Blogger's Quilt Festival

I just discovered "Blogger's Quilt Festival"

Grab yourself an adult beverage . . . or if you are like me, a large icy Diet Coke with Lime . . . and head over to Amy's Creative Side for some show and tell.

Over the past 5 years, I have made over 50 quilts and quilted over 200 quilts for others.  However, I decided to share a quilt that is near and dear to my heart.  It is not a bright, shiny new quilt, it is not my best, it is not the prettiest, it is not the most fantastic quilting--but it IS my first quilt.  It was made with love and the inclusion of a few symbolic details.  This is an adaptation of  the pattern "Winter Wonder" by Meme's Quilts.

Here in Idaho, we have pretty hefty winters.  After living in state for 26 years, graduate school took my daughter to Las Vegas, Nevada  for 3 years.  Year-round wearing of shorts and flip flops made her really miss Idaho's changing seasons.  So, I made this "Winter" quilt for her and sent it to her the second Christmas she was there.  Made with flannel and homespun, she would always have "winter" no matter where she lived.

It's all machine appliquéd but the characters have hand stitched expressions.

You see, this one is longing for the snowflakes also!

These two snow people represent our daughter and her hubby.  During her high school days, she had a dark teal colored parka that she wore to school and also wore when she went skiing.  She had a matching knit head band that she wore to keep her ears warm.  She loved wearing that outfit because she loved that color.

Well, at this point her coat was long gone, but I still had her headband in our box of winter accessories.

I took the headband apart and made a 3-D hat for the snow lady and with upholstery thread, sewed on a fuzzy 3-D pompom. 

Here is another knit strip used for the man's hat band.

For their eyes, I dug the buttons out of my grandmother's button box.  One set of buttons from her maternal great-grandmother and one from her paternal great-grandmother.  Rudolph's eyes are some old mother-of-pearl hand carved buttons.

I had never used a longarm quilting machine so I called my best friend whom I have known for over 50 years.  We used to sew together when we were kids and we are still sewing~!

Back of the quilt.

She lives about 100 miles from me, so she invited me to come and stay over night and she would help me quilt this quilt on her Gammill.  We had a great time!  We worked late that night and then next morning, her hubby made us sourdough pancakes topped with fresh blackberries topped with fresh homemade whipped cream.  Yes, it was amazing I know.... I felt like a princess~!

Anyway, these trees encircle the entire outer borders as do the stars.  I chose these evergreens to represent the circle of life as they are continuously self-renewing.  As for the stars . . .  she would always be a "star" to me.

   The heart/mittens represent that I will always hold her heart in my hand.

I love her even if she acts a little "flaky."

I wrote a letter to her accompany the quilt explaining all these things and more.  Of course, she loved it, but it pretty much resided on the back of the couch until she finished school.

  Then they moved to Minnesota where it's been on active duty for the last 3 years.

It's Been a Busy Week.

Whoop, Whoop Friday Link Up~!  I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict to see what everyone has been doing this week:

 . . . finished my Hands 2 Help Charity Challenge and mailed it off to Judy of Green Fairy Quilts for their charity.

Hands 2 Help Quilt

Back

. . .  pieced and quilted this little denim camping quilt for my grandson's 7th birthday.

 . . . made 3 patriotic pillowcases

 . . . cut out 32 t-shirts for a graduation quilt for my nephew.

. . . in between, I mended 2 pair of jeans, replaced a 26 inch zipper in a sweatshirt and installed a new 3.5 inch zipper in a teeny tiny pair of capris.  Replacing this little zipper took 4 times longer than that huge 26 inch zipper!  Next time Grandma might just buy her a new pair of capris!

I even got the lawn mowed this week.  I feel like the Energizer Bunny~!

Happy Camper Denim Quilt

This denim quilt (44 x 54) is for our little grandson who just turned 7.

He loves to camp, fish and hunt with his Dad.

Since I am the "used-denim-pants-receiver" in our family, I have 2 shelves full of denim pants strips--enough for about 12 (60 x 90) quilts.  

A couple of years ago I took about 6 garbage bags full of denim pants that everyone had given me and cut out all the usable parts--eliminating about half of the bulk of the pants.  Here are another dozen pair from my son to cut out usable parts before shelving.  Not too much of his pants are usable, he wears them pretty thin before I get them.

Over the years, I have tied exactly 8 denim quilts: all for family.  Back in the day, before rotary cutters, it was quite a chore to scissor up a pair of pants, then trace the 6 inch squares (I still have my cardboard pattern).  That was just the beginning: cut the squares, sew, and then when the top was assembled . . .and this is my favorite part . . . use the pliers to pull the yarn through the quilt.

My hubby's quilt with flannel backing.

Then came the longarm quilter.  Now, I know to always use a brick pattern so there are no 4-piece junctions and the seams all have to be pressed open.  A little spray starch helps make them crisp and flat.  One thing I have always done, is turn some of the denim wrong side out to get the color contrast I need.

