Relay Raffle

I am well on my way to my second finished quilt of the year! I finished this top this evening.

This will be the raffle quilt for our Relay for Life team this year. I hope to get it basted tomorrow and quilted on Wednesday but there are no guarantees!

Once this one is done I will get borders on Katie's block and then I would like to get some UFOs quilted and finished. I think I have at least 4 tops I could quilt and get finished so that is my next big goal.

Spring is on its way along with lots of outdoor jobs! Over the weekend I got 2 of the five apple trees pruned so if I get some spare time when it isn't raining I need to get out and finish up the other three. Having those done is my next outside goal.

What a Fun Night!

But then, it is always fun at craft night. Tuesday was especially great though because it was Quilt Reveal Night! It is always so exciting to see what creations we came up with this year.

I drew the #1 so I went first to reveal the quilt I made for my friend, Nadine. She seemed to like it...I was so honored to make this for her. As I cut the pieces and sewed the blocks I was given the opportunity to pray for Nadine and the success of her treatment.

Next came Linnea's quilt for Cindy. In the center of the stars are pictures of all of Cindy's grandkids.

Sally our hostess was the next to hang her quilt. This time for Mary. We got to watch this quilt come together. You can't see it in the picture but the colors in this looked so soft - almost as if it was flannel.

Then Linnea left the room so Mary could hang up some of the blocks for Linnea's quilt. Evidently Mary made two other quilts but wasn't satisfied with them so she decided on this one. She had hoped to have at least half of it put together for the reveal but there was a good bit of unsewing that needed to be done so it just wasn't to be. It is going to be gorgeous when it gets finished.

Next up was Nadine's quilt for me! It is great! Now I don't have to make my own black and white quilt with a splash of color!

Our last quilt was Cindy's quilt for Sally. She struggled so with this quilt. She was very proud of herself for actually following the pattern but some of the strips were mighty thin.

All the quilts were so awesome! 


After we finished oohing and aahing we got down the business of figuring out who will be making a quilt for whom. We each just have two more people to make quilts for now, so we figure we will just work on them both, but only one is expected to be finished by May 2014. My first needs to be made for Mary. She is fine with any size and is interested in Black and White with a bit of Red and does like Log Cabin or any more traditional quilt. I will need to look at patterns and see what I come up with. I am hoping to get it done sooner rather than later and then I can get to work on one for Cindy.

First Finish of Firteen ('13)

Here it is!

I love how it turned out! These quilts are very fun to make and I will be making more once a few other projects are finished! This type of quilt really adds fuel to the question some husbands ask - "So you just cut up fabric so you can sew it back together?" - because that is really all I did. Cut up one piece of fabric into little triangles and then sew them back together! I now look at fabrics in a different way wondering how they would work for one of these quilts.

I finished the binding on this one on Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon I finally got the label on the quilt I made for one of my crafting ladies so I could bring it over for the big reveal. Nothing like leaving it until the last moment. I will hopefully get a post done with all the pictures later today.

Yesterday I did another last minute project. This one is for the the round robin group I am in with my sister and niece and other friends. I posted pictures of our last reveal in November and we were supposed to have our beginning block for the next one done by the end of January. Mine is appliqued so I had my work cut out for me (literally). Here is the finished block...

The idea came from a wall hanging I saw in a quilt shop on a long ago shop hop. I managed to get some of the fabrics and it was one of those 'someday' projects. I saw the pile of fabric when I was trying to decide on my block and thought this was a great opportunity to do something about it. This should be a fun whimsical quilt once all the other folks add some borders. 

My next project is my Relay for Life Raffle Quilt. I have it all cut out and a good start on sewing the blocks together so hopefully the top will be done in the next week. When that top is together I need to add some borders to my niece's block for the round robin.

One Block Wonder

Life just doesn't slow down around here. I have been keeping busy with work and getting the business info into the computer. I was focused and finished the computer work by Friday evening! Just in time for my daughter, grand-kids and niece to arrive for the long weekend. Usually when they come I make sure I can spend all my time with the kids but this time I had my quilting class scheduled for Saturday and I wasn't going to miss it!

Here is the quilt top that the person teaching the class made using the pattern. Can you see why I was interested?

Here is the fabric I chose for my quilt. This is the one I liked best but wasn't sure it was as good for this quilt. 

As it turns out, it did work well for the blocks! Here are the blocks I had done by the end of class on Saturday. 

It was so fun to see other quilter's fabric choices and then to see how the blocks turned out. This is the fabric my table mate brought. She wasn't sure if she was going to like it since there was so much of the brown.

But this is how her first blocks turned out! She was still thinking she might add blocks from another fabric to add some green but she was going to wait until she had all the blocks done.

Here is another animal print that someone was using and her first two blocks.

Here is an interesting dragon print

And here is how the first three blocks turned out!

Here are a couple more of the beginning blocks

We had a lot of fun with our company and while the kids were stringing beads on some thread with their uncle I managed to finish up the blocks from the class. This morning before everyone left we went over to the church so we had a place to layout the blocks on a design wall. Here is one of the pictures we took as we were rearranging. 

I am not sure if this is the final picture or not. We pinned all the blocks to the flannel sheet so I can hang it on Sally's design wall tomorrow at craft night and see if I am still happy with it. If I am, I can start putting it all together.

