SPIDERMAN QUILT #3

Today I made Spiderman quilt #3 using this pattern

I did not add any borders to my quilt. The time it took to cut and piece this top was 3.5 - 4 hours. It is 51 inches square.

Thanks Karen for sending me this pattern.

Quilt top, backing and binding ready to donate to Project Linus.

I started with 730 yards of donated fabric
I've used 16.85 yards so far

and only have 713.15 yards left to go

SPIDERMAN QUILT #2

Here is the second Spiderman quilt - 

 Probably still have at least enough Spiderman fabric to create 7 more quilts...

I started with 730 yards
used 15.5 yards so far

only 714.5 yards left to go

Project Linus Quilt #2

Karen gave me the great idea of picking one bolt of the donated fabric and use it until it is gone.

I picked this 10 yard bolt of Spiderman fabric. I had to buy some red and blue fabrics to go with it.

I do have a lot of red and blue fabric but it was bought with the $ we were given for the vet quilts.

I used this simple pattern for the first Spiderman quilt - my squares were 6.5 inches unfinished

Backing and binding

I started with 730 yards
used 11 yards so far

only 719 yards left to go

Elizabeth's College Quilt - The End

I drove into the big city today to  spend the morning with Elizabeth and her sister, Kimmy. The main purpose of this trip was to give Elizabeth the nursing quilt I had made. Plus Elizabeth invited me go dorm room shopping with her! How fun for me to be included.

We met and  I presented her with the quilt as I wanted her to see it before she bought sheets so she could buy some that would go with the quilt.

She opened the quilt and said
"g'ma I have decided not to be a nurse. I thought I told you."

In that split second disappointment must have really showed on my face because she then quickly said
"don't cry g'ma.  I was teasing you. Please don't cry. I am going to be a nurse."

I am happy to say that she LOVES the quilt.

Have to admit a thousand thoughts flew through my mind in that millisecond. What am I going to do with this quilt, do I have time to make another one, what is she going to study... I thought I was prepared if she didn't like the quilt and I guess I wasn't.

Gotta love a happy ending!

Project Linus Quilt #1

Finished the first quilt for Project Linus made from the donation fabric. The quilt measures about 45x55

The blocks are 9.5 inches unfinished

 The  fabric next to the quilt top is the backing and the bottom orange is for the binding

Now to locate a Chapter of Project Linus that is close by...

I'm going to try to keep track of the donation fabrics that are used.

I started with 730 yards, this quilt used 4.5

balance is 725.5

730 YARDS OF FABRIC!!!

My friend, Anne, has closed her quilt shop so she can spend more time with family and travel. She has a granddaughter in Spain she wants to visit.

On her last day of business she gifted me with over 730 yards of fabric to use to make donation quilts.

 The fabric she gave me is mostly to make quilts for kids.

 A lot of the  bolts have 10-12 yards, perfect for backings.

 I need to organize it so like fabrics are together

 There are some great fabrics to use in I Spy quilts

 Now I just need to come up with the patterns that will work with these fabrics. There is no hurry to make these quilts.

I do have a few patterns that use three 1 yard pieces of fabric and that will work with a some of these fabrics. 

I have decided that I won't be able to afford batting to use in all the quilts this fabric can make. I will make the tops, backings and bindings and then pass them along to Quilts of Compassion (Toledo, OH) and Project Linus to finish. 

I am looking forward to getting started on these tops, hoping I can make 2-3 a month.

QOV and Quilts of Compassion

Here are some tops I recently made. 

 These three tops went to Quilts of Compassion in Toledo, OH. Janice came to Nashville and these went home with her. The above top didn't turn out like I expected. A friend gave me a picture and I just didn't calculate the measurements correctly. It is the perfect size if the dark strip goes left to right.

I put the kits together for the vet quilters to piece. The strips for the center of the stars were made by the group. One of the ladies then added the star points and sashing to make the completed top. It was quilted by a friend who recently bought a long arm. Also can't forget about  Barbara who comes to our sew days and just likes to iron!! I am grateful for everyone's help.

We are hoping to have 25 quilts to give out this year on Veterans Day to the Vietnam Vets.

Elizabeth's College Quilt - The Beginning

Our granddaughter, Elizabeth, is off to college next month. She is only going to be 2.5 hours away. She wants to become a nurse. Here is the quilt I made to fit her extra long twin bed.

