Last finishes for 2018

Things are going well here and we've been busy enjoying the holidays and our houseguests. Our guests left yesterday. Today the house is very quiet and there was absolutely nothing I had to do so I spent some time knitting while I watched the Rose Bowl parade and the Winter Classic (sadly the Chicago Blackhawks lost), I took a nap, and I spent time in the sewing studio - a great way to begin a new year!

I do have some finishes. This Flannel Take Five fall quilt was finally finished last week. I bought the fabric in Michigan last fall to make a fall quilt for us. I finished the quilt I made with the leftovers from this quilt last month.

Flannel Take Five is about 63" by 74". I use brown #2372 Aurifil thread to quilt this and Dream Cotton batting.

I used a walking foot for the center and cross-hatched the squares. I free-motioned a cable in the pale blue-gray border and did stippling with leaves in the brown border which is very hard to see.

The back is also flannel and very cuddly. 

My other finishes are all knitting. This white hat is a ponytail hat made with sport weight alpaca yarn.

I used the Ridge and Rib Messy Bun Hat pattern and made a few changes.

For the red hat I used the pattern, Whitman Slouch Hat, and Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) wool.

I bought the yarn for this Yak and Bamboo top in the fall of 2017 at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. It is bluer that it appears in the photo. It fits perfectly but I don't like the sleeves. I want them longer but I waited much too long to get more yarn. Will I ever learn??

Back to today - when I went upstairs to sew, this quilt was on the design wall. It's a Christmas quilt for us and should be finished by NEXT Christmas. 

The table that I use for sandwiching and pinning quilts looked like this. All of these donation quilts are waiting to be delivered.

Without considerable effort, I couldn't go forward with any of my finished quilt tops so I decided to begin another. I still have PLENTY of 2 1/2" squares and decided to do a scrappy Around the World quilt using some of the squares. This is my sewing for the day.

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoy your journey through 2019. 

I hope your joys outnumber your burdens. 

And I hope you get the chance to create - with quilting, knitting, drawing, sewing, writing, building, making music, or whatever. 

Catchup and a Square Circle Finish

A little catch up -

Physical therapy ended today. I began feeling better a few days ago - it is so nice to have less pain in my back.

About two weeks ago we had a weekend of travel. We had the pleasure and honor of seeing our youngest son, a State Trooper, promoted to Master Sergeant. The ceremony was at 1 PM on a Friday in Springfield, IL. We made it to Rockford (about 3 hours away) for a 6 PM hockey game that night. The hockey tournament extended over two more days so we just stayed in Rockford. Somewhere during that time I managed to pick up a virus which is now better and I can be heard again! I hate losing my voice.

I'm still having trouble posting on other blogs... I guess this is going to be ongoing so I'll just keep working on solutions. Using a different browser does work sometimes.

I do have one quilt finish. I bought the flannel in Michigan this fall and I wanted two quilts done before fall was over but didn't quite make it. This is the second quilt made with the leftovers from the first one that still needs the binding hand stitched.

Flannel Square Circles is about 51" by 62". 

I used a walking foot and stitched diagonal lines through each square circle. Then I free motion quilted some simple 4-loop flowers in each square circle. I think you can see that here

or here.

I used Dream Cotton Batting and Aurifil #2326 beige thread to quilt this. The back used up most of the fabric that I had left.

I am behind on lots of things but that's just the way it is sometimes. I am making a Christmas quilt for us. The top is done but it won't be finished for this year. Today, while cleaning upstairs, I folded the donation quilts - we need to make our Christmas trip to Children's Hospital - it might be a little late but I'm sure the quilts are still needed.

Maybe I'll have more to share soon. In the meantime, I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Jungle Strips

I finished Jungle Strips at the retreat last weekend. 

The main fabric, a jungle print, is the center diagonal of each square. I'm not sure where/when I acquired the fabric but I love it.  I found fabric in my scrap bins to match the colors in the jungle fabric.

This 52" square quilt has Dream Cotton batting. I used #2784 navy, 50-weight Aurifil thread to quilt this. I stitched in the middle of each of the 1" sashing pieces. Then I crosshatched each of the string blocks. The border has diagonals stitched in various widths. You can see a corner here.

In the middle of each side, I changed the direction of the diagonals.

On the back of this donation quilt, I used fabric that was left over from Mack's Quilt. 

One day soon we'll head to University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital. It's time that some children enjoy the pile of the quilts I have upstairs.

Garlic Knots is complete

A while back, Debbie at Stitchin Therapy was making garlic knots. I liked the block and decided to make a few. She used small squares but I had 2 1/2" squares, LOTS of 2 1/2" squares, so I used those. I chose a few reds and yellows with the colors matching within each block. The block is fun to make and rather addictive.

I worked on this at the Summer Retreat in July. Friends suggested I put the knots together in blocks of four based on value. I was just putting them on a design wall as I finished them. They looked much better sorted by value.

I free-motion quilted Garlic Knots with Jester Hats which is a tough pattern for me and I'm not sure why. I practiced and practiced with paper for a long time before sitting down at the machine. Immediately after the first 'hat', I was lost. But I persevered and finally finished the quilt. Don't look too close!

