Catching Up: Part Two

I have been enjoying all the photos of Spring flowers showing up on blogs lately. We actually have a bit of green on our birch trees. It will still be a while before we see any flowers blooming though. We do have about 19 hours of daylight now!

Also in the photo my little Jeep I drive in the summer.

I finally quilted my Dancing Stars top. I am embarrassed to say how long it has been in the 'to be quilted' pile. And there are still several waiting their turn.

Dancing Stars, finished at 60" X 80".

Another baby quilt in the works. This one is for our neighbors first grandchild. I don't have a pattern, just making simple blocks from these fabrics. Yes, it is a boy. So interesting that we know the gender of babies way ahead of time now, not at all like when I was having my children.

I really need to sit down and seriously consider my quilting list. I have several long term projects going, and I would like to make bed size (queen) quilts for more of my adult grandchildren, and lots of other projects I want to make. I need to make some kind of plan for tackling all of this. But thinking about all this left me  feeling stressed, so I decided to take a break and just play with my scraps for while. Quilting is supposed to be fun after all!

 With that in mind I joined in Bonnie Hunter's informal sew along with her Diamond Tile blocks. You can read more about it HERE on her blog. I  watched an archived Quilt Cam episode that really helped with the pressing of this block. You can see it HERE.

I think that dark one on the top right may have to go.

And I have been playing with my little bitty scraps making Pineapple Crazy blocks. So much fun! I have 24 - 5 1/2" blocks done. I think I will start sewing these together instead of waiting until I have made all 224 of them. Did I just say 224! Well, at least I have a start.

24 - 5 1/2" Pineapple Crazy blocks done. 

Happy Quilting, Rebecca

Catching Up: Part One

So, I haven't been blogging , but I have been sewing!   (This ended up being a very long post so I decided to divide up in to a couple of post, so look for the second part soon.)

I wanted to get a head start on items for our guild's silent auction this summer. This little quilt finished at 15" X 21". It is from a Waltzing With Bears pattern, Quilt with a Happy Heart. Their's was done in wool,  I did it with cotton and needle turn applique.

I am working on this one too. I have the embroidery done, but am having a terrible time choosing fabric for the cat.

Embroidery done, but what color to make the cat!

I made a baby quilt for our vet's daughter. She had a little girl in January. She was his assistant for many years. I used some cute princess panels. They are so cute a got two more to make my youngest granddaughter a quilt with them for her first birthday in July.

The center is the panel and then I fussy cut fabric from the same line for the rectangle blocks on the sides.

The back, had to add fabric to make it wide enough.

This is what the back panel says, you can see the words better on this internet image.

We are starting on next winter's firewood supply. Since wood is our only source of heat and since we have such long winters here, this is a very essential part of our life.

We found a new supplier, The Firewood Boys, they brought us a truck load the other day. We will still have to cut this up and stack it.

This truck is called a "self loader", he has a grapple hook at the end of the boom to unload the logs.

And our regular wood guy delivered a load of cut wood. Just have to get this in the basement and stacked.

Happy Quilting, Rebecca!

Three Finishes! Three Moose!

I am so happy to be posting photos of actual quilts! Three projects done!


First up is the camo baby quilt for my new great-grandson, due March 12, but he could arrive any day. My granddaughter asked for an outdoor/animal theme with a very specific camo fabric. You can read more about that in this POST. It finished at 39" X 39" after washing. I am happy with the finished quilt.

I used the large camo design for the backing.

Just did a loopy meander for the quilting.

The second finish is the blue plaid baby quilt for the same great-grandson. This one finished at 34 1/2" X 38 12".

I used  flannel for the backing.

The third finish is the flannel quilt for our bed. It is a nice heavy quilt, just right for this time of year. My DH said it it is his favorite quilt!

 

And since we are talking about threes, we had three moose in the yard the other day.

Pretty sure she is pregnant.

This is the one you can't see too well in the other photo. Probably last years calf.

Now to look over my list of projects and decide what to work on next! Happy Quilting, Rebecca

In the Hoop!

In July of 2015 I joined an online sew along with several other quilters. We made the Cranberry Album quilt from Jeana Kimball's  Old Voices, New Impressions book. I finished sewing the blocks in December of that year. It took me a while to find that "just right" sashing and border fabric, but finally got the top sewn together in April or May of 2016.

Below is my finished top. I do plan on a scalloped edge for the final border.

I actually entered it in our quilt show at the local fair. I got a first place ribbon. (Yes, they let you enter tops, unheard of I know!)

Well, it is finally in the hoop for hand quilting. This will take some time, but I am not in a hurry. I am thoroughly enjoying the process! I am quilting around the block and then around the applique pieces. I looked at photos of antique quilts and crosshatching in the background area seemed common and since I want an old fashioned feel to this quilt decided to do that in the background. I am not sure what design I will use in the sashing, but need to decide soon as I want to quilt in that area as I move along with the blocks. Any suggestions would be welcome!

