Bear Quilt Completed

This bear fabric caught my eye when I was strolling around the BBQ Quilt Show last September.  Wow!  I have since learned all these wild fabulous different kinds of fabrics are from Cotton + Steel.  Love them!  I did a lattice work type of border around each bear block, with pink fabrics that were already in my stash.  I am purposefully trying to use as much from my stash as I can, as I am starting to look like a hoarder in my quilt room.  I simply threw this quilt together and am surprised at how many people say they would like to have it.  Hmmmmm.....

A closer look.  The bears have a little bit o' pink in their
ears, so I chose pink to go with them. 
Quilted by Phyllis Oneal

It's That Magical Time of Year!

December is my favorite month.  Decorating and cooking and baking and eating and sewing and giving and receiving are all things I really enjoy; perhaps not in that order.  I had a milestone birthday and QN sent me a surprise box of goodies.

QN made it herself! with a jelly roll!
What a smart girl!  T-bags are laying on top of the socks.

I wore the Jingle Cat socks to work on December 14, with my silver sandals, my pink jeans, and my long pink home-made sweater.  We had a Christmas pot-luck and an ugly sweater contest.  I was first runner-up for the ugly sweater contest.  Three out of three Christmas sock wearers wore cat socks, and 2/3 of the wearers were guys!  What a statistic!

I have been working on some examples for my demo I am scheduled to do in January, and I made a lot of hot pads to give to friends for Christmas.  I made and given 16 so far.  I have a few extras that are part way done and one I am making for my daughter who wants one with candy corns and cup cakes on it. 

These are some I gave to my friends
who are in the Knotty Quilters group.

I also like this time of year, because I get two three-day weekends in a row and typically I get something fun done for New Years. I can stay up real late and have fun quilting!

I got a box from my Quilting Niece!! Oh, My!

When I got home from work today, there was a box on the chair in my office (where I do the bills and stash all my historic books and research).
It was from QN!  It is my birthday eve, so it feels like a birthday present!
I put on my comfy sweatshirt (the one with Merlinda on the front), and my cozy wool slippers and sat in my favorite easy chair and viciously opened it with a dull knife.  There was the cutest thank-you card, for the Haiku Charm quilt I sent to her in late November.  OMGoodness!  GF chocolate cake mix, GF pizza crust mix, special little tea bags, cocoa from Hungary, awesome socks, and you would not believe it! . . . . . a quilt!  Wow! I've never had a quilt made completely with batiks! They are hexagons!  She gets an A+++!  Thank you, QN.  I love it.  I have tomorrow off from work, so I guess I will bake a pizza crust and make pizza for lunch!
     I will post photos later. GFQ

I Finished A Quilt!

This Haiku Charm quilt was on my To-Do List, back in 2014 and 2015.  Then I lost track of my To-Do List in the middle of moving from one house to another in 2015????  Oh, what a blur!  Some of the blocks were given to me by my quilting niece (QN) just before she went into the Navy.  She has been out of Navy for a little while now, and I thought I better get it finished.  I could not post the photo until after she received it in the mail.  This is actually a nice sized quilt, and I got it all done!

quilted by Phyllis Oneal

Besides the squares and strips that QN provided, I included fabrics left over from the under the sea quilt I made for Mary B., the Aoie Has Two Sisters quilt that I made for Leilani, the Sunset Sail quilt, and some of the new fabric I got in Korea earlier this year.

I Made a Red White and Blue Wonky House Block

Yes, yes.  I have been busy.  I joined the commuter van for transportation to and from work.  The traffic around here has just become unnervingly thick.  I drove in last Thursday, so I could do a five-mile hike in the foothills right after work.  I do not regret it. I did just fine. The important thing is the company was good.  Meanwhile, I have three quilts to get bindings on. I have to finish my "Greedy" wall-hanging, and deliver a couple of sassy doll quilts.  Meanwhile, my one quilt group did a fat quarter swap last Wednesday night.  I have a mostly red one, solid blue one, and a tone-on-tone white dotty one, then the one we are supposed to use with our RW&B fabrics.  Well, I did not want to use the extra one, mainly because it also has yellow in it.  Sue bullied encouraged me to use it, so I made it the sky of my wonky house block.  I admit it looks fab!!!  I decided if I had to have yellow in my block, I could also have one of my marvelous women in my block as well, so it has made me very happy.  I will be donating it, at our January meeting, to the group project.

