Yipee! I have a finish!

It feels so good to have my last UFO from 2018 ~ D.O.N.E!

After sandwiching my Temperature quilt earlier this week, I  set out to get it done! 

I did a simple straight line quilting, both horizontal and vertical through the center of each block since it is already a busy quilt with its year of different colored blocks! 

The backing is a print I inherited from my mom's stash. I thought the colors worked well with colors in the front.

The quilt finished at 55" x 64"

I'm linking up to Can I get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Fridays at Busy Hands Quilts, Friday Foto Fun at Powered by Quilting, Let's Be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts, and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

Progress!

This week I'm on Spring Break from school so I have a bit more time in my sewing room. After catching up with the monthly obligations, I was able to get back to my last UFO from 2018....My Temperature quilt!

Yesterday I pulled from my stash the backing fabric, cut a piece of batting and got everything ready to be sandwiched. So this happened today!

Tomorrow I will start on the quilting. I'm leaning toward doing some straight lined quilting along the rows but I may change my mind. 

I also finished the March/April blocks for Covered in Love sponsored by Kat & Cat. This block is a flower block in bright, Spring colors.  

The block is 12.5" and you can find the tutorial at the link above. 

The nice thing is that the tutorial makes both blocks at the same time 

~ 2 for 1! 

See how the petals spin the opposite direction?

Linking up to To Do Tuesday at Stitch All the Things and Inspiration Tuesday at Clever Chameleon

Happy New Year!

In 2018, I started the daily recording and making of blocks for My Temperature quilt. It is hard to believe that I actually made it for the whole year! Even though I fell behind in making the blocks daily and even sometimes weekly and monthly, I always recorded the high and low temperatures and then caught up as time allowed! 

I periodically showed my progress on my posts. 

Now that 2018 is over, I made my final block today 

and put together the quilt top! 

It is interesting to see how the colors changed throughout the year. 

We started off 2018 very cold! The deepest blues were mostly from the first week in January 2018 and were briefly repeated in early February. 

The rest of the winter, early spring, and late fall the weather was mostly in the 30℉ - 50℉ range (light blues-greens-yellows). 

In early May, we saw warmer temperatures (reds) that stayed around (for the most part) all summer and into early fall. 

I would say that 2018 was probably warmer than normal for a longer period of time and we had some colder weather earlier in the fall then normal.

It will be a while before I do the quilting as right now I'm quite behind in the quilting process. 

Making this quilt was an interesting project and a lesson in perseverance!

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River and To DO Tuesday at Stitch All the Things.

Busy times and updates

Once again I have failed to keep up with life, quilting and blogging. 

The month of November was quite a blur as we welcomed (and helped move) our DD1, her partner and dog, Ole to our home after they lost their lease and decided to try to save some money to buy instead of keep renting. We moved most of their things to storage and the rest to our house. 

We are glad to help but I have to admit, it is a bit of adjustment after being empty nesters for many years. 

Thanksgiving week, we welcomed home our DD2, our SIL and their dog, Miss Sadie and our DD3. The house was full and BUSY!

We hiked. We ate out. We visited. We cooked. We crafted. We baked. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. So many blessings to be thankful for! We took the opportunity for a family picture (missing one). 

On Friday, we ventured downtown as our out-of-town kids wanted to have a family day there. We strolled through Maggie Daly Park, and Millennium Park. Saw the Chicago Christmas tree and went to Cindy's on top of the Chicago Athletic Association Building for a beautiful view of the skyline. We also went to the (very crowded) Christkindlmarket for some holiday cheer!

 Maggie Daly Park

kids of all ages @Maggie Daly Park 

 Millennium Park

 Chicago Tree
still too light out to get the full effect

view from Cindy's

 my daughters and me from Cindy's

hubby bought me a giant pretzel at the market

On Saturday, we had a Baby Shower for my DD2 with our friends and family. 

(I am limiting the number of pictures from the shower as this post is a bit photo heavy)

dessert table

 center piece we crafted

our dear friend said the welcome and dedication

On Sunday, DD3 flew back home early. DD2, SIL and Miss Sadie headed back home a little after 1:00pm. A storm was brewing so even though it was sad to see them go, we were happy for them to get out before the weather got bad. 

It was a good thing because at 1am my husband woke and said we had lost power. The blizzard was in full force. It was 36+ hours before we had electricity and HEAT. Schools were closed for a Snow Day on Monday so my job was cancelled. By Monday night, the temperature had dropped to 20º and it was COLD in our house. It gets dark by 4:30 so we had candles and battery operated lanterns to give some light. My husband had to leave for an out-of-town business trip which left my daughter and me with 2 dogs. Thankfully, the power was restored on Tuesday afternoon! It took a bit to get everything back online but we are back up. 

As for quilting, My Little Blue House quilt is waiting for an opportunity to photograph it. It is all finished. I hope to have pictures soon!

