Oh, Christmas Tree

Dear Readers,

I made another Christmas Tree wall hanging for my son so he would have a super easy time decorating for Christmas.  This makes a quilt about 27 x 77 inches.

The pattern is called "Tall Trim the Tree" by Cindi Edgerton.  Unfortunately Cindi has closed her store and the pattern is no longer available.  I hate that as I was going to make one for myself and not knowing it was discontinued I did not make a copy, as I was just going to order a new copy.  The pattern comes with paper pieces to make two tree quilts but I had used the other one to make one for Celeste a couple of years ago.  I did add corners to the top and bottom of the quilt and used the cafe door curtain rods to hang it.  Celeste wanted hers to have all the same snowflake buttons for decorations, but when I went to the store to get buttons, there were not enough large quantities of any one style to decorate the tree consistently.  I went I bought lots of cute little buttons, aliens, stars, some snowflakes, gold balls, red buttons, charms.  So he can roll it out and hang it like it is or hang ornaments on the buttons if he so desires. 

I stuck a piece of paper in the corners so you could see them easier.  

I also made a bag to store it in so it would be easy to store.

Since I did not think of the bag for Celeste's Tree I made her one too!

Merry Christmas!

Terry

The Library

 Dear Readers,

Will ended up with a quilt made in the around the world pattern several years ago and had it in his guest room that had a twin bed in it.  Celeste thought it looked too juvenile and he should not use it on that bed.  So I decided to make him a replacement quilt and made this bookshelf quilt.  

It was based on a video by Missouri Star Quilt Company done by Jenny Dean.  She called her video "Book Review" if you are looking for it.  It was put out in 2021.  I had thought that this quilt would put a big dent in my scrap bins but no, they are still overflowing.  Oh well...more to sew with.  

Next up - working on pining for you a Tula Pink quilt kit.

Sew on,

Terry

Chestnut Homestead's Garden

 Hey Readers,

This summer Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts offered a free mystery on her blog and YouTube channel.  She called it her Summer Mystery 2022.  I decided to play along and pulled a lot of grunge fabrics and neutrals to make the quilt.  I added an upper and lower border as I thought it would be more useful if it was a bit longer.  

So with the borders the quilt came out to be 64 x 74.  This is a really nice size for a throw.  I enjoyed the mystery and following her blog.  If you would like to follow it click here.  Will helped me name it and find a verse for the label.  Ed and Katrina have horses and Ed is a lawyer so Will came up with this verse:  

I didn't have a big enough piece for the back so I used this piece of civil war reproduction fabric with a few extra blocks that I made.  

This quilt is going to my brother and his wife in North Carolina.  Hope they enjoy it.

Sew on,

Terry

Sew Good

  Dear Readers,

MQA issued a UFO (UnFinished Object) challenge and my September project was to complete a Friendship Block Quilt from 2014.  It is named Sew Good.  In 2014 the Possum Town Quilters exchanged black and white block in a star pattern.  Everyone use white in the center and signed their names on the blocks.  

I decided to put a black strip around each block and sash it with bright red.  A year or two ago Lauren and I went to the beach and did a shop hop one day.  She helped me find the red and black and we also found a fun print with sewing puns on it.  I fussy cut it up and put a different pun for each cornerstone.  I assembled this at a really fun quilt retreat in Jonesborough, TN.   While I was up there I decided it should have a border of Tula's black and white dot print.  So I purchased enough extra to do the border and a pillow slip.  I also found a fun friendship print for the backing.

I just quilted in the ditch around the stars, but I put quilting words on the sashing and I got brave and tried feathers.  They need work, but I will do the next ones on a true practice piece.  Glad this quilt is for me.  

By the way, Will helps me name the quilts and come up with the Bible verses.  Thought it was fitting that he came up with a sewing pun for the name and Bible verse about sewing.  Thank you Will.  

Sew on,

 Terry

Noah's Cargo

 Dear Readers,

Apparently this is the year of finishes.  A couple of weeks ago I finished Noah's Cargo.  

I made this quilt for Ryan and Alaina Parkerson.  I taught Ryan my first two years at Winona High and I taught Alaina two years too,  When I moved here my principal, Charlie Parkerson, said Ryan (his son) was available to do odd jobs if I needed help.  He painted the interior of my shed, helped remove wallpaper, and some other tasks at my house.  He was a wonderful worker and student.   More importantly I was so impressed with how willing he was to invite people to church and tell about the programs that they were running.  He would also tell me whenever there was a home ball game, so if I didn't have duty I could plan to come.  Even tho we are given a calendar, I often just get into the academic calendar that I needed the reminder and I was glad he did that.  Alaina was a student that had to work at it to do well in math, but I was impressed about how hard she worked and ended up pulling one of the top grades.  Anyway I texted Charlie when I heard they were expecting.  Charlie texted me that they were doing a zoo animal theme and light blue for the nursery.  So when I was in San Diego celebrating my retirement, Celeste and I decided to ride out to El Cajon and go to a quilt shop there.  We picked up a few more cute fabrics and found a perfect blue for the border and triangles and a great blue piece for the back and even tho it was dinosaurs it was so cute we picked it.   I had a lot of fun curating the different animal prints on this quilt and I put a row at the bottom to represent the things the parents and grands were interested in.  

 Hope they love giving little Jaxon Cole tummy time on the quilt.  