Oh, I substituted the lady bug fabric for the
tone-on-tone white dotty fabric. 
I will make another block and use it in that one.

Surprise Halloween Wall Hanging

My daughter received the Halloween Wall Hanging I made for her.  Now it is okay to post a photo on my blog.  She said I picked some really cool skulls and was surprised, due to I do not like skulls, skull fabric, skull shirts, etc.  Then I told her all the fabric was scraps cast off by my friend T, except the white with little tiny bones and tiny orange skulls.  It was a lot of fun to make, and I may use some of those remaining scraps to make another Halloween something-or-other.

the spiders are the rare six-legged variety

Had a Fabric Frenzy This Weekend

Yes!  Kirsten came over to use my design wall, because her brain was overflowing with quilt ideas.  So, she overflowed on my design wall.  What are friends for, anyway?!  Here she is after going hog wild for a few hours.

This crazy chick got two whole quilt tops finished, sandwiched, and ready to quilt.  And she has two others she left on the design wall!

Designing a Quilt

I needed to design a quilt depicting the 2018 Piecemakers of Idaho Quilt Show Theme:  Garden of Quilts

I began by clearing off my design wall, and pulling out all the gardening type fabrics I could find in my stash.  I decide right away that I wanted to use this sun flower fat quarter someone had given me.  It is my focal point piece of background.  This looks a bit messy, but you can decide what you want to remove.    I like the three colors on the yellow background, so the pieces that look funky with those bits, I remove and see what is left.
1)drag it all out 2) weed out
   3)imagine 4) add something else

I decided to add a bold one-inch separating border to help the lighter parts stand out.  I decided to create some 'quilt flowers', and I want to use ribbon as stems to help the flowers be more three-dimensional.  I did not have enough of any one light- colored floral fabric to go clear around as a border, so I used three different ones.  5) experiment  6) audition

Then my friend T made me think about this tulip design I had seen in a quilt at Sisters.  I made the tulip blocks bigger than I meant to, but it gave me more of a border to add more details to.  My friend N donated the hexi flower centers.  It began to remind me of designing a counted cross stitch!

7) add more details

8) final preview before quilting

I pinned the 'quilt flowers' on, so I could remove them for the actual quilting of the quilt.   After I quilted it and bound it, I sewed on the 'quilt flowers' and the hexi centers of the flowers.  I pulled it all together by using the orange as a frame in the binding.  Here is the 9) final product.

I really like the final product!



Cat Quilt Complete

I was not horsing around as much as I thought.  I got my cat quilt completed.  My friend T bought some cat panels and made a cat quilt top at my house.  She left the extra blocks for me.  I think it was about a year ago.  Anyway, every time I opened the doors to my stash, it was laying there screaming at me! So, I finally did something about it and got it d-o-n-e.


I admit it was fun, and it is delightful!

I Might Have Been Horsing Around -or What's on the Design Wall in Sept!

It has been a busy summer and my fresh healthy lifestyle has left me longing for more time in the quilt room.  I am feeling healthier and today, I am happier.  The Knotty Quilters had a retreat this last weekend, Sept 8, 9, and 10.  I spent all three days diligently working on my Buggy Barn, Poker Run quilt project.  I got all 12 horse blocks completed.  I had a wonderful time with my quilting buddies, too!  When I will get further on this quilt, has yet to be determined, but the hard part is over, baby!

The pattern is called Poker Run, by Buggy Barn.

Trip to Sisters Oregon Quilt Show

I had a great time.  We left Boise at 8:30 on Friday, July 7.   We stopped in Burns at their fine quilt shop.  It was actually fine!  They had a wonderful selection; even train fabrics.  Oh yes, I had to buy some train fabrics.  Shannan found me some flamingos. I had to buy some of that! Then we had lunch across the street, which was rather time consuming, but absolutely delicious.

