Best Friends Quilt Along

The Best Friends quilt along is sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop and it's totally free!  I just dig into my 1 1/2" strips every week and sew the blocks.  Last week, we sewed the Economy blocks, there were only four of them.  I love choosing cute centers for my blocks, and colorful fabric to match.  I'm actually sewing these blocks with my best friend Nedra, lucky me!  We have been taking turns going to each other's homes.  We live 45 minutes away from each other.  Just think about all the sewing we would do together if we lived closer!  Nedra always makes a beautiful lunch when I'm at her house, I'm excited to see what she's serving tomorrow! Then there are all the quilty best friends I have online, one of which always leaves a comment on my blog :). No pressure, lol!  I have a quilty best friend in California where I used to live, and lots in Utah.  These days we are all virtual anyway.  That's actually how I met Nedra!  We each had a quilt blog (I still do) and would leave comments and realized how much we had in common.  Then we were friends on Instagram.  When I moved to Arizona, I contacted her and we met for lunch.  We've been best friends in person ever since!  

Next week I'll show you my Courthouse Steps block, we need to make 16 of them!  Have a great week, hope you get lots done. 

Best Friends Quilt Along

An update on my Best Friends quilt along!

I made my Economy blocks with little "peek a boo" squares in the center.  This quilt is really fun, I hope some of you are making it.  I'm currently working on my pineapple blocks, and I love foundation paper piecing!

I found all my fabric from my stash of 3 l/2" squares and 5" charm squares.  Easy peasy! I also love quilting with a child's theme :)

Grassy Creek Mystery quilt

My friend asked me if I would like to make a Bonnie Hunter "Mystery quilt" with her. I've never followed Bonnie, but I'm aware that she's a very famous quilter.  Her mystery quilt was called Grassy Creek and had reds, oranges, greens, yellows and grays.  I had a fun, interesting, frustrating and learning curve experience!

When you post about Bonnie's clues on social media,  you cannot state the dimensions of your block, it's against the rules and people (Bonnie's followers) will call you out for it.  I'm talking about innocently taking a photo of your blocks on your cutting board.  The reason for this is that once  she reveals the finished quilt, the instructions only stay on her blog for a few weeks. After that, the pattern is published.

This is Clue #1, half square triangles.  I forgot to mention that my friend Nedra and I were making a half size of Bonnie's quilt which is totally acceptable.  A throw size is what I prefer anyway.  

The clues came out every Friday morning and it began in December, so I was worried about the time commitment.  I was able to keep up with Bonnie AND Nedra, because I work really well when I have a deadline.

Cue #2 was a stack ( I can't say how many) of quarter square triangles.

I love seeing the little pile of trimmings, it shows how hard i worked!

Here's my creative photo :)

Clue #3 is tricky triangles or quarter square triangles. I loved making these ones.

Clue #4 is tricky triangles added upon.

There's quite a stack, and I'm only making half of the quilt!

Bonnie said that Clue #5 was more simple because it was right before Christmas.  9 patches, some flying geese, squares and rectangles.

It still took quite a while to do all this!

Clue #6 is foundation paper piecing with half square triangles at each end.  These took a lot of time, but I was really in the swing of keeping up with the clues and excited to see what they were each week!

There was no clue #7, just the big reveal!  I felt like I was driving in a car and someone slammed on the brakes.  What?  I'm not ready for the reveal yet, I'm still enjoying the journey.  Well, the big reveal had tons more for us to do.  I thought the quilt would be constructed by blocks, but it was put together in rows.

Here's another block, putting various clues together.

Long story short, I'm not really crazy about the quilt.  I think the gray is too strong and those gray shapes look like footballs.  I like the green and yellow medallions with the red centers.  I made so many mistakes, I used my trust little seam ripper a lot.  It was taking way too long to put the rows together, especially since I wasn't enjoying the outcome anymore.  I even "added" an Amish mistake! I decided to put a pieced border at the top and a mirror one on the bottom.  In the end, both borders don't even match!  I also decided that I would use this quilt as a tablecloth when I need one at church to display things.  This quilt won't go in the grandchildren pile as I doubt any of the kiddies will be interested in it.

Upon further examination, I think my quilt looks like a kaleidoscope and I'm happy with that ❤️

In my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt experience, I learned that I love to look at "scrappy" quilts with little pieces but I don't really like making them too much!

Best Friend's quilt along

Have you heard of the Best Friend's quilt along?  It's a way to connect with your quilty friends during this difficult time when we can't always be together in person.  

