I Got A Diamond In My Christmas Sock

On Christmas morning, I found a diamond in my Christmas stocking.  It was a Creative Grids 60-degree diamond ruler, of course.  So, the next day I used my new ruler to make a wall-hanging for my deserving husband.  Today, I got the casing, hand-sewn onto the back, and the yard stick cut and holes drilled to hang it with.  He is going to hang it in his office.  I took a photo of it hanging in my quilt room.

I quilted it using my walking foot and used red thread.

Back on December 22, I made a casserole cozi for a co-worker.  I was surprised at how quick it was to make.  I left the corners sticking out, so as to have handles, to grab it by, when removing from the microwave with a reheated dish inside.  It is just a mini-quilt with the corners sewn up!  It fits an 8" X 8" casserole dish.  Use for reheating in the microwave, or to protect your table top, when your casserole comes out of the oven.

Pot Holders for All Seasons, by Chris Malone, is the book I found the instructions in.

Bandana Quilt Photographed in Front of Building One

It was a sunny morning, December 3, when I took my quilt over to Building 1, at the Boise VA Medical Center.  My helpers are Erik and George. Building 1 is the oldest building on the VA campus so it was the first one built at Ft Boise, circa 1864.  I know this quilt top, less the border, is a lot younger than that.  This quilt top could have been hand-pieced in the 1960's or earlier.  

Bandana Quilt Finished!

A number of years back, I bought an old quilt top at an antique shop in Boise.  I already described it's construction and the issues with it, in my previous post.  Phyllis did her stippling magic on it and I love it.  I got the binding all on, on Thanksgiving Day.  It is finished.

It is a beautiful quilt.  It is on my table in my quilt room, but I hope to scout out a good place, out-of-doors, to photograph it properly. I hope whomever made all these blocks remembers her work and is having a warm feeling about it just now, or beaming down from heaven with happiness.  Below is a close-up of the back of one of the blocks.

You can see the machine stitching below the yellow and floral block, however the stitching on the yellow four-patch is hand-stitching,  Also note, at the top of the photo, the blue sashing is attached to the red sashing by machine.  I don't know how old the fabrics in the quilt are, but I am glad to finally have risen to the task of making it into a completed quilt. 

What's on the Design Wall in Late November?

That pumpkin quilt top is finished; the one that I posted on November 6.   I need to make the backing, buy that spooky panto, and get it to a long arm quilter.  This is the first time I have done two "What's on the Design Wall" posts in the same month.  Of course, the one that was on my wall in July stayed up there through most of October.  I have finally got a move on it.  This is the Buggy Barn quilt, that I got the book for at a Fall School House event at the Blue Bird Quilt Shop, in Nampa, back in, dare I say 2012???

Then in the next year, I bought the fabrics. Then it lay there until February of 2017, when "Buggy Barn Janet" came to the Quilt Crossing and did a two day class on completing our Buggy Barn stack n whacks.  I was so glad I took the class.  She was wonderful.  I finally got all my horse blocks done, in September 2017.  I know this because, I posted a photo of all twelve blocks, on 09/14/17.  Then they sat there until last week . . . when I discovered I need nine horse blocks to make the quilt, but I actually made twelve horse blocks.  That's how I roll.  Now that I look at the photo I posted in Sept 2017, I am wondering if I should use all twelve in this quilt.  Anyway, I have the barns finished and now I need to make the fence sashing and borders.  The green I have is not going to work, so I am waiting for my green to arrive in the mail.  

I have been resisting several amazing fabrics that have been calling to me all the way from Connecting Threads.  I put the green (mini spots and squares) in the shopping cart, then decided I should buy a couple of those fabrics on my wish list, so I can get the free shipping!  I bought Anjalina, Georgiana, and Margaret from the Jane Austin line, and Marpesia from the French General line, and some tea time fabric to top it off!  I am so excited, I can hardly believe it.  I confess, I am a fabric junkie.

I got all the eyes and nostrils cut out and appliqued on, this last weekend. Whew, that was a chore I did not foresee!  I am ever closer to crossing the finish line, just waiting on the right green fabric for grass:

Happy Veterans Day!

