Quilt Show

Quilter's Crossing of Palm Harbor (FL) held their biennial quilt show this weekend.  As usual, it was delightful.  I like to walk around all of the displayed quilts first and see what's new and popular.  I then go back and take pictures of what I especially liked or ideas I thought I might use for children's quilts or quilts I was just plain in awe of.  So, this year I had lots of inspiration and will break the photos into more than one blog post.

I was surprised this year to see how many panels were used and displayed.  This was not a judged or juried show, but some of the thread painting in these panels was certainly worthy of prizes and ribbons!  Here goes a whole bunch of quilts using panels that I really liked [most photos show the entire project, then the maker's name card/description then maybe some details]:

Next post will show the creative uses of embellishments!

Two Are Quilted

I had such trouble with my machine last year that I was frustrated and sent it back to the factory to be refurbished.  It was returned in fantastic shape and is quilting up a storm now.  I had done one quilt that I debated whether to remove all of the quilting stitches or just donate it as it was (in bad shape).

After a short deliberation, I decided that I had to send in something reasonably proper especially for a donation quilt where the recipient's feelings must be respected.  You never know if this might be the only quilt they ever receive and it has to hold together.  So I spent time off and on ripping out quilting stitches and finally got the quilt top back to its pristine condition.  This lady makes particularly well made tops.

This is the quilt that inspired the fish panto described in the last post with its lovely fish blocks (to be bound).

And this is the quilt that I didn't know was wrapped in the other top until last weekend when I finished removing stitches (also to be bound).  It is quilted with musical notes and treble clefs - it is wrinkly from being folded:

What was the inspiration fabric for the panto for that one, you say?  It was this, of course!:

But then, what happened with the purple elephants of a few posts ago?  Well, they've been going to the dogs:

What's Up Wednesday

I was quilting today.  Usually, I take inspiration for my quilting designs from fabrics within the quilt.  Since I quilt primarily for donation to children's charities, I try to find something interesting for kids.

Today's quilt on the frame was made by someone else and I am quilting it up for her.  There were three fabrics that caught my eye:

So this quilt is themed for FISH!

This is an example of a real Copperhead Butterfly fish:

You may be forgiven for thinking these are Butterfly fish, but these are just butterflies (sorry for the blurry picture, but they were moving fast!):

the panto is a Judith Kraker design called Fishes

Full quilt to be revealed tomorrow ...

Sunday Sewing

I’m joining with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge at: http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

My intention is to make various animals this year in the Challenge colors-of-the-month.  The January color is PURPLE, so these pieces were on the cutting mat this morning:

And sewn together, you've probably guessed that they make this (I have cut out all of the parts and will be making three):

This cute elephant block was designed by Miri and a free pattern is offered on her blog Milk and Honey Quilts:

http://milkandhoneyquilts.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-pattern-elephant-baby-quilt-block.html

And then I got distracted with organizing a little of the sewing room to decide what to put next on the quilting frame.  First, I put all of the UFOs into the purchased bins and labeled them:

Then I went through the cloth baskets of tops and backings and put each top with an intended back:

They look lovely now and all ready to pick one and quilt it up!  It feels good to be a little more organized.  Unfortunately, I discovered several more UFOs in one of the cloth baskets:

They never end!  Whatever made me think I had corralled them all?!

I just had to stop and unplug everything since we are expecting bad weather.  We are under a tornado watch until 10 this evening and there will be severe thunderstorms.  Our Sunshine Skyway bridge is already closed to all traffic due to high winds.  I definitely want to protect my expensive equipment, so it will have to be hand-sewing this evening.

Saturday Summary

Finished quilting the Quilt of Valor that I was working on.  It was a bear to quilt because the borders were not put on properly.  It is a charming quilt - I think the block is called Sparkler, and the center is very well made:

If you are a quilter, please take the time to measure and cut your borders to fit properly.  If you just sew a length of fabric on the sides and chop if off, it will stretch and buckle and bunch up when quilting instead of laying nice and flat.  The little extra time it takes to measure and pin will make your quilts so much nicer and your longarmer will appreciate you!

This one was quilted with a panto called Stardust:

And in the week coming up, I will be back to working on child-size quilts.

Local Community Service

Continuing with my activities for local community service, yesterday I worked up two sample blocks for my Quilts of Valor meeting this coming Friday:

We will begin working on our new pattern for 2017 called Via Air Mail.  The pattern was published in the Fons & Porter quilting magazine:

I made up some kits for our members so they can begin right away.  We are modifying the pattern to efficiently use our existing fabrics.  The pattern calls for 2 inch squares and we have a lot of leftover 2.5 inch squares, so we enlarged the pattern to use those.

