A Quick Little Gift

I saw a pillowcase kit at the quilt shop last week and immediately thought of Scooter, a family friend who is into all things motorcycle and rock and roll…..so I had to buy it and get it made for Christmas.

I know he's going to get a kick out of this.  Now to get it wrapped up and sent off to him!

Step 3 of Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt

Lots of strip piecing and sewing in this step….

Need a total of 120…and I'm just about there!

Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt

I've been locked in the sewing room working on Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt.
So far I've worked my way (slowly) through the first two clues, and tomorrow morning we get the third.

Step one has us making 100 of the yellow, pink and aqua broken dishes units (with 80 1/2 square triangles set aside for another clue)

And we had to make 200 of the pink, black and neutral blocks and sew them into 100 pair….creating those double diamonds.

I need to get my area cleaned up so that I can move on to step 3…the clue will come out tomorrow morning.
You can check in at Quiltville.com to see what the hundreds of other quilters are doing……there are link ups where everyone is sharing their progress!

S

She Knows Me!

My youngest went to one of those painting parties a while back…and she painted and gifted to me this adorable vintage trailer bank.

I love camping, and I have dreams of re-doing an old trailer….

I love it……
I love that she thought of me!

Playing on the Longarm….

Elle was home for Thanksgiving and had a couple of minutes to play around on the long arm.

Palm trees and the NYC skyline……Classic Elle…...

Quilting for Charity

A while back Quilter Helen mentioned a woman who was buying a building to house / help homeless veterans.  Very recently I saw a posting on Facebook about the home, as well as a local news report  that highlighted what was being done to help the homeless veterans, along with the great need that these men had as they try to make their way in the world and get on their feet.  
I'm always so moved by this subject, and I knew I had to commit to doing what I could to help.

I made one trip there, recently, after a plea went out for assistance for one Vet and her family.
After being there I knew I had to do more…..and I went home and immediately starting cutting into my thrifted shirts collection.
I needed to do something fast and simple, all the whole hoping it wasn't going to be too simple.
I decided to go with 12.5" squares….and I threw in a couple 4 patches to break things up.

I chose the Bauhaus panto that I borrowed from Quilt Chick Nancy..

 Which did a nice job of taking those shirting squares from Blah to Cool!….

 And this is what I ended up with. 

I'll get the binding done this weekend, wash it up and show you the finished product!

S

A Finished Top

Hi chicks!

This top has been hanging here on the design board since last week, waiting for me to quickly piece the back and get it on the long arm.  However, rather than having any kind of quilty fun, I somehow managed to contract Influenza A and have been down and out in my bed since 11 am Sunday.
I now understand the importance of getting a flu shot, and I totally understand why and how people die from the flu….it is HORRIBLE.
Thankfully my daughter Nikki decided I had to go to the doctor and made an appointment FOR me. She also took me there, got my prescriptions (Tamiflu is a miracle drug!) and saw to it that I had whatever I needed --- all at her own peril.  I am forever grateful to her for that.
I'm feeling a little more like myself every day…..but I'm not pushing it since I will be hosting Thanksgiving next week!

So….that's about it for now….I'm going to sit in my chair, watch the snow blow around the back yard and hopefully take a nap.

S

TGIF!

It's Friday!!!!

I didn't want to let the day go by without posting my progress on a new project.
I've been eyeing this fabric for awhile.

It is Emerson by Dear Stella.  I love the blues so much, and the collection had such a nice variety of prints that I just couldn't pass it up. ( The DARK blue is from the Grunge collection)   I couldn't decide on a pattern for awhile--I wanted something that wouldn't cut the print up too small.  I had a few ideas but ended up deciding to use the chevron with no half square tutorial that I used to make THIS quilt.  I had fun quilting it on my long arm and wanted some more practice using my ruler.

There was lots of cutting of strips and sewing and pressing, which went very quickly…

And I've been working this morning on getting my rows sewn together….

I have another couple of hours of sewing and pressing ahead of me…but there are a few other things on today's To Do list, so I'll get back to this one later.

S

Comfort Quilt For Dawn

After hearing that my husband's cousin Dawn was facing a very serious health issue, I was compelled to make a quilt for her.  I used a bundle of fabric from Guildcrafters, one of the very well-stocked quilt shops in my area.  I actually found the bundle, one of many that I bought, at a quilt show they were vending at this summer in Ann Arbor, Mi.

























The pattern is one of the "post card patterns"…this one called
Spice Drop….by Villa Rosa Designs.
It finished up at 54" x 72"…and was made with 14 fat quarters cut into 6 1/2" x 18" strips.
Super fast cutting and very simple sewing, so it went together quickly.

 I quilted it on my HQ Avante.  The panto is called Drift.  

Yes, I used Minky again…..it is so easy to load on my machine, 
and the texture and softness it adds to a quilt is just wonderful!

I'll be wrapping this one up today and sending it on it's way, with hopes that it will make the days ahead for Dawn a little more comfortable.

S.

Comfort Quilt Progress

It's a top!

And a shot of it from the backside:

This view always makes me think of stained glass windows!

Now to find a backing (yes, it will most likely be a minty back!)

Hoping to have it quilted by Sunday night and get it delivered first thing Monday.

I'll keep you posted!

On A Mission...

Some unexpected bad news has sent me to the quilt room in search of fabric.
Lucky for me I found some…another Guildcrafters kit stashed away, almost forgotten about until today when I went on a search…...

