A Quilt Show

I just realized I never posted pictures of my December SBS block and this year's Christmas project.

So here's my December SBS block:



Every year Tasha and I make a Christmas project. When there is time and money, we make them for everyone in the family. This year, she made one (well, she's still working on hers) and I made one.



Now on to the quilt show. This weekend was the annual Mennonite Central Committee quilt auction preview. Lots of beautiful quilts but not lots of space. So a good portion of the quilts are folded and hung on racks - racks that are pretty close together, making it rather hard to get a good picture but I managed to get a few.












This is something I am considering for a Christmas quilt for this year:



This is my pick for large quilt:



This was my pick for wall hanging as well as my inspiration quilt:



I always find at least one quilt I want to make for myself. This is a concept I have worked on more than once. Start with a schoolhouse block but instead of the house section with the windows, replace that with a traditional quilt block. I started it in Civil War repros, I started it in shades of blue. Neither time did I like how it turned out. But I am inspired to try again. I have a different idea of how to make it work and hopefully this will turn out as I want it to be.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Christmas Presents - Finally

It's been quite some time since I've had anything to show for my efforts. Mostly because working retail, December does not leave a lot of time for quilting. But also because what quilting I did have time to do was for Christmas presents. More specifically, Christmas presents for people who use my computer. lol.

Every couple of years I make quilts for the kids. And based on a comment my oldest son made - he's been staying with us and when I asked him one night before bed if he needed an extra quilt he said something about being fine with the 37 or so quilts I've made for him - I kind of thought maybe I have made too many quilts for my darling children (if there actually is such a thing as "too many quilts" - and I personally am not sure there is).

But my middle son asked for a quilt this year and then the youngest chimed in with a request of his own. There's apparently an issue with the fact that they are getting too tall for the previous quilts to cover their feet. What's a mom to do? Other than stop feeding them - I did suggest that to the youngest one. But he thought a new quilt was a better idea.

So for my football fans. Joe got a Ravens' quilt:



Tim got an Eagles' quilt:



Tasha got a Transformer's fleece (which I did not take a picture of) and a Kindle cover:



She has abandoned her long love of purple and moved on to black and red. Snowmen are also favorites - so I was thrilled to find red and black fabric with snowmen on it.

And don't you know that Christmas morning the oldest child (the one who would just use the 37 or so quilts I've already made him) asked why he didn't get a new quilt for Christmas? lol.

On to 2012. The first finish of 2012 is a big one. It's big enough to cover my queen size bed - one of the few large quilts that I have completed. I hand quilted it - which is why it took over 2 years to finish. I even did a bit of decorative quilting - there are butterflies quilted on the borders. It was to be my first entry into a quilt show (my guild is having a show this spring). Alas I don't think it's to be. It has a couple of places that the border is a bit puckered. I'm happy with the results - for me - but not so much to put on display in a quilt show.



I have made a list of my quilting goals for 2012. Though the list is modest, the results (should I actually finish them) won't be as more than half the list are tops ready to be quilted and they will be mostly hand quilted.

But the list will need to wait for another day. I am being kicked out of my own living room by the Ravens' fan. He wants to watch the play off game and just because they seem to lose whenever I'm in the room, he thinks that's my fault. Go figure. But since I love him (and want to see the Ravens advance) - I will go. lol.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Finished!!

My last post I said I couldn't believe it had been so long since I posted - and this time it's even been longer. sigh.

The issue isn't that I'm not doing anything. The issue is that I'm doing bigger things so it takes longer to reach that somewhat illusive goal of a completed project.

However I have attained the prize!

This quilt started with a pattern that completely intrigued me. My closest friends will tell you "Jody is not a "scrappy" lover". But the fact is, this scrappy pattern pulled at me.

I thought of doing it as a Christmas quilt. There are a few kinds of scrappy I do like, mainly matching fabrics. For example, using red, white and blue fabrics only. Or using seasonal themed fabric. I could envision the quilt in Christmas fabrics. But I didn't have much Christmas fabric - trying to work from my stash. I did however have lots of Autumn fabrics. Autumn is my favorite season so I have many fabrics to work with that.

Quite a few of these fabrics were in my stash basket in 6 inch charms. I'm sure these came from a swap with the lovely ladies over at QWHT. I love fabric I get in these swaps. They make every thing made from them feel like a hug from a dear friend.