I am definitely excited about trying this technique with some other fabrics!

While I was working on sewing the rest of the blocks, my niece started cutting pieces for my Relay for Life Raffle Quilt. I am making a twin sized Monet's Wedding Ring like this one only I have an off white for the background and miscellaneous scraps for the rings. I got the background fabric today and hope to start cutting tomorrow or the next day.

Meanwhile, I have started cleaning up the sewing room. I got a lot of the mess on the sewing table sorted out so tomorrow I can put some of the piles away where they belong and sort some more! Once it is cleaner it will be much easier to finish up some projects! Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

Just a little late!

It has been nearly a month again since my last post so I thought I should post something even though I really don't have much to say. I have been busy mostly with non-crafty things and Christmas company. 

Our son arrived mid-December and left about a week ago. Daughter 1, son-in-law and grandkids arrived for a whirlwind of activity a few days after Christmas. Niece Katie was here for New Year's Eve and again this past weekend for our 'Epiphany turkey'. And finally, daughter 2 and son-in-law got back home last week to stay. They will be living with as they finish their 'little house on wheels' and SIL trains with Hubby as an appliance repair tech in our family business. 

I started the new year with another jump into Puget Sound at the Olalla Polar Bear Plunge (that's me on the left just before letting go) and have been spending my spare time working on getting the business info into the computer for the tax man! I am hoping to be done in the next week so I can get back in the sewing room. This year, 2013, will possibly the first year I keep up with the business books (or maybe someone else will) as the business expands. 

This past Wednesday I had my quilt guild meeting and I signed up for a class! I usually don't take classes because I can generally figure things out on my own but I figured taking classes with other guild members will help me get to know them more. The class is in a week and is on the One Block Wonder type quilt. I am hoping it is my reward for having all the computer work finished! Yesterday I went shopping for appropriate fabric for the project. I found two. One that is probably better for the project and the other with better colors. I couldn't decide which to buy so I got both and I will decide on the day of the class. If I like how the first one goes I can make the other at quilt retreat at the beginning of March.

The LWR quilters work tying quilts at the church yesterday and when I stopped in to say Hi and give one of the ladies a message (I don't get to help with the quilting since we have our staff meeting at the same time the tying happens) and was asked to make some quilt tops so that might be one of my projects for quilt retreat too. The good news is that if I make some LWR tops I can probably get rid of a box or two of fabric from my sewing room!

Over Christmas I made some more owl hats and tried another pattern for a little girl's hat that came off the yarn wrapper. It turned out great but ended up pretty small so I made it a bit bigger and thought it might be the right size for my granddaughter but it was still small so I let my little princess pick some yarn for me to make a bigger one. She chose 5 colors for stripes and she loved it. I probably wouldn't have chosen those 5 colors but she seems to have a good eye because it turned out great. I am thinking I will use the pattern to finish up some of my smaller balls of yarn. I will also need to get more owl hats made because the quilt show is coming up mid-March and those hats sell like hotcakes!

A Day At Home

I had a great day today! I got to stay home for almost the whole day! I headed to the church to help get things set up for tomorrow morning - The Christmas Program! Needed to make sure the handbell tables were set up before all the chairs were put out. 

I came home and made 48 cupcakes for Birthday Party for Jesus following the program tomorrow. Then I got started on various projects. The first was hanging this print. 

I got it at the bazaar a couple of weeks ago. My daughter told me I could only buy it if I promised to tidy up the grandkids' bedroom. I did that a couple of days ago. I sorted through all the toys and books and as you can see, I even have one empty cubby!

It was so great to be in the sewing room again. I quilted the butterfly quilt I put together at quilt retreat in October and got the binding ready for hand sewing. I also transfered name patches from an old pair of hubby's coveralls to a new pair and ironed several pieces of fabric that I had pre-washed. I am hoping to do more in the sewing room over then next week or so but we will see what actually happens. There are still holiday preparations that need to be taken care of. I should probably put up the tree since the grandkids will be here after Christmas.

I forgot to take a picture of the 9 owl hats before I sent them so I asked my niece, Sarah, to send a picture when she got them and here they are.  

I have the first of the next three all done and all the parts ready for the other two. 

Our son and 'grand-dog' arrived home today for the holidays so things should get interesting. I am trying to talk him into helping me get photos scanned onto a computer. I told him it could be his Christmas present to me but he wasn't sure I was worth that much!

9 Owls Flying

I am so excited! I got the 9 owl hats in the mail this morning! So happy to have them done. I even have three more ready for eyes, beak, etc. Meanwhile, I haven't gotten a whole lot else done! 

I have started working on the business computer work and I have done some cleaning around the house. Today I cleaned up the grandkid's room. It is ready for Christmas company. A few items went up in the attic and while up there I looked through some old frames I have and found some surprises. One might even be a Christmas present. Unfortunately I didn't find a frame for a cute old picture I got at the bazaar. Guess I have to go shopping! 

Tomorrow is work and then a haircut, some shopping and dinner with niece, Katie. I will also be getting my completed blocks for the round robin. Should be a good day!

I hope to do a little work in the sewing room soon on a couple of Christmas gifts. I really want to get busy with some quilting! It has been a while since I did anything at all!