Project Linus Progress

I'm hiding from the goblins, witches, princesses, Minions and pirates, so I thought I'd give a quick update on my Project Linus blocks...as always, having a blast making these.

 
I cut into one of the Peanuts fat quarters I won for the next two blocks. Love how they turned out.

 

I not a big fan of applique. The next two are fused but not sewn down. I changed them up a bit from the original pattern...I didn't like the animals just floating in the middle of the background fabric.

I'm not crazy about the hat on my elephant...I may change the fabric...but then again, it doesn't look too bad in the picture. ;o)

Happy Halloween.

Ethan's World Tour and Other Fun Stuff

 
Project Linus has started their 2017 mystery quilt fundraiser. I had so much fun making Gracie's Get Well Garden that I didn't even think twice about signing up for this year's quilt Ethan's World Tour. So far Ethan has been to China (lantern), Oceania (boat), Italy (leaning town of Pisa), Germany (castle), Antarctica (blue whale)...he's also been to North America, Central America and Egypt but I'm behind on making my blocks. I'll hopefully have them made by the time the next clue is released.

 

During the registration, I won this cute Peanuts camping panel and fat quarter bundle. So cute!

Attending Lynn's quilting retreat has gotten me motivated to sew again. It has become a chore since it seemed like I was having problems with everything I attempted to sew, include this little quilt.

Looks easy huh? How could I possibly mess it up you ask? Easy. It's made from a jelly roll. I never know where my quarter inch seam should start...I ended up trimming a quarter inch off of all the horizontal pieces in order for the horizontal rows to fit the vertical pieced rows. What a pain. But it is done and I like how it turned out - very cheerful.

Had to stick in a picture of my favorite sewing helper.

Nancy and I went to the Falling Leaves Quilt Show in Lakeport, California on Sunday. I bid on a a silent auction item and won.

A block of the month quilt with the finishing fabrics and back for a 64 inch square quilt...my winning bid: $20. What a deal! I really want to start making this quilt right now but I have so many WIP quilts that I am going to have to wait.

  

The bad part of being gone for so long is...

  
... catching up. I'm going to start with a short post about this past week. I attended my first retreat with Loris from Luckypup Quilter. The retreat was hosted by Lynn Wilder of Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting and was wonderful! You can see all the pictures on Lynn's blog, I took very few pictures.

I talk about marathon sewing at home but we really did marathon sew at the retreat. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. With breaks for some really delicious food and workshops provided by Lynn. Check out Lynn's blog, she has designed some beautiful quilt patterns including the Seasonal Hexie table toppers I made below (really should have ironed them first). The first was a kit I purchased. It was so fast and easy that I made a second smaller one from some fabric I brought with me for another project.

I also worked on my Sweet Tooth blocks, the new Project Linus mystery quilt Exploring the World With Ethan, and a 17 year old UFO. I'll share more on those soon (I promise it won't be in three months 😜).

Guess I have been a little busy...

  
I always think I haven't done any quilting lately...then I download the pictures from my camera.

This is Town Square by Angela Walters. She is doing a series called Midnight Quilter for Craftsy. Some of the patterns are free. Check out the video's. Angela has a wonderful sense of humor and attitude about piecing. I had planned to use the charm packs and background fabric (can't tell but it is a vanilla cream color) in another quilt but I liked this one so much more. Very easy and fun to make.

Finished more binding. Barbara did a great job quilting this quilt with traditional feathered circles, grid lines and a feathered border. The back is the softest flannel ever.

Close up of the quilting...for some reason both pics of the quilt are a little fuzzy. Must be the quilts...or the camera...can't be the photographer.

I've been really lucky lately. I won the pattern - Stroll, by Seams Like a Dream - and fabric to make the table runner. The fabric is Urban Scandinavian by Kirstyn Cogan. The prettiest soft blues and greens.

Nancy and I are doing our own block of month - Sweet Tooth by Jaybird Quilts. I'm doing a modern twist using some fabrics I won last year. The background is actually a light gray.

Finally finished quilting this Sherry Falls mystery quilt.  I know, I have more binding to hand sew.

I also quilted this small wall hanging from eon's ago.