Burns Oregon

    We drove on to Bend.  As I was driving on to our motel, one of my friends spotted a quilt shop on the main drag. We made a right at the light and were there in a flash.  Turns out it was one that had moved from an industrial park, where it had been during our previous visit.  Great new location.  Not as packed as last year, but when we heard a bus had pulled up, we quickly got in line to check out and vamoosed.  I behaved and only bought 1 yard of kitty print.  The next one, I stayed outside and relaxed in one of the chairs they had out front.  I was trying to control my spending and I really do not need anymore fabric.  After ten minutes I decided I should go in and check on the progress of the others.  Logistical error?  Purrr-haps! I found some kitty fabric, and Shannan found me a flamingo quilt pattern. Then I went upstairs with Daria and we looked at their quilt display. Very nice.  Then I exited to wait for the others, so I would not be tempted further.  Then Nancy came out and gave me some fat quarters she thought I would like.  The Daria came out and gave me some fat quarters she thought I would like. Wow! What awesome friends!  We headed to the Shilo Inn Suites Hotel, where I stood in line to check in.  It was very busy.  Our rooms were right next to the Descuetes River. It was beautiful.  We went to dinner downtown on Bond Street, noisy but delicious. Thank-you Nancy's friends for hooking us up.
   Next morning, Daria and I had breakfast on the veranda overlooking the Descuetes River.  Then we meet our party and went to get coffee at Albertsons?  We went to Albertson's; I don't recall what happened there. On to Sisters we went.  There was a long line of traffic, but I turned left, before town, and wound around and into town from the south, found parking, and we were off!  We found out rapidly how quickly we can lose each other and we split off into smaller groups.  It was fun and fabulous, especially with friends.   Here are my top favorite quilts from the show.


Happy Daze, Cindi Nofziger, Albany, OR

Morning Garden, Susan Telford, Bend, OR

Jewels, Jill Miller, Sisters, OR 

California Girl, Julia Jeans, Bend, OR

Charlotte's Web, Catherine Gainer, Portland, OR

Charlotte's Web details

Folksy Fish details

Folksy Fish, Sarah Sharp, Carmel, IN









Me And My Sisters, Renee Miles, Yakima, WA

Me And My Sisters details (love the wonky churn-dash!)

I failed to get the quilter's info on this one. I love the read hand stitching.

It was an extremely hot day.  We had to have some refreshments. I had sorbet, while Shannan and Donna had ice cream.  We met everyone down across from the tasty freeze where we relaxed a little, then went our separate ways again.  Katy drove all the way from Boise this morning, then went off and had a disastrous gluten attack after attempting to have lunch, so she left us around 2:00.  Shannan, Donna, and I walked through the vendor tents, where there was, what?, more fabric?  Donna bought me a yard of gold cat fabric! Naughty Donna! But it is fabulous fabric!  Sometime on our trip Shannan also gave me a fat quarter.  I have the best friends!  Well, we finally got a table at the diner, where Shannan and I managed to spill two waters and flood the table top.  We are visions of grace and beauty.
       I believe we were all exhausted after a day of walking around enjoying quilts, shops, and each others' company.  We freshened up and went to the Craft Kitchen & Brew Pub for dinner in the beer garden.  The BBQ Bib was fabulous and raves were made about the shrimp and grits.  After we got back to the motel, Daria and I took a walk and found the, very nearby, GF McKay's restaurant, where we have planned to have breakfast with the gang in the morning. We walked on further to a walking path into a park an across a foot bridge.  We witnessed a lovely sunset and moon rise.
    Next morning, fabulous breakfast. I had the stuffed French toast. My last for a long time.  We talked and talked, having such good company.  We finally departed our motel, and proceeded to the last quilt store in Bend.  I stayed outside and did not buy a single thing.  I got an A+++.  We departed with happy quilters all around and drove back to Boise, while Nancy diligently made hexagons in the back seat..

Quilt For No One In Particular

I purchased a Jelly Roll at the Twin Falls Quilt Show, in Filer, Idaho, in April.  The fabric is by Moda and called the The Ladies Quilting Club.  I got it because, from what I could see, the colors were bright and the price was right; $27.00.  I made the Dani Jo quilt from it, then used the rest of the strips in this quilt.

What's on the design wall in June??

I had a piece of batting left over from the Dani Jo quilt.  Once this one was pieced, I still had plenty of room all the way around, so I added more of the strips for a second border.  I really like how it turned out.

