UFOs done

 Finally.

This quilt was a pattern in a McCall's magazine sometime in the 1980s. It was a top for decades that was sandwiched and basted. I did start to hand quilt it in the middle but that was it. I wasn't sure how I wanted it quilted and so it sat, waiting. I think it was a case of not coming with a good idea as to how to quilt it and also what colours to quilt it in. Finally, in 2017, I put it in my frame and quilted it. And then it sat - again. There is a quilt show coming up in September with one of my quilt guilds and so I decided that once and for all, it will be finished. I self bound it and it was completed yesterday. All it needs now is a hanging sleeve and a label. I still love it and it will hang in my hall soon.

This shows how I finally decided to quilt it.

I took these photos off my blog - March 2017.

Here's the other UFO that I'm working on. It's a 3D bowtie quilt. All of the bowties are made with floral fabrics and they are all different. I am having a longarm quilter do the quilting on it. Once it's finished, I shall take another photo showing the quilting. It has no border.

I'm currently working on testing a paper pieced pattern and putting together a Minecraft quilt for one of my granddaughters.

More quilts

Spring has arrived. Some days it feels like it but other days it's cold, windy and feels like winter will never leave. 

My hall quilt has changed with the change of season. Bob the Snowman has been replaced with this. It's a quilt called Flowers and was a BOM in 2011 by Diana Schmitz. She had a few BOMs that incorporated embroidery, applique and piecing.

This is a quilt that my daughter brought back with her from her visit to her father-in-law. Whenever she visits me, she takes her two sons to visit their grandpapa about 4 hours north of us. She was given this quilt that was made by her mother-in-law who passed away a few years ago of Parkinsons. I thought it was lovely and delicate. I took a look at it while it was here and I think it was made by the old apartment style or quilt as you go method and machine quilted.

First snowfall and hall quilts

This is what we woke up to this morning. 

It started late last night.

The flakes were just light last night - just after midnight.

This morning the flakes were big. I went out as soon as I got up and swept the sidewalk and driveway.

I love the look of the snow on the bare branches.

There is no one tree that is prettier than the others when the snow blankets them.

Harry the scarecrow was on the hall wall but he's in the cupboard now.

This is the backing fabric.

I don't always try to match the back with the front but this fabric just seemed to fit.

The little quilt was made in 2016.

Bob the snowman took Harry's place on the hall wall. He goes up on the day of the first snowfall. 

This was a piece of fabric that was on my shelf in the sewing room and I decided to use it for the back.

It just seemed to be the perfect piece. I don't know where it came from but I think a friend of mine gave it to me.

The front fabrics and the pattern were a kit from a quilt shop that has now closed. Originally, the fabric that was behind Bob, that was provided in the kit, was too dark so I changed it. I don't often use a pen to label my quilts.

This is one of my favourite quilts. It's small but it never made it to the wall. It has no sleeve for hanging. I put it in my sewing room so I can get a  sleeve put on. It has no name but I did embroider 2019 on the back.

 

The old and the new and more...

Over this past Christmas, I spent time in England with my youngest daughter and her family. Since Covid kept everyone celebrating with their own family, no one was coming over to our house so I thought I would celebrate with my youngest grandchildren, the twin boys and their 3 year old brother. I had a return ticket from my stay there last spring/summer so I surprised my daughter. They have a granny flat where I did my quarantine so it all worked out.

While I was there I came across this little quilt that I made for my youngest daughter, Ayla. The original design was in red, white and black (that is what was shown on the pattern) but both Ayla and I like turquoise. I think this may have been a kit from Connecting Threads. I didn't take note of the year that would have been on the label but it was probably less than 10 years ago.

Here's a little close-up of the quilting in the border.

Since it is now spring, I decided that my hall wall could use a bright, but small, wall hanging. I have liked this pattern for quite some time now and one clever blogger, Life in the Scrapatch took the free pattern called Pretty Posies from EQ and made it into a very easy pieced quilt. The only thing to keep in mind is which way you make the leaves. Some of them should be sewn reversed. Once I sewed the middle part together, I decided to audition a border.

As you can see, I didn't go with a green border.

I haven't had time to finish this. I was just thinking on machine quilting it so I didn't have to baste it or put it on a frame.


On a personal note: My husband passed away on May 27th. He had had emphysema for many years and only quit smoking about 4 or 5 years ago mainly because of the grandchildren. Sadly, it wasn't soon enough. My family has been a great help and they are (or will be) all here this month. I have been busy each and every day but this post has been on my mind to compose for a while.

And...

I just received my second dose of Pfizer on June 6th so my youngest daughter and I fully vaccinated. She lives in the UK so she got the vaccine earlier than we here in Canada. I can't believe how many people are not going to be vaccinated. I don't know if I want to be around them. Some are neighbours and others are friends and even relatives. All of my children have had at least one dose and are eager to get the second one when they are eligible.

Just a little finish

I needed to get a better photo of the mystery quilt that I completed and so I got my husband to hold it up.

 It was a bit windy and quite cold out but I did manage.

Spring will be here soon. Unfortunately, the weather people are predicting a snow storm for us in the next day or so.

Bob the Snowman has been hanging up in the hall since the first snowfall of the season and I felt it was time for a change - even if the snow is not finished.

My friend Judy gave me this pattern as a gift a while ago. I was itching to make something new for the hall wall so last week I worked on this pattern.

