My Christmas Row Quilt

I offered to design a Christmas Row Quilt block exchange for one of my local quilt groups and they said yes.  So I started looking for Christmas-themed blocks, four of which are shown here.

The row of Christmas trees was supposed to have six trees but somehow I came away with only five and I didn't want to make another one.  So I decided to turn the 12" left into a checkerboard sashing instead.  I think it adds much to the quilt.

There is a row of snowflakes to go at the top.  I somehow don't have the required number of those either so I'm guessing I'll do something on that row to finish out the length of that row, too.

The bottom row is houses.  I've got the number I need there so I just need to sew that row together and add them to the bottom.  I'm thinking I'm going to love it!

Kayleen's Choice

I started this quilt after being inspired by a Tula Pink pattern that was on the cover of a magazine.  I changed the orientation of the blocks and enlarged it.

I was loving it!  I wanted to crochet around the entire quilt so I bought a pretty teal blue aqua cotton crochet thread and a new crochet hook.  I had given all of mine away long ago since all I did anymore was quilt.  But I had been inspired by a quilt I saw at The Christmas Goose quilt shop in Las Vegas in April.  There was gorgeous crocheting around the edge of the entire quilt.  At first I thought it was lace that had been applied but found out it was hand-crocheted.  I loved it so I wanted to do it for myself on a quilt that I would keep.  All that work, ya know?

So my daughter came to visit in August and I was showing her quilts I was working on.  She had told me a few years ago that she had enough quilts.  Really?  Can anyone have ENOUGH quilts?  Well, okay.  But I sent her a new one at Christmas last year anyway because it just reminded me of her "style".

But I really don't think about making quilts for her anymore since she didn't seem interested in owning any more.  But wait...

I made this quilt for myself.  Wait...

She says "I'd take that one".  Huh?  The one I made for myself?  The one I loved?  The one I wanted to spend hours crocheting around?  The one with Freda Khalo all over the back?  The one with the yellow/green fabric that I adore?  reeeaaallly?

What we do for our children...

Guess who's getting the quilt for Christmas this year?

This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern from one of her books.  I made the whole thing in a couple of weeks using the Bloc-Loc ruler by making half-square triangles with the Pat Speth Nickel Quilt method.  It's the only way I make half-square triangles anymore.  

And I use the squares that come from that method in other projects if they don't get used in the project that I'm working on.  I always have a need for scrappy squares.

I plan to post some current pictures now that I've lost 30 pounds but I saw a few older pictures and thought I'd post them.  This was taken in Las Vegas in 2007.  I hadn't yet gained the 30 pounds.

This is me with my Aunt Mary Catherine and my sister Marscha at a family funeral in about 2008 or 2009.

This one was taken sometime around 2010 or so.  I'll post some more current pictures soon.

Christmas is Coming!

I found this Christmas tree skirt at a thrift store yesterday.  My sister has laid claim to it for her daughter.  It was $5.00!  

I told my sister that in a few years, when I'm dead and gone, someone will look at this and say, "Aunt Sharon made that" but it won't be true.  It's just that it's handmade and it has some of the exact fabrics that I've used in Christmas quilts my family owns!

I truly don't understand giving stuff like this to the thrift store.  You're telling me that no one in the family wanted, or deserved, it?  What?

On My Wall

OMW

Thought I'd just show you what's on my wall.  I'll be doing a workshop of this quilt (when it's finished).  It's just 1-1/2" and 2" squares and strips.  Easy, but time-consuming.  But I will love it when it's done.  More later.

Gypsy Wife is Finished!

I wish I had the time to make my blog all pretty.  I just find that I'd rather quilt than spend more time on the computer, since I already spend work time on the computer.  So it's not pretty, but it will have to do.  Hmmm... maybe when I retire?...  and maybe then I'll have more time to blog, as well?  We'll see.

I finally finished my Gypsy Wife quilt.  It's a pattern by Jen Kingwell and although I absolutely adore the quilt, I have to say that I struggled with the instructions.    

