It has been a long time since I finished a UFO.  I’m way behind on my goal of one a week.  Springtime will do that to you when you spend lots of time raking, weeding, mowing and dividing overgrown plants.  I can catch up next winter.  Many of the UFOs will probably take more than a week to finish anyway so I won’t worry about that.

Many years and two sewing machines ago, I learned how to digitize.  It was long, hard work and I really didn’t like to do it.  I did digitize some labels, some embroideries, and this red work flower pattern.  When I found out that I could buy beautiful embroideries already digitized for a small amount, I gladly stopped.  My work had skipped stitches and just didn’t look professional.

I sewed out twelve flower blocks and put them aside as I didn’t like them.  While watching the Missouri Star Company on you tube, I saw a video of embroidered squares sewn together in a quilt as you go method.  This was interesting and I like to try new things, so I remembered the red work blocks and brought them out.  They are now together and will go in the give away bin.  No matter how many times I try new quilt as you go methods, I still Like Georgia Bonesteel’s method.  It does involve some handwork as this method is all sewn by machine.

     

It did turn out O.K. and someone will like it.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

These are a few of my beginning wall hangings.  It was fun learning new techniques and making small pieces.  I’m glad that I found the photo album of quilts that I had given away and can share them with you.

I had a class with Harriett Hargraves and learned machine applique and machine quilting.  Making a wall hanging with curves made it easier to manipulate the applique.  This wall hanging was made quickly using Harriett’s methods.  Harriett was a great teacher.  I took two classes with her.

 

 

The second wall hanging is made of two different nine patch blocks. White sashing is between the blocks with a four patch corner square.  The difference in fabric color make the piece look difficult, but it was very easy to piece.  I’m thinking that this would make a very easy and pretty full size quilt

 

 

The third wall hanging was my first attempt in curved piecing.  I found that the drunkards path pattern was easy to piece using just three pins.  When I first started to quilt, I was self taught, using the Quilters Newsletter magazine as my textbook.  I was a solitary quilter and had no one to give me an opinion of what was hard and what was easy.  I have no fear of Y seams, curved piecing or partial seams because no one told me they were supposed to be hard.  I just followed the instructions and they were easy.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

Two years ago, I bought three dying kits.  The colors were gradated from one color to another. Beautiful colors according to the samples.  Last summer, I finally bought the fabric and decided to dye the fabric.  I hadn’t read the instructions before and found that the amount of dye powder was for fat 16ths.  I would have lots of colors, but only small pieces of each.

I waited until summer to dye as I only dye fabric in the back yard now.  Previously when dyeing fabric, I dyed on a TV tray in the bathtub in the bathroom.  One time I was dyeing yellow fabric and it spilled everywhere.  It did not come off and didn’t look very good.

The dyeing process took four days as there was wait time between dyeing, rinsing, drying and pressing the pieces.  It took me a good part of the day to measure the dye powder and process all three boxes.  There were recipes for each color.  Amounts of the dye were increased or decreased in each baggie to make the color gradation.  That was the first day.

The second day was rinse day.  By the end of the day the rubber gloves were off. They were too much bother.  I was drenched from head to toe.  Each piece needed several rinses until the water ran clear.  I had marked each fabric so that I would know where they belonged in the gradation and with which batch.

The third day was easy.  The fabric just dried by itself.   Then after it dried, I ironed each small piece.  That took most of another day.  Now that that project is finished, I am glad that I did it.  The fabric is beautiful.  The next time I have the desire to dye fabric, I will only use one box.

These fabrics were made from left over dye.

Now, I just have to find a pattern to make something with the dyed fabric.  Years ago, I dyed a lot of fabric in different patterns and had to force myself to cut it up.  Then there was the summer when my daughter and I sun dyed fabric.  It was beautiful.  I did make a quilt for her in memory of the fun “quilt camp” week.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

501 is the fifth quilt in the Miss Rosie Series.  The Miss Rosie quilts are designed by Carrie L Nelson in her book Miss Rosie Spice of Life.

Carrie made two quilts in this pattern.  One had a red background and the other a beige background.  This is an easy quilt, made very differently with different background fabrics.

 

 

 

 

I thought that I had enough fabric in my stash to make the background the same color, but after I cut the pieces, I found that there were two colorways of the same pattern.  This made a design element, not an error.  After all, it is a scrap quilt and we had to only use our stash.  I machine quilted my quilt with my domestic machine

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My daughter also used light fabric in her background.  Although the fabric is different, it looks like the same quilt because of the value in colors.  Her quilt was professionally quilted with a long arm machine.

