Finish!

 This is my assembly of the Blockheads 5 fall section of 9 blocks using the suggested layout. (I did not add the paper pieced stars.) This is Stars in Detroit and it is destined for my daughter as she moves to be with her boyfriend at the end of the month. She asked to have one to put on his couch. She helped with the  color selection to go with his house. All batiks!

I chose to use a Shannon cuddle or Minky for the back. It is navy in color but reflects the light of the camera. 

And here is the quilt with my happy daughter before she drives away. 

I attached the binding while watching the Olympics.  Nice to have handwork. 

New year: new projects

I have been focusing more on what I want to accomplish so far for this year. 

UFOs

1)  I hope to work on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for the new year.  This is mostly to finish the one I started in 2017.  But I will have to find something for pink this month, because I only want crayola brights. 

                                                   

2)  Quilt my star challenge for Bea et Cecile's international challenge for last year.  I dearly love the quilt, but I want my quilting to be great for entering a competition. I worked so hard on the piecing. 

It is currently layered and quilted around all the lattice and borders. I just need a little more practice with quilting with rulers. 

3) Complete the scrap quilt:  currently I have 14 of the 25  blocks made.  

Recent projects started:  

Baby quilt for my nurse who stayed with us to work this fall. I just need to make birch trees for a background. 

Finish this winter miniquilt:

Corrine et Cecile Patchwork challenge:  This year the design element needed is curves.  And I have taken a deep dive for myself to attempt a New York Beauty.  

These are the border units I have made to begin the quilt in the past couple of days. My color choices are blacks, browns, small shirtings as backgrounds, reds, and golds.  I am so thrilled for this and know it is more of a duller older pallet, but that is my house and I plan to put it on a wall. 

Lastly, this is the quilt top that I need to get done for my daughter's birthday on January 19.  It is at the quilter, but I did not get the backing and batting until Christmas. 

And for a beautiful snow scene out the back of my house:

We have had 2 snowstorms in the past several days.  So pretty and oh, so peaceful. 

Coronovirus and quilts

So I had a lovely quilt retreat over the weekend. We were to have stayed in the dorms of a university. But they closed the dorms to everyone .

Good news, we went to a nearby hotel. The rooms were very nice.

And we had a communal small meeting room to sew in.

And sew I did:

I managed to get all my sashings on this quilt.

No borders, just quilting left to do 

This is from the Beyond the Battlefield book by Mary Etherington and  Connie Tesene.

The colors are more vibrant in person: rich and earthy.

Many of the prints are Kim Diehl.

Here are a few of the other quilts made by some of the others:

These blocks are hand appliqued from Piece O'cake  

Pattern is called Aunt Millie's Garden

And I did also manage to work on my setting triangles for Frolic.

Only a few more to get together. 

Coronovirus shuts down the country.

 And yes, I am supporting distance learning for my student starting next week.

This week I will let them know what they need to complete that was already due.

We are to be home as are many schools in many states; our end date is April 6.

Our spring vacation is starting April 10.

This gives me more time to clean my sewing area. And sew, sew sew.

Quilt show and a dozen stars

For my Bea et Cecile quilt along, I have my 16 stars done. 

One project done for February! Whew!

Now to assemble and quilt it!

Saturday I went with 2 friends to the first quilt show of the season. 

So inspiring and so fun to get away.  It was even up to the 40s for the weekend.

This quilt was in the back of a booth. All little pieces, but so pretty.

The owner of this store from Richfield, loves working with tiny pieces.

And here are several quilts from the show:

This is a famous building in downtown Milwaukee, the old gas company.

The flame at the top changes colors depending on the outside temperature.

This was a gorgeous Sue Spargo quilt. 

Love the black background and tiny polka dot binding.

And I loved this one.  

You normally see it in solids, but I truly was struck by the use of printed fabrics.

Then I went to a lecture on color and scrap quilts. This is Judy Gauthier from Ripon, Wisconsin.

Her store, Bungalow quilts has awesome bright fabrics. 

She also has 2 great scrap quilt books. She has a system with 3 1/2, 4 1/2 and 5 inch blocks 

So many samples, it was wonderful.

This one was from leftovers of a quilt.

Loved this scrap quilt top with the grunge gray background. 

This is only a section, but it was so striking. 

Of course, I made several purchases for some fabric and patterns.

Binding and blocks

I had guild last Wednesday.  I really liked the demonstration. Each member can make a block and enter a lotto for receiving all the blocks. Our BOM for next month is this.

