A little self "horn-tooting" (blush)...

I entered my Spring Journey Sampler quilt in a local guild show.  I was surprised and thrilled to receive a 3rd place ribbon! 

I had 2 reasons to enter this quilt:  first I was so  happy to finish it and so pleased with my feathers on it that I wanted it 'seen'!  And 2ndly, I wanted the critique of a non-partial judge.  

There were 18 quilts in the same catagory as mine.  And the other quilts were bee-u-tee-ful, so I felt very good about getting a ribbon at all.

And although it clashes with my livingroom (ugh). I have it hanging for Easter anyway-  I do want to look at it for a bit longer before it gets put away and last but not least-- I must get some use out of the dang hanging sleeve I had to sew on to it for the show!

Design Wall Monday/and other things

Here is a picture of my design wall.  It's an orphan quilt top. I do not know when I started to sew together all these leftover blocks but that top row of blocks are from Little Quilts and those I was making 4-5 years ago. It measures 60" x 79" right now.  I think I'm going to add another border on the top and down the right side and call it done.  I have a few more orphan blocks that I think I will piece into the backing.   

Here is a picture of my finished Spring Journey Sampler quilt (80 X 100) that I posted about on DWM a few weeks ago.

It took me all weekend to get the binding hand sewed to the back and I sewed the label on last night.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  I learned a lot about quilting feathers in such a large area.  I think I like the back of the quilt as much as the front and am toying with the idea of getting a big piece of white fabric and doing a whole cloth quilt.  That one's going to have to percolate in the back of my mind for a bit.

I'm so glad this is finished.  I really thought this was one that would just languish away in the back of a closet.  If I had to do it again, the only change would be the color palette, this goes with nothing in my house.  I lean towards country/primitive. I should have made it in those colors (my colors).

Here is a picture of one of the setting triangles,

here's one of the back. Crappy photo. :)

And a close up of one of the blocks.  I quilted each block differently, including using different fillers in the background of each one. In some of the blocks that's all I did was quilt a filler in the white background.  Except for knowing I was going to quilt feathers in the setting triangles, I didn't know what I was going to do in the blocks.  I decided what should be in it when I got to it. I enjoy this kind of quilting the best.

In this block I quilted flowers in the basket.

 I hope you can see them.

A Post for me

I finished the quilting on Spring Journey Sampler quilt--love it.  12/10-sewed on binding and began the hand sewing to back of quilt, this is going to take a few days, so much other stuff to do.  Also yesterday, I quilted 3 of the donation quilts, 1st one all over stipple, 2nd-all over zig-zag, really like this will have to use again.  I used a primary variegated thread on both of these. 3rd one looping circles all over, started with a pastel variegated but ran out so finished with a pastel blue. 

Today I made the binding for all 5 quilts and loaded the 4th one. I'm quilting that with an all over curvy "C's" that I like so much as a filler, just making each 'c' a little bigger.  I also cleaned up messy pile in sewing room.  I was throwing backing leftovers from quilts that were finished in a heap.  They were a jumbled mess. I pressed them and cut into strips for string quilts.  I'm going out to dinner tonight with 2 friends, if I get home in time I hope to finish the 4th one and load 5th.  Pictures will follow.  No time today.

Edit:  I got home around 9:30 (had a wonderful time) and finished quilting 4th quilt, loaded and quilted 5th one too!  I forgot and drank regulare coffee after dinner, instead of decaf.

Christmas Quilts Part 3 "That's All Folks"

I made this from a kit.

 

 I think I ordered it from somewhere. It's signed on the back 'Nov. 92' but I think I had the kit for a few years before making it.  I didn't like the pink background for a Christmas quilt.  After it was all done, I noticed that the far right row of geese were "off" top one should have been green.  This kind of thing really bothers my eye.   This quilt used to really bug me.  

I'm used to it now and think it's quite charming, but my eye still zero's right in on that top right corner.  I'm using it this year as a table topper in my kitchen. 

This next quilt is just a panel that I got at Joanne's and made 10/2000. I hand quilted it.  The blue colors don't really go with my red sofa, gives too much of a patriotic feel. So I hung it in our bedroom.  If you click and enlarge, you may be able to read the words "Do you see what I see?".  

That's one of my favorite Christmas songs.  

This is a "Little Quilt" design.  I made in 1998.  Its hand blanket-stitched and hand quilted. It is 14.5 x 18.5 inches. 

. 

Another Little Quilt, I made him in Nov. 2002.  I made 7 of them!  The rest were gifts. He's made all from scraps.  I just love him and since he's not really Christmas but winter he stays out for the rest of the winter.

This is the last Little Quilt design. 

 This is all scraps.  I finished this one 9/2003.  It is hand quilted as well. Those little HST finish 1 inch! 

I love this quilt too.  (I say that a lot, I know.)

These 2 quilts are Thimbleberries designs.  I use them for table toppers or to just stick somewhere there isn't a quilt...one is on the back of the sofa and the other is on the back of a wing chair in the living room this year. The 9-patch blocks use black fabric, instead of say a green for traditional Christmas palette.  Both quilts are a mix of Christmas fabrics and just regular prints.  I don't know why I made 2, but both were made in December 2003. 

