A Wedding Gift Needs a Name

80 x 80

16 inch Depression Blocks

A September Wedding Gift

I've heard tell that my nephew is getting married in September. 

He and his fiance have very few household goods so, planning ahead,  I decided to finish one of my UFOs for a wedding gift. 

Some of the 400 HSTs in this quilt were swapped and some were made from my scraps. 

I quilted it with a walking foot on my DSM with a sort of uneven crosshatch.

I had some brown polka dot in my stash that I used for binding. 

After a spin in the washer and a stint in the dryer the quilt came out crinkly, puffy, soft and cuddly. 

I need to think of a name for it. Depression Blocks doesn't seem quite appropriate for a wedding gift. 

This was my February Goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes (#8)

This was one of my goals (#7)  for First Quarter Finish Along. 

At the end of the month I'll link up to Julie's Binding Blitz

Also linking up today to:

Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden

Snowball/9 Patch UFO is Finished

60 x 72

Snowball and 9 Patch Quilt

A UFO Finish!!!!! 

All of the 9 patch blocks are made of snowflake fabrics - even the white.

All of the snowballs are made of snowman/woman fabrics. 

I quilted it on my plain Jane DSM with a swirly circle (well, most times a lopsided circle which I guess really wouldn't be a circle but a blob) in each block. 

Can you tell I don't have a design wall? Look at those three red snowballs all in the same column. (Well, I know the recipient won't even notice or think it a problem). 

For the backing I used a flannel sheet with snowflakes on it. 

I was supposed to finish this for my daughter last year for Christmas but she will get it this year instead. 

She actually wants a lap quilt to throw on her couch to represent each month of the year or a holiday.  (Yes, she likes to put those clingy decorations on the windows too).   I guess this will represent  January.   I have another Valentine UFO that will be for February.  And that may be as far as I ever get with her lap quilts.  Hey, I just noticed this quilt is red, white and blue.  Do you think that will satisfy her for July? 

This was my September goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

 I was # 31 at the September goal setting party. 

Snowmen, Snowflakes, Snowballs

My A Lovely Year of Finishes Goal for September is to finish up a Snowball/9 Patch quilt UFO. 

I was hoping to finish it last year for my daughter for Christmas. Maybe she will get it this year instead. 

Many, many, many times she has requested seasonal and holiday lap quilts. Why I do not know. She's a "decorate for every holiday and then some " type of person and I am not. 

Maybe she will get a Winter and Valentine lap quilt this year. Maybe...

Anyway...I need to sew the rows together, quilt and bind before the end of September. Yes, that's my goal and I'm sticking to it. 

Does Black+Pink=Blink?

51 x 63

Another UFO is finished.

Pink and Black Sampler

Blocks swapped in 2010

My August goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes  (#21 at the goal setting party) was to at least get a top made from those swapped blocks. 

Surprise! Surprise! I finished the entire quilt. 

(I was on a staycation last week - gardening, canning, sewing, cleaning- and got a list of things completed! )

I free motion quilted some flowers of light pink thread  in each square on my Plain Jane Janome.  

And I practiced some circles in the center  of the flowers (because I want to do some circles/snowballs on an upcoming quilt) and I like how they puffed up after a trip through the washer and dryer. 

 For the backing I had an old piece of  pink and black roses fabric in my stash but it was not enough so I added some ballerina fabric I had on hand. 

A Lovely Year of Finishes - Finished April Goal, Setting May Goal

I've successful met my April goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes  - Complete a top consisting of 120 six inch churn dash blocks made of civil war reproduction fabrics. 

(#86 at the goal setting party)

I knew I would be too busy to get it quilted and bound so didn't include that as part of my goal although I did purchase some muslin for the back, just in case.

My May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to finish an ABC alphabet quilt for my niece Genevieve who is due in June.   I participate in an Alphabet I Spy swap every year and go ahead and make up Happy Blocks so they are ready when I need them.  I iron on textured letters.   I'm going to replace S for Spaceships with S for Seattle Seahawks.    Strange story about that.  Years ago I received the Seahawks fabric by mistake when I placed an online order. I was told to keep it and actual order was later sent.  I had no clue what to do with the fabric except to cut it up and use with other b/w fabric.   Funny thing...last year when my niece got married I read that she got engaged at a Seattle Seahawks game. Who knew her fiance that she met in college in IA was from Seattle and loved the Seahawks!!! 

UFO Finish for QOV

I've finished my March goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes (#46).

A 60x80 Quilt of Valor. 

I think I explained in my original post  that I made these 24 inch crumb stars last year when red was the color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I quilted it on my plain Jane DSM. Some of the stars are quilted with some spirals...

 ...and some are quilted with lines.

And everything else in between is quilted with loops and stars. 

And the binding is stars. 

The backing is some red, white blue guitars and skull and crossbones. 

I'm not sure how skulls and crossbones go with guitars or lightning bolts.  But it is kind of fun. 

And speaking of QOV...Kevin the Quilter is having a block drive. The blocks are really easy to make. I have my 5 blocks ready to go. These QOV quilts will go to veterans in eastern Missouri. 

