Monday, December 30, 2013

2013 Quilts in Review

As 2013 comes to a close  I thought I'd take a look back at my most memorable quilt finishes of the year. I've done more small ones, reproductions and many for AAQI, but am not including them.
A Little Porch Time was finished and sent to Denmark in February to our exchange family as Lene takes on a battle with cancer. She is doing pretty well and when she finished chemo her and her husband took a 3 week trip to Italy! She took her quilt for treatments, but I'm pretty sure she left it home while on holiday. LOL She has a big upcoming surgery so if you are so inclined prayers for her would be lovely!
My Jubilee quilt, finished March 13, a quilt made by me, for me. My friend, Kat, did an amazing job of quilting it using wool batting.


My signature quilt for my 50th birthday finished in April. Randy surprised me by collecting blocks from my blog friends and real life friends. What a precious and meaningful quilt!
Under the Big Top, finished in November. I exchanged hst with several ladies for several months. I love everything about this quilt!!
My Christmas quilt finished in December. I made 3 blocks a month all year long. It is one of the most difficult quilts I've made with lots of set-in seams.  I'm thrilled with it!
Just Takes Two (years) finished this month too. This was designed by Gay Bomers and Brenda Papdakis to commemorate the Infinite Variety exhibit in NYC in 2011.  It is my least favorite quilt I made this year. It has a lot of work, but I'm not in love with it. I may put this one up for sale. (gasp!)

Love to you all as we close out 2013 and usher in 2014.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Wool Flower Blocks

 
I worked on a small hand project while family was here for the holidays. It's pretty hard to work on a large quilt that takes one seat! (I brought it back out today)
The one blocks join the others.

I had a busy full Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Dinner for 16!! Crazy but fun!

Have an awesome weekend!

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Signs of Winter and Christmas

 Small snow people.
 Pre-party photos.
 Enjoying decor at parties, as well.
 Enjoying Christmas songs by carolers.
 Pretty decor in the city.

From my home to yours, Merry Christmas! Glædelig Jul! 

Monday, December 23, 2013

Third Friday at Quiltworks!

The first Friday of this month brought stormy weather so I canceled my planned trip to Quiltworks for the event but made it there last week when I met Randy for lunch.
As usual the display did not disappoint!
First up is a challenge from the Central Oregon Modern Quilt Guild.  Take a glance at the next 6 quilts....see a theme? It was fun to come up the stairs and notice the vibrant colors right away.



These next two quilts are from the Blockin' Robins group. Isn't that the cutest name?!

And these last 3 quilts were made by quilters from Jefferson county Library's Novel Quilt Group.




Hope you enjoyed coming along with me for the show! Anne of Cottons and Wool will be the featured quilter in February! It is going to be a terrific show.

I hope you are all enjoying yourself preparing for Christmas. I have had numerous festivities going on and am enjoying every one of them!!
Happy Monday!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Still Hand Quilting

So, I will be starting another 25 block applique quilt this January. I'm so excited, but will probably still be handquilting this 100x100 quilt in two years! (or more!)This one is based off an antique that Gay Bomers- Sentimental Stitches purchased on Ebay. She generously offered it free, one block a month. I have to admit, I'm a top maker, but thought I'd hand quilt this since I finished my 14 year handquilting project of  Jane Stickle this year.


This was the last block I finished outlining. This was also the block that I was hand appliqueing that made me decide to machine applique. There are 46 or 47 leaves in  this one block.  Is it any wonder I gave up the hand applique at this point? If you click on this to enlarge you can see some of the fun quilting motifs I copied from the original and added. I had a lot of fun stitching those.


My original plan was to cross hatch after quilting the motifs, but I saw a quilt recently that had these wonderful clamshells and motifs, just like the original Beyond the Cherry Tree quilt, so I went back to the idea of clamshells. I really thought they would quilt up fairly quickly too. (a bonus in my opinion)
I was on the fence about it and after a chat with my dear friend I decided to at least mark it and see what i thought.
 So I did, then I erased it quickly with a hot iron. Looked like a huge pain in the neck with all the applique.


