July Scrappy Finish

I don't work a lot with a brown color way.  I have had several strip from two different French General Jellyroll laying around for years and I have various brownish fabric I have been given.  Finally put it to use in this quilt.  I found the French general line and purchased a yard for the border.  This was going to be a charity quilt but I have sort of fallen in love with it.  Linking up to scrap tactic Tuesday at She Can Quilt

 

Stars and Strips

I had lots of leftover fabric from other patriotic quilts I had made as well as all these red and white half square triangles. So I started making stars and this is the quilt I ended up with.  I really liked how it turned out and knew I wanted it to go to someone I knew.  My dear friend Helen's husband is a retired Marine and I felt this quilt would be perfect for him and I was right, he was overwhelmed.

Purple People Eater

The purple scrappy quilt is on the Longarm!!!  I blogged about making the back a while ago.  It is the first time I have ever made the back before the front.  Liking this one.   Linking up to shecanquilt.com

And here is the back

What to do with all that fabric

I have been on a mission to use up my scraps.  Have made one blue and white, one red and white and One using left over juvenile fabrics.  Now I am on to my purple.  OK, let me explain.  I made a purple quilt for my granddaughter 8 years ago and I inherited a bunch of purple.  I got it all cut out and was STILL left with a pile.  What to do, what to do.  Ah Ha, a pieced back.  Used up every bit to that purple and I like it.

Back at it

I am finally back sewing.  My leg has been giving me fits and the little time I could work I used for Susan's quilt on the long arm.  I am making another pinwheel quilt for my daughter in law Shelly.  Using up bits of Betty's fabric and some fabric I was given by my cousin.  I am a bit of a disorganized sewer. I do a little cutting, a bit of sewing, some pressing and sew on.  It feels good to be back at the machine.

Now that I have discovered This method , I like the second method, I can make pinwheels like a pro!!!

This method

These Addicting Hexagons

I am having a mild flared of my CRPS so am not able to spend much time at my sewing machine or long arm.  Thank goodness I found inklingo, now I have plenty of hand work to do while I am grounded to my chair.  Being somewhat anal I found I need to have stations for my hexagons.

This kit the beginning stage:

Once my flower is done it goes on to the ironing stage:

Once ironed they hit the next stage to have the white and or green added

The final stage will be to sew together and I have a final bin for that as well.  It's amazing how quickly these little things go together, I already have 45 done.  It does take more time to put the white and green on.  Once all the flowers are made, there will be 110, I expect finishing will take longer.  Stay tuned for more of the hexagon journey.

From Sister Susan

My wonderfully talented sister made me this adorable needle case.  I have been doing a lost of hand sewing lately and this was the perfect gift. 

Hexagons

Just recently I discovered the joys of inkling.com.  This is a program where you can print sewing lines onto your fabric. In the past, to make hexagon, you had to use the English paper piecing method I found this quite tedious and not at all appealing.  I really wanted to make a hexagon quilt, but as I said before did not want to do use the English paper piecing method. Now that I purchased inklingo.com I've been happily printing and makeing hexagons. I am going to be making a grandmother flower garden with my hexagons. Here's a picture of some of the fabrics I have so far cut out.  Stay tuned for progress #hexagons

Baby Quilts

I have been a bit of lost since finishing up Betty's projects (that last a whole hour). What to do what to do, can't buy new fabric as I made a vow to use up what I had so rummaging around my fabric stash seemed the best bet. 

I found some baby fabric that I purchased years ago, so after gathering a few bits and pieces of other fabric, these two quilts were born. I think they turned out really cute And will go on our Etsy shop, CrazyBirdsStudio.

When I first started making quilts all I did was baby quilts.  Friends were having kids, they were fast and easy to quilt on my machine.  I have only made two baby quilts in the last 10 years but bought baby themed fabric on sale "just in case".  In keeping with my plan to use up fabric baby quilts are here for a bit.  This is the next one being assembled.

