It's a Finish! Izzy's Menagerie

 Izzy's Menagerie

60 x 72

It's a finish! 

There's very few quilts I've made more than once but I never get tired of making Happy Block quilts. 

These blocks have 4 inch centers and 1 3/4 inch sides which makes a 6 inch finished block. 

 Some of the blocks were swapped as well as the centers with the I Spy Quilt Swap Yahoo Group I joined 14 years ago when the first grandchild was born  Some of the centers came from a few other swaps elsewhere and a few centers were won.   All of the centers are members of the animal kingdom - birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, mammals and reptiles.  

I've made several quilts to give to the grandkids when they graduate high school. 

 I made this one for Isabelle (aka Izzy or Dizzy Izzy)  because she loves all creatures great and small and for as long as I can remember she has always said she wanted to be a veterinarian.   I guess that has changed.    She recently was accepted into an Accelerated Associate Degree program  which means when she graduates high school she will not only receive a high school diploma but she will also receive an Associate of Arts degree.  When I congratulated her and mentioned that it was a wonderful opportunity for a future veterinarian I was informed that she now wants to be a psychotherapist.   Ok.  But she still loves all creatures great and small. 

 I free motion quilted it on my Brother DSM with some rough lemon peels in variegated rainbow thread on top and gray in the bobbin.  I haven't washed it yet so it's not all soft and crinkly. I have an old wringer/washer and no place for larger quilts to dry flat so I wait until I have several and take them to the laundromat for washing and drying.  When it crinkles it will hide most of my quilting imperfections. (I hope). 

 And it's a Murphy's Law of Quilting that whenever your hand shakes while quilting it will happen with dark thread on a light background or vice versa.  Oh for the love of crinkles! 

 Happy Block quilts usually make a big dent in my solids, tone on tones,polka dots and blenders. 

 The backing was pieced...

...with several different gray odds and ends. 

This was my goal #3 (previously called Animal Farm)

for

Q1 Finish-Along

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag

It's a Finish! More Pink/White Strings

Pink and White Strings

40 x 60

Ready for giving or gifting

This is another one that came from the pink and white string box.  The polka dot centers weren't scraps but I wanted a consistent center to tie the blocks together.  I used newspaper as a foundation and made 10 inch blocks. 

 Now the rest of the pink and white strings are mixed in with some other low volume strings for string heart blocks. 

 I quilted it on my DSM with spirals in pink thread. The batting was pieced together from leftovers. 

The backing was pieced with some pink quilt back trimmings that were too wide for the string box. Sometimes I use these wider pieces for bindings or cut them into the sizes of scraps I keep but I saw a bunch of wide pink ones and threw them into a pile last year thinking they would make a nice donation quilt back. And so they do. 

This was my goal #23

for

Q1 Finish-Along

Sunshine!

 Two Donation Quilts

Both 40 x 60

Finished!! 

The October theme for the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild  (SOQG) block lotto was Sunshine.  I made several different blocks that seemed pretty sunny to me. I sent in two of each for the lotto drawing and kept two of each for myself to make my own Sunshine quilt.  This was the result which is now finished. 

I used up most of my yellow and orange scrap chunks but that left me with other yellow scraps I used in this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.   The quilt is actually brighter than it looks.  You almost need sunglasses to look at it.  But it was nice and cheery to finish up on a cold and dark winter day. 

 I used a yellow solid on the back and you can see how I quilted it on my DSM.  I used the same yellow solid for the binding. 

Then I was also one of the winners of the October SOQG lotto. Rather than let the 15 blocks linger in my block orphanage I made a quilt top right away with the winnings. I noticed a lot of blue in the blocks. I had a piece of yellow with blue floral stripes left in the scrap chunks so made some Flying Geese with it. The blue and orange wings were also from the scrap bin. 

 And another quilt with a Sunshine theme is now finished. It is also much brighter in person. 

