December 2021

This was a Christmas gift for my most recent Grandson. It was an pattern from Annie's Crafting. The stars were so easy to do since they were wonky points. The backing is a cute blue and green polka dot fabric. I gave a knitted blanket to him at birth, but up until now he didn't have a quilt. Now he does.

Hunny and I spent the morning of December 3 in the garage revamping this wreath. We deconstructed it and then added on some new garland. The lights went back on and then all the ornaments. The one thing I had a problem with was the bow. I could not find one to replace it and it needed replacing! All the Colorado sun beating on it for years turned the bow orange along with several of the 'red' ornaments. Our solution was to spray paint the bow with red paint. 

I've been sewing on a Christmas quilt for myself called Swell Christmas. A friend and I have been doing an in-home sew along retreat. Both of us have been making this quilt. I've gotten the top done, but I doubt that any quilting will happen on it until the first of the year. The instructions had you make 20# of log cabin blocks and then applique Santa on top. There was show through so I cut out the blocks behind Santa. This resulted in more blocks in the leftover pile so I made another quilt that is roughly 42"x56". And with still more leftover fabric so I made a baking for that second quilt.

This was a jelly roll quilt that I made from Jeep fabric!

And then because it was Christmas time I quilted a Halloween quilt.

I hope you have a Happy New Year!

April & May 2021

It has been raining almost every 3rd day for two months. The weeds around this place are prize winners! I wish I could say that there has been gardening done, but I can't. The soil is just too wet to work. 

On the other hand, a lot of other things have been accomplished.

In April of 2020, I had planned to go to Iowa to award my brother a Quilt of Valor. That didn't happen because of COVID. I had saved all my naval fabrics to make this quilt for him and award it to him. We had it planned that his buddies would come and I'd do the presentation and then we had to cancel.

Well, last month I drove from Colorado to Iowa and awarded it. We couldn't believe that everyone kept it a secret for a whole year! It was just family at the ceremony but there wasn't a dry eye in the house. He is now calling us all sneaky. Once home, I registered it at the Quilt of Valor Foundation site.

There is now a wall of grandkid photos at my house. It is, of course, in a 9-patch grid pattern. LOL.

The old Sleep Number bed it hitting the trash. I bought a new mattress and box springs. That Sleep Number bed is horrible for my arthritic hip and The Husband's back. Anything is better than that old thing.

Since I signed up for my guild's day retreat this month and wanted something easy to sew, I've been cutting quilt kits for myself. There are now five Quick Strippie Quilts cut from kid-friendly fabric to take for mindless sewing. I also realized that there was enough Laurel Burch fabrics in the stash for four (count 'em) quilts. Hmmm... I have 3 nieces and one grand-daughter. I think I just came up with some Christmas gifts. Now to do something for the 2 boys.

Sure I hope I can keep up this blog a little better. Talk to you soon.

Grandson's New Quilt

 My oldest Grandson is getting a new quilt on his next birthday. He will be 3 and needs a big boy quilt rather than the baby quilt he got when he was born. He loves dinosaurs and what young lad doesn't? I found this wonderful digitally printed panel of blocks. I cut them out and bordered the blocks log cabin-style. It's quilted with a free motion ferny type design.

July 2019

Another month of crutches. Are you counting? This makes 8 weeks on them. I am heartily tired of them: my other knee hurts now, my hands are trashed and I have calluses in my armpits. Ugh.

I did finish something this month. As you might know, my sewing room is in the basement. I went down the stairs like a little kid by one step at a time on my butt. I quilted this queen sized flannel quilt that I had pin basted before my little accident. It's a good thing I basted it before because I know I couldn't have done it on crutches.  It's just big 10" squares.

The second picture is truer to the actual color of the quilt.

I made and then gave this quilt to my son and DIL so they can trade it for babysitting. They want to go on an adult weekend (no kids) and this is my way of helping. Their babysitter has always wanted a quilt so I made one for her. Win/win.

June 2019

Time has gotten away from me. My summer essentially been put on hold. At the beginning of June, I slipped off the tailgate of a pickup into soft soil. I'm not sure what really happened but I heard and felt a pop in my knee. The orthopedic doc thought it could be a torn ACL but an MRI determined that there is a vertical crack at the top of the tibia (shin bone) right behind the knee cap. 😥 I'm glad it's not the ACL but now I have to be on crutches for 8 weeks with no weight on my left leg at all. My days are now taken up with doctor appointments and physical therapy.

