Mini QOM

That's "Mini Quilt of the Month". I signed up at my local quilt shop to make one of these little wall-hangings each month (although I'm not sure I'll do them EVERY month). I have an 'eyebrow' window on my front door I like to cover as the sunlight shines a little too brightly through it in the afternoon and these little quilts are the perfect size for it. 

I must tell you that this is quite a bit of a 'cheater' quilt. It's by Laundry Basket Quilts and each little piece is pre-fused and laser cut to make it super easy to put together. I did quilt it very nicely though :-) The piano key border and last border made this quilt 24" x 28".

Have you posted to Judy's blog yet today? 

Road 2 California Show

 How many things other than quilts have you made? Garments, curtains, slipcovers, bags? I think many of us have made bags. I've constructed about 6 of them and tried another one this week. I went to the Road 2 California quilt show in Ontario, CA and chanced upon the ByAnnie.com booth. Annie has come up with a lot of really cute bags (this is the On The Go bag) and a new "batting" that is soft yet sturdy and makes the bag stand up rather than collapse.

I have to admit, this was a BEAR of a pattern to construct. It took me about 12 hours to make this little bag! Of course, all the seams are bound with bias binding and there are a lot of pockets and "see through" areas for ID and an adjustable strap which required watching a video on her website to figure out! 

The pattern was pretty clearly written but I still ended up with a couple of extra pieces I cut and one part of the directions I never figured 
out--! But that's a lot better than most patterns I've used.

Were I to make this again (which will be never!) I would use a thinner batting. It was such a struggle to get around inner corners using this very thick product she recommended for this small purse. I will use it though for a larger bag that doesn't call for binding in inner seams! 

I also splurged on this portable "Sew-EZI" sewing table! I've wanted one for years and when I set it up in the living room, next to the fireplace, across from the TV and in sight of my kitty, Bobo I was in heaven! It's super sturdy and even when I'm sewing "peddle to the metal", there's no vibration or shaking at all! It folds up very easily, stores in a very nice case and off you go!

Did you post to Judy's Design Wall Monday today? I'd love to see what you've been working on!

Celtic Solstice Finish

I love scrappy quilts! I love using up my stash (making room to buy more fabric) and how they 'sparkle' unlike quilts of just 3-4 fabrics. They are a hassle though; having to press all those different pieces of fabric and cut tiny pieces off them. . . 
I have, however, finished the top (which is one-half of the small-sized quilt!) of Bonnie Hunter's latest free mystery quilt. Phew--what a lot of pieces--close to 1,000! It's 46" square and doesn't have the final element of the 3" Peaky and Spike squares we made but since it's larger than I wanted it to be, I won't be adding those squares but will bind it in purple. 
I used my own colors instead of Bonnie's and know it would have been better if my yellow was purple which I think would have shown off the secondary circle pattern better but, that's what happens with mystery quilts sometimes. But, I like it and have the perfect place to hang it in my home. Thanks to Bonnie for her generosity and creative talent!

Christmas Quilts

I've finally gotten over my 2-month "block"of not feeling much like sewing and I'm back to multiple projects--LOL! First, I'm making Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt which started on Thanksgiving. I'm proud of myself for keeping up with every week's 'clue' but have to come clean: After making Bonnie's wonderful scrap quilts for 2 years now, I've learned my lesson! I'm making a very small quilt--half the size of Bonnie's 'small' quilt. My colors are different than hers too: aqua, lime, lilac and yellow/gold (although it looks orange here).

And. . . I started another project too *sigh*
Every year since I've been quilting, round about November, all I want to do is make Christmas quilts and every year I'm just SURE I'm going to want to make nothing but Christmas quilts ALL year. By about mid-February, I'm on to spring florals--SO, I have to get going on this adorable "Deck the Halls" quilt! 


I'm going to make it smaller than the pattern to fit on my foyer wall so I'm making 2 of these units and 3 of the applique units and reducing the size of everything. Instead of 3" finished half-square triangles, mine will be 2 1/2" and the wool applique candies and gingerbread men will be 2/3 their size. It will end up about 38" x 45".

Wonder if there's any other Christmas quilts to see on Judy's blog for Design Wall Monday!

Ahoy, It's A Boy!

It's been ages since I've posted but life has been tempting me with things other than quilting! My husband is retired now and travel seems to take up a lot of our time--no, I'm NOT complaining--LOL!