I'll get back with you with progress!

Scrapped, Scraps, and a Lack of Creativity….

I've been working hard on Talkin' Turkey from Bonnie Hunter's book String Fling.
I had given up on it for awhile.  The fabrics weren't interesting to me anymore (shirting scraps) and I just wasn't enjoying working on it.
I decided to get a few new fabrics to add to it the last few times I was at some of the local quilt shops, and I was really starting to like it again.
I had hundreds of pieces cut and sewn, and decided it was time to put some blocks together and see if I wanted to continue.

Thats when I realized that I hadn't measured any of the units as I went along to make sure that they were the proper size and would fit together into blocks.
As luck (and lack of skill would have it) They didn't fit.  Some were too large.  Ones that I had trimmed to size were now to small to use.  (If I had not trimmed anything up they might have worked).
And so…..the whole mess got tossed into a bin until I could stop crying long enough to make an intelligent decision about what to do with all that fabric/work.

I did decide to keep the string pieced blocks that had not yet been cut in half….so today when I was unable to decide what I could work on I decided to just sew some more of those string blocks and maybe, one day, put them together into a quilt.

I played around with them for a few minutes…which was actually pointless because I just picked them up and flung them back into their bin……….

Since my own creativity has decided to pack up and leave town,

I'll share someone else's talents…..

The picture below is actually a photo taken by Claudette!  Isn't it gorgeous?  It looks like a painting to me.

Quick Craft Satisfaction

A quick trip to Ikea a couple weeks ago …wait.  There's no such thing as a quick trip to Ikea.
I was in there for HOURS!
I don't really remember what all I bought, but THIS was my big get:

Just a simple cabinet door front.  From that clearance/reject section.
It was priced at $1.00.
At that price there was no way I wasn't taking it home.  I knew I could think of something I would do with it.  A perfect blank canvas that would require no prep work, depending on what I would find to do with it.
When I got it home I realized I had this:

I had purchased this rub- on decal last year thinking I would put it on my front door…and I never did.  

(That whole procrastination thing strikes again!)

The project took me all of 10 minutes…….

And now I can wonder / ponder/ agonize about where I will hang it.

A Finishing Frenzy!

Yes, it sure does seem like I'm getting a lot done.

 This was finished a year and a day after I pieced it on a trip to The Harbor Star last year with Nancy.

Yet another Minky back…..it shows the quilting so well and has such a yummy feel!

My willing assistant Nichole peeks over the top!

Totally random quilting….my first time using the ruler on the long arm.

I'm sure if I go looking around my work area I can find another WIP that has been tucked away and needs to be quilted…….So maybe I should go take a look and get busy!

What's Up….

On the nightstand:

 On the needles:

Off the Longarm….

A Quilt for Ani Grace

My sons friend Adam and his wife Irina just had their first baby, Ani Grace.
I have yet to see a picture of her, but with a name like Ani Grace I assume that she is breathtakingly beautiful….pink and plump, with precious bow shaped lips.
I hope I'm right.

 Minky backing, again.  Because it is Delicious!
Super simple loopy quilting...

I hope they like it!

****A quick note:  I just discovered that I first blogged about this in 2011 when I finished the top.  I waited years to quilt it?  Now that is what I call procrastination!  ****

First of Many….

I bought a kit for this quilt at The Greater AnnArbor Quilt Guild show this past summer.  It's made with the same idea as a Jelly Roll Race except that the fabric was not a jellyroll….I had to cut the strips myself.

I used Minky fabric for the back after the quilter at Christinas Quilt Shop in Rochester, Michigan, assured me that I would have no problems, even though this was the very first quilt I quilted on the long arm machine that I purchased at the AQS show in Grand Rapids in August.

I used the Zydeco pantograph pattern that I received as a birthday gift from my friend Claudette (Thanks Again!)…

I'm pleased with the way it turned out…it was lots of fun to work on.  The sewing of the quilt was ridiculously simple and the panto pattern for the quilting is also very simple. 

So there you have it.  The first quilt that I did, start to finish, with the help of the long arm.

The first of what I tape is many, many more!
(p.s……Thanks to Nik for assisting me with my photos!)

Wordless Monday... Progress

A Finished Quilt

I'm hanging my head in shame…this quilt has been quilted and bound since shortly after my last post…and it has been folded….waiting for finished photos.
But that isn't really why I'm hanging my head in shame….
I missed the baby shower.
I also failed to respond to the invitation!
Shaking my head.
Where has my mind/memory gone?  What is wrong with me?

So here are the belated pics.  The baby has not yet been born (unless I've been stricken from their  announcement list and I won't be notified of the birth or anything else ever again!)

 I spent more than an hour trying to get a good photo…and kept failing.
I've had plenty of opportunities on the cloudy, crappy days we've had here to get a good shot.  Today's pictures all look too dark or blown out.  No happy medium…..
I'll try again later when the inevitable clouds return to block out this mornings sunshine.

I pieced some scraps to make the back large enough…and used a wider binding than usual because I liked the way it looked.

Close up :

The last baby quilt I made (the Big Love quilt) has made it's way to it's new owner in Colorado.  According to my tracking number it arrived yesterday morning.  I am looking forward to seeing a photo of that sweet baby girl Brynley with it in the near future!