2015 Challenges/ Resolutions

This past year I made a few quilty challenges/ resolutions:

2014 Challenges/ Resolutions

This is new for me and maybe a little late in the month to post. I do not make New Year's challenges or resolutions, although I usually have a few plans. This year I have plans, but I want to put them here so that I will feel more of a push to complete them.

So, plans/ challenges/ resolutions for 2014:

Crown Royal quilt-I have been promising a quilt for my husband made out of the bags that he has saved over more than a decade. I have been gathering inspiration on Pinterest. So many possibilities and possibly more than one quilt with what I have. I hope to have it finished by December. That should be plenty of time.

Three "Finishing the Unfinished" quilt tops-as I have stated, I have three more quilt tops to finish for my friend. I plan to have these finished before mid May.
Also, I hope to make a series on my blog using this title. I have in the past finished quilt tops that others have made. I feel that there are many quilt tops that should be finished, and I plan to continue this.

I also currently have two baby quilts to make with varying completion dates.

That is really all the quilty goals I have planned this year. I am sure there will be a lot more quilt than these six, but this is a good start, right?

I have a really big non-quilt goal/plan for this summer-fall. Let's just hope it works out.

As I am sure you have noticed, I did not complete most of this. That is not to say that I haven't worked on any of it or even thought about it.

 

I worked on the Crown Royal quilt several times, but never got things rolling.

 

I finished one of the quilt tops for my friend and will get on that for the other two. I have backing fabric already; I just never worked any further on the other two. They are next on my list after I finish a t-shirt quilt that needs to be finished asap.

 

I did finish the two baby quilts and several more, as expected.

 

Most of all I wanted to complete the  last goal. I concentrated on it more that any thing, and it really took a lot of my time. It in many ways drained me. It is a BIG life goal that will continue to draw much of my attention.

 

So, what about challenges/ resolutions for 2015?
*t-shirt quilt Feb. 2015
*finish friend's quilt tops (#1 Mar. 2015)
*Auburn Strip quilt (top finished: Mar)
*Jewel Tone quilt
*Crown Royal quilt
*hound's-tooth quilt (top finished: Mar)
*Batik Slash Sash (top finished: Feb)
*BIG life goal

I have put these on my white board at home with dates. I plan to get most of these quilts finished before June and the Crown Royal quilt before August. With these written where I can see them, I am sure I will have  better success rate in 2015.

2016 Finished

 I am in LOVE with this quilt. Be prepared for photo overload.

 

 

Go Tigers!

 

 

Look at the date quilted in the back! It looks so good! Also, this is black with white dot fabric. I am not sure why it looks grey, but I just had to show this picture.

 

I looked and looked for a fabric that I liked for the backing but could not find what I imagined. So, I looked in my stash for something else that would work. I found this black fabric with white dots and then added the white fabric and the white with black crisscross lines. It is not what I envisioned, but it is better.

I had planned to use the black fabric for the binding, but I used more than I thought I would in the quilt and did not have enough left for the binding. So, I used some of the other fabric that I had left over and I think that looks really wonderful also.

It was well received and treasured. Although this was made for a momma, she plans to use this for all sorts of graduation stuff next year. I am ecstatic that could make this happen for her. It seems that I am most excited that she plans to use this to keep warm at games.

Serenity Quilting

I really felt this quilt needed some extra quilting to give it some dimension.

 

 

So, I divided each block into four...

...then I got out my headphones and a cup to draw petals.

 

 Then I went to town sewing petals. This is about the best way for me to make these look good. I have to draw a sewing guide line.

 

 

All finished.

 

I really like how the quilting turned out. It really adds to the quilt.

 

Now to bind it.

 

Serenity's Quilt

I have a friend who has had six children. Although they were not trying for a girl, her first five children were all boys. They had decided after their fourth child that he would be their last. Then they had two more surprises and the last was their girl.

She is the first granddaughter for this family and everyone is excited. Of course since I have made baby quilts for all of her brother, I just had to make one for her.

Colors requested were: pink and purple. So, I pulled  pink and purple scraps and trimmed and squared them up. Do you not just love a little pile of trimmings?

After all of the trimming, squaring, and rearranging, I wound up with this.

 

 

 

I think it is kind of cute even though I think it is slightly boring, but I think I can pep it up with some awesome quilting and a super princess backing fabric.

Binding 2016

I have finished binding the 2016 quilt. I love how this quilt turned out!

 

 

Binding start to-

 

Finish

 

Don't you just love a crisp binding?

 

Pictures coming soon.

2016 Flimsy and Quilting

2016 quilt top is finished!

 

It is so much better than I thought it would be! I love the numbers and the colors! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this quilt!

 

I have started to quilt this and am using the wavy quilting. I am going to quilt around the numbers in black so that it echoes the numbers. So, I made the wavy quilting go up to the numbers. I will bury the knots later.

 

This is the wavy quilting on the top of the quilt. It won't be long until it is finished.

 

Did I say that I LOVE this quilt? ;)

Tammy's Quilt Finish

And have another finished quilt.

I know that she is going to love it.

It is so nice to have a finished quilt.

 

I did a straight quilt line on each strip and then put at least one wavy quilt line on each strip. The back fabric was the inspiration fabric and pulled it all together. Since she is a lover of the English language, this backing fabric has words all over it.





Tammy's Strip Quilt

I decided to make a quilt for a friend as a thank you.

She is super sweet and helps so many people. It seems that she does not get a lot of thanks for all of the things that she does for people and me.

 

 

I asked what colors are in her living room and she told me red, brown, green, and tans.

I hope these fabrics work well.

 

Is This a 2? I Think So!

