smiling, quilting into February

January left Ohio Spring-like,
February came in like Spring-time,
and our Buckeye Chuck, the groundhog, got to see his shadow,
so maybe we'll still get some Winter weather around here
while it's supposed to be Winter time!
Not being snowed in and freezing is NOT
conducive (for me anyway) to getting much quilting done!!!

No excuses, really, but I'm missing my Winter, 
and cuddling under a quilt that I'm hand quilting or binding!!!
It's leaving me not stitching a whole lot with the nice, sunshiny weather. 😎

I've been playing in my Civil War repro fabric scraps a little,
and getting some small pieces sewn into blocks, but slow progress.

I have quilted a few more quilts for others...
here's a recent one, by a new quilter, Heather:

She made a T-shirt for a colleague's daughter's birthday, and it turned out GREAT!
I had fun quilting it, too! Here are a few pics of some of my fun...
Free-hand, long-arm fun:

 Funny story about this raspberry pink t-shirt block -

As I meandered over one corner, I smelled something, but I didn't really pay attention, just kept on meandering.  On the return pass of quilting, I came upon the smell again, and I stopped.  Looked around. Sniffed the air. Did a double-take, and then a double-sniff-in-the-air.  Yep, something smelled fruity!!  
So I leaned over the long-arm machine and sniffed the quilt.  Felt the t-shirt, sniffed again.  And burst out laughing!  It was a scratch and sniff t-shirt!!!  Rather raspberry-like in smell. That had me smiling the rest of that day.  

And I'm smiling again today, as I see the photo. I can just picture myself, sniffing around the long-arm, in the sunny quilting room, thinking about smelling fresh fruit, JUST like I was standing in the raspberry patch at grandma's long time ago.  

Hope your new week and February, too, are bringing you smiles!
Happy Stitching!!

sharing meandering and the case of the misplaced camera

I've misplaced my camera...
not calling it lost just yet.
Without my camera, I seem just a bit, oh I don't know - unfocused. 
Yes, that was an intended pun.  Unfocused 😂
But I know that I haven't shared this quilt yet:

It's another by Janet for a niece for Christmas.
Just adorable.  Now I think I'll have to put a 30's quilt on my 'someday list'.

Here's a close up of some of the fabrics:

Perfect to quilt over! and I'm sure the niece loved it!

I also have a couple of my own quilts to share - 
but next time...
I really need to find the misplaced camera!
It's my way of documenting my fun/work,
and keeping me organized. 

Hope you all have had a great day!

What a beautiful storm

I may have mentioned before that I 
LOVE Winter...
I snapped this picture this past Wednesday morning:

Snowy and blustery... but clear, blue skies...
just love it all! 🙂
And I MAY have been told this before -
more than once:

Funny, I think.  But I do love the snow and cold.
Snow storms and bitter temps means a little more stitching time here, usually.  So maybe that's why I like the snow?

I've not been working on my own quilts much, but finishing up some customer meanderings.
Janet asked me to meander over these two quilts for her twin nephews:

 I didn't realize they were actually TWIN quilts until I put the photos here!!! lol  EXACT twins for twins!

and a couple of closeups:

Funny, that I didn't realize they were EXACTLY the same quilt made twice, until after I'd quilted and returned them to her, and put the pictures here.  I did load one with the green stars at the top, and the other with the green stars at the bottom, so they didn't seem the same when I meandered over them.

She's such a perfect piecer and presser - its always a pleasure to meander over her quilts!
(I also have another quilt of hers finished and ready to give her, so I'll share it next time, after I get it to her on Monday.)

And I'll finish with pictures of my Christmas tree - 
first the family trek over hill and dale to find the perfect tree:

family tree trek 2016 - that's our tree behind the group

And how it stands right now, with lights and berries and popcorn:

Ladder and ornament trunk at the ready!!!
Thanks for visiting, and I hope you all are staying safe, 
toasty warm and getting in some stitches!!

baby forest animals

I was asked to quilt this beauty of a quilt
from a grandma to a new grand daughter,
and I just LOVE it!
Elaine has carried on her family tradition of
making an applique quilt for each new grand baby...
She says she's not very good at hand-applique,
but I very strongly disagree!!!
She's even drawn her own animals and made her own layout!