This one has a yellow fleece backing so I skipped the batting. This is the first time I've used fleece for a backing and I thought I would have problems quilting it especially since I quilted it on my backup machine because my main one is in the repair shop but it was a breeze to quilt, thank goodness. I have a couple more pieces of fleece in different colors I will use as future backings.  It washed up just fine too.   I quilted it the same way as the other one and made a scrappy binding using leftover trimmings from other quilt backs that fit with the color scheme. 

These were goals #8 and #16

from my

Q1 Finish-Along list. 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

A Home Run

 Home Run

(Baseball themed Happy Blocks)

40 x 60

Ready for giving or gifting. 

 I'm still trying to finish up a bunch of donation tops I made last year in an effort to move out odds and ends and bits and pieces of this and that. 

 I have a box - my HAPPY PLACE- full of a variety of Happy Blocks and centers for Happy Blocks. Most are the result of a variety of swaps I participated in with different groups back when the grandkids were younger.  Sometimes we swapped Happy Blocks, sometimes we swapped novelty centers in different sizes with or without a theme and sometimes we sent around centers to a group of people and they bordered our centers and sent them back (when postage was cheaper) and I bordered theirs and sent them all back. 

 I found an almost complete set of baseball themed Happy Blocks in my Happy Place.  I only had to make about four more blocks and I had a top.  Good thing! Those bits and pieces weren't doing anyone any good stuck in a box. 

 I probably have enough centers and fabric for two more baseball themed quilts this size. But I'm thinking after I get all these small 40 x 60 quilts finished and donated I'll move on to twin sized quilts for donation. So a baseball themed twin sized quilt may be in my future. 

 I pieced the back.  

I quilted it on my DSM with swirls or are they spirals? 

The binding is a variety of blues from the leftover binding box. 

This was my goal #5 

for

Q1 Finish-Along

A Finish! Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

 Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

42 x 60

It's a finish ready for giving or gifting!

I took advantage of yesterday's warmer temperatures that melted most of the recent snow and ice to take pictures outside. And today it is about 45 degrees F colder!!! 

I modified a free Katie Blakelsey (Swim Bike Quilt) pattern she calls Star Bright.  I used 6.5 inch squares instead of 6 inch and I made the HST star points my own way. 

 I have a milk crate of "chunk scraps" (scraps greater than 6 inch width of fabric and less than a fat quarter) and picked out some yellow, gray, and purple scraps to use. I've always wanted to try that color scheme. 

 My main machine quit sewing again and is in for repairs. I'm thankful I have a backup machine to use in the meantime.  I just quilted some straight lines at irregular intervals but sure had a lot of thread breakage which left me with lots of knots to bury because sometimes I don't see well enough to match up the end and beginning of the lines.  And, of course, the sewing machine light had to burn out in the middle of quilting which did not help.  I also think this sewing machine does not like cross wound thread. Even with a walking foot I had some shirring mostly at the same spot where I had most of the broken threads - of course that was right in the middle of the yellow gingham star. 

 

I used a very soft sheet on the back and I think the front shrunk more than the back which caused all this shirring after the quilt was washed because it wasn't there before washing!  I've used sheets lots of times for backings but I've never done straight line quilting on those. Maybe it's because I did not have front and back lined up on the straight of grain? And maybe that's why I had thread breakage problems in places?  Well, it doesn't affect the comfort or warmth of the quilt. That sheet is soft! 

On to the next! 

This was my goal #15 

for

Q1 Finish-Along

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Valentine's Day

 I finished a set of four reversible placemats and napkins. 

 It all started with a set of napkins stamped for embroidery I picked up from the thrift store.  The original price was $9.50 but I picked them up for $1.95.  I finished the embroidery on them around August 2014. 

I'm not usually a "neat back" sort of embroiderer; however, I tried to stay neat since these are napkins and according to the packaging are supposed to be used as is because they have a serged edge. I didn't like them like that so decided to make them reversible and threw them in a project box along with possible fabrics to use for the reverse side which were mostly white so they would not show through to the front. And there they sat in the project box. 

