My Favorite Things

Dear Readers,

When I walk, at a time when they are home, my two little neighbors walk with me.  Well, at the beginning of the summer, MC, the older child started asking me about helping her to make a quilt.  I put her off as I was working on the elephant quilt, and I thought she may not be ready.  After I got home from my trip to Georgia, she was still asking.  So I told her to let me think about it and see what I could come up with.  So I cleaned my studio and put out my featherweight for MC to sew on.  I thought she might like to do a disappearing 9 patch pattern.  It has all straight seams and I like the way you get a cool pattern that appears when you cut it apart and put it back together.  My plan was to have her sew the nine patches and I would do the ironing and cutting.  So I put tape on the machine so that she could use that to line up the fabric.  It did not go well...she struggled with keeping it lined up.  

 I ended up having her use my scraps to  practice with and then after she left, I finished putting the 9 patches together.

Later in the year, I put the 9 patches together as a quilt, adding a few more to the mix to make it the size of a small throw.

I decided to call it my favorite things as I know MC loves pretty colors.  So then I quilted the white background and the borders.  The borders I had used fabric with a dragonfly pattern.  So I was just outlining the dragonfly and making swirls on the border.  Because I was using a different kind of thread, I guess I wasn't handling it right, as the machine kept shredding it.  Eventually I got the border done and the white areas.

After I did that, I was looking at it and decided the colored blocks needed quilting too.  So I free motioned a different animal or something I knew she liked on each block.

Since I was working on it at night after school, a lot of the time, I messed up and did some of the quilting sideways.

I had a piece of a horse print in my stash, and I know that MC loves horses so I put it on the back.
It wasn't great looking but MC loved it.

Also busted the stash on using up some greens that kind of coordinated on the back, AND a piece of orange flannel for the binding.  Whoop, whoop!!

Still, despite all the issues, overall I really like the way this came out.  Finished size is 51 x 57.

Sew on,

Terry

Misty Mountains

Hey all,

The next quilt that I completed was the Misty Mountain quilt that Celeste wanted.   The pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties.  I figured out the measurement to do a border like they did on a similar quilt on Missouri Star Quilt Co.   She wanted a gray color.  I started it in Colorado, sewing the diagonals on the squares.  I cut ironed and the blocks after I got home from Diane and Carlos's home.  Then I started making the mountains.

When Celeste was home for Memorial Day we laid out the blocks I had done to decide on what style of layout she liked.

I love an asymmetrical block as there are so many ways to lay it out.

So we decided on this layout.

This was quilted by Betty Lewis.

Sew on,

Terry

Catching up! Collaboration Quilt

Dear Readers,

Sorry I have been so slack in posting.  My computer had gotten where it ran so slow that it was painful to use.  By the time it responded to a command, I had stopped watching the screen, then it would time out and I would have to start the log in process all over again!

Anyway since blogging (or playing) on the lap top was not happening, I did get more sewing done!

Before I went to Diane and Carlos's for our quilting week,  Celeste and I did a quilt together.  She chose a pattern by Sweet Jane called Borderline Crazy.  Here is a link to her Etsy shop if you want the pattern.  It is a small throw...

 

I misread the instructions, on my defense, the pictures of the crib sized quilt were next to the instructions for the throw sized quilt.  So Celeste, figured out how she wanted it expanded back to be a throw sized.  luckily we figured out I had messed up, before we got it all together!  Betty Lewis did the quilting on this quilt.

absolutely love the backing fabric that Celeste chose!

This was finished in August or September of 2017.

I will try to do one catch up post every few days till I am back up to date!!  More to follow!

Sew long,

Terry

Squirts and an eye spy

Dear Readers,

I made a quilt this summer that I have not written about yet.  I was on my fabulous road trip with Celeste when I asked Sue what fabrics Steve and Sally, her son and daughter in law, were using in their nursery.  I had the thought of making an eye spy quilt for their nursery.  So I wanted to find things that were in her theme for the eye spy blocks.  She had chosen some soft grey fabrics and one print with elephants on it.  Well on our trip, Celeste and I ran across a shop hop in the Salt Lake City.  So on the shop hop we saw a quilt made up called Elephant Abstractions by Violet Craft.  Click here to visit her website. On a whim, I sent a photo to Sue, and Celeste and I bought the pattern.

I had been collecting grey fabrics to make a mountain quilt for Celeste over the last few months and I had already cut out the blocks for that quilt.  So when I got home, I put out the fabrics and found some to use for the elephant.  There were some that I wanted to use, that I didn't have enough fabric.  The pattern showed a yellow background, but Sue did not think that would work with their color scheme.  So I layed out various options I had in my stash and we picked the bright blue.

 When I got home, before I could start the elephant I needed to finish the eye spy for my co-workers first grand baby.  Once I finished that I started piecing the elephant.  There are 97 paper pieced sections int the elephant.  And it is built in 6 sections.  So I started with section one and tried to get a section done in 1 or two days.

 The trunk was section one...

Section two was an ear

Section three was the bottom of the left

Then the top right.

Then the bottom right

Lastly the feet had to be done.

Violet Craft did not have a border on her quilt, but I decided with all those bias edges, to put a 2 inch border made of the background fabric on the quilt.  I did not want it to get wavy, and it was laying pretty flat upon completion.

My original plan was to make a two sided quilt, eye spy on one side and the elephant on the other...but as I pieced it I decided I really would want to custom quilt that elephant.  So I texted Sue and suggested we do it as two quilts...So when we were on our crafting week at her sisters, I quilted this elephant and made the eye spy quilt.   I used the quilting in the quilt I saw in Utah for inspiration.  It did seem to get a little wavy with the quilting.  I quilted it on my Bernina 350.  If we had had more time, I would have blocked it.  We named the elephant quilt "Squirts"  I hope they love it, I had a great time making it, and it was a big stretch to do those large paper piecing and some of the quilting patterns were things I hadn't done before.  My only regret was we didn't have time to block it.  

 So this is what the eye spy quilt made with Come Quilt With Me templates came out looking like....
Click here if you want one.

I quilted this by stitching in the ditch and putting a meandering stars in the border.  I also wrote his name in the quilting...I really do like to write with the free motion quilting.  It is like leaving a hidden message.

Enjoy Vance Harmon!!

Terry

Barn Quilts

Dear Readers,

I have always loved spotting a barn quilt when out on a road trip.  Celeste and I spotted lots of them when we were out and about on our summer trip.

In the Columbus/Caledonia Mississippi area Rita Williams has been a prolific barn quilter.  This is a picture the Keri Lewis took and posted on FB.   Last Saturday Rita shared her techniques with a group of us,  teaching us to barn quilt.

We had such a nice time.  Rita's church was generous and let us paint in their fellowship hall.  Several times during the day, I thought how the sounds of happy voices and ladies working and visiting was so nice.  I had a wonderful day.  Here are some photos of some of the barn quilts we painted.

And the finished products!!

I know there were some I missed getting photos of.  But it was a really fun day.

Terry