Feathers!

I tried my hand at quilting feathers today.  Just practicing and trying to learn how though!   I am putting a five inch border on a quilt and am planning to quilt feathers in the border.

I drew a five inch border on this practice quilt sandwich.

Can't wait to get that quilt top finished and start quilting so I can see how the feathers turn out.

Winds of Change - Finished

I finished the Buckeye Beauty/Jewel Box quilt just in time to sleep under it on Christmas Eve!  Quilting those swirls was very time consuming, but I stuck with it until it was done.

I have been trying to think of a name for this quilt.  The swirls remind me of wind blowing and I finished it just in time for a new year which usually means change.  So "Winds of Change" it is.....

It was a very cold and cloudy day when I took these pictures.  But, the wind was light, which helped with the picture taking.

 

 

 

Here's the scrappy back:

Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a very merry and peaceful Christmas! Here are a few glimpses of Christmas in our home.

WIP Wednesday

I'm linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced HERE.

My Jewel Box/Buckeye Beauty quilt top has been completely pin basted and sitting in the corner of my sewing room since this past February, 2013. 

So last weekend, after I finished sewing all the Christmas presents I intended to make, I set everything up for free motion quilting.  I put the folding table up to the left of the sewing machine, put the quilting foot on the machine and filled some bobbins. 

This quilt is really scrappy.  It contains every single kind of fabric you can think of, including a few Christmas prints.  I decided to quilt it with swirls, which might not have been the best decision, since swirls are much more time consuming that my normal puzzle piece meander quilting. 

So far I'm almost to the half way point with the quilting.  I would really love to finish it completely, binding and all, by the time this coming weekend comes to an end, but that might be a bit ambitious.  I should at least be able to finish it by the end of the year.

One way I manage to get some quilting done, even when I'm really busy with other things, is to quilt in 15 minute segments.  Sewing for one 15 minute segment out of each hour is slow, but steady.  It keeps me from getting too burned out with the quilting.  The swirls quilting is hard on my right wrist, for some reason, and quilting for long periods of time is not good.  After work, if I can quilt for a couple of 15 minute segments, I feel like I've made good progress for the day.

Finished All Eight

I had grand ideas of going outside to hang all eight of these mini quilts on the clothesline for a photo shoot. Shoot! Too windy, cold and looks like rain any minute. I tried, but the wind blew them off faster than I could pin them on!

So I had to settle for spreading them all out on the couch in the dim cloudy day light.  But, whatever!  I'm done with Christmas sewing and can't wait to start some non-gift sewing.

Remember this quilt top?  Its the Buckeye Beauty/Jewel Box quilt I worked on in February and March of this year.  Its been pin basted and ready to quilt all this time and I'm going to start machine quilting it before the weekend is over.  This would be a good final finish for the year 2013!

I've already started my quilting "to do" list for 2014.  The projects include a wedding gift, a Hubby throw size quilt, the Road Trip Quilt Along quilt from the Summer of 2012 and a Sunflower/chicken one for me. 

Finished Two More Game Board Quilts for Guy Gifts

This one is for the outdoorsman. I love the browns and greens. Not too much camo, but just enough!

This one is for the ECU graduate. 
 

I quilted it with gold thread.

I ordered checkers, but they are red and black.  I may spray paint the red ones to match the game boards.... maybe not...   We'll see!

Finish it up Friday

Here's another Miniature Quilt that I finished this week. This is number 6 of these that I am making for Christmas gifts. It has appliqued Scottie Dogs on it.

Two more to go!

Barn Quilts Installed

On the Red Barn:

On the smaller building:

Quilter's Heaven!

A Gift of Barn Quilts

My hubby and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday and what better gift for a quilter than a barn quilt?  Thanks Honey!

We have two outside buildings, a small one and a large one. This one will go on the smaller building, which is a light beige color.  I looked up this pattern and as best I can tell its a "Union Square" variation.

This one will go on the larger building, which is barn red.   The lady who sells them called it a "Stacked Star", but I didn't see it in my Quilt Block Book.

I will post pictures as soon as they are installed on the barns.

Miniature Hearts - Finish it up Friday

Here's a small finish of this Miniature Hearts quilt.
 

This pattern is from a Debbie Mumm book, but the hearts are made from three flying geese blocks.  Two smaller ones on top and a larger one on bottom.

I used scraps, but had just enough of everything.

This is the picture of the original quilt from Debbie Mumm.  Love the purples!  I have lots of ideas for using this pattern.

On My Sewing Table This Morning.....

A genius at work? I think NOT!

This is what my sewing table looked like this morning.  I'm making a miniature heart quilt.  I still have to add some borders, but isn't it cute so far?

These are scraps left from making three baby quilts back in the Summer.  Those three were:  ELI'S COMING, RILEY BLAKE SAW TOOTH STARS and PINWHEELS AND PRAIRIE POINTS.  (click to see them)

These scraps just keep going and going.  I'm sure I could make a couple more baby size quilts from them.

Finished Little Red School House Quilt

I finished binding this little quilt last night. I think it turned out pretty cute! Look at the bottom picture to see if you see the mistake I had to fix! The hubster caught it when I was showing it off to him. It is hard to fix things after all the rows have been sewn together.... but we can't have doors upside down on houses, can we?

upside down door!

Some Mini Quilts

I've been making some mini quilts for Christmas gifts. The first one is made using the Little Red School House  pattern by Kathy Tracy in Prairie Children and Their Quilts. Blog HERE. Book HERE.

I thought the school theme would be good for the school teacher on my list.  She also likes primitive décor, so the muted colors work well.  The apple fabric came from the skirt of one of those big, flowing jumpers that were popular several years ago.  I bought it at the thrift store, a long time ago.  I'm pretty sure it was an elementary school teacher's jumper. 

Here is a close up of one of the little red school houses, before quilting.

Completed top before quilting.

I machine quilted it with a small meander design.

Tonight, hopefully (!),  I will make the binding from the fabric laying beside the quilt and get it sewn on.

I made this ASU checker board quilt for the Mountaineer in the family.  I used the same pattern as the game board quilt from my previous post.  This one went together much quicker because the little squares were already printed on the fabric.  I just had to cut out and sew together sets of 4 little squares.  The border is made from the larger squares that were printed on the fabric.

I plan to buy the checkers pieces on Amazon and am leaning toward the wooden ones that come in light wood stain and dark wood stain.

I made this really small mini quilt using a rejected block from the Little Red School House quilt at the top of this post.  The colors in this one were too bright and stuck out like a sore thumb.

It can be used as a mug rug, a small wall hanging, a hot pad, etc.  I think its cute and I may make more in other colors.

Ideas for more mini quilts for gifts include:  Camouflage for my outdoorsman, ECU for my Pirate fan and Summer colors for my Summer Loving girl.