It's been a while...

 Summer has been crazy busy - regular summer busy and our new retirement busy - which includes travel! 

In my last post, I showed the quilt I made for a wedding gift to a very special couple. We have known the bride since she was born and her parents even longer! I asked for help naming the quilt as I was having difficulty coming up with a name that worked for me. After reading many suggestions, both here and social media, as well as asking my daughters, I came up with the perfect name (in my opinion). I finally named it 'Love Grows'! Here is a picture taken on top of Mt Washington!

It was so windy! This is the best of several attempts but it was fun trying! 

(more pictures here.)

The finished size is 63" x 73". 

Also in previous posts, I showed you the process of designing and piecing a baby quilt for another special couple. I have also know mama since birth and her parents longer. Our youngest daughter was raised with these 2 girls! Since I was going to miss the baby shower (due to retirement travel), I desperately tried to get this finished before leaving. I managed to finished everything except hand stitching the binding so it came with so I could finish during the car ride. Here are pictures taken on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. 

I quilted this with several different thread colors. I stitched spirals in the sun and straight line rays. The mountains have straight lines following the peaks and the trees are quilted with triangles. The finished size is 36" x 42". 

I'm linking to Off the Wall Friday @ Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Wednesday Wait Loss @the inquiring quilter

I also brought some EPP tumblers on our car trip and I managed to finish the last 36 as well as start randomly sewing them together in rows of 10. 

I'm not sure what the layout will be but at least I got a start on some rows. I can always make them longer. I have 300 tumblers.

My final project for the car ride was to work on an old UFO from my cross stitch days. I was inspired to pull this project out when I saw Annie's @Annie's Musings, cross stitch project that she recently started again. I drew up this pattern from a picture I took after we put on the addition to our house! I got bored with it while filling in the sky/background and I haven't worked on it in years!

This is what it looked/looks like!

Before

After

I have put in a few more rows since being home! Maybe this will get finished after all! I still have all the details/outlines to do after the background is done!

PROGRESS!

I will leave the rest of the updates for another post as this has gotten quite long. if you are interested in my vacation pictures you can see them on my instagram or facebook accounts.  Thanks if you have read to the end! 

Progress!

Last year I participated in a QAL called Oh Say Can You Sew. Clue 5 ask you to make 128 blocks which were made from 9- 1" HST. That meant I needed to make 1152 - 1 1/2" unfinished HST! That is a LOT of very small HSTs! 

After making 80, I put the project aside and forgot about it. Well sort of...it was in one of my project boxes just looking at me...reminding me that this UFO needed attention. So this week while I waited for the backing fabric I ordered for the mountain adventure quilt, I picked it up and took some time to figure out where I left off. Instead of making more HSTs right away, I decided to make the ones already completed into 9-patch blocks. Here is my progress.

I also cut more tumbler blocks for my EPP project so they would be ready to come on vacation with me.

I finished the binding on the quilt I made for a wedding gift! I love how it turned out! Shh! It is a surprise but I don't think anyone involved reads my blog. 

The bride wanted muted greens and my daughter picked the pattern. I did make slight changes in the pattern. I haven't yet found a name for it. A couple ideas are 'Agave You' (I love you) or just 'Agave'. My daughter thought the quilt reminded her of an agave plant hence the names.  Any suggestions are welcome! Help me decide!

The backing is all one piece.

Linking to Monday Musing @Songbird Designs, To-Do Tuesday @For the Love of Fabric, Design Wall Monday @Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Sew & Tell @Melva Loves Scraps

I also finished piecing this little baby quilt and I now received the backing I order so I need to get started on sandwiching and quilting!

Hopefully I will get started on this soon!

My Secret Sewing Reveal and Other Things

 I have been very quiet here on my blog but that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing! I actually started and finished a bit of secret sewing. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my reveal reel. 

My daughter and SIL finally gave me an idea of what they wanted for their wedding quilt. We have had much conversation over the past year but when they told me they liked this pattern and the colors, I started right away. 

I ordered the pattern, Banner Day by Heather Black and some Kona cottons. I did change the colors a bit from the original pattern. I used Kona Prussian, Ivory, Natural, Shell, Seafoam, Yarrow, Raffia, Black and Snow. 

When I first looked at the picture, I wondered 'How do you make this?' But after reading through the pattern, I found that it is cleverly constructed to give the layered look and that it wasn't as complicated as it looks. Of course, there is a bit of curved piecing and some long straight piecing!

the picture looks like the quilt is not straight but it is just not smoothed out

                  The quilt is all machine pieced and machine quilted. The quilting                                    was inspired by the beautiful quilting by Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl                                  and her post about the quilting she did on her recent                                                   Garden Peony Quilt. I used several of her tips                                     and invaluable advice. The quilting is 1" apart. 

This quilt has an modern feel yet 

also a mid century modern feel...so I named it Modern Mix. 

The backing is pieced with a coordinating print and Kona solids.  