This is just simple freehand swirly-water quilting. 

I used a higher loft batting.  When this is folded up it will make a great cushion to sit on.  Folded in half it will make a nice mattress pad for his sleeping bag.  Denim can be drug around the forest for a week and it still looks great, as it doesn't pick up the dirt like other materials.  

Camping flannel for the back.

I found a plaid flannel in my stash that matched.  There was enough to splice my 45" width of fabric to make the backing and a bias binding.

Happy Camper label.

Here is a link to several other Denim Quilts quilted on the longarm in last couple of years.

Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge

Wow, I kinda like this.  After I made my plan and got started, I was wondering if it was really going to come together like I wanted.

Thanks to Sarah for arranging this Hands 2 Help Challenge!

It has been fun to get to know other quilters from all around the world....as we share our progress on these quilts.

As some of you will remember, here are the fat quarters (2 each) my partner sent.  From my stash, I added fabrics on the right.

This is just a freehand wandering sunflower that I thought would be a great compliment since there are sunflowers in 3 of the fabrics.

I had to take advantage of the sunlight before it set this evening, so my mitered binding corners are not hand stitched closed in this photo...yet.

 

Fabric for the back is a cut from a hand dyed wide backing I got in an online close-out sale a couple of years ago.

Oh, umm . . . yeah, there's more . . . here are the left over blocks from the front.

Yay~!  It feels good to be done.

 I hope my partner likes what I have done with her fabrics.

Patriotic Pillowcases

Carol over at Brown Quilts has an interesting story about these pillow cases.  This morning, I made these 3 pillow cases and sent them out to her in Florida.

The main reason I am sharing this with you, is that each of these take about 30 minutes to make.  If you have not learned the "sausage" method of making pillow cases, here is a link: Quilt of Valor Presentation Cases.  There are a lot of other tutorials online--some with different names--but this is where I learned this fantastic quick and easy method of making pillowcases.  The band, the flange, and the body of the case are all sewn together at once.  Besides being super quick, when you are done, the interior of the case is completely finished with an easy French Seam and no seam allowances showing.

I had not made a French Seam since high school.  Back in the day, when we used to make all our own dresses, this is how I learned to finish the interior of my garments.  This was way before zigzag stitches.  This was way before other finishing and decorative stitches were available on sewing machines . . .

 . . .and light years away from my serger . . .

Whoop, Whoop Link Up~!

Hands 2 Help Challenge  update.

I finally got all the fabric cut for my challenge quilt.  It's off to a good start . . .

 Inserting the wonky stars hardly distorts the background fabric as long as you keep the pattern going the same direction.

Here is a cute little quilt kit for Quilts for Kids that I finished this week.

The Hands 2 Help Challenge and Whoop Whoop Fridays are hosted by Sarah over at  Confessions of a Fabric Addict   Head on over to visit her blog to see who else is linking up today. 

Quilts for Kids

A Quilts for Kids kit that took twice as long as it should have!  First time I had used one of their kits--all precut: the squares for the pin wheels, the borders, the backing.  No binding fabric, I don't know if that is standard or not, but that was the least of my problems.

The pin wheels went smooth, the first electric green border went smooth with only 2.75 inches extra.  The second blue border should be 3.5 inches wide and match the blue triangles in the pin wheels.  However, it was 8 inches too short to go all around the quilt.  Hmmm....

Then I measured the back.  It was a single width of fabric--45" with selvages.  The quilt top at this point, when finished, would measure 47 inches wide.  Hmm....  Lengthwise, the backing was only 4 inches extra.  I very briefly considered cutting down the top . . .but I had just matched all those seams and I really liked that pop of electric green.  I thought it needed to stay.

Most of you would just rummage through your stash and come up with a substitute for the border.  I very briefly thought about that also and I even went to my fabric closet to confirm that I don't have anything remotely close to these colors in my fabric stash.

So, I did what folks do when they live out on the farm 60 miles from the closest fabric store.  I cut up the too-small back and used strips from it to make a narrower (2.5") second border and then pieced the back with the original border that was  8" too short.

Now, the back was just barely bigger than the top.  To quilt this, I had to baste 3" strips torn from old sheets to the backing to give me enough backing to pin on the quilt frame.

 I think it was a good save.

I had to run in to town Tuesday for parts for the farm and stopped by the fabric store for the checkered binding.  I put that on today because I want to get this in the mail when I go back to the post office on Friday. With fuel prices, gone are the days when I jet into town whenever....  

Oh, one more really funny little detail: when I finished the quilt, I had about 8 inches left of the too short border that caused all the problems in the first place~!

Quilt of Valor

Brenda in Oregon pieced this QOV top.

This fabric said, "Twirly, swirly stars, please!"

Tomorrow, it will be on it's way back to Oregon for Brenda to bind, label and request a destination.

Want to learn more about Quilts of Valor?

Sent to Daniel, a member of the 173rd airborne brigade combat team.  Injured while deployed to Afghanistan, specifically the Korengal Valley.