My daughter's best friend is expecting her second child on Christmas day and I wanted to make a quilt for her as I did for her adorable first child. Here's the cute story: It's a boy and they've named him Pierce. She promised her husband if he'd agree to have a THIRD child, (yes, she loves parenthood that much!) she would let her husband get a boat. Thus the theme of little Pierce's bedroom: Ahoy, it's a boy. Here's my rendition in quilt form--Minkee on back, of course!

A Finished Top!

Remember the Wagon Wheels blocks I made a couple of weeks ago in a Sandy Klop class? I decided 4 would be enough what with sashing, a first border, a piano keys second border and another plain border. (I'm loving that red!) This finished 44" square and is the perfect size for the wall quilt rack in my foyer. AND, since this week commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War reproduction fabrics I used are appropriate. I was able to show this top to my Civil War-buff husband on Father's Day, promising him I would finish quilting it within a couple of weeks. 

Here's the quilt I just hung in my foyer rack: the block exchange I did with my quilting group, the Calendar Girls, at the end of last year. Really gets me in the spirit for the 4th of July!

Did you post your week's efforts on Judy's Design Wall Monday?

McCloud Retreat!

Every year by best quilting buddies and I go to northern California for a retreat in the pines in the tiny, historic town of McCloud. There we stay in a 100+ year old building with an inn (and huge classroom) on the top floor and shops and restaurants on the main floor fronted by a wide porch with benches and flowerboxes. It's pretty much the same as it's been for decades except for the upgraded rooms at the inn. Along with the wavy glass in the extra tall windows and antique-looking fixtures, the bathrooms and beds are pristine and plush and the reproduction wallpaper (including William Morris designs!)--Delightful!

I vowed not to buy any fabric even though we stopped at 2 quilt shops on the way. I have more than my sewing room can tolerate as it is! but we had a vendor at the retreat with really good prices on really nice fabric and since my batik and 30s stash is pretty meager, I purchased 5 yards in 1/2-yard pieces (middle row in the photo). Then we played a hand of "Batik Poker". There were 15 of us taking part so 5 of us tossed a fat quarter of batik into the pot and drew a card. Highest card won all 5. I won with a King! This was repeated with 2 other groups of 5. At the end there were 3 of us with 5 fat quarters each. All 3 of us set our winnings on the table for an all-or-nothing draw of a card! First card was a 9, next card was a King, my card was. . . an ACE!!! I won all the fat quarters!! There they are along the left side of this photo.

Then we had an Auction with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. There were about a dozen wonderful prizes on display at each of us could bid on. Where do the prizes come from? They're donated by us quilters, of course. There were big baskets of yummy foods, fancy bags of fabric, home and yard decorations, anything you could think of! I had my eye on the fat quarter tower that came in a delightful basket-purse and ended up the high bidder!! (Its on the upper right in the photo next to the column of fabric that came inside it). I also bid on a basket full of wonderful Sunsweet items donated by a lady who runs the Sunsweet Growers Store in Yuba City, CA. It's the best gift shop I know and I use their shipping service every year to send delicious and useful items to loved ones at Christmas.

So all totaled, 13.5 yards of fabric!! I should be ashamed of myself. . . 

 I figure I sat at my sewing machine for about 28 hours from Friday afternoon until Sunday at noon. WELL--a girl's gotta EAT! I brought 4 projects to work on but only ended up doing two: an apron from a darling pattern I found, and the 1st and 2nd months in the BOM I'm starting (a Nancy Rink pattern through ThimbleCreek Quilt Shop in Concord CA) and a paper-pieced pattern I've been putzing with for a couple of years. 



I started with the BOM because the quilt has 68 fairly intricate blocks and this BOM is only 6 months! Yeah. . . do the math! I spent the first 13 hours making the blocks you see on my design wall. That's all of month one and 1/3 of month 2. But if you see the finished quilt you'll know why I couldn't resist!


Next I made "My Neighbor's Apron", a pull-over-your-head apron sort of like a smock and just adorable! Well, that left not too many hours to sew. I did a little paper-piecing on an on-going project the rest of the time. 

Aren't retreats the greatest?! Why not sign up for one yourself? And take a look at Judy's Design Wall Monday while you're at it!