Depression Blocks and Fond Memories

It's time to post my Lovely Year of Finishes completed goal for May.  I originally posted on May 3 that I wanted to quilt and bind my Depression Blocks UFO.  I have done so.

896 HSTs sewn into 56 -12 inch Depression blocks. Finished quilt 84x96. 

This quilt is for the bed in the guest room. It gets pretty darned cold in this old farm house in the winter so I will use it to keep the grandkids warm when they sleep over every other weekend. 

I've been working on this off and on for several years. I love Depression blocks and think of Grandma when I sew on it. She taught me to quilt and she told me many stories of how she survived during the Depression years on a farm in rural Iowa with Grandpa and 5 kids. I've used some of her tips myself during hard times.

So I should probably call this quilt Fond Memories - of Grandma, of learning to sew, of old fabrics used in other projects.

Backing is some plain brown flannel to make it extra warm. and I did some easy line quilting on my plain Jane DSM.  Binding sewn down by hand. I like how the polka dots look on both the front and back. 

Now I need to start thinking about what I hope to accomplish in June.  

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict for a Whoop, Whoop. 

Memorial Day Sew Along with Heartstrings

There's been a virtual sew along this weekend with the Heartstrings Quilt Project. Center strings were to be brown and we were stitching together blocks and tops that were "manly looking" for wounded warriors and veterans. 

 My string bin is pretty empty and I'm down to sewing mostly with crumbs; however, I did manage to pull together some brown, blue, gray, black, cream colored strings - enough for 48 blocks.  I did have to purchase some brown for the centers because I didn't have much of that in my stash.

I completed the top and didn't stop there. I added 3 inch borders, sat this achy old body (aka fat butt) on the floor to pin baste it, then proceeded to quilt it on my DSM with some wavy lines and stars. 

  There was a lull in the rain so I was able to find a dry place on the deck to take a photo of the completed quilt.

 It still needs to be washed to get some crinkly goodness.

The backing was pieced as an offset four patch using cocoa Kona I had in my stash (leftover from my Chocolate Dresdens) and some fabric I found on sale at Fabric.com and had delivered in time to use for this quilt. I think it is kind of camouflage looking.   The quilting isn't puckered....that's just crumpled a bit near the large star and that's a fold in the fabric I didn't iron out very well.  It all should come out in the wash.  I have to admit I'm no whizz when it comes to freemotion quilting but I wanted to get this finished and out of here.

Then I made a couple of pillowcases/presentation cases.   The bacon trimmed one goes with the brown. The red/pinwheel one goes with another top (not heartstrings) I need to finish. 

A big thank you and a hug goes to all who have served so bravely. 

So, that's what WAS on my design wall and now is off of it. 

To see what others are up to this day visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. 

One of My Favorite Flowers...

...is the pansy.   I've made more blocks for my one day queen-sized quilt.   Hmmmm...I think I need more dark purple and a place for the eyes to rest.   Busy, busy, busy. 

I won a sharp crochet hook some time ago from a giveaway on Amy's Sew Incredibly Crazy blog and along with some variegated purple/green crochet cotton, a vintage pillowcase stamp I inherited and a book on edgings from the thrift store...

...I decided to make some pillowcases to go with the someday pansy quilt.  The sharp crochet hook easily went through the pillowcase dots I marked every 1/4 inch to make the foundation stitches and then I changed to a size 6 crochet hook to finish the edging.  I wish I had taken a better photo of the edging. It must have flipped up during the photo shoot. Embroidery is stitched with 3 strands of DMC embroidery thread. 

Linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.   She has some links to hand quilting inspiration this week that I'm going to review when I get the chance. Heaven knows I need help with my hand quilting and I don't know anyone personally that can teach me. 

Nothing But Crumby

I've finished three more crumb quilts for Quilts Beyond Borders (QBB).  I first heard about QBB from Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict as part of her Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.  Since then the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild (the only guild to which I belong) has decided to also sponsor QBB in addition to Wrap-a-Smile.

I challenged myself this year to 1. Finish up some of my 73 UFOs and 2. To see how many donation quilts I can make this year from scraps.  I've been following along with the color of the month with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge  this year so that keeps me motivated. So far I've completed a donation quilt in all the colors of the month...hot pink, orange, purple, green, sapphire blue

The latest finish is a fish quilt- the Sapphire Blue Fish. Someone with Sunshine posted a link to a Flickr picture of a fish quilt and I knew that would be my next crumb project. 

With my quilting on plain Jane (my DSM) I tried to simulate waves and bubbles in the deep nether regions of the sea and did some loops in the fish.

Crumby Orange Stars is my next quilt.  You can see a secondary pattern and no stars at all if you look at it for too long.  I actually didn't think I had enough orange scraps for a quilt. Surprise, surprise! Where did all that orange come from? 

