February 1 Is Finally Here!

Is January finally over?  It's always been my least favorite month, but this year has been particularly trying.  I've had enough cold and snow to last for a long time!

One good thing for the cold, it allows for lots of indoor time for quilting.  When Primitive Gatherings had their after-Christmas sale, I bought a Juki 2010Q, and I've spent quite a bit of time trying to get the hang of it.  I really like it so far, but need a lot more practice on it. I started out my practice on a Soduku quilt.  The fabric for the top of this quilt was a giveaway at a retreat I went to several years ago, so it's good to get this one done.

This quilt top was more challenging than necessary due to the fact that I received only 8 of one of the fabrics, a fact I didn't discover till I was well along with piecing, so I had to scrounge through my stash for a substitute.  It's the floral in the center of the top row, and blends in amazingly well!  This is Charity Quilt #1 for 2014, and is about 55" square, so a nice lap size.  It also features "unique" quilting! LOL

The second quilt I practiced on is this Popcorn the Bear panel, also a Charity Quilt.  It was a lot of fun to quilt, with no seams to deal with.  I've always loved this print, so I'm glad I got to work on it.  I have another panel just like this one to make up someday.  If both of these quilts fit the criteria, I'm ready for the Hands 2 Help challenge.

We were supposed to get a snowstorm today, so I ran all my errands yesterday with plans to stay inside and sew today.  We only got 2" of snow, which at this point we hardly notice, but I stayed inside to sew anyway.  Every time I go to a retreat, I wish I had an iron caddy to bring the hot iron home in, so today I finally made two.

The one on the left is for the travel iron, and the other is for the regular size iron.  They match the snap bag I made a year or two ago, so now I have some great stuff to take to my next retreat!   (They really do match - it doesn't look like it in this picture, but they are made from fabrics in the same line from Buggy Barn).  I even found some cool old buttons in my Grandma's button box.  The caddy pad opens to an ironing surface covered with a reflective fabric.  There is also Warm Tater batting inside to protect the table from the heat.

These were fun and pretty quick to make, once I figured out the first one.  I can't wait for my next retreat so I can try them out!

I also had a couple quick pincushion finishes.

The pineapple pincushion was a pattern from Buttermilk Basin.  The bottom pincushion was the freebie kit at Primitive Gatherings' Christmas open house.  I've had both of these stitched for awhile, but had run out of walnut shells for the stuffing.  I bought a bag yesterday - the smallest they had was 12 quarts, which is a BIG bag.  Wonder how many pincushions I can get out of that?  I'm guessing it's a lifetime supply, but we'll see!

Country Threads picked #1 as their UFO for February, so now I need to get to work on quilting My Favorite Things. 

Hope you're staying warm!

Paint Chip Challenge

My quilt guild is having a paint chip challenge.  The idea was that we each got a paint chip with three colors on it, and we have to make a project using only those three colors - no added background colors.  For an extra twist, we got a piece of fabric we also had to incorporate, which may or may not have matched the paint chip.

Here's the paint chip and fabric I got:

The paint chips are very PINK, and the fabric is red, so this was definitely a challenge!  I also decided to make do with what I had on hand in the fabric stash, so that added an additional element of challenge.  The thing that popped into my mind as soon as I saw this paint chip was "Malibu Barbie,"  so I made Barbie quilts for this challenge.

First I made a modern quilt for Wisconsin cheerleader Barbie:

This was my own design, and quilted on my sewing machine.  One of my 2014 goals is to get more proficient at machine quilting, so I practiced on this quilt.  As you can see, the red fabric became a few flowers.  I couldn't figure out what else to do with it.  It really matched nothing!

Vintage Barbie also needed a quilt:

I thought for a vintage doll I should use a more traditional pattern, so this is a basic four-patch quilt, and hand quilted.  When I was setting it together, I thought the corners looked cute without that final triangle, so I finished it that way.  So, yes, that was a plan and not an oversight!  The red fabric is used as the backing on this quilt.  This is my original Barbie doll, and she is probably close to 50 years old now.  She doesn't look too bad, considering the life she's had!

The daughter of one of my coworkers got a Barbie dream house for Christmas, so I think I'll give these quilts to her to furnish her house once we're done showing them at our May guild dinner.


