Sunday

Gypsy Wife Quilt #2

This is my second Gypsy Wife quilt. I made it with the intention that I would follow a quilt-along where each month one of each of the 10 sections would be completed. I got all the way to Section 7 when I couldn't stand it any more. I just had to keep going. So I finished the quilt top last weekend.

During the week I bought the backing for the quilt and put it on my longarmer. Once I finished quilting it, I decided to use the same backing fabric for the binding.

Today I hand-stitched the binding while watching the Milwaukee Brewers' game. It's about 97 degrees outside so it was a good way to spend the day even though I would rather be outside.

This pattern was quite a challenge and many people think it's a hard pattern but I think it's just complicated. The blocks are simple - it's the putting it together part that is unusual.

I used a pantograph called Trumpet Vine to quilt it. And even though this is a scrap quilt, I tried to showcase fabrics with cats on it in many of the blocks. What fun!





Thursday

One Direction Quilt

Missouri Star Quilt Pattern
I finished the One Direction quilt today. The quilt top was made at my weekly sew days at the local senior center. I love to cut fabrics and make kits ready to sew while I'm there. The kits have everything ready to sew which make it less likely that I will forget something when I'm there. Of course since I only work on the project while I'm there, it takes a bit longer to complete a quilt top. I finished this one over the winter sew days.

Once I finally purchased the backing it didn't take me long to quilt it. I used a pantograph called Kiss that added a nice texture among all that white background.

The One Direction pattern comes from Missouri Star Quilt Company's Block magazine. The issue is from Spring 2018.

I used a layer cake from Riley Blake's Simply Happy fabric collection along with some white Kona yardage. The quilt is rather large and it will be a nice addition to my granddaughter's room. I already washed it and it is currently drying while I am writing this post.


Missouri Star Quilt Pattern

Monday

Presents from Mom by Creek Side Stitches

Creek Side Stitches
This quilt is made from donated fabrics. The fabric came from someone who goes to my church. It was her mother's. I tried to use it up in a meaningful way. There's so much of it so there will be many more of these quilts before I use it all up.

The pattern is called Presents from Mom and it's found in a booklet called Slice of Home by Creek Side Stitches. I picked out many greens and blues from the donated fabrics no matter what the print was. I cut 42 10-inch squares from the fabrics in order to make this. The instructions stated that a mix of darks and lights were important so no matter the print, that's what I concentrated on. For an experiment in color, it didn't turn out too bad - haha!

I quilted it on my longarmer using the Daisy Doodle pantograph.  I really like the quilting.

This will be given back to the church to use for whatever they want. It was a fun experiment in color.

Sunday

Roundabout Table Topper

I'm pretty certain I will eventually make every pattern in the two Schnibbles pattern books that I have. I just love her patterns. This one is the small version of Roundabout. I used a charm pack to make this. It's perfect for my kitchen table.

I bought a pantograph called Coffee Break at the Houston International Quilt Show last fall from the discount section of the Urban Elementz booth. I can see why it was discounted, the pattern is so large it's hard to tell it's a coffee cup. Good thing it's for my personal use, so I don't care but if I was making it for a gift I would have started over.

Another Bite of Schnibbles

Friday

Art Fair Quilts

I whipped up two quilts for the Art Fair that will be held at church tomorrow. I used some of the plaids I had found stashed away. They are old vintage fabrics from the 80's and after making these two quilts including the backing, there's still plenty more to use up!

I quilted them both using a pantograph called Arboretum making the quilting part quicker since I didn't have to change out the design between quilts. I think it complements the fabrics pretty well. I was really hoping that I could squeeze out enough of the white-tailed deer fabric to make a piece large enough for the back but no matter what technique I used, there just wasn't enough to get a complete piece. Thus, the little green corner on the back. I hope they are good enough to actually sell and if they do I hope they get a good home.






While working on these quilts my nephew Edward needed a little sewing project completed. He had custom made patches done and he even created the design on his own. I sewed them on the left arm of the shirts that were ordered. They are for his group of co-workers who are all lifeguards at Bradford Beach near downtown Milwaukee. It's the toughest gig to get as a lifeguard in the Milwaukee County area so he must be really good at his job. I was happy I could help.

