Pillow talk

Our town hosted a hot air balloon festival. It was fun to watch the colorful balloons floating over the town!

Loved the strawberry!

Fun Jack-O-Lantern

My little art quilt group is having a pillow challenge. I made this out of an orphan block. I had a 14" pillow form on hand, so tried to use that. I quilted the block and then sewed on some bias binding in a swirl.

Pillow challenge

 A friend in my local guild showed me how to do a zipper closure instead of the overlapping flaps. I like the way it turned out! I don't do a lot of throw pillows, but will use this method when I do make any more.

Zipper back

Linking to:

Judy

Beth

Sarah

Nina-Marie

Home sewn by us

Beth

Finally feeling Human!

Sunset at the library

We started off the new year with a  visit from our daughter and 2 granddaughters (4 and 6). It was a wonderful visit! Except, sweetie and I both caught a horrible cold from the 4 year old. Finally feel like we are getting over the sickness.  Also, 4 year old left one of her "stuffies" behind.  A little kitty named "Sunset".  So to ease the situation we have been taking Sunset around town and sending the girls photographs of her adventures. Yesterday Sunset went to the library.

Knitmas scarf

I have only knit dishrags all autumn long. I saw a MKAL (mystery knit along) on Ravelry and decided to go for it. It is called Twelve Days of Knitmas. One clue each day for 12 days starting on December 26th. I didn't finish in the 12 days, more like 18. But it was fun to knit something other than dishrags.

Courthouse Steps

In November I tested a new class at my local guild. Courthouse Steps. I am still working on getting the pattern tidied up. I had a bunch of cut strips to show how to sew the blocks together leftover from class. I finally got all of them sewn and here is the batch of blocks. Right now I haven't decided on a setting. I am going to quilt as you go each block, trying out different designs.  I have a couple of other design options for this pattern, I will show them soon.



Linking up with:

Nicole

Beth

Nina-Marie

Birdie

Sarah

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I am a week late, but it has been very hectic around here and so I am starting off the new  year a bit delayed. It has been a while since I posted. We spent 4 months away from home without easy access to the internet. It is easy to get out of the habit of a weekly post.

Orphan Friendship Quilt

The last quilt finished last year was a project that came from an activity called Orphan Night. Everyone donated their Orphan blocks, they were sorted into groups of like minded blocks and the groups of quilters put them together into tops. Anyone who had participated (donating or sewing) got a chance to win a top. I had worked on this top with a friend. And another friend won the top! I volunteered to quilt it for her.  It was fun.

Inspired by Endangered Species

Dwarf Bearclaw Poppy

I have participated in several quilt  book challenges with Donna De Soto. The most recent endeavor is "Inspired by Endangered Species". I received my pre-release copy yesterday, and it is fabulous! The book should be out in the next couple of weeks. My quilt is the Dwarf Bearclaw Poppy. It is found only in a small area of Washington County, Utah.  They have a very specific habitat and have not been able to be grown elsewhere. Their habitat is being encroached by housing and also was divided by a freeway.  I am thrilled to be a part of this project!  The entire collection will be shown at Road to California at the end of this month.




Linking to:

Sarah

Laura

Nina-Marie

Beth

Judy

Catching Up

I got behind on blog posts, so I am trying to catch up. I hit the local thrift shop every now and then. Sometimes to drop off some stuff and sometimes just to look around. You never know what you are going to find. This shop is benefitting the local hospital. I happened to be there at the right time!

Thrift Shop find!

 They had about a half dozen vintage quilts come in! I  saw someone walking out after purchasing one so went over to the blanket rack. There was a yo-yo quilt, an old applique quilt, a 70's polyester quilt and then this 1930's Double Wedding Ring!  I snatched the DWR as fast as I could! It is in pretty good shape. The backing is folded over as the binding.  There are a few faded areas, probably where the sun hit it while it was on a bed. All hand pieced and hand quilted.

Close up

 I have been participating in Sock Madness on Ravelry this spring. It has been fun! I am out now, but made it to the 3rd round. Here are my socks from the competition.

13 Memories

This was the warmup pattern, 13 Memories. It was so fun to knit! I had a sock and a half finished when the qualifying pattern dropped, so went back to it between rounds.

Smock Madness

This was the qualifying pattern, Smock Madness. I loved this one! The color is bright and cheerful and the knitting was fun! Learned a new smocking stitch.

Demogorgan's Lair

The pattern for the first round was Demogorgan's Lair. Toe ups and each sock had a unique lace pattern. It was hard, but I made it through!

Echoes

The pattern for the second round was Echoes. I don't do a lot of colorwork on socks, so this was a challenge.

The third round was another toe up pattern. And we had to knit a very large size. My team was filling up and I realized I did not like the way this pattern was knit and had no chance to finish in time. I only got to the end of the first foot on the first sock. So when I have a few minutes I will ravel the yarn to use in another design.

