Sit. Stay. Good cat.

It's been a while since I posted a cute cat picture. Rusty demonstrates where cats are not supposed to be in the quilting room.

When we were in St. Louis in December, I found an old quilt magazine at the library bookstore for just ten cents. This Bonnie Hunter pattern was why I bought the magazine, and it was so fast and easy that I had the top (minus borders) done by the time I went back to work in January. Borders, binding, and quilting followed relatively quickly, and it was completely finished in time to donate it at the March guild meeting last week. Fun and done.

The Quilt of Valor is finished!

I made this HeartStrings quilt during last summer's homespun project. I finished the machine quilting in December, got the binding hand-sewn during our Christmas in St. Louis, and finished the label and pillowcase this week. Today it is finally packed for shipment to Alycia for distribution though the Quilts of Valor project.

By the way, if you ever need a method of making a pillowcase, this video on the Quilts of Valor web site is great. I had seen a demonstration of this a couple years ago, but couldn't follow it well enough later to make my own. I even had some written instructions and couldn't figure it out. But with this video, everything fell into place, including finally understanding what-the-heck a French Seam is. And it was so easy. Three seams and you have a finished pillowcase!

Happy Blocks Quilts all delivered

I finished 3 of these Happy Blocks quilts (Mary's pattern) in the past 6 months, but I didn't want to post any pictures until they'd all been delivered. But now Oliver, Emma and Gage have all received their quilts.

Irene contributed some fabrics, also, particularly for the Virginia Tech and St. Louis Cardinals blocks, but I've got plenty more for the the next great-nieces or/and nephews.

Paducah Nine Patch

Last fall, I gathered up some unneeded quilting supplies to sell at our local quilt show. I went through all of my quilt books and patterns in the process, and decided to get rid of anything that I didn't realistically think I would be making in the foreseeable future. That prompted me to finally start a Paducah Nine Patch from Nickel Quilts. This quilt represents how many blocks I made before I started to get bored with it. It's a nice lap size, but has no planned recipient - unfortunately I've learned that it's nice to have a finished quilt on hand for when a friend is in need of some quilt comfort.

A HeartStrings day

Saturday was a full day of sewing, and such a great day. I finished assembling a top of homespun blocks, and that was just one of many that this group put together. You can see all of Mary's pictures of us here.

Apples Galore!

Has it really been over two months since I blogged? Where has the summer gone? Um, work, a trip to St. Louis, work, and this weekend, apple jelly.

The summer weather must be to the apple tree's liking, because this is the first time I can remember having apples in July. I picked the first batch last week and made apple crisp to take to a friend's lake cabin. Today I picked two buckets full and made two batches of apple jelly. Mike's making an apple desert right now, and we still have more than half a bucket left. The guys at work may be getting some treats on Monday.

While the jelly pulp dripped this afternoon, I got my latest quilt quilted. I haven't accomplished a lot in the quilting department this summer either, but that's OK. It's a hobby, no pressure allowed.

It's been a while

I know I haven't been blogging for a while, and the quilting has been slow lately also. I have about half of these blocks done now, but need to set it aside again to make a baby quilt for a friend's new arrival (due in June).

A HeartStrings top

Since I finished Dave's quilt in January, I've been making a lot of blocks for several different planned quilts, but without a near-term finished quilt on the horizon. Last week, I was ready for a change, so I took the stack of red HeartStrings blocks and put together a top. I don't plan on quilting it right now, but it did the job of getting me out of my rut, and now I'm ready to go back to my other projects.

Nearly Insane

Nearly Insane is the name of a quilt pattern by Liz Lois. I just started it last week, and will be tracking my progress on the Nearly Insane Fans blog. If you are interested in quilting, you can see the blocks made by me and several others over there.

This one will take a while.

A new potholder

When I was much younger, I had a metal loom for making potholders with those little loops. I made a lot of potholders and gave them to family members. I made this new potholder in a Locker Hooking class at the quilt shop, this time using cotton fabric strips. It's something I can do while watching TV, with another colorful scrappy result. Next up with this is a small rug.

How about a miniture quilt?

I took a paper-pieced miniature quilting class this fall, and finished up the class project this week. This piece is only about 8" x 11".

Finished at last

It only took about two years to complete this quilt, but it is finally done. I made blocks until I ran out of the center fabric, and then decided it needed borders to make it big enough. I'm really happy with the way this turned out. It will be given to Mike's co-worker Dave, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for a nasty stage-four cancer of the appendix.

Enough blocks, already?

I started making these courthouse steps blocks in February 2008. This is what they look like today.
I've run out of the dark grey fabric that I was using for the center square, and now have enough blocks for a decent lap-sized quilt. I may add borders, but after laying them out on the floor the other night, I'm ready to quit making blocks and start sewing them together.