I took a class from Jen Kingwell a few months ago just because I wanted to see her quilts in person.  She uses some amazingly different fabrics, what with her Arab Emerites and Australian influence.  She picks stuff that I would find ugly just by itself.  But it all looks great in her quilts.  I love using "ugly fabric" in my quilts.  Just more interest.

But as I said, I still love the quilt.  And I'm keeping it.  Here come the pictures--it's gone off to the quilter this week.

This is the full quilt on the design wall.  Took me several weeks to get all the pieces in the right place.  I did change out a couple.  The yellow heart is a block I had on-hand from several years ago when I was teaching applique, so I used it.

Here's a closeup.  You know I love text fabric!

I love the birds on the wire.

Lots of interesting fabrics.

This is probably my favorite block in the whole quilt.  And you know I'm not always going to use the same fabric in the same spot, right?

More text fabric...

Love the birds.  This is a spoonflower print that I ordered online.  Someone designed it and I ordered a fat quarter of her design.  She then got part of the profits.  Good for her!  I love it.

My crooked heart.

I've had this fabric for quite awhile.  I love the fat dancing lady.  The grey/pink fabric on the left is a very nice feed sack fabric that came from a great find at a garage sale that I've mentioned before on this blog.

Chandeliers.  Of course!

A piece(d) of my heart.

I had to add the pickle fabric, just for Jack!

I've used this pink flamingo fabric several times before.  I bought it for Romy girl.  

The pink/navy fabric in the center is another gorgeous feed sack fabric.  It's so modern!  It's one of my very favorite from the whole pile of feed sacks.

You can't have fabrics these days without without having at least one with owls in it, right?

The red floral is more feed sack fabric.

The center is Denise Schymt fabric.  Could be Flea Market Fancy.  

Not sure--just know it's hers. 

The center here is one fabric my daughter sent me from Amsterdam at least 15 years ago.  

I am very careful with them and use them sparingly.  

Paperclips!

These little guys are funny.  Not sure what they are supposed to be. 

I know I'm going to enjoy having this quilt.  Can't wait to get it back from the quilters!

Recent Projects

Here are just a few items that I showed last week at a local group meeting:

This is made from scraps that were in my scrap basket.  Literally strings and pieces that I pulled out and just straightened the edge.  None of them ended up being the same width, but it worked.  However, I don't feel like I used nearly enough of them--the box is still full!

I whipped up this spool quilt in a week.  I got motivated and went to town.  It's just been quilted and it's not a good picture, but I'll try to take another when I've got the binding on it.

"The bag" again.  I just loved making this bag.  It's designed to hold your sewing, knitting, or crocheting project.  And it does seem that way when you look at it, or hold it.  It's not the "normal" tote bag.  Made mostly with upholstery fabrics and a little wool.  It was fun.

Sue Spargo Victoria Knitting Bag

Almost finished with this bag.  It's a Sue Spargo pattern from 2004 that's been revitalized since she's become more well-known. 

Although I love her creative work, her patterns do sometimes leave a little to be desired.  She says in the pattern that she used mostly wools on this bag, however the only wool used is in the floral applique block.  The rest is upholstery fabrics, which I had on-hand, by the way!  I didn't even buy them together.

I did what I sometimes do, which was to pull out a bunch of fabrics that I think would work well together and then I try to talk myself out of them.  This time I decided to just "do it".  And it worked, as it usually does.

I need to get a bottom board cut for it.  This is another thing about the pattern.  She tells you that you need a 1/4" thick baseboard but the lining/sleeve that is cut for it does not allow for the 1/4" thickness--I needed another 1/2" to allow for the thickness on both sides--and also needed another 1/4" or so just to allow room to slip it in.

Here's a closeup of the wool applique block:

I used little pieces of wool from my left-over box.

I've since added some buttons across the top panel for decoration and interest.  I'll try and take some finished pictures when I've gotten it completely done.  Until then, I love it!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Having fun just piecing away!

I spent the last few days working on this Spools quilt top after seeing it in Issue 1 of Love Patchwork & Quilting.  