I wanted to share a few close-ups of the baby forest animals:

And how she wanted it signed:

I don't recall the exact size, but it was about 40 by 60 inches.
Such a pleasure to quilt this beauty!

baby quilt gifted

Isn't that the greatest quilt picture, ever ?!?!?!
I didn't get a picture of the quilt I made
with the new baby when I gifted it, 
so I requested a picture from the new parents, 
and THAT ^^ is the picture I received!
I just adore it!
A much better picture than the ones that I took. :)
The pictures I took pale by comparison - 
Front:

Back:

This quilt is the one that I pieced together last month at retreat.
I used my favorite block layout
of the X block and 16-patch block,
(aka: Good Night Irene).
I had about 50 different prints of fabric,
cut at 2.5 inches wide.
Makes it nice and scrappy, I think - a good 'Eye Spy' !
But since it's all strip-pieced, it really goes together
much quicker than it looks like it would.
And, yes, I did stitch in her name and mine in the quilting:

 Another good finish,
and great memories made! 

what do you do to get out of a slug-fest?

Do you ever get into a sewing/quilting funk? 
If so, what do you do to get out?

Since I don't really know what started my 'sluggishness'
about a month ago,
I didn't know what to do or how to get back 
to my normal, stitching, self.

But what I finally did?
I learned something new!!!
I made myself do something that
I've been going to do for over a year -
but kept putting off...
I loaded some fabric onto the long-arm machine
and did some free-motion Baptist Fans!!

Doesn't look too bad from this far away. Ha ha.
Not the greatest quilting I've ever done;
but not at bad as I thought it would be 
for a first time effort.

I started by marking blue, inch-apart-dots on only the first two fans, 
which you can kind of see in the above picture.
I only marked those first two fans, 
thinking I'd get the feel of the spacing and rhythm 
while moving the long-arm machine and going dot-to-dot.
My hope was that after those first two fans, 
I'd be able to replicate that spacing and rhythm across the loaded fabric sandwich.  And it worked...
there are areas in which I'll need to improve...
as I don't like the rounded-ness of the end of the arcs, 
show here:

But, there is the whole 
"if you can't see it while going by on a galloping horse" theory, right?
It sure feels good to out of the slug-fest!

Happy Thursday!

more making hay while the sun shines

Last week when I shared my lack of
accomplishments I made in the sewing department
during all the bad weather we've been having,
I forgot to share that I did get another quilt loaded onto
BigDD - the long-arm machine:

The long-arm is one of the machines that I don't plug in while the electrical storms are visiting.
But, when the storms left town,
I was ready to start meandering.

Baby quilt meandering, and a party without rain!

Last week, I got to meander over
a baby quilt that Louise made for another
great-grand baby:

Such cuteness!
Here's a closer picture of the fabrics, 
her perfect piecing, and my quilting:

On another note, 
the party I spoke of...
that's what the grandkiddos called the
local village's Independence Parade on the 4th-

'It was a great party!  And it didn't rain.'
(You know it's been raining too much, 
when even the little kids mention that it wasn't another wet day!)

'Where did that tractor go?'

I say it was a great party, too!  
A great salute to America.  
And the rain did clear - for TWO days!

We are back to another seven days 
of forecasted showers and storms.  
I feel sorry for the local farmers and their crops (or lack of).
Though that does mean for me
another indoor day of fun - 
sewing and quilting.

I hope your parade didn't get rained on
and you had a nice weekend.

meanderings

This past week I've meandered on a couple more quilts -
this time they were Beverly's.
This first quilt that I meandered 
was her guild's 2014 Year in Blocks, pattern-a-month Challenge...

different gals within the guild designed 

a different block pattern each month.

If participants had at least one block pieced 

from the previous month's pattern, 

they got the next pattern free.

She said they could make as many blocks as they'd like from each block pattern, and put them together as desired - also part of the challenge,
so she made herself a Row by Row quilt:

Beverly added this project to this year's guild UFO-challenge-list
and it was 'picked' as her quilt to finish for July meeting,
therefore, it jumped up in my quilting rotation 
so she can get it trimmed and bound for the July meeting.
It was a fun one to quilt...
as I got to play when I meandered each row:

  I did free-motion butterflies, water,

 swirls, wood grain,

  breezy curls, sand, and others.

 Here are a couple more pictures:

I also got to meander over this gorgeous, purple floral quilt of Beverly's:

She used up some purple stash and has another UFO off her list!!
I'd say it was a good quilt-guild challenge year for Beverly!