I also put together one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. 

I decided to add a dog as if sitting in front of the quilt as I took a picture. Kind of like a photo bomb...? This will be a charity quilt. It is waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. 

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday @ So Scrappy

I also have been working on trying to catch up on my Temperature quilt. I continued to log the daily highs and lows but have to admit that I fell quite behind on actually making the blocks. 

At least, I'm into November now.  See how the temperatures are dropping. Orange and reds are gone for the year. I will start to see more greens and blues now as we come to the end of 2018! 

Doing some catching up

It has been a while since I have update my temperature quilt! My summer plans were to start and complete a few quilts. In doing so, it was hard to sneak in time to do the regulars like my temperature blocks. I did, however, continue to log the highs and lows of every day!

I spent the last few days catching up on it...cutting all the block pieces and piecing them together, then the rows and finally adding them to the top! 

Here it is!

Look how warm our summer has been! I think we will have at least another row of those warm colors before the colors start to shift back to the cool yellow and greens AND before getting into the cold blues. 

Since we are in September already, the Rainbow Scrap Challenged announced a new color ~ dark blues. Plenty of those in my scrap bin! 

Here is my flying geese block.

I really like this block and will probably add more blocks to make the size of the quilt bigger! I will be limited by the amount of the crosshatch fabric I have left.

I also finished the Plus blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

Only a few more months to go!

I'm linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts, Making Monday at Love Laugh Quilt, Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag, To Do Tuesday at Stitch All The Things, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, and Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy

Back from vacay

I am back from a wonderful vacation in the PNW! My husband and I put on 2600 miles...that's a lot of travel! We started and ended in Portland. The first 3 days were business for my hubby. From Portland to Pendleton, OR to Seattle and back to Portland. We stopped at a winery and Mt. Rainer on the way.

There was still quite a bit of snow!

Then we started our Oregon Coast vacation. Leaving Portland we traveled to Ecola SP on the coast and continued south over the week until we met the Redwoods in Jedediah Smith SP in California. The Oregon Coast is beautiful and vast and the Redwoods are amazing! 

On our way back to Portland, we stopped at Crater Lake. It is the most intense blue ever! The brillance comes from the depth (deepest lake in the Americas) and clarity.  

Once home, it was time to catch up with some sewing! 

July's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is red. 

Here are my red plus sign blocks.

And my red flying geese block.  

I also needed to catch up on my Temperature Quilt. I had been recording the temperatures daily but just hadn't been able to cut and stitch them until now. 

You can see how our temperatures have risen with all those red centers and orange background. 

I have also sandwiched the Harry Potter quilt and is next up for quilting. Stay tuned! I put sleeves on 2 quilts, Mini spools and Milky Way, so they can be hung. It is nice to have that small project done. 

Linking up to Finish or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Midweek Makers at quilt fabrication and Scrappy Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

What's happening in my sewing room....

I've have had more time (but still not enough) in my sewing room now that school is out for the summer.  Summer also brings projects around the house that need to get done too! If only there were more hours in a day!

So I finally got around to sewing the labels on 4 quilts! The labels were made just waiting to be stitched on.

                                 

Do you label your quilts?

Here are a few more repurposed jeans items I made.

June brought a new color to play with for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! 

Aqua to Teals. 

January through June blocks!

I will link up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge @So Scrappy here.

I also was able to get my Temperature quilt up-to-date!

See how quickly our temps went up! Very little yellows...

We jumped right to the reds (hot temps)!

I will link up to Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrication.

Now that I'm caught up with these ongoing projects, 

I will have updates on some new projects soon! 

Where has the time gone?

I really can't believe how fast the days are flying by! The month of May is just about over, the school year is almost finished and summer quickly approaching! Life is so busy! 

Besides Mother's Day and graduations, we also celebrated the long life of a friend's mother, had out of town friends stay with us, and tried to get some of the gardens ready (although the weather has not been very cooperative with rain and cool temperatures.)

For Mother's Day, my daughter took me to a Sip and Paint Party. Although I think I should stick to quilting, it was a fun day!

My very first T-shirt quilt is finished but no reveal yet as it won't be received until later in June at her graduation party (graduation is today!) I can give a little sneak peek though.

I decided to name it Remember When...

fitting for all the years of memories included.

My May blocks for the Rainbow Scrap challenge are also done. Pink is the color for May.

Flying Geese block

Plus block

I will link up to So Scrappy Saturday.

I also worked on my Temperature quilt. 

Another row added.

It is getting warmer but we are still below our normal temperatures for this time of year...and the rain...Oh! the rain!

I made time to sandwich my Grandma's Kitchen quilt so it is ready to go when I find a block of time. In the meanwhile, I started piecing another quilt using one of the very first fabric lines I purchased many years ago. More to come soon!