After trying out paper piecing (and not really enjoying it) to make a two, I was disappointed to find that it looked more like a Z than a 2.

I went in search of a better way to make a numbers (since I was making 2016) and found a wonderful pieced pattern for numbers, letters, and punctuation from Moda! Seriously, I enjoyed piecing this number much better!

And it looks like a two! The measurements were for an 8"x11.5". I did not want these to be that big, so I cut the measurements in half. it did not work the way I expected. The size was a little bit different from what I expected.



So, I made the one the same way, and it was a good inch longer than the two.

I started thinking about how this being off would affect the six and the zero. I figured that the width would not matter since they were going to be side by side. I could cut the bottom off of the one to make it work, but that would not work for the six and the zero.

When I looked at the six it was separated into five sections from the top to the bottom just like the two, so it should work by making it the same as the two.

I held my breath and made the six. It worked! They were the same height!

Then for the zero. I figured I could trim the middle section to match the middle section (in the same area) of the two and six and make it work. Sure enough it worked also. All of the pieces are about four inches high and different widths. Which is perfect!

I am going to trim some of the white on the side of the one so that it looks more like a date rather than some numbers crammed together.

Now to trim the one, place a slim piece of white fabric between the two and one, and sew this bad boy together.

The moral of this story is: don't get discouraged and make it do.

Go Black and Gold!

I ordered a bunch of black, old gold, white, and grey fabrics for the graduation quilt.

 

 

I really did not like the grey fabrics in the quilt, and I did not like the fabric for the back. It just was not what I thought it would look like. It had grey in it. I thought it was a lot darker than lite grey. So, I will be looking for a different backing.

 

Here is the first group put together. We might have a quilt soon; if I can get the number together.

Paper Piecing 2 or Z?

I am making a quilt for a friend in her son's high school colors (black and gold) and I am putting his graduating year (2016) in the quilt.

 

 

I went looking for a way to make numbers. I found this paper piecing instructions for numbers and letters. I printed out the two, zero, one, and six and decided to start at the beginning: the two.

 

It was a struggle. I have never worked with paper piecing (I might not again after the headache I had with this) and I just could not figure it out!

 

Finally, after two previous starts, I finished the two...

 

Is it just me or does it look like a Z?

 

I think I will look for a different way to make a two. One without paper piecing! It is a good thing I have a nephew with a Z name. I see a Crazy Mom Quilts pillow in his future. :)

A Green and Blue Scrap Square Baby Quilt

 

You knew I could not just make one, right? Well, I just had so much fun making the pink one that I had to make a blue version. Plus I had a bunch of blue and green fabrics and a baby boy quilt to make, so I sewed it up.

 

When I was trimming up the quilt top I cut to much off one end and I thought this piece of blue fabric added to the top made it look so lovely and gave a lot of interest.

 

 

I made them about the same time which made it easy for me to take a picture of them together. 

 

 

After taking the pictures, I ran into my friend at the grocery store (I parked right next to her and did not even realize it until we were both putting our groceries in our cars!). I handed it over and told her I need a quilt model. She was very willing and so happy to get it.

 

Spur-of-the-moment-quilt-pictures in a parking lot is a lot of fun.

 

The back was pieced from scraps from other quilts and is so pretty.

 

I am very sad that this barn has been torn down. I passed it every day on my way to and from work and church. I passed it one morning and when I went back after work it was completely gone. There was not even a board left. They worked fast. I'm at least glad that I got these pictures first.

Pepper Sprout

 

 

My husband and I are friends with a couple whose last name is Pepper who were expecting their first child. They had a little girl that I affectionately call Pepper Sprout. You know that I just HAD to make Pepper Sprout a quilt. They have chosen the colors pink and green and have a monkey theme.

I still had about a yard and half plus scraps of monkey fabric from these two projects and knew it would be perfect.

I could not decide on a pattern, but after seeing this Crazy Mom Quilts quilt, I know the pattern that I wanted to use.

The original quilt and Crazy Mom Quilts quilt both use scraps, and I have plenty of those. So, out came the pink and green previously cut squares of pink and green squares. They went together so well. I cut squares of monkey fabric from scraps and pieced the center square.

I purchased the pink fabric and sewed it all together.

Since this was inspired by a CMQ quilt, I thought I would use her honeycomb quilting also.

I wrapped this quilt around a pack of diapers for this month early baby and gave it to the grateful parents. They love it.

 

I think it is rather nice also, and the baby is precious.

 

Edited to show the backing.

 

 

Scraps To Quilt-As-You-Go

A few months ago, I became inspired by this post by A Few Scraps.

She took her left over two inch or so strips of batting, that were too small to piece together into Frankenstein batting for quilts, and made a little placemat/ table top cover.

 

Usually I save these pieces of batting to use as stuffing for pillows and such, but I thought this was a great idea!

 

So, I took the scraps from Sophia and Lilly's quilts and put them together to make this scrap quilt-as-you-go quilt panel.

 

I took all of the scrappy triangles and placed them together on the angle so that once sewn they would be rectangles. I know I am a genius!

 

 

This will be an ongoing quilt. I plan on taking many other scraps and sewing them to left over batting to make a very interesting quilt.

 

This was the layout and beginning of the quilting/sewing project.

 

Finished, for now, result.

 

The back

 I really like how the angle seem to go in random ways and how some of the points and ends seem cut off. I even not so secretly hope that when this is sewn together that they will still be cut off. It is freeing to not worry about the points.

 

I plan to straighten the edges of this piece, which will remove the dog ears, but for now I will see if I can add any more fabric to the rest of the batting.

 

I think I might even use my leftover binding strips to piece the panels together.