QOV Blocks Finished

At our last guild meeting in January, I promised Lolita that I would make (2) QOV star blocks.  Lolita pieced two center panels with eagles (one for each quilt).  She volunteered to oversee the making of (2) Quilts of Valor for our guild in 2016.  Over 12 members agreed to make blocks and return them to her at the Feb. Guild meeting.

Each unfinished block measures 8.5"

I Spy Quilt Received

I'm excited to show the "I Spy" quilt that I made for Noah.  He and his brother can enjoy searching for all the different items.  It has 99 blocks.  It was a surprise for Noah and he received it last week, before he turned one.  I even included fabric from his older brother's quilt.

99 Blocks for Noah

Design Wall Monday Jan. 25, 2016

Our snow is melting.......The sun is out and the temperature is up to 46.  I'm caught up through yesterday on  both of my 365 day challenges.

The (24) HST with the circles is called the Quilty 365 Challenge through Quilty Folk.  I have also decided that my 366 squares for 2016 will need to be a 2-sided quilt.

The collection of strips and squares at the bottom is a 2016 Year Long Memory Quilt.  I started out with
nice wide strips but soon discovered I needed to add thin strips and smaller squares or my Memory Quilt would cover our house.

So far, I'm liking both projects and it's a great lesson on "Focus".  I'm hoping to complete both projects by year-end.  I need to Focus daily on the projects right in front of me.  My major project(s) are to organize my sewing room and then my house.  Yikes!!

My husband and I have been watching the "Hoarding" programs on Cable T.V.  We certainly do not want our home to overtake us with "stuff".     

Design Wall Monday 01252016

Check out what is being created on this sunny Monday by linking up with Patchwork Times.com

Our area received 5.5 inches of snow

We are not venturing out much, just out the backdoor to take the dog out and to clear off the steps and take a few pictures.  Here's what I have taken.  My husband plans to take some wide angle shots this morning.

Neighbor's bush covered and hint of blue sky

Hint of blue sky makes a better contrast-taken 01-23-2016

Snow on Saturday; Jan.23, 2016

Hopefully, I can get some sewing done if I can quit looking out the windows.  Obviously, it doesn't snow too much in this part of Tennessee.  I love being able to "just stay home" and look out the windows. 

It's Snowing

Whenever it snows in middle Tennessee, it is a big thing!!  The schools close but many people still need to get to work.  Thankfully, we are retired and we don't have to go any place.  We can finally just sit and look out the windows.  Where we live, it started snowing this morning about 8:30. 

The first picture was taken looking out at our backyard, about 10:00 a.m.

 The second picture was taken about 11:40 a.m.

It's now about 12:45 p.m. and it's still snowing.  The lawns are now covered and the street and sidewalks have disappeared.  It only looks delightful because we don't have to go anywhere.

Now, I need to get busy and accomplish at least one sewing project. 

Design Wall Monday

Amazing...I'm actually posting on Monday morning.  I continue to work on my 365 Quilty Circles and have "sewn" 9 blocks across.  Yesterday, I wasn't sure how wide I wanted the quilt. The HST finish at 4" square.
If I have calculated correctly, I'm planning to have 12 blocks across (48") and 15 blocks down (60"), which will be 180 blocks on the front and 180 blocks on the back.  Since 2016 is a Leap Year, I'll need to be creative on how to use the remaining 6 blocks. I have plenty of time to figure that out.

365 Quilty Circles and 2016 Year Long Challenge

 
The reason I want to begin sewing them together is that I'm afraid I will lose them in my sewing room which needs to be organized.  I've also been sewing the labels on my quilts.  I have (4) labels remaining to sew on  quilts.  I'm sure I have more quilts hiding that need labels.

See what other quilters have been doing this past week!  Link up at: Patchwork Times.com

Sewing on Labels and Making 365 Quilty Circles

This morning, the quilt for a special little boy was shipped off in the mail.  I will post the picture next week after it has been received.  The last couple of days, I've been working on sewing labels on quilts.  I thought I'd made (12) labels but it turned out it was only (11) labels for my quilts.  One label included additional info.

I discovered a nice easy way to create the label.  I leave one inch all the way around the printed label.
Fold the sides over twice and machine stitch with cream/white thread with a tiny stitch.  Next, choose fabric that matches the back or border on the front. Cut fabric 2.25" or 2.5" wide.  First fold sides in about 1/2" making a finished edge that matches the sides of the label and then  fold in half.  Machine stitch to top and bottom.  Press away from label.  All sides of label should be finished.  Position label in lower right hand corner on back.  Hand stitch all the way around label.

I've also been working on my 365 Quilty Circles.  I adore this Challenge because I can use lots of different fabrics.  I already have seven quilty squares ready but when we went to the store on Monday, I thought it would be fun to make a grocery shopping bag for the circle, so I must make that before I can do the next few days.  If I'm not careful, I won't be able to remember what I've done each day.

I've already thought of (2) cool ideas for my Crayon Challenge.  I may make both and see which one comes out best.  I have until mid September.

Well, I'm off to make my little shopping bag........

Guild Challenge for 2016

Our Guild has some great challenges, lectures, workshops and demos lined up for 2016.  I'm looking forward to the New Year.
January's Challenge was for everyone who wished to participate:
Pull a crayon out of the bag.
Make a quilt (no larger than a wall hanging), using the color of the crayon.
Allowed to add one color, and allowed to add black and/or neutral color (white, cream, beige, etc.)
The finished wall hangings are due at our Sept. meeting.

