Looking back, preparing to look forward

To See Such Fun

We're in a new year it seems, so it's time to look back. I'll look forward in a day or so, but I need time to process last year. So much has happened, two new babies in the family, the loss of Richard's dad, my hospital stay and surgery. 

Another Red Feather from Red Is a Neutral challenge

Still, as it turns out, I've been quite busy in my little world. 

Dora and Diego 

Busy with what, you might be asking yourself (because I did set myself up for that question). My sassy answer is finish reading the post. But I'm not particularly sassy. 

Mr. Stripey made by Marley

I made or finished several quilts, taught a grandie to sew as she made her own quilt. All of these are quite small--lap or baby quilts, and a few are some tops that I simply quilted. That basket of tops waiting to be quilted is just a little lighter.

Pink Pieces

A Touch of Teal

We finally finished our bedroom and bathroom remodel, which ended the procrastinating to make (or buy?) a cover for the bed.

The Biggest Finish

The Biggest Finish required a great deal of time and effort to complete because, well, it's the biggest finish. It's bigger than a normal king so that it has a nice, long drape to hide that huge mattress. I don't remember the crazy measurements, but it may be the reason I'm going to therapy for this shoulder.

Dresden Teaching Quilt

So those are the quilts I made: from cutting to binding, even if they've been languishing for a year or four. 

Apparently I did some things that are not on my normal Things To Do list.
A quick rundown:

• made monkey costumes for Beta 
• learned to use the Silhouette machine and completed several projects
• chaired the silent auction (and donated items) for the annual church fair
• turned Daddy's old wooden ladder into two quilt ladders (thanks to Richard)
• and I organized this thread cabinet he made for me (It's crazy how much time that took.)
• 
  

I also ended my presidency for the Cotton Quilters' Guild, managed the CQG quilt show and managed a (first time) CQG sewing room tour, including my room.

Finally, I tackled Doctor Zhivago Yes, reading is generally on my list, but this book!

Retirement is paying off, and I started some new things that I'd like to pursue, such as

1. GSQA meeting (circuit teacher)
2. GSQA Pursuit of Excellence class
3. BRMQG retreat (three finished tops)
4. CFAL show (Baton Rouge)
5. Quilters' Guild Acadienne show (Lafayette)
6. Houston 2019

Reese's Quilt

And then there were a couple of customer quilts. This first one is for my sister, so it didn't pay much. :) But the ones below did and 
have a special meaning for me, as well. There's a fourth that I didn't get a picture of.

If you know anything about my world, you know there is always an art project going,either sitting near my chair, ready to put needle and thread to, or on the studio worktable. I'm still into art quilts. 

Bayou Des Glaises at Bordino Crossing

Cotton on Green 2

Cotton on Green 1

We have our aches and pains. Richard has some health issues, pain in his neck and back, plantar fasciitis, and an annoying frozen elbow. I fall apart, temporarily, then pull it together again--thank you, Bipolar Disorder. 

Cave in Yellowstone

But all of those are simply the result of living a longer life and we are grateful that it's not worse--there are, after all, so many, many illnesses and horrors in the world. 

Indigo Dusk

We feel blessed to be turning 60 (soon). To know that we are loved by God. To have healthy children, grand children, and great-grandchildren. To be able to help others. To be able to live the life we love.

Big Sky in Montana

Happy New Year! 

Fetch a Pail of Water ~~ finish

I've been going through blue scraps like an addict. I've used skinny strips for "AmandaJean's QAL," more skinny strips for my version of the QAL, some 2½" strips for a wonky log cabin, and even more of those 2½" strips for a normal log cabin and a rail fence quilt. That's five quilts! Five. 

Front and back. All fabrics from the stash. Guess what? There are still *&%(& some strips and scraps and skinnies. I suppose I'll  never use up all the blue fabric in my stash. I'll just call it now before I go insane from looking at the color blue. 

However, although I'm calling the loss, I should show you the last of those quilts mentioned above. This is the rail fence, an easy pattern that used a pile few 2½" strips but not enough apparently.

I liked the outcome of the quilt photography in North Dakota, so I decided to do something like it here. Adam's truck was in the middle of sitting in the yard. I took several pictures, but couldn't decide between these two, so I'm including both. You can decide which is better.