I mostly had fat quarters to work with and made some hearts and crosses to fill in the spaces. I used
the "falling Charms" pattern from MSQC. I increased the size of the blocks to 8.5 inches unfinished as I wanted to showcase the fabrics

She is terribly sad to leave her cats behind when she leaves so I add this fun cat fabric on the back.

As most of the blocks have a bit of red in them I bound it with this dot.

We are giving it to her this weekend and I hope she likes it...

Quilting with Friends

Some friends and I have decided to make the same quilt pattern. We have given ourselves two months  to finish the quilt.  Our first pattern is -

It is very modern. The blocks are huge. 11x18. After cutting it took about 4 hours to make the top.

Here is my top. I didn't add the small outside border.

I found the exact flower fabric that was used on the cover of the pattern. Here is a close up of the other fabrics.

Can't even tell that the oval fabric is a print in the picture of the completed top. I like it okay, modern quilts aren't my favorite.  I will be donating this quilt to a local cancer treatment center for their patients to use while they are getting their treatments.

The next quilt we are making is

This one I'll make for an older teen for RMH. 

We saw Eleanor Burns at the Paducah quilt show a few weeks back. 

She is a very cheerful, happy, joyous person. She looked a bit fragile. She is still recovering from her heart surgery. We didn't stay for her presentation, everyone in the hall loved her!

Where has the time gone?

We had 8 Vet quilts that weren't given out last year and that means we don't have to make as many this year!

This is the first Vet quilt made this year. Our monthly Vet quilt sew days start up again in May. 

 These quilts are all waiting to be finished, some need bindings and some need to be quilted. They are all going to RMH.

 I have been meeting with friends on Wednesday mornings and we are all making a Lori Holt quilt. I've changed up some of my blocks as some are 6 inch and some 12 inch. I only have a few more to make. The log cabin type blocks on the right are my border blocks.

I am making progress on my hexie flower quilt, only 13 more rows to go (there are 14 and 15 in each row)! The trees I started a few years back and I am planning to make 12 of them in a 4x3 setting to hang above our bed.

I needed a new cover for my ironing board, love the bright happy colors.

I have spent Thursdays since February giving beginning quilting classes to the ladies who work on the Vet quilts. The classes didn't go the way I planned but went okay, they weren't able to grasp everything I tried to teach them. Some did better than others and others quit along the way. I think for the most part we are going to stick to string quilts...I am just not cut out to be a quilt teacher.

Happy (belated) New Year!!!

I had planned on posting this back in January. Time just slipped by...

I certainly didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked in 2017 with regards to quilting. Being in charge of creating 50 Vet quilts sorta took over my life. Even though I had a lot of help it was all very time consuming.

This year, 2018, we are only going to be making 12-15 quilts for Vets. That is so very manageable. We already have 12 finished and ready to present to our local Vets. This year we are concentrating on Viet Nam Vets. I think it will take 3 years of quilt making to cover these vets.

Karen and I are going to try to use up a lot of our scraps this year. We even traded scraps. I've come up with 5 patterns I want to make into a scrappy quilts. When cutting up my scraps I plan on cutting for all 5 quilts at the same time.

Our second granddaughter is graduating this year and is planning on going to nursing school. I bought a bunch of nursing fabric that needs to be turned into a quilt before graduation in May, though I may wait until she finds out which dorm room she gets as I want to make the quilt to fit her bed. It will either be a full size or a extra long twin.

I have one baby quilt to make for our niece's 2nd baby and a log cabin quilt to make for our closest neighbor.

Back in November some quilty friends got together to make some barn quilts. They invited me to join in. I am not a crafter, don't enjoy it at all. I did go to watch. They were making 2x2 ft boards. First they painted their boards white, waited for the paint to dry. Then they drew their designs on the boards. Then they taped off the areas to be painted first. Painted the first area. Waited for that to dry. This is when I left. I guess quilting gives me instant gratification, even though it takes quite awhile to make a quilt.

I came home and decided that I really wanted a barn quilt, one that was 4x4 ft.

The perfect solution for a non-crafter is to go to etsy and see what they had in the size I wanted.

It came in the middle of November and I actually waited until Christmas morning to unwrap it! I just love it so much. Makes me smile every time I come home. We put it on the side of a shed. My thoughts are that I just might buy a barn quilt every year until this side of the shed is covered...
Even though the description said it had been waterproofed I sprayed it again.

Bill couldn't figure out what it was that he bought me for Christmas!

I made a total of 39 quilts in 2017 and used about 179 yards of fabric. Hoping to do a bit better in 2018.