2020 The year that was......

This has been a year hasn't it?  The year 2020 will be talked about forever unless the powers that be decide to remove it from the history books for one reason or another.  It's a little early in the month for a year in reveiw but being as I haven't written a blog in over a year any time will work to hit some of the highlights. Blogger has changed.  I had seen from others blogs that some were having troubles with it.  Well, this is my first stab at the new format and I'm not impressed. As a matter of fact, if this actually becomes a post I'll be surprised.

I'm finishing the quilting part of my 2020 by making many, many 4" blocks. The blocks are then being sashed to make larger blocks. These all come from the Urban Farmhouse line by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings. So far these blocks have been great to make. I'm enjoying working with this color palette and love working with small blocks.

There have been a few quilt finishes this year. Not as many as I would like but enough to know I accomplished something.

The girls had their birthdays in February.  Grace is now 12 and Allison 7. Wow, just wow!  I probably say that every year.  Here are their birthday postcards for 2020. Sorry, I don't know who to give credit to for the postcard designs.

This queen size finish was complete in March. It is Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt  pattern Orca Bay. I added an extra border (which I wish was wider) and then I quilted it on my Janome with a wavy line pattern.

I went on a neutral kick this year and made this simple lap quilt in April.  There is no pattern for this one. It was quilted on my Janome using a straight line pattern.

Another finish for the year is this twin size Triple Irish Chain quilt. This paisley fabric was purchased years ago.  The top is several years old itself.  My daughter Jennifer offered to cut a stencil for me that would fit just right in those big open squares. After trying several different ways to mark that stencil on the front and I just couldn't see the lines well enough it finally ocurred to me to turn the quilt over and mark it on the back. It worked like a charm.  This quilt is finally finished! Looking through my pictures I see that I took many during the quilting process and none after it was done.  Finished September 2020.

In August I started working on my second voting quilt. This one made me pause more than once about how political I wanted to get. This has been a charged up year for politics.  A difficult year for everyone. I decided to go with something safe.  That being said I have a lot of words sewn together that did not get included in this quilt.  Maybe someday I'll make a quilt of my unquilted thoughts. And then again, maybe not.  There is a reason I self edit. There is no pattern for this quilt. For my word quilts I decide what words I want to say, make them and then make everything else fit around them. Sometimes that works better than other times.  This quilt could have used a narrow dark border before the light border.  It first went together without that narrow light border and had to be taken apart then the light border added.  Quilted on my Janome with a wave pattern stencil made by Jen. This lap size quilt was finished two days before the November 2020 election.

2020 has also included some work on my house and garage. The picture below is of my seven year old granddaughter Allison and her mother Victoria scraping paint from the peak on my garage. Allison loved going up and down that ladder. Her dad and her grandma not so much. That Covid face mask came in handy for keeping the paint and dust out of her face.

What a year...Covid-19, the too many political issues to list.  One thing I am greatful for this year is my family. They have made this year more tolerable. On that front things seem to be going in the right direction.  

School shopping 2020 Covid style.

Here's to a much improved 2021.

Happy Sewing, 

Julie

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

Here are the Moda Blockheads blocks that are on my design wall.  I'm still very far behind but feel a little closer than I was two weeks ago. They have posted 28 blocks and I now have 20 of those done.  I skipped one of the first blocks I'll have to go back and make.  The Buckeye Beauty block I've actually made three times. The first time it was blue. it quickly became obvious that blue was not going to fit in this quilt even if it is scrappy.   I didn't like the second one I made and  I'm not sure about the third but I'm not making it again even if it is an easy block. There is a iris block on the bottom right that does not belong with these but I haven't made enough blocks to cover it up yet.  Yes, there are a few blocks for other projects lurking underneath these.

It was time to change the quilt on my bed so I decided to take a before and after picture.

Before

The little star block pillow was made from some blocks my great grandmother made.  My sister Joyce and I put those together probably 25 years ago.  Mom was so mad we wasted those blocks on those pillows but I've enjoyed seeing and knowing that the block is a piece of my quilting history so I don't feel a bit bad about it.

After

This bowtie quilt is one of my favorites.  It ends up on my bed more often than any other quilt.

I'm planning to spend some time with the grandkids this weekend.  Tonight we're going to hang out while their mom and dad go on date night to a play.
Saturday may be the day Grace and I start working on a project together.  We shall see.


Happy Quilting,

Julie

 

I had done a couple of blocks from the 2018 Moda Blockheads block of the week but wasn't very happy with them since I didn't have in my stash what I wanted to continue with that color way.  So now I've started them in Halloween fabric.  I like them much better but am so far behind I may never catch up. They have posted block 24 and I think I have about 10 of them done. Right now I'm using the backgrounds shown above and below.  They may or may not go together when it's all said and done.  But it may not ever get said and done either.  I've been finding my Moda blocks to print at Bear Creek Quilting Company.  Yes, it is a fabric store and yes I've found some inexpensive fabrics on their site.  The fabrics shown in these two blocks came from a lot of different places.  I started collecting Halloween fabric a couple of years ago.  I probably should have collected some more before I started on a project like this.  We shall see how it goes.

On another note.  My daughter and I made a very quick trip to Worland Wyoming.  A family friend had passed away and I felt the need to be there.  So we left on Thursday evening at 6:30 from Topeka, stayed just north of Denver Thursday night (ha). It was Friday morning and we were in the hotel room for a total of 4 hours.  We needed a nap, a shower and to dress in appropriate clothes for a funeral. North of Casper we ran into a snow storm that wasn't supposed to be there ( I wouldn't have gone if I knew it was going to snow).  Anyway, we made it to Worland with about 1/2 hour to spare. 

I don't mean to be disrespectful but if you look closely at the picture above you'll see antelope in the cemetery.  Apparently they are there all the time.  My friends mother took a picture of the gravesite the next day and jokingly said something about the antelope enjoying the flowers.  The family had pushed bouquets down in the dirt and the antelope had removed them leaving the holes where the flowers had been. A little levity in a horrible situation.

We left Worland that afternoon and drove to Deadwood South Dakota.  Actually got some sleep before we went to the Crazy Horse monument and then to Mount Rushmore.  Of the two, I really enjoyed Mount Rushmore the most.  I had told myself not to be disappointed when it was on a mountain far up and could barely be seen.  Well that's not the case.  It was right there and beautiful.  And we had a beautiful day too.

Crazy Horse Monument

From there we headed across South Dakota and home to Kansas.  I dropped off Jennifer at 1:30 Sunday morning.  In just 55 hours we made it to Wyoming for a funeral and took a day of vacation.  I enjoyed the trip but it will take more than 55 hours to recover from it.  The drive through the mountains was beautiful with the changing leaves.  And all of the flatland wasn't so bad either.  Both of us agreed that the Kansas flatland is prettier.  I hadn't been in Wyoming since I was a child and neither of us had ever been in South Dakota.  I was go glad Jennifer could take the time to go with me.

Julie