Back again!

Well, another lengthy hiatus but I’m back. Let’s see if I can stick to the Friday routine – still my least busy weekday. Maybe I should try Saturdays instead?

We’ve survived the pandemic. So far. That’s major at our ages. I certainly haven’t been sitting around doing nothing. Lots of quilts have been made and gifted, and lots more are WIP’s (work in process), UFO’s (unfinished objects) or just waiting for either fabric or pattern. It’s actually kind of overwhelming when I stop to count these projects.

I mentioned the string blocks done during 2020/2021 and into 2022. I had enough for a lap size quilt and was done. Then Marsh saw a row of them I had pinned to the design wall and said (as he always does) “Who’s THAT for?”. I said I didn’t know, just did it for fun. He was so taken with the blocks that he asked if I would make it queen size for our bed. Ah, ok. I can do that. So now there are 200 (?) blocks to sew together and rip the paper backing off, then quilt. They are sitting in baggies in a tote at this point.

My latest project plan is to make quilts for my sister Ann out of her Harley shirts. We think we can get 2 long lap quilts for her tall grandsons and one regular lap quilt for her out of them. FIRST, though, I have 2 more Christmas wall hangings/door hangings to finish piecing and get ready to quilt. Which reminds me…

I’ve been following Angela Walters on her website, quiltingismytherapy.com, to learn more free motion quilting. My most treasured quilts have been quilted by my BFF Vicki Breuker (more about her later) or Living Threads ministry. However, they do cost a bit and as a retiree hoping to stop working part time in a few months, I need to learn how to do more on my own. So in between piecing, stamping greeting cards, work and volunteering, I’ve been practicing her latest videos on fillers. THAT has to be a priority. SO HARD to fit it all in, but I will! So check back another time for more on my FMQ adventures, my sweet friend Vicki, and my Christmas project.

Roman has arrived!

Great-grandchild #14 was born 11.6.2020! I just made it getting his quilt done.

His mama, Lexi, wanted navy and gray. It was hard to do a baby in quilt in such drab colors, but ok, I’d do what she wanted. After she had the quilt, she mentioned that I didn’t want to put zebra fabric in her wedding quilt, but I did and she LOVES it. I found some great backing material from Just Stella that was baby boy-ish. I used the free Moda pattern, Boro, and started with gray I had on hand (Moda Iron) and some navy scraps I had. Of course I ended up buying more gray and more navy prints. THANK GOODNESS for the Flying Geese tool – I never would have gotten it done without it! The pattern is more of a lap-size quilt, but that’s ok. She and her family have a lot of love to share, so a larger quilt will wrap them all together.

Getting Back to the Blog

WOW. It has been Y E A R S since I’ve blogged. Life, I guess, just happened. But I didn’t quit quilting! I think I’m close to or over 90 quilts now, with just a few of them still in my possession. And that is good – why have a ton of quilts (which would weigh a ton!) hanging around? I don’t get that. And I don’t think I am in the majority on that opinion.

My plan (which I just made) is to blog on Fridays. Usually, I am free on Fridays – not this Friday, though. I am delivering two quilts to family. So I’ll be kinda busy. Hopefully I can do a post on Saturday, with pictures. Because that’s the best memory, when you have a picture of the person who was gifted the quilt along with the quilt.

This is the time of the corona virus pandemic so there’s not a lot of getting together. I started a string quilt during the lock-down . . . haven’t worked on it lately, but here is a pic of some blocks. I’ll get back to it eventually.

So that’s it for today. I need to finish binding great-grandson Roman’s quilt. He’s due in about 2 weeks.

Another Wedding Quilt

My son, Adam, is engaged!  The wedding is in May of 2015, and I offered to make a quilt for the newlyweds.  I am allowing Adam to pick out the pattern only, not the fabrics (wisdom I received from a great quilter friend).  “Twists and Turns” is the pattern he chose from Quilty’s January/February 2014 magazine.

It’s a Beginner Level 3 rating, so I made a practice block from left over fabrics.  I consider myself a Beginner Level 2 quilter.  It turned out pretty cool.  I learned a LOT – like, no directions on which way to press, and doing my first partial seam square.  I also learned that it pretty much “matched points” without my help, which is a huge blessing.  Wonder if that will continue to be true?

So – off to find enough fabric to do a King size quilt in purples and teal with – maybe – a light grey background.  Kinda tricky since I have to up-size the quilt, but I love buying too much fabric!

BBOM 2013-14 Finish

The Seven Names of Jesus quilt top is DONE!  I had to have help with “Cornerstone”, but otherwise I did it all.  It is off at my friend, Vicki’s to be long-armed.  But here it is as the finished quilt top.  This is going to my Pastor’s wife because I think she is probably the one who will most appreciate it.  I loved making it for her and using colors I would not normally have done.

By the way – the pattern is copyrighted and now available through Living Threads Ministry http://livingthreadsministry.sharepoint.com/Pages/default.aspx or search for them on Facebook.  This is a fantastic non-profit.

Check out our next year’s pattern while you are there!

