Tamara's 2009 BOM

Here are all the blocks finished. I remade one block that was too dark and subsituted another for a block I didn't like. I'm working on some fancy sashing using the leftovers. This fabric I hand dyed a couple of years ago and was waiting for an inspirational project to use it.

What's been going on around here?

Tamara, Joann and I are going out to the Valley of the Moon Children's Home today to deliver quilts. There are 22 in all! I think I need to go more often so I don't accumulate so many. Some of these were made by guild members and some were tops that I quilted. I would take pictures of the ones I quilted but it was raining yesterday.

Here's an almost finished quilt (just needs binding) I was working on last summer, Blue and Yellow Stars. I quilted it with a pattern calles Starz from Urban Elementz.

Next is my Christmas Lights mystery quilts from Bonnie Hunter. It wouldn't fit on my design wall so I folded it in half. Hopefully I will get this quilted while on vacation for the next two weeks.

Design Wall Monday

Here is what's on my design wall today, more broken dishes blocks. I made a bunch more on Thanksgiving weekend and at my Friday night group. I have about 10 more to go which I will hopefully will get done in the next two weeks of vacation.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009

Friday Tamara, Tonie, Robin and I attended PIQF. Here's a photo of me with my quilt at the show. While I didn't win an award, I feel honored to be juried in. I did get a lot of nice compliments from passers by while Tamara was taking this photo. My goal in the future will be to win an Honorable Mention or better at this show. I'm still mulling over what my next show quilt will be.

Here's a photo of the fabric I bought, all fat quarters and 1/2 yards. I have finally decided to stop fighting the green thing and buy all the green fabric I want. I thought I was done making green quilts but apparently not. At least I got some purple and peach, too!

Last, but not least, here's Tamara's birthday quilt. I chose the fabrics based on another quilt I made that Tamara loved, so she loves this one as well. And I made her wait two years to get it. After all, it was for the big 50.

Design Wall Monday

After reading the comments from my last post, I spent some time rearranging this quilt. What I really don't like about is is the WIDE sashing. It's just too much. The last photo showed white, that was actually the flannel cover of my design wall. So I am going to make the sashing the same width as the green squares and make it blue or purple to correspond with the alternate blocks. Problem solved and thanks for the comments. It really helped me get to the root of my dislike of this UFO.

Here's what's on the other side! These triangles were leftover from the Fonthill Quilt. I have been moving them out of the way for 2 years! Finally I decided I should throw them away or make them into something. So here they are. This block is called broken dishes and is 8".

Design Wall Monday/2008 2nd Saturday

Here's what's up today. This is the 2008 BOM fro the LQS. I'm not sure I like it. I'm going to finish it up and maybe give it away. The director of the San Antonio Childcare Center is looking for a quilt to raffle as a fundraiser so I'll probably offer it to her. Check out Judy's website for more quilter's design walls.

I spend Friday and Saturday getting 9 quilts ready for the longarm. One is for a paying customer, four will be donations and four are my own quilt tops. It sure feels good to be getting my own tops finished!

Design Wall Monday

I haven't had anything on my design wall for a while. I've been busy starting up my longarm quilting business! Things are going well and I need to finish some of my UFOs so I can quilt them. This Carpenter's Square is from a class I took last summer. My sewing machine breaking slowed me down a bit. The top is now half finished.

To see more design walls, visit Judy's website.

Design Wall Monday

This is what's on my design wall this week. I only have to decide on the borders. I'm thinking yellow is the way to go. I can't show the other side because it has the blocks from Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt in Quiltmaker magazine. I think I know how it will turn out but I don't want to spoil it for anyone else.

Fonthill Quilt wins Best of Show!

Here is it, hanging at the Sonoma County Fair. I hoped to win something but best of show was a big surprise. It placed second at the Marin County Fair.

I also entered the Storm at Sea quilt that Tamara and I made in the group category. They don't ask for all the names on the entry form so only my name shows on the quilt. It won Best of Section. This same quilt placed 4th at the Marin County Fair. This quilt is only 22x30".

On a worrisome note, my dogs broke into the cabinet under the kitchen sink yesterday and ate a box of decon. Since it wasn't apparent who ate how much, I rushed them all to the vet. It seems that Roxy (pictured) ate it and maybe not the others but they are all receiving treatment, just in case. I did a little research about this and treatment is very effective so she'll probably be fine. I'll post an update next week.

Green Quilt #6

Here's the finished Green Quilt #6, ready to be quilted.

