A different kind of week and a finish

The last few days have been interesting?. Ray had back surgery on Friday, August 7. The surgery was scheduled much sooner than expected so he had a flurry of doctor appointments. When we thought he was finally ready, we found out he needed one more test. The hospital scheduled it late on Wednesday, August 5 and all went well. Earlier, we decided it made sense to just stay in Madison from Wednesday until after the surgery. That meant Thursday was a free day.

Our first stop was Olbrich Botanical Gardens. The Blooming Butterflies event was going on so we enjoyed lots of butterflies.

The flowers inside were gorgeous and I loved the colors of this one.

I think I enjoyed our time outside in the gardens even more than seeing the butterflies. I absolutely loved the water lilies. I don't remember seeing so many colors/types of lilies - I only took pictures of a few.

We enjoyed lunch at the Hubbard Avenue Diner in Middleton, WI. We always enjoy meals there. They are known for their pie (we passed this time) and the staff all wear shirts about pie. One I've seen often is I 8 𝝿 (I ate pie). Our waitress was wearing a shirt with 10-🚦𝝿 (the stoplight only had the green light colored), Any ideas? When I asked and she said it was Spanish, I knew there was a reason I'm learning Spanish! Tengo 𝝿 or I have pie.

Last stop of the day was Blue Bar Quilts in Middleton, WI. I left a travel machine to be repaired and found backing for four quilts. The first backing, a black and white print will be used for the quilt tops on either side of it. 

The second backing will also be used for two quilt tops.

It was nice to find backing fabric that I could use for more than one quilt.

I finished the binding on this quilt Thursday night, so I have another finish - another Simple Squares donation quilt. Simply Squares Red with Paw Prints is made with some colorful paw print fabric left after I used it to back a quilt.

The backing is a turquoise fabric that matches the turquoise paws.

I used a larger double loop motif to quilt this.

Size:        56" by 56"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Linen # 10WG1

                back -Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Double Loops

Ray had to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM Friday. He was the first surgery for his doctor that day. All went well and we were on our way home about 2:30 PM. Now he has a lot of restrictions for a few weeks - no bending, no lifting, no twisting, no exercise except walking.... I'm jealous of his ice machine - I never had that for my back surgeries. It is so nice! He has some pain but he also has pain relief for the nerves that were pinched. He's doing well but will be taking it easy for a while. 

It's been quite a week and I am glad this one is behind us. Maybe I'll be in the sewing room a little more this next week.

36..37..38..39..40 donation quilts!

Forty donation quilts are done and ready to be gifted later this year. Actually two have already been gifted. 

I finished 3 of these quilts at a summer retreat. We had gorgeous weather after the extremely warm first day. From my rocking chair on the porch where I worked on a binding,

I enjoyed a view of the barn,

and the hammock swaying in the breeze.

Here are the most recent finishes:

Blue Bugs with Yellow uses the rest of the bug material from my late friend, Colleen. 

The backing is a soft multi color fabric with yellow, blue, orange, green, and more.

I quilted a figure eight motif in the sashing, a double loop in the corner stones, and meandering in the blue areas.

Size:        46" by 51"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Lemon Ice #80607, Blueberry #30281

                back - Lemon Ice #80607

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Figure 8 in the sashing, double loop in the cornerstones,

                meandering for the rest

  

Orange with White on Point has just two blocks. The two blocks are the same with the fabrics switched. A block has a center square surrounded by the other fabric and two small cornerstones matching the center fabric. The blocks are placed on point with the cornerstones together.

The backing is turquoise (which I seem to have used for many backs lately). I quilted this with meandering.

This quilt uses most of the leftover white with turquoise and orange fabric left from some Native American quilts.

Size:        60" by 60"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Linen #10WG1

                back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Meandering

Simply Squares - Stars and Pink is another Simple Squares Quilt. The lighter squares are stars in soft colors. I used it for a backing once but had a lot left.

I quilted this with string of loops.

The backing is a soft multi color with pink, purple, blue, and more.

Size:        56" by 56"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, Baby Blue #30290

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   String of loops

 

 

Swimmers 2 has blue and orange borders. It uses the rest of the swimmers fabric from Colleen. The backing is teal.

The fabric is darling. Like Swimmers 1, I left the fabric in a large piece and just added two borders, this time, orange and purple.

The purple border has a loop de loop quilted, the inner border has a string of loops, and the main body has meandering.