It's been in the 90's here and way too hot to go outside. So it's been a good week to get indoor things done like quilting and house cleaning. After last weekend's family reunion and a house full of guests there were many bath towels, bed sheets to wash as well as floors to be scrubbed and outdoor tables and canopies to be put away. We did the outdoor stuff at 7 in the morning before it got too hot. One benefit of the heat is that tomatoes in my garden are starting to turn red. I can't wait to take that first bite.

Monday

Reunion Weekend

We hosted my husband Jeff's family reunion at our house this weekend. That meant lots of fun, food and frivolity. It was lots of prep and lots of people as guests at our house for a few days but I wouldn't change a thing. We partied and played all afternoon and into the evening. I was pretty busy hosting so I didn't have much of a chance to take photos. Frankly, I would have taken a photo of my desserts which included individual pavlovas and cheesecake. Yum! They sure were pretty as well as delicious. It seems that no one went away hungry and the weather was absolutely perfect. 

Here are the photos I snagged from some of our guests:





The day after the party that we hosted we went to Miller Park and tailgated then enjoyed a Brewers game. They didn't win but we enjoyed being there as a group. It was a fun weekend and after all the prep and anticipation, I can't believe it's over. I think we made some great memories to add to the many photos we shared of the past. 




Wednesday

Work in Progress

I loaded this quilt on my longarmer today knowing very well that I won't be able to finish this any time soon. We are hosting a family reunion at our house next week and all gears will be shifted to cleaning, prepping and hosting not only the reunion but some of the family members that are coming from out of town.

The reunion is for my husband's mother's side of the family. His brother and sister and their spouses will be staying with me. My son and his fiance will be here as well. My husband's cousins are staying at another cousin's place on the other side of town. We will have people here from Washington state, the Phoenix area, Denver, Fayetteville, Arkansas and Marinette, Wisconsin. It's going to be a very busy time since we will attend the Milwaukee Brewers' baseball game the day after the reunion party. It should be great fun.

This week we had a new little visitor. We're not too happy to see him (or her), but it sure is cute. We've only seen him once so hopefully he moved on to where ever he came from.


Saturday

Shirting Fabric Find

While cleaning out my sewing room I came across a plastic storage bag filled with plaid shirting fabrics. They are beautiful fabrics, some were leftovers from a quilt I made for my son while he was in high school. Well he is 36 now so I have to admit that they've been lying around here for way too long. Instantly I thought they would make great charity quilts for the veterans.

Some of the fabrics were cut into 3.5 inch squares and 6 inch squares. So I ironed up the fabrics and cut some more squares in those sizes. Some pieces were so big I also cut 10 inch squares. I think I will easily get three quilts out of these fabrics.
I used up most of the 3.5 inch squares making this panel. I added an inside border and now I have to choose a plaid for a bigger outside border and viola! ...a completed quilt top. In my charity fabric bin there's a large piece of fabric with a white tailed deer print. I think that would make a great backing for this quilt.


Monday

What's on the design board?

There's not much going on on the design board this month. Or last month really. Once summer comes it's hard for me to stay indoors. Plus my time has been hijacked because we are hosting a family reunion at our house in 2 weeks. That part is easy. The hard part is that my husband's brother, his wife, husband's sister, her husband, my son, and his fiancee are all staying at my house over the 4-day weekend during the reunion. That's a lot of entertaining and a lot of figuring out where everyone is going to sleep. It's a fun problem to have.

I am making slow progress on my gypsy wife. I have sections 1 through 7 completed and section 8 is on the design board. Plus a few extra blocks I made that I do not like. Don't know what's going to happen with those. 

Sections 1 through 7 are sewn together and now it's too long to hang on the design board. So here is the best photo I could get without having to lay it on the floor.

I made a chocolate ganache pound cake from a recipe I found on Pinterest. It was not great. It wasn't bad, just not good enough for me to make it again. It sure was pretty though. Click for the recipe if you care.