So I used my hera marker and marked one block with lines 1 1/2" apart. Nothing is going to be easy about quilting the rest of this. I've worked on it 3 nights now and am still on this block!

PS I haven't quilted anything in the borders yet or outlined my applique. Maybe this will be another 14 year project!

I've got lots planned for the weekend. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Red & White- Just Takes 2 (years!)

 This radiant star is one of my favorites in this quilt. 
I brought this to my quilter and friend (Kat, A Thread Runs Through It) last January along with my jubilee quilt and birthday signature quilt and originally we talked about two threads with custom quilting, but ya know, after a year of it being gone I didn't miss it that much so I told her to give it an allover pattern. It would have looked fantastic with custom quilting, but I'm pleased with this as it is.
 I thought the snow was a good backdrop for this quilt. It's big too so this is the best place to see the whole thing.
My quilter said I didn't have enough backing so she trimmed the top and bottom border so it would fit. By the time I was done trimming it I have 4 different size borders! LOL


It is possible my backing shrunk up a bit as I did prewash it because it was  red.
 After dragging it around outside I washed it and got it on my bed. 
Someone asked why I wash my quilts when they are done.  If I have hand quilted they have been carted around for months and possibly years and if I have sent it to be machine quilted it's the same thing. I want to put a clean quilt on my bed. I do not pre wash my fabrics (I did with this one) and like to get all the sizing out and have it shrink up.
 What did we do before color catchers?
 One fabric bled a little but not enough to bother me.

 Feeling good about this finishes! Am going to make a list of quilts to tackle in 2014.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Scandinavian Christmas

I finished my small version of Scandinavian Christmas by Lynette Anderson. I guess there is a reason I like primitive quilts and applique. These were small and fussy and I just couldn't help but feel like my fingers were huge and clumsy. The pattern was passed to me from a fellow blogger and I have passed it right along to another bloggger.I did some super easy machine quilting (just enough to hold the layers together) and got it bound and hung this weekend.
It is in the guest bedroom and will be enjoyed by company that comes for Christmas.



I have a few other exciting projects to share with you this week!! Well, they are exciting to me.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Baskets and More

I have my next basket complete.
Wendy, Legends and Lace is offering these monthly. I'm enjoying using the scraps I won from Cyndi.  After Wendy read I thought these were challenging blocks she said she would do a hand piecing tutorial when she releases the next basket. Some of them would be easier to hand piece because of the set-in seams. The other reason I think they are challenging is the 16ths for the sizes. (7/16, etc) If you've done the Jane Stickle quilt you'll have no problems.
Here are my 5 baskets.



Gay of Sentimental Stitches and Beyond the Cherry Tree  fame and Brenda Papadakis from Dear Jane fame are doing an applique BOM starting next month! It is called the Benjamin Biggs quilt and is green, red and indigo on cream background......right up my alley! You can check it out HERE.

Karen, from Karen's Quilts, Crows & Cardinals is doing a wonderful hand applique tutorial. Go HERE to get the info.


Have a wonderful weekend!!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Trimming your Quilt Top

I have to show a couple of quilt photos despite the topic.
Primitive Primer by Jan Patek & Sue Spargo


This isn't a Christmas quilt but that's when I like to hang it up and enjoy it.
We finally got our tree up and will decorate it this week. I always put a quilt up behind it. My Just takes Forever (Just Takes2) is working it's way back home after being quilted but I am positive I won't have the binding on before Christmas. Cant wait to see it and show you all! Looking forward to another red and white quilt.
 
As I was prepping my Christmas quilt for binding I was wondering how you all do yours.
I use my square ruler to square up all 4 corners
Then use my long ruler to trim the sides.
 
Then hope I'm not too far off when they meet up! lol

I'd love to know how you do it.