Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone joy and peace in 2010! As others have commented, I, too, cannot believe it has been 10 years since we all worried about Y2K! Time really does fly ...


I was playing with free-pieced houses and my daughter wished for this one on her wall. She chose the tree fabric, although in retrospect I wish there was more contrast with the background. Guess we'll just have to imagine the tree is lost in the snowstorm of the background snowflakes. I hand quilted it while traveling to and from my grandmother's birthday in November, and added a few beads to the tree for holiday sparkle.



I also finished up two more comfort quilts for the year. The second quilt shown was made from a salesman sample pack featuring all the fabrics of the Cranston Fabric line "Rain Dancing." It was fun to work with all the prints, but I only had a little bit of each. The pieced binding used up the last little bits.


Our comfort quilt group met last week and had a wonderful time visiting and working on whatever struck our mood. Several of us made little felt pins, inspired by one woman's creations, buttons in a button box and also by "fanciful felt pins" in Salley Mavor's book Felt Wee Folk. My 10 yo dd joined us and made a wonderful gingerbread pin. She wants to skip school and join us again next time we meet.

Birthday Celebration Quilt

Last month I traveled to eastern Washington state to celebrate my grandmother's 100th birthday. How amazing, to live 100 years! She always told me she wanted to live to 100, and she has, and in reasonably good health. At her party, I asked everyone to sign a fabric rectangle with the idea of making her a signature celebration quilt. I got right to work when I returned home. I added triangles to the 2.5" wide strips to make 5" finished squares. My inspiration was this quilt, but since I just had 48 signatures, I alternated the signature blocks with a delicate rose print. I just sent the finished quilt to her for a Christmas present. Most of the fabrics on the front are from her fabric drawers, and all the fabrics on the back are kettle cloth fabrics she purchased in the 70's. I hope the signatures and the fabrics bring her good memories!

Just wanted to post a few pictures of things I've finished lately ...

Pillowcases for Hole in the Wall Gang Camp ... thanks, Jackie for donating them through your guild!


A Linus quilt top using up every last bit of the racecar fabric; I like how the cars race around the pinwheel and it works well for my 9th block!


My Christmas mini quilt for the Four Seasons Holiday Swap - I can't wait to see what I receive! This little tree quilt is about 17" square.



Front and back of my QAYG charity top - I like the scrappiness of the front in a limited color range, but next time I might try to get the back square fabrics to be more scattered.

I am also excited to have joined an online quilting bee - we're starting in January and I can't wait to see what we create together! There is lots of excitement and many quilting bees starting through blockparty and the flickr group here.

sewing, not computing!

I've been getting lots of sewing time, and have chosen to sew more and blog less. I finished the quilt for my cousin and it is on the way to him for his birthday. I finished the Halloween costumes, but dd and ds don't want to model for photos yet, although they have worn them around the house often. Finishing touches to be added this weekend.


I made a small quilt for my MIL who admired the work of Sandi Garris ... it is 12" by 12" and doesn't have all the beautiful hand-dyed fabrics Sandi uses, but I liked the bright colors and hope it brightens a spot in my MIL's home.



I have finished blocks for the flickr block swap - it's been fun to get great blocks in the mail! My Holiday Swap quilt top is together - I hope to get it quilted next week.

I also make 35 QAYG blocks in pinks, reds and purples for a girly comfort quilt - I will put them together at our comfort quilt day next week.

I was given a huge bag of kids fabric and have made 9 pillowcases for Jackie's Guild and Hole in the Wall Gang camp - I have 6 more prepped, then I will send them on to her. This seemed a better use of the many chunks of fabric I received since it would be years before I got it all made into quilts. I love a cheerful pillowcase on my bed, and I'm sure these kids at camp will as well. Our guild also supports this camp, and it's a wonderful place.

Finishing Steps

My cousin's quilt is quilted and the striped bias binding is machine sewn ... I just need to sit down and finish hand stitching it to the back. There is unfortunately a lot of family drama going on at the moment, and I hope this quilt will promote some greater family peace - one can only hope.


I've been busy making Linus tops, especially some simple Halloween tops for delivery to the local hospital this month. We like to try and have some holiday themed quilts on hand when appropriate. My Linus tops are tied by the ladies that meet weekly, but other comfort quilts that I finish are machine quilted - the meander I did on this sailboat quilt finished it off nicely. I love the shark and sea turtle fabric I found for the border - keeps with the theme of the sea!


Finally, our bi-annual guild show coming in 2010 features lavish baskets filled with items of a certain theme. The basket chairwoman asked that each basket be accompanied by a mini-quilt representing the theme. I chose to do the "puzzles" basket and made a small, unsolved sudoku puzzle on the quilt - it measures about 18" by 24". Even after carefully checking and rechecking before I sewed each square, I got one section sewed together in the wrong orientation. Arghhh ... now it's been corrected, and the puzzle can be solved. My kids think it would be fun to have placemats with these puzzles - more fun to solve the sudoku than do their homework!

Next on the agenda are Halloween costumes - a leopard princess and a native American are soon to reside in our home!

Percolating to the top of my List

It's funny how sometimes projects that were not even on the radar zoom to the top of my list. I visited my 99-year-old grandmother this summer and she told me to take whatever I wished from her fabrics, she no longer can sew and would like them to be used if possible. Among her fabrics, I found 30 4" squares sewn together into a block, and a stack of 100 more of the print blocks. I took those, wondering what she had in mind when they were all cut by hand. She no longer remembers what she planned to make.

My cousin moved in with her several years ago to be her caretaker, and he has done a good job enabling Nana to live on her farm for the remainder of her life. I suddenly had an inspiration to put the squares together as a quilt for my cousin. I wanted to keep it fairly simple, with large patches of blocks like Nana had started, and keep it masculine. Her block had the red and blue print in no particular order, so I made my blocks random as well. I found a similar blue to mix with the prints, and a nice stripe that blended. I made twelve 20" bordered blocks for the quilt. The upper right block in the photo is her original blue. It was very peaceful to sew her blocks, I remembered all the times I sewed with Nana as a young girl and my happy childhood memories of time at her farm.

The top and back are all sewn together now, I just need to visit my friend and her Gammill to quilt it. I hope to finish it for my cousin's October birthday, and before my grandmother turns 100 in November.

Back to School and Time for Myself

My kids went back to school this week giving me more time to work on projects in my sewing room. I finished up several tops and quilts for linus, which look good blowing in the breeze. We like to give out holiday-themed quilts at the hospital when appropriate, so I made two with Halloween fabrics.

I have been working on some swap blocks, both for a swap among some guild friends and an online swap on flickr. Of course, I end up making extra blocks to try out patterns and different fabric combinations, so I see an orphan block quilt in my future.


I had a chance to finish binding this twin sized quilt for a local boy's shelter. It is Bonnie's TATW pattern using some space motif fabric, I love this pattern for a larger charity quilt. I hope it gives a boy some comfort.

I also packed up a box of fabric and sewing supplies for the ibol project - check it out and see what one soldier is doing to foster goodwill. I'm really impressed with his project and glad I could contribute.