2018 Finishes - On Ringo Lake - #42

This quilt is another Bonnie Hunter annual mystery quilt.  This is the fourth year that I have participated in her mystery quilt programs.  They are free and happen every year between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

This is the second mystery quilt that I did in fabric lines from Fig Tree Quilts by Moda.  I have quite a collection of her lines, so I was able to have enough to do this mystery quilt again for the 2017 Mystery Quilt.  Progress posts of this quilt can be found here.

Every one of her quilts are quite large, this one is no exception at 75" X 90".  

Close up of the block and quilting.  Notice the binding, I had to use both yellow and backing fabric in order to have enough to do the binding, just like the backing.

I did not have enough of the yellow to do the whole backing, so I included another color (background) as part of the backing.  I sewed it as opposite pieces and this is what it looks like.

Size: 75" x 90"

Fabric Lines Used:  Various Lines from Fig Tree Quilts by Moda

Colors:  pale yellow, red, pink and background

Batting:

Pattern: On Ringo Lake

Designer:  Bonnie Hunter, Quiltville

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: 11/2017

Year Completed: 06/18

2017 Finishes - Fat Quarter Shop 2013 Mystery Quilt - #38

This is one of the few Mystery Quilts that I have done from the Fat Quarter Shop.  This one was from 2013.  You can see about each block here, as I happened to blog about each one.  One of the few times I tracked each block on the blog.  I finally dug it out last year to do the sashing, and borders.

I guess you would call this a semi-row quilt, as each row has same theme all across the row.  Row 1 is baskets, row 2 is stars, row 3 is houses, and row 4 are supposed to be a flower block.

I have not done a border like this one before, I didn't think I would ever get the pieces done to make the pointed border.

The backing is matching to the front border, and the binding matches the pointed border.

Size: 74" x 89"

Fabric Lines Used:  Moda Avalon by Fig Tree Quilts

Colors:  Pale Blue, red, yellows, greens

Pattern: 2013 Mystery Quilt from Fat Quarter Shop

Designer: Various Moda Designers

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: 2013

Year Completed: 11/17 

2016 Finished Quilts - Crossroads - #25

Warning, lots of pictures.  This quilt is one quilt that I started in 2016, and finished in 2016.  Actually, it is a BOM from Fat Quarter Shop, and it was a Mystery BOM quilt.  I did lots of many posts about the process of making these blocks.  You can read it all about it here. This link will show you all the blocks up close and the process of completing the quilt top.

Here is the front of the block all done and in it glory.  It is done in a fabric line from one of my favorite Mode designers, Joanna Figureoa who does Fig Tree fabric lines.  This line is called Strawberry Hills Revisited.  The colors are cool and yummy.  

This is the different way of doing a backing.  The last instruction was the big block star surrounded by the backing fabric.  Really like this backing for this quilt, would probably do it again, if I am short on backing fabric.  Usually I have fabric left over from these BOM's and could do a big block to make the backing stretch.  

Picture of the quilt all laid out, you can see the red Irish chain bringing all the blocks together.

Here are close ups of the different blocks throughout the quilt.  The constant block is the red Irish Chain.   

This quilt had five borders, all the same size, just in different colors.  The one sawtooth border is scrappy reds.  This took a long time to sew and get put together, but I really like the end result.

The backing is a favorite of mine, being white with pink/red roses all about and the polka-a-dot binding is just perfect.

A better view of the back, you can see the big block better.

It's been folded for awhile, with other quilts on top of it, so when I pick it up after photographing it, I folded it different so that the fold lines don't get engrained in the quilt.  I read somewhere that to keep the permanent creases from forming, to take them out and refold them a different way.  

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Size: 66" X 83"

Fabric Lines Used:  Moda Fig Tree, Strawberry Hills Revisited

Pattern: Crossroads by Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Quilt 2016

Designer:  Several From the Jolly Jabber Blog (Moda Designers)

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: 02/2016

Year Completed: 10/2016

2017 Finished Quilts - "Mum's the Word" Mystery Quilt - #30

This is my first finish for 2017.  I'm slower this year.

I started this mystery quilt, from a blog site back in April 2013, and all I did was pull the fabric together and started clue one.  Then it got put away until I pulled it out in June 2016 (you can read about the details here)and finished the top and pinned it together to quilt on my machine rather than sending it out to a long arm quilter.  And it sat there on my to do pile, got moved around, and sat some more, until this last week when I was at a point that I wanted to quilt it.  Part of my procrastination in working on this is because I have not done any quilting on my vintage machine, and wasn't sure how it would perform.  Although, I think it was just plain procrastination on my part, because I don't like this part of the quilt making process.  I knew from following a group on Facebook called Vintage Sewing Machines, that this machine would perform just fine.  And, of course it did, and it works wonderful.  