Design Wall Monday

I'm a day late but yesterday didn't go as planned, of course. Here's what's on my design wall:

This pattern is called Carriage House by Pat Speth.

And the other side:

This is an Irish Chain from Bonnie Hunter's website, Quiltville.com. This is a pattern she mentioned in her Enders and Leaders article. There are no actual instructions but it wasn't hard to figure out. It just needs a border, then it's ready to quilt.

All a part of my effort to reduce the amount of scraps I have.

Design Wall Monday

...or, Return of the Green Quilt. This is what's on my design wall today, another green quilt. This would be #6 in the green series. I thought I was finished with the green scraps but while I was visiting Nancy in Oregon, I kept thinking of green (Oregon is very green...) So at the Stitchin' Post quilt shop in Sisters, OR, I purchased 13 green fat quarters. Together with the green scraps I had leftover, I started this quilt. The rows haven't all been sewn together and they are a little off. The lower right side is finished and should give you an idea of the finished product. I should have this finished in a couple of days. I have a couple of more ideas for green scraps, so this is not the end of green quilts for me. I think I may need a 12 step program...

The Monday after I returned from Oregon, Tamara was kind enought to press my scraps for me so I could cut them up. Now I can't get the scrap drawers shut so I'll be knocking out a few scrap quilts until things are under control.

Double Delight!

I finished this quilt last month but I couldn't show it because it was a surprise gift for Nancy. I gave it to her last Tuesday so now I can post the pictures. The pattern is called Double Delight and it is a mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter's website, Quiltville.com. I discovered the pattern after the mystery was over. I don't usually work in a color scheme like this but I just couldn't get it out of my mind so I had to make it. Nancy loves it! It will go on the bed in her guest room.

Another green quilt finished!

Here's the finished top. It's folded in half to fit on the design wall. Measurements are 68 x 80. I think I am finished making green scrap quilts. I can't say I'm finished with green completely because I'm in the middle of a Carpenter's Square in what color? Green! I love green. I have to say I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.

Storm at Sea

John Flynn's website has posted a photo of the Storm at Sea quilt that Tamara pieced and I quilted. Here's a link: http://www.flynnquilt.com/workshop/gallery/. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Green Quilt

Here is what I worked on this weekend, Green Quilt top. I can only fit half of it on my design wall at once. The size is a large full. Next I'll finish the second green quilt and post a picture.

Storm at Sea

One of the projects that's been keeping me busy is this Storm at Sea quilt that I quilted for Tamara. This is from a class she took at Houston with John Flynn. The quilt is only 22"x30". The kit was precut with a laser making it super easy to sew accurately. It was a pleasure to quilt, too. Tamara has entered this quilt in the Marin County Fair. I'll post the results when I get them.

Tamara's BOM

I am finally caught up on my block of the month. First shown is April's Brasstown Star. The pattern can be found here.

Second is May's Morning Star 2. The pattern can be found here.

And last, June's Amish Star. The pattern can be found here.

I'm glad to be caught up. Other projects have been keeping me busy and I'll blog about them as soon as I can.

Fonthill Quilt

I have been busily finishing green quilts so I would have room to start quilting this top. I finished this two summers ago and I am finally getting it quilted. It will be in the Santa Rosa show and at the Marin County Fair, so I have to get it finished by June 3. Yikes! It's full size, too! This will be all I work on for the next two weeks. Thank goodness for Memorial Day.


Another reason not much has been getting done, a short trip to Yosemite Valley, courtesy of my brother and his wife. This was the view from our room at the Ahwahnee Hotel (I was sharing with my mom.)

Call Me Crazy...

but I'm going to make another green quilt. This will be the fourth, after the original green quilt, the purple, blue and green quilt and the red and green quilt. I have so many green scrap left over I can't get the drawers where they're stored shut. This last green quilt should clear things out a bit. I often do this, fall in love with an idea and make it a few times until I feel like I'm finished with it. Here's a photo of what I accomplished last night.

This is a pattern I found in Scrap Quilts by Judy Martin (pub. 1985) called Country Cousin. She made it up in red and white scraps. I'm using green and off-white to beige scraps. I also removed the bright greens and I'll use those in kid's quilts. I'm not sure how big this will turn out. I'm going to make blocks until I feel finished.

Louisa Otis wrote about me and the San Antonio Childcare Center quilt project on her blog, Quilters and their stories. Here's a link: http://louisa-otis.petaluma360.com/default.asp?item=2363523. Many of the quilts donated are pictured in earlier posts on this blog.

