A Quilting Life, block of the month 2021

I've posted my previous blocks (January, February and March) for this quilt along, here.

Below is the April block of the month, and I love the way your eye gravitates to the arrow pointing up in the middle :)

Below is my May block of the month, I've always loved a star in a star block.  It's so much fun choosing the fabric for these blocks!

Below are all of my blocks, January through May.  

This quilt is going to be so cute!  It won't go in my grandchildren pile though because it will be finished in December.  My grandchildren pile needs to be complete by American Thanksgiving, I will write about that down the road....

The blocks below are for the months of July and August, I'm all caught up now. Sherri said that she will have finishing fabric yardage in September, for the quilt.  

When I saw Sherri McConnell's block of the month quilt last year, I really wished I had sewn along.  I didn't let this year slip away from me again, so I was "in" the month of January.  Some blocks are more time consuming than others, but it always works.  Only one block a month is totally doable for me.  I just love sew alongs so much, especially if I don't know what the quilt will look like when it's finished.  I trust Sherri and love her style, so I know it will be beautiful.  I'm trying to use pastel fabrics, not as bright as I usually choose.  I'm going for a "Fig Tree" vibe without actually using Fig Tree fabric.  I really love the fabric that Sherri and Chelsea design too. I don't buy much fabric unless I can get it on a really good sale because I already have so much!  If I was buying fabric and not trying to use my stash, I would definitely start hoarding Sherri and Chelsea fabric!

If you want to make this quilt, you can go to Sherri's blog here, it's free!

Temperature quilt

I'm making a Temperature quilt, using 2" X 3" triangles on a roll paper.  The first line on the left is January and then February, March, April, May, June and July.  The first day of the month begins at the bottom and works its way to the top.  The reason they aren't all the same length, is because some months are shorter than others.

I live in Arizona, so it doesn't get very cold.  January is in the 60's, with lows in the 30's and 40's.  The triangle is the high for the day and the two outside edges are the lows.  The pale blue, almost white color is rain.  If it rained in the day I made the triangle pale blue and if it rained at night, I made the two outside edges pale blue.  We don't get much rain, most of our days are sunny.  In July, we had quite a bit of rain during Monsoon season. When it rains in Arizona, everywhere floods because the ground is so dry that it can't absorb the water.  

I'm not really sure how I'm going to assemble this quilt when all the months are sewn, but I'll definitely share it with you :) 

 

Snowflake quilt

 One of the quilt groups I was in wanted to make the Snowflake quilt together.  It's a really cute quilt and is a good size, measuring about 60"X 72".  

It's a really modern quilt and I thought it would be fun to make as a group.  The pandemic hit and I ended up just making it by myself.  I scoured the internet to see all the other snowflake quilts people had made.  There are an endless assortment of colors and some people even made the background in squares.  I thought and thought about it and decided that the prettiest version I could think of were the color choices on the pattern.

I even machine quilted the quilt the same way that the designer did.  I sewed horizontal straight lines across the quilt.  My lines were an inch apart.  It was really hard though, because I had to keep changing the color of thread on the top, to match the fabric.  I used three spools, a bright pink which matched the pink and the red, white, and a bright turquoise blue which also matched the green.  I used a bright turquoise green thread in the bobbin to match the back of the quilt. 

I knew that I wanted to use minky for the back since a snowflake is cold and a soft minky fabric is so warm and cozy.  I hunted for months, for the right color at my local quilt shops.  I finally found one that matched the  blue on the front perfectly.

The label is pinned on, I'll sew it later :). This quilt is going into my grandchildren pile and I think it would make a great quilt for a boy.

Here are the names and ages of my grandchildren:

Bridger - 16, Kennedy - 14, Charlotte - 11, Maisie - 11, Neo - 10, Reagan - 10, Ben - 8, Kylie -8, Lucy - 7, Paisley - 7, Isabelle - 6, Taylor - 5, Jacob - 5, Riley - 3

11 gi4ls and 3 boys, and they're all awesome!  The week of Thanksgiving, they will all be coming to visit and will get to choose one of my quilts in birth order beginning with the oldest. Eventually I will show my grandchildren pile of quilts :)

Have a great week!

Red Sampler quilt along

 I haven't shown you my Red Sampler blocks in a while.  They are from the Red Sampler quilt along designed and hosted by Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet blog and she's also on YouTube.

I watched Lori's YouTube video about her red sampler quilt along recently and was able to do the house block and the snowflake block the week before she posted them, but forgot to take a photo.  This is the third block from last week.

I only had fat quarters half yard pieces of some of Lori's red fabrics and I'm quickly running out of some of the prints. I love the leaf pattern below, it looks a lot like the Canadian maple leaf.

I don't know why some of this block is cut off in the photo...

I've gone through four different fat quarters of red and white gingham!

I've always wanted to make a red and white quilt.  It's amazing how much fabric it takes to make a 12" block too!  

Here are all the blocks I've made to date, on my design wall.  I have an extra 12" and also a 6" block, oops!  I'm sure I'll be able to use them somewhere.  I still have to add all the sashing around each block.  

Have a fun Quilty week :)

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 :)