Another one done!!!

OK, it was almost completed.  I had to added some side sections, and then to cut it as a hexi shape.  Then the quilting and voila it's completed.  White with brightly colored cheerios, which is the name of the quilt.

I got this free pattern from Auribuzz's interview withe sister and design team at Me & My sister... Barb Groves and Mary Jacobson.  The link is here for those of you that want to read about these lovely ladies.  And the pattern is still free and it's here.   I love these ladies.  They have a great book that I have purchased called "Precit Primer"  It is written like an old school book, which really makes me smile because I am a teacher.  And it has a quilt per grade.  I have already done grades one, two and three, and truthfuly, I want to do all the grades.  I think this is the first book that I want to do all the quilts.

It's also very easy to complete because each one states what precut package you buy to make it.  So choosing colors is so much easier. If you are interested in looking at the book and the quilts  here it is.

I had fun with this pattern and look for more quilts from this book.

Weekend results after a storm.

This weekend I finished some UFO's that are more than two years old and I couldn't be happier.  This quilt was started with Aurifil.  This quilt is queen size.  By the way there is a 2016 Aurifil Designer of the Month BOM going on right now if you want to join that for a new quilt.

Quilted all the center piece, made it look 3D.

Look at the quilting.  It's all over.

I also created some pillow cases for the bed.  They match the inside of the quilt.  I'm so proud  :)

And finally a couple more Splendid Sampler blocks (which are only 6 and half inches in size).  That makes over 25 so far.  I'm really enjoying choosing which ones I want to complete because I'm behind so many so I don't need to keep up.  Two appliques and one paper piece.  I enjoy the paper piecing.

Finally, I have finished my aunts place mats to go with the the table runner.  So everything is doing very well.

October and the weather has changed....

In British Columbia that means rain, but that's ok because you get to stay in and do some sewing.  It also means in the teaching business the start of flu and cold sharing.  Which was what I've been doing the last three days, sick to my stomach with the flu.  But I did get some quilting done.  I did finish last month's goal early (See here for the butterfly quilt I made - I missed the link date somehow but I'm proud of what I did) so I'm hoping to do the same thing this month.  

This month is a new start with material and a pattern that I bought last summer.  I think that's long enough on the shelf, don't you?  :)  Here's a picture of my start.  The pattern is from Zen Chic, it's called "You and Me" and I've wanted to do this pattern for ages.  I bought all the material that summer but I was trying so hard to finish my older ones.  But in October I want something new and finish it then and there.  Plus this one will be great fun to quilt or rather practise my quilting.  This was also my thing to accomplish in September for "All the People's Quilt" UFO challenge.  See the update for that here.  This month I'm leaving just to focus on that month.

I also (as usual) have a second one -  My quilt from Aurifill which is two years old.  It's completed, I was trying to get it done for the past three months.  It's a no brainer, I'm almost done, so I'm doing this one.  

I'm linking up to to Red Letter Quilts - One Monthly goal.  I've been doing great with these goals, so thank you Heidi!!!!!  It's going to be great.

January Goals Completed and More

It's official, I got the zoo completed.  I call it animals in the City, with a yellow border of city buildings and boxy quilting, I'm proud of how it turned out.

The lion was the hardest (as stated in the instructions), but it does look so good!!

See the quilting?  Wandering in the blue and squares to match the buildings (they're very faint) in the yellow. This block was my favorite.  Which one is your's?

My second goal was my Quilt Doodle "These are a Few of my Favorite Things". Will write more on it later showing the complete progress but here is a picture to show it's completeness.  There is embroidery, beads, applique, everything...  It's quite large - 104 inches by 80 (I added another border to the edging to make it bigger).  But it's great for an overlap for the pillow, and hanging down around a twin bed.

December's block was anything we wanted.  I wanted to add a  quote of some sort.  One quote that always stuck in my head is "It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years." and with a quilt of favorite things, it's  great words to live by.  I embroidered it on the quilt.  You can see apart of it above.   Cindy at Quilt Doodle did such a great job again!!!  And she's starting another one already!  Check the top left hand corner for the newest or click HERE. 

But that's not all that was done this month, there was December's Aurifill mini quilt by Celine Perkins.  I do so love doing the minis but now Pat Sloan and Aurifil are back to doing blocks to make a completed quilt.  The next one is by Heather Valentine and it's quite modern.

Also in my frenzie to quilt I finished another row from the Row by Row experience this summer.....

The theme was water.  And now this makes 9 so far.  And next year a new one is coming - Home Sweet Home.  So I have to complete all my rows before I can start again....  My rule, not my husbands..  But with 52 rows to complete, come on, I have to get real!!

