Quilting in 2019

The year is coming to a close.  I have a list of unfinished projects that I intended to complete in 2019.  I got eight out of ten done! 1) Four-patch Star baby quilt; 2) Teresa's B&W Mostly quilt; 3) my B&W Mostly quilt; 4) Random Chickens; 5) Waltz (3-D) quilt; 6) RV wall hanging; 7) "D" Stack N Whack; and 8) Duree's Musical Seamstress Fairy/Angels wall-hanging.  I did not get Teresa's and my Artsy wall-hangings completed, but they are on my list for 2020, including a dozen others. I will be posting a list of objectives in January for 2020. I have to admit I am excited about getting those projects done.  I have to remember that I, also, need to take time to help "the girls" with their quilting and I want to do a couple art quilts this coming year.  I have written my visions down in the wonderful little planning book Teresa got me.  It looks like a McCalls pattern.  I call it my McCalls Planning Guide.

The girls have been very busy this year, too.  Check out their blog by clicking on the link, on the left side of the screen:  Gluten Free Doll Quilts.  They are amazing and getting more amazing.  Someone must be crazy!! 

Here is something you should try in 2020:  use some scraps to make something (zipper bags are perfect for scraps and doll quilts, naturally!); use some rick rack in something you create (preferably some you found in your grandma's old sewing machine or picked up at the thrift shop).

Well, darn if it isn't past midnight!  Happy 2020!

Another UFO finished and a Road Trip!

I have been going through and taking a bit of an inventory of my UFOs.  I have a list that I intend to complete in 2020, however, I found one that looked like I could whip it right up!  I don't do many panels, but I saw these musical sewing angel things and thought my fabulous cousin, Duree, would just love a wall hanging!  I will have to go over and build an additional wall for her just to hang it on. I have collected some wonderful musical instrument fabrics over the years, mainly for my Peace, Love, and Baroque quilt, which has not happened yet.  My friend, A, says that if you have not started a project yet, it is not a UFO.  Well, that took the PL and Baroque right off the list!  I still have intentions!  Meanwhile, I have this lovely lute fabric, I decided it time to quit storing it and use it.  I cut the blocks out of the panel, then used the lute fabric for sashing/borders.  I used a remnant of high-loft batting and got it all quilted and bound in next to no time at all.  It is done.  I will be delivering it this week to one surprised cousin.  I say 'surprised' because I am pretty sure she does not follow my blog.

     I stitched it in the ditch, then did some stippling in the borders with black thread, meandering between the instruments.
     Then last week, Thursday to be exact, A and I went on a road trip to Rupert, Idaho.  What is the big attraction, you may ask?  The Gathering Place quilt shop has the biggest selection of the most fabulous quilt fabrics in the entire state of Idaho.  We reached Twin Falls at noon, so we stopped at Five Guys, where A bought us lunch.  We had little hamburgers and fries.  YUM!  Then we traveled on.  We went around the block because I turned one light too soon, to get to the center of town.  We parked at the town square right across the street from the quilt shop.  I opened the pick-up door . . . Christmas music filled the air!  It was enchanting.  I paused to listen for a few seconds before the call of tons of fabric drew me back to reality and into the quilt shop.  As soon as we stepped in the double-doors, reminiscent of the old JC Penney stores, a woman at the counter was asking, "Is one of you ladies Carol Z.?"  We both froze, as we knew the answer was, YES!  "Yes." I replied.  So naturally we had to go straight to the counter and not look at all the fabric between it and the door.  The lady said someone had called and paid for a $25.00 gift certificate for me.  What? What a sweet and thoughtful husband I have; I was nearly in tears.  How special!  What an awesome day!  A and I did our thorough and careful searching for the needed fabrics.  I brought three samples of projects to get fabrics to go with.  Oh, sweet success!  Then a little browsing for some other fabrics to go with committed projects that have not been started yet (unUFOs).  A was good and paid for her yardage and said, "That is it."  As I was still shopping I heard groaning from down the aisle, because she found more fabric she really wanted to buy.  She was a real trooper.  I decided I had better quit, as we were also planning to go to Mill Ends, in Burley, for some synthetic fabric that A needed.  Strangely, it was not difficult to find, and the prices there were jaw-dropping amazing.  I had to be a trooper and not buy anymore fabric.  I was.  Then we headed home. We stopped north of Twin to gas up and then were back in the rain.  We got back around 6:15 p.m., just in time to watch Death In Paradise.  What a wonderful day!  I thanked my thoughtful husband profusely, while he told me it was not him that called in the gift certificate.  I appreciated his honesty, but I was really disappointed that it was not him.  