Around 2016 after I saw a mini quilt tutorial with hearts at Cluck Cluck Sew I decided to make placemats to go with the napkins. I made four of those and threw them into the project box with the napkins. I didn't really like how the unfinished placemats turned out because I decided there was too much white in them for me.  I threw them into the project box with the napkins. 

I've made it a Finish -Along goal to finish the placemats and napkins several times but just couldn't get motivated to complete them. 

But this year is my year of finishing lots of old things so finished they are.  The placemats are a large size at 14 x 20. They are reversible. The reverse fabric fabric for placemats and napkins came from the Valentine fabric box. I didn't use the whites I had set aside and they are back in the neutral basket now.  The binding came from the Christmas fabric box.  I used bits and pieces of batting inside.  The napkins finish at 11.5 inches. 

This was my goal #28

for

Q1 Finish-Along

It's a Finish! Salsa Dancing

 Salsa Dancing

72 x 90

I made it for my husband because he loves growing most of the ingredients for salsa (peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro), canning it and eating it fresh or from the jar.

 I think I made it a little too big for his recliner, darn it. He's a tall guy - over six feet -  but I'll bet I could have stopped at 3 x 4 blocks which would have been a quilt 54 x 72. I'll put it on the quilt rack in the living room and it's there if he wants to use it. With these record setting low temps our house has been drafty and cold and I've had a quilt wrapped around my shoulders and on my lap. 

 It's too long for the clothesline so here's a view of the bottom row. 

 I used salsa ingredient fabrics in the block centers and warm solids or tone on tones for the "stars". 

 I hand quilted it with a variety of colors (green, yellow, terracotta)  of perle #12. 

 I used an eggplant colored sheet on the back. I had to take out the top and bottom and side hems to make it big enough.  All the hand quilting shows up nicely on the back. 

I can't believe I did that hand quilting!  It looks pretty darned good if I do say so myself. 

This was my goal #18

for

Q1 Finish-Along

It was also my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for February. 

at

Elm Street Quilts

It's a Finish! All My Ducks Are in a Row

 All My Ducks in a Row

40 x 60

It's a finish ready for giving or gifting. 

No clothesline photo again today.  Today's low -27 and right now it is -1. Tomorrow the high is predicted to be -16 and the low -32.  I'm glad I'm retired and don't have to go outside. 

 This quilt used up the bits and pieces of duck themed fabrics left over after I made the quilt I finished yesterday.  Plus I had various sized pieces of other duck fabrics from I Spy swaps I have participated in over the years.   I didn't have quite enough centers so made a few HSTs from the duck fabric scraps to use.  I made some ten inch Happy Blocks and some off center ten inch Framed Squares and combined them to make the quilt top back in May 2018.  

Last year was my first full year of retirement and I tried to use miscellaneous bits and pieces to make quilt tops and this year I hope to concentrate on getting them all quilted and donated or gifted. I've been trying to finish 2 of these smaller ones per week. 

 I quilted in some waves and bubbles. 

I used flannel on the back and bound it in orange. 

This was my goal #19

for

Q1 Finish-Along

It's a Finish! Duck, Duck, Goose

 Duck, Duck, Goose

45 x 54

It's a finish ready for giving or gifting. 

(No clothesline photos today. I draw the line at going out when it's below zero). 

Last year while digging through some boxes I found a remnant of blue and yellow fabric with ducks. I continued digging and I also found some fabric in my stash with pale yellow ducks on a pale pink background.  I think the game Duck Duck Goose went through my mind about that time and that prompted me to pick up some pink, yellow and blue scraps to make some Flying Geese.  The mind works in mysterious ways.  I finished the top last May. 

I used a soft yellow cotton sheet on the back and quilted it with simple straight lines.

This was my goal #20

for

Q1 Finish-Along