Some finishes - I was on vacation!!!

Well I had my annual vacation - I've taken my birthday off work for as long as I can remember. A couple of years ago, I decided to extend that to a full week. For me that is prime time for quilting! Woo Hoo!

So the first thing I do is a "stay-cation" quilt. This year I only got the top done and here it is:

I so miss having a place to hang my quilts to take pictures. The patterned fabric in the blocks is from a line from Moda that I found last year and have had just waiting for the perfect project. I have lots of fabric leftover so I think I will piece a back for it.

I also did was a quick and easy pillow case. I was going through my stash and came across some fabric I got for my daughter a few years ago - only a yard but that's enough for a pillow case.

This one I actually had finished a day or two before vacation started. It's a swap quilt that I did with that fabulous group of QWHT ladies. I am so thrilled with it. Thanks Barb, Julie and Frances for playing with me. Our blocks all look fabulous together.

I had found the absolutely perfect fabric to back it! Is this not the perfect backing fabric for this quilt?

One of my goals for this year was a baby quilt to donate each month. I'm a bit behind but this is the first one:

I also did some cleaning in the shed. And I found a couple of projects that I hadn't finished and decided to do something with them.

This was the beginning of a Christmas quilt:

I had intended to make it bigger but I couldn't get more of the red and nothing else seemed to work right so I made it into a wall hanging.

I made curtains for the bathroom. I've been meaning to do this for a while but couldn't find just the right fabric. But I really like this fabric.

I deep cleaned the dining room. In doing that, I realized that the curtains over our sliding glass doors needed to be replaced. I only did a valance because we decided we liked having the extra light. It's hard to see - the fabric is a chocolate brown with a design in a deeper brown - it looks like tooled leather.

In cleaning the dining room I decided to make a table runner for the dining room table. It's become a dumping ground and I hate having things piled on it. I thought if I put a table runner on it, my family might stop piling things there (of course that didn't work lol). I had in mind to make one for every month of the year. I found some blocks in the shed that had been the beginnings of an Easter quilt. I pulled these three and made a runner.

I also tried out a pattern for a Christmas ornament. I love the look and it worked up so quickly and easily. I'm sure I'll be doing more of these!

It still needs a cord attached to it. The best thing is - it's reversible!

The only real difference is on the front you can see the folds.

Oh and this is not from my vacation but it is from this year. It's last year's Christmas quilt. This time a wall hanging.

It's not completely ready. The bag is giving me fits. And I stopped messing with it. Being packed away for months isn't going to help any so I'll wait and fiddle with it in December when I hang it.

I think the last thing I have to share is the bag I made at my quilt guild's February workshop. I love this bag! I have actually been using it as a shoe bag. I park a good bit away from my office so I wear my sneakers for the hike up to the building (I affectionately call where I park the "trolley parking" - as in, if you were at an amusement park and parked that far away, a trolley would come along and pick you up. lol). But I can't wear sneakers while I'm working so I carry my other shoes in this bag. It's just the perfect size.

I guess that's all for now. Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Wow - has it really been that long since I last posted?

Yikes! I really need to carve out some more time to keep this blog updated. sigh.

But today I am here to see how I did on my goals for 2013 and set my goals for 2014.

2013 wasn't bad - I got everything on my list (and then some) done except for my Autumn Applique. I am still plugging along at it but it's a bittersweet bit of work. I used spray basting and it leaked all over the quilt. I don't know if I'll be able to get it out and the quilt looks horrible with all the spots - but I'm not willing to surrender. lol.

So for 2014 I've made some really bold decisions regarding my quilting. I have a very short list and some very specific goals. Now let's see if I can stick to them. lol.

My first goal is to make a flannel baby quilt every month to donate. I don't know where I'll donate them but there are so many worthy charities I'm sure I'll find something.

Next goal is to finish up some tops. Of course the Autumn Applique tops the list but there are also:

Tasha's Thanksgiving quilt (I gave her the top for Christmas)
Rooster quilt
Starflower quilt (this was made up of swap blocks)
Christmas Sleigh wall hanging (that should have been done for Christmas this year sigh)

Then the new projects:

I've been working on the Henrietta Whiskers quilt for a month or so now. It's so cute and I've been planning to do it for a couple of years now and I think the time has come. It's a block of the month from Bunny Hill designs.

The only other new project I definitely want to work on is a cornucopia quilt that is pictured on the cover of Jennifer Chiaverini's A Quilter's Holiday book.

I got the pattern right after the book came out and I think the time has come for this one too.

I have a few other things if I find lots of extra time - not necessarily quilting - new curtains for the bathroom, dust covers for the triple crock pot & my new sewing machine. And we'd like to have a Christmas tree skirt and mantle cover for the fireplace.

