Just trying to catch up ....

Well it is, as I have always referred to it, leaf peeping season here in New England. The colors have been very pretty but we did not have a quick cold snap to force the colors into the trees all at once. It has been a slow smattering of colors but very enjoyable. We have had a steady stream of visitors wanting to admire the colors.

I have been quilting, however, between company. Some for me and some for my friends. A friend from RI came up to visit and brought a quilt that she had started earlier this month. We decided to add a splash of texture and color to it, picked up some wonderful soft flannel for the back and a wonderful teal blender for the borders. A few weeks later, she came up and we quilted it. This was the results!! She was very happy with it.

I also have been furiously working on a Christmas present for a friend. When I was visiting her last spring, she picked out some great blue and silver metallic fabric at a local quilt store. At the time, there was a guild challenge going on which challenged the members to make a wall hanging using multiple stars. Here were my first stars. The one on the right is a 6" star with a      1 1/2 " paper pieced star in the center.

This star was the first of four 12" stars



So off to the races - I needed to finish more to finish the wall hanging. Stars were made, moved around, more stars made and then moved around again. This is what the final results were

I decided to Stitch in the ditch - which now I wished I had not. The intention was to make to stars POP - and they did - lol - just a bit too much. If I were to do another one, I would quilt it on the long arm.

Syncopated Rhythm - Quilted

I have been actually busy and this is the second post this month!! I did get the quilt done for my DS.

I have to admit that I am very pleased. I was exceedingly pleased with the stitches on the quilt. Obviously, the Voyager is back up and running and it looks as good as when it was "new to me"!!

I found a wonderful teal and brown checked flannel and used that as the backing and bound it with the fabric that I used on Border #1 and Border #3.

As for the quilting, I did a basic meander. My only disappointment is I now wish I had used a medium brown thread rather than the light tan. I chose the light tan because I wanted it to not stand out on the lights of the center - but this is a lesson learned!!  But it is not complete and is off to it's rightful home (only a few months late for his Bday!!).

Variation of a 1600 Quilt

So ... I have been busy. I participated in a guild event last winter. We did 1600 Quilts. I went off to my local Mardens (a discount "joint" is more like it that sells great fabric that is overstocked or overruns) and purchased 1/4 yard pieces of Red White and Blue. I decided early on that I would donate it to QoV.

Well the day came - I sewed ..... I sewed ..... I sewed ............  It was done!! The honest truth? I really HATED it. OK so now it is out.

It sat upstairs in the sewing room since then. I hated it so much that I could not even look at it. Then, I got the glorious idea to slice it up.

I took my long 6" wide ruler placed the 30 degree line at the top and started cutting long diagonal pieces. I next cut 2" navy blue mottled fabric strips and started sewing the quilt back together. This is what I came up with :

It was truly trickier than I had anticipated to sew the strips in. In the first few, the left to right stripes in the upper left did not match (I will eventually rip them out as redo them). I guess I was lazy and thought they would look OK if I just sewed - but that was not so. But as I progressed and I began to pin the strips in place, the visual left to right lines began to line up.

After trimming, I am thinking a small navy border and have already purchased a navy with white stars for the backing. More later on it completion!!

Back on track

Now that my dear husband has fixed the Voyager, I have been attempting to catch up. I have also started some small projects that have been waiting patiently. Lets start with the small projects. Two table Runners - one for the Christmas season on on for the fall - have been started. They need squaring up and one more border each but here is my progress.

This one is from a panel that had a preprinted wall hanging, runner and four leaves. I decided to combine the runner and leaves into this fall runner surounded but gold "Spots and Dots" fabric. I plan to add a small orange/rust border and another small "Spots and Dots" border.

On my ill fated trip to Keepsake quilting recently (I wanted to attend the yearly tent sale and got the weekends mixed up), my sweet husband found this kit in their sale room. I wanted to complete it quickly so that if there were discrepancies in the yardage, I might be able to find more fabric. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of fabric in the kit. Ample fabric to complete the project. This will be finished with a small deep red flange and a red printed border








The next project is a small lap quilt that I have played around with .This one currently has no home to go to and has been "almost done" for awhile.

It started with a half yard piece purchased at a Quilt Store that had 24 different celery and salmon colored print squares on it. I matched it up with an odd ball fabric purchased at a yard sale and a cream tone on tone. I was pleased with the outcome and put it on the machine just the other day.

