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.  

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.

2017 Finishes - Fat Quarter Baskets - #34

Once again, this is a Thimbleberries club program from the year of "Anniversary Club".  You can click here to read about all the other projects from this club program.  

This is called Fat Quarter Baskets.  It is a square quilt, which I have found that if the blocks are set in a diagonal placing, the quilt is almost always a square.  Not a fan of square quilts, as they don't fit on beds too well, except just the top, unless they are about 108" x 108".  This one is only 78" x 78", it barely fits the top of my king size mattress.  Probably will look really nice on a double bed.

This is a nice block, as the handle in the basket is pieced rather than appliquéd like most basket blocks.  

This one had three borders.  Lynette's use of borders makes her quilts really come together.  I think that is why I really like doing her patterns.

Here is the backing that I found in a quilt shop in a small town south of us.  We travel there about three times a year for a trade show, and I manage to stop in and pick up a few fabrics.  They have a nice selection of 108" wide backings, and this is one of my favorites.  The design has all the colors used in the Thimbleberries line and it always works on these projects.  I have use it several times, almost will become my signature for all my future Thimbleberries projects.

Size: 78" x 78"

Fabric Lines Used:  Various Lines from Thimbleberries

Colors:  Fall reds, golds, greens

Pattern: Fat Quarter Baskets

Designer:  Lynette Jensen, Thimbleberries  Anniversary Club 12/09

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began:02/17

Year Completed: 09/17 

2017 Finishes - Star & Chain #26

I have posted about projects out of this book before, as it was a year long program called "Anniversary Club" put on my a quilt shop for Thimbleberries.  The program sent out a kit once a month of each project in this book.  If you are interested in the other projects I have completed from this book you can read them here. If you want to read about the process of making the quilt, you can click and read about it here.

This project is called "Star & Chain".  I fell in love with it, mainly from this picture.  It is one of my favorites from the book.

This is a picture of the layout of the block.  Was a little complicated to do and put together when all the pieces were cut out and made.

These are just some of the pieces that made the frame around the star in the middle.

This also is the making of the frames.

These are the little triangles that were cut off of the frames.  I have to think of something to do with all of these piles of leftovers.

This is one thought of using up the triangles, but pin wheels are not my favorite to make.  Remember this was done last year.  The triangles are still technically in a pile, just now piles in a bag.

These are finished star units.

Here is the making of the rows, showing how the framing goes together around the stars.

This is a finished flimsy.

Final and finished product.  I think my picture is as good as the one in the book!  

This is a close up of the quilting and binding.

Finally this picture shows the backing I choose.

Size: 64" x 76"

Fabric Lines Used:  Kit using Thimbleberries Fabrics

Greens and Yellows

Pattern: Star & Chain

Designer:  Lynette Jensen

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: 10/2016

Year Completed: 06/17 

2017 Finishes - Thimbleberries Paint Box Stars - #29

If you have been following me on my blog for any length of time you know I am a part of Quilt of Valor program.  I have a neighbor that I am best friends with and her husband, as it turns out, is a retired captain form the marines.  So I had been working on a quilt that would be perfect to give him under this program.   

Meet Captain Jack Carter, Ret. USMC holding up the quilt I gave him under the program.  He is 81 at the time I gave him the quilt.

His wife, my friend, took this picture of he and I with he quilt for their memory picture book and family.

Below is the presentation letter you give with the quilt.

I made a label, something that I don't do very often (hang my head), but I wanted him and his family to know about the quilt and where it came from and how it was presented.  

He and his wife was very touched by receiving this quilt, and it made my heart swell as well.  Wonderful program to be a part of and a participant.

Warmest...

2016 Finished Quilts - Thimbleberries Log Cabin - Quilt 17

My last post of 2016 finished quilts was at number 12.  I finished 25 quilts this year, either by completing UFO's, working on past BOM's, and pairing completed tops with batting and backing, and then getting them all off to the long arm quilter.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to get any decent pictures, because here in the Pacific Northwest, we have overcast, wet ground, and either rain, mist, or snow, making it impossible to take any pictures.  My house is not big enough either to take full, nice pictures.