During this time I was asked if I could finish a quilt that her adoptive mother had started about 40 years ago and worked on it now and then. Her adoptive mother is now in assisted living and won't finish it. I said yes so she sent it to me. After all, I'm supposed to stay off my feet and this is something I can do sitting down.

It is a largish quilt made by someone who did not make quilts. The blocks are Sunbonnet Sue blocks that measure 13.5". These blocks are appliqued by machine onto a blue sheet. It was sandwiched using a very thin but stiff polyester batt and a pink sheet and hand basted.

The muslin appliqued blocks were then hand quilted.

It's unfortunate that there are so many puckers on the back that finishing it in this condition wasn't possible.

I got permission to take it apart and remake it. The first thing I did was to remove the basting and then the quilting stitches and then the block.

I have removed all the little threads and washed both the blue sheet and pink sheet.

Stay tuned. I'll talk more about this project.

A Counted Cross Stitch Wall-hanging

My sister-in-law asked me if I could make some counted cross-stitch blocks into a wall hanging for her. After measuring them to find the largest one, I backed them with fusible interfacing (like what you use in a t shirt quilt), drew a square around each one to the measurements of the largest one and then I carefully cut and serged the blocks. A 2.5" sashing and border was added and then the fun of the quilting began. I used Warm and Natural batting and with the backing and the (old, linty) aida cloth the lint accumulation in my machine was horrendous! After I was done, my HQSS machine had a spa day at my local retailer.

My SIL asked why I didn't enter it into the local county fair. I said that she did the work, I quilted it so it is technically her's. I told her to enter it into her county fair. She did and it won a blue ribbone. How 'bout that!

February 2018

I finished knitting a sweet little swaddling blanket this month for Project Linus. It measures 22x26". Now I am trying to use up the leftover yarns in a larger blanket. I just realized that this is the second blanket this year that has chevrons. I am on a roll!

The flu drug me down this month. The old man and I have been sick concurrently and it hasn't been fun. Please take care of yourselves and try not to 'catch' this. I haven't fully recovered from this flu, I'm tired and there is a residual cough. My ambition is gone, so when I get home from work I sit and crochet. We were sick on Valentines Day so we didn't go out to eat. We waited until this past Friday, during a nasty snow storm, to go for dinner. The roads were icy and people were driving too fast for the conditions so there were plenty of cars off in the ditch.

I actually have gotten two quilt tops pieced this month. One is a kit from Connecting Threads called Cottage Lane. The one I made is all greens not the fabric shown in the download. I actually had the presence of mind to order extra fabric since I wanted to enlarge it enough that there would be considerable drop on the bed. The top measures 108"x108" (yikes!) and I am trying to come up with a quilting design for it. The old man is really rough on quilts so straight line quilting is out since it doesn't have the 'give' that would be needed. I can't count how many times I've repaired one quilt because of popped stitches but I'll come up with something. The other quilt is one my SIL asked me to put together for her. She had a dozen counted cross stitched blocks that measure 13"x13". Since they were stitched on Aida cloth, which is very unstable, I had to stabilize them with interfacing. Now that the sashing is on, I realize the sashing is not as thick as the blocks. I think I'm going to spray baste some strips of batting onto the backside of the sashing to bring it all to the same weight. Then I'll add a lightweight batting or flannel (instead of batting) and back it and quilt it. What to quilt? A simple pattern like ribbon candy in the sashing and border and echo quilting in the cross-stitched blocks.

December 2017

I've been very busy this month. I assume all the makers know about how busy one can be in the month of December. It's about baking and quilting and sewing and crafts. Secret stuff! The one gift I made this year is for the granddaughter. She is loves all things Elsa from 'Frozen'. She has several Elsa dresses and Mom & Dad have a had time dressing her in anything else. I found this panel and this resulted...

This year the old man and I decided to buy each other new carpet for the living room. We have a small house and this won't break the bank, so to speak. We are of an age that we really don't need more stuff, but new carpet or an updated bathroom would be nice. Things for the house, you know?

I hope you had a wonderful 2017. Let's make 2018 a better year, shall we?

Mojo?

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. A lot has been happening but I don't feel like writing about it. I am still knitting and crocheting for Project Linus. Here are the latest 2:

 This lovely soft lilac baby afghan is knitted in my favorite Ravelry pattern called the Sunny Blanket.

And this soft green afghan is crocheted in my go-to Ripple pattern.