I started the new Quilt Doodle BOM - 6 reindeers.  The quilt will be a Christmas one, and you can never have too many of those...  :)

It's Called "Tis the Season", and it finishes as a 63" x 73".  The finish item is the picture on the side of my blog, so I know what it will look like, and I'm quite excited about it.

An entry to the Block Lottery which also has a mystery quilt on it for all the blocks you make.... Birds for this month...  I entered these 5 blocks in a lottery hoping to win blocks from others to make a complete quilt.

And I completed the forth block for my girlfriend's Christmas quilt (yes I know I'm late).  Sorry, no photo right now.

How did everyone else do this month?

Linking up to OMG for the Goal contest.  So pleased with myself!!!  Made the two goals!

One goal done....

Well the animals are completed last week, and I'm calling it "Animals in the city" because the yellow has skyscrapers on it.  The paper piecing pattern is by QuietPlay, a terrific site for a number of great patterns.  This pattern was a block of the month, one animal a month.  But there are many different types of animal patterns on the site.  Check them out.  This is the quilt hanging on my wall.  All the animals were made out of leftover scraps.  The yellow material is called "City Skyscrapers".

Here are the animals I made:

This animal was the hardest:

I also didn't like the monkey block  because there is no mouth.  I'm thinking of stitching one on.

But I do like my quilting stitch.   The next one was my favourite...

Finally, I did do one more smaller quilt this weekend...  From Aurifill and Pat Sloan's interview last month.  The last of her miniquilts for the 2015 season.  Now she's doing blocks from celebrity quilters.

It fits perfectly on my table.  I can't tell you the material on this one because it's made from scraps.  The size is 24 x 24".  Go ahead, make your own with Celine Perkins of Perkins Dry Goods.  Celine’s quilts have to be exact, such small pieces.   Celine is a master piecer and it shows in this quilt.  I quilted it using my walking foot, with a simple square stitch.  Her quilts are old fashion, and the material I picked out was perfect for this.  I love this one.

Phew, that was a lot in 3 months for the 2015 Finish Along!!!

What a huge list of things to do for the 2015 Finish Along entry.  Was I crazy or what?  The list includes at least 4 queen size quilts and I do all my own quilting, sooooooo????!!!  But you don't succeed unless you try, and really I did try and did make many of my goals and a number of extra.  The extra I'll mention at the end of this entry, because it doesn't count for entries to this lovely contest.

Personal things have happened to me in November that has made it hard to complete many of the quilts, but when I came back home, it seemed the only thing that made me relax was quilting so in the end I went crazy and completed many of the quilts from the list, and more as well.  Here's what it looks like...

The pixulated sunflower quilt.  It needed to be quilted and binded. The quilting on the dark brown was 1/2 inch circles, very small, making the illusion of the sunflower seeds.  It's been on this list three times and although I got all of the dark brown completed, it's still not done, but it's coming along fabulous!!!  So I'm happy.

My Craftsy quilting class by Leah Day was also on my list.  It's been three times on this list.  Now I'm proud to say that now it has  another 3 squares completed, but still not done!!!

One of my other quilts that is queen size and I want to quilt (not send it out).  This one is over 3 years old, easy to quilt (straight line) so I'm hopng to get it done as well for November.

Picture of the finished pattern.  Mine is more green than anything else.

Here is another quilt that was partially finished and now it is - my Aurifill quilt - put together.  I added two more blocks, sewed all the strips together and put in a center piece to make the quilt a queen.  I added some borders and now I have to strip quilt it.  I don't want to show you until it's done but below is a sneak peek of the quilt, showing two blocks...  Stay tuned... It's on next month's list.

So what did I finish???

I wanted an autumn quilt for my bed for October.  This quilt had been sitting for over 3 years waiting for me.  And truthfully, I was worried about quilting a queen quilt on my singer, so when I got the Janome, I was a little braver.  So below is a picture of the backing and the front, and a piece that needs to be added to the front.  I'm proud to say that this one is completed!!!

From the above to the below!!!

This pillow is an extra piece from another project, and I wanted to play around quilting to practice.  The results is from the below 

to this pillow quilted free style!

I started to learn wool applique in 2008 with this quilt.   I think 7 years is old enough and it should be completed.  I don't even remember who was trying to teach us.  But that wasn't the only thing I forgot.  I couldn't find all the pattern, the instruction sheet was missing, so I couldn't do all the blocks, and I didn't know how to finish it.  But in the end I found two more blocks, completed them, and I had enough blocks to completed a wall quilt and that's what I did.  I added 2 1/2 inch squares of flower material around each square, one to two squares per section, in some areas and complete squares in others to make it a rectangle.  

Well I can honestly say it's done!!!!  That's me hiding!!  Notice all the two inch sqaures?  It was bigger than I thought but still great to hang on the wall so I'm happy with the results, and another UFO completed.

