So it’s been a while (almost 4 years) since my last post. I have been thinking about starting up again and wonder if anyone is still keeping track of me. I’d kind of like to share pictures of my quilts. I have quite a few now and really like making them.
This is the latest thing on my design wall. It is a Kaleidoscope or One Block Wonder quilt in progress. All of the little hexes were cut from six repeats of the center panel. I love the autumn colors.
This quilt top still needs to be quilted, but I wanted to show it anyway. I really love it. I got most of the little nine-patch blocks from a swap with a couple gals many years ago and they have been sitting in a box since then. I decided that it was finally time to play with them and planned this layout. I also got to use up some hexie flowers that I made when my hexie craze was at full tilt. I think they make a perfect accent.
When finished, this quilt will go in our guest room. I am planning on having two single beds in there. So far, I have just the one bed frame (I put an air mattress on the frame for the picture), but eventually there will be another bed. Best of all, I have enough little nine-patches left to make a quilt for the second bed. I have a different arrangement in mind for it, but it will also include hexie flowers.
Here is a journal cover that I made for a friend who loves Wonder Woman. The gold page marker is suppose to represent Wonder Woman’s golden lasso.
The next picture is of my first Quilt of Valor for the year. I made from a mystery quilt, although I waited and got all the clues and new what it would look like before starting on it. Making the stars was a little tricky — everything else was easy.
First up are a couple of things my sister made. I showed her how to make the folded fabric stars an zippy bags. She made two stars and sewed them together to make a tea cozy. Very cute! Then she made several zippy bags for co-workers. I only got a picture of one, but the others are similar — with cute sayings and different fabrics.
Here is a picture of our house all lit up for our first Xmas in Cocoa, FL.
This is the panel I quilted up to hang on the front door. The wreath has some little lights that look really nice at night, but of course don’t show up well for the camera.
Wow! That was easy. I guess I didn’t get much done during the last part of the year.
See you next post.
I can’t say that I have gotten a lot of quilting done since the last post, but there are a couple of things that I couldn’t show till now that I what to share.
This Xmas tree is a panel by Stonehenge. I quilted it for my sister and made buttonholes for little electric lights to go through. It looks really nice in person, but the lights don’t show up well on camera.
Xmas Tree
This is the first time I tried quilting a big spiral and I think it looks really nicely. I got the idea from this blog post:
http://craftingdotdotdot.blogspot.com/2014/04/quilting-spiral-what-worked-for-me.html
I like this spiral technique so much that I know I will use it a lot in the future. In fact, I used it on another quilt right away. This is my entry for the Sunstitchers’ 2015 challenge which was to make any kind of quilt with five-inch squares. I ran across the pattern, called Twinkle Star, for this carpenter’s star that was made from a charm pack in a magazine and decided it would be just right, particularly since I had a charm pack handy. This is my finished quilt:
Challenge Quilt
It is about 39 inches square and looks a lot more complicated than it actually was to piece and quilt which is my favorite kind of quilt to make. I had a few squares leftover and used them in the saw-tooth border. I really like the way the circular quilting contrasts with all the sharp points.
Yesterday was the Sunstitchers meeting when the entries were to be revealed, and there were quite a few beautiful and clever quilts to see. I was pleasantly surprised that mine won a prize and will enjoy spending my Joann’s gift certificate.
Here is another idea I had to use five in squares – a biscuit quilt. Sometimes these are called puff quilts too. It is an old technique but I had never tried it, so I got out another pack of 5 inch squares and gave it a try. I am sure you could search up either name and get instructions.
Biscuit quiltlets
These are as finished as they will get — they fit perfectly in the baskets I have sitting around for the cats to nap in. I don’t know if I would ever make a larger quilt with this technique, but it would definitely be a cozy one.
Well that is all for now. I hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Day
Linda
This is going to be a pretty long post since it has been a while (almost half a year) since my last one. It doesn’t seem to me that I’ve gotten much done quilt-wise, but it may look like it once everything is bundled together in one place.
Frist of all, I have been making a Quilt of Valor every month and sending them up to my dear friends, the Georgia Belles, to be quilted and gifted to an appreciated veteran. There is a double benefit for me from making Quilts for veterans. The best thing of course, is having the opportunity to show my appreciation for those who served in the armed forces and helped to keep America safe. Secondly, it is a practical way to experiment with different quilt patterns and techniques. I enjoy trying new things and am learning so much with each one I make.
Falling Stars
This is the QOV for July. The pattern is called ‘Falling Stars’ and is in the Spring issue of Easy Quilts.
