Stars and Stripes quilt

 I love the Stars and Stripes quilt by Thimble blossoms.  It measures 56" X 71", the perfect throw size. I made one last year, you can see it here.  It is currently in my grandchildren pile.  Some of my grand daughters are sure that our oldest grandson who is 16 years old will choose that quilt, lol!  I have been admiring the "faded" Stars and Stripes quilts for a long time and finally and decided to make one.  I used Kona Snow for the background and chose low volume reds and blues from my stash.  

I machine quilted it with a wavy stitch on my Bernina 750 QE, about 1/2" apart.

I opened an email from the Quilter's Lodge in Draper, Utah, called "what's in your wagon Wednesday".  I saw this Art Gallery fabric and knew it would be perfect for my faded Stars and Stripes quilt backing.  Don't you think they look like fireworks?  The fabric is really soft too.

My label is from Sweetwater, I really love it. ❤️

This quilt was going into the grandchildren pile but I decided to keep it! I love it that much!!!

Well, that's it for this week!  Next week Ill show you my progress on Lori Holt's red sampler quilt along :)

Sewcialites quilt

I love sew alongs, it's fun to see everyone's version of the blocks and I also work better when I have a deadline.  When fat quarter shop said they were doing the Sewcialites quilt along, I just had to join! 

I also met the deadline and finished the quilt top.  I used Bonnie and Camille fabric that I've been hoarding for ten years, lol!  The green fabric with little white dots is Pam Kitty fabric though, I just didn't have enough greens.  I tweaked the outer points a little, I made them look more like stars.  I also decided not to add a white border.

I think my favorite block is Lori Holt's toy sewing machine, it's red towards the bottom.  I really love the block underneath it too, with the heart inside it.  This quilt will probably go into my grandchildren pile.

Lloyd and Lola

  I finished quilting Lloyd and Lola by Elizabeth Hartman!  I think these two llamas are so cute and I loved every minute designing and creating them!  Putting the quilt together was so much easier than the machine quilting.

Look at this sweet face!  I know all of my grandchildren will want this one.

My grand daughter Neo suggested that I give the llamas curly hair.  What a great idea that was.

I did squiggly lines on the llama's legs.

I quilted swirls in the pom poms.  I also quilted Seguaro cactuses on the top and bottom borders.

Here's my label from Sweetwater, I just added Lloyd and Lola, 

and the year 2021.

I used this adorable llama fabric from Art Gallery, I bought it on Etsy.

To think that these pieces were Lloyd and Lola's beginnings. 😂

I really like the Sage Kona that I used for the background.  I was looking for a color that reminded me of the desert.  All the other fabrics I had in my stash.  

Thanks so much for following me in my quilting journey :)

Sunshowers quilt finished!

I finished my Sunshowers quilt, yay!  I sure enjoyed sewing this quilt.  I used to save American Jane fabric when I first began quilting over ten years ago.  The American Jane fabric I used are from six different lines.  Happy Campers, Wee Play, Recess, Peas and Carrots, Snippets and Punctuation.  I didn't write down the fabric lines in chronological order.  I sure wish I had bought more of some of those old lines.  The yellow I used in my rainbows isn't American Jane but everything else is.  I enjoyed machine quilting, I quilted clouds in the background and echoed them as well.  

I love making the quilt label.  I used to embroider the information, but now I just use a Sewline permanent pen.  I may still embroider some labels, but I'm trying to crank out the quilts right now and I'm not going to take the time.  The backing fabric and label are both designed by Lori Holt.  Her creativity has brought me a lot of happiness!

Catching Up!

Remember the dolls I made from the Stacey Iset Hsu panel called 

Best Friends Forever?  You can see it here.

Riley loved her dolls!!!  Her sisters were green with envy, but these dolls are all Riley's and she doesn't have to share!

This smile makes all my efforts worth it :) There weren't any efforts involved because I loved taking these dolls.  I thought of Riley the whole time :)

I made my June block for the A Quilting Life sew along.

