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.