Category: Quilting

FOUR finished veterans quilts!

1/11/2023

I'm so happy to be quilting again and getting back into the quilting groove is always easiest bu doing some veterans quilts. I finished quilting them this weekend and then spent Monday and Tuesday finishing the bindings. This one is a Chandelier Quilt. I found instructions on YouTube from Missouri Star. I worked up mine with smaller blocks that those used in the instructions. I worked up the design in EQ so that I could get the finished quilt to the right size of 48 x 60.

When I cut out these kits I had enough fabric to make 2 of them. I switched the placement of red and blue blocks so that the two quilts are a little different. The blue background fabric is all leftovers from dyed backing fabric used on previous veterans quilts. When I trim up the quilts I always have some chunks of backing fabric leftover. I got through a little of that stash in these 2 quilts.

Here's a little close up so you can see the on-point block.

This is the third quilt that I finished this week. It's also set on point with a simple Friendship Star block. The block finished at 9" square and I think the sashing is 2" finished.

Here's a close up of the blocks where you can see that the star elements are all fussy cut from a symmetry print. These fabrics will be in stores in February or March. They are all designed by Paula Nadelstern and, IMHO, these dotty fabrics are magical.

The last quilt finished this week is this string quilt that I absolutely love. I think I wouldn't mind having one of these in queen size for our bed. It was so easy to make because I designed it to purposely avoid having to match any seams except for the center seam of each block.

Here are 4 blocks. Each block finishes at 8" x 10". I cut foundations about 9 " x 11" and then trimmed them after all of the string piecing was done. The printed fabrics are cut 1.5" wide with a few chunky pieces for corners. The black is cut in a variety of widths from 1.5" to 3". This is the second or 3rd quilt that I've made with a rectangle string block and I have at least 2 more kits cut out using this method.

Next up is a quilt that I'm quilting for Mom. She's been waiting a long time for this one and it's finally time to tackle it. I'll take a few days to play with a few ideas and then I'll jump in.

I'm linking up to Meadow Mist Designs Favorite Finish of the Month

9 Comments

First quilt of 2023

1/5/2023

4 Comments

48" x 60"

It seems that I got the longarm timed properly! I got 2 quilts quilted this week and one of them was this one that I made. Of course it's a veterans quilt and I got it bound last night to be my first finish of 2023. The quilting is a simple wavy crosshatch.

This is probably the third double 4-patch quilt that I've made as a veterans quilt. The gold fabric is the leftovers from a veterans quilt back. The little squares are cut from leftover symmetry fabrics and the larger pieces are from a Paula Nadelstern fabric from several years ago. It's one of my favorite of all of her fabrics.

I quilt the veterans quails two at a time and this is the other one that I quilted at the same time. Becky made this one as part of one of Barbara Brackman's quilt-alongs.

I got my chandelier quilts basted and they are ready for quilting but that won't happen today. By the time this posts Mom and I will be on a long day trip to Martinsville, VA. It's about 3 1/2 hours each way so it's going to be a long day. Since I won't have any progress on anything today I'll have a crochet update to post about tomorrow. This weekend I hope to get the chandelier quilts quilted and bound. After that I have 3 more veterans quilts waiting for quilting and I expect I'll pick up more of them at the meeting Tuesday.

4 Comments

Back to sewing

11/17/2022

Laura left us today. We had a great visit and already miss her but she wants to get home to her family, especially the 3 grandkids. Today I will get back in the sewing room working on the Christmas postcards and my annual sample quilts for Paula Nadelstern. I've been given permission to share my progress with black and white photos. Here are the fabrics all washed and ready to cut. I'm excited to work with them.

Updates to come!

Weekend sewing

9/12/2022

Well, I don't know about you but I had a great weekend! It was pretty much sewing focused because this was sewing weekend with our quilt club. Mom stayed with us for a couple of nights and we visited with my brother and his family Saturday night.

Yesterday my brother sent me a photo of his dog, Lulu, playing with the lobster that I brought her from Maine. She only likes toys that are as big as she is and she absolutely destroys them. Before we left yesterday she had already removed one tentacle and one eyeball. She still has a lot of appendages to work on.

One of my accomplishments for the weekend was getting the rest of the curved blue pieces attached to the spike pieces. I've got pieces laid out for the next 2 steps.
But I spent most of my time this weekend at sewing and working on a veterans quilt.

I finished one of the 2 quilts in the kit I pulled Thursday! If I had not talked so much Friday I would have started on the second one but I was happy to visit with everyone again and to get one top done.

I love quilts made totally out of scraps. The light blue squares are cut-offs from dyed veterans quilt backs. The dotty batik is left over from the patriotic batiks that I bought for all the kits that I cut and the hand dyed pieces are all from my scrap bin. It's like getting a free quilt.

I also picked up 5 finished tops from other members so I need to get some quilt backs dyed soon. I expect I'll get a few more Tuesday night but I got these paired up so I can pick colors for the backing fabrics.

This week I want to make some good progress on the Red Sunset quilt. That's really my main goal.

Groovy III

8/3/2022

Groovy III, about 92" square

Groovy III is done and I can take it on vacation! Because of my fragrance and bleach allergies I travel with my own linens as much as possible. This quilt will be on our bed every night in Maine. By the title, you will probably know that this is the 3rd in a series of quilts made with ice dyed fabric. You can see all of the Groovy quilts here. This is the first one that I made using the larger Crystal fabrics. I used one on point for the center and anther cut in quarters on the diagonal for the corners.

Here's how it will look on a bed. It's got a nice wide overhang.

It's quilted with Superior Magnifico and SoFine thread using the Star Swirl pantograph.