Ethan, Sweet Ethan

Long, LONG story here that I won’t go into.  But, I have another sweet great-nephew named Ethan who came into the world abruptly and prematurely and three months later, is thriving.  It was quite the journey for him to get this far and we have hope through prayer and belief in God that he will have a very blessed life ahead.

I had planned to do an “I Spy” quilt for him, but he got here earlier than my quilt did, so I hurriedly made him this quilt as a substitute.

I hand quilted around the circles – my first hand quilting.  And I got off on my lines in the solid panels which really bothered me but I didn’t have time to fix that.  So an imperfect quilt, but hopefully one that is well loved in the future.

When Ethan’s baby shower came, I didn’t have a quilt to give his mama.  So I – again, hastily – made a quillo for him.  I hope he will be able to use it on his overnight visits to my sister, his grandmother.

Someday, I will get that “I Spy” quilt done!

 

 

 

Update on Lexi’s Wedding Quilt

It has come back from the long-arm friend, Vicki, and is now in the hands of Lexi and Dustin.  It was ready EXACTLY one year after their wedding, which is what I had told her!

I have not found a special name for it, so it will remain Lexi’s Wedding Quilt.  Here are close pictures of the quilting Vicki did on it – absolutely stunning!

 

 

 

 

A’Leah’s Quilt

I’m thinking of naming it “Cheer” because those bright colors certainly do cheer me up!

I had the pleasure of showing this quilt top to it’s recipient, without her knowing it will be hers!  Her mom knew, and we exchanged some meaningful glances.  I asked A’Leah if she thought the colors were ok – “Oh, they’re beautiful!” I think was her response.  So I know she is going to like (love?) it when it is given to her at Christmas.  Her sister, Rachel, is getting Geo-Me, which I posted about earlier.

It took me about 6 months to gather all the different fabrics.  I carried a picture of the fabrics I had already purchased, so I could try and balance choices and brightness.  I tend to go blue (HA!  ‘Go Blue’ is the chant of University of Michigan fans, of whom I am one!) so I had to be sure I was getting other colors in there.  Yellow was the hardest one to find, and I am so grateful for orange, although I wasn’t sure it was going to go with the purples.  Since I had not made this pattern before, I wasn’t sure how it would all play out color-wise.  It got a bit difficult, actually, but I think it ended up well.  (For my son Kip – well, not good!)

The pattern is from the January-February 2013 issue of Quilty magazine, called Grape Crush.  They did it in solids.  You really need to subscribe if you are newer quilter.  Excellent help and ideas in that magazine!  The quilt finishes at 54″x92″.  I wanted it extra long in case she wants to take it off to college with her in two years.

I purchased an all-purple Batik for the back fabric today.  It will be ready for Vicki to long-arm quilt next week, after I rinse the purple fabric and clip all the annoying stray threads on the top.  YAY!

 

(PS – thanks to my husband and son for holding this up for me!)

Newest Barch Design

I had less than a month’s notice of a baby shower for my niece, Karen.  Of course I wanted to make a quilt, so I grabbed my stack of Quilty magazines and found an easy pattern, then dug out my horde of 1930’s reproduction fabrics I have been collecting this past year, and put the two together.  That sounds easy, huh?

Not so much.  This has been the most challenging quilt ever!  And not just the piecing of it, although that managed to give me fits, too.

I have not worked with triangles much, but I did know enough to starch them to help keep their shape, and not to pull on them or they go wonky.  These are BIG triangles – the blocks finish 13.5″ and there are 4 triangles to a block.

The intersection of all those triangles made for a BIG lump when trying to stitch in the ditch.  I won’t go into all the crazy things I had to deal with, except one.  I could not believe I actually broke a needle HAND sewing the binding on!  What’s with THAT?

I decided tonight as I put the label on (3 tries to get the label printed – but I wasn’t going to bore you with all the issues, was I?) that I needed to pray, and pray hard, for this baby!  I truly do pray he or she will not have a difficult life, or be a challenging child, but will be loved abundantly (I know he/she will!) and be a joy for the parents and all the extended family.

And the title of this post, “Newest Barch Design”?  That was the baby’s grandmother’s idea – dad’s last name is Barch, and they have a business called Barch Design.  Very logical choice for the label!  Thanks, Ginny!

Top all pieced, on design wall

All done!

Echo quilting (machine) on white squares only

BBOM Blocks 2 and 3

Well, I didn’t get block #2 done before class.  Just toooooo busy! But I did get block #3 cut out and ready to sew.  I had to finish them both at home.

Living Threads Ministry is working on writing up the instructions for this beautiful quilt for sale as a fund-raiser for them.  It is an original design of theirs.  I had a few people from the quilting Facebook group ask for the pattern, so I asked if I could share it and found out about the copyright they are working on.  It’s a great project – stay tuned and I will post the information for buying the pattern when it’s ready!

Here is the Bridegroom block.  You can see the “ring” in it I hope!  Sorry it’s a little off-kilter.  I don’t have Photoshop on this computer.And here is Head of the Church (crowns).  This was really tough getting the points all lined up.  They aren’t perfect, again, but good enough for me!!!  Come back to see next month’s block finished!