My Quilting Mojo Has Returned

I recently went on a quilt retreat, this was our second annual retreat. I had more fun and more progress than I did last year. I was trying to rush and finish the project that I worked on at the retreat last year, but I measured a few things wrong. So that has not been completed yet.

I think it was last year or earlier this year when I purchased my first quilt kit. It was one that I spotted and could not get it out of my head. The quilt that is on my bed is currently falling apart. It was purchased at least 16 years ago from an Ames store. I'm not sure how wide spread this store was, but think of it as a cheap version of Wal-Mart. It cost me $40 and at the time I didn't know that it was an actual quilt, and not a panel made to look like a quilt. 

So earlier this year I cut all my pieces for the quilt, and decided I would work on it at the retreat. I had everything ready and all the different fabrics cut and in their own bag. The borders were ready, the binding is ready, I just didn't have the back together.

So while at retreat I put ALMOST all of the blocks together while I was at the retreat. I counted wrong for one piece which caused me not to be able to sew a couple blocks. Then right before I pack all my belonging up to leave, I cut one of them a 1/4 too short. As soon as I got home I looked for the fabric to be sure I would be able to create the blocks....I had enough.

I named this quilt after Te Fiti from the most recent Disney movie, Moana. There are several pieces of fabric in the quilt that look like the heart of Te Fiti, it felt only fitting that it was named after it.

Fast forward to this past Wednesday when I went to my LQS and quilted my quilt. I love to do all of my own work, and I do not have the room or the means to purchase my own long arm. They rent theirs out by the hour and it just works perfectly for me. I don't have any interruptions and can quilt until I'm ready to stop.

So I got the backing loaded, the top and the batting. Well, the backing was put on upside down and the label is at the top and facing the wrong way. I was not about to take the quilt off of the frame and put it back on. I am ok with the label.

Skip ahead to when I was taking the clamps off so I can quilt my last pass along the bottom border. Then I see this....

Can you see it? It looks like there's not enough backing or batting. I know I have only been quilting less than 4 years, and have made less than 20 quilts, but I have NEVER had this issue. I always had WAY too much. 

Sew I turned my head to the left to their Sweet 16 and got an idea. If I can get this basted then I might have enough to be able to sit down and get it quilted.

Well, once I sat down with the basted quilt, I realized that the basting wasn't good. I took out all of the basting stitches and basted it on the 16. Luckily I was able to get it straight. I turned it over and I had about 1 inch of backing hanging past my top. Woo Hoo! I was sew happy!

This was my first time using the sit down long arm, and it will probably be my last. The bottom border of my quilt was quilted with this machine. The stitches are uneven and jagged. BUT the quilt is quilted!

So now I just have to trim it down and bind it. I am so happy that it is almost done and ready to replace the worn and tattered quilt that is currently residing on my bed. Here is a better view of the quilt top. I purchased this one because I have wanted to do a Storm at Sea pattern, and I just love the two hearts!

I was hoping to have this completed and on my bed by the weekend. It might take an extra week, but it will definitely be on before fall arrives!

Thank you for visiting.

~Happy Quilting!~

Boy It's Been Quite a While

Get ready for a lengthy post...

I have not been as busy as I would like to think, at least making quilts that is. Last month I took a good part of my birthday and spent it in my LQS renting their long arm so I could quilt 2 quilts. I could have done the smaller one on my machine at home, but I really didn't want to. 

Since we last spoke I have finished 3 quilts and several small quilts. Some of my time has been tied up with 2 part-time jobs, school, kids, and naturally taking care of a home. My free time (the little that I have) has been spent sleeping and working on hexie swaps. I did have a couple instances where the swapper did not participate so I had an extra hexie project for myself. One has been completed and the other is still in process. I will show you those later in this post.

My first finish is Pat Sloan's 2015 mystery quilt, Vacation Time. I am rather proud of how it turned out. I took the completed top to my mother's to show her and on that particular day her neighbor stopped by and saw it. She absolutely loved it because she loves pink and purple as I do. So when I completed it I naturally thought of her. She is my first non-family recipient and I was so happy I decided to give the quilt to her. She is elderly and rather sick, but she loves the quilt almost as much as I do. 

The blocks don't stick out as much as I thought they would in the picture, but in person it is beautiful!

I have a habit of adding my name into the quilting as I am coming to the end, this quilt was no different.

