2018 Finishes - Zeke Scrappy - #57

I have more Thimbleberries scrap fabric than I know what to do with, especially pieces measuring 2.5 inches.  I was playing around with using up these pieces, and put together this pattern.  This is one of my first designs using no pattern other than what was in my head.  I am calling it Zeke Scrappy.  I will get to why I am calling it later in the post.  

I thought I would be able to put a dent in my scraps, but no avail.  This is one of my favorite quilts I have ever made.  One because I designed it, and two, it's scrappy with my favorite line of fabrics.  There is not much if any duplication in the pieces.  It borderlines on being a postage stamp quilt. 

The size is 65" X 88".  I made it specifically to be a throw for a tall big man.

I chose a scrappy reds for the binding, to bring all the colors of the quilt to a focal point.  

Of course, I chose my favorite 108" backing for this quilt, as it fits the colors and background of all my Thimbleberries fabrics.

Now, the idea behind this quilt comes from a person that came into our lives when my children were in high school.  His parents had just gotten divorced and he was not in a good place, so he spent a lot of time with my children and at our home.  He began to call me mom, and loved being a part of our family.  He went on to do a tour in the military, landed back in the Eastern part of the US, got married to a wonderful woman, and now has a daughter.  One of Facebook's redeeming qualities is that I can keep in contact with these individuals and their growing lives.  This individual, Zeke, commented on one of my FB quilt posts that he buy one of my quilts, as he wanted one.  I replied that I don't sell them, but that I would make him one.

When I sent it to him, I wrote him a note explaining that life gives us lots of scraps that we piece together that makes us whole and what we are today.  Much like a quilt, the fabric can stay in a box all jumbled up and messy, not really being anything useful, but put together it turns into a beautiful thing that is useful, comforting, and warm.  It brings happiness to individuals lives, much like he did in his life.

Therefore, I give you the Zeke Scrappy...

Warmest...

Renee.

Size: 65" x 88"

Fabric Lines Used:  Thimbleberries 

Colors:  Black Gold, red, Green, blue

Pattern:  Zeke Scrappy  

Designer: Renee Steele

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began:2018

Year Completed: 2018

2018 Finishes - Springs First Breath #56

A quilt that looks like its name, "Springs First Breath".  When you look at it, it looks like spring.  Light and airy, very pretty. It comes from a Block of the Month club through a local quilt shop.  The kind where you spend $5 a month, attend the club meeting, do some show and tell, and meet with like minded other quilters.  It was a lot of fun back in 2009.

It is a nice sized quilt, measuring 70" X 88".  The pictures below do not do it justice.  The light was not in my favor the day I took pictures of several of my quilts.

I tried to get up close to show the block patterns throughout the quilt.  It is a sampler, where each block is a different pattern using the same colors for each block.

The backing is just gorgeous with the blue floral.  It was used also as to outside border on front of the quilt.  The fabric line is from Tanya Whelan called Grand Revival.  I like her lines of fabric.  I have some more of her lines, and will be making more from them.  

Warmest...

Size: 70" x 88"

Fabric Lines Used:  Tanya Weylan Grand Revival

Colors: Pale blue, pink, green

Pattern:  Springs First Breath

Designer: Diane Bowden

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2009

Year Completed: 2018

2018 Finishes - Starry Path - #54

This quilt is a Block of the month from 2009 at one of the local quilt shops.  Once again I did all the blocks during the year, but put it aside and it became an UFO.  I pulled it out this year, as one of the BOM's I was committed to get done.  The sashing are patterned pieces, so I had to spend time getting them made up and then I was able to proceed in putting the top together.  There are big background blocks, every other block with the printed fabric blocks.  There was an option to do an appliqué ring of flowers using the same colors as the blocks, but I opted not to do that for this quilt.  It came out better than I thought it would with all that background white space.

The borders use the same fabrics as found in the blocks.  It measures 65" X 65".  It doesn't look square in the picture, but it is, believe me.  I am not a fan of square quilts, but this is quite pretty.

Again, the sunlight doesn't due the close up pictures any justice, but I like the sherbet colors used in the quilt.

I had enough of the border fabric as a backing, and the fabric from the inner border for the binding.  