I have today off from work.  I can work on finishing my bandana quilt.  It is an old quilt top that is both hand-pieced and machine pieced, so it is lumpy, uneven, and not squared up.  Phyllis and I consulted over it, last week, about the best way to handle putting borders on it.  Last night I pressed it again, this time with steam.  I straightened one edge and measured across it to even up the other edge, so multiple points across the quilt equal 58 inches, or within a quarter of an inch.  I measured both sides and cut the side borders at 70 1/4 inches.  I got those sewed on last night.  Today I can wrestle with the top and bottom borders then move on to the backing.   Meanwhile, I completed the quilt that I named Phyllis' Phorty.  The star blocks were given to me by Phyllis.  I made the quilt top and backing, and she long-arm quilted it.  It does look stunning.

I photographed it at the Boise VA Medical Center, on the porch of Building 4, which is the old surgeon's quarters.  The building has been renovated, and now functions as offices for Telehealth.  My helpers are Erik and Cody.  The quilt pattern is a modified version of a pattern called Rita's Rose Garden, by Sandy Berry, "Quick and Easy Romantic Quilts."  I used 3 inch sashing strips and my central blocks are bigger than hers, so my quilt is also bigger.  What that means is, I made a bigger quilt with fewer blocks. 

What's on the Design Wall in November?

That small, off-the-cuff, Halloween wall-hanging has inspired me to make an actual Halloween quilt.  I started by making three blocks, while out camping near Bruno.  I finished twelve blocks and they are on my design wall.  I have cut some two inch strips of my light fabric for the sashing and rearranged my blocks, to my liking, on the wall.  

The trouble is I have two unfinished quilt projects that I need to finish by mid-December.  I seem to have lost my momentum.  One of them does not need a design wall, so I will go with that one first.  I am planning to start on it on Saturday, with the help of a friend.  I need a second opinion on how I should attack it, due to it is an old quilt top that was both hand-pieced and machine pieced.  I is not square around the outside and the inside is not exactly flat.  I want to put a border on it, to bring it all together, before Phyllis gets to quilt it.  Smile.  If I am diligent this weekend, I can have it all ready to go to the quilters by Sunday evening.  Then I will be down to one UFO to get finished this year . . . and I can do it!

Halloween Wall Hanging

      I have some fabrics left in my scrap bin by T.  She did a few Halloween quilts.  I made a wall-hanging for my daughter, about three years ago, and it turned out pretty cute, from being made with T's Scraps.  I have used those scraps again, plus a couple new Halloween fabrics I picked up this fall.  Annita and I went over to JK Quilters on Ustick Road, and they had some amazing Halloween Fabrics.  The center of this wall-hanging is a square that was left by T in my scrap bin.  I started with it and then grew the quilt around it.  When I quilted it on my Viking (can you spell Husqvarna?) sewing machine, I used my walking foot and went around the words "Happy Halloween" in black thread.  It made it stand out nicely.  The rest is stitch-in-the-ditch, which rhymes with witch, of which there are none in this quilted wall-hanging.  

     When we went on our last camping trip of the year, I started piecing some Halloween blocks for a whole Halloween quilt.  Below is a photo, of my first three blocks.  We were at the Bruno Sand Dunes State Park.  I based them on the outcome of the wall-hanging.  I was the only one at camp that was outside sewing for hours, just a few feet from the camp fire.  I take my Necchi camping and get a spot with power, or my husband brings solar panels.  I had lots of fun and ended up in the middle of nowhere (really!) while trying to find the Bruno Canyon Overlook (the road was not on the map, but the overlook was).

Me practicing social distancing.

A Break From Quilting?

Sometimes it is nice to do a small easy project, between big quilting projects.  I get instant gratification when I do a small project that does not take days, weeks, or months (dare I say years?) to complete.  In the past, I have made tote bags, pot holders, and place mats.  I am certain I have made other small projects, I just cannot remember right now. I do not make table runners.

I happen to be a big tea drinker.  Some of the best tea comes loose-in-the-can, but I don't always like fiddling with a diffuser to make my tea.  Also, some diffusers allow too much of the tea leaf to float into your drink.  In August, I made some tea bags for my husband, because he loves the loose-leaf Immunitea.  I bought some muslin, and sewed some tea bags and poured some tea leaves in each one and chain stitched them together, leaving a bit of thread hanging on each one.  He really likes the tea bags I made for him.  I like the Earl Grey, of which, I have several tins.  Last weekend, I took the time to sew some tea bags for me.  I learned that I need to put less than a kitchen sized teaspoon of tea in each bag, so the next time I fill tea bags, I will use a little less tea.  The reason is, I got ten cups of tea out of the first tea bag.  I think that is fine when I use a teapot, but usually I just pour boiling water into my mug, then put the tea bag in. 