The binding is Kona black. 

My daughter and SIL, happy with their quilt!

The finished size approx. 60" x 72"

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @AlyciaQuilts and Friday Foto Fun and Favorite Monthly Finish @Meadow Mist Design @Poweredbyquilting

In other quilty news, I finished 4 blocks for the Stash Buster Challenge.

...and 31 Ohio Star blocks for the Oh Say Can You Sew Mystery QAL. 

I have a few more projects in the works. Hopefully it won't take so long for the next reveal!

Wedding Quilt finished and Received!

 I made this quilt for a very close family friend's youngest daughter's wedding.         This past weekend we celebrated with them! We had so much fun and the bride              and groom were stunning! I am finally able to share with you the quilt,            'When the Stars Align'.

My youngest daughter grew up with the bride and she chose neutral grays and white for the colors, and liked the pattern I chose. The pattern is Christmas Star by Zen Chic. Instead of placing the blocks on-point I rearranged them and I also resized the pattern to fit the size wanted. 

I machine pieced and machine quilted the quilt including a 'ghost star' in the negative space. The fabric for the back is a white and gray marble extra wide piece with a strip of the lightest gray from the front. 

Its finished size is about 63" x 75"

Here is the happy couple opening the gift! I love that I got to see their reaction!

Congratulations Kim and Matt!

April goals

April is already here and moving fast!

My first goal for April is to sandwich and quilt the elephant baby quilt. 

I worked on piecing the back so it is a matter of finding the time to get it layered and start quilting.

I will also continue to piece the City Bank quilt.

I cut the materials and have sewn 5 blocks to date. 

I'm using some Kona, Grunge, Tula Pink and a green from my stash. 

I will also complete my RSC blocks and my block for The Milky Way QAL. This month's color is multi-colored. 

You know, the fabric prints that don't fall into any one color way.

I'm linking up to OMG at Elm Street Quilts for the April link up. 

Be sure to head over to see everyone's goals. 

Catching up with a finish

So late Sunday night, I put the final stitches on the binding of this quilt. Yesterday, I washed and dried it and photographed it. 

The only thing left is the label!

I'm named this quilt Linked Together. 

The fabric line is Sunkissed by Sweetwater and the background is Kona white. The block pattern is called Crossroads. You can find it here. 

I played around with the layout of the blocks and rather than setting them all in the same direction, I rotated them 90º. That created some small negative space squares and some larger. I FMQ feathered wreaths in each of those spaces and straight lined quilted in each link. 

The back is pieced with ALL the left over pieces of Sunkissed and a neutral gray that I found. I left just enough of Sunkissed to bind the quilt. 

The quilt finishes at 58" x 67". It will be gifted in a couple of weeks! 

I also finished my June Art Journal calendar. Yes, I am a little behind but weddings and babies seem to be keeping me busy. 

(Another baby quilt hopefully ready to show soon.)

For June I tried something completely different.

Before:

After:

I really enjoyed this format as it gave me more room for entries and stamping. I was inspired by Annie and her Art Journals. If you don't read her blog, you should go there and get inspired!  Also, this inspiration found on Pinterest. It was so easy to make! I think I may use this format again. Hope you like it!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts.

A Little Late But .....

Finally, I was able to put the finishing touches on my November Art Calendar Journal. I had it almost all finished last weekend but just ran out of time before my week at school started. Planning, teaching, report cards and conferences made for a long week! But now we have a week off for Thanksgiving and only 11 days remaining on my assignment! I will miss the kids and the staff at my school but I am ready for a break so I can get back to quilting!

I had this background fabric in my stash so I decided to use it and then only use fall colored circles for the days since the fabric was already busy. I realize that it is almost December so I spent some time catching up on the daily entries. Hopefully, I will also be able to create my December calendar this week. With family staying with us this week I can't make any promises Ü

Here is my October calendar all filled in!

Remember this quilt?

Yesterday was my niece, Courtney's wedding and this is the quilt that I made for her and her new husband, Chris. Glad to be a part of their special day!

Too Long!

I really miss my blog, my blogging friends, and quilting on a regular basis. I have about 1 month to go on my long term assignment and then I will be taking some considerable time off for myself! 

My creative need is being satisfied by planning creative lesson plans for my first grade students. Although I enjoy teaching, I really miss my quilting. 

I do have a finish to show as I finally found time to quilt and bind the second of the wedding quilts I started in the summer. The wedding is in a few weeks and the quilt is finished!

I have wanted to make a plus quilt for some time! I used Kona white for the background and Stonehenge by Northcott for the plusses.

The backing is a fabric I found at IKEA. 

I chose to do straight line quilting both up and down and across the quilt.

I love the colors and brightness of this quilt I named Crossroads. I hope my niece and her fiance like it!

My Knitting Club have been knitting washcloths for our church's Prison ministry. I have knitted 10 washcloths. 

Here we are on World Wide Knit In Public Day!