First two blocks done.

Working on the third block.

Here our some of the other ladies that participated in the sew along. You can see Cathy's, of Big Lake Quilter blog, finished top HERE,  Karen's, of Log Cabin Quilter blog, finished top HERE,  Nancy's, of Tattered Garden Quilting, finished top HERE  and Sharon's of Grass Roots Quilting HERE.  My apologies if I missed anyone.


I am linking up with Kathy for  Slow Stitching Sunday. Happy Quilting! Rebecca

New Projects for 2018

You have to admit the quilts in my last post rated low on the "pretty" scale! LOL So I thought I would share some of the new projects I have added to the herd.


Let's start with the prettiest! This is Edyta Sitar's Spring Bouquet Quilt. I am going to do it in batiks as she did.

A start on block #1.

I bought this circle cutter for this project. I have Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circle templates, but they do not include all the sizes I need. I hope this works!

The next new project is a mystery BOM through the Fat Quarter Shop. We will be using Kaffe Fassett fabrics so this will be really different for me. I was going to add a link, but when I went over to the Fat Quarter Shop I could not find the page, sorry. This starts in March.

My third new project is a Kaleidoscope quilt. I saw this quilt on Lori of Humble Quilts blog, she graciously has allowed me to use her photos. It was a quilt she saw a the Aurora Quilt Show, in September of 2017. Here is a LINK to her blog post.

I participated in a Civil War Reproduction fat quarter club through Primitive Gathering for about three years, so I have gather a LOT of CW fabrics. I am sorry to say that there are many of them that I would not have picked for myself. So what to do with all of these fat quarters. When I saw this quilt I had my answer!

 While I have my CW fabrics out, I will probably cut out some pieces for this quilt too. It  will be a good way use some of the scraps from the Kaleidoscope project I think.

The Pyramids quilt is found in Quiltmania #94.

I also joined in on Kathleen Tracy's mystery QAL , Friendship Garden. Here is a LINK to her website where you can download the instructions and the first block patterns. She a has an applique block and a pieced block. She also has a Facebook group called Kathleen Tracy's Small Quilt Lovers, here is a LINK.

This block will finish at 8"

I also want to make a liberated style word quilt using this book. I have lots of ideas going on in my quilty little brain on this one.

So as soon as I finish up the two baby quilts for my new great-grandson I will be able to do more  on these projects.


We also had a visitor the other day. The photos aren't the best, I took them through our front window, I was worried if I went outside it would alert the dogs that he was out there. As you can see he has shed one of his antlers.

Happy Quilting, Rebecca (Sorry for the long post)

Current Projects

I have some new projects planned for this new year, but I have some current projects I need to finish up first.
We bought a king size bed a few years back and I made a new quilt for it.  This was a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial called Four Patch Stars, here is a  LINK to the pattern.                                        

King sized bed quilt made in 2016

We also continued to use the two queen size quilts I had made for our old bed, but they are just not working out. So plans for another king size quilt developed. I have been collecting flannel shirts along with  cotton shirts to use in my quilting. I was picky about the flannel ones, no pilling and a nice medium weight. I decided to go simple and used the flannel shirts and this free pattern. Here is a LINK. Since I am making it king sized it took a little more than a weekend.

I will quilt mine, not tie it.

It definitely has that humble-down-home-dorky-hand-made look, but my DH loves it. I still need to add the outer borders of red flannel. I ordered that and some wide flannel for the backing.  I hoping to have this one ready to quilt soon.

I also have a new great-grandbaby due in March. I asked my granddaughter about colors and themes. She requested an outdoor/wildlife theme and to include camo. This is the camo she wants. It took me a while but I finally found some at the Spoonflower website. Here is a LINK. (It is a interesting site, you can design and print your own fabric.) There was a large and a small pattern design, I got some of both. I not sure how it will work into the top of the quilt so I got enough to use it for the backing.

Interesting camo design!

Small pattern design

Large pattern design

I also ordered this wildlife fabric. It has everything she requested, deer, bears and etc. I will fussy cut this .

I found this quilt  online and I am going to use this pattern. HERE is the blog where I saw this quilt, it was on Kelly's My Quilt Infatuation blog. She kindly let me share her photo. She made it from a Moda Bake Shop pattern called Four Squared, HERE is a link.

I gathered up some browns and greens, but I am waiting to start cutting until the camo fabric gets here and I can decide if I want to use any in the top. 

So while I am waiting on fabric I thought I would make a second baby quilt. This one will be out of blue plaids. I saw this photo and plan to make this design. I am sorry but I do not remember where I saw it. Simple four-patches and squares.

I have everything cut and ready to sew this one up. 

So I have plenty to keep me busy! Hope to show some of the new projects I have planned for 2018 in my next post.

We have some cold weather headed our way. It is coming in from Siberia. They are predicting some -30 temps.

Happy quilting, Rebecca