In September of 2015 we began making these quilts together. You can read about the start of the project here, and the posts about the individual blocks below.
Flag & Sun; Fields & Trees; Barn & Trees; Trees, School, Bounty & Fences; Mountains & Church; Houses; Finished Tops
We also have a Pinterest board that displays all the photos. [Read more…] about America the Beautiful quilts finally done
What’s In a Name 2017The tenth annual What’s In A Name challenge was once again hosted by The Worm Hole. I began the fun in 2009 so I joined again this year. I identified books from my TBR stacks at the beginning of the year to fulfill this challenge and in the end, I only went with two of my original ideas. Of the other four, only one was on TBR shelf, so half isn’t bad, I guess. One of the new books was read for book club.
The rules are simple-Read one book from each category during the year. [Read more…] about What’s In a Name 2017 wrap-up post
I finally finished this Rainbow Irish Chain quilt. I took a photo of Melissa Corry’s quilt at her trunk show at the retreat I attended in January 2015. I totally fell in love with it and decided I had to make one of my own. She described how she had made it all as a Leaders & Enders quilt, which means that after every set of chain stitching you do on a project, you send through something as L&E. You just keep piling up the small pieces, then start sending them through as bigger pieces until finally you are ready to piece together the blocks into rows. So I worked on it for 1 1/2 years while making other projects. It is made entirely of 2 1/2″ squares. Melissa used some longer strips on the low volume sections but I opted to just make it all squares. I discovered several months into the project that she had a tutorial on her website, but as I had been working from the photo, I just kept on going from the photo. I pieced the back with a rainbow strip down the middle and the square fabric is Essential Lights by Marsha McCloskey for Clothworks. The binding is a scrappy black binding of many different black prints. I cannot tell you how much in love I am with this quilt! It is going to be the new quilt on the guest room bed where I can see it across the hall every morning when I leave my room!
Wild Goose Chase 2017This challenge is hosted by The Bookshelf Gargoyle and I joined to further my wish to do more category challenges this year. I got it done in the first half of the year by reading a book from each category. I list in parentheses the books I set aside from shelves in January to read for this challenge, and then after in bold what I actually ended up reading. Only two of the seven were the books I planned, but they were still from my TBR shelves, except #3 which was a borrowed book I read and gave back to the owner. [Read more…] about Wild Goose Chase Reading Challenge 2017 wrap-up
Remember that quilt retreat I attended in January of 2016? Well, I’m still finishing up projects from that and this is one of them. I wanted to learn wool applique techniques so I took this class using the “Faded Blooms” pattern from Quail Valley Quilts, taught by the designer, Krisanne Watkins. During the class we learned about good techniques and traced and cut out most of the wool design in the center and pressed some of it on the tan piece. I started the applique when I got home and finished up the top in pretty good time, then left the border piecing until the end of the year. Finished that up and spent most of my handwork time this year doing all the quilting on it. I did a really tight stipple on the tan and then quilted in the ditch around the checkerboard section and along the long side of each of the flying geese to make them pop. I wanted the focus to be the center so I didn’t do a quilted pattern on the pieced borders. Because of so much handwork with the applique and quilting, this project took a really long time. Note to my sons: this doesn’t go to the thrift shop when I die!! 🙂 It’s an heirloom for someone who might like it. Today it went on the top of my Dad’s piano but won’t stay there forever as the sun will bleach it. But it looks great there for now.
The tabletopper measures 40″x40″ so it’s large. The top is pieced with random red fat quarters I picked up and I don’t know the provenance of the black background. The backing is the red with black vine and is called “El Gallo” by Deb Strain for Moda with the binding the same black as the front background.
I am glad to have finished this and found out that wool applique is super fun and I like doing it. With this finish in hand, there is one project left from retreat to do. I might get to that later this year.