This is the first time that I have used leftover fabric from the front as the backer. Although it isn't perfect, I think it looks lovely!

My next finish from that day was my very first on two levels. It was my first t-shirt quilt and my first commissioned quilt. I am not certain if I will ever do another t-shirt quilt but if I do I will definitely plan it better. Several of her cousins have told me quite a few times that she is going to love it. And I have shared pictures with her which she confirms they are correct.

These are from shirts she had from her college years at Salisbury State. As you can see I didn't plan this quilt out very well at all. I cut the shirts the wrong sizes didn't put enough border between the columns, some of the columns are too long so they are partially covered by the binding, and as you can see I wasn't able to use all of the shirts on the front.

I felt it only fitting to call this 'Success at Salisbury' since she did graduate.

Again my name is in the border along with the year which is cut off in this picture.

Here are all of the pieces that didn't make it onto the front of the quilt. I carried her favorite color onto the back of the quilt.

I am hoping to be able to give this to her soon as I have had it way too long. She needs to get it home so she can enjoy it.

I also finished up one that is way out of season. This was a swap from a Facebook group that I can't seem to remember the name of, and have no clue who did 3 of the blocks. But the blocks that are identical are all made by me. 

This is a close-up of one of my blocks. I know it isn't perfect, but it's mine.

A little further back.

Halloween = Happy Haunting.

I probably should have used a black bobbin so the thread blended in better, but by the time I thought about that it was too late. Although you can see the rather sad quilting on the back, I still love it. Especially the border/sashing fabric, the backer, and the binding. I think they go together very well.

Now I need to work on getting pictures of my smaller projects for you for my next post. Hopefully, it won't take me another 2 years to post something.

Oh....I attended my very first quilt retreat last year and am going again this year. I took WAY too much stuff with me last year and got hardly any of it completed. This year it is a day longer, and with my prior retreat experience, I should be able to plan this year out better.

Until my next post with all my minis... 

~Happy Quilting!~

My Addition to the Pat Slaon 2015 Vacation QAL

I know it has been almost a year since I posted anything, I'm sure you can guess I'm not much of a writer. I participated in Pat Sloan's QAL that she had this summer, and enjoyed it very much.

 

 

I chose to do this in my favorite colors, I know they are nothing special....but I like them.

 

 

You can find out more about her patterns http://blog.patsloan.com/2015-vacation-time/ and she has another one in the works for next year.

 

 

Here is my version.....I hope you all like it. I will post more pics once I have it all together.

 

 

 

This is a short post, have projects that I need to be working on.

 

~Happy Quilting!~



Final 2014 finishes!

This is a long post.....I apologize for that, but I hope the content makes up for the length.

With the passing weekend I was finally able to deliver my last 3 quilts that I made. The 2 for my nieces, and the special one that I have been keeping under wraps, you may remember it as Gray and Green.

My youngest niece who is 3, opened her box and exclaimed 'a blanket, I got a blanket'! And she began hugging it and carrying it around quite a bit. Mind you it is probably a twin size quilt, or pretty close. Her older sister didn't have as much of a reaction as she did, but I could tell she liked it too.

Here is a picture of all the quilts I have made so far, minus one. One of my nieces wasn't able to make it to dinner. So Purple-Urple isn't seen with it's owner. Oh well, maybe one day I can post it!

I was told that when they got home, the older one was already using hers! That makes me feel great!

Now, for the Gray and Green... My sister-in-law has been battling Non-Hodgkins' Type Lymphoma since November of 2009. She is in remission and has been for some time, but she is still having to get transfusions every month, and has had some other health issues come up resulting from her cancer.

So I thought it would be a great idea to make a quilt especially for her. And I couldn't wait to give it to her! And just to make it a little more emotional for her, I wrote a little note that I gave her before I gave her the quilt. We are not a very verbal family when it comes to expressing how we feel about each other, so I wanted to let her know that I do love her as my sister. She has been in my family for the past 22+ years, so to me, she is my sister.

Well, I kept telling everyone that if she doesn't cry, I will. Well neither happened. But as she was reading the messages that I had her husband and 4 children write for me I could see that her eyes were getting red and she was holding back her tears. That was good enough for me. I knew she liked it.

Because of the special messages from her family, and the binding that I used, I called this one Surrounded by Love.

