Thomas Fire Relief Quilts

Thanks to fellow quilt bloggers, I discovered today an effort by the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild to make quilts for the California citizens who lost so much in the recent fires there.  Here is my beginning:

I am hoping to do a full quilt.  The blocks come together quickly.

On other news, I did my 110th one mile swim of 2017 yesterday. The first one mile felt like a real accomplishment, and now it’s just what I do - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Linking up to Crazymomquilts for this important little beginning!

If you would like to contribute blocks, click here for VenturaModernQuiltGuid

http://www.venturamodernquiltguild.com/2017/12/11/thomas-fire-blocks/

Teacher Gifts

Noodlehead ‘s wide open zipper bags are my go to little gifts. 

Miss E, my granddaughter has two teachers for kindergarten.  These are the bags for them. 

Her teacher who heads up reading has a text print inside..

Merry Christmas!  

I hope I’m finished sewing til after Christmas.  My machine is being serviced, 

so it’s just a little English paper piecing for me.

Linking up this little finish with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Luggage Tags

 Here’s my old luggage tag . . . That I made about 8 years ago.  It has flown lots of miles, been handled roughly as luggage is, and there is a tear in the plastic.  I have transferred it to alternate suitcases depending on the trip.

Here’s the new version.  I used some techniques from Elm Street Quilt’s project bag tutorial so that the plastic is bound at the top.  That should keep the plastic from tearing.

Then I couldn’t stop, and made a basketful for little holiday gifts.

Linking up this little finish to Finish it Up Friday on Crazymomquilts.

Crazymomquilts

Plus X is Finished

I finished stitching the binding yesterday, and we had a little brightmpness for photos this morning. 

Lots and lots of memories are sewn into this one with hundreds of scraps. Each block has 19 pieces, 121 squares, 2299 pieces of fabric!

Percy wanted to get a closer look!

The only way to get a photo of the whole thing was hanging off the deck. My daughter is holding the top edge. 

When I first sewed the blocks together, it was a rectangle, but after staring at it for a while, I took one row off the bottom and added the blocks to the side making a square.  

I spend much time staring and pondering . . . .

Statistics:  85” x 85”

Pieced back with flannel 

Pieced and quilted by me on my DSM

Wool batting.

Linking up with Crazymomquilts for Finish it Up Friday.

Spiral Quilting the big + X

This is big, and I’m doing it!

My machine is dwarfed by all this fabric . . .

And I’m loving it. I’m keeping track of how much time I’m spending on this quilting. (People always ask how long it takes to make a quilt.  Well, as long as it takes!)

Does it really matter?  I’m enjoying every minute, I’m happy with the finished quilt, 

that’s all that matters. 

Mini Pineapple

I needed a break and a quick finish when I was in the middle of my large + X quilt, so I made this little pineapple block and finished it into a mini quilt.  

It measures 14” x 18”

I Quilted it with pebbles in the white spaces, straight grid lines in the borders and diagonal grids in the pineapple.  Why is free motion quilting so much easier on a small project?  The size?  The fear of mistakes on large projects?  I was happy to practice those pebbles.  This made for a very quick finish, hooray!

My granddaughter wants to hang it in her room. 

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday on Crazymomquilts.

Scrappy Plus

My 130 plus X units are sewn together and it’s big and bright. I had to lay it out on the floor to get a photo as the grass was wet yesterday. 

I started making these blocks in August, and just kept at it.

I kept track of the color of the plus part of the block so that colors would be evenly represented.  The X parts are more random. I tried to use a similar color in the X’s, but the variation keeps it interesting. 

The blocks finish at 7.5 “, so I laid it our 10 across and 12 down.  It measures 72” X 90”.

The quilting will reduce the size a bit . . .

These are all fabrics from my stash, many of them scraps. I’m staring at it now considering how to quilt this big thing.  (I get tired of making quilts that are too small!)

Linking this finish with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

Midwest Adventure

Last week I traveled to Nebraska and Kansas to meet long lost cousins. My brother and niece were my companions, and we had a great time. They agreed to visit the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.  We all three loved our visit.

This sculpture is just in front of the museum.

The featured exhibits varied from antique quilts to a modern show called Verve to a collection of quilts and Quilted items from Central Asia.

I loved all of it. And I wish Lincoln, Nebraska wasn’t so far away!

Here is a link to the Website for the International Quilt Study Center.