In between rounds are bonus patterns. I am working on the first bonus, Aka Woolhoney. I switched it to cuff down and am not knitting the lace on the foot. It has been fun to knit. I am about finished with the leg on the second sock.




The winner of last week's drawing is: Bekah! I will message you to get your address.


Linking to:

Nicole
Beth
Judy
Beth S.
Emily
Myra
Sarah
Anja
Nina-Marie

Retreating

In March I went on a quilt retreat with my local quilt guild. They rent a large cabin just outside Zion National Park. It is a sew on your own project type event. Everyone takes turns cooking meals. It was wonderful!  I was able to get a lot done.

Folded points

I don't remember the name of this technique, but we learned it at a guild meeting and I was able to finish tacking the folds down. It will be a potholder. I liked the technique, not sure if I will use it much. I could see that it would make a nice flower.

Quilting

My main project was to quilt a wedding quilt for my cousin's daughter. Last year I did a post on my collection of unquilted tops. I sent her the link and this is the one she chose.

Quilting is finished!

And I was able to finish the quilting!  I did not bring the binding fabric along so I completed that at home. And as it sometimes happens, I did not take a photograph of the completely finished quilt.

Close up of quilting

Back up project

I then pulled out my strips and clothesline to work on a bowl. This guy is going to be big! I ran out of strips and need to find some more in that color scheme. It sorta has a color scheme.

Sewing area

The sewing area was in the main room. Big windows to showcase the beautiful view!  There was snow on the ground.

View

I decided to hold a giveaway for a book. This is a used book that has been passed around a couple of times. Has the name of two previous owners on it. It is a good book!  Mandala by Katie Pasquini, the 1983 version.

Sorry about the photographs being sideways, I will try to fix it later. To enter, just comment with your favorite spring flower.  Will draw a name on Thursday, May 16th, my son's birthday.

Linking to:

Lorna

Nicole

Beth

Beth S

Judy

Emily

Anja

Nina-Marie

Sarah

Myra

Easily Distracted!

One of the reasons that we chose Kanab is that they rarely get much snow in the winter. Since we have been here that has not been the case. We have had snow every year. And not just a dusting. The storms that have dumped snow on Las Vegas this week and really hit us hard. We are about 3 hours away from Vegas. I am ready for spring!

Monday's storm

 On Monday we got a good 6 inches of snow. I am glad I did not have anywhere to go and could just stay home.

Thursday's snow

 So the next storm rolled through late Wednesday night and all day Thursday. Another 8 inches  of heavy wet snow. I would be thrilled if I had access to my snow dyeing equipment, but it is tucked away in storage in the back of sweetie's shop. And he is visiting his brother in Tennessee, so no help getting it out. And yes, Utah has had a serious drought for the last few years and really needs the snowpack. But I wish it would stay up in the mountains.

13 Memories

I decided to try Sock Madness again this year. It is a knitting competition and last year I was just short in the qualifying round. This is the warmup pattern. I am loving it! So fun to knit!  I love the scrappy feel! Reminds me of scrap quilts.

Sample blocks

Last post I talked about joining in Emily's Medallion QAL. I knew just the thing, I had some 12 inch blocks that were samples from a class and thought they would be perfect to set together for the 24" start of the medallion. Oops. There are only 3 blocks and I only have a strip and a partial of the background. I used that same background in my daughter's wedding quilt and am pretty sure it is used up.

Starry, Starry Night

I had 3 sizes available in the class pattern. This is the medium size and the finished quilt sample for the class.

Close-up of the fabrics

Sewing together the scraps

I must have been organized with that class box, I had all the scraps from the sample quilt in the class box. I loved the look of the colors and started sewing them together all improv like.  Instead of focusing on another plan for the 24" medallion center. I am almost finished with the scraps. Maybe I can get caught up on the QAL before the next round comes out.

Small size

This the small size of the block pattern. I use these to demo the blocks in class. I love these quarter blocks, you can rotate them ala log cabins and make a lot of different designs instead of just the stars.


Linking to:

Nicole

Beth

Judy

Emily

Alycia

Nina-Marie

Sarah

Myrna

Labels and Sleeves

This week's finish is making labels and sleeves.  I tend to put those off and decided to get this last batch of quilts done, done. So now I am ready. When it is time for these guys to get entered into a show, they are ready to go.

Last week I had my lousy dishrag featured. I drew a name and the winner is Beth at Cooking up Quilts! Thanks for the fun comments. I didn't even finish one lousy dishrag this week, so maybe next week. I got about 1/3 of a dishrag done while visiting with my step-mom Tuesday night. I had gone to visit her and to attend the Southern Utah Fiber Art group! It was fun, several women demonstrated various felting techniques.



Linking to:

Nicole

Judy

Beth at cooking up quilts

Emily

Beth

Kathy

Nina-Marie

Sarah

Myra