Catching Up

I have been working on a few things, just not enough to get done and get posted.  Life and circumstances have a way of changing things a bit.

I have a few projects that I have been focusing on and off for the better part of 2019.  Mostly projects that I started and need to get finished.  I am planning on doing that for the rest of the year as I want to get all my UFO's done.  My past UFO's have included both actual projects I started and then there were programs that I purchased in the past and never started.  I am going to concentrate on working on only UFO's that I have actually started, for instance, BOM blocks are done, but need the assembly (sashing), borders, quilting, and binding, or projects that have been cut out and need assembly.

My first UFO is a Leader and Ender (by Bonnie Hunter at Quitville.com) from 2012 called Cheddar Bow Ties.  I have been working on this since 2013.  I wanted to have a total scrappy look, by not having any repeats in the blocks.  I planned on making two twin bed sized quilts, but ran out of the Cheddar I was using as the background fabric, so I found a solid cheddar fabric to continue to use, and ended up making a king size.

I ended up assembling them by alternating the printed cheddar background and the solid cheddar background.  It is now ready to head off to the long arm quilter.

The second UFO project that I have been working on this year has been the Leader and Ender from July 2018.  It was called Jewel Box Stars once again from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com.  Once again, I have opted to use my abundant amount of Thimbleberries scraps to do this project.  

I still have some assembly to do, and a border to add, and this will be off to the long arm quilter.

My third, fourth and fifth project is not really a UFO,  but projects I work in while working on my main projects.  I make Quilt of Valor blocks for a FB group.   Starting last fall,  had a mystery block program, and I had been keeping up with the blocks until recently.  I have three left to do.

Each month the fabric layout changes, but the pattern is the same each month. It was quite surprising how the block looks so differently just by changing the fabric layout.   This is a sample of a couple of the blocks:

Then I did a presentation of a quilt made with donated blocks from this FB group, and one of the members quilted it and sent it to me to finish it.

As soon as I got it bound and the label put on, I was able to present it to the Veteran.

The third QOV quilt is for a friend of ours that I took his army uniforms and made two memory stuffed animals (one for his wife and one for his daughter), and then I also made a quilt for him.  More about the stuffed animals here.

My fourth UFO is completed to the quilting phase.  I still need to cut the binding, bind it and take final pictures.  This one is from a monthly program back in 2009 for the month of June.  Each month the online shop Main Street Cotton Shoppe (no longer in business) would send a complete quilt kit that matched one in Lynette Jensen's book "Celebration of Quilts".  The program was called "Anniversary Club".  This month's quilt was called "Child's Play".  I did have a start of posting about it here.

Then the last project I have been working on is the annual Quiltville Mystery Quilt, called Good Fortune for 2018.  Usually, I have this done during the time the mystery is going on, from Thanksgiving to New Year's, but I am still working on getting the piecing done. Again, I am trying to use up my Thimbleberries scraps on this mystery quilt.   I have one more border to do, and then it is off to the long arm quilter.  

As soon as these are completed, I will do an individual post with more information and pictures, because I am using the blog mostly now to document my different finished quilts.  

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 - Garden Party #55

This is a table runner from the Thimbleberries program "You're Invited" for the month of March 2007.  When I am typing these dates, I think wow, that was a long time ago, many years ago.  There is no feeling like getting all of these projects finished.  The baggage of unfinished projects can be heavy and discouraging in our quilting world.

Take this table runner for example,  I put it aside this top as the pattern called for quite a bit of appliqué in and around the center blocks.  I don't really like doing appliqué, so I put it away.  When I set out to finish my UFO's, I told myself that I didn't need to do my projects like the pattern, and could do without the appliqué!  What a feeling of control and freedom.  This project turned out simple and something I really like without the appliqué.  We need to learn to do what we like and what it takes to complete projects.

It is a fairly large table runner, measuring 27" X 52".  I have a table it will fit, but I haven't used it yet.  I'm thinking of using it a gift for a distant friend who really appreciates the work that goes into these projects.  

Also, I had to get creative for the backing.  This is a different color value that Thimbleberries tried (and failed in my humble opinion), but it then cause difficulty in getting a matching or a close to matching fabric to use on the back.  Then, I remembered that during the participation in this program, they sent me two of these kits by a mail mix up, when I called about it they told me I could just keep the second kit for free.  I dug through my bins of kits and found the duplicate, and I had enough to create a backing using two of the fabrics from the front.  Win! Win!  The rest of the kit went into the scrap bin for future scrap quilts.

Warmest...

Size: 27" x 52"

Fabric Lines Used:  Thimbleberries 

Colors:  Red, Yellow, Blue, Green

Pattern:  Garden Party (Thimbleberries "You're Invited" 03/07)

Designer:  Lynette Jensen

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2007

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.