Strangely, I don't think I've mentioned anything about the quilt top before today. Odd. But there it is, so here we are. Completely finished.

A quick stipple quilting motif and a scrappy binding. No label yet because I didn't know what to name it, but now I have that, too.

	Quilt Stats
		Name:	Fetch a Pail of Water
		Size:	40" X 40"
		Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics from stash
		Background:	n/a
		Binding:	scrap fabrics
		Pattern:	Rail fence
		Quilting:	stippling

Lots of Linkups!

A Quarter Inch from the Edge (TGIFF

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or not Friday)

You might also like:

"Come Out to Play" 

"Under the Haystack Fast Asleep" 

Come Out to Play ~~ a blue finish!

Every now and again I make a baby quilt with a title from a nursery rhyme. It's just a thing I've been doing for six or seven years. I love the idea of baby quilts and nursery rhymes, and I can't seem to let it go. Perhaps I should go back and figure out how many I've made in this series. 

This little quilt is about 40" X 40" and uses quarter log cabin blocks, an idea I snagged from Cynthia Brunz of Quilting is more fun than housework. 

After I asked for opinions on layout (here), and got the same answer from almost every respondent, I had to go with this one. 

Because the setting has a medallion feel to it, I decided to focus on it and quilted a large grid pattern. Then to set off the grid, I quilted a square around it. 

The original idea was to use up some of those blue scraps and practice some of my quilting motifs, so in the blocks around the medallion I quilted different motifs. I also used a bit of yardage from the stash for backing and pieces of leftover navy for the binding. 

Because the weather is so unpredictable, I quickly went outside to snap pictures on my new orange Adirondack chair that Richard made a few weeks ago. Doesn't that orange just pop? Wait till you see the rest of the chairs! They look like a bed of huge flowers!

But that's a post for another time. This is a post about the quilt, so here are the stats...

	Quilt Stats
	Name:	Come Out to Play
	Size:	40" X 40"
	Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics from stash
	Background:	n/a
	Binding:	scrap fabrics left from blocks
	Pattern:	Quarter Log Cabin
	Quilting:	practice quilting / variety of motifs

Linking up with

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Crazy Mom Quilts 

Back to the Blues ~~ 2 finishes!

Catherine (Caki)

I've returned home from Rory and Meggan's house. She is feeling better and moving around more. I thought it would be a good idea to give them a break for a few days. Honestly, I was missing Richard and maybe getting a little homesick. Oddly, that doesn't happen when we travel. I guess the camper feels enough like home and Richard is with me.

I loved having time to spend with the girls. They are an hour away, so visiting

Sophie

isn't a quick 
drop-in for hugs and to  say hello. At six and seven, they are sweet, respectful girls who love to play. An hour of "Go Fish," an hour and a half of "Shopkins" which almost requires crawling on the floor. (Not for me! I directed from the sofa. :) They are learning to jump rope and fussed over whose turn it was to "do" Grandmay's hair. Before I knew it, the day was gone and it was time for baths and supper. My three days passed quickly.

Never the less, it's good to be home. I drove up to a pleasant surprise; the calla lilly that Richard gave me for Mother's Day last year bloomed! It's not terribly large but the color is a brilliant yellow. It's in a pot next to the yellow lantana that's somehow survived the last four winters. They are at the edge of the parking pad and are a colorful spot of cheer.

While Richard fried some fish for supper, I played in the studio. The blue blocks (here)that I'd worked on earlier in the week were still waiting on the design board. So I started out by sewing those together and in no time I had a completed quilt top. (Baby size, sure, but still a complete top.) Notice that I chose the layout recommended by a couple of readers. Thanks y'all.

While cutting out the blocks for that quilt, I had cut another quilt just like it--there's really lots of blue scraps! Then I used the second quilt as a leaders and ender project while sewing the first quilt. I have sewn using leaders and enders: I think it's too confusing for my brain to handle. But how could I go wrong here? I just pretended it was the same project in different stages. 

Since most of the blocks were at the half-way mark and some were complete, I decided to figure out what I'd do with them. I really didn't want two of the same quilt, but I had the same blocks. 
Ahh, an idea. I added two more strips to each block, cut them off-grain, and turned them into wonky blocks. I played around with the blocks on the design wall and finally settled on a layout. Sewing them into a quilt top took no time at all. Ha! I'm not even sure how much I like it, but it's another (baby) quilt top and has found it's place on the pile that needs quilting. 