This is the full size, about 40" X 50".  At first, for me, I couldn't really see the pattern of pinwheels, but the camera brings out them.  It is all made from one jelly roll, including the border and the binding.  

For the backing, I used a scrap of leftover fabric from the backing of my Chocolat quilt from last year.  I did just a cross hatch stitch in the ditch following the pinwheels top to bottom, sided to side.

It has been a cold winter this year in the Pacific Northwest, so I am going to use it to throw over my legs while I'm siting at the machine.  But, since it is finally spring and warming up, it will have a place on the back of my sewing chair.

Size: 40" X 50"

Fabric Lines Used:  Moda Whimsey by Fig Tree

Pattern: Mystery Quilt "Mum's the Word" 

Designer:  Heather Spence (www.heatherspencedesigns.com

Long Arm Quilter:  Renee Steele

Year Began: 04/2013

Year Completed: 04/2017

2016 Finished Quilts - Alliatare Mystery Quilt - Quilt 11

This is my second year of participating in Bonnie Hunter's annual Mystery Quilt program.  You can read my posts about all the details of this quilt and how her Mystery Quilt works here.

This quilt was made with mostly (other than the dark green print) are from several different lines of Fig Tree by Moda.  I like using mode fabrics, as their lines within a designer, can be mixed and matched and come out just beautiful!!  When I posted it on the Quiltville FB page, I even got a comment from Bonnie herself!!  She has over 30,000 followers all over the world!!  

This is another rather large quilt, 82" X 95".  All of her mystery quilts are this big.  My first one, done in Thimbleberries (you can read about it here).  I still have to get a backing put together on it and get it sent off to be quilted at my long arm quilter.

A lot of the comments from my FB post were about the border print.  Everyone liked how it looks on the quilt.  I bound it in the dark green print and it pulled the quilt together.

The backing was a tough one, I had lots of the background fabric leftover, but not enough to cover the entire back, so I used up the peach print from the quilt top and made a different looking back.  Not the most attractive looking back, but it works, as no one will ever probably see the back, except my readers.  The front steals the show, and the back will stay off stage.

I am anxious for the next mystery quilt coming this November.  I am already deciding what type of fabric I will be using.  That's how I dream, always thinking about the next quilt project.  Sigh....

Next are the specific facts about the quilt:

Size:  82" X 95"

Fabric Lines Used:  Moda Fig Tree - Different Lines

Pattern: Allietare

Designer:  Bonnie Hunter

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began:  2015

Year Completed:  2016

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2016 Crossroads Quilt Along

This is the pile of the next and last set of blocks.

It is named the crossroads block (thus the where the name of the quilt a long came from), 

All eighteen of them will tie the quilt together with the other blocks that we have been making so far in this quilt a long.

All the reds are scrappy in each of the blocks, and the center is of the different colors throughout the quilt.

All of the blocks are done, so next month should be the top finishing instructions.  

Hang in there, this one is almost done.

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Ongoing June Update

Well, it has been quite busy around here for the last couple of weeks.

I finally got this little lap quilt quilted.  It took much longer than I would have liked.  Only because, I chose to quilt each little piece of the quilt.  Starting and stopping, cutting the thread and starting again takes a lot of time.  But, it is now done, and it went on a trip with my mom.  Her favorite color is blue.  More can be seen about this quilt here.

I have jumped on the vintage sewing machine bandwagon, and decided to get this one out of my garage storage to see what I could do with it.  It is a Bernina Model 1130, and is still selling for around $800 - $1200.  It was made in the '70's, so it is holding it's value nicely.  It has 10 feet, including a walking foot, a retractable plug in cord, and a leg lift attachment that will lift the pressure foot while you are sewing.  Never used one before, but can see where they would come in handy.  But after all that, it is missing the correct pressure foot.  I looked for one online, but a new one, genuine or not,  runs around $140.  WOW!  A lot to spend just to see if the machine works well,  I can turn the flywheel, the light comes on, and the bobbin winder works, so now I have to ponder if I want to spend that kind of money to get a pressure foot.  I wrote about this with my own Viking Designer II machine's pressure foot that cracked and is not working properly, and its replacement cost is around $250!  It all boils down to the machines that are electronic, and have electronic connections to the foot pedals causes the high prices.

I think everyone knows by now that my favorite color is pink.  My sewing room oozes pink, and it has all kinds of pink sewing decor.  So, when I was out garage sale(ing) with a friend, and I came across this pink iron, I knew I had to have it for my sewing room.  When I saw that it was only $8, I knew I really had to get it, and the little sticker swore it still works!  So I bought it, brought it home, tested it and sure enough it works.  The retractable cord does not work, so I just put a little clip on the cord to hold it out so it stays plugged in.  

