May finishes

I am so glad this quilt is finished!!!  I love it, but I don't enjoy trimming blocks to size.  I would make a few blocks and put it aside to work on another project.   It used charm squares that had to be trimmed to 4 1/2 inches after sew together.  Cutting is my least favorite part of quilt making.  I saw another quilt that I wanted to make until I read that was necessary in the directions.  Maybe some other time, but I am not ready to make another one right now that requires a lot of trimming.

 This is another quilt that I had been working on for a long time.  I used this as a leader ender project.  The tumbler squares are a collective project from my little quilt club.  We all made  Tumbler quilts of various sizes.  Some put borders on and some didn't.  I made mine pretty large and opted not to put a border on it.  I wasn't really liking it as it was going together, but now that it is done, I really do like it.  Totally scrappy.

 Below are some pictures of a couple of my spring flowers.  It was so cold this spring that I didn't get many photos.  I don't do cold very well.  :)

No quilting but projects made

Grand baby number 9 is going to have some cloth shoes when he gets here at the end of the summer.  I used this tutorial to make these.  The tutorial was great and they turned out pretty cute.  

Another not so fun project was making cushions for our outdoor furniture.  The sun and heat took its toll on the old cushions and we could not find replacements.  I didn't even think that would be a problem when we bought the furniture.  The curved back is what does it.  They are pretty large too.  The inside cushion is not really a cushion, but heavy polyester batting like pieces (3) that give it the rounded shape.  When I tried to stuff them back in the cushion, I couldn't get them in like they were initially.  I also had trouble doing that tufting in the center of the back.  I think I took on more than  I can handle.  If I ever buy new furniture it will be be simple shapes without tufting in case I ever decide to do this again, or more likely, it will be easier to find replacement cushions.  I have two done and have two to go, plus two foot stools if I have enough fabric.

Now this project was more like it!  I found some cute fabric on sale at Joann's and decided to buy it to make   the granddaughters dresses.  I couldn't decide on a pattern and found this pattern in my stash that I bought a long time ago at a yard sale.  They turned out pretty cute, but I think they need something.  I pinned a tutorial on how to make a fabric flower and may make one to add to them.  I think the next dress will be a little bit simpler-I found a cute tutorial on line that I want to try.  This is by Little Blue Boo.  What do you think?

I should have pressed this to make it look nice, but it is gone now.  I won this panel and knew that I wanted to try the self binding tutorial by  The Missouri Star Quilt Company with it.  My panel was a rectangle instead of a square, so I had to work with the angles a little bit, but it turned out ok.  It looks better in person-you'll have to take my word on that!

And here are some of the cuties that I sew for.  I had a sleepover for four of the grands.  That little angel in the corner is just pretending to be sleeping and I had to bring her to bed with me.  She was so wound up.  What about that flash?  The room was dark as they were watching a movie.  Well, Elijah was watching a movie.  They were bouncing on the bed, having a pillow fight, laughing and giggling and just having a good time.  I hope they have fond memories of spending time with Grandma!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3256313/?claim=qmckpa6gkdq">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Early March Finishes

 Thimbleberries' Birdhouse quilt has been languishing in a basket of WIP's for years.  I am really trying to address this issue and I want to finish at least one WIP a month.  This one is very old-I bet  10 years at least.  I couldn't locate any of the bird fabric used in the original quilt, but found this suitable substitute with the bluebirds.  When I made this quilt, I was still just attaching the borders but sewing them on and then cutting.  I am lucky I didn't have more of a mess than I did while quilting it.  I don't know how to "quilt it out" on those wavy borders!  I am so grateful I learned how to put the borders on properly.

 This is Bonnie Hunter's 4th of July pattern.  I enjoyed making it for one of my charity quilts in the red, white and blue.   This one is in fall colors, and the rusts pop out more than my picture shows.  My grandson Oliver's mom had a nephew who died of a rare genetic disease, and this is for the charity they started for him to raise money for a cure for that.  Rock4Dakotah.

 My granddaughter Ryleigh started indoor soccer this year.  I got to go to her first game.  Here is her little brother watching the game from the sidelines.  He is sitting on his dad's lap.  It's funny to see the same expression on just the small part of dad's face and Brady's face.

