has only been two years In The making

Labyrinth Quilt

My local quilt shop had a class using the pattern LABYRINTH by Debbie Maddy.  I made the queen size, but did not use the pattern for the borders.  I love how bright and cherry this came out.  The finished size is 80 x 90.  My goal is to make a quilt for my bed for each season.  This is summer.  I will be linking this up at Confession of a fabricholic for her woop woop Friday here http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/search/label/whoop-whoop

I quilted this on my long arm using the hooked on feather technique.  Here is a close up of the center

 

Happy with this new border

I have been waiting to work on this border because I bought a Sizzix Big Shot and have been waiting for the HST die.  it finally came and I got one border done.  It went super fast using the die, one cut, one seam and voila a HST.  This is for my second to last UFO.  I bought a new pantograph for this quilt and can't wait to get it one the long arm.  Will post another picture when the border is on the quilt.

It's Memorial Day Weekend Happy Friday all

I don't have a finished quilt to share, still have several in progress.  I am going to spend the weekend with my horse show friends at Sterling Silver Stable!!!  This is my favorite thing to do and I always have a blast seeing old friends.  Hope you all have a great Memorial Day and have not forget the reason for this day.  Here is a picture of my favorite horse show buddy

The longest running UFO

As you all know by now I am on a mission to complete all my UFO's.  when I started this on April 1st I had seven UFO,s and now I am down to two.  The longest running one is for my sister Pat, a queen size ocean wave quilt.  Sister Pat picked the colors, tan and white.  I know boring right?.  I made the mistake of deciding to use 2inch finished HST for the quilt.
Here is some of the 1,860 HST I need for the quilt

Here is the first block done.  Now I must tell you that all these HST had the white sewed on backwards.  I ripped them out and redid them and did not work on the quilt for another six months

I have gotten over my HST trauma and am liking how this looks, very simple and elegant.  I have one row done, five more to go, I hope to have it done by the end of summer.  I was going to link this up with WIP Wednesday but Lee, At Freshly Pieced isn't having it today.

 

Leavenworth Row Quilt

I treated myself to a vacation last October and attended a quilt retreat in Leavenworth Washington.  I bought three projects to work on.  The retreat was fantastic, the ladies wonderful and the setting beautiful.  I combined it with a trip to visit my son and was gone for 12 days.  By the time I got home I was exhausted and had three incomplete tops.  I then had a flare up of my disease and was on the couch for three months.  I did not start quilting again until this April and vowed to get all my UFO's done, I had counted them up and had seven, count them seven, which for me is a lot.  I have since finished five and four you have read about in previous posts.

This quilt is number 5 and very special.  I participated in the row exchange at the retreat and this is the finished quilt.  My row is second from the bottom and my theme was the ocean.  I hate to brag but I think I got the prettiest rows and they all go so well together,  I arranged them so you went from the ocean bottom to the seashore.  It is hanging in a place of honor in my living room (I really do need to get quilt hangers). 

"Springtime Playtime is done!"

I started this quilt at the end of October 2012 at a quilt retreat in Leavenworth, WA.  It has been sitting neglected since that time.  At the beginning of April I went on a mission to finish UFO's.  Now that this one is done I am down to only three.  I saw this pattern in Easy Quilts, Spring 2012 and fell in love with it.  The main fabric is from the Dress Up line by Riley Blake.  The quilting is my first effort with a pantograph and could not believe how easy it was and see many more in my future.  The pantograph is Floral Meander and quilted with Aurifil tan #200.  This will be going into my etsy shop and will be the perfect quilt for a girl.  Linking up with Woot Wott Friday here and Finish it up Friday here

Hearts For Leslie

Here is my finished quilt from the pattern Heartstring designed by Gail Yakos . The sample quilt has been hanging in the shop (Creation Station) for a while and I always admired it and wanted to make it.  They offered a class using this pattern so I jumped at the chance to finally make it.  I super sized the pattern adding a extra row of hearts and making the borders bigger and am so pleased with how it turned out.  This quilt is for a very special women, Leslie Nelson of Sterling Silver Stable, www.sterlingsilverstable.com.  Leslie came forward and helped me at a difficult time in my life, for no other reason than I had helped someone she knew.   There have not been very many people, other than my family, who have stepped forward to help me when I needed it.  She held my hand, counseled me, cryed and laughed with me.  She continues to be a strong presence in my life including me in a world I adore.  I want Leslie to understand how much her caring meant and means to me. This quilt is just a small thank you to a wonderful and caring women.  Leslie, this is for you and all you do.