     This is most of the fabric I bought. It does not include the three fabrics for my Elvis quilt or the two fabrics for AK's quilt.  AK's quilt is next on the list!!!!  So much fabric, so little time.

Donated Quilt for Veteran's Day

One of the quilt groups, I belong to, donates red, white, and blue quilts on Veteran's Day each year.  We were a little short on turned in blocks this year, so I went into my RWB scrap stash and put together a quick, decent sized, quilt to be donated to a veteran.  I stitched in the ditch on my Husky and got it done in a week.  Go me!  At our Oct 6 meeting, I donated it.  There were three quilts donated to veterans through our contact with the school district.  It is nice to have the school kids do the donating.

Kitty Kondos Quilt Completed in 21 Days

I started this quilt on Oct 30.  My previous post, Nov 3, has a photo of the quilt layout.  I am placing it here, as well, so you can see the metamorphosis from bare bones to completed.  It is now in the happy hands of it's new owner.  

How it looked on Nov 3, on the design wall.  Scroll down.

All finished!   What a difference!

I used a flat flannel sheet, I purchased from LL Bean.  You can buy just one sheet from them, instead of a whole set, and it is high quality flannel.  I used 505 to spray baste the layers together, then I stitched in the ditch. Then between all the ditches, I stippled the rest. As I was working on piecing it together, the boxes appeared to have windows, and the blocks looked like condominiums.  Thus the name Kitty Kondos!

What's On The Design Wall in November?

I have not posted a "What's On The Wall" in quite awhile.  I have two quilts out for quilting and one packaged up for continuation at a later date.  I am growing a flannel quilt for my husband.  I started it last Wednesday, October 30.  I sent my fully flannel kitty quilt, that I made for myself several years back, with him when he and our daughter went on a cross-country RV adventure at the end of September.  When he got back, he said he wanted a nice warm flannel quilt like that.  We went into my flannel stash and picked out some fabrics that would go together and a package of 6" squares with cats on it to get started.  I believe this one is going to be another wonderful flannel cat quilt!  I home machine-quilt my flannel quilts.  Here is what is on the design wall so far.  I have two yellow flannels that I will be using in between the blocks you see here:

I am using fabric I have on hand.  If I use enough of my flannel, I will be able to make room for something else.  Looking at my stash, I would say I have a few children's quilts to whip up, to make more room.  I can donate the kids quilts and make someone smile!  I have more of those 6" cat squares; I bought three packages off of E-Bay years ago and never used them.  Well, time to use those up!

Baby Grande Quilt

I work with some fabulous people.  I have been invited to a baby shower for a 'couple' of people that I work with.  When I started this post, Little Vinnie was not here yet.  He is now exactly one week old.  Happy Birthday to Vinnie!  Anyway, when I heard we were having a baby shower for C and JP, due to the impending arrival of their new family member, I whipped up this fun baby quilt from fabrics in my "Juvenile Fabrics" stash.  It is good to not have to go shopping for more fabric when you just want to whip something up!   Plus, I had stacked some odd fabric bits on top of that bin, so I went through them and cleaned up part of my stash cabinet.  After I sewed the top together, sandwiched, and basted it, I stitched in the ditch on my Husky, then stippled and loopy-de-looped on my Necchi.

Doing loop-de-loops!

I had more of the yellow elephant fabric, so that is what I used for the binding.  The backing fabric is from Wittlich, Germany. I bought it at Das Nah Haus in August 2018.  It was just waiting for such an occasion!  Love that bright blue with polka dots fabric.  It goes with everything!

Showing off backing fabric.  (the eggie pillow is from SK)

Teresa's Black and White Mostly Quilt

Teresa died last October.  I got her blocks that she had sewn together into rows, and I completed her quilt top.  I got it long-arm quilted in January, but only just got the binding put on about two weeks ago.  I am pleased that it is finally done.  It does look amazing in this photo.  I believe she would be happy with the borders I added.

Thank you, A, for holding it for a photo.

Moving Right Along Slowly

Greetings!  I finally sewed the binding on to my B&W Mostly quilt.  Things have been so different this year.  Sometimes it is hard to get motivated to put the final touches on some things.  I did hand-sew the binding on this one.  I did consider making a doll quilt like this, but decided to leave that to 'the girls'.  Check out their recent posts by using the link, to the left, titled "Gluten Free Doll Quilts."

