These blocks are getting close to being done.  I've been looking for a border fabric and just have no idea what to put with it. On the lower right side are a pig block and a hand mixer block. Those are both replacements for blocks that I didn't want to use. I have a few more to make and then this will be ready to layout and sew together.

These Farm Girl Vintage blocks are all sewn together. I've been using the flying geese border as my leader/ender on the alphabet quilt.  The flying geese are all made and have been sewn into pairs and from there I will start working on not putting too many of one color in any one area.  In the book Lori Holt used all red flying geese, I opted for scrappy using the fabrics in the blocks.

If those two tops aren't enough mess at my sewing area I decided to try my hand at red and neutral log cabin blocks. I was gifted an overflowing plastic bag of red fabrics (several scrappy yards total) so I've been cutting them down into 2 1/2" and 1 1/2" strips.  Mixing them with my neutrals and some of my reds I started making the 1 1/2" strips into log cabin blocks. The 2 1/2" strips are going into 9 patch blocks.

I may have to take that black and white strip out of that block.  Right now it is standing out like a sore thumb.  Either that or put more in there.   In 2014 I blogged about starting some scrappy log cabin blocks.  They didn't look the way I had hoped and are in my orphan block tote. Hopefully these make it all the way to being an actual top. I have these six blocks done and another four that need another round. These blocks finish at 9".  It's a start anyway.

Happy sewing,
Julie

I have too many projects started right now - but what the heck, let's start another one.

This is the first of something like 45 or 46 Moda Blockhead mystery blocks. They release a new block every Wednesday.  I've also finished the second one but don't have a picture on my phone of it.  I love the way this one turned out but don't really have enough variety of vintage pinks to work with to keep it going.  So I'm either going to have to go really scrappy or change my colors.  I looked at buying more pinks but didn't find anything I wanted to spend the money on right now.  Guess I don't love it that much.

I am, however,  loving the alphabet quilt from Lori Holt's book Spelling Bee.  I now have all of the letters and punctuation blocks done.  Since this picture was taken I have also made 12(?) of the seventeen picture blocks.  Some of the picture blocks she used I'm not going to put in my quilt.  They are cute but a kid wouldn't have a clue what they are without an explanation.  For instance she has a rotary dial telephone and a typewriter block. I'm sure they are still around but this quilt is intended for a child and those two things will never have any meaning for them.  While I'm working on the blocks for this quilt I'm using the sashing pieces for the Farm Girl Vintage quilt as my leader/enders.

 

This happened last week.  My car hit 200,000 miles.  I half expected to look in the rearview mirror and see pieces and parts falling off and hitting the road behind me but that still hasn't happened.  And knock on wood it doesn't happen very soon. For 20 plus years I've traded in my cars when they get just over 90,000 miles.  This time I wasn't in a position to do that and luckily this car just keeps going.  Once it went over the 100,000 mark I just decided to drive it till it stops.  Hopefully, it still has a few miles left to go. I'm not ready to start making payments again.

Happy quilting,
Julie

These pretty fabrics were selected for a sew day that was held at Overbrook Quilt Connection on April 27th.  Cathy and I attended and sewed ALL day long.  It was great. We arrived at 9:00 and were able to sew until 7:00 that evening.  I would have stayed longer if allowed. The pattern was a mystery and given out one clue at a time.  Near the end of the day they showed a couple of finished quilts from the pattern but I didn't peek.  The next day I had my top together and wasn't disappointed in the finished top. (Finished without borders still.)  I didn't purchase any of the fabrics for the project I just went with what I had on hand so my color choice was limited to what I had yardage of.  And in my sewing room there isn't much to select from that is over a yard.
The Kaffe Fassett is some that I bought probably 10 years ago at a shop in Concordia, The silly binocular fabric was purchased on line a few months ago from Hancock's of Paducah.  I'm sure I paid less than 3.00 a yard for it when I was buying fabric for backs.  The colors of that fabric fit perfect for this quilt but the binoculars are terrible.  The purple flower fabric is from mom's stash.  I'm pretty sure it was the back for Jesse and Victoria's signature quilt she made for their wedding.

Fabric choices



Complete center without borders.



Closer view of fabrics.

All in all it was a terrific way to spend the day.  Cathy and I were able to visit with each other and meet a lot of great quilters too.


This is my version of Bonnie Hunter's Virginia Bound quilt pattern.  The unquilted top has been a part of my blog header picture for several years.  Well I finally got it quilted and have one side of the binding left to do before it will finally be handed over to my son Jesse.  This picture was taken at quilt guild during show and tell.  My sister Cathy is shown holding it.  No, Cathy I didn't edit you out.  You're my quilting partner and I'm so glad you are.  Maybe a picture without a chair in the way will be posted later.  And maybe not.