'For no one in particular' looks
particularly stunning in our make-shift garden

Dani Jo's Baby Quilt

I completed the baby quilt for Dani Jo, who is just over three week old.  Her mom, Tammy, is bringing her for a visit sometime this week and I have her quilt all ready for her.

Mrs. Carpender, of Empire Way, let me hang the
Dani Jo quilt in her back yard so I could get a good
photo of it.  Her property was in the Boise Garden Tour.

I also took a close-up shot so you can see some the details.  Mrs. Carpender's yard was done up in 40s-50s and quilts theme.  We had a lovely time on the garden tour.  I was so glad I brought the quilt along and obtained some photos in a different setting.  Thank you, Mrs. Carpender.

cute bunnies fabric I got at the Twin Falls Quilt Show in April, part of a
jelly-roll, bubbles, and words fabrics make a wonderful design.

I got this darling backing fabric at the Craft Warehouse!

Country Nine-Patch

I got the binding on this wonderful little number, on May 31.  It turned out a little scrappy and a lot fun! Brooklyn and her parents just adore it. My mission has been accomplished!

Stippling on the old Necchi

stippling a quilt for Brooklyn

It has been a very busy few weeks.  I had to get back into the swing of things here and catch up on a few things before I found time to do fun in my quilt room.  Friday night, I got the quilt sandwiched.  Last night I got it all quilted on the old Necchi sewing machine.  I had not free motion quilted on my regular machine in quite some time.  It did not turn out half bad.  The only white thread I had was a big spool that won't let the thread out easy on the machine, so I went and found my whirly-gig stand, but the metal post in the center was too long.  I put a tp roll on the post first to help hold the thread spool out further.  Then it needed to be on an angle, so I placed it on a folded piece of skid material and leaned it on my lamp.  I needed a clamp to make it stay, so I went into the garage and found an old moving rubber band that already had a knot tied in it.  It was perfect.  It looks funky, but it really works and is out of the way of my quilt as I feed it through the machine.


my large spool holder for non-tightening thread
 

The quilt turned out real cute. It has a number of scrap fabrics in it, and some knitting sheep, cooking chickens, and the backing has knitting chickens.  My husband picked out the black and white bird fabric to break up the business.  I will post a photo when I get the binding on. My goal is to have it finished by the end of the week!

I am back from Korea and Japan!

I had a wonderful two week trip.  I have so much to do now that I am back.  But here is a photo of the fabrics I purchased at Dongdaemun Textile and Craft Market.

This is the canal park right next to the
textile market in Seoul.

the fabrics I bought

 Yes, it appears to be not much fabric.  It turns out they have a minimum 3-yard cut.  The left one is 3 yards and the right one is 6 yards. The one on the right was in a sale stack and you have to buy the entire piece, however, it was only $2000 won per yard (approx. $2.00 per yard). It is good fabric and was a great buy!

Goin' Across The Sea -So I've Been Busy

"Seaside Rendezvous" Batik meets Grunge Basics

     I love this wall hanging, I made in March, to brighten our entry way.  Ebony likes day dreaming beneath it. It is all pieced, and without paper. I am a free spirit piecer.
     Meanwhile, I have never been out of the good ol' USA. I am getting ready to take my first overseas plane flight. I am a little nervous about that. I have a list of things I have to do before I leave.  I have to focus and not get distracted by fabric or quilting right now.  I will make a nice posting upon my return.  I am going to visit our daughter, who currently lives in S. Korea.  I can hardly wait to see her!
     We are also going to visit Japan while I am there.  It is so exciting! We are going to visit Mt. Fuji, and hopefully visit Nippori Textile Town.

Orphan Block Challenge!

I told you about the Orphan Block Challenge, in my previous post.  Last Wednesday, we presented the finished projects at our quilt group.  I have to admit I was excited to see what someone had done with the cowboy boot block I had submitted.  It seemed like it would take forever until someone stood up with the project incorporating a cowboy boot block.  Then finally, Janell stood up and said she had been excited about the block she had gotten for the challenge.  She did not wait to work in it and got it done weeks ago.  Then she held up this fabulous tote-bag with my block on it!  She continued to explain that last fall she had won the 'challenge fabric' quilt block competition at the Customer Appreciation Fun Run, and that she had another of my blocks from that challenge!  She showed us the other side of the bag, and it had the cowboy boot block that I had submitted to Challenge Block Competition the previous year.  Wow! I got both my blocks back in the same fabulous project.  This is a quilted tote bag.