But I have either given away or sold some quilts, so I took the best pictures of the finished quilts that I could given the circumstances.  So some of the finished quilts will be out of order in posting until I can get out this spring to get decent pictures.

This was a Christmas present for my neighbor.  I have know her for over 10 years, and have known her through her children growing up, a divorce, and now her upcoming retirement as a nurse.  She will be selling her house and moving back to Montana to live when she retires.  She has bought some property up there and plans on building a new house.

I came up with the idea to gift her a quilt, one reason to use in her new house, and two, to remember us as neighbors into her new life.

I picked what I thought was appropriate for a house in Montana, I thought of a log cabin pattern quilt.  I finished this one in a group of 4 quilts during the month of July this year.  I began working on it back in May, you can see that part here.

This quilt kit was a part of a annual club for Lynette Jensen's Thimbleberries.  It was called "Anniversary Club" back in 2008.  It was a project for the month of October 2008.  This club consisted not a block a month, but a complete quilt every other month for two years.  There were 11 complete quilt kits in the program, and I have completed 3 of the 12 projects.  I finished # 3 last week called Star and Chain, which I posted about a couple of days ago.


This is a picture of the folded log cabin.  It consisted dark colors, constructing with light beige background fabrics.

This is a full picture of the completed quilt, on my kitchen floor.  Again, sorry for the poor picture, as the weather is cranky here in the Pacific Northwest.  

Close up of a block in the finished quilt.

Picture of the backing and binding of the finished quilt.

When I gifted it to her, she opened it and I told her it was for her new house in Montana and to help her remember us when she leaves, she broke down and cried.  She was so touched in receiving a quilt from us.  She said it would be perfect, as these were going to be the colors for her new house.  Such a nice feeling to give and the receiver be appreciative!

Size: 64" x 80"

Fabric Lines Used:  Kit using Thimbleberries Fabrics

Browns and Beiges

Pattern: Log Cabin

Designer:  Lynette Jensen

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Logan Nelson

Year Began: 10/2008

Year Completed: 09/2016

Warmest...

Star and Chain Quilt

I picked out a quilt that was a part of a past quilt club.  It was a Thimbleberries club back in 2008.  The club consisted of 11 projects that were complete quilt kits shipped every other month.  This quilt kit was for the month of June 2008.

This quilt is called Star and Chain, and the pattern can be found in Lynette Jensen's book, "In Celebration of Quilting".

There was a lot of repetitive cutting of pieces.  It was important to keep them in order, as I found out later, getting one strip out of place, messed up the top and bottom strip where this one was attached to in the quilt pattern. 

In order to make the outer part of each block, I needed to make these strips, but then I needed to make  the same amount in the opposite direction to later sew together to make the outer star point.

This is the pile of corners I cut off of the above strips,  I have a ziploc bag full of these half-square triangles, that I will maybe figure out something at a later date.  One thing about the Thimbleberries projects that come in kits, there is always, and I mean always an excess of fabric.  I have a bin full of leftover fabric from the many projects that I have made using her lines of fabric over the years.   I already made a mystery quilt a couple of years ago, king size, using nothing but scraps.  

I made a couple of pinwheel blocks with the above scraps, but they didn't go together as well as I would like, as when you are cutting off corners, the pieces are not as precise as they would be if you were cutting them from a piece of fabric.  I will figure something out eventually.  

These pictures show the center star, using some flying geese blocks, and putting it together  in a nine patch block.  The strip below the star is the mirror image strip blocks that I made in the pictures above.  

You can see in this picture, that placement of the different colored strips is critical in order to have the  same colored strips surround the same colored blocks.

Here is the completed top, laying on my kitchen floor.  Not the best picture, but the weather is not cooperating this time of the year.

I will get it off to the long arm quilter after the first of the year, and will be the first finished quilt for 2017!

Warmest...