I found this lattice that I loved for the back it had green in it, and I had some pink that has hearts in it. So I took several blocks of the fabrics from the front and made a central panel and framed that with the other fabrics. I put the label directly in the center of the greens. Here is the back. Notice that I needed 3 people to hold the quilt open for pictures. I tried to make it a queen size, and I believe it was something like that. I'm just hoping that it will fit their California King.

I know the top and bottom of the back aren't perfect, but it was a beast of a quilt. This was my first one this large, and my first one to be quilted on a long arm....which was also my first time using a long arm....

So, without further waiting....here is the quilt that I labored on for my sister-in-law. Although at times the points didn't match up correctly, I still love how it turned out. It was also my first attempt at free motion quilting on a long arm machine. Although it took me an hour to load onto the machine, I am happy as to how it turned out. I even added some special stitching to it.

Where all the messages are, you can see hearts around and over top of their messages. On the bottom of the right side, I put Love Beth, and the upper right I put 2014. I know it's hard to see all of that, and I didn't think to take pictures of it before I gave it to her....ugh!

I am extremely happy as to how it turned out, and am so relieved that the secret is out.....but onto another quilt! And another.. You will just have to come back and check out as the year progresses!

I have also made 4 table runners and 8 fabric bowls...I'll wait to put them in another post.

~Happy Quilting!~



Family finishes!!

Well everyone, I am finally finished making all the quilts for my nieces. I finished the last two this past Tuesday. I washed them last night, and have one boxed and wrapped. This means I can give out the three quilts that are in my house! 

I am only able to post two of them as the third I'm not posting until after the gift has been given. 

These two quilts belong to my youngest brother's daughters. They both like the same colors with the exception of the older one liking black also. I know they aren't anything fancy, but I am hoping that they will love them just the same. I wasn't able to come up with any names that suited these quilts, so I made the labels pretty basic. And one of them started to fray a little bit after it got washed. So bummed about that! 

Here is the older sister's quilt. I wasn't sure how to quilt it, it stumped me quite a bit. But then I decided to follow the green and black and go down the center of those. But then there was a big gap of no quilting between, so I decided to shadow the purple. I must say, I still need practice with my quilting! You can definitely tell I'm a beginner. 

 As you can see by the label, I didn't place it very well. You can't really tell it's from me =( 

I didn't do any special piecing on the back as I have with previous quilts. The simple reason is that on the front of the quilt, they already share 2 fabrics. A pink, and a blue. But I did include the sister's fabric in their labels. And the binding is the same fabric.

I thought the quilt was a little small, so I found this border fabric that pulls together most of the colors that are in the body of the quilt. And I just love the purple binding. Who doesn't love hearts and vines?

I chose a butterfly fabric for the back since it also contained most of the colors from the front. Hoping she loves the blanket, but we will see.

And here is her younger sister's quilt. The pattern I used is from Kelly at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com. I have used many of her patterns for my quilt as most are straight forward and easy for a beginner like me to follow. I absolutely LOVE the browns in this quilt. It wasn't a color that she likes, but I think it pulls the other colors together.

I also chose a plain backer for this one, same reason as her sister's. But I found this flower fabric and love it!

This label turned out a bit better as you can read everything. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed my year of quilting this year. They have been scattered out, but I am only in my first year of quilting. Actually I just had my anniversary last month I think! I'm into my second year! Yay!!

 

I will be sure to post the special green and gray quilt after Christmas once it has been received. I hope everyone loves it as much as I do. My next project....a quilt for a friend's child...then another special quilt, but in different colors! 

 

~Happy Quilting!~

 

Gray and Green update!

I know it has been some time since I have posted. I have been busy with school, work, parenting and trying to get this quilt finished before Christmas. I am 100% finished with the blocks! Finished with the backer, and even have the binding ready to go!

I now have the quilt COMPLETE!!! I just need to take it to a Laundromat that has the oversize machines as it will NOT fit in mine!

I know I haven't provided much information on the quilt thus far, and this won't provide a whole lot more until it has been given to the recipient. But hopefully you will understand once you are able to see the completed project. It is a very special project for a very special person and I don't want to risk the off chance that she may come across it somewhere before I am able to give it to her on Christmas Eve.

Pictures to come......

I really want to give it to her now.....but I know that waiting and giving it to her the night I planned with all our family there will be even better!

First thing I will give her is a box of tissues. And unfortunately all 3 boxes that I purchased to put this in are too small! I am going to have to put it in a gift bag. BUT...I'm folding the quilt up so that she will see the label first. I did this a little different than most quilts I have seen as I wanted it to be truly unique. I put the label in the center of the backer! And I absolutely love how it turned out. I used extra fabric from the front to provide a background for the label, and the border is scraps from all 3 of her daughter's quilts!