Limerick for a Quilter

My son is visiting for a few days, and he has composed limericks on the kitchen chalkboard for each member of the family.
Here’s the one for me:

Pouch for Me

I love the pattern for Open Wide bags from Noodlehead.  I have made several, but I need one for an upcoming trip. A make-up bag.

Here it is, loaded up.

It goes with my larger one, but not completely matching. I cut a few squares from the jelly roll that I won at the Kaffe Fasset lecture.

I'm off to Omaha to meet a long lost cousin with a stop in Lincoln, NE at the International Quilt Study and Museum,and a visit to my Dad's home town in Kansas. 

Linking this Finish with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

New Mom-to-be

Erica is my dental hygienist and due with her 2nd child in November.  A boy!

She loved the quilt . . 

It's so satisfying to gift quilts. Hugs that will last!

Kaffe Fasset

Last week a quilt store, Gossypium, in Issaquah, WA, hosted a lecture by Kaffe Fasset.  I was happy to be in the audience, and I won a door prize!  Hurray on both counts.

It was great to see the men, Kaffe Fasset and Brandon Mably, who design so many of my favorite quilting cottons.

I went by myself, but met lovely people!  Yes, those are airplanes in the background; the lecture was at The Museum of Flight.

I've used the 2.5" roll that I won for a few of the + X blocks.  (I'm at 100!)

Happy sewing . . .

Plus X Blocks

I'm having a lot of fun making these blocks.  Each one is like choosing a combination for a quilt color scheme.

They measure 7", so it will take a bunch to make a decent sized quilt.  I'm thinking I need 100, but that would be only 65" square, so maybe I'll go for 120.

It will be fun to see the riot of color when I get enough to make a decent sized quilt.

Most of these are assembled from scraps, pre-cut squares (cut by me from scraps) and a little cut from stash.  When one gets going, it's amazing how many fabrics and how many quilts are represented here.

Please pardon the un-pressed blocks!  My iron gave out, and the new one is coming. . .

Here are a few steps of the process:

I'm cutting the pieces as I go . . . 

The + is made of three pieces:  5" x 2" and 2 - 2" squares

Completing the + shape are 4 - 2" squares. I'm keeping them all the same fabric.

The X part of the block is 4 3.5" squares. I'm using similar colors, but different fabrics in the 4 squares.  In the one above, there are 4  different reds in the X.  The background of the X part of the block is also cut 2" squares - 8 of them. I'm keeping these all the same as well.

To assemble, you can read the tutorial on Badskirt:

badskirt.blogspot.com/2011/04/japanese-x-and-scrappy-quilt-tutorial.html

86 blocks are finished; 14 (or more) to go!

Baby's Square in a Square

What is more fun than the quick satisfaction of completion one gets from making a baby quilt.  My dental hygienist was sprouting a growing shape when she cleaned my teeth the last time, so I had another excuse for a relatively quick project.

She is having a boy, so I tried to include a few boyish squares. 

Teddy driving. . . .

Cherries . . .

Fox, deer, farm animals, and a bike . . .

Backing is a very soft gingham, binding is grey stripes.

Batting is washable wool.  

This one is very soft and cozy.

Measures 34" x 39" after washing.

Linking this finish with CrazyMomQuilts.

Little Sewist

Miss E, my granddaughter, wanted to make a bag for the dried materials that she had collected for a sachet: dried rose petals, lavender, rosemary.  I thought she was ready to sew on the machine, and she did it perfectly!

Here she is on a practice stitching. 

 Her concentration is remarkable!  I love that I can set the speed to very slow for my sweet beginner.

Here's the finished little sachet bag.  It was a gift for her Nonny.

Happy Birthday!

Kaleidoscope in Red and Teal

This quilt started out as a few practice blocks to see if I could figure out how to make them. I studied many many kaleidoscope quilts on Pinterest to discover how you get the swirls in the design.

I'm very happy with the results and I'm ready to make another.

This one is totally from scraps and stash.   

The movement comes through the placement of lights and darks. 

The corners aren't perfect, but with all the movement, you don't really notice!  Hooray for that.

The binding is striped shades of gray.  My go-to spiral quilting on my DSM. 

Quilt measures 62" x 78". Perfect for snuggling or a picnic. 

Warm and white cotton batting, and I splurged on a wide backing to make it easy. 

This one is going to my niece and her husband for their cabin in the woods. . . .