Spring Break

Since last week was spring break, I took the week off, except Wednesday. I started and finished the following two quilt tops. The first is Buffalo Ridge from Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth.

The second is Carriage House, also by Pat Speth. The pattern can be downloaded from the Windham Fabrics website here.

I also put the green quilt blocks together and decided on a border. Then I finished a quilt I can't blog about because it's a surprise gift. All in all, a great week. I got a lot accomplished and used up some scraps on the two quilts pictured.

Quiltlets

This is what I worked on over the weekend: a quiltlet! Guess which one is mine;) The SF quilt guild displays these at their biannual show. Several PGQ members and I decided to challenge our fellow members to make them also. Aren't they cute? They measure 8 1/2" x 8 1/2", with 8" ties. Then they will be tied together for display. The one on the right is Tamara's.



More progress on the green quilt. I have about 1/3 of the blocks finished.

Green Quilt update

Here's a small sample of how the green quilt is coming along. I don't have enough backround fabric to finish as originally planned and I can't find a suitable substitute so I'm looking into alternative layouts.

Quiltathon

I decided to participate in Judy Laquidara's Quiltathon this weekend. I will be quilting anyway, so why not? I started last night with meeting a group of friends at the Quilted Angel, the local quilt shop. They have open sewing the last two Fridays of the month from 4:30 to 9:30. I took everything to work with me so I could go straight there. I worked on a pattern called Minnesota Windmill from Amazing Nickel Quilts. I finished the first step, 62 half-square triangles.

This morning I worked on the green quilt, walked the dogs and went to the Tri Guild Luncheon with Tamara, Francis and Chris. Moonlighters Quilt Guild hosted. The food was great and the speaker was so-so. We did have a good time. After a quick nap, I got back to the green quilt. The large stack in the front is what I got done today. The two stacks in back are the ones I finished earlier this week. The small stack on the left are the ones that are not finished. I ran out of the backround fabric. I'm doing the "draw a diagonal line and sew on both sides" method to make the half-square triangles. All the sewing is done, except for the ones with no backround. Now to cut them in half, press open and cut into quarters to make the blocks.

More Green Quilt

Here's the block I'm using for the green quilt. It's called Tillie's Treasures, from the first Nickel Quilts book and is 7 inches finished. One down, 142 to go!

The Green Quilt

Here's some more photos of the green quilt. After I got all 143 pairs of 5 inch squares up, I worked it over to remove squares that stood out too much or were too light. Then I moved the darkest squares to the outside to create a border. These will have light green backrounds instead of white with green dots. This is not the final layout since turning the squares into blocks will change their character. I wanted to weed out any possible problems since I have barely enough backround fabric. No room for errors!

Here's a closer photo so you can see some of the print's details:

I really used every shade of green, from gray green to bright green to blue-green to a green so dark it's almost black. Some squares have a little bit of a contrasting color to add interest. I can't wait to start sewing. This was going to be a stand-by project for Friday nights but I'm so excited about it I think I'll start tonight!

Tamara's 2009 Block of the Month

Here's the March block, Sawtooth Star. The instructions can be found here http://www.quilterscache.com/S/SawToothStarBlock.html

This is what I was working on this weekend:

Several months ago a fellow guild member gave me a bag of green fabric and said "do anything you want with it.". I was inspired to make a green quilt. I'll be using a pattern called Tillie's Treasures from Nickel Quilts. I pinned up all the squares to see if any really clashed before I started sewing. There are two or three I may remove but overall I'm happy. I'm trying to not repeat any green and I think I can do it. I'll be using white with mossy dots for the backround, also from the bag. There were also some large cuts I can use for the backing, 1.5 to 2 yards each. I spent all day Sunday washing, ironing and cutting fabric for this project and I still have the backround squares to cut.

More San Antonio Quilts

Monday, February 16, some of the Valley Girls got together to put binding and labels on these quilts, which I delivered yesterday. This makes 18 total we have provided for the San Antonio High School Childcare Center.

Tamara made this top and I quilted it...



I made this one...

And this one...

And this one. Tamara picked out the color scheme.

Joann made these two quilts and I quilted them. The flowers was a top she donated.

Tamara and I made this one afternoon to try out this simple pattern. We loved it! You can put this top together in a couple of hours and a couple more to quilt it.

I made this one with leftover blocks from Second Saturday a couple of years ago.

This one I made to clean out my scrap bin. It's the Sunnly Lanes pattern from the Nickel Quilts book.