I got this issue at the Houston International Quilt Show last weekend, but I thought I already had bought the first two issues.  They explained that they had done a test market with the name "Love Quilting & Patchwork" and that is what I had bought.  I loved them both!  A lot.  So I immediately signed up to receive the next year's issues of the magazine.  And the nice thing is--it's coming out monthly!  I'm not aware of any other quilting magazine that comes out monthly.

So here's the quilt from Issue 1:

And a closeup:

Mickey-poo.  That's his nickname.  They say every cat has 3 names.  His is Mickey, Mickey-poo, and Big Boy.  He is a big boy.  And he likes to help me quilt.

This is my Bento Box quilt, just quilted.   Ready for binding.

Mickey and Macy crammed into one basket together.  They love each other.

Sour Dough Squares

I'm a 2-inch square addict.  I sit them beside my sewing machine in a pretty box and I sew two together as leaders and enders.  The quilt shown here is one that I've finished using the 2-inch squares. 

I always cut 2-inch squares when I have a piece of fabric left on my cutting table.  The I sew some up for awhile, then I add more and it keeps going.  I've done this for many years.  In this quilt I sewed 5 together then pressed them all in one direction.  I continued until I had about 250 of them.  Then I sewed them into rows and added the pretty pink strips in between.

This is the back of the quilt.  My sister has the quilt now.

OMG! A load of feed sacks!

Well, she called.  The garage sale lady called; I went to her house and she took me out to the garage where she had 4 boxes of feed sacks.  I was speechless.  She just kept pulling them out.  So of course I bought them all.  I even gave her more money than she asked for because she asked for such a ridiculously small amount that I felt guilty.  

But she kept saying that she wanted them to go to someone who wanted them and would use them.  And we all know--that's me!

So I loaded 4 boxes into my trunk and hurried home to rummage through them.  They all smelled musty and many had spots on them so I knew I was going to have to soak them to get those spots out.  I didn't even know, that day, how many were there.  I started loading a few into a soak bath--boy, did they stink--and started cleaning them.

In the end, a few days later, I counted and found that there were 96!  96 pieces of mostly whole feed sacks. There were some that had squares cut out of them but most of them are at least half a sack and quite a few are whole.  Then there were pieces of 24" wide fabric, some of which appeared to be feed sack and some that looked like bought fabric.  Some very beautiful pieces.  Some cute.   Some downright ugly.  But even they are great, being that they are feed sacks, in all their glory.

I'm a very happy woman!

Garage Sale Finds!

I was out-and-about today and saw that my neighbor up the street was having a garage sale.  So, being a good neighbor, :) I stopped.  I'd want her to stop at mine, right?

She had a very colorful polyester quilt that no one had bought--and I didn't buy it either--and she also had a bag of fabric.  So of course I went digging through it.  And lo and behold, there were some feedsacks in there!  

So I asked how much she wanted and she said "make me an offer." Well, I don't like taking advantage of people, so I didn't answer her, and just kept digging through the bag.  So after pulling out these 5 pieces of fabric she said "one dollar."  

As I got out my money I asked her if she had any other fabric and she said no.  "What do you want to make?" she asked.  I told her that I make quilts and she said no, she didn't have any more quilting fabric.  As I picked up the 5 pieces I said, "these two are feedsack" (the green floral and the purple and orange stripe).  She acknowledged that they were and said, (AND I QUOTE), "You want to make quilts with feedsacks?"  Like she couldn't believe it.  And this woman was at least 7-8 years older than I am.  Which means, without giving away my age, she has been on Social Security for a number of years.

When I said "yes", she said "Oh, I have a whole box of feedsacks."  I know my mouth fell open and I just stared at her.  She went on to say that she did not have them there with her but that I was welcome to them and if I would leave my name and number then she would call me to come and get them.  If she only charged me one dollar for these 5 fabrics, then I was in hog-heaven (as we say in Texas) to think how little I might get away with paying for a WHOLE BOX of feedsacks!

Of course I gave her my cell number.  And I'll be waiting by the phone.