Oh and of course there are the guild projects. We're doing a pocket book workshop on a Saturday in February I believe and we're doing a Mary Poppins project bag in April or May - definitely plan to do those.

So we'll see what kind of time I can manage to set aside in the new year for quilting activities.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

A Cabinet Full

Just a quick post - as there are no new accomplishments to show but, I forgot this picture last time I posted.

This cabinet is in my bedroom. It was my husband's grandmother's. It has housed numerous things since it came to live at our house but this is my favorite - my quilts. These are all quilts I made myself with the exception of two. The bottom one on the bottom shelf is the first round robin I did with the QWHT girls. And the bottom one on the second shelf is the love quilt the lovely ladies from that group made for me. There's a bit more room - and I do have more quilts I've made but these are more my "summery" ones. Maybe I'll have to redo this at Christmas time. hmmmmm.

Oh and let me point out the very special quilt, second from the bottom on the bottom shelf - my Marilyn quilt. Marilyn was one of the ladies who made QWHT the family that it has become. She posted this quilt on our group and I fell in love with it and had to make one. There really didn't seem to a name more fitting for it than the Marilyn Quilt so that's what it became. We lost Marilyn a little over a year ago. She may be gone from this earth but she will live on in our hearts and our thoughts. Love you Marilyn.

Until next time, hugs and stitches, Jody

Finally.....some finishes

Every time I complete something, whether it's a top or an entire quilt, I update a log I keep. One night when updating that I had finished another top, I realized I had seven, SEVEN!! tops that needed quilted. So, I stopped piecing and started quilting.

And here are the fruits of my labor:

This one I have been working on for years - in different forms. I started with Civil War repros but I couldn't get the houses to line up properly - mainly the roofs. Then I started in blues - and had the same problem. sigh. This time I did browns and I appliqued the roofs rather than piecing them.

But of course I ran into issues. sigh. The decorative stitch I was using to do the applique decided it wouldn't cooperate anymore. I only had seven blocks of the 12 I was planning to make. So the twin size quilt because a wall hanging and I added two log cabin blocks. I'm happy with how it turned out.

My quilt guild does two retreats every year. One year, a lot of the girls came home with scalloped edged quilts. Simple yet lovely quilts - some were novelty fabric in the center, some had panels. Then there were two borders with the final border being rather wide and then the WOW of the quilt - scalloped edges. I fell in love. So I made a couple. My "quilt hangers" were less than enthusiastic about helping so the quilts aren't exactly straight but I think you can still get the idea.

This one I call On A Cold Winter's Day:

And this one is Snoopy's Fall Dance:

This next one I made with fabrics the kids got me for Mother's Day:

One of my friends posted a stunning block she found on someone's blog. I, of course, changed the colors and came up with this:

And the final finish was my round robin car cover, er, um, quilt that I made with the best quilting group on the web.

The Schoolhouse is hand quilted. The round robin is birthed and the other four were machine quilted.

Feels good to finally finish up a few things. Now I only have one I'm quilting now, two on the to be quilted pile and three things I'm piecing. And of course the ideas, oh the ideas! lol.

Until next time, Hugs and Stitches. Jody

QUILT SHOW!!!

Two of my favorite words when put together. lol.

Today Tasha and I went to the Chambersburg quilt show. It's a rather small show - done in a church basement - no vendors, no admission price, no show pins :0( We do like our show pins. lol.

But there were lots of cute quilts.

This one is a 9/11 tribute. The lady who made it used her son's military uniform - her husband used to be a firefighter.

This one uses handkerchiefs as the scarves:

These must have been a workshop because there were so many of them - I found it interesting that one of them said it was her "own original design" and the first thing she ever designed. I'm guessing she meant the placement because there were at least a half dozen similar.

The dresden plates are three dimensional and oh so cute.

I absolutely love this one! There are such cute little buttons and embellishments on it.

A cute patriotic one:

This was my favorite one - this is the back - each square has a recipe on it:

And this is the front - the recipes on the back go with the pictures on the front - there are things like chicken cacciatore, chicken caesar, etc.

This was a shop hop quilt. I like the unusual combination of colors.

This one had some button embellishments too.

So pretty:

This one had a lot of embellishments too.

The animals on this are machine embroidered. I so would love to have an embroidery machine.

I like this one mainly because of the quilting in the black squares. The maker of this quilt was either 16 or 18 years old.

And here's the detail of one of the black squares with the quilting.

It was a nice show. I'm thinking of maybe joining this guild in the fall. I've thought of it before but they meet on a Saturday - which was all but impossible for me when I was at WM. But now.....

