The flannel quilts are done!

The flannel quilts are really finished!!! 

Quite a while ago, Lesley posted a couple of flannel quilts that she named Hugs. I loved them and decided to make that pattern in a larger quilt when I cleaned out the flannel pieces in my stash. Well I ended up with three large quilts. 

I finished Hugs right before Christmas. It is 80" by 88" with Dream Cotton batting it's all flannel - front and back.

It is very cold today (below 0 degrees) so no outside pictures. 

The blue border on the front and the blue back do not match - the border is a little darker.

I used some extra HSTs on the back. I like to use extra blocks on the back.

I quilted this with a walking foot. It's sewn about 1/4" from the seam on both sides of every seam. The quilt has been washed and has crinkled nicely. 

Hugs is ready to be gifted but it is not a Christmas gift.

 

You may recall the other two flannel quilt.

You can read about Hugs Squared here.

You can read about Diamond Hugs here.

 

Hmmm, they all look like they have the same HSTs. Well, they do! I began making the HSTs in September, 2016. These three quilts are all gifts for some important people in our lives. Two have been delivered. Hugs will be home soon.

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I've spent some time yesterday and today in my sewing rooms - yay! The Cricut Maker is working great and I have a start on my crayon quilt - no design yet, I'm just making crayons from solid colors. Here are some in varying stages.

I also began free-motion quilting a larger quilt, Tamarack. This is a quilt I began in March. Then it got put aside for flannel quilts and ??? Now, it is getting quilted. It really is time for me to do some free-motion quilting; it's been a long, unplanned hiatus.

You can see a little of the quilt here. 

I'm hoping that the next few days also have hours spent sewing - I might really make some progress!

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

Just Sailing Along ...

A while back, Leslie, The Cuddle Quilter, made a Sailboat Quilt that I just loved - you can see her post here. I decided to make my own pattern - good for my mind and my stash because it usually takes more fabric!

I made a few prototypes - some will be used in a later quilt. I took my favorite one and made 24 more boats. Then I realized that one measurement of the prototype was different from the 24 boats. So I made the quilt with just 20 boats. The prototype is on the back and the other 4 boats will be used in another quilt some day.

This donation quilt is 48" by 51". We had a nice day today so I got a couple of photos outside.

I think the back would have looked neat with the color "stripes" going horizontal instead of vertical but there wasn't enough fabric.

The white piece under the sail in the prototype on the back finished at 3/4" high. On all of the other blocks, the piece finished at 1 1/4" high. I wonder how that happened??! 

The batting is Dream Cotton and I used Aurifil thread for piecing and quilting. You can see the blue binding better when the quilt is on the design wall.

I free motion quilted waves using my quilting rulers. I haven't done much free motion quilting in a while and I really do need practice. The quilt has been laundered and my little bobbles blend in much better now - whew!

I think the best thing that happened this week was that my oldest brother was moved from the VA hospital to a rehab center much closer to his home. Yesterday my other two brothers and I were able to visit with him. This is a picture of the four of us. It is seldom that all 4 of us are together, as well as our surviving spouses, so it was a special time.  And Tom, aka Santa, can now walk about 20 feet. We are hoping that his time at rehab goes quickly - he is ready to be home!

I've started a pair of socks for Ray. The yarn color is 'Bears' as in Chicago Bears. They are rather loud!

We have one more Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow. The house is clean, the pies are made ... I am ready!

A couple knitting finishes...

First a snood (a scarf and a hood). This is from the alpaca fleece that I had made into yarn. The yarn, if you recall is very thick but it worked well for this project. The pattern is Elizabeth's Snood #2031 by Nancy Kleiber.

 

And second, another pair of socks. These are for me, knit with Malabrigo in the color Anniversario. I used Ann Budd's pattern 7 Stitches per Inch Sock with the Fish Lips Kiss Heel by SoxTherapist.

And now it's time to begin cooking! Happy Thanksgiving!

Grandson's Quilt is Done and Delivered!

Grandson Mack has a new bedroom and a new bed so he wanted a new quilt. His bed is a double or full size. This quilt is 78" by 87". 

Mack said to make something and surprise him. I thought about guitars (he is an awesome guitarist) or hockey themed (he's a pretty awesome hockey player too) but then I decided I would do something more grown up. I think this quilt will be with him a long time. Note: I may be a biased grandparent when it comes to awesomeness!

As usual, I didn't spread this out well. It really does lay flat!

