Two More Tops

       Two more tops done. I may have started this one over 10 years ago. I used it to demonstrate the Thirtysomething technique when I was teaching. I would have made it bigger but I don't have any more red fabric left except for Civil War prints. It's called Family Tree. The pattern is in The Thirtysomething Block Book. It will remain a UFO for now.

Since Covid-19 struck, I've been in a quilt shop maybe 4 times. In and out quickly. I'm planning to go soon. It should be fun. I want to plan carefully because I don't need to add to my stash for the fun of it. Well, maybe a little. But maybe not red. Mark always told me to have fun when I went off to a quilt shop and that does mean to shop, right?  

This Triple four-patch was started earlier this year when Stashbusters started a  Trail Mix SewAlong. I just loved the block. The quilt has 5 different blocks in it, but since I made small wheel chair quilts with my blocks, I only used 2 or 3 different blocks per quilt. There are several ways to color the blocks and piece them too. This is what I ended up with. I won't be including a border on this one. And some day I may just add more blocks, provided the colors don't look out of place.

I took this picture of the bald eagles this morning out my sewing room window. They are sitting on the edge of the street enjoying their breakfast of a possum road kill, 3 days old.  Uck. They have been around all week. Why didn't they eat it earlier?  The birds were by the creek last spring for a few weeks, too. I wish I was quicker with the camera, I would have loved a picture of them in flight. 

 The "Creek" is Sugar Creek also out in front of the house a few hundred feet. Crazy full of wildlife. I've seen otter swimming in it. Again there is a new beaver dam this winter. This one is fairly close to the house. When we found it, we came upon a  deer skeleton  within a few feet of it. I haven't seen the beaver in years, just the stumps of the trees and bushes they cut down. I've heard them slap their tails on the water a few times. That's pretty cool. 

I'm not sure how I will finish the year with my quilting. I could cut or piece or bind or quilt or, or, or. Tired tonight. We burned 2 brush piles in the woods today. Perfect day for it. We made 14 piles this year and what if we don't get the snow we need to burn them????

A Preview

 This will be interesting. I designed this quilt years ago. Then 4 years ago I chose the fabric from stash. And now members of the Stashbusters online group is using the 54 - 40 or Fight block in quilts they are making. I guess its time to make it. I'm  almost all cut out too, using these fabrics.

 This design is related in that it uses the same unit. The unit goes by several names. A few years back it was Peaky and Spike. Another designer calls it Tri and Recs and uses a ruler set to cut the pieces. There are others. They are common pieces in patchwork and browsing a book of blocks you will see them often enough. I've used them a few times already in several quilts.

I'm rusty at this so giving links isn't going to work today, but check the quilts on posts dated

Jan 1, 2018

Nov 10, 2019

and Dec 7, 2021

A Few More

 I  Found another picture of a quilt I haven't shown. I quilted it using a circle template. 

Standard Stars

And another quilt top. 

Shoo-fly

This last one I put together a few days ago. I began cutting and sorting scraps and separated out the softer tones of the Civil War prints. All the little scrap triangles were already cut. I had no plan.I considered options as usual. Decided to keep it small, do a star then a few borders. I found the outer border in the wash basket. All I have left of that piece now is a piece 1" x 3 1/2"!

Spontaneous Sewing

There is still another 9 days till 2022. I am hoping to get another 3 tops done. The blocks are done, they just need to be joined and bordered. I'd like to get them done and moved out of this room. Then my focus will shift to finishing. (longarm quilting) That's in another room so I don't know what 'Im all fired up to get those done and outta here for. They must clutter my mind!

More I've done

 Some of these quilts I may have shown before in progress. Even  a few years ago. I wanted a better picture for my Pintrest board I labeled, Those I Did. They aren't labeled well on Pintrest as I am not intersted in sitting at the computer that much. As I was loading pictures to Pintrest I called it my Catalog as I have directed nieces and nephews to choose a quilt from that board. They can copy and paste in  a text to me.  Names aren't that important to me. Can you tell? And there are still a few I remember but don't have a picture of and they are already gone. 

Delectable Mountains

This is "Bermuda Sunrise", a Frog Hollow Design

Still thinking about a border for this one.

This was a collaboration between my niece and myself. She is a beginning quilter and I showed her how you can arrange a variety of common units in a variety of ways to fit within a 9-patch set up. It didn't take much for her to figure it out. All my pieces were precut. she designed the blocks and  I did the sewing. Lots of fun and a great lesson.

A little donation

 Following are some of the quilts or tops I made for donation. The little ones are sure fast. I'm sure I didn't get pictures of them all. It can be frustrating to get a good picture. I seem to get the best picture with a flash if I take it at night when it is dark in the room and there is no other light to influence the color. That's the tip I got from a professional photographer that shot pics for my first book.

Some I pieced and quilted, some I just quilted for donation for our church group. 

I made two of these. The blocks had been sitting for years. Finally a solution.

 This one sold quickly at our church fall festival.

The 4 above were made with orphan blocks piling up in a drawer.

The  2 below were made as a round robin with the Stashbusters online group.

Ill go round up some more quilts to photograph and maybe I'll get those posted soon too.

I hope you enjoyed the show.

 

A Little Rusty

 I don't think I ever intended to stop posting to my blog. But life got in the way. A herniated disk at C7-T1 made it difficult to do much of anything, add to that a good case of arthritis and I am not too comfortable at the computer anymore. It hasn't stopped me from piecing quilt tops at least. I do a bit of quilting and hope to do more now that it is winter and my back is better.  I'll plan to post pictures of what I've put together. Some for me, some donation quilts. our church group thought we might focus on wheelchair quilts so those will be smaller than usual. They haven't been delivered yet, so don't know how they will be received. Between Covid-19 and my back, I haven't met with the ladies much at Studio 3 either. Good thing it is not important that I show these in any particular order. 

I drew this up eons ago. I can tell cause it was on graph paper and I haven't used graph paper in years.

I made this just a few years ago but didn't add a border. I found matching fabric online, added the border, quilted it and donated it to church festival for a raffle.

I thought I'd try an off-center setting for these double 4-patch blocks.

I added one more row to this and put it away cause I was undecided about adding a border. 

I drew these Butterflies up years ago.

                                                      Time to make it.

My daughter's friend chose this quilt.

This was an old class sample I finally finished to donate.

This is the latest using strips and strings of 1930's repro's, Fast and fun. I'll likely do it again.

Doing this much tells me I have more pictures to take. Some are completed tops without a final picture. I quilted a bunch of small ones, mostly old class samples and donated to a nursing home. Some bigger tops were quilted too, but I posted them before as a top.  I also donated a bunch of quilt tops to QOV for someone else to finish and just passed on a box with 8 tops for a stashbuster friend to finish and donate. That would be Ellen. Thanks you Ellen.  I hope to post the donation quilts next. Then I'll take more pictures and may add a few more. I do like to see them all here on the blog.  Maybe if I used the voice to text feature I would post more. Something to think about.