Thank you, Janell. I love, love, love this bag!

The fabric on the shaft of the boot, is  the
challenge fabric from the last challenge
fabric block competition.

I have always entered a block, or four, into the quilt show challenge block competition, but have never won.  I am definitely a winner this time!

This cowboy boot block pattern is in Fons and Porter August 2015 magazine.  I enlarged the pattern by 25%, so it could be used in a 12 1/2" block.

What's On The Design Wall in March?

Hey! March is turning out to be a great month.  I got a couple wall hangings completed. I started a Stack n Whack quilt.  I have an orphan block, that is from Rosemary at my other quilt group.  Besides the Knotty Quilters, I belong to the Piecemakers of Idaho.  We have been doing an orphan block swap, where we bring one of our orphan blocks (a block that has no quilt to go into -boo ho), in a sealed paper bag with our name in it, to our meeting.  When we leave the meeting we pick-up a different paper bag and take it home.  We make something out of the block and bring it back two meetings later.  We take turns holding up the thing we made and see if the person recognizes their orphan block in the project, then we give it back to them to keep for ever and ever.  Rosemary's orphan block is on my design wall, upper left. 

It is 18" X 18" and consists of one of my top favorite color schemes, red, white, and blue. I got an 18" pillow form and took it with me to the quilting retreat earlier this month.  A friend said that I needed to add a little more around the edge to make it fit.  Well okay.  I went in my stash, later, and found some good edging fabric, squared up the block and added an inch of the edging fabric.  I sewed the back overlapping pieces, right sides together, then I put the pillow form in it.  The cover was a tad loose, so I laid it flat and pressed the edge down and stitched in-the-ditch all the way around to shrink the pillow cover up a little and add this lovely design feature to the pillow cover.

I figure Rosemary is not looking at my blog, so she will
still be surprised on Wednesday! 

I Sharpened My Seam Ripper And Got To Work!

How time does fly when you have a blog and you like to post photos and information about the things you love.  I love having fun, I love quilting, and I love fabric!  Today is the five year anniversary of my blog.  This evening I clicked on my menu for 2012 and looked at all the wonderful things I did in the first year of my blog.  I jumped in and figured out how to build a blog and had fun discovering all the possibilities.  I made some fun quilts. I flew to Tucson and helped our daughter move to Missouri. I made the Moose and Squirrel (Rocky and Bullwinkle) quilt for my husband's birthday.  We visited our daughter in Missouri for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time.  I finished my fish quilt in December and discovered those tiny blocks of fabric to make doll quilts with. What a fun year!  This year is shaping up to be just as fun!  I made a mess of my 9 patch block and got to post it on my blog for some laughs.  I will be visiting our daughter in South Korea in April! I finally get to use my passport for the very first time!  Planning on going to Sisters for that fine quilt show, and plan on a road trip with my husband in September. 
    I sharpened my seam ripper and fixed that 9 patch block.  It looks a little better now.

My quilting niece sent me the pattern for this block and
some fabrics to make it with.  We did a swap.  This is my block.

I have come along way in five years. I belong to two quilting groups.  The Knotty Quilters is a small group that really supports each other in learning and growing.  We have so much fun!  We have our own quilting retreats, in Eagle, ID, where we get together about once per quarter and spend Friday through Sunday enjoying each others' company, projects, fabric, and food. 
     I have my quilting niece,whom I do long-distance quilting projects with now. We started quilting together when she was in high school.  I have Kirsten Larsen, my daughter's American Girl Doll, that has her own quilting blog.  You can view all the 'Gluten Free Doll Quilts' on her blog by clicking the link at the upper left of this blog.  She has friends who are cats and stuffed animals that also like her quilts.  She has ever so many more blue ribbons than I, and one Best of Division ribbon from the Western Idaho State Fair.  I started the doll quilt blog in June 2012, and it soon morphed into Kirsten's blog.  She has her own cutting table, mat, and rotary cutter.  She is so creative. I just don't know where she gets it!