Heart sting quilt

I took a wonderful class at my local quilt shop Creation Station www.creationstation.com.  I talked a little bit about this in my pinwheel post.  The class was super fun with many wonderful ladies.  I super sized the pattern and have almost finished quilting it, just working on the borders.  I did the body on Miss. Jewel, the long arm, but I find many times it is easier to do the borders on my Bernina.  I am linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday www.freshlypieced.com I am in love with her "Bloom bloom pow" quilt, have to add that to the growing  pile on want to do's.  Anyway here is my WIP, "Hearts for Leslie"

For Hastings the Corgi

I do more than quilt, believe it or not,  I also enjoy machine embroidery.  Sister Barbara has Corgi's.  Now if you do not know about Corgis they are a small, about 12 -14 inches tall, dog bred to herd cows in Wales.  They can be heelers, nipping at the heels to make the cow go, or headers, nipping at the nose to make the cow turn.  So imagine this small dog chasing these BIG cows, now imagine the personality that these guys have to have!!!!  My sis LOVES her dogs.  She used to have three - Whimsey, Watson and Hastings.  Sadly we lost Whimsey recently and as you dog lovers know that is not an easy loss to get over.  Several Christmas' ago I made towel for the two dogs they had then.  At Christmas Barbara asked for one for Hastings.  I have finally gotten it done and it is winging its way to them.

Pinwheels for Helen

My other passion is playing bridge.  When you have a partner that you click with bridge is a blast.  I have been blessed with two fantastic partners, my mon and Muriel and I can now add a third to the list - Helen.  Helen' s birthday is tomorrow and I was able to give her the quilt I made for her today.  She was so surprised and happy my heart is overflowing.  Helen and have only know each other for a couple of months but I know we will be friends for the rest of our lives.  

Another UFO Bites the dust

Back in April I posted about my UFO's.  I think I had seven to finish and I just got another one done.  This is another Quilt of Valor that I started in October 2012.  It is a disappearing nine patch.  I have found that I don't like sewing blocks together and then cutting them apart but I do like this result.  It feels so good to have these done!!!  I have four left to do, one is at least sandwiched and ready to quilt.  I have a new quilt on the long arm and am going to a class Sunday to start another.  Today is sew day at my Local Quilt Shop, Creation Station, and I plan one working on one  there (Sister Pat's Ocean Wave) as it is haunting me. It has thousands of half square triangles but I think I have finally conquered them

Pinwheel Quilt

I finished my pinwheel quilt and an very proud of myself for the design.  I had 7 large pinwheels that I made from the cutoff corners of the Heartstrings quilt designed by Gail Yakos.  Not really enough to make a quilt.  I took the coordinating solid strips from the Jellyroll I used,  sewed three jellyrolls together and then cut them in 6.5 inch squares.  I used the tutorial from "that girl that quilts" blog http://www.thatgirlthatquilt.com/2011/11/half-square-triangles-3-ways.html   I wish I had found that tutorial ages ago, what an easy way to make HST.  I did not do any math just let them come out at what size they did.  I now had 8 11 inch HST and 11 8 inch HST.  I cut down one of the large HST to 8 inches and put them on the design board.  After staring at them for a while I found I could cut 8x11 rectangles and, voila, a quilt was born.  I wanted the quilting to stand out so I used a King Tut variegated thread Chariots of Fire.  I pictured this to be a spring quilt so used the Flutterby groovy board for the butterfly's.  And here it is.

A Quilters Legacy

Do you ever wonder what happens when a quilter is no longer around to quilt.  All that fabric, tools and tops, her legacy gone.  My brother in law, Brian, mother was a quilter, I never knew this until after she had passed.  I had the distinct pleasure of being given several quilt tops, some squares yet to be made into tops and some fabric.  These sat around my sewing room for several months while I pondered what to do with them.  There were two finished wall hangings that were beautiful.  This wonderful women really knew her craft.  The first top, a lovely sampler wall hanging I quilted and gave to Brian for Christmas.  The second one, a smaller paper pieced wall hanging, I just finished and sent off.  I was so pleased and touched to see the pleasure and emotion on Brian's face when I gave him the quilt at Christmas.  The knowledge that I was able to give him a little piece of his mom made that Christmas so special for me.  He hung the top in his music room and told my sister " he loves having his mom smiling down at him with a touch of love from you".  I just want Brian to know what a privilege it has been to carry on his mothers quilting legacy.

