Dalek Quilt for Daughter

In 2015, I found some amazing Dalek fabric, on-line.  I could not pass up buying it, as my daughter is a huge Dr. Who fan.  She visited over the holidays (2015-2016), and I gave her the pillowcase, I made out of the fabric.  She loved it.  She says it "exterminates bad dreams".  See it in my post of 3 Jan 2016 .  I think I started the stack-n-whack quilt in 2016.  I completed it in 2017.  I did not make a blog posting when I completed the quilt, because I made it as a gift for my daughter's retirement from the Air Force.  I know she seldom looks at my blog, but she does occasionally, and she looks back aways, so I did not want to chance it. Her twenty years is coming up in December, so I have decided to give it to her now.

It makes me smile when I think she has no idea this amazing thing exists in the universe.  I only took this photo of it last Sunday.  It has been hidden away for a while.  My husband helped me to hang it on the wall in my quilt room, so she can discover it, when she arrives later today.  I must admit, I am excited for that moment.  I am sure she will know it is hers.

I took this photo in February 2017, when I had all six layers pinned together, before cutting it into triangles.  I think this was the second batch, as it took two make that many.  It is not your typical stack-n-whack fabric, but it worked for my purpose.

Design wall photos.  This is the last photo I took (11 Mar 2017), before I put the completed quilt away.  I meant to take a photo a few times, but it just never happened.  Put your mouse on the photo(s) and click to enlarge the photo(s).  The quilt is 67" X 78".

I am so excited she is coming today, and I finally get to make a posting about this amazing quilt.  I did take over a year to make it, because I stopped after I got all the Dalek blocks finished, as I was concerned about making the black/white triangles that go in between.  You have to place them a certain way, so they do not stretch, plus I always want to start a new project before the old ones are complete.  It is the way of creativity!

Obnoxious III

Wait a minute!  Where is the posting about Obnoxious III?  I have investigated the situation, and it appears I did not post about Obnoxious III, last November, when I completed it.   I just had sooooo much going on last fall!  I had to glean through my massive collection of photos to find it.  Without further ado, here is the photo of the amazing Obnoxious III quilt:

After I made the red border on this one, is when I decided to put red in the center portion of the next one (Obnoxious IV).  I did actually complete this last November.  The blocks are 5 1/2 " blocks with a back and forth rotation orientation to make the zig-zag effect happen.  It is quite a simplistic design, so pretty quick to assemble, sew, and get finished.

Crayon Quilt Challenge

Oh my! I nearly missed posting something in May.  It has been busy. Last September, the quilt group I belong to started a crayon quilt challenge.  We actually met in person at our fearless leader's house, where we social distanced in the back yard and had dinner and show and tell.  Also, a brown paper bag was passed around and we each reached our hands in and pulled out five mystery crayons.  What we did with the crayons was make a quilt with those colors and have done by our May 2021 meeting for a big reveal.  I actually got my quilt done in February and hung on to it for the big reveal.  

Of course it is a snowball quilt with owls in the centers.  As it happens, my colors were brown, green bean green, and three different shades of blue.  I do not have much brown (yuck!) fabric and less green bean green.  So, my pal, A and I went to Joann's first, just to see what we could fine.  She found one fabric that matched one of her crayons.  I found these adorable owls; not exactly green bean green, but if you actually color with the crayons to see your colors, you can color less hard and get something a wee tad lighter.  Then we went to the quilt crossing where they were very helpful with finding us additional fabrics, so they could lighten our wallets.  I found several decent green bean greens for my quilt, along with that amazing blue I used on the corner triangles that pulled my whole quilt together.  The good news is, I did go sorting through my stash and did find some wonderful blues with greens and combination blues, so I did use some of my stash.  After this one went to my favorite long-arm quilter for quilting, I played around with eight-point stars using my left over crayon fabric colors.  I did make a second quilt out of those left-overs.  I think there is enough for two more quilts!  Will it never end?!!!

Poker Run Quilt aka Horse Quilt Finally Finished!

This quilt gave me a few headaches, but I have persevered and it is complete. It is the last of the nine UFO's on my list to complete last year.  It was all done, but the binding on December 31, but I had to let it wait a bit longer, because I also had to sew 18 button eyes on it.  But it looks great.  The second one down, on the left, is Old Blue.  In March, actually, I photographed it in front of building 34, at the BVAMC, a historical site, which back in the old days was a horse barn.  It seemed appropriate.

Joe and Gayle are the quilt holders and actual quilt admirers.  If you wish to know more about this quilt, it is mentioned at least three other times on this blog, in past posts.  Or send me a comment, I would love that. 

Another Texas Two-Step Quilt, But More Refined

I made about three quilts, in 2020, with this same pattern.  Once you make one, you don't need a pattern to make more.  It is really easy to remember and to do.  One of my co-workers is getting ready to retire and I decided to make them a quilt.  There are no florescent marker fabrics in this one.  It is modern, yet traditional.

I chose the gray with yellow fabric first, then rounded-up the other fabrics to go with.  The gray with yellow reminds me of antique wallpaper.  I got a little crazy and bought the dark blue with gold metallic flecks in it, but it seems to fit the antiqueness of it.  The rings remind me of cup rings on old surfaces, and the gold batik gives it an elegant look.   I am certain Kelly will really like it.  The quilting was done in dark gray thread, as a result, you do not see much of the quilting.  Click on the photo, it will enlarge, so you can see it closer.

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. 

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. 

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!