Happy New Year's Eve! Quilting As Usual!

Here is how it is.  I finished the Dr. Who Quilt last minute at the end of November and got it in the mail to S. Korea.  Number 1 Daughter received it and loves it!  I have not had a chance to post photos of several things I have completed.  I finished putting the binding on the Jelly Roll Race Quilt, and of course, assisted Kirsten with finishing up one of her quilts.  But these last three weeks, I have been tackling a mending/restoration job that I have been holding on to for over two years.  I decided to stop procrastinating and get it done!  A co-worker and his wife were dog-sitting their grown son's big puppy dog, who had to have a medical procedure.  The wife felt sorry for big puppy and brought out an old baby quilt she had made many years before.  Big puppy ripped a big hole in this quilt.  The wife was sorry she had put the quilt down and thought it unrepairable.  She was distressed and threw it in the trash.  Thoughtful husband secretly rescued it from the trash and brought it to work and showed me the situation.  I told him I could fix it and brought it home.  Once I brought it out of my cupboard, I thought, "I can have this fixed up in a week!"   Boy, was I wrong!  I zig-zagged around the edges of the embroidered patch I had made over two years ago, and threw that in the wash.  It needed softened up.  I snipped all the yarns that held this 'tied' quilt together.  This is also a 'turned' quilt. I unstitched part of the bottom and turned it inside out.  I mended two tears, two seams coming apart, and replaced the ripped up block with the embroidered block.  Then I assessed the batting, which was torn up pretty big in the one area and coming apart in two other areas.  I decided to replace the batting.  The amazing part is: When I went to that J store and got batting, I found baby yarn exactly the same shade of washed-out yellow as on this quilt!  I came home and cut the batting out, and I was just going to sew inside the existing seam lines to connect the new batting when I discovered the back of the quilt was really a lot bigger than the top of the quilt.  I took the back apart from the front.  I was trying to determine how to tack the batting to the back, to make things easier when turning the quilt the right side out again.  My wonderful friend, T, suggested that spray basting stuff.  What a great idea!  When she arrived with her can of spray basting, the next day, I had just laid the back out on my table, so we laid out the batting on top of it.  She shook up the spray basting and then we pulled back the batting about half way, so she could spray. She sprayed one half of the quilt backing, when I suddenly realized it was not the inside being sprayed, but the outside!  I snatched that back up and ran into the laundry room and rinsed it in the deep sink, then put it in the wash to wash that stuff out.  No way does that stuff wash out!  I washed it and tried to steam dry it with my iron, washed it again, washed it again, dried it, then used a lint removal roller on it.  It was still sticky. 

So, T, ripped out the seam holding the two pieces of the back together.  I resewed them, so the seam allowances were on the side with the sticky stuff.  Now the inside of the back of the quilt is the outside of the back of the quilt.  A very clean quilt back it is indeed!  Tonight, I got the batting, backing, and front all sewed together.  I got it turned right side out. I hand stitched the opening closed.  I found my big-eyed needle and threaded it with pale yellow thread and got about half of the blocks tied. I am a happy girl.  I took a break.  My husband and I made some pistachio pudding, then took photos of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  It is beautiful!  So, here is a photo of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt!  I love the way these crazy bright colors work together and the stitching is a fabulous design decided on and quilted by Sid Mooney. 

It is a good sized quilt; 60" X 77"

Merry Christmas!

I am wishing you a merry Christmas and a safe week during this cold, slick weather.  It is a great time to stay in with your stash and sew something fun!  I had a wonderful relaxing Christmas and got some terrific gifts.  Two new self-healing cutting mats, pins, gift cards, See's peanut brittle, and a fabulous quilt!  And a bunch of other stuff!!  I cut a stick and hung up the light house wall hanging that QN gave me.  I hung it above the big photo of us in my quilt room.

from Silverdale WA to Meridian ID

First Day of Winter - Here's my summer sea side wallhanging!