I decided to expand my FMQ with a new to me pattern of swirls and was pleased with the overall quilting. Again I used a cozy flannel on the back. Now, I am now doing the old "Where did I put the fabric for the binding" trick right now. Yes it is some where in that messy sewing room. Guess I will work on more clean up.

Yes, now that the small piece was completed and I was satisfied with the stitches, I once again put my sons Birthday present back on the frame (of course his birthday was 6 months ago - lol). This is the second time it has been there. The first time was disastrous!  That was when I found out the the tension was so bad and that I could not get a consistent stitch. I kept thinking it would get better and did about three passes on the quilt - ALL of which I had to pull out.

So wish me luck! Today is the day the quilt gets quilted!!

So it has been a crazy Month! After my last post, I ended up spending a lot if time finishing the Raffle Quilt for Guild. I am extremely pleased how it came out!!

I did not do the actual quilting on this beauty - another guild member did. I did coordinate the members who made blocks, then I assembled it and finally with the help of another member did the binding!!

Another one of my projects was a quilt for a new granddaughter of one of my best friends. It was not clear what actual colors the Mom wanted, but it was clear the Mom did not want the usual pinks and purples for her little girl. So ... I decided BRIGHT would be my color way.

I used a White on White with bold Batiks and Prints, backed with a soft yellow and white pinstriped flannel with a scrappy border. It is square and much larger than I had planned (54" square) but a great size for just about anything. It has been sent off and I can not wait to hear from them!

I have been working on more of my Kaffe BOMs from my LQS and even started some Christmas presents (Can you believe it?? lol). Pictures to follow later. 

Lastly - I will end on a sad note. I looked over my old posts tonight and found that I never posted this quilt.

This quilt was made for a wonderful Lady (whom I always considered my second Mom) on her 91 Birthday. She really loved the quilt and the staff at her nursing home always fought over which side to put up!! Sadly she passed last week and joined her sweet husband in Heaven. She will be missed and remembered always.

Spring has Sprung!!

Spring is finally here in the forest. The snow is (as of yesterday) completely gone and the ground is warming. From the cold dirt - the lilies and crocuses have emerged and and the trees are budding out.

Spring is also the time for a Spring Quilting Retreat. I spent 4 wonderful stress free days playing with friends recently. Here is what I have accomplished.

Two years ago I participated in a $5 BOM at the Local Quilt Store. I have dallied as to how to put it together and never purchased what I thought that I wanted for the setting triangles and the borders. Now two years later, I am stuck and scrambling for something that will look right. This is what I completed at the retreat. This is the completed center using a dark large print coordinating fabric in the Anna Griffin Blue Willow line. It still needs borders - I am planning on using the same large print fabric for those.

I also worked on a Guild Challenge. This Challenge was to create a 30 inch to 45 inch square wall hanging with as many 3", 6" and 12" stars as possible. These are my first stars made from stash fabric that I did not like. They have actually grown on me and I now am liking the fabric. Imagine that - LOL!!

Off to the sewing room this morning for more sewing!!

Donna's Quilt

The last few days have been intense. My very best friend, Joyce,  from college days came to visit for four days of sewing and quilting.

Another good friend of hers, Donna,  passed away recently having lost her long battle with cancer. Donna had chosen fabric for a thank you quilt some time ago for her daughter, Julie, who had taken her in and cared for her. The fabric and patterned remained in the bag until last Wednesday.

We cut, pressed, sewed, cut some more, sewed some more, and then some more! Suddenly it was pieced. Then it was onto the Voyager to be quilted. Binding was made and sewed on. By Saturday noon it was ready for hand sewing. This was the results:

Although we did not get the hand sewing completed, it is on its way back to Rhode Island for hand sewing, label and delivery!!  I am blessed to be able to help complete this beautiful quilt for a wonderfully sweet generous lady.

Long Arm Ruler Work

I have been accumulating several rulers for long arm ruler work. I had the notion of doing a complete quilt with just straight lines. So .... Here are some thoughts on that!

I need my head examined - lol!!

Here was what I got accomplished on this Christmas Santa Quilt Kit from a LQS that included a panel. I am not generally a fan of panels but this one was cute and afforded me lots of squares that I could practice my straight line ruler work on. The Pinwheels and the square inside a square surrounding the panel were the easiest to decide what I should do on them. They "spoke to me" as just simple outlines - because I wanted to be simple if I needed to undo anythink that got done!!. The squares were 6" finished so not too large and would fare well with not a lot of quilting in my opinion.