Since I want the grandchildren to enjoy the wall hangings, I simplified it a bit and just used the word spring. Fusible applique and machine quilting is not fast. This took me a few days to do but it's finished now and hanging in place of Bob the Snowman. 

Here's another shot of the new finish. I labelled it on the hanging sleeve. It saved me some time. Little Teemu likes the ladybug and the bunny.

I've got some knitting to finish and some other sewing to get done next - and maybe even some shovelling.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network. Pop on over to see what others are up to.

Quilts - the old and the new

This quilt has been hanging on my upstairs hall wall for several years now and it's time for a change. I mentioned it to my daughter Laila when she was here and she said she'd like it - for her boys. So, off it came from the wall and out it went for a good shake to get the dust off.

I was going to wash it but really, it isn't dirty and since I don't like the puckered look of 'aged' quilts, I will leave it as is. My daughter and her family live in farm country where there are cows, horses and chickens. This quilt is called Pioneer Sampler and it was made in 1994.

This is what I have been working on a little at a time. I added two more blocks this morning to the 16-patch quilt after I ironed them.

 I really do like this. It's cheerful, colourful and so simple to make. I am making it for one of my single beds so at 7 blocks across, it's fine (the blocks are 8 inches finished.) I just have to figure the length. Right now it's almost 8 blocks long and so I may make it 9 or 10 rows long. I have to see what colours to add and that's the main reason I took this photo (actually, a series of photos.) None of the darker fabrics have been repeated and I like that.

Seasonal quilt and sort of a challenge

It all started when a friend had a pattern for a pumpkin wall hanging. I asked to borrow it because I liked it and thought it would be nice on my wall (I don't make many big quilts in case you didn't know that by now.) Anyway, I remember that orange wasn't such a popular colour then (this was in the early 1990s) but as I look at this little quilt I see that I came up with two shades of orange. The label on this one says that I called it Pumpkins (yeah, I know, really original) and that it was completed in 1994.

The fabrics are all cotton polyester because I love working in solids (those little calico prints were/are not for me and that's basically all that was available for a long time for quilters.)

As you can see, there are two shades of orange. I must have been in a hurry to get this done because it is machine appliqued and I know that all the pieces are backed with interfacing because they are stiff. I should have sewn the inside of the pumpkins with darker thread since it doesn't show up at all.

I even sewed the pumpkin vines with the sewing machine. I was inventive (pat on the back.) You can see that I did hand quilt it - because that is what I do. The measurements are 17 1/2 x 23 inches. (click on any of the photos to see a closer view)

The quilt will go up on the wall somewhere. It has been sitting in the cupboard long enough (notice the fold lines?) Thanks to Mary of Outside the Line who kick-started my brain by reminding me of this little gem with her UFO pumpkin/jack-o-lantern quilt post and for emailing me to tell me to blog about it. My thanks also to Carole, the guild member who loaned me the pattern (sorry but I do not know from who or where it originated.)

Sort of a challenge...

And so, are there any other pumpkin/jack-o-lantern quilts out there that you would like to post about so we can all see what goodies are out there? Just leave a comment and a link to your post or photo.

Continuation

I have been thinking that I have not posted photos of my hall quilts in a while. This one, which is found beside the staircase (hence the awkward angle for the photo), is call Mid Night. It is made from a pattern that appeared in McCalls magazine many, many years ago. I borrowed it from the hospital book cart when I was having one of my children (can't remember which one it was.) Anyway, I made the pattern as it was in the magazine (that one is still a UFO since I do not know how to quilt it effectively) and then I decided I would make the quilt using the same blocks but in a totally different colour scheme and placed differently. The quilting is just something to fill in the big spaces and all the quilting is done in white thread. There are stars in three different sizes quilted in all the black areas. The label indicates that I finished it in March of 1993. (Click on the photos to get a better view of the quilting.)

Further down the hall, by the basement stairs is P. Cassos's Broad. This was a fun little quilt to do. It was a guild challenge for a quilt show. If you wanted to participate, you were given a little brown bag with odd little things and I think you had to use everything. I did not alter any of the things I ended up with. I'm still not into beading (although I would like to be) and so her earring is just a string of beads that was in the bag. Her eyes are porcelain flowers with a hole in the middle. There were three of them and the other one is found in one of the two hanging things at the bottom. I freehand drew the face on a piece of muslin and then zig-zagged over the pencil lines. I still have another face that I want to do something like this with. The bag also had a length of ribbon and you can see it just above her head. I didn't sew it down but left it loose. It has a batt but I don't know what I used - probably a piece of flannel. It is machine quilted and I didn't even put a label on the back. I was probably running out of time.

No this is not a quilt but a photo of the birthday girl Ayla, who would like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. Since MJ died one week before, she thought she would honour him by incorporating him in her birthday. Big sis Maili made the cake (I held the template while she sprinkled icing sugar) and the cup/mug is dad's. Since he was a MJ fan, friends got him this years ago. It needed a bit of cleaning up since it was on top of the kitchen cupboards for quite a few years before being relegated to the inside of the cupboard.

P.S. the necklace she is wearing is one I had in grade eight(?) It belonged to my friend's sister who no longer wanted it and since I had a turquoise burlap dress (fully lined) at the time, she gave me the necklace.