I think I've gotten log-cabin variations out of my system now, and am already thinking about what to work on next. I honestly am only working on this quilt right now, plus some HeartStrings blocks. But I have plans for another T-Shirt quilt for Mike, and I'd like to do another Quilt of Valor and some baby quilts for the local neo-natal unit, but haven't started anything.

I'd get a lot more quilting accomplished if I didn't have to work for a living.

A well-protected TV

The cover for the garage TV is done. You can see the top and another side here. This side is all HeartStrings blocks, and the back side is made of the blocks from the guild silent auction. It won't win any prizes at the fair, but it serves a practical purpose.

Garage Sales

I hit the jackpot in the garage sale sweepstakes today - a quilter's garage (sort-of).

Friday and Saturday are the primary garage sale days around here. Since I had to work Thursday night (customer in Asia and a 14-hour time difference), I took my time going into work this morning. There was a garage sale near the gym, but nothing interesting unless you had small children. Still on the look-out, I got off the highway one exit before the office, headed into the nearby residential area and followed the first garage sale sign that I saw. From the outside, it didn't look that interesting, but inside, at the back...piles of quilts, fabric, patterns, magazines! The seller said her sister worked at a quilt shop up north, and so I took advantage of the inexpensive goodies: some specialty rulers, and 30's reproduction fabric, mainly. I'm quite pleased with my $6.75 purchases, and have renewed interest in future garage sales.

You just never know what you're going to find.

More useful things from ugly fabrics

Remember the cover for the convertible hard top?

Well, we bought a new TV a couple of months ago, and Mike took our old one out to the barn. Using the old DVD player, his plan is to replay races that he's recorded while he works on the cars. So this means it's time for another ugly dust cover - TV+cart size. I've finished the top and one side so far using my stack of abandoned orphan blocks and class sample blocks. Then, at last night's quilt guild meeting, there was a silent auction of UFOs (Un-Finished Objects). I was high bidder on a small pieced top and a box of scrap blocks which should yield enough for the rest of the cover.

It's been very relaxing to quilt without worrying about colors, matching seams, etc. I'm getting a lot of practice at free-motion quilting also, without the stress of needing it to look nice.

Sewing up a storm

Saturday was another HeartStrings get-together, and this is what Anne H (on the right) did with some of the blocks I brought and a center medallion that she brought. I'm always amazed at the creative ways people come up with to assemble these string blocks. (Helping hold the top is Monica, a.k.a Sue's mom - another wizard at assembling tops.)


The group's efforts for the day were also focused on assembling tops from the Happy Blocks that had been sent in from all over. It was fun to see the variety and colors, and the way they came together so well. This is just one of several tops assembled.

Add in a side trip to a quilt shop, a pot-luck lunch, a chair massage, and a lot of fun quilters, and a good time was had by all.

The T-Shirt Quilt is finally a quilt (well, almost)

I took a T-shirt quilt class about three years ago, but the project languished in the closet for a long time. The general plan was to learn the technique, and then make one for Mike using his racing T-shirts. We had no trouble rounding up enough shirts for the class quilt: volleyball, diving, running, concerts, and even a small cross-stitch piece (this was a practice project, after all - why not give it a try).

But I did have trouble keeping interested in finishing this one. I didn't like working with the fusible stabilizer, because I kept getting the glue on my iron and ironing board. I discovered a hole in one of the T-shirts. I made several mistakes in math and/or cutting while trying to get all the different sizes to fit into a workable layout. The cross-stitch fabric kept raveling. I chose polyester batting (as recommended in the class), and really disliked working with it, especially in the winter when my skin is dry and the batting kept catching on my cuticles.

I persevered, but there were several times when I had to stand back and ask myself the galloping horse question ("Would you be able to see the mistake from the back of a galloping horse?"). The answer always seemed to be no, that this was good enough for a utility quilt that we'll just use to keep warm while watching TV in the basement. And I really do like parts of it, like the potato fabric surrounding Mr. Potato-head, and the aboriginal fabrics that Mike brought back from Australia. In many ways, it represents our life together.

So there it is, except for the binding. This will be my handwork project for a while, and then I'll get Mike to start thinking about how he wants to lay out the racing T-shirt quilt. Ask we about it in another three years.

The last of the 3" blocks

I've been cutting these three-inch squares for about five years now, mostly from scraps and leftovers, assembling them into simple baby quilts. Sometimes I put on borders, sometimes not. These quilts are a lot like Grandma B's quilts, without the stuffing. (I still have two of those.)

I decided that I was getting tired of this design, so I just put all of them together in one final quilt. I used up all but 16 of my squares. And I'm not going to cut any more for the foreseeable future. I've got plenty of other quilt ideas to keep me busy for a while.