The panel was a bit more tricky. As there some printed squares and several Santa blocks, I followed the idea to do a simple outline in those printed blocks following the pattern in the six inch blocks. Again going fro  simplicity and practice!

The Santa Blocks got a simple outline first. Then I filled in the navy background with small to medium stippling. The Santa needed something as well, so I did some free motion quilting on each Santa following clothing lines, beards,skates and the like!

I was pleased with the outcome and here it is - complete!

Snow Day Project

Despite the fact that I have many irons in the fire up in the sewing room, Thanks to Storm Nemo (who knew that Nor'Easters got names - lol), we had very heavy snow the last two days and I was inspired to do some blocks for our Guild. We do Quilts of Valor as our "charity" project and the gal who does it gives out a BOM every month and assigns colors.   She was short on a few so I did quite a few the last two days!! Here is what I have accomplished !!

Progress

I thought that I would take time out to show the progress on my Son's Birthday quilt mande from the Bali Brown Sugar Crackers. I have squared the blocks, arranged them and sewed them together. This is what I have so far:

I am pleased with it. This center will finish up at 48" x 56" before the borders. I have already put the 45 degree Piano Border together ready to cut. 

To do this, I took each Bali Pop strip and cut it in half using a 45 degree cut. I then arranged them and sewed them to arrive at this piece:

Once this is stripped into  four inch pieces, it will become the second border!  I still need to purchase a nice brown for the first and third borders to set it all off. All finished I expect it to finish up approximately 70" x 78". This will be a great size for the couch when done!

A Tale of fabrics

In my last post, I showed a picture of a fantastically fun quilt I made for myself. I needed a great present for my son's thirteth birthday and decided he needed something warm and cuddly for his couch. Solution?? Yup - you guessed it. I am doing him a large lap quilt for his living room. I chose the Bali Brown Sugar ten inch squares. It had wonderful colors in it - beautiful teals to warm browns.

I have just started it but I just wanted to show you all that fabric choice always will change the look and feel of your quilt. Here is a quick picture of the arrangement so far of the squares. I have not even trimmed them yet, so they look a bit ragged but hopefully you will get the feel of what I wish to accomplish with this quilt. 

As you can see - I have a WONDERFUL design wall!! My sewing room has no walls that are floor to ceiling, so I routinely commandeer the bed in the guest room. 

Yes this is the exact same pattern used for the Bright Quilt in my last post. There are a few subtle differences other than the obvious color choices, I made this one from 42 - 10 inch squares where as the bright on was made from 30 - 10 inch squares. This one will be 7 rows 6 columns while the bright one is 6 rows 5 columns. 

In preparing for this quilt, I made 6 piles of seven related fabrics - two piles of light, two piles of medium teal and lighter browns and two piles of the very dark browns, teals and a few blacks. I did add a few additional batik fabrics to make my 42 squares. For the arrangement, I chose to place the lights in the center of the quilt followed on either side the mediums and then the darks. 

The look and feel is so different - but I like them both. I did break down and purchase the jelly roll of the Brown Sugar so that I could add a similar border to the one I used in the Bright Quilt. I will post more when I have the center completed.

A new year - a new effort

So begins the year 2013. It is a new year and I am off to create lots of wonderful stuff. Lat year - I was remiss in my duties to my blog. I am hoping that this new year brings more effort.

I added several of the quilts that I was able to put together and had pictures of on the Quilt page. Some are completely finished others are in line to be put on the frame. The one I am most excited about was this bright quilt.

It was from a 40 10 inch square package from Tonga Batiks. By the time I got it finished -   I was unable to find any of these fabrics to add to the border. So I found and purchased a Jelly Roll at MQX of 36 hand dyed brights that went from dark to light WOF and sliced that up and placed them at a 45 degree angle sandwiched between a true black. I was very please with the results and now am struggling as to how to quilt it!! Once I figure it out - I will get back to you all with a final picture.

Just a side note - I loved this pattern SO much - I am doing another with a 10 inch Brown Sugar package from Bali. The colors are much more muted (teals to browns) but I hope it will be as striking as this one.

Happy Quilting from Snowy Moosehaven.