I'm using my scraps and giving it a soft look, sort of like Fig Tree colors.

I caught up on three weeks of my Sewcialites blocks.

only one more week and then we put the quilt together.

I used older lines of Bonnie and Camille fabric.

I love this little toy sewing machine, I want to make more of them!

It's designed by Lori Holt of course....100% cuteness factor.

 Speaking of Lori, here is week #9 in the Red Sampler.

Here is Week #8.

Here is Week #7.

I even finished a quilt and machine quilted it.  I sewed the binding on but will wait until I handsew it on and will show you next week.

I've spent a lot of time in my sewing room this past week, I have to take advantage of the time when I have it.

Have a great week!

Sunshowers quilt along

I am making the Sunshowers quilt in a quilt along, and it is a lot of fun! There are lots of tips that Megan Collins has on her blog, for sewing the curves on the rainbows.   

I got the box down from my top shelf, where I was hoarding my American Jane fabric.  I thought they would make beautiful rainbows.

I really love the rainbows with reds, oranges and yellows :)

I cut out all 12 rainbows from my American Jane fabric.  When I had them on the design wall, I realized that the quilt was going to be too big for some of my little grandchildren.  I decided to make two throw quilts instead.

Here are the rainbows that I'm going to use in one quilt.  A lot of reds, oranges and yellows.  I don't have all the rainbows sewn together for the second quilt yet but it will be mostly reds, blues and greens.

This is such a cute quilt, I'm even thinking of making a third Sunshowers quilt out of Pinks and yellows, a lemonade print.  I've got the cutest fabric for the back too!  Stay tuned...

Best Friends Forever

 This is the second set of dolls I’ve made from a panel by Stacy Iset Hsu. You simply cut, sew snd stuff. It’s still time consuming though :) I made these for my youngest grand daughter Riley, who will be 3 in a couple of weeks. 

Riley’s mom told me that her sisters won’t share their dolls that I made for them snd that Riley needed her own set. Best Friends Forever was perfect for Riley, I think I’ve made all the other panel dolls for her sisters!  I decided to make Riley a doll quilt big enough for her four dolls.

I also made a lined drawstring bag for the dolls. The pattern is by Jeni Baker, the artist size. Isn’t that the cutest fabric! Riley’s favorite color is yellow.

I’m sure excited for Riley to open her gift! I’m sure she’ll have fun playing with them all day long!

My Sew Alongs

 Since we had a worldwide pandemic, I had lots of time to quilt.  I joined quite a few quilt alongs. The first one was the Sewcialites quilt along, hosted by the Fat Quarter Shop.  This sew along began on September 25 and ends on June 25.  A new block comes out every Friday morning, and you can do a 3", 6" or 9" block.  I chose to do a 9" block because I like throw size quilts.  There are only 4 more blocks to do and then I can assemble my quilt!  I'm making my blocks from Bonnie and Camille fabric I've been saving for years :). Here are  my blocks strewn all over the floor in color order.

Next is my temperature quilt that I'm making with my friend Nedra.  I'm using triangles on a roll and every strip is a month beginning with January.  January 1 is at the bottom and you work your way up.  January, February March, April and now May.  The triangles are the highs and the backgrounds are the lows.  The pale blue in January are the days it rained, the triangle is when it rained in the day and the background is when it rained at night.  I live in Arizona, so it doesn't rain much.  The yellow triangles are 81-90 degrees, the orange triangles are 91-100 and there's one pink triangle in May that's 101+!!!  We will soon be seeing a long of pinks!  I have a hotter pink for 111-120 and an even hotter pink for 121+.  You might be thankful it's still cool where you live.  My ideal weather is 75 degrees, my body's thermostat doesn't work anymore and I get cold very easily.  It's very difficult for me to warm up after being cold.  Anyway, this will be an interesting quilt!