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Long Time

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. I've been busy with work and life but I have accomplished some quilting things.

I suppose the first things are the summer quilts I made for the kids for Christmas that I hadn't backed. I wanted to but sure they were big enough and I did have to add another border to Tim's - I'm going to have to make him walk around with a brick on his head to keep him from getting any taller. lol.

Tasha's

Joe's

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim's (he's camera shy)

 

 

 

 

 

I'm loving my quilt guild this year. Each board does things a bit differently and this year the board has set up wonderful programs with workshops and "make it take its". In January we made needle books.

In March we did a workshop. I just finished this one yesterday. I decided to use it as a lightweight covering so I didn't add batting and I backed it with flannel. I had the two patterned fabrics in the blocks for probably a year or more. I got them at our last quilt show and I only had a yard of each. Funny how a yard seems like a nice size piece of fabric - until you can't get more and you can't find anything that you want to make that only takes a yard. lol.

In April we had a visit from a lady who talked about wool applique. I've never worked with wool before and technically I still haven't. We made our projects with felt. My camera doesn't do really well with small objects but you can get the gist of it - I made a pincushion.

At the beginning of April hubby and I went to a wedding. I so seldom get dressed up that I was scrambling for something to wear. I found a skirt that I had gotten a couple of years ago that was a bluish turquoise. I added a white tank top and a little three quarter sleeve sweater that came with a dress I've had forever. I hunted for shoes and in the process of all the shopping and going through what I had it never dawned on me that I didn't have a small bag to carry. The wedding was at 2:00 about 45 minutes from our house so at 9:00 I started trying to figure out how to make something quick. This is what I ended up with.

The yellow matched the sweater I wore almost exactly. And there were little flowers and butterflies embroidered on the sweater in the same blues and pinks so it was perfect. And the following Monday when guild met and we made our pincushions, I carried my thread, needles, scissors, etc. in this bag.

At the same quilt show where I picked up the fabric I used in the workshop quilt, I picked up a triple wrought iron quilt frame. I got a pattern for it and, as I so often do, when I got home I thought "why did I buy that pattern?". It's cute enough but I'll probably never make it. It's a sewing machine and notions. If I had a sewing room I could put it in there. But since I don't, and I have limited room to put something like that, I will probably do more seasonal things or just something pretty. When the lady came to speak on the wool applique she showed us an applique stitch that is beautiful, so easy to do and I really enjoyed doing it. So I pulled out the frame and some magazines and looked for inspiration. This is what I came up with. I did not find this exactly in a magazine. I found an applique border I like and pulled from that to make this.

I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I added a few buttons and beads to give it a little added interest.

And speaking of buttons and beads, this year's challenge at quilt guild was to make something no smaller than 12x12, no larger than 24x24 and embellish it. You could use buttons, beads, yarn, ruching, dimensional fabric, yo-yos, ribbon, embroidery, applique, etc.

I had so many ideas of what to do for this one but kept changing my mind. This is what I finally ended up with.

I have so many wonderful online friends and they find the most amazing projects and pass along pictures, links, etc. This sewing machine cover came through on FaceBook. It was a quick and easy project.

Another thing that was passed along online - this one through my quilt group - is this beautiful starflower block

 Obviously this one is still a work in progress. I'm going as scrappy as I can since I have such an aversion to scrappy. lol. I do love how they're turning out. I have ten blocks done and will probably do ten more.

For an eye candy selection I have this to offer

My Great Aunt Mabel made this for Mom and Daddy when they got married more than 50 years ago. As far as I know, they never used it. I know I never saw it until the day my sister greeted me at their house with "I found it and I'm taking it" and showed it to me. Mom has been gone for almost 13 years and this was before she passed. I've only seen it once since then, folded across the bottom of my sister's bed. I really couldn't remember what it looked like. Last fall, I decided to get fabric to try to recreate it for myself. Since then I've been waiting for her to send me pictures of it. Finally when she was visiting Daddy last month she brought it along and I took pictures. I doubt I will try to recreate it because, quite frankly, I just don't like the fabrics. lol. But it was nice to get to see it and take pictures.

And finally, the last thing I didn't do on my own. The QWHT online group that I am blessed to be a part of did a round robin last fall into this year. There were seven or eight of us and all the tops are simply gorgeous. This one is mine.

I'm not sure what my plans are for this beast - it is huge. lol. And I wanted it large so I could wrap up in it - it's like getting a hug from all the ladies who worked on it. But I'm sure it will take me some time to get it quilted.

Until next time (which hopefully won't be quite so far in the future), hugs and stitches, Jody