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!

New Quilt Room Update

I have not been able to do much in the quilting department for a few weeks now.  Between work and the basement and then being sick I have not accomplished much.
I quilted some potholders the other day and today I sewed the bindings on.  I just need to hand stitch them now and they will be ready as Christmas gifts.
I also have purchased the flat sheet for my grand daughters birthday quilt and will soon get it loaded on the HQ.  I need to finish it by March.
I have not progressed on the baby quilt that is due in January.  I am struggling with just how I want to piece the various blocks to go into this quilt so I am stalled right now. I really need to push ahead on this quilt and I will soon.
I just went down and took a few picutres to show the progress that is being made down there.  It is slow but the tile, carpet and plumbing is now complete.  This is big progress and it looks great. This is the kitchette with porcelin tile. Not a good picture.

This is the livvingroom with the fireplace.  This is a very large room.

This is my sewing room. This shows the lighting, fan and the doors that are going in the room.  I have 3 eight foot lengths of track lighting in the room. I have been teased allot about how much lighting I have in my room but I am thrilled to finally have good lighting to sew by.

I will have laminte flooring in this room.  It is a light wood grain laminte and is beautiful.

As you can see it is not done yet.  We got the entryway done so we could get the carpet laid up next to it.



I am hoping that we make some good progress over the holidays.  We are going to be off work for a total of 11 days.  That includes two weekends.  This is allot of time off for us and we plan to really make a difference downstairs.

I will sign off for now but will try to give some updates soon.



Bonnie Hunter and Mystery Quilts

I am a great follower of Bonnie Hunter.  I have been reading her blogs for years now and have tried my hand at many of her quilts on her website Quiltville.
I was able to do her first msytery quilt, loved it and gave it to my grand daughter Lizzy for her birthday that year.

Lizzy loves this quilt.

I have also made the Tabacco Road quilt when Bonnie gave it as a mystery and I have it on my bed right now.

Underneath this quilt is Orange Crush.

I have made many more of Bonnie's quilt along the way. Double Irish Chain is one of my favorites.

I have more quilts of Bonnie's that I  have made but this post is getting a little too much in pictures so I will make another post with Quiltville quilts later.

I love Scrappy!!

What I am Working on Now

I have not been able to work on too many quilting things lately because of work and the basement that we are trying to fininsh.  The basement is coming along very slowly and it is very frustrating.

Today I took off from work so the Electrician could come and finish up our electrical stuff.  He didn't show up at all and did not call.  I also had a tile guy coming over for a bid on the bathroom and kitchen tile and he didn't show either.  I had another tile guy coming at 6:30 tonight but he called and said the weather is too bad and wants to come tomorrow evening.

I worked on a couple of things while I waited.  I needed to make pillow covers for the sofa pillows and I have almost finished them today.  I just need the backing for them now.

I have also made the official start for the baby quilt that I need to have done by January.  This is our 21st grandbaby.  I have made these cute embroidered barn animals into quilts several times. This one will be green and yellow as our daughter is not going to find out what is coming until the baby arrives.

I have all the words done also so I need to clean up the threads on these and trim them to the size I want them to be.  I will be making green and yellow blocks to go with them. I will be backing this quilt with minky and will not put in batting.  I have seen a few of the baby quilts made this way on the web and decided I wanted to try this out.

Well, this will make two posts today but I am not sure when I will be able to post again so I think this is pretty good.