Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project ~ April 2018

These five 6.5" Posey blocks are for the April 2018 Inspiring Stitches Heartland Heritage Quilt.  I'm working ahead because I want to start a new quilt next month.

May your bobbins always be full,

Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project ~ March 2018

I'm early!  But then, I'm always early, just ask my daughters!  Of all my faults, I think being early is my best one.  This time I'm early for a good reason, I'm leaving in one week for Nashville, to volunteer at Quiltcon; I didn't want to start a new project and these blocks filled the time.  

The BOM calendar calls for 3 of these 12.5" blocks; I made one extra because I may not make the sewing machine block that is part of the plan.  Since I'm not making this quilt for anyone in particular, I'm thinking that using the sewing machine blocks could limit the future "gift-giving" potential.  I'm trying to plan ahead.  If I decide to make the sewing machine block, I can always use the extra block in something else.  

Which of these 4 is your favorite?  My favorite is the 2nd one, but it's hard to choose.

May your bobbins always be full,

Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project ~ February 2019

These are the 4 Birdhouse blocks needed for February, for the 2019 Inspiring Stitches BOM, called Sew Hometown.  These are fun  Courthouse Step Blocks.  I am officially caught up on all the BOMs!

May your bobbins always be full,

Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project ~ February 2018

Well, I'm on a roll!  These are the (5) 9.5" Barn blocks for the 2018 Inspiring Stitches BOM for February.  No outdoor photos today, it's raining.

Now, I'll do my fabric pull for the 2019 version.  It's a small block called Bird House.

May your bobbins always be full,

Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project ~ January 2019

Well, I decided to go for it!  These are the January 2019 blocks from the Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project for this year, called Sew Hometown.

I really love these house blocks and decided to fussy-cut little birds to go in the windows.  

May your bobbins always be full,

Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project ~ January 2018

In December of 2017, I wanted to give a "quilty" gift to my fellow board members of TVMQG.  I've always loved the page-a-day calendars, so I found one for quilters and gave them at our Christmas Party.  I also got one for myself and I was very disappointed in it!  So, I looked around and found the 2018 Inspiring Stitches Block of the Month Quilt Project, Heartland Heritage.  I loved the format and the blocks.  But, I didn't get around to making anything until now.  Four blocks for January are complete.

For December 2018, my fellow board members received the 2019 Inspiring Stitches Calendar, since I liked this one so much.  I may make those blocks concurrently!  We'll see.

May your bobbins always be full,

I'm early, I'm always early

In March I issued a new challenge to the members of the TVMQG ~ A Charm Pack Challenge.  Most modern quilters don't use many pre-cuts, like charm packs or jelly rolls; so I thought a challenge was called for.

The challenge is due at our September meeting.  Mine is really now because I never leave anything to the last minute.

For the quilt top, I used 6 Cookies & Cream 40 Karat Gems charm packs from Wilmington Fabrics.  I like that half the squares are white and half are cream.  They all have a subtle white on white print.

I grabbed a handful of my favorite colorful scraps and make an odd shaped triangle on one corner of each charm.  When I laid them out my only concerns were alternating the white and cream square and having the triangles touch.  I didn't care if they co-ordinated, I just wanted a butterfly-ish shape.

For the quilt back I had some gray Lizzie House that didn't get used in another project, so I used it here.  The binding is one of my favorite blues, Kona Windsor.  I always keep it on hand and I just reordered it.

The quilt measures 54' square.

May your bobbins always be full,

A couple of finishes

I started this quilt top last Saturday and finished it on Friday.  I used 6 charm packs of Cookies & Cream by Wilmington Prints and lots of scraps!

One of my guild members called this an Improv Butterfly Quilt; I guess I'll go with that name!  I really love how it turned out.

A couple of close-ups of the Butterflies. 

I also did a quick project, birthday gifts for my granddaughter Erin and her new husband Jaimie.  Jaimie is a firefighter and Erin is studying to be a nurse.  These are quick, but I took longer than the 15 minutes that the tutorial claimed! 

