10 Things This Summer

Sherri and Anna have made a list of their goals for the summer and encouraged their readers to do the same. Sounds like fun, so here goes!

1. Number one on my list is to continue on my ultimate lifetime quilting quest, which is to make a quilt for every member of my family. My immediate family comes first, then I will start on in-laws, nephews, and nieces. My grandmother made quilts for all of us, and I want to continue that tradition.

2. Finish my daughter's quilt. I've had the original fabric that she chose since 2010! I have added to that stash and subtracted from it, found a pattern I liked and modified it, then was unhappy with the result, started my own version of the pattern, and was unhappy with that result. Then I arranged the blocks in a different way on my design board, and I can finally say I am pleased with the result. I have put way too much pressure on myself for this quilt that will grace her guest bed. I want to finish it so I can start on the king-sized quilt for her bedroom.

3. Finish my niece's quilt top. My niece (at my insistence) sent me the quilt her grandmother (my SIL's mother) pieced for her but never completed. Unfortunately someone washed it along the way, and now the edges are tattered, frayed, and separated. I took it to my LQS where I was advised to press it carefully, repair as much as I could on the edges before I sandwich, quilt, and bind it. I found some glorious reproduction fabric to back it - a pretty blue print from the Aunt Grace Garden Party collection.

4. Make a quilt for my youngest granddaughter's birthday - in August! I have the main fabrics, in periwinkle prints and a Honey Honey dessert roll, and I will soon choose a pattern for her lap-sized quilt.

5. Design and quilt a wall hanging in a star pattern for my husband. My number one fan was so taken with my first quilt that he asked me to make a quilt to hang in our entry. Sadly he is still waiting. I have looked at several patterns and not found one I like yet, but I did purchase fabric to begin my stash - in cream, blues, teals, and golds. He would like some sort of Texas lone star.

6. Repair my daughter's fiance's blanket. I made Chris a warm blanket for Christmas with Texas Tech-themed fleece. He was so proud of it! His big sweet dog decided to tear out a piece of it, so I need to patch it.

7. Break down and sell or give away some of my yarn. I love to crochet, but I got out of practice the last 10 years. Since I started quilting, I spend far too much time trying to refresh my memory on crochet stitches and not enough time practicing. Even though I whittled down my collection before we moved, I have collected more yarn for patterns I have yet to use them in. The groupings are so lovely and alluring to me, but I need more space for fabric. Notice I said "some" of the yarn; I'm not sure I can give it all up, so I might just pack it up and put it high on a shelf.

8. Clean out the old family photos. Since I am the last of my family of five, there is no one left to remind me who many of the people are in the vintage photographs that I inherited from my Mom. They are taking up storage space in a large guest closet. No one has even opened the boxes since Mom died in 2010, and they have remained exactly where they were placed when we moved into our house last year. Some boxes were labeled and roughly organized by my daughter several years ago, but a big bunch remain loose in boxes.


9. Refinish our fireplace screen. We inherited the black metal screen from my daughter, and it disappears in front of our dark green marble fireplace. I will use copper metallic wax rub on the decorative vines and edges of it to make it stand out a bit.

10. Organize and brighten up my sewing space. I share space with a guest bedroom, with its beautiful white comfort-ed bed with black wrought iron headboard and black beadboard nightstand. When I moved in, I brought a repurposed kitchen table as my cutting table, covered it with a mega-sized cutting mat, added a clamp-on magnifying lamp, put a big Xerox printer underneath it, and put my sewing machine on an old computer table next to it. I added a vintage nightstand to hold my quilting books and sewing machine paraphernalia and made a design board to cover one of the walls. I have an old 23rd Psalm that my Mom embroidered, and it needs to be reframed and hung. Although I love my space, it looks cluttered, and I want it to reflect my bliss, not my disorganization.

Happy, Happy, Happy - AYOS

The Vintage Schnibbles pattern for June was Dulcinea. I am joining the monthly Parade of Schnibbles, sponsored by Sinta of Pink Pincushion and Sherri of A Quilting Life.

I ran a little behind this month, so I am still working on the border. I varied the pattern a bit, adding sashing to provide a little definition between the pinwheels, but I'm not sure I like the result. After I uploaded the photo of the quilt, I noticed I forgot to sash the outsides of the outer blocks. Oh well, I do love my seam ripper.