I made a whole pile of tea bags.  I did not fill them all yet.  I just have them on hand for when I need to make some more.  I cut a soda bottle top off, to use as a funnel.  I suggest a smaller spoon to scoop the tea into the funnel, as you don't need much tea to make 3 or 4 cups per bag.  I have a couple of preferred brands; one being Divine Lotus Tea Company. 

Sixteen Patch!

 I am the proud owner of a lovely sixteen-patch/four-patch quilt.  Annita made this beautiful quilt top, and she gave it to me.  I quilted it with stitch-in-the ditch with gold thread, in the center portion.  I used black and pink in the borders.  I hope I did it justice.   I love it! Thank-you, very much, Annita.

Lovely old barn on Locust Grove Road (to be with us not much longer)

Tile Style Quilt for Special Young Lady

This time of COVID-19 has put some extra stress and anxiety on our children.  My co-worker's daughter was feeling that around the first part of August.  There has been so much uncertainty about the new school year and how that would be handled, along with all the summer fun activities with friends being cancelled.  I offered to make a quilt for this 14-year old.  I got to go shopping for awesome cheery fabrics for someone who loves animals.  I did use a little bit of fabric from my own stash, however the main fabrics are from a current line.  I wanted a quick easy, yet fun, quilt design, so I went on-line to Missouri Star Quilt Company and watched the Tile Style video.  I discovered something about these MSQC tutorials.  She really just gives a quick overview and leaves out important pressing instructions to aid the quilter in clean seam joinings.  After the first block made me realize this was the case, I looked back at the video, at the close-up the the finished quilt and paused the video.  I could see she had lumpy, not-exactly-joining-smoothly intersection on all those squares.  I planned which way I would press the parts of my blocks so they would all go together correctly, but I still had problems with many of the blocks being right next to the same patterned block.  This is something else that Jenny at MSQC did not care about in the quilt she made.  I care and believe in "planned randomness". I did some seam ripping and resewing , but I was on a mission.  I think I made it bigger than I meant to, but decided that was okay as she is a tall gal.

This is the quilt front.  If you click on the photo it will show you a closer up (bigger) view of it. My co-worker was very happy with it and so was his daughter.  That makes me happy.

This is the back of the quilt.  I used some left-overs from the front and other quilt left-overs that I thought would go.  This is truly one of the nicest quilts I have turned out this year.  Thank you, Phyllis Oneal, for the wonderful quilt job.  I asked her to use pale blue thread, which is a nice detail.

What's On The Design Wall In September?

It has been a busy year, and the projects are still piled up.  Sometimes I tend to get the cart before the horse.  For example, the quilt that is coming along on my design wall, has caused me to shoot off into another direction . . .see those cute little wonky houses along the bottom?  I canniblized three of them and made them into the most amazing wall hanging, while the original project is still on the design wall.  I had to make more little wonky houses to replace the ones I took for the wall hanging.

This does look really exciting!  This is my Obnoxious IV quilt.  I think Obnoxious V finally left my brain, so I will get back to normal after this one is finished.  I am excited about getting this one done, but I have three more quilts to put binding on, one to photograph then give away, and another wall hanging and two doll quilts to wrangle, besides.  Below is my Wonky House Wall Hanging!  I used my walking foot to quilt it along the yellow lines in the border.  I used yellow thread.  The solid black binding makes it stand out.