I've previously made several of these pillowcases; I recommend the tutorial by Leslie, The Seasoned Homemaker.  I usually make these to give as a gift to an older sibling when I gift a quilt to a new baby in the family.  I don't want the older children to feel left out.  In August, two of my bookseller friends are expecting additions, so I'll be making four more pillowcases in the near future.

May your bobbins always be full,

Charm Pack Challenge

While I've been President of my quilt guild, I've presented a new challenge every 6 months.  The goal is to encourage the members to "think outside the box".  Many modern quilters never use a pre-cut, with the exception of Fat Quarters.  So this time it's the Charm Pack Challenge.  You can read about it here.

I decided to use white on white 5" squares.  The charm pack is called Cookies & Cream by Wilmington Prints.  The packs have 24 charms each and I bought 6 packs; if my math is right I'll end up with a 54" square quilt, or a 49" x 58" quilt.  I'm planning on using scraps in the 2nd photo to liven up the quilt.

The Challenge isn't due until the September meeting, but with my busy life, I thought I'd better get it started and off to the LAQ.

May your bobbins always be full,

Tooth Fairy Pillows

I have some young friends who are at that age, around 5, when teeth start to come out.  Pancho already lost one.  It was unexpected, and he was so surprised that he swallowed it!  The Tooth Fairy, I believe his name was Bold Elfnest, was very understanding and rewarded Pancho, even though there was no tooth.  I told his Mom and Dad that I would make he and his twin sister, Ole, a tooth fairy pillow for use with the remainder of the teeth.

As long as I was making two, I thought three wouldn't be too hard, so I made one for Louie, too.  These are not perfect, but they were made with love.  Above are the fronts and below are the patchwork backs.  They are about 5.5 inches round.

My house is full of men, today.  I decided a couple of months ago to have the three bedrooms and two baths painted. This involved a lot of prep, including relocating a boatload of fabric and stripping a lot of clutter, it does seem to accumulate, so the painters could do their work. I also decided to upgrade the interior doors, while the crew was here. Today, the doors are getting replaced and there's lots of noise. They're been working hard since 7am. I'm hoping they'll be finished by 3:30, that'll give them an 8 hour day and give me some quiet. Plus, because the workers are in and out, in and out, the dogs need to be outside, and they are not happy.

I did manage to make these, today.  The work is scheduled for two more days, but I don't know if I'll get anymore stitching done.

May your bobbins always be full,

Sometimes Quilting is a Lifesaver

I started this QAL one week before Bob passed away.

Being committed to making the blocks, as they were issued each month was a real lifesaver.

I was also doing another QAL, that I started six months earlier and the two QALs, kept me focused when so much was going on.

This is a close up of the center portion of the quilt.  The quilt was the 2015 Mystery QAL with Pat Sloan; its title is Vacation Time.  I started the first block January 22, 2015, and finished the binding yesterday, March 13, 2016.  The quilt measures 62" x 66".

This is the quilt back, and a close-up of the pantograph, Almost Paisley.  I thought it went great with the center fabric.

The last photo shows the San Diego Modern Quilt Guild's Vintage Quilt Revival QAL, that I was working on concurrently with the Vacation Time QAL.  Real lifesavers! 

May your bobbins always be full,

Vacation Time Quilt Top is finished!

This QAL with Pat Sloan has been interesting.  This is most likely the most traditional looking quilt I've made.  I used fabric from my stash because I have so much.  That posed a problem in the end; my blocks were so diverse, I needed fabrics for the setting blocks and the borders that would tie it all together.

I think my plan was successful, overall.  Below is a photo of two of Pat Sloan's finished quilts, as you can see mine is different.  Different is good.  I want to thank Pat Sloan for this QAL.  I started the first block the week before Bob died, and it was good to have something quilty-wise to look forward to.

Source.

May your bobbins always be full,