An End and some Beginnings

Today I decided to do the middle of my housework! Ray is gone to a photography class and there isn't much I need to do. I am vacuuming - well, Rosie Roomba is actually doing that; I just pushed the button.

First, I have a finish. I won a charm pack about a year ago at Lucky 2B Quilting. I bought a second pack and the backing to go with it. These colors/fabrics really don't go in my house but this will be perfect for the table on our screened porch this summer. Gooseberries is 52" by 54".

I didn't take a picture on the porch because we had snow last night and some wind - the table is covered with snow. I used Aurifil thread and Dream Cotton batting.

I knew I had enough of the backing for the binding but I couldn't find it. So the binding is navy. I did located the extra fabric - about 10 minutes after I sewed the binding on!

I free-motion quilted this. I started in the center (the turquoise square) with a circle and wavy flower-like petals around it. I continued from there in all directions adding in partial flower centers and the petals. I think it gave some great dimension and crinkliness to the quilt.

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I sewed a blue binding on a Child Bricks - I hope to have it finished soon. It was square so I trimmed the batting and binding away after I sewed the binding on.

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I have a retreat coming up in a month and I wanted to prep some projects. Everything that is left from my clean-out-this-stash project either needs to be quilted or is waiting for binding. So it is time for some new projects - yay!!!

You may recall that my friend Nancy gave me her stash a while back. I was to keep anything that I would use. I kept lots.! I think this will be a simple baby quilt that will go together fast.

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The fish fabric is also from Nancy. The green, yellow, orange, and turquoise (which doesn't show in the picture) is from my stash. Yes I still have a large stash! I have a simple quilt in mind that I'll call Fish Sticks. 

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I have seen a quilt on Facebook a few times recently and I want to make it. It is from the blog, Quilting is More Fun that Housework. Here is Cynthia's picture:

Cynthia gives a tutorial on her blog. I'll be following it with a few changes. I've pulled fabric from my stash, cut some fabric and decided I have to wait for the retreat to begin sewing.

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Then I decided to spend some time on my leader/ender project. I am making a flannel quilt(s) called Hugs. Leslie, The Cuddle Quilter made a couple quilts a while back and I loved them.

I have enough HSTs for the first quilt and am well on my way to having enough for the second. I'm not sure - I might make three of these with different variations.

I still need to sew some of the triangles into squares. 

 

Today I decided to start making units of two and then four. The sun was beautiful coming through the window.

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Hope Ray enjoyed his photography class as much as I enjoyed sewing today! He'll be home before long - we are headed to the Firemen's Steak Fry tonight.

More finishes - Red Lasagna with Sunshine and hats

Red Lasagna with Sunshine was last week. It is another donation quilt and measures about 55" by 60".

I used Dream Cotton batting and Aurifil thread for both the piecing and quilting. I used my wavy ruler and yellow thread to quilt this - I think you can see the quilting in this photo.

 

This photo of the back is not true to color. The back is brighter and there is no pink in the front.

One more picture of Red Lasagna with Sunshine - I love the streaks of sunshine hitting it from the beautiful day we were having.

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After making grandson G's hat, I got orders from his two brothers. Grandson L wanted a hat just like G's but I wanted them slightly different so he got stripes. The letters 'HOCKEY' are duplicate stitched.

This is the same pattern that I used for G's hat - my children's version of the Manning Park Hat Pattern. The back does not have any writing.

The inside of the double brim is red. L loved his hat!

Grandson M sat down with a paper and pencil and designed/drew a picture of what he wanted. He plays a Fender guitar and asked if I could put patches on his hat. There is a first time for everything...

The inside of the brim is red.

I told him I could only do one patch because it would inhibit the  stretch of the hat but I found that I could do two - he was very happy!

Fender guitar patch

M's hat is made from the Manning Park Hat pattern. I followed the pattern for an adult small with a few changes - I shortened the length of the brim by 1/4" and the length of the hat by 1/4". I made the hat all black except for the inside of the brim according to M's specifications. 

A Little Safari

Yes, we went on a Safari, an Eagle Safari! 
Note: All photos are by Ray.

Smith's Island area near Lock and Dam

Ray loves shooting eagles with a camera so we went to find some. There are a few near Dubuque, Iowa, but it is hard to get very close to them. On Saturday, Ray and a friend were near Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin, and saw quite a few eagles but he really wanted to see more.

On Monday we headed to the Quad Cities (Bentendorf and Davenport, Iowa and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois). Our little overnight safari became an adventure. We arrived at our airbnb rental which was nothing special and found a few little problems such as no toilet paper! 