I think I'll go Whoop, Whoop it up at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

NewFOs and UFOs

NewFO

For my New Fabric Object Project for February I made some 12 inch Rosebud blocks. The backgrounds are all fabrics with roses and the "rosebuds" are all going to be made in solids - the colors of roses. 

I have a box of rose themed fabrics and back in 2009 I printed off the Rosebud pattern from Quilter's Cache and threw it in the box to remind me of a possibility for the fabrics.  I guess the time is right. I love roses and am longing for some warm weather and roses blooming in the garden. Playing in rose themed fabrics might just be the next best thing. 

For NewFO ideas and inspiration visit the NewFO Challenge Linky Party at Cat Patches. 

PROGRESS ON A NewFO

I've finished four block modules for the MOD MOD QAL going on at Block Lotto and hosted by the oh-so-creative Sophie. 

The block modules are 21 inches square. 

I'm making the individual blocks that make up the modules in complementary colors. 

And I'm using up lots of scraps.

UFOs

March Goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014

Last August I made some giant 24 inch crumb stars and then turned them into a 60x80 quilt top. 

My March goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to baste, quilt and bind my crumb stars and get it donated to Quilts of Valor.  I have a fun backing fabric for it all picked out. 

It's All Good

I have finished another UFO. My goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes (# 147) was to just make the blocks into a top. I did find some time to not only make a top but to get it quilted and bound. 

The finished quilt is 70x84.   It is made similar to the Technicolour Yawn aka Scrap Vomit quilt at I'm a Ginger Monkey in that there is a Block A and a Block B but all my Block Bs are not made of the same fabrics.  

I've been making these blocks for several years - whenever I had a few 2.5 inch scraps left over from projects I would make a 49 patch block.  You can see I must have made a Halloween quilt around the time I assembled a block.  I tried not to repeat any fabrics except for the obvious design repeat in B Blocks.   Isn't it funny though that I randomly assembled blocks and the same fabric in different color ways (blue and green flowers) that were in two separate blocks ended up right next to each other? 

I like scrappy quilts. Everything goes together - dogs, frogs, ants, candy, witches, flowers, leaves, stars, hearts, polka dots, stripes, butterflies. There's so much to look at in a scrappy quilt.  You can play I Spy with the grandkids. And some fabrics just make you smile. There's memories of other projects, other times, people you gave quilts to - some unknown.  

I quilted it on my plain Jane DSM. Using the squares as a kind of grid I looped up and then down across two rows. 

It shows up a little better on the back. I used some light blue quilting cotton thread I had in my stash. The back was a nice cotton sheet from the thrift store.  The only real cost was the batting. 

I'm not calling my quilt Scrap Vomit or Technicolour Yawn.  

I think I will call it "It's All Good".  Because it is.  I like leftovers. 

And now I'm off to the Lovely Year of Finishes Party. 

And now that I've finished a UFO maybe I should start a new project. Maybe...

A Lovely Year of Finishes 2013

The following is a recap of the 12 goals I completed for the 2013 Lovely Year of Finishes. 

Jan:  Wonky Log Cabin.       Feb: Pink Fluff       Mar: Black, White Plus One Other Color    Apr: ABCs
May: Depression Blocks      Jun: 30s Sampler     Jul: Patriotic Stars                 Aug: Birthday Stars
Sep: Great Granny               Oct: Just One Star   Nov: Nifty Thrifties           Dec: Girlies

The above is a recap of the 12 goals I completed for the 2013 Lovely Year of Finishes.

(I actually completed more quilts than this in 2013. See Donation Quilts and Quilt Gallery Pages of my blog)

Sugar and Spice for Girls that are so Nice

The final 2 UFO finishes for 2013! 

2 quilts for 2 granddaughters. 

Each is 64x80

Both are made of 8 inch Happy Blocks

Each has a flowery back. And, yes, the backing seam goes about right down the middle like "they" say you are not supposed to do. But, that was the best use of the fabric I had. 

I used all sorts of girly prints just right for 9 year old girls wanting to be all grown up but still playing with dolls and dreaming big dreams. 

Some of them were bordered last year by others in a sort of online monthly Happy Block swap where everyone sends their centers to other members of their group and gets them returned with borders. Bad part is that quite a few times people disappeared from the groups and never returned the bordered blocks. I don't understand people like that. 

I quilted them both with some free motion 5 petaled flowers on my plain Jane Janome.  You can kind of see the flowers on the solid colored borders.   I didn't think I'd ever get them finished. At one point my sewing machine just kept on sewing even when my foot wasn't on the pedal (really!)  After I gave my machine a good cleaning and oiling, and the foot pedal a good shaking all was going well until somehow the needle struck the hard plastic darning foot. Needle broke and left a chip in my foot which kept snagging on my quilt.  My husband took a Dremel tool to it and smoothed it out so I could continue on.

And I made each of the girls a pillowcase too.  I guess it looks kind of like a pink zebra stripe. They seem to like those animal prints so popular these days. 

Linky partying at :

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

And this was my December goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  And I've finished not one but two!