The 2015 Finish

Yeah!  This quilt is quilted and bound, and that translates to finished in my book.  This is my last finish in 2015, or could it be the first finish in 2016? 

This was a kit that I bought at Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, CA last October.  I saw it in a vendor's booth.  I fell in love with the fabrics.  I bought the kit and even the backing.  This pattern is Cloud Nine from Villa Rosa Designs.  The pattern was printed on a postcard size heavy paper card.  A color picture of the finished quilt is on the front of the card and the instructions, including color layouts, are on the back. 

I have about three or four of these different cards/patterns.  Since these patterns are quick and easy to sew, they are fun to do because I receive almost instant gratification.  I sewed this top together at a retreat I attended last October.  Since I had bought the backing along with the kit, there was no reason for me not to sew one seam for the backing and take it to Marcia Burke for machine quilting.  She did a great job on the quilting. 

This is a bright, cheerful quilt.  I can very easily see this quilt on a little girl's big girl bed.  Last weekend our granddaughter's toddler bed was replaced by a big girl's bed.  She is delighted with it.  I asked our son if our grandson wanted a big boy's bed now, but he said our grandson wanted to sleep on her bed since it is big enough for both of them.

Be safe and have a Happy New Year's Eve tonight.

Snowmen Quilt

If I remember correctly, this is a BOM from Bunny Hill.  Years ago I received a monthly packet which included fabric and the pattern.  I placed all the packets into a large bag to work on at a later date.  This date never happened so I finally donated this kit to our quilt guild's Camp Stitches event.  A friend purchased the pattern and immediately started working on it.  She gave me monthly updates on her progress on this quilt.  She deemed it would be a family Christmas quilt to be passed down through the family.  All the snowmen are named after family members.  She changed a few things on a couple of blocks to make it more personal for her family.

It has been wonderful to watch the progress on this quilt.  My friend was so excited to share with me the different things she had done on the quilt.  She made the backgrounds and then she started hand appliquéing the blocks.  A couple of meetings ago she shared her almost finished top.  She will hand quilt this family quilt. 

I almost felt that I was making this quilt along with my friend.  My heart is filled with joy knowing that this darling quilt has found a loving home where it will be cherished by the entire family.

Happy Quilting and Merry Christmas

A fleece blanket and a Thomas the Train quilt

The grandbabies were here for a visit today.  I presented them with their new blanket/quilt.  For the little guy I had made him a reversible Thomas the Train quilt.  I had purchased the fabric over a year ago.  I should have made him the quilt ASAP since I think he has moved on to another hero already!  Oh well.  The granddaughter's fleece blanket was a hit.  Even our DIL liked it.  She said she would use it.  I had wanted to give these items to the babies on the little guy's birthday that was a couple months ago but did not have the granddaughter's fleece blanket finished.  DIL said I should have waited for Christmas but I know how much stuff they receive at Christmas and I wanted them to be able to use them now.  Since the weather is getting colder I wanted them to have their items to use to keep themselves warm.

We had a fun day which was culminated with a bubble tea party outdoors.  We had bubbles everywhere.  The little guy only spilled one bottle of bubbles today.  Fortunately I had a spare bottle so we played with bubbles until it became too cold for grandma to stay outside.  Mom and Dad had come back to pick them up by then so it all worked out okay.  I am absolutely exhausted, but it was a great day.  It is always so fun to see our son and his family.  Since they moved an hour away, we do not babysit the little ones and do not see the family as often.

Our Guild's New Opportunity Quilt

This is my quilt guild's new Opportunity Quilt.  We will soon have tickets available for sale.  Isn't it beautiful?  I did not have any hand in this quilt even though I did volunteer to help.  It was a collaboration of four (I think) groups of quilters.  Each group received a portion of the quilt to sew, embroider, etc.  It all came together really well.  Each group worked independently of each other.  Each group also had their patterns and a picture of the whole quilt.  I could not wait to post a picture of it.  I think it is absolutely beautiful.  But then, I did have a chance to see it in person and actually hold it up for a photo.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this holiday.