Grace as the cowardly lion.

I spent a Saturday out with Victoria and the kids.  The carousel at the park had opened for the summer and Grace was ready to go. The carousel was built in 1908 and is in great condition as the city of Topeka takes very good care of it.



Allison as Dorothy.



Grace and Tyler

Not much sewing has been going on in the last couple of weeks.  Not much of anything, actually.  I'm once again limited to what I can do because of my back.  Let's just say I won't be pushing mom up a hill and then back down again any time soon. It was too much strain for my back to take.  I haven't been this bad since my surgery last year.  With time it will pass.  But I'm ready today!

Julie

This is a baby quilt that I made for a friend earlier this month. It is a pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts.  The pattern was done as a sew-a-long in 2015 and can be found under the Quilt Alongs tab.

The directions were very easy to follow.  I did opt to only use two different dog faces since my goal was to have dogs that looked like Mandy's Boston Terrier.  It only took two weekends to put the top and back together.  All of the fabric was from my stash.

I couldn't resist putting a row of puppy dog tracks on the backside of the quilt.  The white square on the left side is a color catcher.  With baby quilts I would rather them be able to wash it in their own detergent than use mine.  But every first wash needs a color catcher which can easily be paper clipped to the side.

This is Mandy opening the quilt at her baby shower. I was kind and didn't post the picture of her bawling her eyes out.  A quilting success!

Oops

The picture above however, is NOT a quilting success.  This is the back of a quilt that is still on my sisters Longarm. Blogger insists that Longarm be capitalized.  The words that I was saying when this occurred were capitalized and had lots of asterisks and other symbols.  When it was all said and done the machine had to go to the machine doctor and have the timing reset.  I still have no idea what happened.  That machine and I don't get along very well.  Which is so sad because I had great hopes of quilting a lot of the tops just sitting folded up at my house.

Grace and Allison

The girls and Victoria came by my work a couple of weeks ago.  We walked up and down the sidewalks in downtown Topeka.  Topeka has installed quite a bit of artwork, statues, fountains, etc.
along a four or five block section.  I've been wanting to get out there with the girls for quite a while.  I'm glad we were able to.  Allison did just what I expected her to - she climbed on everything.  When I took this picture Grace said "I'm sitting in his lap." and laughed with a bit of embarrassment.

Happy Friday,

Julie
 

 

 

These blocks have been on my design wall for a very long time.  They are from Lori Holt's book Farm Girl Vintage.  I finished the last four or five a few weeks ago. Not only are the blocks done, but they've been organized and sewn into rows.   I was determined to get them all done and off the wall before I started on the alphabet blocks from her newest book, Spelling Bee.  



 

Farm Girl Vintage Blocks

 

 

Since it's been so long since I've blogged about anything I've also got birthday postcards to show.

 

 

Allison's 5th Birthday

 Allison turned five this year.  Her favorite fruit is watermelon.  It's about the only one she will eat. So while that is still the case she got a watermelon for her card.  This year I started a day out with grandma for her birthday present.  She and I went and saw Peter Rabbit. I was afraid it would scare her when the guy was chasing the rabbits around but it didn't.  She followed along with every part of that movie. She laughed out loud at the appropriate times and cried when it was an emotional scene.  I love to hear that kid laugh. It is such a sweet sound. We had lunch and went present shopping to round out the day.

 



Grace's 10th Birthday

For Grace's day out with grandma we went and saw A Wrinkle in Time.  Grace said she liked it but I'm not going to recommend it to anyone.

 

She and I also had our usual lunch at Red Robin and went shopping.  I asked her if she wanted to eat somewhere else this year but she said it is our birthday place so we should go there.  I think she likes the strawberry shakes. Unfortunately this year they put sprinkles in it so she didn't care for it as much. I included that here in case we go again next year.  Maybe I'll remember to ask them not to put sprinkles in.  There were other pictures that went with Grace's post but blogger had something else in mind with them.  They sure didn't show up here. 

 

I've got several other projects I've been working on, including the alphabet quilt and one or two things I'm not ready to post pictures of. 

Work has taken up so much of my time and energy that I've only been able to quilt one quilt on my sister's "new" machine.  Hopefully, that will change in the next few weeks.

 

At least when I come to the blog the picture of the black and red quilt won't be the first thing I see. That picture has been up since November and the sad thing is - I still don't have the back made for that quilt top.  Oh, well.

