Orphan Quilts or UFO

I have seen allot of blogs this month talk about completing UFO's or cleaning out old stuff in the quilting stash. Last June my daughter in laws and a couple of grand daughters worked on cleaning out all my orphan blocks and made up 2 tops.  They have been sitting in my quilting room ever since. I have now quilted, bound and washed these two quilt tops and a majestic mountain top I put together from left overs from another majestic mountain quilt I have made but not quilted yet.

It has felt very good to get these done.  They will now be sent off as charity quilts.

When I look at the both of these quilts I see so many other quilts I have made. These quilts are made up of other quilts I have already made and sent on their way.

Even the backing on these quilts remind me of quilts I have made. I hope that who ever ends up with these quilts will enjoy them.

This quilt has thrift shirt backing just like Bonnie Hunter was talking about last week. I thought it was a great idea to use up some of the shirts I have collected.

I really love scrappy quilts.

Quilt Kits

Most of my quilts are made either by Bonnie Hunter patterns or my own design. But I have purchased and made two quilt kits. The first was around 2006 when I went to a quilt show here in Utah. I got really taken with the "Meet Me in Paris" quilt by JohnaLee Burk from Panquitch, UT. She has this pattern made up in several different ways and I picked a rose and cream colored kit.
When I purchased this kit I intended it to be for me but about the same time I asked my mother if she would like a quilt for her birthday.  She was very happy about that and when I asked her what color she told me mauve. Then I was showing her this quilt kit and telling her how excited I was about this quilt. She then let me know that this was a beautiful quilt and I quickly understood that she would like this quilt.  Now mind you, this quilt is not mauve but apparently this did not matter.
So I proceeded to make this quilt. It took months to complete and I found a good longarm quilter to quilt it for me. I love quilts with cotton batting not polyester.  My mother does not like cotton batting because that is the only way her mother quilted. So I had to get this quilt done with polyester batting, much to my chagrin.  She loves this quilt! I made her pillow shams to match along with a few throw pillows. She shows it to everyone when they come to her apartment. I was going to take a new picture of this quilt on her bed last week and I even took my camera with me but I forgot to take the picture. So this one will have to due.

I have also purchased another quilt kit called "Colorwash Irish Chain" by HeatherWorksQuilts. This kit was also purchased at the same quilt show a couple of years ago. I guess I should stop going to this quilt show.
This is a beautiful quilt and I choose a blue color. To this day I don't know why I picked that color because I am not particularly fond of blue. I finished this quilt last January and I call it my January quilt. I really don't like this quilt. It is beautiful but it is not scrappy. I really don't like matchy matchy. I love scrappy. I really believe this will be the last quilt kit I will buy.

I custom quilted in the center of the block with the flower and also some very small pebbling. I am pretty happy with the quilting and it does look very striking on the bed.

I love Scrappy!

It Sure Is Cold Out There

It sure is cold outside here in Utah.  The high for today will be 23 degrees and we will be going down from there. It will be 14 degrees on Sunday.
I have been busy with the house and job interviews.
I will try to get two labels made today for 2 quilts. I have finished my grand daughter's quilt that I showed on the last post. She will be three years old in late April. This quilt started out as a leader ender. I also had started another 9 patch in pink with a bit smaller square. I gave the Mom the choice between the two. She chose purple. I really like how this quilt turned out.

I also took a picture outside to see if I could get a good shot. It is very overcast today so it didn't take very well.

I still like the contrast from the snow though but I don't like seeing my foot prints. Doesn't make for a very clean pic.
The backing is a sheet and I just love the colors.  I sure like using sheets because it saves so much time for me and you can't beat the price of a full flat sheet to use for these twin size quilts.
I am not making any progress on my red and white quilt. My weeks are flying by and I am getting allot done but there is still so much to do.  I guess that is life.
Well, I need to get busy breaking up all the chicken I am cooking for the enchiladas we are having tomorrow for our monthly Saturday lunch with all the kids.  There will be 9 adults and 9 grandkids.  We have a great time with them. Tonight we pick up two grandson for a sleepover for their birthdays this week. They are turning eight.
I will return next week.

Long Time Since I Last Blogged

I have not blogged since the 7th of December. Allot of that had to do with the holidays but it also had to do with the fact that 3 days after I last blogged I was RIFed (Reduction in Force).  I work for the University of Utah and that is a government term.

This was a total surprise and so it has taken me some time to come to terms with that and try to move on.

We are still working on our basement finish and with the holidays I have been able to keep very busy, which is a good thing.

First off, we had a great Christmas.  We celebrate on Christmas Eve with all our kids and grandchildren.

We had 21 over for dinner and our program which also includes caroling. My grandkids like the caroling even better than the food. This was not all of our children and grandchildren. Our oldest son has 7 kids and our only daughter has 4 with one on the way.  They were not able to attend.
I made some potholders and gave them away as Christmas gifts and forgot to take pictures of them.
I have made tremendous progress on the baby quilt.  I have the quilt completely done, a pillow to match and 9 burp pads. I backed this quilt with minky and no batting to try out what I have been reading online for a year. I am OK with it but the quilt feels limp.

I took this picture out in the snow. I am trying different ways to capture the quilts. I learned some of this from  Kathy of Tamarack Shack Longarm Quilting.  She takes great pictures of her quilts.

I know that the burp pads are mostly pink but when I started the quilt my daughter did not want to know boy or girl so we agreed on a yellow and green generic quilt.  After I was about finished she found out it is a girl.  The burp pads in pink are OK for that reason but honestly, I just had more left over pink flannel and she didn't care.

I have also finished the quilting on my granddaughter Katya's birthday quilt.  Her birthday is in April so I am ahead of schedule.

I will have a better picture when the quilt is washed, labeled and ready to give.  I always do a pillow sham to match the quilt or pillowcase to match for the boys. I give these to them the following birthday.  I prepare it now so it is not forgotten and so I don't use up all of the fabric in something else.

I am planning to work on my blog every week now and hope to show more of my quilts and the progress on my new quilting room.

For now I will sign off and wish you a wonderful New Year!