Size:         41" by 47"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Blueberry #30281, Lt Turquoise #32975

                 back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:    Dream Cotton  

Quilting:   purple border - Loop de Loop

                orange border - String of Loops 

                body of quilt - meandering

Simple Squares - Red and Blue with Colored Squares is one of the larger quilts in the Simply Squares Series at 56" by 72".

The back is a turquoise that matches the turquoise in the navy block on the front.

The navy with the colored squares was used as a backing once, It's nice to have just a few small scraps left now. I quilted this with double loops.

Size:        56" by 72"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top -  Ruby #70187

                back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Double Loops

I’ve really enjoyed this project—turning leftover fabric from my stash into 40 donation quilts. It has reduced my stash a bit! There are still a few donation quilts kitted that I hope to finish in time to deliver in late fall. 

July finishes

Life has been a little busy around here but I do have three more donation quilts finished. Two are Simply Squares Quilts. It may be hard to believe but there are still more Simply Square Quilts to come.

Simply Squares - Orange with Black Print is 56" square. 

You can see the double loop quilting here.

I found an orange fabric for backing that almost matches the orange on the front. 

Size:         56" by 56"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Autumn #50172

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    Double Loop

Simply Squares - Bugs is 48" square. When I was kitting quilts, I must have been interrupted in the middle of cutting this one (or I can't count!). When I began to sew, I found that I did not have enough pieces. I had already cut another quilt with the leftover bug fabric, so I used the squares I had. This is the smallest Simply Squares quilt. 

The sting-of-loops quilting shows the gold.

The back for this quilt is a soft multi-colored fabric that I recently found.

Size:            48" by 48"

Thread:       Glide 50-wt, Lemon Ice #80607

Batting:        Dream Cotton                                           

Quilting:       Sting of Loops

Swimmers 1 uses fabric that I acquired from my friend Colleen's stash when she passed away. I thought the print was cute, so I didn't want to cut it up. However, the piece was large, so I decided to make two quilts. Swimmers 2 is coming. 

The body of the quilt is quilted with a horizontal meander.

I used fabric from my stash to add two borders - one yellow and one dark blue. I quite a loop-de-loop motif on the blue border and waves on the yellow one.

The teal back is from my stash.

Size:         44" by 48"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - 

                    Blue border - Blueberry #30281

                    Yellow border - Lemon Ice #80607

                    Body -  Lt Turquoise #32975

                back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Blue Border - Loop de Loop

                Yellow Border - Waves

                Body - Horizontal Meander

I now have 35 finished quilts to donate this year. I''ll be on retreat soon and may finish hand sewing the binding on more quilts. However, I may decide to just work on something different. Yesterday I ignored the piles of quilts in progress and started this new one - it just felt right!

A few finishes early in the month

I hope you had an enjoyable 4th of July. We had storms so we stayed home and watched World Cup soccer games. Of course, I found some time to quilt. Today we got up to cooler temperatures - at last! It's been way too warm. 

You may know about my big clean out/use it up fabric thing. I am trying to make lots of quilts (maybe 40) this year to use up leftover fabric. I'll have more space and more quilts will be donated. Win-Win!!!

Early on, I decided to cut some 8.5" squares from leftover backings and pair with something complementary. After kitting fabric for 3 - 4 quilts, I decided that I would call them Simply Squares. The number of these are growing and I have 3 finishes to add.

The first is Simply Squares - Black with Colored Dots and Orange. The first picture is indoors and it doesn't look like orange.

This photo, taken outside, shows the true colors and some of the quilting.

I had this backing, a turquoise fabric, in my stash, and I recently bought the exact same fabric for more backs.

It was so nice to get some photos outside. It's gorgeous today although the grass was still wet when I was taking photos.

Size:         56" by 56"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Autumn #50172

                 back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    Double Loop

Simply Squares - Red and Blue with White Dots is one of the larger quilts in the series at 56" by 72". The amount of fabric I have is dictating the size.

You can see the quilting in this photo.

The back almost matches the red on the front, and it has tiny blue dots in a grid pattern.

This is my favorite quilt from today's quilts but it and the others will all be donated.

Size:         56" by 72"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Blueberry #30281

                 back - Cardinal #70001

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    Large Loop de Loop

Simply Squares - Black with colored Rings and Yellow has a surprise turquoise back.

You can see the quilting here. I enjoy doing loops and it makes quilting these quite fast.

Size:         56" by 56"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Lemon Ice #80607

                 back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    String of Loops

Am I getting tired of the Simply Square quilts? Sometimes, so I just switch and work on something else. There are lots of works in progress..