I wish Teresa was here to see my B&W Mostly quilt.  I think I will measure it and hers, then see if they will hang side-by-side on my big display wall.  It is time for the Wonky Houses quilt to take a rest in the closet.  It has been hanging up there for three years.  B&W Mostly is refreshing.  What I was not sure of, but am now, is the b&w stripped edge on the right and left sides of my quilt.  It is a design element from quilts earlier in the 20th century.  It just did not make me happy until it was all finished.  Now it looks just right!

Black and White Mostly Quilt

My B&W Mostly quilt top and back is finished and delivered to my favorite long-arm quilter.  It took me and T too long to get started on these quilts and me too long to get mine finished.  We shopped and collected quite a variety of b&w fabrics over about three years. I discovered piecing with one inch strips of fabric is not as bad as I thought it would be.  I really like the effect of the one inch strips dividing up all the blacks on white and whites on blacks.  The majority of blocks are black with white, so I think I need to make another quilt, like this, but with the majority of whites with black fabrics.

Fabrics include sewing motifs, buttons, sewing machines, scissors, geometric prints, musical notes, bears with

party hats, several cats, birds, polar bears, cows, jack rabbits, goats, bunnies, sheep, cats in space suits,

 space ships, flowers, lady bugs, trains, polka dots, s'mores, aboriginals, and etc.

Council Quilt Show

Over the wonderful long Fourth of July weekend, we took our RV up to Cambridge and stayed a few days at the Mundo Hot Springs.  On July 5, we went up to Council  (about 20 miles north) and visited the Council Quilt Show.  I am sad to say, I did not win the beautiful raffle quilt donated by Janell, however, there were many wonderful quilts to view and enjoy.  My most favorite did not win any ribbons, but is beautiful and unusual.  This quilt is by Sandra Hansen, of Cambridge, ID, and she made it as a way of displaying her antique ladies belt buckle collection.  Well done indeed!

The name of the quilt is: Buckle Up.  I just had to share a photo of my favorite pick from the Council Quilt Show.  I plan on going again next year.

It's All About Chickens!!

I am about to get back to working on my own projects . . . quilting projects.  This last weekend the Cloverdale Ladies Society met at my house and we painted canvas bags.  My thought is 'What is better to paint, on a canvas bag, than a chicken?"  So, while the "Ladies" used a piece of celery stalk to make beautiful rose-like floral creations on their bags, I painted a chicken.  Of course, bright colors ruled the day.

Chicken Dinner Road has been in the news as of late, and I want PETA to know that some of us SW Idahoans celebrate chickens and I think chickens celebrate by having dinner!  Of course, my chickens are the most fashionable.

Just Us Chickens!

It seems I began using these chicken fabrics at about the right time.  Everyone seems to be going chickens!  Last summer I was working on my "Random Chickens Quilt", and traveling up around Cambridge, Council, and McCall.  My dear friend T found a panel with chicken blocks on it, so naturally I had to get it.  Besides, it went with some other chicken yardage I already found somewhere else!  I used two of the chicken blocks and put together a cute wall-hanging for my friend, A.

A's birthday was earlier this month, so I wanted to make her something for her quilt room.  Tada!  I did the stippling on the old Necchi.

Lone Star Quilt Finished And Delivered

Dianna Slade's purple lone star quilt is finished!  It was some work squaring it up to prepare to be long-arm quilted.  Then after Phyllis Oneal quilted it, I squared it up again.  Yikes!  I got the binding on and am pleased with the outcome.  The main thing is it is finished and not just sitting around as an unfinished quilt any longer.  I scouted out and found a raised spot, for my two tall young men volunteers, to stand on to hold the quilt.  This is a really "big" quilt.

The star and white background was hand-pieced, while the borders were machine-pieced. The very dark purple has a rose pattern in it.  This was given, unfinished, to Dianna.  I cannot date any of the fabrics, but the dark purple and the floral make me want to think it is from the 1980's or 90's.

Now That We Have An RV . . .

I had to make a wall hanging for our new-to-us RV.  I actually started it a couple years ago, but last fall I went through my unfinished projects and started getting some of them completed.  This is one of them.  I have about 30 more. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

When we took our trip to SD, we left Ebby at home with a pet sitter.  We want to be able to take her with us on future trips, so we kidnapped her from the house and put her in the RV.  We did not start it up or go anywhere, we just spend most of the day out there with her, so she could get used to her surroundings.  She did do some exploring but then she wanted to stay on the floor instead of looking out a window, so put her on the bed under the quilt.  She likes hiding under quilts.