Size: 65" x 65"

Fabric Lines Used:  Unknown

Colors:  Sherbert yellows, pinks, blues

Pattern:  Frizzle Frazzle (Lynette"s "You're Invited" 05/06)

Designer:  Diane Bowden

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2006

Year Completed: 2018

2018 Finishes - Hourglass & Rails - #53

Everybody who reads about my projects and quilts, know that I'm  a follower of Bonnie Hunter at her blog Quiltville.  Every year around June/July, she puts out a new Leader Ender project.  I combined two of her years blocks to make this quilt.

Year 2016 was the pinwheel block and year 2017 was the rails block.  I chose to alternate the two blocks and came up with this quilt.

This quilt is made with 30's reproductions prints, and there is not duplicate within each block.  So, in essence, there in one block in a pinwheel and one block in a rail using the same print.  But, it is really very scrappy.  It measures 84" X 102".

The sun did not do justice of this quilt.  This is a close up of a corner of the different blocks.  I get all my quilts done in a stipple pattern by my long armer quilter.  It is very reasonable, and looks great on most of my common quilts.  

I chose a very pretty pink tone on tone to match the period pink colors.  I used it also for the binding.

Size: 84" x 102"

Fabric Lines Used:  30's Reproduction Prints

Colors:  Red, Green Yellow, blue, pink

Pattern: 2016 Pinwheels and 2017 Rails Leaders Enders 

Designer:  Bonnie Hunter

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2016

Year Completed: 2018

Child's Play Quilt #58

Still working on finishing up kits in the several programs I joined back in the 2000's.  This one comes from a program called "Anniversary Club" Thimbleberries by Lynette Jensen. The kit came in June 2006.   It is in her book, that I have done other kits from this club.  More about past posts can be found here.  

This kit is called Child's Play Quilt.  It will measure 74" X 86".  

This shows all the different pieces that I put together by chain piecing.

This is the lay out of the other different pieces of the quilt.  I cut them all out, and then sew them block by block.

Here is a sample of the layout I use to get the pieces done in chain piecing.  I pair up the half square triangle with the one color and one background.

I have the top finished, ready to go the long arm quilter.  I will get final pictures when it is done.

BDU Memory Dog and Bear

We have a dear friend that served in the military and did a tour over in the Middle East.  I am taking a pile of his uniforms (BDU's) and making a memory dog and bear for his daughter.  I also will be making a quilt with the leftover pieces for our friend.

This is the dog sewn up before stuffing.

This is where he is stuffed, still unfinished.  I have to tweak the stuffing, add the eyes and sew up the back.  

Here is the finished stuffed dog.  The eyes and nose make the dog look so cute!!

This time of year is tough to find red, white and blue striped ribbon, which is what I want to use.  The recipient is a young girl, so I went with a pink bow.  

I am honored to do this for our friend.

Warmest...

Wren

2018 Finishes - Fresh As A Daisy - #47

Another square quilt / table topper from the Thimbleberries program "You're Invited".  This is called Fresh A Daisy for February 2007.  

This has nine blocks with each one appliquéd in the center of a daisy using blue and pink fabric.  I machined on the appliqué design using a blanket stitch on my domestic machine.  Each appliqué is done on the same background fabric, and then each block is framed with the same fabric from the fabric used as the petals or from the borders.

This is one of only a few quilts that I have done that have different fabrics for one border.  Gives a whole different look to a quilt.  I really like it for this quilt.  Gives it a whimsical look.

Close up of a couple of the daisies and the framing.

The binding was done in yellow, matching the small inner border, tying it all together quite nice.

I had several strips leftover from the petals, frames and borders, so I stitched them together for the backing.   I was still short, so I found some fabric that had all the colors in this quilt top, and stitched it to the top and bottom of the backing.  It now is a double sided quilt with a different pattern on the front and the back.  

Warmest...

Size: 56" x 56"

Fabric Lines Used:  Thimbleberries 

Colors:  Pastel blue, pink, yellow

Pattern:  Fresh As A Daisy (Thimbleberries "You're Invited" 02/07)

Designer:  Lynette Jensen

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2007

Year Completed: 2018

2018 Finishes - Party Pumpkins - #50

I don't celebrate Halloween, but I do like the fall decorations, and this is perfect for those who like fall and Halloween.  