This is Kirsten's design wall.  Most of her projects get designed here.
Right now she is sharing it with me.  She lets me take the photos
for her quilting blog.

  Kirsten's friend, Ebony, likes to sit under this buffet and look out the window onto the world.  The windows behind this buffet go clear to the floor.  I keep the shade on this window up about 18", so she can see out.  We moved here a little over a year ago, and I love my new quilting room!
Happy Anniversary!  I know the coming years will be just as exciting!

What's Wrong With This Block?

I know after I pressed this block, I held it up for my very dear friend, Phyllis, to look at.  She said she liked the colors.  Hmmmm. . .
After I returned home from our weekend quilting retreat I dug out my three quilt blocks and put them on the design wall.  I stepped back and when I saw this block, I started to laugh and said something like "D--- it, how did I do that?!"  My husband, who was sitting in the living room and who did not see what I was talking about, said "A quote for you: Don't talk and quilt at the same time."

Well, Nicole, how did my block come out?

I get the distinct feeling that Phyllis did not really see it.  Like when I ask my husband to look at something and he doesn't really look; he just says "Nice job, Honey."
     What happened was time was running out because of the time change. We lost an hour of our quilting time today!  We were all about ready to pack-up, clean-up, and leave.  I was in a hurry to get this block finished before I had to pack up.  Well this is what happens when you hurry piecing!

Batik Fabric Swap Project Completed

At our meeting in November, we each brought one yard of batik fabric.  We took our yard of batik fabric and folded it in half, then snipped the edge and ripped it into two pieces.  The piece in my left hand, I got to keep. The piece in my right hand I gave to the quilter to my right.  The quilter on my left, gave me half of the piece she had ripped.  Then we each took the piece we received from the left and ripped it in half and passed half of it to our right.  We did this seven times.  We each took our pieces of fabrics home to make something and bring it in to show at our February meeting.  It was quite fun.  Many interesting projects were presented, several tote bags, organizers, table runners, etc.  I made a wall hanging using the hexagon technique I saw in Material Obsession 2.  Dimensions:  22.5" X 24.5"

Title: Cosmic Compass

I used up every bit of the 'tadpole' fabric, the gold fabric, and the grayish blue fabric, with just scraps of the blue/red left over. I used the rest of the gold fabric and grayish blue on the back of the wall hanging. I also used a couple odd scraps from my stash on the back.  I stitched in the ditch and stitched across the grayish blue, between the dark parts, so you cannot see the stitching. The binding is not a batik, but black with green dots from my stash.  It turned out pretty good for an experiment!

Unscheduled Quilting Lesson

On October 31, 2016, my husband retired from his job.  All has been pretty well, and he is happy not to be working and traveling on his job anymore.  He got me some wonderful gift cards, to a couple local quilt shops, for Christmas.  After the holidays, he went with me to Quilt Expressions, and while I was looking at fabric, he was looking, too.  He found some panels with winter trees on them and said he would like to make a quilt.  I had not seen this coming!  I helped him choose a couple more fabrics to go with the panels.  Later I had him practice cutting 2" strips, out of some unappealing remnants, with my rotary cutter.  I had him practice sewing straight seems on the sewing machine.  I introduced him to Mr. Seam Ripper.  He needs more practice pressing.   I had never used a panel to make a quilt, so I winged it and decided they needed to be squared a little before we started.  We discussed sashing and cornerstones: of which, cornerstones are not my favorite thing.  Well, it all went well and he is very happy with the quilt he made. 

He made this to go in the library on the back of the
small sofa.  It really looks great!

He learned about the walking foot and cheaty binding. Now he wants to be my assistant and help me cut fabric for my quilts.  I have some skill builders in the works for his future!  :)

Japanese Scrap Coasters

Sometimes I just want to be creative with scraps.  I have lots of scrap batting, so I drag a little of that out and try piecing in different ways.  Next thing I know, I have four deliberately not-the-same-size coasters.  I use coasters more than I used to.  I want to prevent rings on my furniture, but also it makes me put my cup where I know I can find it later. 

 

I used mostly Japanese fabrics.  I stitched in the ditch on
two of them.  I was making them as a gift for a friend.
I wonder when I will give them to her.  Hmmmmm . . .