Happy Quilting

Gifted Fabric Strips Quilt

This quilt came about as a result of a mystery gift.  My previous co-worker gave me a package one day when we were having lunch.  She said someone had given her this package of fabric strips to give to me but she could not remember who it was who gave her the package.  The package contained 20 2.5 inch fabric strips.  Black, grey and pink plus purple were the colors in the strips.

I decided to make a jelly roll type quilt with squares of purple fabric between each strip.  These were not my favorite colors, but I pushed forward with the project.  After I added the borders I liked it better.  I had it quilted and I bound it so it is finished.  Now what do I do with it?  I wanted to return it to the person who gave my friend the strips, but she still cannot remember who the mystery person is. So I guess it will go to our guild for a charity quilt.  Our guild's Community Quilts group is gifting a bunch of quilts to different charities at our December meeting.  We gift charity quilts twice a year, once in the summer and then again in December.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Quilting

Mystery Quilt August/September 2015

This is the quilt that I chose as my mystery quilt class for August 2015.  Unfortunately the class was postponed until September 2015.  This is a pattern from Jelly Roll Dreams by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  It was a fun class.  This quilt requires a lot of sewing.  Usually I pick easier, quicker patterns but this one spoke to me.  I knew that the ladies would not get their quilt top completed in the class.  I worry that when the quilts are bigger then often they become UFOs if the ladies cannot complete most of the quilt top in class.  

At our October quilt guild meeting, three of the class participants had their tops completed and brought them in for the Show and Tell portion of the meeting. I was so pleased that three tops were completed.  I know these ladies worked hard to get these tops done in time for the October meeting.

Mystery quilt classes are one of my favorite classes to teach.  I try to teach at least one mystery class a year.  I am always on the lookout for a possible mystery quilt pattern.

Happy Quilting
  

A Past Mystery Quilt

This quilt was a mystery quilt a few years ago from a Camp Stitches event.  A friend and I chose some of the same fabrics.  The two quilts were very different when finished.  I enjoyed this mystery class and was very happy that my choice of fabrics came together well.  Sometimes that is not always true!  I think we have all made mystery quilts that did not always turn out to be happy finishes.  Several years ago a mystery quilt I made while I was attending my adult quilting class was not a happy accident at all.  When I chose my fabrics they all played well together.  When I finished the quilt, my center blocks almost disappeared and the borders took over the quilt.   All of my other mystery quilts have been happy accidents for me.

Tomorrow is the first day of our Camp Stitches 2015 event.  Saturday I will be teaching a mystery quilt class.  I hope all the participants mystery quilts will be happy finishes.

Happy Quilting

Log Cabin Flying Geese quilt

Here is a baby quilt I made using a pattern labeled Log Cabin Flying Geese.  I made this for a Log Cabin challenge for a quilt group in which I belong.  I also made another different Log Cabin quilt that is not quite finished.  It is not quilted/bound yet. 

This quilt is flannel backed.  This is the first time I used flannel as a backing.  I am sure the baby will keep warm with this quilt and hopefully it will not fall away from the baby's body when the baby rolls over.

This pattern is one I found in a book or magazine and now I cannot find that book/magazine.  The original quilt was larger.  Since I needed a baby quilt I made my version smaller.  Therefore, I cannot credit the designer for this pattern.  My apologies to that person.

What caught my eye with this design is the diagonal lines caused by the "flying geese" pieces moving across the quilt.  I absolutely love diagonal lines in quilts.

Hope you are having a great summer.  Fall is just around the corner.  School has already started at the elementary school across the street from our house.  Whoopee!  Traffic jams galore!  Whoopee!

One More Baby Quilt

Here is another baby quilt where I used the sailor boy and girl fabric.  I have made at least three baby quilts from this fabric and I still have a fat quarter left.  This design is a Double Irish Chain.  I did a Quilting 101 class for my quilt guild a couple of months ago.  This is the quilt that I made from that class.  There were just a few blocks done at the time of class.  I took this quilt to our guild meeting last Tuesday night and shared it at our Show and Tell.  It is the first quilt that I used flannel fabric on the back.