Next is the block of the month by Sherri McConnell at A Quilting Life.
Sherri posts her blocks the first Thursday of every month.  Here are my 12" blocks from her quilt along.  I loved the first block in January, the churn dash one.  I patterned the rest of my colors from that block, a sort of vintagey vibe.  I forget the name of the background, but it's leftover from a quilt I made from Fig Tree fabric.

Next is the Red Sampler quilt along hosted by Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet.  Everything Lori designs is fabulous, I can't resist anything she does!  These are my week #6 creations.  There's just one problem.....every single week, I make a crazy mistake.  I will admire the blocks, take photos, and I still won't see the mistake unless someone points it out to me.  They are all simple fixes but I think that I must be going out of my mind!!!  Well, week 6 was no different.  I made all three of these blocks 6" when one of them should have been 12"!!!  That's really an easy fix, I'll just make two 12" blocks this week instead of two 6" blocks.  I'm making my quilt my own, lol!

Lastly is the Sunshowers QAL by Megan Collins at Megancollins.com
She designs the cutest quilts!  I made her Love and Stitches quilt and learned how to sew curves.  If you sign up for Megan's newsletter, she tells you when her quilt alongs are and when she has a sale on her patterns and she also gives you lots of helpful tips.  I am thinking of making 3 Sunshower quilts, I love them that much!  I cut out 12 blocks in my American Jane fabric and I have the cutest pink and yellow lemonade fabric that I might make my third quilt out of.  

I also have a short list of some more quilts I want to make for my grandchildren pile and quite a few that I need to machine quilt.  I hope you have a great week and thanks for following along! 😍

Bringing Home the Christmas Tree

I always loved the quilt "Bringing Home the Christmas Tree" but never thought that I would make it.  One of our daughter's family always go to the mountains every Thanksgiving, to cut down their Christmas tree.  Every year their tree is bigger and more majestic than the year before! 

 Last Christmas their car got stuck in the snow.  When they were pushed and pulled out of their predicament, their car started sliding backwards on the ice!  They have enough adventures about their escapades to write a book, so I felt it was my duty to make a quilt for them. Shhhhhhhh......it's a surprise!

"Bringing Home the Christmas Tree" can be found in the book "Vintage Christmas" by Lori Holt.  I want to make every single project in that book, and there are many!

 

I love personalizing things, so I had the great idea to sew their photos into the quilt.  Their mini van is black, so I made a black car.  A month ago, they traded in their van for a white SUV. Nooooo!!!! I felt like saying, you have to keep the black van because I made a quilt about it!  Just kidding, it will be a quilt to bring back many wonderful memories.

I thought the other cars would look naked without people or critters peeking out of the windows.  I perused my fabric stash and this is what I found....some cute bears that wandered into a car.

A squirrel in the backseat, because why not?

It's Christmas time so why not include Mr. & Mrs. Claus!

Here's a vintage looking Santa waving, I just couldn't resist him!

I even machine quilted the quilt myself!  

I quilted a swirl motif and my swirls are getting so much better. Practice really does make perfect!

I used a Christmas fabric for the back that has lots of Christmas songs in the text.  The black is a little distressed in areas, which gives it an interesting look.

Thanks so much for being interested in my quilting stories :)

 

Sew Sampler Basket quilt finished!

 I finished my Sew Sampler 2017 basket quilt designed by Lori Holt. 

You can see some of the blocks that I posted about here. 

I finished the quilt top and talked about the process here.

Here are Lori's blocks, I tried to make mine look like hers, using the solid colors.

I finally machine quilted the Basket quilt this week.  It took longer than I thought.  I quilted flowers in the yellow squares and stitched in the ditch on the baskets.  I also quilted a flower motif on the borders.

I used an Amy Butler print for the back which I absolutely love!

I used  green for the binding, which I thought matched both the front and the back really well.

I also corrected one of my Red Sampler blocks from last week!  

Thanks for telling me about it Sigi ❤️