 

Happy Quilting,

Julie

Making Backs

My goal this last weekend was to put together a couple of backs.  Since Cathy got her new quilting machine I am needing to have something ready to load on to it.  Ha.   I didn't get very far.  I don't know what it is about me that I can't leave well enough alone.

 

The top shown below was 67 x 67 with no borders.  It would have made a great lap quilt.  It is also one I wouldn't mind practicing on.  I loved this fabric when I bought it in 2008 and I still do.   It's too bad that the pattern I chose didn't play well with the fabric.  It's too busy.                                                   

 

 

 

Since I had yards and yards of backing fabric what was I to do but add borders. With the narrow black border and the 6" outer border the top now measures 81 x 81.  It turned out great.  The borders really dressed it up and I love it.  I don't, however, have quite enough of the backing fabric leftover to make a back.  I spent Saturday and half of Sunday working on this quilt top.   I ran out of solid black fabric for the piecing I have to do to make the back large enough.  Wow.  Keeping in mind this is a top I plan to practice Longarm quilting on.

 

 

The fabrics for this top are from Blank Quilting.  The fabric selvage said it came out in 2008 which is when I think I bought it and made the original 67 x 67.  It's just a few years old.  And it may eventually get quilted.

 

Close up of fabrics.

In the midst of all of that I got to thinking since I'll be practicing I might as well practice on something I really want to get finished.  So I pulled out my Smith Mountain Morning top which is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  Mom and I took the class from Bonnie several years ago in Holton.  That was a great day.  This green print is as close to a back as I can come up with for this and of course, it's not enough.  I like to run a row of blocks down the back of my quilts anyway but that means I have to make the blocks.

 

And yes, this is exactly how far I got in getting some backs together.  I'm no closer to being able to load a quilt than I was a week ago.  Maybe next week.

Happy Quilting,

Julie

The month of October has flown by and I have accomplished very little.  The bottom row made of 4" blocks was the sum of my sewing for the past few weeks.  My opinion is that this group of rows needed to have another row with some white in it.  The rows folded on the left side all pretty much have the same green/blue backgrounds.  I liked the row of flying geese that someone else had made so I went with another narrow row with white background.

On the 14th my sister Cathy and I took a couple of classes with a Handi Quilter trainer.  Cathy took the plunge and bought a Handi Quilter Fusion.  And I'm going to be lucky enough to be able to use it too.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what Cathy and I come up with in our quilting abilities.  Right now it all seems a little daunting to me.

Since I recently finished a quilt (I've not yet shown pictures. I do wish Quiltmaker would get back with me about publishing it.) I'm trying to figure out what to work on.  Wednesday I put all of these blocks in order and dreamed about them for a while.  They are from Lori Holt's book Farm Girl Vintage .  I am wanting to start the Saturday sew a long for her book Spelling Bee but don't know that I can justify starting another group of blocks when I still have 16 - 20 left to do of these.  All I did was dream over these.  I never did start another block.

This last Sunday afternoon I went with Jesse's family to a church Halloween party.  The girls had a good time.  Victoria made their costumes and did a great job on them. 

Allison as a Watermelon Shopkin

Grace as a Blueberry Jolly Rancher

There were a lot of things to do in the month of October, unfortunately, every time I've done something I've spent days trying to recuperate from it.  I caught a virus the last week of September.  I tried to wait it out but ended up at the doctor on October 12th with an infection that I was treated for.  That never seemed to get better so on October 23rd I was back at the doctor and told I have pneumonia.  I've been on steroids and antibiotics since Monday for that.  Here it is Friday and I'm trying to decide if I should call the doctor again or wait until my next appointment on Tuesday.  One thing I do know is I'm looking forward to the weekend.  I need a couple of rest days before another busy week at work starts.  Sick, sick go away.  Don't come back another day.

Julie
 

No, I didn't forget.  It just seems like I've been too busy to even think about writing a post.  Right now I should be working but it is time for me to take a well deserved break. I'll have to get back at it again pretty soon though.

The top row is the original row, my sisters is the one that can barely be seen on the right side.  The bottom row is what I did for the September guild meeting.  The two blocks came from Lori Holt's  new book Spelling Bee.  I have been making plans and a lot of notes in that book since it came in the mail a few weeks ago.  After all,  Allison is going to need her own "I Am"  quilt.  It can't be just like the one I made for Grace but it will have a similar theme I'm sure.  Allison told me the other day her favorite color is black.  For a four year old to have black as a favorite color seems a bit unusual to me.  But that's our Allison - she is like no other child I know.