So, what did I do while hanging out with Ebby in the RV?  I did some piecing!  Our quilting group has a Block of the Month challenge and I pieced my BOM and an extra one, in bright fabrics, for the quilt for my Aunt Karen.  I don't believe the photo below demonstrates just how blinding bright the yellow fabric is.  It looks pretty mellow here, but it is not.

I set up the sewing machine on the table and sewed these together.  Then I cut out some fish! If you can tell me what kind of fish these are, I will send you a custom made zipper bag (made by me).  You can e-mail me at csz@cableone.net with your answer.  I will keep this offer open until July 4.
I welcome your comments, but for some reason my blog/Google will not let me reply to your comments.

Five Projects Going At Once!

I have been so busy.  I work 40 hours a week. My husband and I just took a week and went to South Dakota in our new-to-us RV.  We had a fun, relaxing, yet adventurous week on the road from ID to SD and back.  We went to see Mt Rushmore, and decided to see some other things along the way.  I will be getting a post on my travel blog in a day or so.  I have the first day all typed up . . . I did that when we had our blow out about ten miles east of Dubois, WY, but I have not had a minute to get more typed up.  I took a lot of photos and only had a chance to look at them last night.  It has done nothing but rain here, since we got back from SD.  

A peony in my front yard. It is one I transplanted from our previous house

Last weekend, I got the binding sewed onto Dianna's quilt. On Monday evening I finished quilting Dani Jo's two-year old quilt and started the binding. Tuesday I finished the binding on both Dani Joe's big girl quilt and her doll quilt.  I need to get those triangles cut out to finish the stack n whack that is on my design wall, and get the binding on Teresa's b&w mostly quilt, then I promised A that I would put the binding on her quilt.  I got three quilts all finished up in one week! Crazy!

Dani Jo is turning two, so I made her this big girl quilt.  I used my stash of cupcake fabrics to make it and the matching doll quilt.  I quilted them both on my home machines.  I do the stitch in the ditch on my Husqvarna, and the free-motion on my Necchi.  I made some fun loop-d-loos in the purple polka dot borders.

.
This is the doll quilt.  It is 22 X 22 inches.  It has the same purple polka dot fabric as the big one, but I used it as the backing.  Below, is a photo of the back of the big girl quilt:

I will post a couple photos of Dianna's fabulous quilt after I get some bodies to hold it up while I photograph it.  It is B-I-G.

Cupcake Quilt At Last!

Yes, I have a list of projects to be working on.  But I have this basket full of cupcake fabrics and fabrics that go with cupcake fabrics.  I am whipping up a darling quilt for Dani Jo's 2nd birthday.  It needs no fancy pattern, just bold fabrics that I can show off in 4 inch blocks.  If you cut strips and sew three strips together, then slice them into 4" sections, you can whip up a nine-patch in no time at all.  Since I have a stack n whack on my design wall, I have laid out this nine-patch on my table(s).  The blocks are finished, they are just not sewed to each other yet.  Maybe tomorrow night I can get that part done.  Here's to cupcakes!!

Everything Old Is New Again!

I love experimenting, especially making quilt blocks that I have not made before. I have become more adept at making blocks that are 12" square finished.  I really don't like 12" blocks, but lately every time I do a challenge block I make a test block first.  I do this to make sure it works, but then I have test blocks I can put into a 'test block' quilt, so to speak.  I have chosen the brightest fabrics I can locate in my stash, so when the quilt is complete, I can give it to my favorite aunt.  She loves bright, especially neon, colors.  At this time, I am in a moratorium for purchasing fabric of any kind, so I have to work with what is in my stash.  Should I come to a bright fabric dead-end, I will have to wait to complete the quilt top after the end of November, when said moratorium comes to an end.
I am at no loss of excellent ideas for quilt top designs.  My husband checked out a book, at the library, the other weekend.  He is so thoughtful.  The book is America's Glorious Quilts, edited by Dennis Duke and Deborah Harding, Park Lane, NY, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1987. It weighs 15 pounds! It is really big!  So it has great photos and tons of excellent historic information.  It has distracted me immensely.  I have a paperweight magnifying glass, I have been using to get a closer look at some of the blocks.  I have pieced my 2019 interpretation of two quilt blocks that I really like from this book.   

A close up of #52, Friendship/Sampler Pieced quilt, C. 1940, Mt Vernon, OH

Collection of Shelly Zegart's quilts, Louisville, KY

This is the block I made last Friday night, that I will be including in my favorite Aunt's quilt.This block is pieced, and I chose these colors to make it really pop.  They are not neon, but next to the other blocks, it really rocks!