We are all revealing our projects at our January meeting, so it will be interesting to see what everyone did with their paint chips.  They weren't all pink - that was luck of the draw.  I was surprised how many pink fabrics I had in my stash, though.


This was my #10 item on my list, so the January UFO is done!  I started these back in September or so, but they got put on the back burner over the holidays.  This was a fun challenge - sometimes it's nice to be forced to go out of your comfort zone a little.  This much pink is definitely out of my comfort zone.
 

Welcome, 2014!

I'm not sure how it happened, but it appears I haven't posted since Halloween, so I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I've been quilting, but I guess I just haven't been blogging about it very much.

Here's what I've finished since my last post:

This snowman pillow (pattern from Primitive Gatherings).  It was supposed to end up as a 15" pillow, and mine is 17 1/2" x 18", so I obviously disregarded some instructions somewhere!  It works fine with an 18" pillow form, though.

I enjoyed making it so much that I dug through my bright wools and made a smaller version for a Christmas gift for a coworker.  This one ended up 14".

And I finished this Snowman Runner (also a pattern by Primitive Gatherings).  I machine quilted this on my sewing machine.  My Christmas decorations have been put away, and snowman season has begun in my house.

This year I'm going to participate in Country Threads' UFO Challenge.  I've listed my projects on the sidebar, so I hope you'll see some progress on them this year.  I had NO problem coming up with 12 items to work on!  The first one is #10, so I'm busy working on that already.

We're having a record cold snap here for the next few days, so I'm hoping to hunker down in my sewing room and get lots done.  Keep warm!

Happy Halloween!

Today is Trick-or-Treat day here, so I'm wishing everyone a Happy Halloween today!  Ours is always the Sunday before.  We haven't had many kids stop by, though, so I imagine a lot of this candy will go to work with us this week.  We've had a really nice day for trick-or-treat.  Some years the kids all have parkas over their costumes, but this year we could actually see the costumes.

Ta-Da!  Hocuspocusville is done, quilted and bound and ready to hang on the wall.  I free-motion quilted this on my sewing machine. 

I quilted around the outside of the embroidery in each block, and then around some of the items inside each block.  I don't like to quilt over embroidery - to me it looks better outlined.  Then I quilted cobblestone streets and "spooky" skies in each block.  After about the eighth block, I figured out an easier way to do the cobblestones.   After 12 blocks, I'm so over both cobblestone streets and spooky skies.  I'm glad I don't have another whole quilt to do this way, but I'm happy with the way this one turned out.

The pieced blocks got leaves in the tan areas and a pumpkin in the block.  There is giant rick-rack around the center pieced area, which gives it a nice touch.  This quilt was a pattern by Crabapple Hill Studios.

For Halloween, I also finished Hallow Wee House, a cross-stitch pattern by Chessie and Me.  This was a kit I bought on my trip to Country Sampler with Donna in August.  It was a lot of hours of cross-stitching, but it's really cute!  The kit had silk thread, which I hadn't used before.  This whole thing is only about 6" tall, so it's some really high-count fabric.  I have to use a magnifying glass these days for cross stitch.

October was a great finishing month - I also finished Sampler Stars from the retreat this summer.

So now all the projects from that retreat are finished, and I can go again next year (my self-imposed rule - all projects must be finished before I go again)!  This was one of the patterns from Paula Barnes of Red Crinoline Quilts.  It was a lot of fun to make, and is just meander-quilted with a matching thread.  Do you like my makeshift design wall?  I just hung this up in front of my fabric cabinet and set some stuff on top to hold it there.  Luckily, it didn't pull off those milk bottles filled with buttons - otherwise, I'd still be in there picking them up.

These weren't on my UFO list, but they got started and finished in October - 12 thread catchers for my guild retreat next May.  We each had to make 10, I think, but I had enough fabric for 12, so they're getting 12.  Our theme is "Strawberries and Cream," so we each had to use strawberry fabric and green lining.  The green matches better in real life than it does in this picture!  These will be the table favor for the guests. 

