Just catching up...

Ray wanted to shoot the Milky Way the other night and I went along. It was a beautiful moonless evening. My phone didn't do well with the Milky Way but I got a good picture of the Big Dipper.

After watching our youngest grandson's football game last week, we decided to return home via Beckman Mill near Oregon, Wisconsin. 

Beckman Mill

The mill is in a beautiful 50-acre county park - I think the land used to be the Beckman homestead. 

barn at Beckman Mill

dam at Beckman Mill

This past week was exciting for us.    

    * Ray saw the doctor for his last scheduled post op appointment. He is doing well and his restrictions (for the most part) are lifted! He has to return to living a normal life slowly but he is on his way.

    * I finished my meds for Lyme disease. I feel so much better. I thought the meds were dragging me down but it might have been the meds and the disease. 

    * And since we were in Madison for Ray's appointment, we delivered quilts to American Family Children's Hospital - 50 quilts! I love taking quilts there and this is the most I've ever taken at one time. 

I have finished 51 donation quilts this year. I have one left from last year and donated 2 quilts earlier, so that leaves 50 for the hospital. It was nice to deliver them before winter - we usually go in snow.

I've been trying to get some chores done. The three rooms in my studio have been cleaned along with all machines and irons. The serger still needs a new cutter. I have started  cleaning the dormer closet that houses my fabric. It's a big job and I'm about 2/3 done. The smaller drawers that house less than 1/4 yard pieces were overflowing so I rewarded myself and began 2 new quilts. 

There are 6 quilts waiting to be quilted here; four are donation quilts. And there are now four quilts in progress - a good number! Here is the newest one in progress.

It's feeling a lot like fall - a good time to quilt!

A few more donation quilts

I have finished a few more donation quilts:

Kaffe Rail 1 is made from a free 3 Yard Quilt Rail Fence pattern by SewCanShe.com. The blocks are cut 9.5" by 12.5".  It's a different take on a rail fence and goes together fast.  I had a left over Kaffe Fassett print and found a lighter and darker fabric to go with it. 

The lighter color is a soft green which shows much better in this photo:

I used a meandering stitch to quilt this.

The backing is grunge turquoise dot. 

Size:             56" X 61"
Thread:         Glide 50-wt, Lt Turquoise #32973
Batting:         Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:        Meandering

Kaffe Rail 2 is made using the same pattern with a change due to a shortage of fabric. This left over Kaffe Fassett print was less fabric, so I cut each of the patterned pieces one-inch narrower, meaning the cut blocks were each 8.5" by 11.5".

If you look close, you can see that each patterned piece is narrower than the other stripes in the block. I don't think it makes a difference in the overall appearance; it's just a design element.

This quilt uses the same light and dark fabrics as Kaffe Rail 1. You can see the light green better in the following photo.

I quilted this with a meander motif also. 

The backing is a turquoise fabric that I've used often and still have more.

Size:             49" X 56"
Thread:         Glide 50-wt, Lt Turquoise #32973
Batting:         Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:        Meandering

Sailboats and Water is one of my favorite donation quilts. The free pattern is Dream House 3 Yard Quilt Pattern by SewCanShe.com. I followed the pattern except for using one wide outer border instead of two narrow ones.

I bought the sailboat, water, and fish fabric a while back at Quilt Elements in Ashland, WI. I just added white Bella Solid. 

The fish fabric on the back is the same soft blue.

This photo shows the best color.

Size:             46" X 56"
Thread:         Glide 50-wt, Steel Blue #38201
Batting:         Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:        Meandering

Open Window is based on Bonnie Hunter's Open Window pattern. Her square size is 5.5" finished; mine is 8". I wanted the whole block as my entire quilt. I decided the window needed something, so I added kites.

The colored fabric is left over from a log cabin quilt that I made years ago. All the colored fabric, except the kites, is from the same piece of fabric.

The backing is a favorite of mine - it's been in my stash for a long time. This photo shows the back color the best.

The recipient might like the back better than the front of this quilt!

Size:             48" X 48"
Thread:         Glide 50-wt, top - Lt Grey #17543, back - Cardinal #70001
Batting:         Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:        Meandering

Birds is made with fabric from my late friend Colleen. I added the yellow and the orange (because I ran out of yellow).

The backing is a multicolor that I purchased to go with this quilt.

Size:             48" X 48"
Thread:         Glide 50-wt, Steel Blue #38201
Batting:         Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:        Meandering

Black/White with Red is made with some foundation strips that were cut into squares. Many years ago, I was going to make a very large black and white quilt with foundation strips of strings. That plan never happened and I'm slowly using up the black and white strips. 

I quilted figure eights in each block 

and a meander in the black border. The binding is red with black dots.

The backing is a black and white print which I purchased recently.

Size:             51" X 51"
Thread:         Glide 50-wt, Bone #17443, Black #11001
Batting:         Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:        Figure eight in blocks, Meander in black border

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 More donation Quilts

When I was pulling fabrics for the Simply Square Series, I came across some bright colored fabrics that weren't large enough for a Simply Square Quilt. I eventually realized I could use some of the smaller pieces with the Take Five pattern. A new series! 

For Take Five - Tie Dye, I pulled 'solid' fabrics to go with the tie-dye fabric. It is really bright and fun.

I used a large double loop motif to quilt this.

The colors in this backing, from my stash, just seemed to be right for this quilt.

Size:         48" by 60"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, Lemon Ice #80607

Batting:    Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:   Large Double Loop

The second Take Five quilt, Take Five - Cars, Trucks, and Fish, has child friendly fabrics - cars, trucks, and fish. The fabric scraps seemed to go together so I pulled a couple solids from my stash to complete the quilt.

I quilted this with a meander stitch.

The back, from my stash, has paw prints in all the right colors.

Size:         48" by 60"

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Battleship #10430

                 back - Bone #17443

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    Meander 

Block Steps is a quilt I started quite a while ago. I thought I would like the pale blue background with all of the scrappy fabrics. Another color might have been better but it is what it is. To help tame the scrappiness, I decided to put color families together.

The quilting is a large meander.

The back is a blue/purple/turquoise print from my stash.

Size:         62" square

Thread:    Glide 50-wt, top - Sterling #10877

                 back - Lt Turquoise #32975

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    Meander 

I wanted to make a Double Irish Chain quilt and one day, while looking through my stash, I came across two fabrics, red and red/black, and decided "Why not?". Double Irish Chain uses a traditional pattern but the fabrics/colors are not the traditional light and dark. It was fun to make.

Oops - you can see where this quilt was folded.

The quilting, done on the longarm, is a controlled wavy line - but I don't think I had very good control.

The back, from my stash, is black with flecks of color.

Size:         60" square

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

                 back - Shadow #1BLK3

Batting:     Dream Cotton                                           
Quilting:    Controlled Wavy Lines

With these four quilts added to this pile of 16, I am halfway to my goal of 40 quilt donations this year. 

At last, I can see that my stash is slowly diminishing. Very slowly but it's happening!