GREAT, As In Really Big

 I did get the Obnoxious I quilt finished and mailed to my aunt in Phoenix.  With all those 115 degree days last month, I was thinking, "Boy, she really needs a quilt, and fast!"  I am glad it does not get that hot in Idaho.  I actually did some quilting, off-the-grid in August.  It was pretty hot up in Rattlesnake Creek, but my husband got me hooked into the solar panels and I sewed a whole bunch of 3-inch strips for over an hour, in the shade of the awning on our RV.  Then I put my sewing machine away and got my small iron out and pressed all of the strips I had sewed.  We were both quite satisfied with how the solar power worked with my Necchi and my iron.  Then I went down and sat in the creek for about 45 minutes, to cool off.  Here is the greatest (as in really big) quilt I have ever made.  I think I will stick to smaller ones in the future.  from L to R: my helpers, Tina, Kate, Sandy

This is Obnoxious I, which inspired Obnoxious II (if you scroll down, you can see it in an earlier summer post), Obnoxious III (which is currently at the long-arm quilters), and Obnoxious IV (which is still in suspension on my design wall).

Fabric Test A Success

 I got some 54-inch wide fabric, on-line, for a quilt I am planning for a friend.  It was on sale, but when I received it, it did not feel like cotton.  I rechecked the website; it said 100% cotton, made in France.  I decided to do a test of the fabric.  It pressed wonderfully. I made a small quilt, then I immediately washed it in Woolite and tumbled it, on low, in the dryer for a few minutes, then allowed it to dry flat.  The fabric passed the test.  It is quite durable, but not heavy.  It has quite a sheen and seems a little heavier than some quilting cottons, but it worked beautifully in this quilt.  I think it will be wonderful in the quilt I am planning for my friend.

The test fabric is the gray with pineapples.  This quick project also gave me the opportunity to use some of the precuts I had stashed away.

Commuting to Work Has It's Rewards

 My IPOD Mini is reddish-pinkish-orange.  Friday morning, August 28, I added eVe to my IPOD, then I headed off to work. My IPOD was playing my 'Space and Time' playlist.  I headed south on Ten Mile Road.  As I entered the left turn-lane to get on the interstate, "Mom's Spaghetti" (an awesome piece of music), began playing.  I turned left, onto the on-ramp, and for a split second, time slowed down as traffic disappeared and the lava red-orange sun burned massive against the white sky, with it's southwest edge still tucked behind the black silhouette of the mountain.  Oh, it took my breath.  Then, back to reality, in a long line of cars merging, but wishing I had a chair at the top of the on-ramp, so I could sit and absorb that beauty undisturbed.  

As I continued to drive, I glanced it before me, and reflected on the rewards of commuting,  Seeing that beauty . . .without it we would not exist.  What a beginning to another glorious day!

More Traditional

Greetings,  My friend, Elverta, and I attended a beginning quilt class in February of 2001.  She got her quilt done pretty much by the end of class, which was three weekends in a row or something.  It turns out I get the newsletter from this quilt shop and they still teach the same quilt today as they did back then.  It is an Ohio Star quilt.  I had some trouble figuring out how the sashing and cornerstones were supposed to fit on this quilt, so I gave up and put it away for 19 years.  It has been on my To Do List for about nine years.  In May, I finally dragged it out of the cabinet and managed to use up all the fabric that I had with it.  I got it finished today. Binding on and done.  D said she doesn't feel so bad about having old unfinished projects now, since it took me nineteen years to get this one finished.  I'm glad to be an inspiration to others.

One thing that spurred me on is Donna, a beginning quilter, who said she had signed up for that class for this Feb of 2020.  In January, when she told me, I knew I had to get the lead out and get my quilt finished or she would beat me!  A little competition goes along way with me!  Here is my finished quilt . . . it is not as big as Elverta's, (and likely not as big as Donna's).  However, it has an amazing flying geese boarder that it would not have had, had I finished more than a year sooner.  Phyllis taught me about flying geese and I love how it added additional traditional features to this quilt.

quilted by Sid Mooney

Obnoxious II

I have decided these florescent/neon colors in my quilts are obnoxious. I really do love them, but that makes them no less obnoxious.  It started with my aunt's neon California king quilt.  It is still ready to go to the long arm quilters.  Meanwhile, I made one for my dear friend A.  She is very deserving, and her breathless review of my aunt's quilt told me she would love to have one.  This is her quilt:

quilted by Phyllis Oneal

This one is Obnoxious II.  I also had an adventure trying to photograph it on this lovely wall behind the VA Medical Center.  This quilt makes me think of lemonade on a summers day.
I have made another quilt top that is Obnoxious III and have Obnoxious IV on my design wall.  Obnoxious V is in my head. It is never ending obnoxiousness!