I debated how to quilt this. I so want to learn more machine quilting than what I do (which is basically straight lines). I decided to tie this one with buttons. It has 432 buttons on it. I'm thinking at some point I thought this might be the quickest way to get it all together. How wrong I was!

But the work is well worth it. To answer the oft asked question "where were you when ......" - I was piecing this top when the earthquake hit the Washington, DC area this past August.



This next project is not finished. Every now and then the girls and I over at QWHT do a mystery quilt. The clues are all out and it's time to post my picture.

Confession about this quilt. I had all the blocks made and laid out on my bed and decided I thought two of the fabrics would look better switched. So I pulled the blocks apart and remade them with the other fabrics. That is what this top is. And I have to say, I wish I had left it the way I had it the first time. The star pattern of the quilt fades the way I did it the second time. The star just really popped the way it was before.



I also finished my October SBS block. I got the neatest little hanging rack for it. You can get some really cute toppers for the rack - hmmmmm, is that a Christmas idea taking form? lol.



Thunder hasn't made an appearance for a while but here's a new photo. I wonder if he's trying to tell me he's bored with this whole quilting thing?



Until next time, hugs and stitches, Jody

I Can't Believe

It's been so long since I've posted!

I have accomplished a couple of small projects. I completed another two blocks of my SBS calendar blocks. Unfortunately I apparently haven't taken pictures of them. sigh.

So we'll go with pictures of the tops I donated. Every once in a while I finally convince myself that I will never live long enough to quilt all the tops I have waiting. Rather than let them sit around, I try to find someone who will benefit from them.

These tops have been sent to a wonderful charity called Margaret's Hope Chest. I found out about Margaret's Hope Chest through Jennifer Chiavernini's blog. Jennifer writes the incredible Elm Creek Quilts book series.









Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Quilt Show

Tasha and I attended the annual Chambersburg Quilt Guild show yesterday. It was titled Not Your Grandmother's Quilt and they had some lovely quilts.

Here are a few versions of last year's mystery quilt:






A very pretty offering from the small quilts category:



My "lady bug" with a lady bug quilt:



There were cute little lady bugs on this quilt that I believe were actually earrings.

This one was called Butterflies and Lady Bug and the tag said something about how there were all the butterflies but where was the lady bug? We looked and looked and could not find it anywhere - until we went around the display to the quilts on the other side and discovered the lady bug was on the label on the back. I love how the flowers overlap the fence:



The guild's challenge for this year was "wings". This was my pick of the projects:



This one used hand dyed fabrics:



This one was gorgeous but it was from a previous year (someone from this year was unable to supply the quilt they promised so this was a "filler") so it couldn't be voted as viewer's choice:



It was made by the same lady who made the challenge quilt I liked.

This was a cute one:



Just my style - fall colors and a piano key border (I loooove a piano key border):



These fabrics are right up my alley:



This one just screams ME!! My friend Barb would probably fight me for it. lol. It was a close second for my pick of the show:



Simply gorgeous:



My pick for large viewer's choice:



I've seen it in many catalogs and a lady in my guild made one - just a classic beauty.

My pick for small viewer's choice:



So very tiny - only about the size of a piece of notebook paper.

What a fabulous collection of quilts. Many thanks to the Chambersburg Quilt Guild for producing such a lovely show.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Accomplishments - at long last

Seems like so long since I've had anything finished to blog about. It's terrible when your job, husband, kids, house, etc. intrude on your quilting time. sigh.

The first update is the finished project from the Weird and Ugly challenge from my Yahoo group.

Again, this was the fq I was sent to work with:



And this is what I made:



I had visions of a stained glass window. It was certainly interesting. I don't like to work with small pieces and the little squares finished at 1 inch and have four triangles in them. I'm happy with how it looks and am thinking it may be the center of something larger - but I'm not sure what the "something" will become.

I also did a few small things lately. A friend passed along a link for a bookkeeper - perfect for holding a Kindle. And since I have a Kindle, I had to make one.



The original had some applique but I decided to just embellish mine with a few buttons.

The pattern is a Moda BakeShop freebie that can be found here

Last year for my birthday I got some embroidered Sunbonnet Sue blocks off eBay. There's one for each month. I didn't really have an idea what I was going to do with them but they were too cute to pass up. Finally I decided to do a small wallhanging. I'd like to get a table top scroll stand to hang them from. I finished February and March. I added a bit of seed beads to each.




The February one has hearts quilted into the corners. I can't wait to work on the other twelve months.

It feels good to finally finish something.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody