One Last Finish....The Tie Quilt

The day after Christmas I spent the day in my

Hidey Hole,

basting quilts to be quilted and finished.

The first on the list was the Tie quilt I've been making for a friend

to celebrate his retirement and him no longer needing so many ties.

This has been a fun quilt to make....

time consuming, but fun.

I'm excited that it's finally finished.

I stitched in the ditch between the rows first,

then went back and quilted the sky of the flying geese.

 

Quilting the sky anchored the blocks enough so that they

won't move and become distorted.

 Plus, it didn't take away from the ties.

 

These giraffes were stitched around to anchor them in place.

 

This distorted photo is from me standing on a stool to get the 

picture taken.

The blocks are 6" finished, making the quilt 54" square.

The pattern was found in this book and was paper pieced.

 

I love all of the different ties he gave to me for this quilt.

The silks were beautiful.

 

I need to make a label and sew it in place and then it's ready for delivery.

A trip will be planned for this as this friend has moved from our area!

Today will be the last link to Design Wall Monday for 2018.

I wish everyone a safe and happy New Year.

May 2019 bring you much joy, peace and creativity.

Happy Quilting!

Best of 2018

It's always fun to look back on the year

and remember what was accomplished in the quilting department.

This year was different for me for some reason.

I have a lot of little finishes....

table runners, pillows, baby quilts,

and only a few large quilts.

It's all good.

Things were made and my creative juices were allowed to flow.

Here is a recap of what was made in 2018.

May 2019 bring as much time to create as you desire.

Happy Quilting!

Merry Christmas!

The house has been decorated,

the cards have been sent,

the gifts have been wrapped and exchanged,

the carols have been sung,

no baking was done

and it was a wonderful Christmas.

My daughter and son-in-law from California were able to

join us for a couple of days,

so our hearts and house were full of love and laughter.

Santa quilter was busy the last few days before Christmas!

My LAQ was able to get this done and back to me before Christmas!

It was bound and finished before the big day.

 

I just love the quilting design on this.

It's light and airy, but festive.

The light green thread is perfect, too.

 

This was the challenge quilt for my

History of Quilting group that I belong to.

I decided to make it from Christmas fabrics

and used mostly all stash fabrics.

The pillow workshop was in full swing, too.

 

All of these were made from placemats from Target.

Yardage was used for the backing and binding.

 

These were in the dollar section!

(They were $3 each.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Happy Quilting!

Christmas Pillows and Decorations

Last year I found a blog post tutorial

where a woman made Christmas pillows using

kitchen towels.

It was an easy project and the pillows were so cute.

This year I found cloth placemats at Target 

with a very cute design

and knew they would make really cute pillows.

Isn't it cute?

The tree is embroidered and gives it more texture and definition.

I used yardage for the back and the binding

and put in an invisible zipper.

One for me and one for my daughter!

 

The Peace and Santa pillows were made last year from dish towels.

The pillow in the back was made several years ago and is paper pieced.

My home is finally ready for Christmas.

I've decorated my quilt cabinet like this for several years now.

My vintage ornaments are on this metal tree,

away from any possibility of being knocked off and broken.

 

We had our family room painted this fall.

Gone is the dark woodwork.

The white is so much brighter and my decorations show up

so much better!

 

I made the star Santa years ago.

He's wearing denim overalls!

The other santas are made from antique quilts and old blankets.

I found these at craft shows over the years, 

all made by the same person.

She no longer comes to my area, though.

Their brothers are on top of my quilt cabinet.

 

Several years ago I found these vintage candy canes and added a couple

of others to the dish.

The vintage tree toppers finish off the display.

 

Our tree is tall... 9 1/2 feet... and is packed with ornaments.

My mom made the tree skirt for us years ago.

I gave my older daughter this Jim Shore nativity when she was younger.

She loves setting it up every year.

Our Advent wreath has one of my Nativities in the center.

This Advent wreath uses ball shaped candles,

which are difficult to find.

I have to reuse the candles, if I can.

 

This wreath is an oldie, too, and was fun to make. 

It adds such sparkle to the room.

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Merry Christmas!

More Polka Dot Fun

In my last blog post I mentioned finding a box of scraps

that came from a couple of quilts I had made a number of years ago.

I knew the box was in my cabinet...

I didn't remember how full it was!

On Monday I shared this quilt that I had started with the

3x6" bricks.

   

It's all sewn together and in the "ready for quilting" pile.

I should have just put the box back in the cabinet

and stayed focused on what I needed to get finished,

but NO!!

Ramona had to start playing with more scraps.

(And I don't enjoy working with scraps for the most part!)

 

Next thing I knew,

this was being created.

It used the 1 1/2" and the 2 1/2" squares from the box,

in addition to some 1 1/2" strips of white I had cut when

making my DD and SIL wedding quilt.

 

It has gone together super fast and I really like how it looks.

The setting triangles are left over 10" from a precious quilt, too.

One of the things I SHOULD be working on is a 

Sew Together Bag for my older daughter

for Christmas.

 While I was playing with the scraps,

I sewed some 2" squares together for the outside of the bag.

Now I need to do the rest!

Hopefully more will be done on this in the next day or so.

It's time to stay out of my cabinets and work on what is in front of me!

Happy Quilting!

Just What I Need....

... another distraction!

The other day I saw something that reminded me of these little

blocks I had made from scraps a long time ago.

These little blocks were turned into a cute table topper.

Well, I found the bin of scraps I had used to make these blocks

and let me just say....

BIG mistake!

I didn't remember that there were all sizes of cut pieces in this bin...

narrow strips, wider strips, 2" squares, 3" squares,

HST's, 3x6" blocks, etc.

How could so many scraps be crammed into this bin??

 

I started separating them into size piles and made even more of a mess.

Well, yesterday while this was happening...

I was doing this in my Hidey Hole.

These 3x6" bricks were almost randomly put up on my design wall

and the sewing began.

 

All of this fabric is from a couple of quilts I made years ago with 

fabric with dots and circles.

Each piece has some kind of dot or circle in the design

and, boy, did I have fun collecting these!

A lot of the strips are sewn together already, so it won't take long to finish this one.

I'm not going anywhere today, so let the sewing continue!

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Happy Quilting!

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

Charlie Brown and the gang are quilted, bound

and ready for gifting!

It's been a long time since I've had a finish to share,

so it's nice to add something to that list.

This is for my daughter,

who LOVES Charlie Brown,

and chose the fabrics for this runner.

I sewed the border fabric on like it's going in a circle.

One side will be right side up from either end of the table.

 

This is huge, so she could use it on the end of a bed,

if she chooses to. :)

 

Now it will be wrapped up and ready to give on Christmas Day.

My other daughter has asked for a 

Sew Together Bag.

I'd better get moving on that request!

I started putting up our tree yesterday and am almost finished.

We have LOTS of ornaments...

so many are hand made by family, friends, and myself,

as well as those collected on trips over the years.

Putting them on the tree brings back such memories.

This is one of my favorites,

purchased on a trip to Virginia Beach while I was in college

almost 40 years ago!

 

My sister does beautiful crochet and made this for me

several years ago.

A friend painted the penguin and my niece painted

the snowman behind the crocheted bulb.

I made the yoyo garland that wraps the tree.

May you find JOY in your day today!

Happy Quilting!

Medallion Quilt Flimsy

This past Saturday we had our last meeting of this session for the

History of Quilting group I belong to.

Our faithful leader, Linda, is stepping down after

providing us with all kinds of history, information and quilting challenges

for seven years.

We will miss you, Linda, and thank you for all that you have done

to stimulate us and challenge us.

At this last gathering we showed the medallion quilts

we have been working on for this session.

(I meant to take photos of everyone's quilt, but did not.)

Mine was finished in the nick of time!

I was sewing the borders on it at the end of last week.

It was dreary and rainy when I was taking these photos,

so the border fabric did not show up that well.

It sparkles and shines with the metallic threads in it.

This is 90"x90"

so almost queen size.

I made my life easier by putting nine patches in the corners.

I really like this design and the fabrics I chose...

most all from my stash!

The top is pressed and the backing is prepared,

so I'll be dropping this off with my LAQ on Tuesday.

Yesterday afternoon I made this guy from a kit I've had for

quite a while.

I don't know why it took me so long to make him!

It was quite easy.

He will be added to my Santa collection.

I am linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Happy Quilting!

Tie Blocks

The Tie blocks are finished!

In fact, I just finished sewing them all together.

(I have spent most of today sewing and have so enjoyed being in

my Hidey Hole today.)

There was a time when I wondered if I would ever finish these blocks

and then today.... they are done!

 

The blocks are paper pieced and finished at 6 inches.

 

Now I need to remove all of the paper from the back.

:( :( :( 

Does anyone want to help?

Please??

Happy Quilting!

(and ripping!)

Miscellaneous Monday

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving

and are easing into the Christmas Holiday season.

We had a houseful of family for several days

and enjoyed every minute of being together.

During the fun and crazy few days,

I did manage to get a little sewing done.

The top of the Table Runner for my daughter and son-in-law

is finished... it just needs to be quilted.

This runner is HUGE.

The table my son-in-law made is huge as well.

It can easily fit 12 people, if not 14.

They love to entertain,

so this will brighten their table at Christmas time.

My daughter picked this fabric out and asked that I make her a runner.

She LOVES Charlie Brown and the gang.

The backing is made, so the quilting will be done this week.

 The Tie quilt for a dear friend is coming along nicely.

There are 7 more blocks to be made

and then they will be rearranged to distribute the colors better.

 

 I'm hoping to have this one sewn together in the next couple of weeks.

Then  the decision of how to quilt it will be made.

Any suggestions?

And lastly, work on the annual ornaments for the ornament exchange with

my sister and her family continues.

I saw this pattern for these three ornaments years ago

and have wanted to make them.

They are finished except for the hanging cords.

I am linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Happy Monday, All!

And Happy Creating!