Sew on,

Terry

Tea and Cakes

 Dear Readers, 

Last year when I went to Quiltville Inn on a quilter's retreat with some of my favorite quilters, Patti and I took an afternoon and drove to a neighboring town and went fabric shopping.  Patti and I both bought Tula Pink bundles and a pattern called Lucky Stars by Atkinson.  I had wanted to use that pattern to make a quilt using her Curiouser and curiouser line of fabrics.  This line of fabrics is based on the story of Alice and Wonderland.  I decided to make the quilt in the Lap size which is 60 x 75.   Meanwhile sometime during the school year, Celeste was home and her dear friend came over and she picked some fabrics for a quilt.  I did not show her the curiouser and curiouser line as it was sitting on the washing machine as I am an avid pre washer.  Any way I realized a lot of the fabrics she picked were very similar colors to the line.  

So I made Lafadra's quilt using the curiouser fabric, taking out the queen of hearts fabric and the Alice fabric and subbing in some of the tiny beast line, that I also loved.  I used the fabrics Lafadra picked for the back and I think both came out cute.  Hope she loves it.  

I had a lot of fun practicing my freemotion on the long-arm.  It is certainly a different skill than on my sit down machine.  I was using books by Angela Walters and Leah Day for most of the inspiration but I used a few others too.  

I thought I would post close ups of the individual blocks, so you could see what I was doing.  On each block I did something different on each white section, a different pattern on the strips surrounding it and then something on the center block.

I learned a lot, and definitely need more practice on several of the patterns but overall, I am so happy with how it came out.  

UPDATE:  

She seemed pleased!!  

Sew on,

Terry

Competition

 Readers,

I know you can't believe I have another quilt to post but I do.  I completed this eye-spy quilt for a special couples baby quilt.  I taught both Zack and Cassie  and I worked with the Zack's mom.  She is a wonderful counselor for the vocational center in Winona.  Cassie taught for a year at Winona but decided she would rather be a nurse so went back to school and got a nursing degree.  I taught Zack for 3 years.  When he and his friend Stefan came in your day was better.  I looked forward to their period every day. Zack went on to be a minister.   Zack and Cassie recently had a sweet baby girl...I did not get this finished in time for the birth...but it is done now.  I delivered it to the grandmother today.  Both Cassie and Zack were athletic, multi-sport participants and Cassie went on to play softball for Millsaps where she pitched a no-hitter.  So I put lots of sports fabrics in since they both love sports.  They both pull for state so that is in there too!  I hope Emery enjoys using it for many years.  

Quilted this with a swirly heart edge to edge design.  Bound this with one of Tula Pinks tiny stripe fabrics.  

Sew on,

Terry

Anticipation

 Hey all,

The quilt I quilted to test the tension was this Christmas quilt that I made using blocks left from a Bonnie Hunter mystery that went awry.  It was NOT Bonnie's fault.  I changed the colors then didn't like the result in the reveal.  This is what the quilt was supposed to look like....

This image is from Bonnie's web site:  Click here to buy her pattern.  This was her Allietare mystery quilt from about 6 years ago.  

Back when Bonnie designed this I did not like the color combination resulting from my change once the blocks were put together, so I took the star blocks and set them aside. I made a quilt out of the other blocks and donated it to the junior league of Winona for their fundraiser.  Those star blocks were set aside, and periodically I would run across them and think, I need to figure something out for them, but never seemed to set aside the time to do it.  

So last year I took the star blocks to Quiltville Inn and the group of ladies there helped me come up with this setting.  

So if you don't like how something is going...don't be afraid to change things around.  Loved both the blocks individually, just not together.  Ended up with two great quilts from this pattern.  This was the first quilt I quilted after the tension issues.  So out of practice on a long-arm, but I have a number of tops done, so I should get some of my skills back soon.  This quilt is for me, so if it is not perfect it is ok.

The back has numbers 1-25 and is called countdown to Christmas, so Will named this one Anticipation ;

So thanks Will!

Sew on,

Terry

Nestled

This quilt was made for Chloe Bell.  She is a precious little girl, and I wanted to try a stack and whack, one block wonder quilt. At the Spring Gathering 2020 in February several of the Starkville ladies told about their one block wonder quilts.  I was intrigued.  A couple of weeks later at the beginning of Spring Break Lauren, a good friend,  and I were at the West Alabama Quilt Guild's Show in 2020 just before the world shut down.   I saw this fabric at one of the venders and I thought was so soft and pretty and thought it looked like something a little girl would like.  So I bought the fabric and some pink to go with it, as I knew that was her favorite color.  

So I read Magic Stack and Whack book a couple of times, and made my half hexies.  Then I was kind of stuck on how to arrange them.  My friend Marilyn Rose, who has made a lot of one block wonder or stack and whack quilts met with me to go to a quilt store in Vicksburg.  She talked to me about design and layout options.  When I got home I played with the math a bit and decided to put a small panel in the center showing a big piece of the fabric.  I also put some on the borders, making sure the prints were right direction.  

Edit:  Thought I would add this photo from when it was on the long-arm as it shows the back.

Nestled is on the left!

Then I assembled a big print for the back then folded it up as The Harmon Quilt was on the long arm machine.  After the tension problems on the long arm, I didn't want to put another quilt on and have to rip out more quilting.  So I decided to let it sit till school was out.  Once school was out, I watched a number of YouTube videos on setting the tension on an Innova machine and decided mine probably needed a lube job and deep clean, so I ordered what I needed.  After a trip to San Diego, the stuff came in and I rewatched the videos then added lube to the machine and set the tension like they said.  Sewed like a dream.  But I was still not sure I wanted to put a quilt headed for someone else on the machine so I took one of the tops I had made for me on the machine and quilted it.   It sewed like a dream.  So next came Nestled.  Loved the way it came out.  Hope Chloe enjoys it.  

Update:

Chloe had a birthday recently and here are a couple of pics of her with her quilt...

I hope she continues to use it and love it.  Makes my heart happy.

Sew on,

Terry