Ron's Quilt

This summer I met a man who asked me to make him a quilt. He was pretty vague about what he wanted. He asked for a twin size quilt that he could use to cover himself in his recliner. I asked him what he liked (modern, traditional, colors, prints, etc.). All he said was that he liked blue and green. That's about all I could get out of him. I did tell him I could do it but not until September. 

I sent him a photo of some fabrics I found that I thought would meet his easy requirements. I told him I was a little behind but I had a pattern picked out and these fabrics and he said no hurry. 

I used the Yellow Brick Road pattern to make the quilt top. It's a pretty easy pattern and with this fabric line and a few solids, I think it will be a great quilt. I finished the top in just a few days and decided to quilt it using a pantograph called loophole. The swirls in the pattern were a nice contrast to the geometric prints.

I used green fabric for the backing and binding, the same green that can be found in the blocks. 

Ron will pick up his quilt later this week. I hope he enjoys his homemade quilt.

September Client Quilts

I quilted this baby quilt for the shop. It has really cute minky on the back that has little ballerinas on it. Sue from the shop made the top and she plans on keeping it when it comes down. 

I also quilted another string quilt for my church group. Every month when we meet I take home another quilt to longarm for the group. The group leader gets to put the binding on them and I am so happy that she is willing to do that. 

Yellow Brick Road Quilt

I fell in love with the fabric line by Dan Dipaolo called Lemonade. I knew I just had to make a quilt. My boss asked me if I would like to make a sample for the shop. She wanted me to use the pattern Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. 

So I came up with this:

I love it! And here it is hanging in the shop.

Once the fabric is all gone, it will come down and I will take it home. 

This week I also had the opportunity to help a neighbor. His sister decided to get married with 3 weeks' notice! Everyone in the family was scrambling to find proper attire for such a fine event. Anyway, my neighbor could not find pants in his exact size without ordering them and waiting for them to arrive which would have been too late. So he found a pair that needed to be lengthened. I took the hem down and then I had to get out my instructions for sewing a blind hem. After three tries I think I got it. Ha!

On the home front, my kitty decided to become a mouser. Every couple of days he brings us back a prize to show us what a good hunter he is. Poor little mouse.

Zipper Pouches and Other Stuff

I've been experimenting with making new zipper pouches. I started by embroidering a few designs on some linen fabric. Then I matched them up with some fabrics to make the pouches. It was really fun to put these together. 

I'm thinking these would make nice gifts or something fun to sell at my next craft fair. 

The flowers are blooming like crazy around here. Aren't these pretty?

I love the detail in this photo. I was pleasantly surprised I could get this close without this little guy getting spooked and jumping off the leaf. 

August is my favorite month. Nature's beauty is apparent and I love the hot weather. 

Last week we bartended at Irish Fest in downtown Milwaukee. And we saw Maroon 5 at the American Family Amphitheater on the lakefront.

It's hard to tell, but trust me, that is Adam Levine in the middle of the stage.

I went with a friend to a June Tailor warehouse sale this week too. Judy Gauthier, who is featured at the event was there. She is a quilt book author (3 books actually) and a quilt shop owner. I've known her for a long time and I looked forward to seeing her again. I made sure we got a photo together while I was there. 

A Busy Summer Week

I love the television show The Office. It is my constant companion while I sew. Since I can find it on a cable station almost any time of the day it's easy to have it on even if it's just background noise. So I wanted to make a project bag using The Office themed fabrics. I got it started this week.

At this month's basement quilters group I finished up the baby blankets and burp cloths I started at the beginning of summer. I am so happy to have all these done before my next craft fair. I completed 18 blankets and 38 burp cloths. I think I won't have to make more for a little while - haha!

Our beloved Milwaukee Bucks are world champions and we've been dying to go downtown and take a photo next to the Fiserv Forum. We chose to do so this week because there's an art fair in the Deer District. What better time could there be? 
 

I sold a quilt on Etsy so I decided I would spend some of my earnings at the art fair. Sort of a pay it forward kind of thing. At least that's how I justified my purchase. I bought this cute little business card holder from a welder who repurposed old metals into new things. The "hairs" on this little guy were made from political yard signs. I'm so glad those are something else now. Tee-hee.

On another note, I picked these vegetables from my garden this week.

It's hard to tell but the entire bottom of the bucket is full of carrots. My garden is doing pretty well this month. It's hard work, but I love it.

Danny's Quilt

My friend and neighbor, Sharon's son Danny passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. It was so very tragic and it affected us all deeply. We both built our houses at the same time over 30 years ago so our children grew up together over the many years. It was like a part of our own family had died. 

I was given Danny's t-shirts to make a quilt. When I finally got some quality time to make the quilt I started by laying out all the blocks. 

Once I figured out how to lay them out in a nice order, it didn't take long to sew them all together. I used some dark Moda Grunge as the sashing between the blocks then quilted the finished top with a modern quilt pattern. 

I like the finished quilt. I used the same Moda Grunge for both the backing and the binding giving the quilt a consistent look and feel. 

The hardest part of making this quilt was delivering it to Sharon. I knew it would be emotional and we would both cry. 

It was a little bit of comfort that I could provide and I hope Sharon gets some comfort from wrapping herself in it.

July Client Quilts

All things considered, I quilts quite a few client quilts this month. With a summer filled with fun, vacations, a holiday, and gardening. I am very surprised that I had the time - ha!

For the quilt shop, I quilted a Lori Holt Vintage Holiday Christmas truck quilt and a Glow-in-the-Dark Halloween quilt. It was so funny to see the halloween quilt on the machine - I went to close the door of the sewing room before going to bed and all I could see was the glow from black and white checks on the fabric. It was so cute to see. 

I also quilted a charity quilt for my Sweet Sundays church quilt group. The ladies in the group like to make strip-pieced (string) blocks to sew together. It allows them to use up lots of scraps. 

One of my co-workers at the quilt shop asked me to quilt her Christmas quilt. I used a pantograph that had partridges and pears on it - a perfect match!

Summer feels like it's slipping away from me way too quickly. I wish I could slow things down.

Quilts on Etsy - Finally!

I finally posted some of my quilts on Etsy. I've avoided the whole thing for a very long time because it's so time-consuming to do. On Sunday I took photos of 5 quilts. I hung the quilts outside, I laid them on a bed with the overhead lights on, then with the curtains pulled wide open to be photographed indoors in natural light. What a production. 

I also had to iron out the fold marks before I took the photos. I did set up the ironing board and iron on the back patio since it was such a beautiful day. 

Once I reviewed and cropped the photos to my liking it was time to write up detailed descriptions. The size, colors, patterns all needed to be written down. After I finished uploading 5 quilts, 5 hours had gone by. I was done for the day. It's too nice outside and my garden needed tending. 

I proceeded to pick some pickles to crock.

Monday I got up with the intention to make the pickles and finish uploading quilts onto my Etsy account. I am happy to report that I got 9 more completed and I spent another 5 hours getting it done. At least I am getting faster. Ha!

 The pickles are in the crock fermenting nicely. And I still have more to do but I am taking a break. 

Here's what my Etsy site looks like today:

I am hoping to finish all the entries on Etsy by next weekend. The moral of the story is don't let them pile up. As soon as I know I want to sell it, list it!