Merry Christmas

This was our project over Thanksgiving in Chicago. We got tons and tons of shatterproof ornaments and strung them on a coat hanger. Mine held up on the drive okay but required some work and hot glue to get it into final shape. It is a nice update to the holiday decorations.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

(aka Turkey Squares)

This I also made last year. I found the turkey fabric a couple years ago and have been wanting to do a Thanksgiving quilt with it. Because I enjoy using leftover turkey to make chicken (turkey) squares, I thought it was a good name since the quilt is a bunch of squares.

Autumn Maple

This quilt was created last fall but didn't get finished until mid winter. Today after church we took it out the the Highland Park castle to take some pictures with the autumn leaves.

Wrapped In Webs

Just in time for Halloween my quilt is finished. I have been collecting Halloween fabrics for a couple years now and decided to do a simple brick style quilt to show off all the fun patterns. It took quite a while for me to decide on the final placement of each piece to insure that there was an even spread of all the different colors. I had wanted to do the whole backing with the haunted house and trick-or-treaters grey fabric but they had run out. So I used that and some scraps to piece a back that I quite like. Since the quilt pattern is so simple, I made the quilting a focal point by doing spiderwebs all over. It was quite a lot of work but looks pretty neat. And of course what is a Halloween photo shoot with out a cemetery backdrop.

Growing a Pile of Quilts

Six quilt tops sitting there waiting to get to the next step, they seem to replicate. I enjoy every step of the process (planning, cutting, piecing, machine quilting, binding) except for the basting. I just get hung up on that part. It is so tedious to have to move the furniture in the living room so I can lay down all the layers and then pin them. It doesn't go smoothly because Sadie and Sylvester are always wandering across it and the tape doesn't stick to the carpet very well. So I have ended up with a growing pile of tops. I just keep starting new ones and delay moving on to the next step. I finally got motivated enough to baste the Halloween. If I am good I will probably get it done just in time for the holiday and not a day earlier.

New skill

Recently I decided to make some luggage tags. I was originally going to purchase some laminated fabric (vinyl on one side) but the stuff at Joanns is just ugly table cloth stuff. So I found this stuff that you can add the vinyl to any fabric to do the same thing. Since I had to sew through some pretty thick layers including the vinyl, I got out one of the old sewing machines that I haven't used in a year. Sometimes if feels good to start and finish a project in one afternoon, instead of doing quilts that take weeks or months to finish.

Accomplishment

16 quarts pears and peaches -----> 37 pints canned deliciousness

Feeling Felty

My recent trip to the Fiber Arts Festival yielded this large pile of wool roving. I have big plans for lots of little felted balls out of this to make a Christmas tree garland. Right now I have 5 balls done but I hope to end up with a pile like this.

Ziggy Blooms

Remember that close up quilted flower from a few months ago. Well here is the finished project. All the fabric has tiny little dots and so I made the pattern with the quilting--lots of different sized flowers. It was a lot of stopping and starting but once it was done I think it looks pretty cool up close (although from a distance not very visable).

Sea of Tranquility

Finally got this one done and delivered a few weeks ago. I thought these batiks all look like cool, relaxing water. I did wavy lines to quilt it and they make me think of ripples on water. I used the Zipper pattern from the book the Modern Quilt Workshop.
60 x 70.

All in a Row

I recently got to deliver this quilt to my grandma. It is made up of 400 2-inch half square triangles. That is the most HST's I have ever made. Also new for me on this quilt was doing a flange in the border. It is hard to tell in a picture but the light strip in the border is only attached on one side. 68 x 68

Lawn Chair or Liebe und Verlust

I finished this quilt in March. It is with the same fabrics as the Cherry Chocolate Boxes. I got a lot of that fabric because I really liked it. I probably have enough left to make one more quilt. The pattern is from ModaBakeshop and is named Lawn Chair because it kind of looks like the weaving pattern on the old lawn chairs. 60 x 75

Sisters United

Today I taught the lesson in Relief Society. The topic was unity and Lue gave me the great idea of using a crazy quilt to demonstrate that although we (all the fabrics) are different and you might not think everything matches or would go together, when they are combined they make something beautiful together. So yesterday I spent the evening whipping this small quilt to use in my lesson. I used a bunch of scraps and think it turned out really fun. It is fun for me because I can look at the different pieces and see parts of many of the different quilts I have made. Now I can use it as a wall hanging in the craffice (craft room and office). 32x32.

Baby's Birds

Recently finished and shipped off this cute baby quilt for Isaac and Francie's imminent arrival. Got the pattern of Moda Bakeshop and love the fabric with the birds all sitting on a line. Measures 48 x 48.

Cherry Chocolate Boxes

Simple and clean, I really like this quilt pattern called Outside the Box from Modern Quilt Workshop. To go with the nice straight lines I tried a new type of quilting for me. I am not sure what it is called but I call it boxy meandering. The colors reminded me of chocolate and cherries and one of the recipients has a fondness for cherry cordials and so I named it Cherry Chocolate Boxes.
60 x 72

Little House on the Hotpad

I have seen these cute tiny houses on quilts and thought it would be fun to do sometime. But I never actually tried it. Then I saw some similar houses that someone used to make fun hot pads. So I thought that would be a fun way to try it out. I whipped up these three 7x8 hotpads in a couple of hours. They were fun and used some creativity since each one is different and doesn't follow a pattern. In the future, sometime it will be fun to make up a whole "town" on a quilt.

Grandma G's Garden

This quilt has been in process since last fall but I finally got around to finishing up the binding. I don't mind doing the binding, I just always seem to put it off a lot before I actually get it done. I had been meaning to make a quilt for Grandma Georgie for several months but I didn't know what pattern, fabric, etc. Finally I decided to use a Moda Bakeshop pattern and ended up with a 63 x72 quilt. For the quilting I tried something new. I wanted it to go with the flowers and so I did chains of leaves up and down the quilt. It should have arrived in the mail today.

Just in Time

For several weeks I have been wanting to make this wreath for Valentines day. I saw the idea originally on a blog using paper. I tried making a couple roses but found it very slow. Then I saw something similar with felt and thought I should give that a try. But I kept delaying and delaying the trip to the store to purchase the felt. Finally on Feb. 12 I went and bought some red felt and got started. I liked the way it started out and decided to keep going. But making that many felt roses is a slow process. So it finally was finished after I got home from work on Valentines Day. To late to put up this year but at least it is complete and ready for next year.

Something new

I am trying out a new quilting pattern right now. The quilt pattern and fabrics are relatively simple so I thought a pattern would work well to spice it up a little. All the quilting is different sized flowers. I got the idea off a blog that I saw. I am about 2/3 done with it and hope to finish soon.

My little helpers

They love to come lay on my piles of fabric on the futon. Sometimes Sylvester tries to "fluff" it up and of course Sadie is always on the lookout for a spool of thread to chomp on.

Flower Cloche

I found this quick and easy pattern online for crocheting a cute little hat. So when Millie and Anna were born I whipped these up and sent them to Utah. The hats are still a little big but I am sure they will soon grow into them.

Movin' on Up

This was my fun new Christmas present. I got a new, bigger, better sewing machine. Not that I don't like the old one, I do it is great. But the hope is that the new will make quilting the bigger quilts much easier because there is more space in the throat area. So far it seems to be great. Halfway done with quilting the first one already. So you will be seeing that soon. That leaves 4 more pieced tops for me to get to work on. It will be a busy start to the new year.