The garden work continues, I have pulled the pea plants and then planted beans in the spot.  Below is the picture of the pepper plants that I started from seed in my green house.  I planted over 35 plants, hoping to get enough with the tomato plants to make salsa this year.

I made a resolution the last two years, to work on getting UFO's done in my stash.  This few months I have pulled out tops that I had completed.  I have had 5 done at my long arm quilter to date, she currently has 4 more to quilt, and the picture below is 8 more ready to go.  When I say ready to go, I have to stitch the backing together and cut batting off a big roll.  Then I have to fill out paperwork for each quilt before I can drop them off.  But, I will have to wait until she is done with the 4 she has before I send over any more.  I am still waiting for a nice day here in the Pacific Northwest (and when I don't have any gardening work to do) to get pictures of the completed quilts.  Most of these completed quilts are BOM's from 2004 - 2008.  I didn't get pictures of the progress work of any of these quilts, so it will be limited posts about them when I do get pictures of the final quilt.

While I was digging through my old UFO's, I came across this next project.  Back in 2013, I was spending late nights trolling through all kinds of quilting blogs, and came across this "Mystery Quilt" by Heather Spence.  I felt that it was a good cause (for cancer), and I was intrigued by doing a mystery quilt.

This mystery quilt called for a jelly roll in the fabric requirements, and I had just picked up this jelly roll at the quilt shop I worked at back in 2013.  It is a fabric line called Whimsy, by Fig Tree for Moda.  See the red line through the price?  It meant that it was half off, and I then got my employee discount, so I was invested in this mystery quilt for about $15.00.  

What I didn't do well in considering this jelly roll for this quilt, is the fact that there were not distinct darks and lights.  This is what I would call a "muted" color line of fabric.  So after I tried to sort out the darkest colors and made up the top, it is really hard to see the the pattern of the block and the way it should look in the quilt top.

This is an isolated block, and it is hard to see how it should be for the quilt.  

Oh well, I am going to go ahead and quilt it up and use it for a travel lap quilt or a donation quilt.

Thanks for stopping in and catching up with all my ongoing projects.  As always, there will be more to come.

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2016 Crossroads Quilt Along

Back in February, I started a Quilt Along through the Fat Quarter Shop.  So far I have kept caught up with the blocks that are to be done each month.

February Blocks:

March Blocks:

April Blocks:

May Blocks:

I had the May blocks cut out when the pattern came out on the 15th, but did not get to working on them until the last few days.  Tonight I can say I am caught up until June 15th.  Sigh.

Just a note, I have completed 7 quilts in the last two months, but have not figured a good way to get them photographed for the blog.  This is something I am working on, as I want to get them documented as well as getting them shared with all who follow my blog.  I am feeling accomplished in betting old UFO's done, but now the quandary of getting pics and then a final blog post about each one.  Stay tuned...

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Next Crossroads Block

The next block pattern came out this last Friday, and I was able to get them cut out and made.  This next release is a block called "Friendship Block"  It is made up of squares and 8 flying geese per block.  I am not a fan of "flying geese", as mine don't ever come out as good as I think they should, but all in all, I think they came out pretty good.

  You can read and see the prior blocks here.  Also the post has all the links to the information about this quilt-a-long.  The patterns are free, they just ask that you make donations to the March of Dimes.

Come back next month to see more progress.

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Crossroads Quilt Along Blocks Continued

I did get a chance to complete the March blocks of the Crossroads Quilt Along.  They are called Diamond Blocks.  There are only three blocks this time.

Block 1 set:

Block 2 set:

These blocks looked fairly easy at first glance, but putting four triangles on each of the 5 squares in each block took quite a bit of time.  Not something that I could just sit down and whip up!  

Block 3 set won't be available until around the 15th of this month, so I am on hold until then for this project.

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Why I've Been Away

I know it has been awhile since I have written a post.  More than a month, but as you all know, I am a full time caregiver to both my mom and dad.  My dad's health took a turn for the worse, and we had to put him on hospice.  He passed away this past Friday, due to more complications with his health.  Not an easy time for anyone.  The funeral service will be four states away next week, and we will be traveling most of next week.

I did get to do some sewing these last two days.  It was good therapy to just do something I love and not have to think of anything else.  Some escapism is good for the soul, and sewing is just that for me.

I signed up for the BOM program, Crossroads Quilt Along, found on the Fat Quarter blog here  I also went ahead and purchased the kit, so I am doing the pattern in the fabric from Moda, called Strawberry Hills Revisited by Fig Tree.

The patterns are available for free, found at the link above each month, with the request that you donate something to the March of Dimes each time you down load the pattern.

Here is the first set of blocks done called the house block:

I now have been working on the next blocks, the diamond block, and have them almost done.  Will post soon.

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