I've been quilting too:

 This is made from spare parts left over from two other quilts. It is a sashed double 4-patch.

Here's the back. I didn't have enough of the batik so I pieced a large box. This is a gift for someone and I don't want this person to know, so I'm not mentioning names.

Baby Doll quilts

Penny's doll-baby quilt

At Christmas time I was asked to make some doll-baby blankets. The other Grandma had bought some American Girl dolls for her two grand-daughters. One of those little girls happens to be my grand-daughter as well.

I have already given Addy a big girl quilt and I found these leftover blocks in the stash to make this doll-baby quilt.

Addy's doll-baby quilt

Both were quilted on my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen.

There Is A Quilt There -- Somewhere

Really there is! I am soaking a quilt per the instructions from Vicki Welsh's tutorial: Save My Bleeding Quilt. The water has already changed color. I am soaking it for 12 hours because I want all that dye to release. I'll keep you updated.

Crown Royal quilts

She's actually sewing! HST to be truthful.

To make this:

I never realized the popularity of Crown Royal bags! But plug Crown Royal bags into any search engine and boom! hundreds, if not thousands, of creative ideas will explode onto the screen.

I have been working on a quilt made from these bags and I have some words of advice if you are considering using these bags.

1. These bags are similar to flannel, so be forewarned. I am not a fan of working with flannel.
2. These bags will ravel if not cut on grain. Believe me when I say that they aren't cut on grain at whatever factory makes the bag.
3. I would not make half square triangles from these bags. Ever. Again. Worst experience ever. I couldn't get points to match up and they were very stretchy.
4. A pattern that features squares and/or strips is ideal to use with these bags.

I centered the Crown Royal stitching and then cut out a 4.5" square. The sides of the bag will generate a strip that is 2.5" wide and 27" long when trimmed down.

On this quilt, those dreaded HST were cut as a larger square (5.25") and layered with a same size square. Draw a line diagonally from one corner to another, sew .25" on each side of the line and cut apart.

The finished block size of the shown quilt is 12",  and the quilt is 72"x84". I had to open up a lot of bags to be able to get that plain purple.

I now have this top finished and it is layered with a fleece backing, no batting. It will make a very cozy Christmas gift for a certain someone.

So I mentioned that I opened a lot of bags. I had enough of the embroidered portions that I was able to make another quilt. This one measures 54x72 and is made with gold flannel. It is also backed with fleece and had no batting.

Both quilts were quilted on my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen.

Crown Royal quilts

I never realized the popularity of Crown Royal bags! But plug Crown Royal bags into any search engine and boom! hundreds, if not thousands, of creative ideas will explode onto the screen.

I have been working on a quilt made from these bags and I have some words of advice if you are considering using these bags.

1. These bags are similar to flannel, so be forewarned. I am not a fan of working with flannel.
2. These bags will ravel if not cut on grain. Believe me when I say that they aren't cut on grain at whatever factory makes the bag.
3. I would not make half square triangles from these bags. Ever. Again. Worst experience ever. I couldn't get points to match up and they were very stretchy.
4. A pattern that features squares and/or strips is ideal to use with these bags.

I centered the Crown Royal stitching and then cut out a 4.5" square. The sides of the bag will generate a strip that is 2.5" wide and 27" long when trimmed down.

On this quilt, those dreaded HST were cut as a larger square (5.25") and layered with a same size square. Draw a line diagonally from one corner to another, sew .25" on each side of the line and cut apart.

The finished block size of the shown quilt is 12", but I have another quilt drawn up where the block finishes at 8".

I now have this top finished and it is layered with a fleece backing, no batting. It will make a very cozy Christmas gift for a certain someone.

Hugs and Kisses

I am a member of The Quilt Show and every year they have a Block of the Month (BOM) that also includes video lessons. It is great to see how the designer does things.

So back in 2010, Sue Garman designed two! quilts for the BOM: one was pieced and the other was applique. I fell in love with the applique quilt and when the fabric kit was offered, why I just snatched it up.

Since this is a BOM and only one block was released a month, plus the sashings and borders, it took me almost 18 months to hand applique. I was really enjoying the process. I did redesign the border a bit because two flowers in such close proximity reminded me of the pasties a stripper would wear, not that I've ever seen such a thing except in movies, but still. Instead of the second, smaller flower (which I was really tired of making, BTW) at the join of the swags I did a trefoil of leaves.