Moda's Avalon by Fig Tree was my chosen fabric, along with a piece of yardage from P&B Textile's Apple Cider collection for the background and a navy print for the sashing.

I love the colors in Avalon - for me they are happy colors. And every time I hear the word "happy", I am reminded of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil saying "Happy, happy, happy". Perfect quilt name.

I'll be back with a final post after it's complete!

Key Lime Butterfly Complete - Things I've Learned

The vintage Schnibbles from my quilt-along is finished. I added the border of the white fabric with script, and the black and white hexagon patterned binding made the other fabrics pop.

The back is pieced with vertical panels of leftover fabric along with a coordinating swirl fabric.

The final size is 30-1/2 by 30-1/2 inches.

I finally worked up the courage to free motion quilt, and after all was said and done, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I cut a template for a butterfly design, marked it on each block with a Frixion erasable pen, and used my darning foot to stitch. There was a bit of pesky "eye-lashing", but only on the back. I did straight line quilting on the lime green bordering the blocks. I added a butterfly "body" with one of the embroidery stitches on my Janome.

Things I've Learned:
I learned that joining a quilt-along gives me the discipline to complete a pattern from start to finish with a deadline. No one pressures me but myself. On the day of the "parade", it is not only fun to see the variations but also to "meet" other bloggers and read their ideas and tips. I almost didn't do this month's Schnibble, and I'm so glad I decided to do it.

I learned that I can overcome any fear in quilting. Free motion quilting should have been fun for me, and up until this project, it wasn't. I finally began to get into a rhythm and feel the instant gratification and pleasure that comes from quilting a quilt. This feeling of "I can do it!" prompted me to enroll in a paper piecing class at my LQS.

I learned that even though I try not to be too hard on myself, perfect points are still very important to me. I found this tutorial about a positioning pin on Connecting Threads, and it worked!

Here are some photos of fabric I bought from Pink Chalk Fabrics, (shipping was fast!) and fabric from my LQS for my granddaughter's birthday quilt.

Here is all the loot from Pink Chalk.

I love these polka dot Petit Embroidery Scissors. I saw them on another gal's blog and had to have them!

Fabric from left: Lida Enche Painted Summer Butterfly in yellow, Trenna Travis Bekko Swirl Orchid, and Valori Wells Wish Treasure Patience.

Brejer Mon Amie City Multi. I have visions of using it for a bag.

Kate Spain Honey Honey Lavender Violet, which I picked up to go with the grouping below this one.

My youngest granddaughter "loves periwinkle", and her birthday is in August. For her quilt I purchased coordinating fabric along with a Dessert Roll in Honey Honey from Quilt 'n Sew, my local quilt shop in Katy.

Quilted Texas A&M Pillow

The idea for this pillow came from the blog of Crazy Mom Quilts She made giant pillows for her sons, and I liked them so much I decided to make one for my grandson's 14th birthday. His parents are both graduates of Texas A&M, and he is an avid Aggie fan, so the choice of colors was easy - maroon and white, with accents of gray. Did you know Pantone created a custom "Aggie Maroon" in 2007?

His Grandpa and I had the pillow waiting for him (along with a card with cash) when he arrived with his family to celebrate. He was very happy!

Fabric choices were very limited at both Hobby Lobby and Joann's, which surprised me since I live in Texas. If I had planned ahead, I probably could have ordered fabric online. I used a maroon print and a maroon and gray print with A&M logos, and a maroon Kona cotton and gray solid cotton. I had a pillow case from IKEA in a gray and white print that I incorporated with some solid white.

I used gray fleece on the back to make it extra comfy in the winter.

I quilted the top, sandwiching it with a piece of muslin. For the quilting, I used my walking foot and chose "stairs" as illustrated on Petit Design Co's blog - a great resource for machine quilting with a walking foot. I sandwiched the fleece with a maroon backing (although it won't show) and quilted it in a simple grid.

To make it easy to remove for washing, I installed a separating jacket zipper. For the facing surrounding it, I pretty much winged it, leaving the teeth visible because I liked the look. I found a pillow form at Joann's and it fit beautifully.

The next photo gives an indication of the size, which turned out to be about 27" by 27". Katy couldn't look at the camera because she was busy bathing.

