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?"