This is another quilt (more like a wall hanging or a table top covering) from the "You're Invited" program club of 2006 - 2007.  This one is from June 2007.  It is another one that I did the top and left the borders, quilting, and binding for later.  That later came this year.  I am trying to take each of these programs that I signed up for and had the tops started and get them completed.  Since this was over ten years ago, and my tastes have changed, if I haven't done the top and don't like the quit, I have taken the kit apart and put the fabric in the Thimbleberries scrap bin.  I really would like to work on scrap quilts rather than a kit I no longer care about.

This quilt has appliquéd blocks at the top and bottom of the center of the quilt and a strip brick center of various fall colored prints.  The pumpkins and moon pieces are machined sewn with a blanket stitch I have on my Huskvana Quilt Designer sewing machine.  That was the only machine I owned until I got hooked on Vintage Sewing machines.  I will be blogging about them more later this year.

Again, this is more of a wall hanging / table topper as is is only 48" X 52"  

The border has a triangle flying geese as its first border, and then a matching strip border that matches the dark triangles.  

I wish I had gone with a darker backing to go with better with the front colors, but it matches the triangles from the border, so all is well.  At least the binding is dark and a matching fall color with the front fabrics.

Warmest...

Size: 48" x 52"

Fabric Lines Used:  Thimbleberries 

Colors:  Black Gold, Orange, Green

Pattern:  Party Pumpkins (Thimbleberries "You're Invited" 06/07)

Designer:  Lynette Jensen

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2007

Year Completed: 2018

2018 Finishes - Campfire - #45

This is a quilt kit from the yearly program that Main Street Cotton Shoppe (no longer open). This program ran during the year 2007.  The program was called Lynette's Favorites, and this kit was for the month of June, 2007.  There were at least two programs that ran that year by this quilt shop, as the shop was Lynette Jensen's home base promoting her many lines of Thimbleberries fabrics.

I have to be honest, I tore into this quilt kit to use the flannel fabric or the completed quilt top for a backing on another flannel quilt kit I finished (See the next blog post for #46).   But, alas, this quilt kit had too little fabric to fit the other quilt, so I ended up going ahead and making this quilt and getting flannel backing for each one.  

The fabrics used in this quilt were all flannels, with the center piece being sorta a panel depicting a winter town scene.  True to Lynette's design, she has a tree block in the bottom row of this quilt.  She uses this design in many of her quilt patterns.

This was a simple and fairly easy quilt to sew together.  It went together fast, with little to no fitting of blocks.  Quality flannel is a dream to sew on, I just don't to chose to buy it or use it on a regular basis.

This is a close up of the winter scene in the middle of the quilt.  

I didn't opt to buy the backing of this program kits, so I had to sorta improvise, and I ended up using a red on red flannel by Maywood Studios.  

Because flannel is warm and heavier than cotton, I did not use any batting, and had it just quilted together.  Feels wonderful in the weight of the quilt.

Finally, this is a close up of the borders, quilting, and binding.

Warmest...

Size: 55" x 76 "

Fabric Lines Used:  Thimbleberries Flannel

Colors:  Red, Green Gold

Pattern:  Campfire (Lynette"s Favorites 06/07)

Designer:  Lynette Jensen

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2018

Year Completed: 2018

2018 Finishes - Oregon Trail - #43

This quilt is a block of the month from a local quilt shop, done back in 2007. The quilt shop that did this program did it in two color ways, and I chose the 30's prints.   I have had the blocks done for ten years, and decided to get it done last year.  I had to find some sashing, corner stone stars, and border fabrics before I could get it done.  

I finished the blocks before I started the blog, so you will just have to look at them below.

I used several pastel colors for the sashing, borders, and the corner point stars.  

The backing is similar to pillow ticking used in the 30's, and I felt it fit the quilt to a tee.

Size: 58" x 75"

Fabric Lines Used:  Various 30's Reproduction Prints

Colors:  pink, orange, green, yellow, blue

Pattern: Oregon Trail

Designer:  Grandms's Attic Quilt Shop, Dallas, OR

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: 2007

Year Completed: 05/18