I had trouble with the binding.  I sewed it on with my black Singer Featherweight.  I did not notice that it was skipping stitches until I had completed the binding on both sides.  There were so many skipped stitches, and some were big enough to push a little toe through, so I unsewed the last stitching.  It was not easy for me either.  My hands were hurting after a hour of unstitching.

My Viking sewing machine was in for servicing.  After we picked up my Viking  from the shop I brought it home and set it up right away.  I sewed down the binding with the Viking and it worked out great.  No skipped stitches.  I did use a bigger needle size on the Viking than I had on the Featherweight.  I wonder if that helped the skipping problem?  Maybe if I had used a larger size needle on the Featherweight there would not have been skipped stitches.

Happy Quilting

Quickie Baby Quilt

My daughter asked me last Tuesday if I had an extra baby quilt.  I have been trying to make a couple of baby quilts to get ahead, but I have not been able to get any extra quilts completed.  I pulled out a preprinted panel on Tuesday.  I went to my bee on Wednesday and pin basted it.  On Thursday I quilted it, and on Friday I trimmed it and bound it.  So I started and finished it in three days.  My daughter took it to the baby shower today and gifted it to her friend.

Wow!  Three days!  I cannot remember if I ever made a baby quilt in three days.  Agreed, it was a preprinted panel.  I had not done any machine quilting in years and was not sure if I remembered how.  Things went along okay until I started to apply the binding.  When I turned on my sewing machine my light was out.  It was not an easy task to sew on binding totally by machine without a light.  I tried to pull one of my Ott lights over the area, but I could not get any light on the sewing area without the light being in front of me which caused me not to be able to see the sewing foot.  What fun!

Today I took my machine in for servicing.  I need to pull out a Featherweight  machine in order to have a sewing machine to use for the next two weeks until I can pick up my other sewing machine.

Happy Quilting

A two color quilt

This is basically a two color quilt.  I took a class at the Queen Bee Quilt Shop in Antioch, California, USA, with two friends last summer.  This pattern is by Linda Ballard.

When I had this quilted, the quilter said it was a nice looking two color quilt.  Actually, both fabrics have little designs of different colors throughout.  The light color fabric has little hearts in it.  The light purple fabric has little colored dots in it.   Both fabrics were enjoyable to work with and worked together very well. 

This quilt was fun to make and I am happy that it is "finished". 

Hugs - Pam

Potted of Flowers

The top for this mystery quilt was made in a mystery quilt class years ago.  It was recently quilted and bound last month.  I had a blast in this class.  The teachers made kits for us.  They had us sew the steps in random order so it was impossible to figure out what the mystery was until the reveal.  Each teacher made their version of this quilt, and they both were great.  Now I have another flower quilt I can hang in springtime.

What a fun time had by all at this class.  There were 20 participants, each with different fabrics in our kits.  I probably would not have made this quilt if it had not been a mystery quilt class.  Sometimes you may not like mystery quilt classes because you do not know what type of fabrics to use since you have not seen the finished quilt.  I have been lucky so far with mystery classes.  There is only one mystery quilt that I did not particularly care for and I have participated in many mystery classes, as well as teaching a few myself.  All the participants in this mystery class were very happy with our results.

Happy Quilting

Long Tall Quilt

This Long Tall quilt is a pattern from Cozy Quilt Designs.  Three friends and I went to a local quilt store last year on a field trip.  We saw this quilt sample hanging on the wall and we all fell in love.  Each of us bought different fabrics for our quilts.  One member of the group sewed her quilt up immediately since she was gifting it ASAP.  I recently finished the binding and label on my quilt.  It has been gifted and it moved along with its owner to Washington, D.C. last month.

This quilt was easy to make.  You need a Jelly Roll (or whatever name other fabric companies call their roll of 40 strips), and a background fabric.  This quilt is made in large, rectangular blocks.  This is the first time I have made a quilt with large, rectangular shapes instead of the standard square block design.

It was great fun being together with other quilters and choosing our fabrics for this quilt.  I finished my top and then it sat a few months before I had it machine quilted by Shari Bahr.  She did a wonderful job on this quilt, as she always does on all our quilts.  This is a fun way to use up one of those Jelly Rolls you have sitting there waiting to be sewn into a quilt.

Happy Quilting