 I quilted with some orange thread I didn't even know I had in my thread drawer and made an attempt at stars and loops.  I can tell you I'm not an artist!

And this one I'll call Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dream Quilt and it uses scraps of many colors+ muslin.

Oops...I hung it upside down! Oh, well. You can still kind of see the stars and loops I quilted it with.   And, now, after the fourth quilt I'm finally getting a little better at machine binding....just a little. Guess I'll just have to practice a lot more.

So, I've found a box just perfect for these three quilts and the Green Bear Tracks I finished last week. As soon as I get the labels sewn on they will be in the mail.

Feeling really crumby! How about you? 

May I get a Whoop, Whoop, please?  Others are whooping it up over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. What are you whooping about? 

This Memorial Day weekend I will be working on my Quilts of Valor Quilts and doing a virtual sew along with Heartstrings.  You are welcome to join in also!! 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Scrap Quilts

My entry into the Scrap Quilt category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival organized by Amy of Amy's Creative Side is called Hi-Ho Cherrio after a game I loved playing as a child and play now with my grandchildren.  The pattern is Japanese X and +  by Amy Gunson of Badskirt blog.  I love this pattern and plan on making another one some day soon.  I quilted it on my DSM with swirls. 

Hi Ho Cherrio!

Japanese X and +

69x77

Machine quilted

For me

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Hand Quilting

I've seen so many gorgeous quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival  hosted by Amy's Creative Side that I hesitated to enter any of my quilts. But I took a deep breathe and plunged right in and entered my Dandy Garden quilt into the hand-quilted category. 

It's called Dandy Garden because the block is called Dandy from Quilter's Cache.  Since I used floral fabrics and most of the flowers featured on them I grow in my garden I named my quilt Dandy Garden.   

Dandy Garden

56x67

Hand quilted with purple perle cotton #5

Gone Fishin' (and Gardenin')

I finished 24 Blue Sapphire Fish blocks and have them sewn into a top. It will be another donation quilt. 

Sapphire Blue is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Visit SoScrappy's blog to see what everyone else is stitching up in blue. 

Not much time for sewing this time of year. We've been trying to get the garden in. Grandpa and the granddaughters planted beans today.  I usually take care of the flower gardens. 

 The azaleas have more blooms this year than I've seen in years.  I just love rhododendrons and azaleas. 

A Tale of Two Finishes

I've finished my quilt for Hand2Help Charity Challenge that I promised for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo. 

As a side challenge I've challenged myself to see how many donation quilts I can make from my scraps. This quilt used most of my purple scraps.   I first made crumb blocks and then made them into Puss in the Corner blocks.  I decided to use my purple scraps for Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo because that was my mom's favorite color.  She died of breast cancer and while she was in hospice she raved on and on about the purple quilts she had on her bed.   My mom was a drunk and rarely showed that she cared much about anything but she couldn't say enough about how she loved the purple quilts they put on her bed.  Hopefully this purple crumb quilt will give some comfort to someone. 

I quilted it on my DSM with some swirls.  You never know if you can do something until you try. I tried and I guess the swirls don't look too bad as done by an old lady with shaky hands and bad eyesight.

There's all kids of whimsy in the quilt and for a bit of fun I actually put some pusses in the corners of the Puss in Corner blocks. See them? 

I'm not sure how the chocolate chip got into the quilt. Doesn't look purple to me! 

This quilt will go to Quilts Beyond Borders.   It is also a charity sponsored by H2H Charity Quilt Challenge but I don't think I'm going to get this one mailed off by the H2H deadline because I will probably have 3 ready to mail before long and also Sunshine Online Quilt Guild also sponsors Quilts Beyond Borders and Wrap a Smile so I will be sending to both charities the rest of the year. 

This quilt used my green scraps that I made into Bear Track blocks with muslin background.  

Again I quilted it on my DSM but this time just did some loop-de-loops which was a little easier for me to do it seems. 

But, aaargggghhhh...this was my first time doing machine binding. I don't really like the looks of machine binding and actually like to do hand binding.   I'm not really proud of my first attempt. I sewed to the back first and pulled to the front.   One thing I forgot to do was to cut front,back and batting evenly. I'm used to leaving about 1/4 inch of batting and backing all around when I attach the binding to the front of the quilt....Doesn't work very well when you sew to back of quilt and pull to front!!!!!   Anyway, I zigzagged around twice and put through the washer and dryer and it all held together just fine so I guess it will be okay. I think that binding fabric has been around here since the 70s so it finally got put to good use. 

So, do you think I can get a Whoop, Whoop???   Others are whooping it up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Go check out why. 

And, I've finished things up just in time for Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.