The back is soft and shiny cotton sateen dyed with the Oasis gradient pattern.

I'm very happy to have this one done!

The HST veterans quilt

7/22/2022

Yesterday I got 2 more veterans quilts quilted. These are the last two for the month. My quilt top closet is empty!
I not only got this one quilted, I got the binding on it too. It's now moved to the finished quilt pile. I really love this quilt. I think it's very happy and it's made totally with leftovers!

Of course, I quilt veterans quilts in pairs so the second one is this one made by Betsy. I think it's a very masculine quilt that's perfect for many veterans.

Both of these were perfect for the quick and simple wavy crosshatch.

With the trimmings and another stack of batting scraps, I was able to get one more big dog bed made to take to my friend this evening.

Groovy 3 is a flimsy!

7/14/2022

I knew if I would just focus some time that I could get this top done quickly and I set aside yesterday for that and for preparing food for a long, hot hike that we are on today.

I started by deciding on which of the ice dyed squares I wanted in the border and how I wanted them arranged. I decided on the dark purple blocks for the border. They were trimmed to 12.5"

That's a yummy pile of trimmings!

There was some math to figure out the sashing sizes. The border around the center medallion is 3" finished, the sashing between the blocks on the sides is 3 5/8". The outer border is 4" for a finished size of 97" square. I think I will dye a dark blue (like in the center) for the binding and I think I will dye a gradient for the backing.
I really love how this turned out!

I have over a dozen blocks left over for another project or maybe an upcoming giveaway.

In other news, we have a new clutch of bluebirds! I think they had just been fed when I checked on them because they were pretty lethargic and their bellies are pretty plump. Look at the Don King hairdo on that one on the left!

Kit-a-palooza final count and Groovy

7/11/2022

I got busy Friday making more kits. I started by starching these fabrics because I knew I was going to be cutting a lot of bias edges. This will make 2 quilts and the cutting was really fast with the Go cutter. There are lots of extra blocks in case I want to play around with the layout.
This took the future quilt count to 14.

This was a satisfying sight and, no, I did not save them!

I didn't have any other planned quilts so I started looking through the pre-cut scrap bins and realized that I had enough 4 1/2" hand dyed HST pieces for a whole quilt. In the backing scrap bag I found enough gray scraps to cut for the other half of the quilt. This will be some really easy chain piecing. This gave me future quilt 15.

Finally I had a bin of 2 1/2" strips of various blues and patriotic fabrics. This isn't a complete kit but I think I probably have enough pieces in here for 2 quilts and there will be more quilt back scraps coming to eventually cut the setting triangles. When I pull this one out I'll just star piecing 9-patch blocks and see where it gets me.
This could be future quilts 16 or 17.

I know that this all seemed a bit crazy but it was very satisfying.

This is my away-from-home sewing shelf. Aside from the pressing ham, this is my travel notions case and all of the kits that I've put together. I expect that I'm good for a couple of years of veterans quilts and easy getaways.

Even better, I have some breathing room. My two pre-cut scrap bins are at least half emptied and there are easily a few more quilts lurking in here.

This bag was stuffed to overflowing with scrap backing and now all of that will be in new quilts. All-in-all it was 4 days well spent.

I didn't have as much sewing time Saturday and Sunday as I anticipated because we got to have friends visit as a better activity. But I did get the center of Groovy 3 together and I love it! I'm doing some math to figure out the size of the border blocks and sashing but will get started on that this week. This quilt should come together really quickly now. The lime green sashing makes me very happy.

Kit-a-palooza 3

7/8/2022

I know that many of you think that this kit-making exercise is a little crazy (or boring or tedious) and I agree a little. But having these kits all cut out and ready makes packing for my sewing days with Country School so much easier. I will only use these when I'm sewing with CSQ each month of if I am taking a short trip and want a sewing project. I have a travel sewing machine and travel notion set so I can be ready to go in about 10 minutes without having to disturb any project that I have underway in the sewing room.

Cutting these kits also gets my scrap bin a little more under control for a few months. BY the time I'm done today I'll have enough veterans quilt kits to probably last me through 2023.

Here's yesterday's progress.

This one is using up more of the pre-cut hand dyed HST stash and some 4.5" scrappy hand dyed squares. The border in the drawing is white but my quilts will have a hand dyed border in that green and brown print (orange dot). One quilt with have tan and the background and one will have blue.
These are kits 9 and 10.

Kit 11 is alternating 4-patch blocks with solid blocks. The 4-patch blocks are made from pre-cut symmetry scraps and the gold is the leftover from one a couple of veterans quilt backings. The alternating blocks are from a fabric leftover over from the Pleiades Quilt that I made in 2015.

These are some tasty leftovers!

Then I discovered yet another bin of precut fabrics! That one had 2.5" strips and 4.5" square. All are various shades of blue from leftover veterans quilt backs. There were enough light blue ones for this quilt. The 4-patch blocks are made from hand dyed scrap squares and just enough leftover dotty fabric from one of the other kits.
That's 12 kits so far.

Today I'm making a couple of patriotic kits like this and I have the bin of 2.5" blue strips to figure out something for.

I've been making great progress on my crochet project too so I'll have something different to share next week.

Kit-a-palooza 2

7/7/2022

Yesterday was dyeing day so I didn't have a lot of time for cutting kits but I did get a kit for 2 Chandelier quilts cut out. I've been seeing this pattern a lot and have quilted a couple of them. I'm going to do one with a blue border and one with a red border. For all of these kits I also cut the binding at the same time. Also because I have made some cutting errors in the past I include some extra pieces of scraps of fabric too.

This brings my future quilt count to 8.