Summertime Stars
I made this one for August from a pattern called ‘Summertime Stars” in Quaint Quilts to Love by Joanna Figueroa & Lisa Quan.
This is the one I made for September. At the moment, I can’t remember what magazine I saw this one in, but I remember it was an old one — from the 90s.
And this is for October. I made it up using my favorite block, Mary’s Triangles from Sally Schnider’s book, Triangle Tricks. I’ve made several quilts with this block and it is so versatile.
A couple of months ago, the Community Service group of my local guild, Seaside Piecemakers, asked for patriotic lap quilts for a local hospice organization. Since I had a few patriotic panels on hand, I decided to make them up into lap quilts. Here they are.
I turned these three in and was gifted with four more little panels to make into even more lap quilts. Here they are (before the quilting and binding. Apparently, I didn’t take a picture of them finished):
These were fun to make and fast – corner blocks and side borders around the panel and the quilt is all done. These were small enough that I could quilt them myself on my little Vikiing. Notice the Mary’s Triangles in the corners. I sure like adding them to quilts.
Folded Fabric Stars
These are my folded fabric stars. I learned this technique from Diana Whitson at a Sunstitchers meeting in June. I liked it so much that when we went back to Chattanooga to get the last of our stored stuff, I showed Karen D. and Sharon G. how to make them and they shared the technique with the Chattanooga Quilt Guild. I thought I would make one or two, but I keep getting ideas for different color combinations and decide to do ‘just one more.’ Thus this fifth one:
One more star
(and I am considering a few more color ways, so I don’t think I am done yet.)
Over the last few months, I also managed to get some knitting done. I finally finished the teal pair and two more pairs after that. I have been knitting in the evenings while watching TV.
Teal Sox
Red & Purple Sox
Blue Sox
This makes 24 pairs of socks that I have knitted. I think I am ready for winter now — LOL!
Twin baby quilts
I made these baby quit tops for my sister. She has a co-worker who recently had twin granddaughters, and I happened to have a couple ABC panels on hand that seemed girly, so I pieced the tops for her. She will take care of the quilting and finishing.
Well, I believe that has us all caught up. I left out any pictures of the studio although it has changed a lot since the last update on that. I am hoping to get the room all neatened up for fresh pictures, but I am having so much fun sewing in here that there seems to always be a mess of one sort or another.
Happy Day!
Well, we have been in Florida now for about six months and in our house for about five, and I am beginning to feel like this is home. I suspect finally getting a washer and dryer helped with that feeling. It is so nice to do my own laundry again and not have to take it out to the laundromat.
here are the new lovelies, happily nestled in their own little niche. And look at what we (‘we’ in this case means Raymond) had to do to vent the dryer! I don’t know how the previous owners did laundry as there was no vent for a dryer anywhere in the garage. This setup is a little funky looking, but as long as it works I love it.
I happened across a Quilting Arts episode (1210) on Create TV this week and saw two projects that seemed interesting — quick fabric flowers and a scrappy trip around the world block. That same day, I tried making the flower before I forgot how and here is my attempt. I like it. I can see this being a cute addition to a purse or pillow or even a baby quilt. The one in the clip used ombre fabric and the first one I found was this brown to tan. It still looks like a flower. It was as easy to make as it looked in the video.
And here is the scrappy trip block. The original pattern is on Bonnie Hunter’s website, quiltville.com. I had seen it there but thought making all those little squares looked like a lot of work. Well after seeing the video on Quilting Arts, I found out it is a fun and quick little block to make. I am so tempted to cut up all my fat quarters into strips and start making more of these blocks.
Because the blocks are so busy, I think if I used the same color in the center (I decided to go with white) the blocks would have a little bit of order.
Sock it to me
Next, I am pleased to show a finished sock. I have been knitting on this one for over a year! The yarn is wool, silk and a little nylon. It feels very soft. I started the second one right away but who knows how long it will take to finish! Don’t you love the color!
Studio Update
This week, we got a piece of pegboard and some 1″ x 2″s for the legs and frame and Raymond put them together to hold my rulers and rotary cutters. This one is bigger than the last one and I love it. Here are some shots of the studio showing the new pegboard.
I moved the furniture around again as you can see.
The pegboard as well as the design wall just lean there against the wall. I love that I can move them around without leaving marks on the walls. The only exception with that will be my next design wall which will be made of insulation sheets covered in flannel. They will be secured to the wall. Maybe next month I will get around to that.