What Madness Now?

What is on the design wall in May? I am calling it the creative process. Whomever invented the California king was mental.  But now, I do more research into quilt sizes, and although they vary from website to website, to my reference book, to a reference card from a quilt shop I used to love, to my own long-arm quilter, it is this very pattern I am using that is way out in left field in comparison.  The pattern is Texas Two Step.  It indicates 13 blocks by 13 blocks (nine inch square blocks) is for a regular king.  But that would make the regular king size 117" X 117", and I would want to add at least two rows for a Cal king, but then that would be 135".  That is craziness!  Using my other references, I have come to a decision to make my quilt 11 blocks long and 12 blocks wide, equaling 99" X 108", which is bigger than a regular king.  My long-arm quilter states, 100" X 102" is the Calif king size.  I am pretty darn close to that.  In light of this size revelation, I am much closer to being finished, with the top, than I thought.  Here is what is on my design wall right now.

See the blocks behind my hat tree?  Those are pinned up and I still need another column on the far right.  I need two more rows across the bottom.  These are not all sewed together yet. The nine inch blocks are, but not to each other.  I like the pattern, but the size chart in it is not realistic.  I am happy that I will be able to use some of the 110" wide backing fabric on the back.  I may have to add a ten inch strip to make it wide enough for long arm quilting.  This is the only Calif king quilt this girl is going to make.  I am excited that this one is coming along so well, and relieved I don't have to make more rows/columns.  I am going to sew the rows together, in lengths of 9 blocks, then do the three columns on the right end and add those three to the rest to get the whole thing together.  I either need to move my hat tree or fold the top to the left and continue the pattern on the right side of my design wall.  I think the latter.  I will update soon!  Keep on quilting!

Colorful Twisting Turning Twenty

Phyllis Oneal has been quilting most of my recent quilts for me.  She does a great job.  We are keeping busy, indeed, during this time of social distancing and staying at home due to the Corona Virus.  This is the third Twisting Turning Twenty I have made.  I did not put the outer border on it, as I believe I did not cut one when I cut all the blocks, which was a few years back.  It makes it a few inches smaller than the Purple TTT.  I took it to the garden at work, this morning, and pinned it to the chicken wire around a fruit tree to get a nice photo.  The weather is so beautiful today and the garden is a lovely place to visit during times like these.  Also, happy Earth Day.  I hear Earth Day is fifty years old today.

This is the back of the colorful twisting turning twenty quilt.  Shannan gave me the blue piece that has little white chicks on it, and I scrounged through my colorful stash (and was brave) and decided to use the psychedelic fabric I have been hording for awhile.  I used no new fabrics on this quilt.

Purple Twisting Turning Twenty

Greetings!  During this unique time of anxiousness, I am endeavoring to keep my blog postings a little fresh.  I have two good friends, at work, who wanted face masks.  I made my first two face masks for them.  Then they agreed to hold up my quilt, so I could take a photo of it.  I definitely had their arm muscles taxed for a couple of minutes, since I am fussy about my quilt photos.  Sandy and Deb did a great job!  Thank you!

This is my purple twisting turning twenty quilt.  It is my 4th UFO I have completed this year.  I am east bound and down on these UFOs.  In fact, if I keep it up, I may run out of check marks!

Donation Quilts

I have completed two donation quilts.  My friend, Shannan, gave me some odd left over blocks from a quilt project she did.  They are 5"X5" squares of cooking bears, bees, rabbits, carrots, and ducks.  I added a couple of light fabrics to the mix and whipped up a cute child's quilt to donate.  I did a stitch in the ditch on my home sewing machine.  It turned out soft and adorable.

Then, I completed our quilt groups BoM (block of the month) and made an extra one.  I was looking through the pile of unfinished work on my buffet and found some card trick blocks that our quilt group had done last year.  They donated them for a donation quilt and, of course, yours truly ended up with them.  I decided I wanted this done and out of my house!  So, I added my BoM to the mix (top center block) and tried to figure out how to put these blocks together in a quilt.  The trouble with getting blocks from 5 or 6 other quilters is they never turn out to be the same size.  The smallest one was 11.5 inches instead of 12.5 inches, so I placed it on the back.  As it turns out, I really like the back of this quilt.  I don't care for the front so much, but my daughter does, so statistically someone else will like it, too.  It is fun and it is done.  I just need to turn these quilts in, so they can be donated.