For the pattern I simply cut out 6 blocks each of the 6 fabrics, placed the 5-inch blocks on my display board, and shuffled them until I found a pattern I liked. I pieced the alternating blocks together, then sewed the rows together. I'm not sure there is a name for this pattern - it looks a little like Trip Around the World, but I am open to correction.

One of my next projects will involve Moda's Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. I was attracted to this fabric, not only because I love the mix of reds, aquas, corals, grays, and greens, but also because Ruby was my Mom's name, and I want to make something in her memory.

I purchased my first two pieces as end-of-bolts from Lonestar Quilting. When I received them, I immediately fell in love and started looking for more pieces of the line. I found them at Sweet Pea's Quilt Co, which is in Sand Springs, OK. Since I grew up about 30 miles from Sand Springs, and I have relatives living there, that made my purchase all the more special. Sweet Pea's shipping was very fast, the fabric was wrapped in paper closed with a lovely wax seal with the initials "SP", and coupon for $5.00 off my next purchase was included!

Audra's Iris Garden Complete: Things I've Learned

The lap quilt for my daughter-in-law's birthday is complete! I detailed fabric (Audra's Iris Garden) and pattern (Two Block Delight) in this post. I named her quilt Garden of Dreams, a combo of the fabric name and my DIL's love of a very infrequent nap. I delivered it to her when we met them for dinner Friday night, and she seemed very happy. My son sent me an iPhone photo of her later that night, wrapped up in her quilt.

My patient husband held it on our staircase for my photo attempts at front and back views.

I attempted to capture the colors and layout in various spots in our house, but my photos don't show the vibrant colors of this quilt.

I am still keeping the quilting simple, as I have not yet graduated to true free motion quilting. I use my walking foot for "waves", and I am fine with it for now. I found many ideas for FMQ using a walking foot at this website.

I used my Janome DC3050 stitch #47 for the corner blocks - a nice little connected flower. And for the binding I tried another tutorial I found on Amy Smart's blog Diary of a Quilter. I loved the ease with which the binding went together this time, and the mitered corners were a snap. Hers will be my go-to method from now on!

Here is the label, which I hand embroidered.

As I stitch and quilt, I contemplate. I don't always write down my "a-ha" moments, but here are a few things I learned this time around:

I learned a new word for quilting mistakes - "organic". I have to laugh every time I see this word. I realize there is a very sincere meaning behind the term, but to me, it's a nice way to say "I'm still learning."

I learned that good thread is really good. I used some fabric store quilting cotton for the piecing, but for the quilting I used a thread called Putty from Angela Walters 6 spool pack for Superior Threads. I purchased the 6-pack from her at Houston's Quilt Festival during her free motion quilting class. I still haven't learned much about thread, but I know this one seemed silky, strong, and well, "like buttah".

I learned that my Grandmothers made great sacrifices to quilt. I quilt for pleasure. I have the luxury of no children at home (OK, I'm not counting the dog and cat), minimal chores, modern conveniences, and lovely free time, not only to create but to enjoy creating. My grandmothers had very few labor-saving devices, limited resources, and rare stolen moments of privacy. Yet they both managed to save scraps and put them together - by hand - to produce quilts that were functional, beautiful, and survive to this day. My appreciation and love for them grows daily. If they were still alive I would ask them so many questions!

Next project: a quilted-top floor pillow for my grandson's birthday Friday!

Audra's Iris Garden: A Reprieve

I won't see my daughter-in-law until next weekend, so I have extra time to finish her quilt. Sometimes having more time works against me though, since I spent way too much time this weekend deciding on a layout for the back.


For the front, I decided to augment the pieced border with a neutral border from a jelly roll and a border sewn from the quilt back fabric.


On the back I echoed the pieced border with some of the prints from the quilt top, then added a "snowball" to mimic the ones on the front.


The backing, Violet and Chocolate by Windham, was an end-of-the-bolt I purchased for $5.00/yard at my LQS. I got it before I bought Audra's Iris Garden, and my husband helped me pick it out of my stash to use as the back. I love the intensity of dark purple with little sprigs of cream flowers and the way it complements the front.

Tomorrow I will sandwich it and start quilting - a race to the finish line!