August UFO

I've been very productive this summer and stayed on track in my sewing room to finish lots of projects and quilts.  Here is my finish for August.  I was so disgusted with this one, it almost ended up in the trash.

I started this during a class several years ago.  All pieces are cut with a 60 degree ruler and every seam in there is a Y-seam!  Well, the teacher used my fabrics to demo the technique and cut my fabric the wrong direction!  So, I had to proceed doing the entire quilt backwards with the angles and Y-seams.  Well, I did it but I don't think the effect worked so well color wise.  The quilt is named "Pretzel Party".  My daughter thinks it looks more like a Jewish star.  It think it is sweet and would make a lovely quilt for a baby girl.

August UFO - Swoon

I am just crazy for quilts!  And this was a lot of fun to make.  The pattern and fabric line is by a mother/daughter team.  Their patterns and fabrics are so bright and happy.  The quilt pattern is named Swoon, and it almost made me swoon with delight!  The pattern required 18 fat quarters and that's for real!  The blocks are 24".  I added the two borders.  I just thought the quilt was floating with all the white out there.  It's big, 90" X 90".  I think it is destined for a niece of mine.  It just looks perfect for a sweet little girl, don't ya think?

Here's a closer look at one of the blocks.

And a closer look at this scrumptious border fabric:

Frayed Dresden

I found this quilt out in our family room when we got home from vacation too.  It was a quilt as you go quilt with the frayed edges look.  It's my older daughter's quilt. 

I really love the pale turquoise background with all the bright colored Dresden blades.  I think it's very hip for today's girls.  This was the backing.

I could make another one of these quilts!

Snowball Quilt

We came home from a vacation and found this quilt out in the family room.  Guess one of our girls were wrapped up in it while watching TV.  It's only 106-110 here right now!  It's a snowball pattern.  This is a great scrap quilt pattern and super easy to make.

I had some of that lovely bright green polka dot fabric left over from an old project.  It's very neon there.  I even pieced the backing from scraps.

This quilt would not win any beauty awards for sure.  But it does feel nice and warm when you wrap yourself up in it!

An Oldie but a GOODIE!

My grandmother was an amazing quilter.  She retired to a very small town in Arkansas and shopped at Walmart for fabric.  There wasn't anywhere else nearby and she was not interested in computers or internet purchases.  She also used her own vintage fabrics -- things she had saved.  She died several years ago and I still miss her a lot.  I was given three of her quilt tops to make into quilts.  The first one is done.  It's a bowtie quilt.

I just finished the binding on this big quilt and have a plan for it, which cannot be revealed in this place.  I do cherish it though.  She signed a corner block and had finished the quilt top in 1993.

July UFO

I've also been busy sewing.  I am on a roll with it and loving it.  It seems I didn't have much enthusiasm the past few months and am making up for that now.  This is a really quick and easy quilt.  I bought the fabric in a sweet quilt shop in Texas last summer.  I tried to machine quilt it myself and had bobbin tension problems and just plain gave up!  I took out my awful stitching and took it over to a favorite longarm quilter.  She quilted just what I tried to quilt, wandering stars.

I just love these fun cowboy fabrics.  Here's a close up:

And don't you just LOVE this backing?  It's an Alexander Henry print.  He makes some fabulous big prints.

This will be a Christmas present for someone special this year.  Giddyup!

Pineapple Star Adventure!

 

My sewing group and I just found this great idea for a group project.  Of course we couldn't just choose a LoneStar or a Pineapple, two advanced projects.  We chose a Pineapple Star for our projects.  I really think we are crazy sometimes.  But we are persistent and have a lot of talent in our group to get us through these incredible quilting feats.  So we have our books, foundation patterns and mock-ups.  Here is my mock up: 

 I love my colors and have a few things to perfect here before cutting.  My inner point will have a kaleidoscope look to it so I have to scan my fabric with the mirrors and fussy cut those points.  I also have to find the turquoise/royal blue fabric.  This was a scrap to get the right value.  This will be a spectacular quilt when it's done and a semi lifetime achievement. 

Winter Wonderland Quilt

I finished this quilt in December (I think) but just remembered to blog about it.  It's all hand embroidered.  It's a Crabapple Hill pattern, cost $39 I think but worth it.  I worked on this during our summer travels while driving or during the evenings.  I just love hand work and this was a lovely project.  I love all the different stars in the border, too.  I passed on the pattern to a friend in our sewing group, don't see any reason to make another one of these.  There were quite a few of these at our 2011 quilt show so it was a popular project.

Prep Time

I've finished several quick and easy scrap quilts.  So I promised myself I would machine quilt these myself.  They are a great size to handle with my machine at the kitchen table. I'll probably donate them in the fall to a charity doing a blanket drive.  I will add a label to the back that says "Something to keep you warm on a cold night".  I even pieced together bigger scrap pieces for the backings.  The prep is tedious, especially when you have several to get done.  I have a little help from our dog, or so she thinks.

I've learned to work around her.  Fiona just loves anything soft to lay on.  The next picture shows her on the backing before I have a chance to get the other layers together.

By the way, isn't that some fabulous backing fabric?  It's for a quick and easy cowboy quilt.  I'll have some pictures of finished projects soon.  Time to do some machine quilting!

Older Quilt #3

This is a really bright, whimsical quilt.  It was started in a class using a magazine article for the pattern.  It's designed by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins from Piece O Cake Designs.  I own several of their books and truly love their designs and style.  I call this "Just Dotty".

EVERYTHING about this quilt makes me happy.  It is paper pieced (which I love) and the fabrics are all polka dots (an all time favorite of mine) and stripes.

Two of my quilting friends made this with me.  We had great fun trading dots and stripes.  I love it when I have other quilters' fabrics in my quilts.  This makes them even better.  It's funny how after so many years (this was finished in 2004) I can still remember where most of the fabrics are from.  Here's the dotty backing.

I hope you've enjoyed some of my older creations.  They are so dear to me.

Another Older Quilt

This is the second of my beloved, older quilts, made in 2003.  It's called "Aunt Betty's Attic".  I made it in a class that used a magazine article for the pattern and I don't have it anymore.

This quilt was made with some fabrics used to redecorate our bedroom all those years ago.  Some of the fabrics were decorator fabrics with some Aunt Grace prints added. 

This is one of the decorator fabrics I used for the backing.  Isn't it sweet?

This is a close up of one of the blocks.  This was another of the decorator fabrics.

This is a close up of the scrappy border (with a ruler sticking out from under).

The really special thing about making this quilt was the people in the class.  I discovered two of my dear friends there.  One I knew before but we didn't know we were quilters.  She was there with one of her best friends.  We now sew monthly and take quilting travel adventures.  That was a great class for me!

An Older Quilt

I decided to focus on a few of my older (but much loved) quilts.  They are now folded up and put on a shelf in our bedroom as my decor has changed.  But they are a few of my favorites.  The first of them is shown here.

This quilt is called "Pumpkin Seed".  I used the Quiltsmart printed interfacing to make each "seed".  Then the seeds were machine appliqued using a blind hem stitch and clear monofilament thread.  The fabrics are all the Aunt Grace prints and solids.  I just love those fabrics and have made too many quilts using them.  We used this quilt on our bed for a couple of years.  It was finished in 2003. 

Here's a close up of some seeds.  The blue floral is one of my favorite fabrics of all time.  I used this to make my daughter an adorable dress when she was four!  I've bought many more yards of it over the years.

In fact, here it is as a border in another of my quilts.

This is part of the scrappy backing.  Another of my favorite Aunt Grace prints.