This is the card trick quilt; to be donated

Back of card trick quilt.  I like the back better than the front. But that is just me.

I go to work, I go home. I go to work, I go home.

     I go to work. I go home. I work at a medical center and have been deemed essential personnel.  At home, I have been quilting!  I have been a busy little bee!  Of my nine UFO's on my list to complete in 2020, I have four completed and number five is at the long-arm quilter's house.  In addition to that, I have completed two donation quilts, one art quilt, and have been working with "the girls" on some doll quilts.  Now, I am doing two things: working on Aunt Karen's quilt and gearing up to make masks.  My daughter, who resides in another state, has her e-mail blocked with over 5000 e-mails, so she cannot login and view the fab photos I just e-mailed her today.  I am posting the photos I took of Ebony, that she cannot access in her Yahoo e-mail. 

    When I am working on quilt backs and I put a large piece of fabric on my ironing surface (which is on the top of a book case), she stops whatever she is doing and runs over and goes between my fabric and the ironing board (bookcase).  She plops her butt down, usually on my foot, and then spreads herself out causing the fabric to want to come down on her, but I have it under my iron on top the ironing board.  Well, this time the fabric was not draped on the floor, just barely off the floor, so I took a few seconds to grab my camera and take a couple photos.

Ebony's backside sticking out from under the fabric I am trying to press.

Ebony looking like "What is your face doing down here by me and my fabric?"

Rocket Ships Quilt Completed: My third UFO done this year!

Unfinished object (UFO) is a quilting term.  I have completed my third one for 2020 and the fourth one is well on it's way.  Plus, I am quilting a donation quilt that I pieced a couple weeks ago.  Whew!

Click on the photo to see it enlarged.

I started this one about four years ago, but I think I already went over that in my first post of 2020, where I listed all nine unfinished projects I intend to complete in 2020.  I am working on them as hard as I can, so I can get to the fun stuff, the new stuff, I want to do as well.  This may be my third UFO for 2020, but I have made three other quilts besides them.  A couple of them are doll quilts, which I do not post on this blog.  If you want to see doll quilts, please, click on the link, on the left side of this page, titled "Gluten Free Doll Quilts."  I suggest you keep scrolling down and also look at the older posts, as there are a lot of them and I think these dolls make amazing quilts!
     Meanwhile, on this site, I am working on my next UFO, the purple twisting turning twenty quilt.  What's on my design wall in March? The PTTT quilt.  I have all the rows sewed (that would be five rows of 16"X16" blocks), and I just need to sew the rows to each other.  Maybe tomorrow night I will get that done and get started on the border.

the bottom row is not on my wall, as it will not fit.

We had a quilting retreat at my house this last weekend. I hogged the design wall, but we had plenty of layout space in my quilt room, as we set-up our sewing machines in the living room.  It was just enough for the five of us.  It was nice to be together for awhile.  Due to COVID-19, we know we will not get to hang out for a while.  We had a supportive and productive weekend.

Second UFO completed!

On Sunday, March 1, at 9:22 pm, I completed my flannel frog quilt.  I looked back in my photos from 2011 and found the small quilt I made with the left over fabrics from the quilt top I made.  So, I made the flannel frog quilt top in January-February of 2011.  I just got it all finished this week.  I quilted it on my home sewing machine.  I had some problems with the spring-loaded quilting foot, so my husband ordered me a new one.  It got here in two days, and it worked like a champ.

it is 72 inches long and 61 inches wide

 This next photo is of the little quilt I made in February of 2011, out of the left overs from making the big quilt top.  I have enjoyed it for many years.  I am so happy to have the big one finished (nine years later!).  Who knew?

 If you look at the cat photos on the right side of this web page, and scroll down to the third one from-the-bottom, you will see Merlinda, the Ninja Cat, sitting on top of the flannel frog quilt as it was being laid out on my table.  That is the photo I went looking for, so I could date when I got the quilt top finished.  Merlinda is no longer with us.  Sad panda.