One of these days I'm going to post the before and after pictures of my quilt room.  It has been such an unbearable mess for the longest time.  I'm finally making myself spend some time cleaning, putting away, donating, and throwing stuff out.  I'm down to organizing the fabric.  Goodness knows, that's going to take some time.

Well, before the day gets away from me I better get busy.

Happy sewing,
Julie

This just looks like a strip of blocks.  It is actually the back for the orange top that is pictured in the header of my blog.  I made the top a couple of years ago and have been too intimidated to quilt it on my sewing machine.  Well, that's all over now.  I'm ready to get at it.  But first it needed a back.  Considering the fact that this quilt is huge this strip for the back took me more than one sitting to put together.  The strip is not laying on that fabric it is sewn in between the two pieces.  When it is finished my plan is that the pieced strip will be off center in the back.  We shall see.

Now I need to get a piece of batting that is large enough.  I really don't want to piece one together.  This quilt is intended to be special to the person that receives it.  It would be terrible if after a wash or two the batting got lumpy

I of course, can't find a picture of the whole top on this computer.  As a matter of fact I don't think I've ever taken one.  The pictures I posted before didn't have the borders attached.
Post from 2014.  This top is several years old and was promised long ago.  Shame on me.

Here's hoping I don't get discouraged with such a daunting task.  I do love this quilt.  BTW this is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

Julie

Eclipse Day

It is unreal that August is almost over. My September is going to be extremely busy at work so I'm not looking forward to September getting here any sooner than it has to.  Oh, well.

This is the row I worked with this month.  The log cabins are the original, the second row is my sister Cathy's (she always comes up with something great), and the bottom row is what I made.   The pile on the left are the other rows that go with these.  There just isn't room to spread them all out.  That, and I was running very far behind in getting this months done so I was just grateful I had something to take a picture of.

My family was one that was excited about seeing the eclipse.  Since we were so close to the area that would be able to see the total eclipse that was where we headed.

We ended up in Fairview Kansas.  A small town about an hour and twenty minutes from Burlingame.  We were at a park with restrooms (thank goodness) and a playground for the kids.  It was a wonderful day except for the clouds.  Oh, and the rain.  We were able to see the full eclipse, it was visible in between the clouds every once in a while.  And it definitely got dark.  All in all, it was a great experience and a great day.  I'm so glad I didn't miss it.

Allison August 21, 2017 Fairview, KS Solar Eclipse day.

Another thing we didn't miss was the traffic going home.  The hour and twenty minute trip to Fairview ended up taking several hours back home.  The first 11 miles took over an hour.  It was bumper to bumper for miles and miles.  Luckily, Allison slept so she didn't get too bored with all of it.  And we adults just talked about what a great day it was.

Merging on to Highway 75.  Don't tell Joyce I took her picture.

Happy sewing,

Julie

Here is my finished top from the last Thimble Creek Quilts sew-a-long. I do love, love, love how this turned out.  If and when it ever gets quilted it will truly be one of my favorites.

What you can't tell from this picture is that the rug on the floor is lime green.  That may tell you that the coloring is in these pictures is a little duller than it actually is.  I was hoping they would turn out better and brighter taken at my office than at home.  I do know that quilt tops leave a lot, and I mean, a lot of threads to be picked up.  Especially off of that white sofa.

Actually, the colors on the quilt aren't too far off.  The alternate blocks are done with green stars and blue squares. The final border is green flowers and green plaid.  I realized with this quilt that I don't have much for larger pieces in my stash.  Most of everything I have is less than one yard.  I know that's because I like scrappy and little pieces but I now know I need to add to my stash.  Darn.

I don't normally like to do borders.  They are one of my least favorite quilting things.  However, this one needed a border.  The directions made it easy and it all fit together just right.


Happy Quilting.

Julie

Yes, somewhere along the way I have been doing some sewing that didn't involve rows for quilt guild.  These blocks are my version of a Semi-Mystery quilt published by ThimbleCreek Quilts.
Aren't they pretty?

. 

I almost always work with scrappy neutrals but when I started these blocks with all the same background I fell in love.  So much so, that I've actually started another quilt with all the same background.  It's my current leader/ender.

As of now, these blocks have all been sewn together and the first two borders have been added.  I'm working on the piecing of the third and final border.  I'm hoping to get it put on next weekend.
ThimbleCreek just started another Semi-Mystery sew along.  A new clue comes out every two weeks.  You do have to be signed up for their free newsletter, which can be done by following the link to their website.  They only provide the clues free for two weeks and after that they have to be purchased.  Hope this inspires someone to join along.