It was a real easy block to make and called arrowhead

http://mysistersquiltsut.blogspot.com/2014/01/here-is-great-two-color-quilt-for-you.html?m=1

Sew almost around all 4 edges of 2 squares, cut kind of like a disappearing 9 patch, re-scramble and sew together.  Voila new block! The background is a great gray print and the fabric is Kaffe Fassett and all be made out of in blue/green/purple colorways. 

I also spent the football game, watching Green Bay win for the conference playoffs tonight while hand sewing the binding on this.

It was a nail biter at the end, but none the less a win for the Packers. 

This is the baby quilt. I had a hard time sewing through the minky.

I think it was more because my bindings were full. But it is DONE . Photos later.

Still working on the Frolic mystery. The top blocks are flying geese finished.

The bottom  are those left to attach the wings.

Still 2 steps behind.

These are blocks from my star quilt a long.

Love them for sure,  63 pieces per block. 

I am so proud of my sewing on these and can't wait to get it done.

Blocks and more

Sewing continues into the new year!

 I have made 2 more blocks for my quilt along for Bea et Cecile Quilt along. 

I really, really like these blocks and it is making my sewing much more precise.

 And if you couldn't tell, I am making sure to include browns. 

The baby quilt is progressing well. I have finished the free motion quilt on my home sewing machine. I couldn't find my free motion slider. Ugh.  But I muddled through and did a stipple. 

The back is a minky fabric with a soft batting in between.

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And here is a close up of part of the quilt; some of the quilting shows through.

I used a new thread for me called Isocord. It has a sheen and is 2 ply polyester. 

I loved the color, and it went through my machine well, but I felt I kept wasting some as it slipped after threading, but before my machine began.  I think part of it was the weight of the quilt as I sewed and drove it more with my arms than usual. My fingers are not strong enough or for that matter big enough to spread and control the movement.  I am kind of out of practice. 

For the Frolic mystery, I am happy to say I have all of  clue 4 done and trimmed. It took forever. And now I have all of clue 5 made and pressed and about 1/4 of these lovely triangles trimmed.

Progress a little at a time....on to clue 6 and 7. From my perusal around the blog world, I can see I am not alone. 

So I keep at it. 

To Frolic and Christmas

Time has gotten away from me. And I have not posted in a while.

Christmas is upon us and I am really missing my grandsons to make cookies and do all sorts of Christmas things.

And then Monday I got a very sad call from my DD. Her boyfriend of almost 2 years broke up with her. We all liked him so much  and feel he just wasn't ready for a commitment despite the fact they are both 31.  She, of course, is devastated and it leaves me a little bummed as well.

But onward. I have been sewing.
First here are the 3 steps of the Frolic mystery by Bonnie Hunter. I really like these colors together.
But instead of a scrappy background, I found yardage of a cream print for  dollar a yard on Connecting Threads Black Friday.

Then I am going to finish these mug rugs as gifts for my school pals. 

 This set needs quilting and binding

This set is quilted, and just needs binding.

And I have made a block for my Quilt a Long to see how hard it was and whether I liked it.  I think it is a go. 

This and that

I have finally prepared some of my wool applique for the Little Red Hen Snowmen.  I chose the Japanese fabric as backgrounds and have different ones.

There are 2 more that I have traced onto SF101 to back the wool pieces. I really like this instead of fusibles. It doesn't gum up and it stables the weave of the wool. But I need to pun them down to sew them.  On the smaller pieces I used the tiny applique pins for the long fingerlike frosting drips, I used regular pins. I have ordered all the buttons to add: 100 of various sizes and colors from that quilt store. I even found some slightly cheaper pearl cotton at my LQS. 

Here are 2 blocks for our BOM at guild.  The center is a piece of cactus fabric. ( They are turned sideways. We were given paper to make the wonky sides. These are both greens, but the lighting makes it look so dull. These are about 7 inches. 

Then I even started on my exchange blocks for guild and won't need them till December.

I really liked this block. The owner wants red white and blue stars for a Quilt of Valor.

I am going to try to resize it for smaller ones. This one is 12 inches finished.

Lastly, after careful searching, I have found the quilt I want to make for Bea and Cecile's quilt along.
They are large blocks so I think it will be great to create a quilt with the blocks.

 

I found this on my facebook feed, of all places. It is a free pattern from Quilter's cache, just recolored.
I think this will be my star quilt for the quilt along: pattern link for any of you who might also like it.
My colorway will be golds, reds, browns, and blacks.

Other than that, I am making some for my blocks for my exchange at guild. This month's are star blocks in red white and blue.  Easy enough.