End of a Journey

My sister Laura decided to gift me all of her deceased mother in law's quilting supplies.  Little did I know what a journey it would take me on. Starting in September 2013 I pulled Betty's projects out of boxes and started sorting through fabric, batting, squares, quilt tops and other odds and ends.  Now at the end of October 2014 I have finished the last of  her projects.  I am sad to know that I no longer have any projects or any boxes to open and look through and wonder what Betty was thinking when she cut these pieces, made those squares and what she has in mind.  Some of the projects were easy to figure out the top may be almost done or completely done and all I need to do Was quilt it for it be finished.  All in all 11 projects got completed.  I still have some fabric left and will use that when I can, in fact I feel another pinwheel quilt coming on.  I feel incredibly blessed to have gone on this journey and am so glad my sister had the foresight to save and pass on these treasures. These are some of the quilts from this journey.  I can't find pictures of the four and nine patches I did.  There were three of them, two made with nine patches Betty had already made.  And one from four patches Betty had made.  Now I must confess looking at the four patches made my eyes bleed and I had quite a long conversation with Betty over what she was thinking when she put them together.  I ripped them apart, remade them and designed them into a quilt which I gave it to Brian and Laura as a house warming present when they moved to Ojai.  I had made a vow to myself that I would not redo anything that Betty had already done and as I said I broke that vow with the four patches, but really, if you had seen them you would agree with me.  The quilt that I had the hardest time with is the last one you will see (it is going to Sister Barbara).  The piecing was just terrible,  I left this quilt until the last.  It only needed two rows for it to be finished but my perfectionism was having a hard time dealing with the bad piecing.  Finally I pulled it out and decided to just get it done when from out of now where I heard Betty say to me, "It doesn't need to be perfect it just needs to be done".  She was so right! and with a smile on my face and joy in my heart it got done.

Brian and Laura thank you for thinking of me and allowing me to share these precious memories of you mother, Betty Smith, it was a joy and an honor.

These two just needed borders and quilting and they went to my dear brother in law, Betty's son.

This quilt was made from triangles Betty had already cut out

This quilt was made with bits and pieces of Christmas material and went to a dear friend who got married around Christmas

This quilt had one panel done.  I finished the next three with needle turned applique and hand quilted where all the blue lines are.  It is almost complete and will post a picture when it is done.

These three quilts are the last ones!!!!  The top quilt I will be keeping for myself.  The second one is going to Betty' granddaughter (Brian's daughter) Betty had already cut out the triangles and the bottom one is going to my sister Barbara who fell in love with it when she saw the picture.

Top Finished, no name yet

I got my star top finished!!!  Thanks so much to Sister Susan for the idea for the blocks, they finished at 16 inch square.  I really wanted to use all fabrics from Betty' stash.  Half the blocks were made from triangles she had already cut and the other half from fabric in her stash.  I used all the rest of the blues to make a pieced back.  I used all the cream fabric she had but ran out, sigh, so I did have to buy more background fabric.  Kona  snow matched and I used a yard and three quarters to finish the squares, the smashing and the borders.  The layout is my design and am so pleased with how it turned out.  I was going to donate to Quilts of Valor, but may give to a Vet that I know.  HVE not really decided.  I will post a picture of the finished quilt.  Need to finished the quilt on "Baby" before I can load this one.

Sewing Again

I have not been at my machines in ages!!!!!  Sister Sue came a couple of weeks ago and we loaded one of her quilts on Baby the longarm and got it half done.  It jump started me, I got that quilt finished, loaded a clients quilt and got that done and now have another UFO loaded and have it a third of the way finished.   In the meantime I have been piecing another quilt.  I think this one will go to quilts of valor.  I am Using material from my Betty stash and here's a picture of what I have done so far.  The blocks are 16.5 inches!!!!! It feels good to be sewing again!

Economy blocks

Dear Susan,
Thanks for the help in choosing fabrics for my economy blocks.  Glad you could make it up today to quilt and am so excited you loaded, quilted and FINISHED your quilt today.
Here is a layout of the blocks we did.  We have to get this sewn up and finished 😄

"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).