June, better late than never

If you're considering starting a blog, one factor to consider before sharing it with your family is that it makes it very hard to talk about Christmas or birthday presents. There's also a good chance that you'll get asked why you haven't put up any photos recently. I have been sewing though.

I missed the deadline for the June UFO. I did finish it except for the binding by the end of the July 4th weekend. This quilt was originally intended to be a Christmas gift. But now I'm not sure. I'm still weighing if it will go with the intended recipient's house or not. hmmm.....

It started out as a pile of partly pieced strips:

I did a pseudo-quilt as you go technique, then came back and did a decorative stitch on each strip. I think I saw something similar in a catalog that inspired me. It's about 40x60".

I also finished up this one in May:

This was my #6 nephew's graduation quilt. The pattern is Tennessee Waltz. It's been done for awhile. All it needed was a label. I also wanted to get it shipped so he would see it before the rest of the world. Detail shot:

Additionally, I got the binding on two quilts to send to Japan. They're nothing fancy, but they'll keep someone warm. These are going to Quilts 4 Japan.

Other sewing:

I finished all my subway blocks and the top. Next up is quilting.

I've been working on my Chez Moi 2 quilt blocks for the past several months and completed that top, too.

I've working on the Glorified nine-patch blocks.

And I made a pillow for a retirement gift for a co-worker:

I've also started and finished my UFO for August. I learned last month. Do the UFO first, then catch up on other stuff. :) You'll have to wait to see that one.

Cobblestones and Bricks

Here's another of my niece/nephew quilts. Number 4 of 8. This one has actually been done for awhile so I can't really call it a completion for 2009, though I did just get the label on it. Sorry for the lackluster photo. The quilt is black and white...no pink at all. It's an issue with the camera flash and poor lighting. The pattern came from http://quilting.about.com/. There are lots of free patterns available there. The whole thing is made with 2 1/2" strips so it would be very jelly roll friendly. I had a lot of fun picking out fabrics for this. There are probably 30 or 40 different fabrics in it.

2010 Goals

Goals

I break my goals down into monthly segments. I won't bore you with a list of those, though I'm sure you're all losing sleep over the state of my coat closet. I do have quilty goals though. My list for January includes three:

• Finish cutting out the next nephew's quilt. - DONE! This is the last picture I'll be putting up of the nephew quilt, by the way, at least until it's finished and gifted.

• Complete Step 2 of Carolina Christmas. - DONE! Look at those points! Aren't they sweet!

• Finish Le Jardin Block 1. - getting there. I still have another week to finish that one.

I've never been a Trimmer, the kind of person who trims up blocks at each step, but I do want to move my piecing to a higher level. Plus I've been truly inspired by Nicole over at Sister's Choice Quilts (http://sisterschoice.typepad.com). Look through her blog. It's just full of eye candy. Her piecing is so precise. She's also a Trimmer. I thought it was time to dip my tool in that pool and give it a try, and I'll be danged if it didn't make a difference. I trimmed the half square triangles (the green one with the white one in the lower right hand corner of the block). Last night I sewed the large green triangles on, and I didn't lop off a single point on the small green triangle. Not. A. Single. One. /pats back. Now I noticed when I was ironing that I sewed about three of the large triangles on reversed, but I'm not going to rip them out. /smirk My perfectionism has limits. I'm more of a good-enough-ist.

I'm going to trim them again this afternoon when we get back from errands. We're getting an exercise machine. I hope to locate the quilt shop in that area too, so it will be worthwhile.

more tomorrow.

a

Parade of Quilts 2009 - Olde Hickory

Yay! UPS finally came through and delivered the box of presents (late). I can talk about those quilts now. This is another quilt in my niece/nephew series. I decided it would be nice if I made all my nieces and nephews quilts when they graduated high school. My SIL has 8 children. Yes, I think she's out of her mind, and yes, I have told her that on more than one occasion. And, yes, I'm a little out of my mind too. If I could go back in time and give my younger self a stern talking to, I would. This is number....[counts on fingers]...five. I'm on the downward slope. Yes! My guidelines were, "dark colors, not girly."

This pattern is Olde Hickory by Cottage Creek Quilts. The first two quilts I made I hand-quilted. They turned out rather nicely. Then reality set in on quilt three. I hated the quilting pattern I chose. It was torture to do, so I ripped it all out (about 25% of the top) and sent it out to be long-armed. Since then, I've been sending my larger quilts to Deb at Special Stitches (www.specialstitches.com) for quilting. Here's a detail shot of this quilt. She chose a variegated thread that just looks fabulous. The borders really sing with this thread. It looks even better in person, trust me.