This is the quilt I will be quilting for the group to turn in on Friday (I didn't make the top):

We will have some finished tops soon and get those to the longarmers and award them to local Veterans.  Last year we awarded 154 Quilts of Valor and have 7 more in reserve for those Veterans who could not attend certain presentations!  I applaud the ladies in our small group that made such an effort to locate Veterans and make these awards.  Such a nice group.

Project Linus Quilting

I only occasionally make quilts for Project Linus but I do quilt tops that others have made for this group.  I usually quilt two for them during the last week of the month during my "local community service" effort.  Also, in the last week of the month, I quilt for Quilts of Valor.  This month, my carefully planned schedule has gotten off track due to the recent holidays and the LQS's schedule where we meet for QOV.  So these are my January Project Linus quilts a little early (tops made by others):

quilted with a meandering panto called Cotton Candy

panto is Paw Track

This month's QOV will be next on the frame.

And She's B-A-C-K !!

I haven’t updated this blog since January of 2016.  The year just kept creeping past without my realizing how long it had been.  Well into the year, I decided to just let it go, but then I found that I missed posting and that blogging was an excellent way for me to keep track of my donation quilts.

So, I am back in 2017 and intend to keep posting about my current projects, how I intend to organize my sewing room to streamline my creative process and perhaps some gardening and local news!

Welcome back to my small corner of the world …

 I am currently working on:

-  Finishing a New Year’s Eve Mystery.  The intended design was for a large quilt that I am breaking into two smaller (kid-size) quilts for donation.  I had to stop for a brief period when my desktop machine had to go to the sewing machine hospital, but I am making progress.  Photo soon.

- Joining in with a Double Wedding Ring challenge.  I will be working with an old UFO (unfinished object) that I never went far with after a class.

And I just sent off a “stringy thing” to add to a banner that will be given to a lady who was in a terrible car accident to cheer her up as she recovers.

January is shaping up to be a good quilting month!

Thursday - Catching Up 2015

I am trying to get all of my 2015 quilt photos into the right galleries on this blog.  I am splitting the Quilts of Valor and the Project Linus quilts into their own pages - hopefully without losing some photos!  I apologize for those that Follow or get the RSS feed if there are too many updates ...

2016 is to continue shortly!

 

What's on the Back Wednesday

More often than not, I put fairly plain fabric on the backs of my quilts and save the cute stuff for piecing the tops.  But, sometimes you run across a cute fabric on sale and it begs to be used as a whole piece.  The dinosaurs made it onto the backing of the blue quilt shown in the last Saturday Sewing post:

They are at home in the "forest" of the Retro Leaves quilting!

And they reminded me of a dino quilt I made a long time ago for a baby shower gift.  Please forgive the photo-of-a-photo from my scrapbook album, but that was before digital cameras.  This was a cute pattern and easy-peasy so I might make one again.  The quilt photo is shown on the right on top of the polka dot scrapbook page paper with a small piece of the fabric looking it over!

Monday Musings

Dogs are magical. Not because of the special connections they have with humans or the fact that evolved from that mythical, magical trickster, the wolf - dogs are magical because they can sleep anywhere.

1. 

This dog's asleep. Wait, I mean "This dog's a-sheep." 

 

 

2. 

After your hound is planted, expect puppies to sprout in six to eight weeks. 

 

3. 

I'm actually not sure if this dog is asleep or just having a vulnerable bonding moment with the table leg.
4. 

Because really, isn't every water dish just a very small pool? OH does that mean that every pool is just a large water bowl?! 

5. 

Hey, I'm just gonna see if my Kong went under the couch 

6. 

All 2016 Hondas will have puppy sleep handles as a standard feature. 

7. 

Sorry, your patio furniture is now a dog bed. 

8. 

No, seriously. Your patio furniture is a dog bed. 

9. 

"I didn't fall asleep in the food bowl!" 

10. 

Somebody doesn't understand the concept of a pillow. 

11. 

And that was the day he discovered his dog had a shoe fetish. 

12. 

Although he loved music, it was Spot's greatest secret that he was actually tone deaf. 

 

13. 

Bitsy built her own version of Temple Grandin's hug machine. 

14. 

He didn't even rinse himself off in the sink before getting in the dishwasher.

 

15. 

Shifting into sleep mode.