Maybe if I downloaded the pictures from my camera more often I'd blog more often. Nah.
 

Lots of Binding

One more quilt to hand bind then all my "old" quilt tops will be done!

A Maple Island BQ pattern...I love these patterns as they let me really show off large prints. I found the perfect, doubly perfect because it was on clearance, fabric for the back. Matched the blue in the focal fabric exactly!

I finally finished quilting the butterfly quilt AND got the binding on it. This quilt was at the top of my to-do list when I first started this blog over seven years ago. I have a love / hate relationship with this quilt. It took almost two years to quilt it...the thread broke at least three time in every block. I'd get so peeved I wouldn't touch it for months.

I used this flower design from Lori Kennedy in the blocks.

Another reason it took so long is I had no clue what to quilt in the wide border. I finally decided on a continuous leaf vine. Overall I'm happy with the way it turned out. Nancy has already said dibs...she loves butterflies.

Lastly, I finished the modern Amish quilt. It has the softest flannel on the back.

I took a week off of work to do some serious yard clean up. Of course I also did some quilting. I made this quick donation quilt...I think it took an hour to cut out and maybe two hours to sew. Bonus - I used up really old stash fabric. Now I have to get it quilted and out the door.

And I finished the string quilt. This was so much fun to make...not so much to sew the borders on...lots of bias and stretching. I really had to pin it to keep it even.

Sigh...with these two quilt tops finished I now have 11 "new" (less than two years old) quilt tops that need to be quilted and binding added. (I'm not going to mention how many wall hangings / table toppers that are waiting to be quilted.) I think I'm in an infinite loop.

Phone Camera Pics

Below are various photos I downloaded from my phone camera...

During the holiday's I didn't sew any gifts but I did make a bunch of these "jewel boxes". They are candle votive holders and salt cellars topped with buttons and bracelet beads. I saw some similar at an antique market and loved them, but they were crazy expensive. I knew I could easily make them. So I did. I have since learned that large buttons are crazy expensive.  Who knew.

My first love is embroidery. I haven't done much lately so a few months ago I dug out this kit (you can tell from the border fabric I've had the kit for a while). When I finished it my first thought was "how blah".

So I took it apart, trimmed it down a bit, and added a pop border. Still a little blah but much better.

I finished the hand sewing part of the binding on these two. I've spent most of the last couple of weekends making binding and quilt backs. I still have two more backs to make and three quilts that need the binding attached. Not very exciting but I'm very glad they are getting done.

 

This is my February scrap project. I started making these string blocks over a year ago. I haven't decided how big I'm going to make it, or if I'm going to sash it, but I'm having fun making the blocks. Guess this will also be my March scrap project. I can actually see a dent in my bin of string bits and pieces.

Doesn't Siddi look vicious in this picture? I actually caught her mid yawn.

I hope I don't look that grumpy when someone wakes me up from a nap.  ;o)

 

Whatever Happened to What's Her Name

I ended the year a bad blogger and I started the year a bad blogger. Does anyone remember me? Will anyone notice I've posted new quilts? Time will tell.

It's hard when you haven't blogged in such a long time...do you start where you left off? Or where things are now? Or do you just go with the pictures you've downloaded from your camera?

I made this quilt top over six years ago. Now the quilt is done!

Barbara (my long arm quilter) followed the leaf design in the fabric. I love how it turned out.  My pictures don't do the quilt justice, it is very bright.

I have been very overwhelmed by my scrap bins lately, and my scrap bags, and my baskets, and the scraps all over the floor. I've decided this is the year to use them up. Ha! I think it will take more than one year to use up my scraps.

Here's my start. I made this little quilt over the holiday's from my box of 5 inch squares. Very fast and easy. I want to put a soft pretty flannel on the back.

This has been my travel quilt for a couple of years. It is all flannel. The pattern is Turning Twenty. I'll save it to use as a back for a future quilt.

This one was fun to make. The pattern was a freebie from the Fat Quarter Shop. They made it from a jelly roll. I made mine from a bag of 2 1/2 inch scrap strips that were under 10 inches long.

You would think all of these would have made a dent ... nope. I can see the floor now.

I have more but I haven't downloaded the pictures from my phone yet. I promise I won't wait over three months to show them.