Happy quilting,

Julie

Check out this months row for quilt guild.  My row is the bottom row of flowers.  They are blocks from Lori Holt's book Farm Girl Vintage.  That seems to be my go to book to find something to make for these row quilts.

I'm not really sure that all of these rows fit together on this one.  Individually they are all great,  together, I'm not so sure.  Once a few more rows are made it will probably all work out just fine.

This time I didn't lay all of the rows out in the order they were made in.  I wanted the row my sister made right above mine, so it is.  Isn't her row terrific with the dog and cat.  I'm already going to borrow her pinwheel flower pattern for my house quilt shown below.  One of the houses has an appliqued flower.  Phooey - that pinwheel will work just fine instead.

And that brings me ONE of the other projects I'm working on.  In 2016 Moda did a free block of the week called Be My Neighbor.  I decided to make it in red,white and blue (with a little pink and black).  I'm not sure how much I'm going to like it when it's done but I'm having fun making it.  Most of these blocks are around 16" or 18".  I haven't worked with pieces that big in I don't know when.  Almost everything I make anymore is little pieces.

Have a great rest of the week.

Julie

Here is my current "row of the month".  This one is for Deloris Rieck.  She wanted her quilt to have houses.  Several others had already done some houses so I decided to do a church.

 

Mine once again, looks oversized to the others.  I'm not sure that it is as noticeable as it shows in this picture. My row is just closer to the camera and it's 12" wide and most of the others are 9". Deloris' row is the top one, my sister's is the third from the top.  My sister and I actually used blocks from the same pattern.  She just made hers much smaller.  The pattern for my block was originally 18" tall so the church only has two windows instead of four and is a bit narrower through the roof.  These rows are making me think and make adjustments that I normally don't do.   And can I just say wow again about the paper pieced and appliqued blocks. Deloris wanted all of the rows to have a light blue background so she provided several different prints for her quilt.  These blocks are my favorites so far.  Now to find out what the next rows will be.  Unfortunately, I haven't been to quilt guild in a couple of months because of work and ball games so I haven't been able to see what everyone else is doing.  Maybe I can make it in July?

Happy quilting,

Julie

Another month is all but gone. Hard to believe May is almost over.  Now we are heading into the all too hot days of summer.


Another month means another row to be posted.
Once again, the top row is the original and the bottom row is mine.  I omitted one of the rows.  There just wasn't room to fit them all in this time.  I took this picture in a hurry and really didn't take much time to set it up.  Obviously. 

I had good intentions with my row but must say I'm a bit disappointed in how it turned out.  I searched and searched until I found something that would go with the other rows.  The deer should have been perfect but it took me way too long to make it.  Right at 4 1/2 hours.  For ONE BLOCK.  The block is a Pam Bono design. I'm so glad she creates designs that don't have to be paper pieced but wow it took a lot of time. By the time I finished it I wasn't in the mood to figure much else out.  The trees came from a pattern in a Quiltmaker magazine. I'm sorry I don't remember the designer's name.  What I don't like about the row is that the background on the deer doesn't match up with the background on the trees and NO WAY was I going to remake any of it.  The "snow" looks whiter than it shows up in the picture.


My sister Cathy made the second row. I love the way her snowflakes turned out.  And those little tiny stars were not paper pieced. Wow. 


Happy Quilting,


Julie

Barn Blocks

My sister Joyce did something I find to be pretty incredible. On Saturday she asked if I wanted to make a trip to Herington with her. I thought we were going to pick up something for Bill, but on the way she told me she had ordered herself a barn block. We discussed different patterns. I told her I would probably go with a Carpenter's Wheel. At that point she probably avoided telling me her choice.
When we got to our destination the husband of the lady who made the blocks invited us into the garage to pick them up.  I know that my eyes got as big as saucers.  I know that I shed more than one tear. And I know that I said in a very loud voice - that's my quilt.  And it was.

My sister chose my block design from the quilt I made mom.  It's also the quilt that Quiltmaker Magazine published on their blog as a block of the month.

The barn blocks were made by a lady named Julie Keithline. Didn't she do a fantastic job. I'm glad she added all of the other colors in the string pieced area.  It will make each of them more visible up on a wall.  Joyce let me have first pick.  I chose the block on the top left. I like the red and yellow.  Another thing that Julie Keithline did was use the original colors in the centers of the blocks.  She put so much detail in using different methods to make it really look like different fabrics.  Uunfortunately, she wasn't at home when we picked up the blocks. I would have loved to talk to her.  Her husband did say that she had been interviewed for a magazine and that these were the blocks she was working on at the time.  So I'll be on the lookout for them to be published somewhere.


Thank you sister. What a gift.


Julie