August OMG Completed and a bit more....

Can't believe how much I accomplished this summer in finishing up a number of my UFOs and cleaning up my room.  There was so much unfinished UFOs and many of them were just sitting there, completed, but not sandwiched or quilted.  Well no more.....

Here's my OMG for August....  Hooking up to Elm Street Quilts.

All blocks are completed.  Look at the thread, it's a ribbon that I sewed on.

All attached together, all quilted.  the sides are light gray with sewing machine pictures on it, and thread, etc.  Really goes with the quilt theme.

Each block a bit of a sewing tool list

This quilt has a polar fleece backing, and no batting.  It's so thick as is.  And so warm as well.  You can't see the thread when I was quilting it.  I also didn't want to quilt the entire thing for the simple reason that the polar fleece is stretchy and I need the quilt to be flexible, so thus not a lot of quilting around everything.  It looks great as is.  This quilt project was two years old.  Finally completed.

But if you look closely, you can also see that I also completed another quilt, or rather added on to it.  This quilt was made quite a long time ago and I gave it to my mother last summer.  The problem was that the quilt was not big enough for her bed.  It needed to be widen.  So I did "Quilt as you go" and added borders to it.  Look at the quilt on the bed.  I added the black to the section in the front, and I also added it to both sides.  The entire quilt now fits the quilt with a hangover of 30 inches.  I made the edges, put batting in it, and then quilted it, inch by inch.  I used a variegated green on the farthest edge, then black on the rest.  The results were outstanding.  

Looks fantastic.

And I've completed one more quilt, the Snowflake quilt by JetGirl.  I purchased two quilts really really cheap from FatQuarter and put the two together to try it out.  It looks spectacular, and it's another queen size quilt.

Who's quilt is it?  Seems when the cat was going to try to test it out someone was already there trying it out for size.  I did stitch in the ditch for the stars that are light gray and white, and then I echoed quilted around the snowflake.  You can see the lines.  I then stitched in the ditch for the black all around it.  The bias is also black, making a nice finish.

So there you go, three BOMs completed and up on my site.

Will show better pictures of the Snowflake on another blog posting.

On to the next three or four BOMs that I need to catch up or complete.....  

Missed a quilt.....

I forgot to blog about a quilt that I finished about two weeks ago and have already shown my quilt.  It was touch and go to finish this one.  I got the pattern and material in 2015 from a shop that was suppose to teach me how to do the wool (I just loved the pattern), and they closed.  A wonderful shop in Fort Langley.  It seems all the small quilt stores are closing, and that's too bad.  Quilting hopefully is not a dead art.  With Quilt Con coming here in Vancouver it will  certainly revive the art otherwise.  

Anyways, here's the one that I was missing, and this is on my 2018 Finish list (#1 on the list) and also on my American Patchwork and Quilting List.  I need to catch up on that one, as well as keep up with a quilt a month on the 2018 list.  But I love a challenge.  So without further waiting here's the quilt for my cousin Garette and his wife Carol.  

They will have to pick it up at my Aunt's house in Manitoba.  My cousin lives in Ohio, and it's too expensive to mail such a heavy quilt (wool on top and flannel underneath).  Carol wanted a traditional quilt and it's for their cabin (if you call a house in the woods a cabin - sorry Carol) in Oregon.  So it will be chilly at night there, this should work.  And if not, they can hang it on a wall, because it's huge.  It's approximately 70" by 85".  I machine quilted it all myself, and all those green squares are 2 1/2 inches each.  Took a long time to go around each one to make the quilt hang flat.  But worth it.  It got "Ohhhh" and "Ahhhhhs" at the  Fraser Valley Quilting Guild Meeting Show and Tell, which always makes you feel great considering all the talent there.  The pattern is by Sara Tuttle and Sandra Brawner.  If' you are interested in the pattern you can get it at Amazon.com   It is hard to get now, even on Etsy.  

I love wool and hand stitching it.  The project is great for the car (most were done going to baseball games in Seattle so that was 2 hours there for stitching).  How about you?  

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!!!

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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.

Starting to Play again

With the start of school again it's been a while since I did some quilting.  With a new course, needing to repair a number of computers, and birthday celebrations, I have not been able to get some quiet time to doing some quilting.  But at least this weekend I've been able to do some quilting, and it sure does make a difference to my mood.

So I had today and yesterday to play.  What did I do?  Take a look:

For Thanksgiving in my classroom.  You
hand it on the door.  It's quilted.

From Quiet Play - At the Zoo.
All Paper piecing.

At the Zoo again.  A monkey.  August.
Just two behind this time.

A wool quilt I found from 2008 when I started.
But I couldn't find the pattern, so I went
my own way.  2 1/2 inch squares of flower material around it.

The wool quilt is all completed, quilted around every square of flower material.  It has different types of stitching on each square which is what I took the class for.  I don't remember the name of this quilt nor the teacher unfortunately.  That will teach us all to be organized  :)

A great two days of relaxation, and accomplishments.  Not exactly a lot, but I"m still happy.  See this link to see what I was starting out with at the start of September, some squares and that's it!!  So I'm very happy with how it is.  I'll take more pictures and put them up in another blog so you can take a closer look. 

For now, that's it, time to stop.