Another Day with Leah ~~ a finish!

How's that for a play on words? Ha. Leah may not appreciate it, but it's not likely that she's sitting around eating bonbons and reading my blog like you are.

Nope, Leah Day is a workaholic. How do I know? Well, I know Leah. I've followed her, liked her, read her work, and saw her (once) in person in Houston, maybe? I'm not sure where, but I am sure that she is cute and sweet and smiles. Even more than I do. Yes, I smile. Lots! Especially when I'm at a big quilt show.  



But wait, this post is about two Sundays ago, when I worked on this quilt and quilted it to completion in one day! Yes! Loaded it on the longarm, quilted it, pulled it off the machine ... all in one Sunday afternoon. 

Want to know my secret? It's big. No, not the quilt. It's the secret that's big. Rather the secret is big motifs. Check it out. A different motif for each square, every one about three times its normal size. 

I wanted a soft hand because this is a baby quilt that will probably get used more than most. I don't know why I think so, I just know boys. This baby boy is going to a house of three big sisters and a big brother. I figure he will get lots of playtime and naptime and lovey time. Those all need quilts, right? There you go. 

I just hope his mom (my coworker) enjoys the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it for little Blaise. I've even added the label since these pictures and wrapped it up in a pretty bag. 

Since I mentioned using Leah Day's motifs earlier, I thought I'd show you a couple of photos of the back so you can see them. (The photo above is really two, despite that they look like one.)

Please don't look at the "eyelashes" in the quilting. I would love to figure out how to fix this problem myself. It's a common issue with my quilting, so apparently tension is not my forte. Oh but I love my little bitty circles and zigzags and swirls. However these eyelashes seem to be my biggest problem. Do you have this problem, and if so, how do you fix it?

Roseate ~~ Finish!

On Tuesday I finished up a pretty little pink baby quilt, which I'm calling "Roseate." It's a modern mash-up of all that I've been reading and enjoying for the last couple of months. 

Most of that has been modern quilting books and several blogs that also toy in modern quilting. Of course, I also read a few blogs that are serious about modern quilting. Together, all this reading and playing has sucked me into a spiral of scrap quilting. It's unbelievable how many pounds of scrap fabric I have. And I honestly don't think I'll ever get it down to, say, half the amount that I have now.  

 But I plan to keep trying. And I'm happy with a little hope that it will be better each time I dip into a bin and pull out a handful of scraps. That's basically what I did for this little quilt. I pulled larger pieces of scraps and began sewing matching pieces together. Then I matched those to either another sewn piece or to a larger single piece. Just keep at it for hours with an occasional move from the machine to the iron, to the cutting table to straighten the edges. (More on that later.)

Eventually I had big, wide slabs of fabric that could be oriented in any way I wanted. I began cutting them into 6" strips that finish at 5½ using my biggest, longest ruler. Then I sewed those together to make long strips 6 X 30. The 30" being an approximation. I considered each strip a Chinese coin stack and determined that four would make a quilt. I added enough solid Kona Light Pink to the tops and bottoms of the stacks so they would measure about 42 inches.  And then added 4" (3½" finished) strips of the Light Pink between the stacks so that all together the quilt is 38" X 42". 

Quilting it was the most fun. I started out by quilting in the ditch around the perimeter of the stacks and then adding three more straight lines about ½" apart on the inside. I played on the light pink background: circles, leaves, shells, scrolls and a new motif that I created on the fly. Basically, I just had fun, but I like the outcome.

I finished it all up with a pretty Kona Fuscia binding and remembered to add a label. (Go me!) 

Please share you thoughts. I am open to opinions and suggestions. I want to improve my work, and your expert opinions are like getting gold for free! Thanks for that.

	Quilt Stats
Name:	Roseate (Scrap Quilt)
Size:	38" X 42"
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics; Kona Light Pink from stash
Binding:	Kona Fushia from stash
Pattern:	Chinese coins (scrap coins variation)
Quilting:	Custom Free Motion Quilting
Completed:	February 2017

Linking up with some of my favorites:

Crazy Mom Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

Busy Hands Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Brag About It @ My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies