What Is on the Design Wall in January

Greetings and Happy New Year! It is time to start fresh and tidy up the quilt room.  I also want to make a list of projects that I want to complete this year.   This is the year A and I get our glamping quilts done.  I want to finally make a Unikitty quilt and a shark quilt.  I need to finish up my Gees Bend-like quilt that I started in 2021 and make a new 'My Art" quilt with churn dashes.

Right now, this is on my design wall.  I am just getting it finished up.  It is my vertical row quilt.  If I get it done by January 24, I get credit for it for my 2021 quilting challenge with my quilt group.  It will mean three out of four done!  That is pretty good. 

Closing Out 2021

While my husband is having adventures in stirring pudding, waiting for it to boil, I am going to post about the final two or three projects I completed this year.  I have decided the Drunkard's Path quilt, which I named Drunkards Pink, will be posted with the best photo we got of it during the wind and freezing cold on December 18 at Scentsy in Meridian.

The bottom edge is cut off, but other than that I cannot complain.  It is big, 72" X 72", so it needs two people to hold it up, or it needs to be hung up somehow.  I set up the camera on a tripod, and my husband had the remote clicker.  I had bean bags pinned to the bottom, for us to step on, to keep it from whipping up.  I felt like we were the only wind block between Canyon and Elmore Counties.  After I adjusted the camera, back a little bit, the photos did not improve.  So, this is it!

This is the back of the quilt.  I pinned some short tubes of fabric on the back side, just below the top of the quilt, for something to hold on to when holding the quilt up.  This reduces the number of fingers and knuckles in the photos, when used properly. 

This is my completed block-of-the-month quilt.  Our quilt group did a block-of-the-month challenge for 2021.  We were given a list of fabrics for each month of 2021: January is really bright fabrics, February is stripes, March is tone-on-tone, and so forth.  Then each month we were e-mailed the instructions on how to do the block for that month.  I did an extra three blocks so I would have a longer quilt.  The quilt size is 58.5 inches by 37.5 inches.  I also sized all my blocks to be 9.5" square.  I really do not like 12.5" blocks.  Remember, when you click on the photo it enlarges the photo, so you can see the details better.  The December block has fabric with a little metalic in it, upper left block, and the very center of the block is paper-pieced.  Some of our less seasoned quilters did the paper-piecing on theirs, so I thought I should not skip out on that process just because I am in search of instant gratification.  That tiny center took me hours to finish, when I would rather have done something else.  Credit goes to my friend, Shannan, who was also at the quilting retreat in October.  She got me started and coached me on to completion of that tiny little center square.  This quilt does make me feel like I accomplished something worthwhile.  I have since made more of some of these blocks to use in other quilts this coming year.  We are having the big reveal of all our BoM quilts at our meeting at the end of January.  I am glad mine is finished. 

On December 26, I made what I call a souffle' pillow for the cat that lives in our house.  She detests familiarity.  I made it to fit in a cardboard box.  I put batting in the top and bottom portions and quilted the top.  I put a zipper in, so it can be washed. 

I used fabric scraps to stuff it with and added a few tablespoons of catnip.  So far, Miss Particular has not thought it enticing enough to sit on.  The zipper will aid in additional catnip application, should it be called for.  Highly likely.

I close out 2021, with hopes of kitty bed occupation and many more quilts to come in 2022.  

Dr. Seuss Quilt

A friend was wanting something special for her first grandson, who is due on the scene in January.  She contacted me to see if I could create something special.  I had seen the new Dr. Seuss fabrics on-line at Jordan Fabrics, and I heard they were to be had at The Quilt Crossing.  She loved the Dr. Seuss idea.  So, I proceeded with a Jelly Roll from Jordan Fabrics and yardage from The Quilt Crossing.  

The fabric I had for the binding, "Oh, The Places You'll Go" was not quite what my eye wanted for the binding.  I looked through my bright stash and found this fabulous fabric, I got in the sale section of the 'Sew and Soak' website a couple of months ago.  It is perfect!  All it's colors are in the quilt!

My binding turned out perfect.  The red and white stripped outer border is from the Dr. Seuss collection that was released around 2013.  I had bought some down at The Quilt Barn (Kimberly, ID) way back then.  I had used about 3 inches of it, so I had plenty to add to this quilt.  

It is bright, fun, and soft and fluffy, just like a baby quilt should be.  She wanted it a little on the big side, so it is 51.5" by 51.5".  It is busy in just the way Dr. Seuss would expect it to be.   My friend loves it!

All Kinds of Quilts

I have been making all kinds of quilts these last couple of months.  The big 'Drunkard's Pink" quilt, I finished in November, but have not managed to take a photo of it.  We headed out to Scentsy on Saturday morning, early, and it was too windy.  It was also biting cold!  We jumped back in the Blazer and came home.  The wind has not died down yet.  What is with the wind this year?

I got my BoM quilt back from the long-arm quilters on Thursday.  I just need to sqaure it up and get a binding on it, and it will be finished.  It is the main one for my quilt group's 2021 quilt challenge.  I am so excited it is almost finished!

In October, I did piece an adorable wall-hanging for a friend.  I finished quilting it late last week.  The measurements are 14" X 15.5".

The bird block I got from Lynne Tyler's blog: patcherymenagerie.blogspot.com     I made four of these blocks, just to see if I could do it (and I was procrastinating getting my other quilt projects done).  I put one of the birds in this wall-hanging.  One is in the vertical row quilt that is currently on my design wall.  The other two have Santa hats and will go in my Christmas quilt that I hope to make in 2022.

In November, I did a presentation on ways to bind or finish your quilts.  It was at my quilt group in Kuna.  I started by demonstrating a 'turned quilt'.  You actually sandwich the front, batting, and back first, then you turn it, then you do all the quilting.  

You can see there is no binding on this quilt.  It is all stitch-in-the-ditch, so you don't really see the quilting either.  If it were not so bright, I would call it invisible.  I made this quilt specifically for my presentation, so I simply used some orphan blocks and did not take any time to worry about aesthetics.  It was a demo.  I did get a few good comments on it, but I am wondering why.  It is quirky, but not that good looking.  The blocks are 12" X 12".  I suppose it would be a fun quilt for a three-year-old to have a picnic with her tea set and dolls.

I did complete a large baby quilt, that I was commissioned to do.  It is a Dr. Suess baby quilt.  I need to get a photo of it, as well.  I am excited to get it 'delivered' this week, so it is out of my hands.  I will get those photos posted as soon as I manage to get some taken.  

Veteran's Day Quilt

Chris and Donna helped to make three of the blocks in this quilt, then I finished it up so our quilt group can donate it for Veteran's Day.  Our group averages three or four quilts donated for Veteran's Day each year.  This one I photographed at the VA Medical Center before turning it in.  

I have lots of red, white, and blue fabric.  I have a bin of red and white, a bin of blue and white, a bin of red, white, and blue, and a bin of RWB scraps.  I have managed to use more of blue and white fabric this year, so I can now get the lid on the bin.  I should try to make a quilt with just blue and white fabrics, which is why I started collecting blue and white fabrics in the first place.  I tried to use them up doing the Sunset Sail quilt a few years ago, but because I needed two yards of one fabric and none of my two yard bits were the right tone, I hade to buy more fabric!  That was a lesson in futility. 

Halloween Bunting Completed!

What?! In time for Halloween?  How unusual.  Yes, started last weekend and it is already finished.  I thought I should just go ahead and post it.  I am not becoming efficient, if you were wondering about that.  Sometimes happy accidents happen.

This is just a preliminary hang-up job, to see how it looks.  I will be hanging it outside for Halloween.  Yes, it will involve a ladder and adding a hook to the outside of our house.  One end will be anchored in our blooming cherry tree, thus only one hook.  I can hardly wait!  [for more bunting info, click on the link in the left margin:  Festive Bunting You Can Make Yourself]

Happy October

It has been a busy month with auto appointments, pet appointments, people appointments, yard sale weekend, and a long camping weekend.  I still have hardly put up a decoration for Halloween.  I did make another Halloween quilt, however.  This one I actually photographed in October (instead of February or August).

This is the one that I pieced all the blocks while out camping in the woods in July.  My July post has some photos of the quilt in progress.  The light sashing fabric has tiny little black spiders on it.  I got it quilted in September and the binding on in the first part of October.  It was deliberately made for my co-workers' son, who is turning ten on this Halloween.  My dad's birthday was on Halloween, and it never occurred to me to make him a Halloween quilt.  I know this young man will appreciate and enjoy it for many years to come.  He wrote me a thank card in cursive.  I don't know if he has discovered that the bones in the border fabrics glow in the dark.  They do!   

On our camping trip, last week, we went up to Brownlee Reservoir, where I made some skull blocks.  I feel a skull quilt in my future.  These blocks are going into bunting to be hung out on Halloween.