And here is the pegboard with all my rulers arranged on it right by the cutting table. I love it! Now I better get in there and sew something.
I am not sure why, but whenever I load pictures into this blog, they get put in out of order. Rather than spend my time fixing that, I will just pretend this is how I meant to do it.
Just above is a little crazy quilt block that I put together from a bag of goodies I got from a friend right after we moved here. I had to go out and buy some floss so I could start stitching on it since all my threads, flosses, beads, baubles, etc., are in storage in Chattanooga. I already stitched a little on it; I thought it would be nice to have some hand work to play with now and again.
Here are my Mother’s Day goodies. Raymond got me the flowers and Heath bars. My daughter sent me the sweetest necklace with a tree of life on it and a nice card with some Amazon cash. I am blessed to have such a loving family.
Now for a little decorating update. We got these spice racks hung on the kitchen wall and I realized that my little Red Rooster quilt would look great with them. I don’t like a cluttered work-space, so having the spices up on the wall is a perfect solution — keeps everything close at hand and out of the way at the same time.
My sister sent me some precut hexies and I decided to make them into this I-Spy type of quilt. Lots of bright colors for some boy or girl. I used some alphabet fabric on the back, so this quilt is educational as well as fun.
Here is a little notebook jacket I whipped up one afternoon. I just grabbed the first fat quarter I saw and used that serpentine stitch on my machine to quilt it.
That’s all for now. Have a Happy Day!
Couple changes in the studio since the last photo session:
Here is my new name badge for Sunstitchers, a circle of the Seaside Piecemakers Guild that I belonged to when I last lived in Florida. I still have the badge from last time, but it must be in Chattanooga in storage, so I made a new one. It is about 6″ across. I signed up for the waiting list to re-join the guild, but can attend Sunstitchers in the mean time.
This shelf unit use to be in the kitchen in TN, but there is no place for it in this kitchen, so for the time being I am using it to hold quilts. Looks like a lot of them on the shelves, right? Well about half of them are yet to be quilted.
Although this sewing room was pretty bright during the day, it still needed more light for serious work. Raymond put this lovely daylight light fixture in the ceiling. There was a spot where a light use to be, but had been removed, and he was able to use the existing wires. Once the fixture was in place, we realized that none of the wall switches in the area operate it, so he added a switch with a pull chain. Works great and the room is really bright now with true colors. Wonderful!
Here is another finish. This UFO has been in progress since 2007. It was a row robin from the last time I was in Sunstitchers. In fact, I got all my rows back at the last meeting I attended before we headed north. At that meeting I asked the gals to sign muslin patches for me and used them to make my row. Over the years since then I put the siggy blocks together but could not decide on just how to arrange the rows.
I ran across the baggie while unpacking and realized I better get in gear so I can show this at Sunstitchers now that I am going back to the meetings. I fiddled with the rows and finally settled on this.
From top to bottom, the rows were made by: Barb Jeffers, Me, Kay Franks, Rita Lumm, Clarice Weathers, Anne James and Laxmi Herman. This is definitely a sentimental quilt that I will be keeping.
Here is ‘Anchors Aweigh’ all finished. Well, the top is finished and the binding made. I will send it to my Quilts of Valor group, The Georgia Belles, to be quilted. Nice thought to have started and finished a project in my new sewing room. 
I didn’t follow the pattern exactly — had to add a border to get it to the right size — and I am happy with the result.
Isn’t it so very appropriate that my first day of sewing in my new little sewing room in my new little house also happens to be National Quilting Day! I have been itching to work on a Quilt of Valor so I could use some of the wonderful fabrics my sister sent me a while back, and I found just the pattern in the Sept/Oct 2014 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting. It is called ‘Anchors Aweigh,’ which I think is extra perfect as my dad was in the Navy in WWII.
Here is my temporary setup:
I cut enough pieces to make a couple blocks just to see if I would like it enough to make a whole quilts worth. Sometimes the patterns confuse me and I get frustrated.
By the end of my first sewing session, I have four blocks.
They are not so difficult to assemble. I was a little worried since sometimes I have trouble with bias edges and this quilt has a few, but I was careful, took my time and enjoyed the process. This is going to be such a cute quilt. I have fourteen more blocks to make before I have to decide on the sashing and cornerstones.
It feels great to be sewing again.
And here are all the giant hexie blocks I mentioned in the last post:
The two big ones measure about 26″ across and the smaller ones are almost 16″. They are really gigantic! I tried playing with arranging them a little, but have no idea what they want to end up looking like.
Any suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Happy National Quilting Day!
Towanda 