I enjoyed making the Miss Rosie quilts.  There are thirteen in the book.  I was very, very happy when I put the last stitch in the thirteenth quilt.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

When I first started quilting, I read somewhere that the knots were not to show so I figured out how to hand piece without knots. That way they wouldn’t show.  They wouldn’t be there.  I started about one inch out from the  starting point, sewed to the starting point and then sewed the seam.  It worked and the seams never came apart.

When my youngest daughter was headed to college, I started a quilt for her.  Sometime during the making of the quilt, I ended up in the hospital.  I took the pieces and continued to hand piece the quilt.  One of the nurses told me that I could make the quilt much faster if I sewed by machine.  I told her that they didn’t allow machines in the hospital and she agreed.  It did put a thought in my head and this quilt is the last one that I hand pieced.  It is hand quilted though.  I hadn’t gone that far in my quilt journey.  

I do have to say that I still hand piece Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilts and most of my applique.  Hand work is relaxing.

At this point in my quilting life, I didn’t have a stash, rulers, or any of the special tools that I have now.  I made this quilt with two pins and a needle, and, of course, fabric and thread.  It was so much easier then.  One quilt at a time.  No UFO’s.  No scraps.  Someday, I’m going to teach a class called “Two Pins and a Needle”.  It would be fun.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

I’ve never met a challenge that I didn’t like.  We had two different challenges at the Guild this year.  Both were small pieces, which I like to do as it doesn’t take long to complete them.

The first is a modern paint chip challenge.  We drew two different chips and were given a third chip. We could use only these three colors.  No other colors could be used, including neutral colors.

The colors had to read as a solid and should match the paint chip colors as closely as possible.  We could only use 10% of the third color.  The quilt had to measure 18″ x 18″.  All piecing and quilting designs were up to the individual.

My quilt was hand appliqued and machine quilted.

 

 

 

 

The second challenge was a pizza box challenge.,  If we wanted to do the challenge, we took a pizza box that had a small or mini quilt pattern in it.  We added all the fabric and batting needed to finish the quilt and took the pizza box back to the Guild.  There we swapped the boxes unseen and made the quilt from what was in the box.

The box that I picked up had a delightful little doll quilt and very nice fabric,  It was easy to piece.  I machine quilted it with a wavy line and bound it with a flange binding.  It will make a nice gift for a little girl.

 

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Baby quilts are fun to make.  The are small and can be pieced in a short time.  My earlier baby quilts were hand quilted, but now, I machine quilt them as I expect lots of washing and drying.

Baby quilts can be made with any pattern as long as it is colorful.  They are a great way to try out new blocks and new color combinations.   They are the perfect size for a new machine quilter to practice quilting,

This cat quilt was appliqued and hand quilted.  It is one of my earlier baby quilts.

The  boat quilt was fun to make.  It is also one of my earlier baby quilts.

 

 

 

Spring is here.  The lawn has been fertilized and limed.  It has grown so fast and I’ve mowed half the lawn.  The front yard will be mowed tomorrow.  Then I will work around the house in the shade to seed all the flower gardens.  After that, I can take a break and wait for the grass to grow again and do a little weeding.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

I’m still working on several long term quilts.  This is an update on two of them.

Four months are finished on the temperature quilt.  It’s interesting to see how the color changes as the weather becomes warmer.  Each row contains the highest and lowest temperature of the day.  The warmest temperature is the geese and the lowest is the sky.  I’m up to date with eight geese getting ready to fly. It will take 365 days to make all the geese and then the quilting.

 

 

 

My mother’s Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt is showing progress.  I’m sewing all the white hexagons around the bottom edge and then will decide where to place the other blocks.    I’ve finished nine additional blocks and have a few more cut out in case I need them.  I still haven’t decided whether I will add another row or not.  This quilt is taking forever, but it is relaxing to hand sew in in the evening.

 

 

Have a great day and happy quilting,

This is the fourth in the Miss Rosie Series.  Carrie Nelson’s block was made in muted greens, yellows and reds.  It was called Three Coins,  Carrie had made the red star blocks and didn’t like the setting that she had planned, .so she set them aside.  Later, she dreamed of the right setting and made “Three Coins”.

 

 

 

  

This is the same quilt made in different colors.  Just making some of the background fabric darker and changing the hue of some of the pieces makes the quilt look like another pattern.

Running out of a fabric is not a disaster.  It’s a design element.

          

Have a great day and happy quilting.

It’s a beautiful day for working in the gardens.  My front gardens are mulched, except I need five more bags to finish the job.  Next week will be just great for doing that.

My garden series is up to blocks 11 and 12.  I saw a setting on Pinterest that uses 12 blocks and will put the garden blocks together that way.  I’ll search my stash for the setting pieces this week.  Then the garden series will be done.

I’ll continue to make all the blocks in Cindy Einmo’s book, but will just make the blocks for a sampler quilt.

 

Block 11

1        

Block 12

      

Have a great day and happy quilting.