Also makes me think I should get more motivated 
with my own UnFinished quilt Objects!!!

I did do some hand-stitching this past week, 
and had a nice lunch out with a friend - 
pics of that next time.

Hope you have an enjoyable weekend!

a little quilt meandering

I did some quilt meadering a couple of weeks ago for a friend,
but haven't shared the pics because I hadn't delivered the finish.
I finally met up with her and delivered one of her latest quilts after I got to "work my magic", as she says.

She always has such perfect piecing and pressing!  
And, such fun, bright colors!  
(I think the fabric line was called Kitty Picnic by Lakehouse.)

Isn't it just so cute?!?!  Vintage kitties and picnics!

I'm just a little jealous (and a lot in awe) of her - 
as she is working on her Christmas gifts!!
I asked if she knew it was only May. :)

I don't know about you,
but I've not EVEN considered Christmas gift quilts!
Have you thought about Christmas quilt gifting already??


I am still working on the handful of baby quilt gifts -
with almost two down, and three to go. 
My goal was to have all five completed by the end of May,
so the time frame I set for myself is now about half gone,
though I don't have half of them completed!!
I'd better get motivated.
Focused. 
Something-ed. :)

Happy Thursday!

a little meandering last week

Little by little, I'm building up quilting-steam again
and thank everyone for the well-wishes sent my way.
(Med#5 seems to be working without causing too many ill side-effects,
and thankfully, all test results were negative or benign.)  
I know I'm feeling better, as I have even, 
over the course of the last couple of weeks,
done some meandering!

Here is Bev's quilt that I got to meander over:
(warning - book store head-turn :)

(I don't know why it won't turn right-side up - sorry!)
Bev is in a quilt guild and signed up for the guild's UFQ challenge.
The challenge?  
To list and sequentially number six Unfinished quilts.
Each month of the six month challenge, 
a die would be rolled and the number that turned up
would specify the quilt that would be the next month's 
challenge to finish.
She said:  that of course, the first month the die was rolled, 
her challenge was to finish a quilt that was just blocks in a box!! :)
She had no other fabrics, borders or layout chosen, 
just a box of twelve, pieced blocks from a mystery done a few years ago.

She got right to work and found a piece of stash yardage that had barns on it and decided to incorporate that.  Then she found a border fabric of roses that worked with her pieced block's fabric colors.
Good choices, weren't they?

Her request to me for quilting was to do anything I wanted,
but asked, please, if I'd not quilt over the barns.
Here are a few of the barns and what I came up with for quilting:

In the pics, you can see how I quilted in the pieced blocks, and in the last two pics, you can see the border's quilting also.  The barn fabric itself had just a little foreground design printed, and most of the blocks had clouds printed, so I just added what I thought would be more foreground and scenery.
It was a fun one to quilt and felt good to get back to meandering!

As I finished it up by trimming threads, I remembered: 
I think I have a piece of that Barn fabric...somewhere!  
Now to just come up with some pieced blocks to go with it! lol

I'm off to look through the stash for barn fabric! :)

Thanks for visiting and
Happy Stitching!

meandering an owl...

Record-setting negative 24 degrees here last night!  Brrr.
That was without windchill.  
Glad I could stay in and do some
meandering to keep warm.

Jackie had asked me to quilt her 
gray and white, 36-inch, one block, baby quilt...
preferably with some owl motifs.
After some mulling and sketching,
I came up with an owl

 and some pines

Another view of the owl in the pines:

and the whole quilt:

Since she had one large block for her quilt,
I decided one large quilting design would be appropriate.
I sketched and trimmed and re-sketched,
and came up with my beginning templates: 

Top template is my owl design; 
bottom template is my eye and wing placement guide.

The owl is about 18 inches tall and the pine boughs are in the 8- to 9-inch wide range.
The quilting is all (my) hand-guided, 
mostly done in the continual line style, 
not crossing over previous stitching lines.
Although the entire quilt was only 36 inches square, 
it took a little more time than I thought it would, 
but it was a fun one to do.

She loved the finish, as did I, 
so I've saved my sketches/templates, 
as I may just use this quilting design again.

Thanks for visiting, 
and if you are also in the cold zone,
I hope you are staying warm during this Polar chill.