After buying the solid fabrics, I had to figure out the placement of colors and the width of the strips - I didn't have a pattern. I never thought about all of these decisions when I bought the fabric - what was I thinking???! This simple quilt took days to design - much longer than most quilts I make. 

I hope you all realize how hard it is for me to bend and spread out a quilt.
I'm really not that lazy!

I used Aurifil thread and Dream Cotton batting. I bought the fabric at the Quilt Peddler in Fennimore, Wisconsin. I quilted this with a walking foot and horizontal lines - it is a very modern quilt. Each of the strips is stitched with the matching color. The quilt has been laundered so it does have a crinkly look.

The backing fabric just jumped out at us the day Ray and I  were shopping for the plain fabrics - it is perfect match for all of the fabrics we had chosen and it had a tiny bit of pink but not near as much as it looks like in the picture. We teased Mack that I was making a quilt that was all pink. 

Colorful back

We gave the quilt to Mack yesterday and he likes it! I think it turned out pretty neat too.

Diamond Hugs and Yak Socks are done!

Diamond Hugs is finished! There were lots of little bumps in the road to get this one done mostly a sewing machine that didn't want to work. This quilt is a gift and I didn't want to stop so I just changed to another machine and kept going. And now it is done!

The quilt does lie flat if the person (me) spreading it out takes the time.

The squares are all scraps of fabrics that I decided to clean out last summer. This is the second of three flannel quilts using up most of my flannel scraps. You can see the first quilt in the group, Hugs Squared, here.

The quilt is 80" by 88" and the batting is Dream Cotton. I pieced and quilted this with Aurifil thread. I did the machine quilting with a walking foot and quilted the diamonds with double lines. The border is quilted in lines parallel to the sides.

The back is also flannel with matching leftover HST pieces from the front adding some interest off center.

I also finished Ray's Yak socks. They are actually yak and bamboo and feel very nice. The yarn is Lhasa Wilderness from Bijou Basin Ranch. Ray picked out the yarn when we were at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September.

The weather has been cool and rainy - perfect for working  on a grandson's quilt and knitting my sweater. Hopefully I'll have another finish or two in the coming week.

Finishes!

I finished this cowl a while ago and I forgot to post it. The pattern is Chromatic Cowl by Amy Detjen I bought a kit at Knit Circus in June and made this for me. The yarn is Knit Circus Greatest of Ease in two colors - April Skies and Quoth the Raven. This was my second attempt at Brioche knitting and this time I succeeded! The photo leaves a lot to be desired!

Hugs Squared is done. This quilt is a gift but I can't say for whom. It is 72" X 84". The squares are all scraps of fabrics that I decided to clean out last summer. This is one of three flannel quilts using up most of the 'same' flannel scraps.

The back is also flannel with some leftover pieces from the front adding some interest. The batting is Dream Cotton. I pieced and quilted this with Aurifil thread. I did the machine quilting with a walking foot in double diagonal lines crossing each of the squares in an X. In the navy border, I quilted double lines parallel to the edge.

Ray's Chicago Bears socks are done and he likes them! The next pair will have the cuff a little longer but he said these are fine.

I thought I should include one more photo of our family trip to Lake Geneva. Youngest son and I both got parking tickets. The parking was all computerized and we had each paid $6. The tickets were issued exactly at the minute our meters expired. So if you go, be aware that there is no grace period - not even one minute! Oh yeah, the tickets were $20 each - no credit for the money already paid. I wasn't smiling about the ticket...

I am working on another one of the flannel scrap quilts - many of the intersections are off. For some reason, I decided to put the whole quilt together and then fix the problems. That wasn't smart! Hopefully I'll be ready to sandwich the quilt by the end of the week.

Baby Quilt Done!

It's been crazy busy around here but I did manage to get this baby quilt done. I bought the fabric when we were at Missouri Star in May.

• The parents decided not to find out the sex of this child who is due in late summer. The front of the quilt is all flannel except the inner narrow red border and the binding which are cotton. The back is Minkee and the batting is Dream Cotton.

I quilted this with a walking foot. The center has diagonal lines following the diagonals on the front of the quilt. The outer border has lines parallel to the edges of the quilt. Oops - looks like a shadow of my hand at the bottom of the photo.

The red parts of this 47" square quilt are really orange-red.

I hope the new parents like it as much as I do.

Teal and Black Quilt done; Outside work is moving along

All projects seem to be moving forward around here.