This is the top I just finished.

The above quilt is the one I gave him for Christmas

Pinwheels

As Sister Sue knows I HATE triangles.  All that math, marking, sewing, cutting, trimming dog ears and bias.  Bleck!!!  Give me squares, nice straight lines, easily added or divided.  WELL my goal in 2013 was to embrace triangles, make them my friend find all the ways that I can use them.  First step was to take a class from Sandy Turner.  In another class that used the flip method to make hearts.  In the process of making the hearts I had to cut off a large corner triangle -  SOOOOO I am using these in another quilt that will have large and small pinwheels.  Turns out this is kind of fun.  Very liberating.  See Sue I can do it.

Quilt of Valor

I had a goal in 2012 to make 6 Quilts of  Valor and to volunteer long arm 6 quilts.  I did get the 6 done on the long arm but only made 4 tops as life got in the way.  My goal this month is to get my UFO's done and the two Quilt of Valor tops were on the top of the list. This quilt came off the long arm three days ago and today was finally calm enough for me to get pictures (it has been very windy here).  This is a pattern Sister Sue's thought up.  I bought a half yard bundle from the line Yankee Doodle Bear and added a few other fabrics and was able to get two quilts out of it.  The quilting is in my favorite bubble pattern.  Should get this mailed out to the recipient in a few days.

and the label

and the presentation case

Quilting class bag "The Queen Bee Bag"

Here in the Santa Ynez Valley we have a wonderful Quilt Shop, the Creation Station, http://www.thecreationstation.com/.  On the first Wednesday of every month the Valley Bees meet there and on the third Monday they have an open sew.  The space is large and airy, with plenty of tables and irons.  This year they are having wonderful classes and I have signed up for three.  My problem has always been getting all my stuff there.  First solution was to buy a Singer Featherweight, that is another whole post!  I came across this wonderful pattern at Moda Bake Shop called "The Queen Bee Bag" http://www.modabakeshop.com/search/label/Bags%20and%20Totes  It went together even more quickly than the instructions as I used strips of fabric instead of a layer cake.  It was wonderful to be able to use up fabric left over from other quilts.  It did end up being heavier than I thought and the straps are to long for me,   I am 5'3.  However I love it and I can fit all my stuff in it and have only two things to carry.  Caution - don't fill it to full or it becomes to heavy.
And here i is Front

The Back

The inside

UFO'S

I have been in Quilt limbo since October 2012. I finally took a class at my LQS and got my mojo back. I am one of those obsessive compulsive quilters that hates to start a new project if I have an unfinished one. Usually I have one on the long arm and one I am piecing.  I had to clean my sewing room to find all the stuff to take to class and I found I had 7 UFO'S!  I have gotten two done, finishing the binding on number 3 and have number 4 on the longarm.  I took a second class so have to add the two class quilts to the pile and that makes 9.  Of course that does not count the fabric I have bought for future projects.  Such is a quilters life.

Patriotic Quilt

I started this quilt on September 20, 2012. I had bought a half yard bundle of fabric from the Yankee Doodle bear line over a year before. I have been trying to use up my stash and when Sister Sue showed me the pattern at www.ModaBakeshop.com called Positively Perfect Nap Quilt a quilt was born. Due to life getting in the way I have just now gotten this quilt finished. It finished out at 64x76.

New quilt

I was able to take a wonderful quilting class with Sandy Turner on her birds in the air technique for Large print fabric. It was a really fun time and it helped me get my quilting mojo back. this quilt will go on the back burner for now as I have 5 others I want to get finished

New things

I broke down and bought an iPad.  Man am I having fun.  I am a dedicated quilter and am finding all kinds of thing I can do with the iPad to help me with my hobby.  Just got back from an awesome quilt retreat in Leavenworth , Wa.  Brought my trusty new toy, took pics, was able to get on Facebook, get my email and I did it all with this small portable tool.  I am still learning about it, just discovered iBooks and already have saved several quilt patterns to it.  Here is the cool row quilt that I got at the retreat.  Not finished but it will be such a great reminder of a wonderful time.