And to make my life a little more busy I signed up for a block of the month in August  This is  Block #2 but I need this done for Christmas for a friend (who's only job in the quilt shop  row by row field trip was to say NO to me every time I wanted to buy something, but instead talked me into this quilt.   I'm enjoying this quilt from the Quilt Company (see completed quilt pattern here) that I bought at Fabric Etc in Bellingham.  It's called the Quilted kettle and its a quilt of tea pots, tea cups and even tea bags.   So adorable.  it is made up with piecing and raw applique with button stitching. There is even some stitching on the top of some of the kettles to keep you busy.  I get each section on the 15th of the month, and there are six of them.  So far I've completed 4 of them (all the kettles), and I have the mugs to do, but I can honestly say there is no way I'll complete all this by December 25th (yep, you guessed it, I promised it to a friend for Christmas - don't have enough pressure, had to add to it  :). I have a all the center squares done but not the next level which are tea cups, so this one goes on into the new year!!!

.  

Everyone needs a christmas quilt on their quilt :)  This is an old BOM from the Fat Quarter Shop. Material all there, all cut up.  9 blocks to make.  It's from It's Sew Emma, a brilliant person.  My wall hanging for Christmas  :)

And this is it all completed and hanging on my wall just in time for Christmas. I finished it on November 28th, a Sunday, just in time to start Christmas season in December.  Love the look and the quilting on it!

I did two more rows on my row by row quilt, (the Pacific West quilts) so that's coming along but I didn't get the 10 I had bargained for. :(

There were others on my list that never got finished, but I was quite pleased with what I did.  And being impulsive, I did a few that were not on the list.  See below.

EXTRAS

OK, when you're mopping around and are a little depressed, one can stroke one's material (yes I do pull out my material and look at it to make myself feel happy), or on impulse, sew something that's not on one's list  (not everyone has a list like I make myself).  So in November I got impulsive, wanted to make a quilt to get over my funk, and did two of them.  

I'm trying to clean up my material but a good friend of mine keeps on giving me fat quarters to cheer me up.  The results:  a halloween quilt that turned out simple but cute.

I added black pumpkin shadows for interest and to draw the eye upwards.  The material (fat quarters) were random but cute, and I had a lot of orange from before, so I used up my stash, and got some simple work done.  The applique is all machine button stitched.

I also did a few others that were not on my list but I think that you might be interested (or maybe not)....

For Christmas I made over 20 bowl holders (if you have soup and it's hot, this bowl protects your hands.  If it's cold, it keeps the food cold).

the look of them.

Very fall colours

Then there was a quilt that I created from a class on Crafty.  The results, a spool quilt that I made my own.  It was my own design on the top to make the quilt larger.  I made the words on Word, then I enlarged them until there was one letter per page.  I traced the letters on another paper so they were backward, and that worked with the duo side interfacing to put them on the quilt.  Then I button stitched them.

I also made a Christmas gift that my mom got and since it's after Christmas I can show you.  This table topper is one of my best quilts yet, with the quilting being very intrinsic, and quite detailed.  In the end I sewed patters on the wings and body of the butterfly in blue silk thread.

With my Christmas quilt from last year, and the pillow I made this quarter.
Very proud of myself.

November's "A Lovely Year of Finishes".

I missed the last month's entry into the "Lovely Year of Finishes"  and yet that was my most productive month yet.  So I'm back on track hopefully. This month I'm looking at starting one quilt and finish quilting another one.  Here is my list:

1.  I need to finish my Aurifill queen size quilt that would look spectacular on my bed.  Last month I just finished a queen, an Autumn quilt, but this quilt iwth it's flowers will make the winter nights so colourful.  Here is the before picture.  It's been on this list a number of times.  You can only make out two blocks here because I did a large amount of changes to the quilt, putting in a center block and making all other blocks go around it.  I even added to more blocks to square it up, and the edging around the quilt to make it a queen will be criss crossed quilted, so I'm trying to quilt as I go in a big way here, doing the edging in one time, then the quilt top in another and piecing it together.  I've never done that before but I'll try anything once.

2.  The second one is a quilt that is cut but not put together at all.  It's a Christmas quilt.

The quilt is from Sew Emma, a free pattern that was a block by block pattern.  I've printed them all out, put them in a book, found all my christmas material and off I go.

I really loved my Quilt Doodle winter quilt I made last year and that's where I'm getting my incentive to make another Christmas quilt.  But this one is a wall hanging and I think it would look great to hang for christmas.  I may even do some applique on this one to make it a little different.

That's it, my list for a Year of Lovely Finishes.  I'm hoping to complete both and maybe one or two more other surprises  ;)