First is the Teal and Black Quilt. I really like this and at the moment, it resides in my living room so I can look at it. Will it end up as a donation quilt? I haven't decided yet.

I saw this on Facebook one day and knew I had to make it. I found the pattern at Quilting is more fun than Housework. I used leftover squares of blacks and brights. The teal blue fabric was in my stash and really pops with the black. 

The quilt is 48 1/2" by 64 1/2". I used Dream Cotton for the batting and Aurifil thread for the piecing and quilting. The quilting is squares echoing the parts of the large square blocks. 

The back is black with a small white dot. I added the leftover teal blue to add a little interest.

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Our concrete guy, Alan, worked so hard to get our project finished. The concrete is done! Alan was constantly working around rain storms. Once he dug up swampy dirt and replaced it with dry stuff. More than once, he replaced very wet gravel with dry gravel. He hand troweled every inch of our new concrete and there was a lot. 

front view

We have had inches of rain since the concrete was put down by the house (way at the back in the above photo) and we haven't had any water in our basement. Before, when we had a lot of rain, we always got tiny rivers in the basement of our 100 year old house. I've wondered many times if the concrete near the house was causing water to run into the foundation. Now we know it was and we know it's been fixed - YAY!

Back of house view

The drain in the garage (middle of the standing water in the photo) gets uncovered tomorrow. 

We are now in the concrete curing mode meaning we wait. In 2 - 3 weeks when heavy vehicles can safely drive on the concrete, the work on the garage will begin. Until then, Ray will spend lots of time in the yard trying to figure out how he wants to redo the gardens and the parts of the lawn that have been destroyed. 

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Ray signed up for a photography workshop in Kansas City in another week or so. I thought it sounded wonderful because we could stop at Missouri Star Quilt Company on our way home. Well, the workshop was cancelled. We were able to cancel our Airbnb rental near Kansas City but we weren't that lucky with the VRBO rental near Hamilton, MO. So instead of forfeiting our fee, we're going to go to Hamilton and shop at MSQC. I think we really did get lucky with the VRBO rental's refund policy!

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I noticed this today. 

Ray was photographing flowers (lilacs) last night while I was gone. Guess he needed a black background. The black fabric is from my stash - he just finds whatever he needs. Most of the time I don't even know he's used something because he puts it back before I miss it.

I think I'd better work on my list for Missouri Star...

Hope you all enjoy the weekend. 

Happy Mother's Day

Small Quilt, Featherweight Bag, Rain Delay

This small donation quilt is 30" by 42". The fabric for this quilt was gifted to me as part of my friend Nancy's stash. The top is a small panel made of soft flannel.

The middle of the panel has butterflies and fireflies so I free-motion quilted a stipple with butterflies and fireflies - a first for me.  I quilted straight lines in the borders.

The animals around the edge of the panel match the animals on the back - they are obviously the same fabric line. The back is also flannel.

The binding is a green cotton from my stash. I used Dream Cotton batting and a turquoise Aurifil thread to quilt this.

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I decided to make a bag for my Featherweight sewing machine. I've been told that one should not carry the case around as the handle may break. So I bought a pattern and some gorgeous fabric. The outside of the bag is a Kaffe Fassett fabric which I love. 

The inside of the bag and the trim are bright coral. The two pieces were quilted before I cut out the bag. The pattern asked for high loft batting - I used two layers of Dream Poly. I free motioned a three petals with echoing motif.

The inside of the bag has pockets all around.

The outside of the bag has pockets on one side. I made the straps a little longer than the pattern said so I can carry it over my shoulder. 

The bag is done except for a piece of wood to put in the bottom - I'll get that one of these days. I'm happy with the finished bag but I'll NEVER used that pattern again. Sometimes it's a little hard to sew two quilted pieces together but the pattern had seams sewing 5 quilted pieces together. And when sewing one seam I had to sew across 7 layers! I tried various machines - none wanted to sew that many thicknesses but I did finally get the job done. I made a few changes to the pattern: the length of the straps, the trim on the pockets, and a case to hold the piece of wood. I wish I had realized the thickness problems before I made the bag; I would have redesigned the bag.

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The rain delay on our garage seems to be over! We lost well over a week but now things are moving forward again. The concrete for the garage pad was poured this morning. The apron and walkways are next followed by the driveway. The building of the garage will begin as soon as the concrete cures.  I think this project is going to be more involved that we originally thought - we will have a LOT of landscaping to do when the garage is finished...