A close up of #194, Around The Corner, Yvonne M. Khin, 1986, 

her own collection, Bethesda, MD

I love, love, love this quilt!  Just this bit of it looks like a painting! It is so phenomenally scrappy and the fabrics are a pure delight!  I made two of these blocks.  One for my aunt's quilt and the other is for a donation quilt.

This is the knock-your-socks-off version. I made it Saturday night.  The one below is a tad bit more traditional.  I made it Sunday morning.  I was on a roll. Understand this is my version, made to be 12 1/2" unfinished (not pieced into a quilt top yet). It has a row or so less going around the outside, than the one in the book.

I really like this one the most.  I used the challenge fabric to make this block, so I had to piece the upper right corner square out of the last bit of what I had.  This block will go into one of the quilts for donation that the Kuna quilt group is making.   This was so much fun! Now I have to get back to the 30 or so other projects I am in the middle of!

Waltz Quilt Completed

Some books were donated to our Kuna quilting group.  Before I gave the books to the secretary, I found a pattern called Waltz.  I wrote down who designed it and the year and name of the book, but I have misplaced the information.  I think the book was from 1987.  I wanted to do a bit of a 3-D quilt top, and managed to make this from my stash.  I had to make it one row shorter, as I ran out of one of my colors.  But I like this just fine.  I started a purple one, but ran out of purple stash somewhat early in the process; just not early enough to have not wasted a whole afternoon on it first.

I think a more neutral background color would have made the 3-D effect less subtle.  

Random Chickens Quilt is Complete

I got off on a whim last summer with this fabulous sort of quilt design that I found in Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again.  Freddy did her quilt with red blocks, with scraps strips around each one.  I had some scraps of yellow fabric, with chickens, that I was going to toss out.  I decided to use them, and I created the Random Chickens quilt.  Then, due to unforeseen circumstances that caused me to realize what a fabric hog I was, I decided to do scrappy borders with reds I already had and use the chicken fabrics I got last summer on the back.  Oh, I have not taken a photo of the back.  I guess I had better do that.  Meanwhile, this quilt looks like madness, but is truly wonderful.  It has twenty blocks, each with a center of yellow.

This looks good, but to see it in person is a real joy.  Let's see the close-up . . .

In this close-up, you can see the wonderful swirls quilted into it by Phyllis Oneal. 
Somewhere in my blog, in 2018, (August maybe) there is mention of my Random Chickens quilt.  Keep scrolling down, or click on the 2018 section of the "Blog Archive" found on the right-hand side of my blog.  It is directly under the photo of Ebony looking out from under my flannel quilt on my bed.  Then you can read more details about the quilt. 

Baby Quilt Finished!

My quilting niece and I did a swap project in 2017.  I started these four-patch star blocks in March 2017.  Almost two years later it is all done!  QN can be proud of me for finishing something.  This is the first of many projects I will complete in 2019.  I have a lot of unfinished projects, but the list is going to slim down this year.  Here is my wonderful baby quilt:

This was a fun quilt.  I found the cute picket fence fabric at one of the quilt shops in Bend last summer.  I decided to use a piece of it in the border.  So far all the comments have been good.  It was quilted by Phyllis Oneal.  Thank you so much!

Making Good On My Convictions For 2019

Actually, I started in late November, getting my head in the right place for the foreseeable future.  The future is not foreseeable.  I got blind sided in October and I have spent time reflecting on what is important to me.  I have been spending some decent time in my quilt room these last six weeks.  I have finished two quilt tops which are coming back from quilting tomorrow, and they are ready for binding.  I finished the black n white mostly quilt top of Teresa's and made an interesting quilt back that helped use some of those b&w fabrics up.  It is ready to be delivered to Phyllis "the favorite" long arm quilter.  That makes three projects already in the final stages of completion.  I have a crap-ton more, but you have to start to make any impact.  I also started Zumba last week, and I plan on making an impact there as well.  I am grateful for my fabulous quilt room, all my inspirational books, cards from friends, and my ability to be creative.  I have been lacking some-in-my face inspirational reminders, however.  I have a plan to fix that.  Below is a photo of my metal cabinet, which holds about 1/3 of my fabric stash.  I love it because it is metal and I can use magnets to hold my fun bright goodies.  I am going to rework some of what is on it, and tidy up a bit.  I need a list of the top five projects, in progress, that I will focus on first.  

The little flannel quilt with the volunteer ribbons on it, is the first quilt I ever sewed a binding onto.  I particularly treasure it.  I painted this cabinet myself.  It used to be gunmetal gray.  It holds a lot of fabric, much of which I hope to be digging into this year and really enjoying myself.  Be strong, be creative.