The borders are straight stitched using a walking foot. I used white 50-weight Aurifil thread for the Jester Hats and re #2250 50-weight Aurifil thread for the border. The backside of the border stitching is white Aurifil thread. The batting is Dream Cotton.

The backing is from my stash - you may have seen it on other quilts. Garlic Knots is 64" square and a donation quilt.

I've had a few finishes lately. With the cool weather, I don't mind a quilt on my lap for hand or machine quilting. I'm glad to have the finishes because I have lots of projects inn the beginning stages. I certainly wouldn't want too many projects in progress! Ha!

Go Fly a Kite

Another finish! 

I put together Go Fly a Kite in July at a retreat. It is made with 2 1/2" squares from the my scrap cleanup in May. When I put the quilt together in July, I wanted a border. At the retreat, most thought an orange border would be good. The problem was that I didn't own the right orange fabric and I didn't want to spend more money on this donation quilt.

I finally decided that kites would add the orange color and also make the quilt more of a child's quilt.

The back of the quilt is a green and orange fabric from my stash.

Using white, 50-weight Aurifil thread, I machine quilted this with a walking foot in a cross-hatch pattern through the white blocks. The quilting was done prior to adding the kites and kite strings.

For the kite strings, I used a narrow black Clover Quick Bias Fusible Tape that I have owned for years. After ironing on the tape, I appliquéd the kites and zigzag stitched the kite strings.

I found this orange with green, yellow, and dark orange stripes in my stash. It worked well for the border.

This 48" by 48" quilt has Dream Cotton batting.

We are enjoying cooler temperatures for a few days. I think it will change again within the week. I'm enjoying the hand sewing of the binding - I love the warmth of having the quilt on my lap.

Finishes: Dream Weaver Quilt and Up North Poncho

Dream Weaver is finished. 

This is a free pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company. The block is simple and fun to make.

I used scraps to make this colorful quilt. 

I quilted this with a walking food and straight lines using teal #4093 50-weight Aurifil thread. The batting is Dream Cotton.

The binding has the blue from the border and the teal from the back - it seemed like the perfect choice. The back is a little lighter than the picture; it's a mottled teal.

This donation quilt finished at 57" square. 

I had plenty of blocks when I made this quilt and I also made Extra! Extra! and  Up, Up, and Away They are both done and in the donation pile.

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My Up North Poncho is also finished. I bought the yarn when we were in Wisconsin (Up North) in June, thus the name. The design is my own and it evolved as  I went along.

It looks like I finished it just in time since we are enjoying cooler temperatures. Thank goodness the forecast has changed and the rain has stopped. This poncho is not waterproof.

A finish: Up, Up and Away

Up, Up, and Away is finished. I'm afraid that it is quite obvious that I haven't been practicing my free-motion quilting on a regular basis. Hopefully I'll get more practice in the coming weeks.

Up, Up, and Away used some of the leftover Dreamweaver blocks. Dreamweaver is in the pile to be pinned and quilted.  I added balloons to this donation quilt because I though that would be child-friendly.  I wrote about my design for this quilt here.

Of course, I used Dream Cotton Batting and 50-weight Aurifil thread - this time #2735 blue that match the borders. This donation quilt is 54 inches square.

I used orange on the back.

I quilted this with a double loop mostly. There are a few single loops and spirals too. I did not quilt the balloons so they stand out a bit.

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I've had ideas for my blue scraps but none have really worked like I wanted. So, I have a new idea! I'm making strip squares with the lights and the darks.

light blue strip squares

Then I'll make half square triangles with the light and dark strip squares. The darks will have a splash of color once in a while. Here are a few blocks.

I saw a picture of a quilt done in lights and darks from a fabric line. I think it will work with my blues. I have enough strips cut for all of the squares and I still have this left:

Basket without the handle is 15" long, 12" wide and 8" high.

Now, I think it's time to get to work in the kitchen - the produce just keeps coming!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Do you remember the Leftovers Quilt? The one made with leftover blocks, orphan blocks, and pieces? I named it Extra! Extra! I really didn't want to call it Leftovers and I decided all of those leftover blocks and pieces were extras.

Extra! Extra!

This donation quilt is 50" by 54". I used Dream Cotton batting and #4093 dark teal Aurifil 50-wt thread to quilt this.

Since I put this quilt together in rows, I decided to quilt it that way. I used rulers and dot-to-dot quilting on each Dream Weaver block to stitch a star motif. 

The plain strips of fabric and the borders are straight stitched with a walking foot. You can see this in the above photo.

I used rulers to free-motion a diamond design on the white with colored squares. 

I free-motion quilted the wishbone or lazy 8 motif on the strips with the yellow and orange squares 

and on the flying geese. 

The background fabric and the backing are both pieces that I picked up at Quilter's Compass Going out of Business sale. That sale was at the perfect time to pick up some backgrounds and backings for a number of quilts that I had in progress.

I'm not real pleased with my quilting - it's been a while since I've done any free-motion quilting and ruler work.  I really need practice! However, I've read and agree that a finished quilt is better than a perfect unfinished one.

There won't be any quilting practice for a while but there will be lots of sewing. I just need to pack a few clothes for the retreat that begins tomorrow. The important things (projects, machine, etc) are already packed and ready to go.