There was a fun surprise in yesterday's mail.  When Barb and I went on our epic trek across Iowa, hitting every quilt shop in sight, she was buying pieces of Minkee and chenille to make taggy blocks for babies.  So she sent me one!  It's really cute...so soft with the Minkee on some sides

and different textures of chenille on other sides, and the tags all feel very satiny.  I'd think a baby would love cuddling with this block.  She did a great job on this.  I'm going to put it away in the box of goodies for future grandchildren!

So it's time to make plans for November already.  My plans are to get the stitching done on the Primitive Gathering's Block of the Week Freebie:

The flowers and leaves are all fused on and ready to blanket stitch.  This isn't a huge quilt - I think it's 24" square.  The curved edge was much easier to do than I thought it might be.

Finish quilting this snowman table runner for a Christmas present.

And quilt the Bee in My Bonnet Row Quilt I made earlier this year.  If you missed this pattern when it was free, Lori Holt has published this in a book now, along with other projects made from these blocks.  Her instructions are great!  This is a pretty big quilt, so the quilting is going to take awhile.

So there are my plans - I'm off to link up with Carrie's blog!

October Already?

It's time to post a couple finishes, and my UFO plans for October.  I seem to do better when I write down my UFO finishing plans and link up to Carrie's blog.  I haven't done that the last couple months, and my finishes have been pretty slow!

I did get a couple things done --

My Civil War Cross Stitch from the Country Sampler Grand Old Flag Gathering is framed!  I found a wonderful framer - she did a great job and is reasonably priced, too!  She helped pick this frame  - it's black with a dusty gray finish on part of it, and looks very old.  It fit just right with the time frame of this sampler.  I'm really happy how this turned out.  It has glass in front of it, so a little challenging to get a picture without reflections.

I finished another quick little project -

This is an antique sugar mold.  When Barb and I were in Marion, we picked up kits for this at Cottage Rose - it's one of their patterns.  It was really quick to make up.  There is also a strawberry pincushion to go with it, but I don't have that sewn yet.

I have lofty goals for October:

Get Hocus Pocus Ville quilted and ready to use for THIS Halloween!

Get Sampler Stars quilted and bound.  This is my final project from Grand Old Flag.  My "deal" with myself was that I couldn't go next year unless this year's projects were done, so I'm motivated to finish this!

Get the Summer Block of the Week Freebie Blocks trimmed and set together.  I have the finishing kit, so I'm ready to go on this when I get a little time.

Get the rest of the Summer Block of the Week Blocks trimmed and set together.  I ordered the finishing kit but don't have it yet, so this is on hold until then.  All 13 blocks are ready to go, though!  There are still no words inked on them - I'm still on the fence about that part.

So that should keep me out of trouble for October!  Thanks for stopping by.

Barb and Kathy's Excellent Adventure, Part 2

The Corn Fest was more fun than anticipated.  There was a parade...

My mother is a clown.  (Really, that's my mother with the pink hair!  She did face painting in the park after the parade, too.)

I think LOTS of people should have this sign on their car.

I got to see several of my old classmates, some of whom I hadn't seen in about 30 years, so that was fun.

There was a quilt show, and unbeknownst to me, my mom entered two of the quilts I had made for her.  We won a blue ribbon!

This was a Lone Star quilt top that my grandmother had pieced.  After my grandmother passed away, my mother gave the top to me to finish.  This was early on in my quilting career - I finished this quilt in 1991.   The top includes a lot of feedsacks and fabrics from my mother's childhood.  I added the cornerstones, setting triangles and borders, and hand quilted it to death.  I kept track of my hand-quilting time; I think it was 120 hours or something like that.  After it was finished, I gave it back to Mom.

When we went to pick up the quilt, I found that we had won Viewer's Choice, too!  They said they liked my hand quilting.  Not many people (including me) do a lot of hand quilting any more, so a quilt with hand quilting is kind of rare in a quilt show these days, I guess.  So I have a blue ribbon and a purple ribbon to add to my quilt wall.  I was pretty excited!

In looking at this quilt, a lot of the colors are popular again - there is quite a bit of navy blue, that icky green, pink and cheddar.  I'd do a lot of things differently on this if I were finishing it now, but I guess I'm happy with it the way it is!

After all the Corn Fest activities, and visiting with our families, Barb and I headed back to Wisconson on Monday.  We found some more shops to stop at!

