Long Time - No Blogging!

 It looks as though I can never keep up with a BOM project. Here is the Di Ford Mystery quilt from 2014. A few months ago I got the second border done and now am working on the third. Only quilters and appliquérs really have any idea how much time goes into these quilts but we do enjoy the process.

 I do like all the little circles and hexagons in the cornerstone.

 This is another Yellow Brick Road baby quilt made for my niece's baby girl. I've probably made this pattern 15 times or more through the years - so quick and easy but shows off fabrics nicely, too.

 I sewed up all the little scraps and made 3 dolly quilts and gave them for the baby and her older sister pictured below.

 Happy siblings showing off the quilt!! Of course they all have their quilts, too.

 This is another dolly quilt for my granddaughter that I made at Christmas. Really there are two but they are so much alike I'm just showing one. Probably 16" x 24" in size.

 Had some leftover minkee for the back also.

 And then when November rolled around, I decided to join the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Allietare! Five of six in my small group also made this quilt.

 Each section was really doable and I enjoyed using Bonnie's colors, too.

 This one took a little while but went together well.

 Here is a portion as it hangs on the longarm rail.

A close up - and now I need to add borders and get it quilted. Happy Stitching!!

First Year Clothes Quilt

My nephew's wife asked me to make a quilt with her one year old's clothes. I had not done this before but she found a picture on Pinterest for inspiration so I went from there. It was a similar technique as doing a T-shirt quilt really, except with 'flags' or 'pennants'.

 The picture I saw had smaller bits of the clothes but since these were special clothes she wanted more of the detailing to show. 

I just happened to have a nice triangle ruler that worked well so the cutting was easy.

 I used a very soft interfacing on the back of the clothes so they would not stretch as I sewed them and would keep a little body after the quilt was made.

 I also cut small strips - 3/4" of the fusible Wonder Under to lay on the outside edges to bond the pieces, so the zigzagged edge would sew better. I rough cut the pieces at first, added the interfacing then fusible THEN cut with the ruler so my edges would be nice and sharp.

 I added his name at the bottom . . .

and just thought this little shirt with buttons was so cute, too!

 Here's the full quilt! Just looks like some little clotheslines to me with all the clothes hanging on it.

 I quilted a fun freehand swirl design. 

Under the Sea!

I have been working on another quilt this week with leftovers again. I usually have to add a few more fabrics to make it work out but that's the fun - seeing what I have that will work. Here is the original quilt. The pattern is in Happy Hour by Atkinson Designs.

 I retired this past week from long arm quilting for others after nine years, so I might have a little more time to work on my quilts - I feel as though I have mountains of fabric and lots of these little fun leftover quilts to make.

 Splash was the pantograph I used with a variegated thread . . .

and I already had a cool fish fabric that had been aging for years, waiting to be a nice back. Another all machine sewn binding - I'm liking these so much now!

Raspberries!

I began playing with some leftover fabrics from a quilt I made in 2011, Easy Peasy. Here's what I came up with - such fun!!

 There were lots of 7.5" x 4" rectangles left from my previous cutting so I just kept making more that size, added some solid white and I had a quilt!

I used almost every single piece that was left with the back - less than a fat quarter of fabric was left for the scrap bin!

Black & White Quilts

I finished up the Black and White BOM for 2010 recently. Here is a picture of it on a bed.

 And a close up.

 This is another black and white quilt I made several years ago. I want to show how some of the black and whites have faded. 

 These were all quilt shop quality fabrics.

Most often I have had the quilt turned over so it would not get too much sun and the blinds closed as it is in a guest room but even so, a good bit of fading. I'll just say it gives it character!!

Here is another black and white quilt for a great nephew to be born very soon. When I asked for the colors and theme of the baby's room, I was told told black and white fabrics, tee pees, arrows and swiss crosses, so this is what I came up with. A little traditional in layout . . .

 This is a little closer up with the backing showing

and this is really close up. I used EQ7 to make my pattern and quilt layout. 

Happy Fourth of July!!

More Charity Quilts - Cathedral Pattern

 First, let's just get this out of the way - this fabric that is. I figure after 20 years of aging it and using lots of pieces off of it, I must not be going to sew this.

 I recently packed up three shopping bags full of fabrics, a little cross stitch, etc, and let someone else be in charge of sewing it. Actually I had one long arm customer who was making many charity quilts take one shopping bag full.

 Some of these ended up in the quilts below but the rest went to Goodwill. No more guilt for me on not sewing these fabrics!!! It truly felt so good to share these with someone else that would use them.

 The Cathedral by Villa Rosa Designs is the pattern here. I've shown them before, little 4 x 6 postcards with simple cute patterns.

 I added some fun 'newer' fabrics to make these older ones pop, bought a beautiful sunflower batik almost half price for the backs and had two quilts ready. Here is my machine binding that I'm so thrilled about - thanks to Nancy at Tattered Garden Quilting.

 These quilts are very similar but different quilting designs and bindings.

 Now to find them a home!

 These fabrics were leftover from a little quilt I made last year. Just enough to make this baby quilt!

Another all machine binding!!

And, just as a word of caution! Yesterday as my husband and I were eating lunch, we heard a really loud crash. So loud we even looked outside. When we went to the other end of the house this is what we found in the guest room bath!! The glued mirror had fallen off of the wall and shattered into a million pieces. A mess to clean up and wash quilts and things that were laying close by but mostly we are just so THANKFUL no one was in the room. This is where the crib for the babies is and could have been so tragic. So, now all our mirrors have clips at the top to hold them in case the glue lets go. I have now heard of several instances like this, even our next door neighbor, but many times a towel bar or adjacent wall caught the mirror before it crashed. Don't let it happen to you!

Primitive Garden & Improvisational Quilting

This is Block 6 of my Primitive Garden Quilt . . . still a work in progress! It's called Sap Bucket.

 Here are some components left over from the Chevron Baby Quilt I made in February. I just bag these pieces up when I finish a quilt in hopes of doing something with them later . . . Well, now is later!

Hmm, here is a possibility for the squares.  . .

 Lots of little odd triangles. There were no blocks in the quilt like this but the easy technique used gave all these leftovers.

 I began experimenting to see how to put them into a new quilt.

 Another way . . .

 and yet still another.

 Okay, this is a possibility for a strip quilt which I really enjoy doing!

 Just going to line all these up as far as they will go in rows.

 And now it's looking a little unorganized and boring so I think I'll add a little contrasting color - red seems good to me!

 I just happened to have enough red left from the construction quilt a few months ago to make all these 1inch finished strips.

 I've almost used every single piece I had of leftovers

 and here it is quilted - still on the longarm machine.

I used a pantograph I've been wanting to try for a while - Basket Weave - actually gives it more of a contemporary feel. I'll finish this with a red binding soon.