 And here is Ryleigh in action.  She loved it, unless she missed the ball.  She is just learning, but she thinks she can't make mistakes already at 5.  She broke down when she didn't make a goal and when she was goalie and the other team did make a goal.  Of course she stopped a few goals too, but that didn't compensate for her.  Her coach told her she was supposed to be having fun.  At least she got over the breakdown quickly.  I hope this doesn't hold her back from trying new things.  Her dad was a perfectionist as a child and since he couldn't be perfect wouldn't try things.  Is that a genetic defect?  I had to give myself permission to not be perfect and it is so freeing and I enjoy my hobby so much more now.

I wanted a St. Patrick Day's table topper, so I relied on the same pattern I used for my Christmas toppers.  The second one I didn't have enough fabric to make it as large as the first so I added a border.  That was a little tricky to do after it was put together.  If I would do that again, I would cut the border and sew it to the "block" before constructing the top.  I need to get a different pattern though-I need more variety.

Valentine's Day table runner

 I love Jenny Doan!  I have used her tutorials for quite a few of the quilts I made.  She had a recent tutorial that I wanted to try, but had so little time.  I decided to make a table topper instead.  This valentine table topper is made from her Phoebe's flower box.

A love note in the snow from my valentine.  

Easy Street and other finishes

 February has been a good month for finishes!  I started the snowman quilt in quilt club last month and put the binding on it yesterday!  My granddaughter thought she wanted it, but I think I would like to give it to my mother.  It would help to pull the colors together in her living room.

I made this Koin Keeper yesterday too.  It turned out pretty cute, but it is pretty small for what I carry around.

 Here is my old wallet that I made a few years ago.  I didn't like the way this wallet was made-called for binding that I think really detracted from it.  I tried to make it without all the binding, which helped a little bit, but didn't work out just the way I wanted it to.

I decided that I am going to combine parts from both patterns and make my own that hopefully will fill my needs better.

 I am trying to finish old projects this year.  Here is one that was made years ago.  I think this was one that a different block was given monthly in a quilt magazine.  Everyone in quilt club made them.  Mine was even quilted, just needed to be trimmed and bound.  Finally done.  I will probably give this to a step daughter who has her apartment decorated country style.

Easy Street-Grand Finale!  This quilt just sparkles.  I decided not to make the pieced border.  The quilt is already quite large and I just couldn't decide on a border that I wanted to make for it.  I am glad I went the way I did with it.  The blue border tames all of that green.  Before the border was put on, the green  is all you would see.  Now the other colors are visible too, if that makes any sense.  I used a simple panto to quilt it.  I didn't think anything complex would be worth the work as it wouldn't really show.  I like the way this one shows in the border.


Every time I make a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt it becomes my favorite!

This little guy is Kipper.  My son in law was taking his family to a birthday party and almost hit him with the car.  They picked him up and contacted his owners using the info on his tags.  The owners were in the hospital having a baby and left him outside in a fenced in yard.  It was pretty cold to be outside all day.  He sneaked out of the yard fortunately was picked up by my daughter and son in law.  Since they were going to a party he ended up visiting me while we waited for his family to pick him up.  He enjoyed putting his nose into everything in the house, then rested.  Kind of enjoyed having a dog around, and enjoyed it more giving him back to his grandma.  Kind of like grandkids!

Early February finishes

 My first February finish is "Fourth of July."  This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern. This is going to a couple of cancer survivors at work who will raffle it for Relay for Life.  I made them a quilt last year that helped them get into the top spot for raising money for their respective teams.  I sure hope this one does the same thing.

This is a Valentine's Day table topper.  I made this using the new tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company-Phoebe's Flower Box.  The fabric was bought for my son and daughter in laws wedding quilt because she wanted pinks and browns.  I couldn't find any lines at the time with those colors until I saw this.  I started sewing blocks together and it was just too girly and over the top for a wedding quilt.  I used some of those blocks to make tote bags, Christmas stockings and this table topper.
I thought I had a Valentine's day table runner that I was going to put out today.  I must have given it away.  I really thought I made two-one for me and one for a gift.
I am not the most organized person in the world.  I am going to have to go through all the places I store these things and get organized so I know what I have and organize them by holiday.