My quilting niece, whom I used to quilt with every Wednesday night until she went into the Navy, has finished her tour of duty.  She is now a stay-at-home Mom.  She is back into the quilting fold and lives out-of-state.  We wanted to do a project so we made a couple rules then picked a theme and away we went.  Of course she went faster than me, because I have a full-time job, a freshly retired husband, and various community commitments.  I did get it done around the first part of December.  I am loving it!

I was going to try and use fabrics that I already had, but something for a seaside theme was going to be very difficult.  Then a friend wanted to go to First Thursday at The Cotton Club, and so we went.  I looked at their batiks and found four that I decided would be good for an ocean, sand, sky, and a beach house.  Turned out the seagull batik was too dark and busy for the sky, so I used it for the border.  I already had couple other batiks and the grunge basics fabrics.  I like to call this wall hanging "Batiks Meet Grunge Basics".  I like how the grunge basics give a sun baked, weathered look to the houses.  The idea for the design was from a magazine.  A friend of the featured quilter, Lynn Edwards, had given her a wall hanging with an ocean, boat, and two beach houses as the main design.  This is my take on a similar wall hanging -no plaids or stripes here.  What you may not have noticed is the lace curtains in the windows.  One of the requirements of the project was to use a piece of lace.  When Quilting Niece got this in the mail, we skyped and I opened the one I got from her, while she opened the one she received from me.  It was sooo much fun!  And she gave me a cute little message owl, that she sewed as well.  When I hang hers in my quilt room, I will post a photo!

It's December: I got my Jack O' Lantern Wallhanging Completed

It has been a busy month! I have gotten one year older, and I have a substantial list of unfinished projects. I only have  two more to finish in this year!  Woo-hoo!  Oops! Make that three.  I miscounted.  Last night I started on a repair/restore project for a friend that has been hanging around in my cupboard for two years.  I want to be able to give it to him by next Friday!  When that gets out of here, I will have a nice chunk of space in my fabric cupboard that I can fill up with something else. Like fabric!! Then I have the one flannel quilt I began last January, ready to quilt.  It is all pinned and ready for me to add miles of thread to.  After that I just have the binding to hand-sew on my "Jelly Roll Race Quilt",  I did make some surprise gifts for a couple special people, so I could not post the details or photos of those until after they receive them.  I will be posting those in the next week or so.


T and I started Jack O' Lantern wall hangings on
October 23.  I finished mine on December 17.
I am so good to go for next Halloween!
measures 16" X 20"

Quilts Backing Up!

Sorry, I did not post in November.  I hurt my back, and between being off an not being able to do anything, and then physical therapy and being back to work I just did not get to do any blogging!  I had bills to pay and getting ready for Thanksgiving and relaxing, etc. to do.  The Knotty Quilters had a retreat in October and I was working on a special quilt that is still secret until Christmas.  The Knotty Quilters had a retreat this weekend and I got the secret quilt all finished today!  The pattern is Nighttime Blossoms by Fons and Porter.  It is huge for me!  But then, I did a huge one last year, too, now that I think of it.  Huge just is not my typical thing.  Twin size is my usual thing.  This year, I have made more doll quilts than ever.  You can see them by clicking the link on the menu to the left: Gluten Free Doll Quilts.
Or just click on the words, because I think I was successful in make it a link!  Who would have ever thought I could do this?
   In 2015-2016 I was working hard on moving and selling our previous home.  We had a fabulous realtor, so I have made a quilt for him and his wife to enjoy.  They have two adorable little dogs, so I picked a cute dog print and some other nice colored fabrics to make this cuddly quilt.

I decided squares are okay. Every now and then
make a quilt with squares and a border.  You will not
be disappointed in the results.

The quilt was quilted by Sid Mooney, who used a dog bone and happy dog face quilting template to make it even more fun.  You just cannot see much of the quilting in this photo.  Great job Sid!