Our first stop was in Cedar Rapids at Pine Needles Sewing Center.

This shop is also a Bernina dealership, and they have tons of everything and very helpful service. There were quilt models everywhere in this shop - you could spend all day in here!


Our second stop was Village Needlework, a shop which sells everything you can think of for cross stitch, needlepoint, etc.   They have an online store, so if you need any type of cross-stitch floss, I can recommend them.

Our third stop was Cottage Rose Quilt Shop, a shop in downtown Marion.  I had quit taking pictures by this point, but it's a cute shop in a historic building, in among lots of antique shops.   Marion is a neat place to visit.  Cottage Rose does some of their own patterns, so it's worth taking a look at their website!  We each bought a cute little wool kit that uses an antique sugar mold.  I have mine almost done and will put it on the blog next week.  It was a quick project that will be a fun memento of our trip.

The last stop (and we were dragging by this point!) was Mill House Quilts in Waunakee.  This is a huge shop in a converted historic feed mill.   They were a Top Ten Shop one year, too, and it's worth a stop just to see the mill!   They, too, have everything - wool, reproduction fabrics, batiks, kids fabrics, everything! 

So, that's our Great Shop Hop of 2013!  After two recent outings with friends, I need to stay home for awhile and sew up all this stuff I bought.  I've been keeping track of yardage in/out this year, and I'm way in the red for this year.  I may dig out by year end, but I'll have to get busy in order for that to happen!

Barb and Kathy's Excellent Adventure, Part 1

A couple weeks ago, my friend Barb asked if I'd like to go with her back to our hometown for Corn Fest, an annual event that's become sort of a reunion for classmates.  This was a big decision, since we'd have to miss the Madison Quilt Show (always fun) to go to Corn Fest.  We decided if we stopped at a bunch of quilt stores along the way, we wouldn't miss the Madison show so much.  So that's what we did!  Here's our little Personal Shop Hop Across Iowa.  (A warning here ... never quilt shop with someone who's expecting a grandchild soon.  You will end up with bags full of baby stuff.  A whole bunch of that stuff jumped in my bags, and there are no babies in my near future.  If I get invited to a baby shower, though, I'm set for the next few years).  Our trip "back home" takes 7 1/2 hours driving time - with our stops, it only took us about ten hours - that's not too bad, is it?  We didn't stop much to eat, though LOL.


 
Our first stop was JJ Stitches in Sun Prairie.  (You didn't think we'd actually get out of Wisconsin before we found a store, did you??)  This is a great store, but I had been there just a few weeks ago with Donna, so didn't do too much damage to my wallet at this store.  I joined a BOM here last time I visited, so I'm anxious to get started on that.

Our second stop was Vintage Threads in Dyersville, Iowa.  This shop was a Quilt Sampler Top Ten Shop a few years ago, and it was wonderful.  Lots of vintage as well as bright fabrics, and a very nice, helpful owner.  We did a lot more damage to our wallets at this store!  The store is in a nicely restored historic building and is lots of fun to visit.

The owner of Vintage Threads suggested we travel a little on down the road to Manchester to shop at the store there.  That was "sort of" on our way, so we changed our itinerary a little to add that one in, and I'm so glad we did.

This is The Quiltmakers' Shoppe in Manchester, Iowa.  This picture doesn't do it justice - it was chock full of inspiration and models of everything from wallets to aprons to quilts.  It was a nice, bright, airy shop with something for everyone.

The Iowa stores all had flannel receiving blankets, made of only two pieces of flannel.  The backing is brought around and mitered on the front to give the appearance of a binding similar to the satin bindings you usually see.  A kit for a blanket like this jumped into my basket, and I'm anxious to try this method.

Our fourth stop was Inspirations in Hills, Iowa.  This store was also a Quilt Sampler Top Ten Shop, and it's full of reproduction fabrics and a ton of baby and children's fabric.  Another receiving blanket kit jumped into my basket at this store!  Inspirations is also in a neat, renovated historic building with lots of, well, inspiration!

Wisconsin has great quilt shops and we're a little spoiled, but I think Iowa can give us a run for our money.  The shops we visited we all wonderful, and each had their own special charm.

I'll be back tomorrow to tell you the rest of this story!