I researched long arm quilters and went with one I had used before who assured me that she had quilted applique before. My alert button should have gone off, but it was silent. After months of my quilt being in her possession, I got it back. The quilting that she did was beautiful, but there wasn't anything around the applique! She computerized the quilting in the sashing and somewhat in the border, did a bit of free-motion here and there, but nothing, and I mean nothing, in or around the applique. The swags in the border should have had at least one line of quilting through them to keep them from sagging.

I paid her $250 and took it home to study. I knew I would have to finish it myself but my skills weren't to the level needed. Plus, I didn't want to man-handle it under my Bernina sewing machine. So I started to save up for a sit-down quilting machine. THIS is the quilt that made me want to do all my own quilting. If there is a problem, then I only have myself to blame.

I bought my used Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen in 2013 and just started practicing and practicing.

I learned a lot in the ensuing 3 years, not only with the quilting itself, but how to choose the actual quilting design and what thread to use.

And so, here it is! I used a combination of Invisafil thread on top and Superior Bottomline in the bobbin. I am happy with the way it turned out. I would be even happier if my idea of hand trapunto would have worked out, but my hands do not have the strength needed to pull that long needle filled with thick yarn through the tightly woven fabric.

Happy Mother's Day

This small (8.5x11") quilt was made for and displayed in the 2004 International Quilt Festival Journal Quilt exhibit. The picture was taken 35 years ago when I was cradling my 6 month old son. It is fused applique with a bit of embellishment and minimal thread painting.

Binding

I am actually hand sewing a binding! Will wonders never cease?

Quilting? What is that?

It hasn't been all knitting. I swear it hasn't. It just has been so windy around here that I couldn't take and photos of the latest finishes so the color of these is a bit off at the bottom because I had to shoot indoors.

I have found that I really do not like the super dense quilting. Not only does it take absolutely forever to do, it makes the quilt not-quite cuddly. After all, these are charity quilts and should be snuggly.

This quilt is very densely quilted. But because I chose a thin poly thread and a soft batting it isn't as stiff as it could have been. The working title of this quilt was "Boy, Is It Pink!"

I was brave and went with pink thread.

Patience is the key

I seem to attract dog nibbled quilts. A friend had the quilt his grandmother made for him nibbled by the dog. The nibbled portion is in the center of two borders. This vintage quilt is in need of some serious rebuilting!

I stabilized the whole (hole!) area by stitching around it with quilting thread before washing. I had to wash it because I am very allergic to pet dander and I needed to get it clean to be able to work on it. And then I drew the cutting lines in blue washable marker.

After drawing the cutting lines, I removed that very narrow (yikes!) border and then the quilting stitches for about 24". I did this so I could cut out a bit of the backing. The backing on this quilt is the same fabric as the small outer border, so I have a place to 'steal' some fabric for the front. The next step is to applique a piece of vintage muslin over the place on the back where I removed the print fabric.

I carefully removed the damaged area of the top, batting and backing cutting along the blue lines and un-sewing from the main body of the quilt. It is a very interesting chore because you get to see how the original quilt maker made the quilt. The seam that is to the left of that green square in the upper right of the photo, turned out to be only 1/8" maybe less so it is a good thing I was patient and took my time. I sprayed the blue line with water and it is drying so I can work on it once it is dry.

This is the back side of the quilt. I soaked this portion of the quilt in water because I don't want to take a chance of the lines coming through the repair. I thought that as long as the quilt was wet, I would block it so the working area is square. A new use for free weights!

You can see where I removed a strip of the backing to use as the outer border on the front. The muslin piece is pinned into place using applique pins and once dry, I will applique this down.

Here is the completed quilt! Can you find the fixed area?

How about now?

The back shows where the fix is located.

Oh, and he was so happy there were tears in his eyes!

Safari III

This quilt was actually finished before the Squares quilt. But the saved post was lost in the mix. I used a hand dyed fabric for the two larger pieces (squares and rectangles) but I used both sides since I liked them both. I used flannel in place of the batting so this quilt is very lightweight and will make a good summer quilt.

Here's the back. I don't think I have any of the fabric left over. If I do, it is just small scraps.

Happy Mother's Day!

It is Mother's Day when all children celebrate their mother. Did you call your Mom yet?

I spent the day sewing. I finished this top and started to 'build' the backing. I am using all the left-over fabric from the top. I suppose you could say that it will almost be reversible. This is a horrible cell phone pic. Sorry.

I need to figure out a quilting design. For some reason I keep thinking grapes. Maybe because the fabrics remind me of a Merlot wine?