This is made with all Christmas fabrics.  I don't remember the quilt show or designer who was on it.  But I got this idea from a show I watched.  It was a lesson in color placement and to just let the colors 'go where they may'.  You cut out 120  2 inch squares no more than 3 of the same fabric and just 1 if you had enough. Then you mixed them all up in a bag.  You reached in pulled squares out and arranged those 10 rows across 12 down.  Not re-arranging at all!  After they were all laid out you could move 2 or 3 (if say 2 of the same were right next to each other).  I made another one with batiks, it actually was the 1st and I liked it so much I made this one.  The batik one is gone and I don't think I have a digital picture of it.


This is my Weaver Fever quilt that I made in 2006.  I took a class at

my LQS The Quilting Needle. I was able to use fabrics from my stash and only had to buy yardage for the borders and one of the green prints.  The backing is a Christmas toile print.  I quilted this on a HQ16 that I rented from another LQS. This was before I got my own. It measures 57 x 46.  I keep it out most of the year, since my living room is red and green anyway.  It goes.

Oops! This should have been earlier. (I am trying to list these in order they were made, but am failing.)
I made this in April 2005.  It was another class at The quilting Needle.  The pattern is from another LQS The Quilt Company the link should go to the pattern Reversible Runner too.  It's a quilt as you go pattern. I made several of these, not for Christmas, just to use up fabric.  I didn't keep them though.  I gave a few away and donated the rest to our church festival's craft booth.  It's one of those easy addictive kind of patterns.

This was another class at The Quilting Needle.  I took this class and made this quilt in March 2007.  It was a technique class for the ribbon border.  We really only needed a plain square of fabric for the center, but I had been wanting to make a machine appliqued Oak and Reel block so I made the center one of those blocks and then added to it to get the correct size.  I actually made 2 of these as well to use up this LOUD fabric.  The back on this one is just muslin. The other one had a pieced backing sort of like a trip around the world using up all the leftovers.  That quilt was donated to church festival.  This one my son John took just a few weeks ago to his apartment.  (He came over and hinted that he needed a quilt for a big blank wall in his living room!) He picked this one. 

This last picture is not a quilt but a crewel work piece that I finished around 1990.  In 1984 we moved to the house we lived before moving here.  My Granpap bought this kit for me as a housewarming gift.  I didn't quilt then.  I didn't finish it until after we moved here which was in 1989.  I was up to my eyeballs in babies and toddlers during those years!!!  My dad made the frame for it, which I just realized you can't see. Ha! Sorry!

I'm almost done with my Spring Journey quilt.  I will finish it today.  I unloaded it to turn it to do the side borders.  I hope to have a couple pictures soon.  I'd really like those pictures to show it with the binding on it too.  But I'm not holding my breath! Just getting it quilted after all these years is joyous!!!

Christmas Quilts Part 2

I will call this Nancy Halvorsen quilt day.  I love her applique designs; her books have great instructions and great pictures--very important. 

These are 2 tea towels for me!  I have no idea how many of these I made and gave for gifts.  The Santa one on the right, I think was a pattern in a quilt magazine.  I don't keep good notes on smaller things like this sometimes.  

I made Up on a Roof  Top in November 2004. It's companion, You better not Pout  I made in Nov. 2005  I remember using mostly scraps for these quilts.

These are 2 little angel quilts, I made in 2004 as well.  My notes say I made 6 total. They were gifts for family.  I also made one in patriotic colors with the angel holding an American Flag, but I must have donated or given that away.  I haven't seen it for a while....
They both have the words "Let Heaven and Nature Sing" stitched on them.  The top one I should have used a darker thread, it doesn't show up well.

This little one I made 3 of November 2004.  Two were gifts. (I was busy in Nov. 2004)

I love this quilt! I made it in 2006. It's about 42" square.  Again, I used fabrics from my stash and bought the border ones.  I think I did buy a few fat quarters for the 3 wise men's robes.  I machine quilted this on my domestic machine. It is not a good job.  The tension was giving me fits especially in the beige background areas. When I got it out this year and  looked at it, I was bummed.  After Christmas, I think I will take out the quilting (it won't be hard the tension it that bad) and re-do it. Before I made it, I made a smaller version of just the center panel with theHoly family.  I gave that one to my sister. Let me see if I can find a picture. I just remembered that when I was writing about this one.

Here it is, I love it too.

Today I am working on donation baby quilts.  I have 2 pieced and a 3rd almost done, one more to piece then I need to get back on the HQ and finish my Spring Journey quilt.

I'm feeling under the weather

and bored out of my mind. I have a little virus, I guess.
I did manage to get the diamond strings arranged in rows to be sewn together. They're off my design wall now, so I was able to put up the 70 9-patch blocks and arrange them. Later I went back and sewed on the 2.5" sashing strips to the 1st row of blocks, but alas, got too weak and had to rest on the couch. Is it just me or is TV boring? Even HGTV couldn't keep my attention. (a sure sign that I'm not well).
I did take the Folk-art quilt to the drop off place on Wed. It was 1 1/2 hour drive-one way. I'm looking forward to the show on Sunday.
Yesterday afternoon I started preparing this quilt (bad picture, sorry) to load on my HQ, I made this in 2004-05, it was the progression quilt from the West. PA shop hop in 04. (each shop made a block, 14 of em.) The setting is unusual.

I'm not a pastel/white background kinda person, but I do like this.