Here are a few really bad pictures of my finished Moda Blockhead 2 quilt. Finished in time for Halloween, I might add. This quilt was a lot of fun to make.  A few of the blocks challenged me and taught me new things. 

I quilted it on my Janome. Certainly not perfect, but DONE.

Several of the Moda blocks (especially the applique blocks) were replaced with others. Nothing was paper pieced.

I didn't use a fabric line.  I used Halloween fabrics I have been collecting over the years. The only real yardage I had was the background shown in the orange and purple block below. I started with 5 yards of that fabric and used almost all of it.

And now on to a complete opposite color scheme quilt.  This is Lori Holt's Vintage Block Along.  Lori posted the first block on December 31, 2018.  When she showed a picture of a few of the blocks up on her design wall I couldn't help myself I had to join in.  I made my first block in August and finally caught up this week.  There are so many blocks (34 to date) I've had to pin them on top of each other on my design wall.  The finished blocks range anywhere from 3" to 18" so it should be an interesting layout. 

Happy Quilting,
Julie

A New Project

The other day on Instagram, Lori Holt posted a few pictures of her new sewing room.  In the background, on her design wall, were the blocks for her Vintage Block Along.  Well I was smitten.  She is 29 blocks into the sew-a-long and probably about done but I just have to make those blocks. So last weekend I started sewing them from my stash.  Not too bad, if I do say so myself.



Block One



Block Two

The dark fabric in the basket block is a navy blue.

On Sunday I decided that it was time to finally buy my first fat quarter bundle. I chose Lori Holt's Autumn Love purchased from the  Fat Quarter Shop.  I also ordered a few 1/2 yard background prints and a few other sale fabrics I couldn't resist.

So pretty! I can't wait to get home to wash and play with all these new colors.  So much fabric. So little time.

In between playing with blocks I've also been quilting my Moda Blockheads 2 Halloween quilt. I've had a couple of people offer to take it off my hands when I'm finished.  But I'm fairly certain this one is going to stay with me.

The piece of paper in the picture above is what I'm using to sew the lines.  It is card stock that is cut 3" wide. I just sew the length of it then move it down and sew again.  I was using blue painters tape but it wasn't working great on this big quilt. This method is working out better for me.  Let's face it, any lines I sew are never going to be perfectly straight anyway.

Happy Sewing,
Julie

Halloween Blockheads 2 Blocks

I've been working on the blocks for the Moda Blockheads 2 quilt. I started out behind and am finishing behind.  On the Blockheads Facebook Group many people have not only finished their blocks but they have finished their quilt.  Oh, well.  I'm still enjoying making the blocks.

The blocks in the picture below are the ones I made last weekend.  That green fabric looks a little overwhelming but where these blocks go in the layout they needed more green than anything else.  So that's just how it came about.  The bottom middle block started out like the bottom left and then I thought why not put a spider in the middle.  So it ended up nothing the same.  However, I can still use both of them.

The block below is one of my favorites. It makes me like purple again.  DD Jennifer said that it looks like the bones are dancing. If I remember correctly this block measures 24 x 24.

This is also another large block. The background on this one is my main fabric.  I had five yards of it to begin with and have about one yard left.

It was around this point, block 40, that I decided I could use this purple flower fabric for the back and that I should put some of it in the front. Years ago on a shop hop I paid around $5 a yard for about 8 yards at one of the shops.  It's a Kona fabric that's probably at least 10 years old.

I took the pictures below on May 11th. The top picture is pretty much laid out the way the Moda layout is done.  At that time there were still quite a few holes left to be filled with blocks.  Now I have just three blocks left to make.  Allison liked to jump from bare spot to bare spot playing hopscotch around the blocks. Until it occurred to me that it wouldn't be nearly as much fun if she stepped on one of the pins holding on the block numbers.

There are a few blocks that were published that I didn't want to make.  So I've substituted other blocks for those.  There are a few blocks that I flat out made wrong. Oh well, that happens.  But in a busy quilt like this no one will ever be able to tell which ones those are.

Hopefully, this is the weekend that the final three blocks are made and that the top gets sewn together.   Hopefully.

Happy sewing,
Julie

Catching Up

These 2019 birthday postcards for Allison and Grace were made at the beginning of February. Yes, I shamelessly use pictures I see on the internet for my cards.  I would never be able to come up with all of these myself. Unfortunately,  I don't know who to give credit to. But just know that their contribution is appreciated.

These are the colors I went with for my version of Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune mystery quilt. She used orange where I used yellow and blue where I used black. I was going for more of a Christmas look on mine.  Not sure I achieved that but I do like the colors.  The final border will be green and yellow.  It's currently my leader ender.  I didn't start this project until she was almost done giving the clues.

This rug is one of two that I made for Christmas presents.  This one was made for daughter Jennifer from Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  They are all the same print just different colors.  And it looks like two of her three cats approve. I definitely want to make at least one rug for myself. The problem is I can't decide on what colors I want.  My rugs were made using 2 1/2" strips of batting and 2 1/2" strips of fabric. They were easy to make and used up quite a bit of the strips of batting left after trimming a quilt. There was a lot of difference in the colors of fabrics on Grace's rug and I'm not a fan of where the light and dark strips meet. I will probably try to stick with closer shades of fabric for future projects.

Jennifer's rug

Grace's rug

On February 9th mom passed away at the age of 88.  She was my mother, my friend and my quilting buddy. I will sorely miss our time together. I don't care how old they are, how old your are, or how long you've known it was inevitable, the loss is still overwhelming.

  October 2018



At the visitation for mom we all brought some of the quilts she had made and given to us.  These are a few of mine. The quilt on the left "water wheel?" has some of the fabrics in it that she had used to make shirts and dresses for my sister Joyce and I when we were kids. There are some other fabrics I can pick out and remember from my childhood too.  The Irish Chain were squares that her grandmother had cut out and then many, many years later mother sewed into this twin size quilt. On the quilts that were old or were made from old family fabrics or blocks, mom always put a good descriptive label.  The one folded on top was given to me the year she made a quilt for each of us girls.  They were each gift wrapped and we chose which package we wanted not knowing what was inside.  I think we were all pleased with the quilts we got that year.  The day of the visitation I gave that quilt to my granddaughter Allison.  Mom hadn't made her a baby quilt when she was born so it was a way for her to get a quilt made by her Grammy.

Julie