School Starts Tomorrow but Not in Person

I'm going to slow down next week.  Yes you're probably laughing right now but that's the truth.  Will start getting my students online so they can continue to work until we're all back together again to continue to learn.

So before that happens I want to show what I've finished since the last time.  Here it is:

One of my painting.  Called Life and Sunshine.

Now the big quilt that took me about a week and some....  It's an amazing quilt.  Individual flowers from different fabrics, all cut out and glued to the base fabric.

 Then it's stitched on, to hold it down, that's right each and every flower stitched down.  Then you put it on the a backing, and you stitch it down again.  Finally you quilt it.  And you can quilt around a couple of flowers just so it highlights areas that you want.  It's a sewing dummy.

The bottom wiring is stitched actually, there is no material there, just the thread.  And let me tell you that took some time.

I love the final effects.

Yes some people are going to ask me what pattern it is.  It's a collage pattern from Laura Heine.  She does wonderful work, and this was one of the UFOs off my AQ listing.  I have two more of her quilts.  One of an old truck in the forest, and the other one is a cow with little tiny strips of fabric.  This one is the practice one for the old truck pattern.  But it's completed and it's my UFO for March.  So on I go...  onto the next one.

I covered my calendar book because I hated the cover (a bird), but it was on sale, a regular $36 and I got it for $10.  Here's what it looks like now:

 The outside quilted.  And the inside is also very colorful as well as very "Happy" looking.  I am happy with the new look.

I also cut out two more Quilt as You Go patterns.  So I'm extremely happy with this weekend's productive day.  On to the next ones.

New Goal for February.

Another month gone by and another goal that I did complete.  It's amazing what you can do with fabric.  Almost like painting.  And that's a goal that I made to myself, to paint something then match it with fabric in some way, shape or form.  

But enough of that.  Lets talk about my goal that I am linking up to Elm Street Quilts.  As you saw in one of my other posts for the quarterly finish of the Finish-a-long I have a  number of quilts that I need to complete in three months.  Two are completed (previous post) but I still have eight more to do, and I really want to get them all done (a personal if not realistic goal).  So what's next?  February is a month of Valentine but no quilt that I have to do for it.  But in Vancouver Canada, it is the start of spring.  Someone told me that they saw the irises starting to come up (a picture of one from last year to the right.  )  They can be purple or white (I love the purple ones more).  With that I am looking at my flower quilt.  I have one square to complete, all the other ones done, and the edging to get done.  It's a wool quilt which means hand sewing a button stitch around all of the flower pieces, and then black fabric edging, and then green squares (different color greens) all sewing together to make another border.  Here's what it is suppose to look like

Two flowers left, the top right hand side one, and the pansies.  So the quilt is lap size but it's wool.  So who would put it on their lap.  And I have a different one from before (another BOM) that I don't use because of all the wool everywhere.  Something that I don't want on my bed because of the cat with his hair. I would be concerned about all that hair.  So that beautiful quilt is just sitting in a closet.  I need to consider what to do about it.  But this quilt, because it's also fabric (no I am not using flannel like the last one) I think I will be able to put in on the bed.  So the black around the green (edging) will be a lot thicker, and that means that there will be more green squares around everything.  

Here is what it looks like now....

All the flowers done but one (there are 12 in total)

One on the right, all the vines to hand stitched.  The white to button stitch down.  The leaves to stitch on.  It's quite a lot.

So that's my goal but with a couple of more that I won't mention, because you can only do one.  But I'm trying to clean up my work area so a couple more (Row by Rows) need to be completed.  Also, my Aunt's quilt to finish quilting so I can send it to California.  It will be quite a busy week.

Wish me luck....

Been busy.....

Over the holidays as a surprise to my husband I sewed a quilt for him, but it was difficult with all the things I needed to complete and finish teaching this year.  But did it.  

Used SeaHawk material and a kit from Calico Creations.  Wonderful kit with a pattern that is simple, but I added a few twist.  Had to add the twelfth man symbol  ;)

But that's not all.  This one was one that I had extra material and my mom came for Christmas so I was trying to transform my sewing room, into the extra bedroom it was,and that when it happened!!! 

My husband found out how much material I really had.  Darn it!!

So I tried to make a few quilts to cut it down.

According to my husband I can no longer buy any more material until I get the material situation under control.  OK I admit it, I'm a fabricaholic but I don't feel the need to stop all together.  I'm just going to stop buying for a while until I have cut down the material.  Plus, there are so many quilts that are UFO's that I need to do something about that as well.  LOOK MOM I'm setting goals for the new year  ;)

So at the right is one of the results.  Flannel quilt with roses, and green and brown triangles.  Large lap quilt as you can see from the picture above.   Here are some closer shots.  The background is more yellow then the white showing here.  I call this quilt "Friends are like Flowers".  You have to nurture both, and give care to both, otherwise it will wither away and die.  You can neglect both a bit, because of time, or your busy schedule, but you don't do it on purpose, you don't decide you don't have to take care of it because you believe that both will take care of themselves.  This quilt is a reminder to me that marriage, friends, and family, take effort and time to nurture and make strong.  

Cat approved.

Now working on the final two quilts that I said I would complete for the 2014 Finish along with Katy at the Littlest Thistle.  It was a finish along for three months.  Read about it here.  I said I would finish 6 of the BOM's that I started in January.  But I only completed three of them, and have two fo them almost done (just need to put them together), but they won't be quilted.  So I didn't do it all.  I did however did three more quilts (batting and all) that I did not say I would do.  That makes the 6.  Does that work?  Who knows. Will keep you posted.

Nicole