Oh I can't wait!!!!

~Happy quilting everyone!~



All Squared up..and more!

Well I finally did it. Last week while I was on vacation I was on a sewing craze. Not only did I finish my daughter's 2" block, but I finished the quilt that I was working on as well. I was so anxious to get it completed I could hardly put it down....I had to move my sewing machine as my work space is very cramped! I didn't want it to take forever getting it completed.

This is my daughter's block...I put a tab on the back in the event that she wants to hang it. It looks too big to me, but oh well...it's there if she wants to use it. And in case you can't tell...she loves GREEN!!

I don't have a nice fence or deck that I can take pictures on, but today was such a nice day that I went outside and took some pictures and with the cooperation of the wind I was able to get some nice ones. Please enjoy...I know I do.

I decided to call this one 'All Squared Up' since there are so many squares in the quilt. There are 16 blocks, and in each block there are 64 - 2" squares. That's a total of 1024 of the 2" squares! Let me just say that there was a lot of chain piecing going on in this one! Without it I don't think I would have made it through! 

If you have been following my blog at all you will notice the stripes that are across the back of the quilt are from my daughter's quilt. Once I had the top of this one completed I decided that this one would be for me. A little greedy....yes, but I have made and given away 5, and am in the process of making 2 more so I wanted to keep one for myself before I finish the others.

Which leads me into the next quilts that I'm working on. My final sibling has 2 daughters. The oldest one likes pink, purple, blue, green, and black. I wasn't sure how I was going to make that happen. But then I came across one of the quilt patterns from www.quiltsforkids.org and adapted that into one for her. BUT...I'm not very good at following directions and I made the blocks with 5 strips instead of 4. So my quilt turned out smaller than planned. I was trying to find more of the same 10 fabrics that I used but wasn't able to get all of them. So I did the next best thing...I found 10 more fabrics in all the same color lines! Woo hoo!! So I added 2 columns and 2 rows to come up with the following.

This is a close up of the 20 different fabrics that were used. I am loving how it turned out!

I also worked on a quilt for her sister. She also likes blue, green, pink and purple. But I found the brown fabrics and thought it pulled them all together perfectly. I got this pattern from http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/.

I have used many of Kelly's patterns and want to thank her for helping to feed my inspirations! She has been a big help to me getting my blog off the ground. So I want to thank Kelly for all she has helped me with!

I do have another quilt that I am working on that I have actually designed myself....I can't believe it either. The only problem is I didn't calculate the amount of fabric correctly and I have to go purchase about 1.5 yards total of 5 fabrics. I just bought them a week ago so they should still carry them....but that one will be a secret until it has been completed and presented to the recipient....so stay tuned for that one.....it may be a while, but keep checking back, you never know when you may see it. The one little bit of a preview I will give you is a picture of the fabrics that I am using....

I can't wait until I'm able to finish this one and share it. I'm so excited!!

~Happy Quilting!~

Update on the 2" squares

So I have all my blocks ready to make into a quilt. Since I am making this from scratch and in my head (and I'm not great at calculations) I'm not sure how big this will be once totally finished.

 

I have 16 blocks that are approximately 12.5 square. Since the 2" blocks ended up being 1.5" complete I'm thinking about adding a white sashing between them that will start out at 3.5" and finish at 2.5" just to add some size and break up the block a bit.

 

Then I have to figure out the borders. I have really only done a border on my daughter's quilt and would like to start adding those into my quilts more. So I'm thinking at least a white border starting out at 3.5". But do I want to add a second one? I'm thinking yes, and I will need to find a fabric that has the rainbow of colors in it.

 

There is the layout that I have decided on going with. I have 4 holiday blocks and 12 regular. I have more pink blocks than anything else and tried to break them up as much as possible. Was not easy, let me tell you! The pink that is to the right of the purple and above the orange and purple is a Pink Ribbon block in support of my grandmother who lost her battle with breast cancer and my mother who is winning hers. The rest are just fabrics that I like...ok that's a little stretch. The daisys were also my grandmother's favorite flower which I have adapted as one of mine...so they are also in memory of her.

 

I just need to get the motivation to add the sashing and keep going....

 

 

 

~ Happy Quilting! ~