One of our members has an on-line shop and a couple of times per year, she and her husband will come and bring 100's of bolts of fabric for us to purchase.

Check out Wanda's fabrics at:   Old South Fabrics.com

I drew Crayola's "green yellow".  Well, that looked easy enough!  I quickly spotted a beautiful fabric that matched the color of the actual crayon.   But looks can be deceiving.  We were told to mark on a piece of white paper and that was the color we were to use.  I quickly had to give my "perfect fabric" to Judith.
Oh, I found lots of beautiful fabrics which I purchased but none of them matched my crayon.

Here is what I will be working with, along with a beautiful batik that I discovered in my stash.

My Green Yellow Crayon

My Green Crayon turned Yellow

    

Batik Fabric found at home, matches

Still on track and up to date

I figure if I tell my quilting friends and post pictures now & again, I can hopefully keep up to date on (2) daily challenges.  Here's what I have so far...

(2) 365 Day Challenges

The two circles at the bottom right are for today and tomorrow.  My goal is to have the top challenge include 365 different fabrics from my stash.  The goal for the bottom challenge is to have all the circles made from different fabrics and not any the same from the top challenge.  That ought to be a good "brain teaser".

The Half Square Triangles will use the same fabrics now and again, since I already have.
I decided it would just be too complicated to make too many rules.
As the days go by, I would appreciate you telling me if you spot any two fabrics from the top challenge or the circles using the same fabric.

Quilty 365 Circles

I have never been good at keeping up a daily journal.  In going through 20 years of Guild Newsletters, I discovered a "Year Long Memory Quilt" challenge which peaked my interest.  I began on Jan. 1st, 2016, and so far, I'm up to date.  The photo of this challenge is shown at the top of the picture.

(2) 365 Challenges for 2016

On January 3rd, I began reading several different quilting Blogs and discovered Quilty 365 Circles
and just couldn't resist the challenge.  I have spent the morning, getting caught up and made a few extra to carry me through until Saturday.  One quilter chose to make HST units and then appliqued a circle on top and made a short note above the circle, as to what happened that day. I liked that idea best, so that's my goal.  Only four of the circles have been appliqued to the 4.5" squares.  I also hope to have each circle cut from a different piece of fabric, making it a history of some of my fabrics.  I originally thought I would do the same for the HST, but that was just too complicated and time consuming.  My next challenge is to sew (12) labels on the backs of twelve quilts that are waiting.....

Design Wall Monday

Last Tuesday, Dec. 29th, some of the ladies in our weekly sewing group got together to learn a new technique.   I was under the impression that this new technique would help cut back on some of our sewing scraps.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the huge pile of scraps.  We didn't even make a tiny dent in the pile but we did have fun.  Tomorrow, we will be having "Show and Tell" and I want to make sure that mine is done.  Today's picture shows my work, with just a few rows to go in the center.
I had never heard of "Locker Hooking" before our class.  Our teacher, Kim brought several large samples that she had made, which were three and four feet wide and one that was 5 to 6 feet wide.
As I was creating my small piece, I kept thinking about the women keeping house on the prairie and needing to create rugs for their family, using what they had.   

Size is 9.0" x 7.5"

  Stop by  Patchwork Times.com  and see what others have created this week.

Welcome Sunshine

The sun is beautiful today but a little brisk after having all those warm days in the 70's.  It doesn't take much to get used to delightfully warm weather in the winter time.

New Year's Day, I chose my 1st fabric for my "2016 Year Long Memory Quilt" (aka 365 day Challenge).  Today, I decided to add a bright yellow for sunshine.  Yesterday's fabric was the multi-colored strip at the top.  It reminded me of a mini dress that I had made when I was in high school.  I still love bright colors.  At present, it measures 4.75" x 9.5".

I also dug into my project boxes and found a QOV that I had started in April 2015.  I had blogged about it in April, which explained one reason why I put in back in the box. (I was short on the red and blue tiny stars fabric).  I hope to complete the top this month, so it can be sent to the LAQ.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

When I was in grade school, the year 2016 was in another lifetime.  Who even heard of a "Blog"?  Well, here I am, telling "my faithful readers" about my goals of finishing my quilting projects and possibly getting my sewing room in some type of order, so that I could show you a picture. LOL

I have set a lofty goal of making at least (2) quilt tops per week, for those in need with the hopes of getting my largest tub of panels and fabric pieces used.  Every time, I ventured out to R.J.'s workshop in the country, I found the cutest panels in her stash and so she sent them home with me.  Well now, the lid on the tub will not stay closed.

Panels and donated fabric to be used in 2016

 

2016 Year Long Memory Quilt

While going through 20 years of Guild Newsletters, looking for information regarding my UFO's that needed labels, I discovered this intriguing idea presented several years ago by one of our members.

I changed the year to 2016 and since this is the first day of 2016, I thought I'd give it a try.

Here’s a project that you may like to do.

Start with a piece of fabric 9 1/2" wide. (Height is up to you)

Add one more piece each day all year.

You put blocks in, photos or anything that strikes your fancy.

Cut them all the same, or cut them crooked, skinny, wide, etc.

It is your memory quilt, so have fun.    Let’s see what you have created by year-end.