My Version of an Art Quilt

On January 2, I started to create my version of an art quilt.  I've been invited to enter a couple quilts in a Veterans Art Show coming up this spring.  I worked steadily and I have it all completed.  The quilting is by Sid Mooney.  My second quilt in as many months.  I feel I am making a good start on 2020, from a quilting perspective.

Title:  What's New.

In March, I expect to get two more of my unfinished quilts completed and get started on the quilt I have been meaning to make for my aunt.  It is shaping up to be an exciting year!  Let's see how it goes!

First UFO Challenge Quilt Completed!

I am feeling not too bad about my progress on my UFO list for 2020.  I have one UFO at the quilter's, getting quilted.  The one I have completed, I quilted myself.  I just used my home machine and quilted horizontal lines across it.  

It is a really long quilt for someone who is very tall.  It turns out that someone is my cousin nephew, Jeff.  It is so long, we needed a ladder to hold it up, but then the lighting was not right.  I took it outside and folded it and draped it over one of our Adirondack chairs.  The Spumoni II is the one I got finished first:

click on photo to enlarge

Happy 2020 List of UFOs!

Happy 2020!  We made it into another year.  My quilt group is doing a 2020 UFO Completion Challenge.  We have to submit a list, then have them all done by December 2020, to be in a drawing for cash.  I really believe I can do one a month, however, I have other projects that I will be doing in between these nine.  Following are the 9 UFO's I have submitted for the challenge:
#1 and #2 are Twisting Turning Twenty quilts
#3 Rocket Ships
#4 Poker Run by Buggy Barn
#5 Phyllis' Phorty
#6 Ohio Star quilt I started in 2001      #8 Spumoni Quilt
#7 16 Patch Bandana quilt                   #9 Flannel Frog quilt

There are two cut out quilts here; one is multicolored and the other is mainly purple and white.  I would say I started these about five years ago. What happened?

I started this rock ships quilt about four years ago, as a project I could do while visiting my mother.  Of course, when I took them with me she had put her sewing machine in the closet with her bed in front of it.  I thought I could spend more time with her if I had something to do, plus it would engage her a little more.  Oh well.

I bought a Buggy Barn quilt book, approximately 7 to 8 years ago, so I could do the Poker Run quilt. It all seemed so simple on the surface of it.  Fortunately, two years ago, one of the Buggy Barn people came to the Quilt Crossing, in Boise.  She had a class, where we could bring whatever Buggy Barn quilt we were working on and she would help us with the process.  It was invaluable, and I did get all the horse blocks completed and squared up. Then back it went, into the UFO pile!  This is the year, I finally get it done! Yes!  My backing, barns, fences, and sky fabrics are all in that pile. 

My friend, Phyllis, did some cleaning out of her stash and UFO's a couple years ago (coulda been four years ago?), and I happily took these wonderful blocks from her.  Guess what?  I am actually going to do something with them, finally.

I took a beginning quilt class at the Quilt Crossing, in 2001, with my friend, Elverta.  It was in the little strip mall on the corner of Liberty Street and Fairview, in Boise.  The classroom was upstairs; narrow steep stairs. Sewing machines up!  Elverta had a great big quilt top done by the end of the class.  She is an overachiever.  This is what I had at the end of the class. I was just not happy with getting these corner stones and sashing to work.  I threw up my hands and decided I would quilt other things until I could get back to this bit of frustration.  I know I will be ripping out a good bit of this, pressing it, and redoing it.  I want to start it soon, because one of our quilt group members is new to quilting and she is taking this same class in January/February.  I can't let her beat me!  But it will probably not happen, because I have my Aunt's florescent quilt to get finished first (one of those not on the list).

This one just needs a couple borders added then finished up.  I have lovely fabric for the back! I can hardly wait! 

This is the Spumoni Quilt. I started it with leftovers from the original Spumoni Quilt. I got the top finished, but never quilted it. I still have the backing fabric with it in my UFO pile.  It will be wonderful when completed.

#9 is the flannel frog quilt, I started in 2011.  I used the scraps that were left over from the quilt top to make a kitty quilt that my kitty has enjoyed for a very long time.  

As I said, I am excited about starting on these projects and getting them finished!  It is going to be an interesting year, as right now I am working on an art quilt.  I am determined to get it finished this month.  I guess I better get into the quilt room and get started!