Here is a link to the information at The Fat Quarter Shop's blog, 

Jolly Jabber.

I dove into my 1 1/2" scrap container and chose happy colors.

 Next, I cut all the scraps into the lengths that I needed.

I tried to make sure that there were enough of each color.

Then I chose all my background pieces.

I'm not using the foundation paper, and I made quite a few mistakes!  After a while I figured out what should have been a very simple task.

This quilt is going to be so cute!!!

Quilt Goals

Some of the quilters I follow on social media have inspired me to set some quilting goals for 2021!

Below are all the quilt tops that I need to machine quilt.  American Patchwork and quilting has a UFO Challenge that you can print.  I've done it in past years but never followed it very strictly.  Every month they choose a number and you are supposed to complete the task for that number.  I don't know if I'll follow it that closely, but my goal is to machine quilt one quilt every month.  I have all the backings, I just need to buy the batting.  Most of these quilts are going in my"grandchildren" pile, for them to choose one quilt each, beginning from the oldest right down to the youngest.

Writing these quilts down is going to motive me to get them done!

I wrote down all the quilts I finished in 2020, there were 14!  Some of the tops were already done, I just needed to get them quilted, and others I finished the quilt tops.

I also wrote down my "dream list", quilts I'm working on, and some I want to make.  I may not have a goal list, but I think this is a good start.

 I'm very tempted by quilt alongs, I'm currently doing three.  Grassy Creek quilt along by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville, Sewcialites by Fat Quarter Shop, and My Best Friend's quilt along by Kimberley Jolly and Lori Holt.  There are others I'm interested in too.

Happy New Year to all of my followers!

Talented at handwork

Last spring, my 7 year old grand daughter Kylie wanted me to help her learn a sewing skill.  I thought she was too young to use the sewing machine, so I taught her how to hand embroider.  I found some embroidery patterns and let her choose which one she wanted to stitch.  She chose this little cloud with rainbow colored raindrops.  She took forever to finish, but escalated her efforts as it got closer to Christmas.  When she showed me her finished embroidery, I was amazed at how fine her stitches were.  Even grown women have a difficult time keeping the stitches the same size.  

Kylie definately has talent with handwork!

Kylie was thinking of making her mom a pillow, but I suggested an apron.  I knew that the colors wouldn't fit her mom's decor and thought the apron would be more useful.

Isn't Kylie cute by my Singer Featherweight that I've named Elsie?

So, so cute!

Kylie's mom isn't too much bigger than she is, so the apron will fit her perfectly!  Kylie wrapped the gift herself and was so excited for her mom to open it.  Her mom loved it and couldn't believe that Kylie did "most" of the sewing!

Kylie also did a great job of keeping the seams l/4", she never let the seams run short of that.  I told her she was ready to make a quilt.  She hasn't reminded me about the quilt yet, but it's been pretty busy with all the Christmas celebrations.  

I wish I could teach all of my grandchildren who are interested, to quilt, but only three live by me.

Happy New Year!

Mod TV quilt

 I've been doing lots of secret sewing! I made this quilt for my husband for Christmas.  It's called Mod TV by Colourwerx.  The original pattern is 48" X 54", but I added an extra row on the side and on the bottom.  I had fun choosing the fabric from my stash, and was surprised that I could find so many fat quarters that matched, including solids which I only have scraps of.  Apparently my scraps were large enough for the TVs! It was a lot of fun choosing what photos to use in the TVs.

I used a few family photos.  I could have used more, but wanted it to be more of "my favorite shows" than a memory quilt.  I used photo transfer paper that I purchased at Joann's with a coupon.  My son let me use his inkjet printer, and I could get two images on each sheet.  I used two packets of transfer paper.  It was fun choosing my husband's  favorite TV shows from his growing up years.  He also loves old westerns.

I saw some John Wayne fabric online and fell in love with it!  It's made by Riley Blake and is very soft fabric.  I bought it on Etsy.  I have been trying my best to make sure all the quilts I make have a label.  I subscribed to Sweetwater's label club.  Every month I receive two labels in the mail, usually themed to the season.  This label was perfect, I just wrote the top line to personalize it even more.

I'm sure excited to see his reaction when he opens his gift Christmas morning.  To tell you the truth, he never has a huge reaction to things, so we shall see!!!

Merry Christmas!  I hope you are able to spend it with family this year.