As we unpacked the car, we realized that we forgot one overnight bag – interesting, since we only had 2 small overnight bags! We had all of the camera equipment, the cooler, and my knitting – the important things! We had forgotten our computers, all charging cables including the ones for our phones, my curling iron, and a few other items. So this would be unplugged time. We each had a change of clothes, deodorant, and toothbrushes – pretty basic – but sufficient!

After a quick visit to a Visitor Center, we headed for the Rock Island Arsenal, a place we've never been. This is an active US Army facility so we had to go through a criminal background check with the FBI's National Crime Information Center. We passed! The reason for our visit was photography; we were told we could only take pictures towards the water with our backs to the Arsenal or the police would pick us up. It was late afternoon and not many people were around as we were near the dam taking photos. A police car went by us a few times and then parked a short distance away. We were VERY CAREFUL to keep our backs to the Arsenal! 

Sunset Park

Next we headed to Sunset Park in Rock Island. As one man described it, there were walls of eagles! The trees were full and the birds were flying and fishing. The gulls and the ducks were busy too. It was fun to watch and Ray loved getting photos.

Sunset Park

Tuesday morning found us back at Sunset Park. The soft light was perfect for pictures. As we traveled north, we stopped at Smith's Island. It was a short, refreshing very chilly wind hike out to the spot where the eagles were. We could see them but couldn't get very close. 

Sunset Park

Ray found this squirrel eating a fish!

Smith's Island

Both Monday and Tuesday were gorgeous, sunny days. We had a great time and I got to spend Valentine's Day with my Valentine even though I didn't get a morning shower, my hair wasn't curled, I didn't have makeup, . . . 

R/W/B Lasagna, Boy Squares, and a Hockey Hat finished

Note: Once again blogger seems to be adjusting the size of my type and not allowing me to change it - I'm not spending an hour reading the html code. Sorry that this might be hard to read.

Two more donation quilts are finished. This Red White Blue Lasagna quilt is 57" by 60".  

I quilted it in straight lines using a walking foot.  The batting is Dream Cotton and I used Aurifill thread.

There are a few colorful pieces on the back.

When I put this on the couch in the family room, I decided I could use a red quilt in there! The couch which is under the quilt, is a reddish brown.

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The next finish is Boy Squares. All of the print blocks deal with things that most boys like. This quilt is 51" by 54" and has Dream Cotton batting. Again, I used Aurifil thread to piece and quilt. 

There's fishing lures, totem poles, horses, Spiderman, baseballs, tools,

Batman (the blue), jelly beans, moose and bear, and a few more totem poles and Spiderman.

There are a variety of reds but each diagonal stripe is the same fabric.

I used a walking foot and quilted this with a wavy line in a crosshatch pattern. The old cars on the back came from a friend's stash which she gifted me a while back. I thought the piece fit well on this quilt.

Maybe you can see the quilting here.

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I also finished this hat for one of our grandsons. He wanted a hat that said 'hockey' and had a pompon. 

I modified the Manning Park Hat pattern that I recently used for hats for both Ray and me. The inside of the brim is red instead of white - I thought that might be wise since he is a boy!

I hope it fits and that he likes it. Here is the back.

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Hooray!!! I have reached the goal I set for myself with my clean-out-this-stash project. Every quilt top that is finished is pinned. There are two quilts in the pile to have the binding hand stitched and there are six quilts in the pile to be quilted; one of them is not from the project. I know over the next months, all of these quilts will be finished and ready to donate before the end of the year. I began quilting one of the quilts today and will be taking my time. I think it's time to start thinking about what I get to make next!

Circus Quilt is done!

Another quilt from my clean-out-this-stash project is finish - the Circus Quilt. When I found the yellow print in my stash, it was already cut into these pieces. I wasn't sure what to do and finally came up with this.

I pieced and quilted this donation quilt with Aurifil thread and used Dream Cotton batting. The binding is left over pieces in green, blue and red. The quilt is 42" by 52" and I quilted it using my wave ruler. 

Can you see the wavy lines?

I think you can see the waves better on the back.

I have had some interesting twists with my clean-out-this-stash project. Yesterday I began to pin a quilt and I realized that I did not do the sashing and corner stones on one side and one end! So I began searching and think I have found enough fabric to finish. 

Earlier today, while I was pinning a quilt, I was not at all happy with the piecing. It finally occurred to me that maybe some of the pieces/blocks I picked up and sewed together weren't extras but rejects. Yup, some of the measurements were off. So I finished pinning and then I cut the whole thing up into practice sandwiches!

I'm wondering if both of these problems happened because I'm anxious to be done with this project.  In any event, the project is progressing; I think I can see the finish line!