Lots of Red White and Blue Fabrics

A generous donor dropped off 18 yards of vintage red, white, and blue fabrics over at Quilts for Kids. The QfK group did not want the fabric so they offered it up to me for my veterans' projects. It was all new fabric, still in the packages. The first thing I did when I got home was wash it and hang it out on the clothesline. It is a lot of fabric. It is definitely older, some of the selvages are dated in the 90's.

I got out my Villa Rosa pattern cards and started looking for patterns that would work well with three colorways. There were a few good choices so I picked the one that used up the largest cuts of fabric.

I quickly whipped up the first quilt top. Once I had one top done, I realized I will be able to make many quilt tops. I didn't even put a little dent in that fabric stack. 

The pattern I used is called Olympiad. These Villa Rosa pattern instructions are well written and easy to follow.

When I got tired of looking at red, white and blue, I moved on to longarming. I quilted a baby quilt for a client. She likes high loft batting which gave this little gem a nice puffy, soft look. How cute!

One of my favorite parts of spring is watching my lilac bush bloom. It's too bad it only lasts a little while. I always take photos of the lilacs in bloom, they are so beautiful. And the scent is amazing. Every time I walk by I have to get as close as possible to take in the scent. It certainly makes the walk to the clothesline more enjoyable. Haha!

Client Quilt and Clam Up Bag Swap

I completed a client's baby quilt on the longarmer.  It's a cute little quilt. The funny thing is that the client loves high loft batting. I've never cared for it myself but that doesn't matter. If the client likes it, I'm happy with it. After I finished quilting it, I did like how puffy it was from the thick batting. It really made the quilting show. 

The quilt shop had a clam up bag contest. You purchased a kit that had a zipper and a fat quarter in it. All you had to do was make the clam up bag any way you wanted as long as you used the zipper and somehow incorporated some of the fat quarter. So I had to make one. I chose to do it as a quilt-as-you-go bag. It went together quick and luckily I got to use my favorite color, yellow. Not that it mattered because after you made it, you voted for your favorite, then they became part of a bag swap.

A funny thing happened at the contest...I got the most votes! I don't know how or why but I did. The thing is I did not qualify for the contest really because I am an employee of the shop. So I never told anyone I got the most votes. How funny is that!?!

Here is the bag I received in the swap. It is cute and I like how they used vinyl to line it.

Little Projects

A friend asked for a table runner that looks like wood planks. I came up with this. When she originally showed me a photo of what she wanted, I started collecting wood-look fabrics. It was fun to attend quilt shows with a fabric finding mission.

Since it is close to Memorial Day, I thought I would whip up this little Uncle Sam wall hanging. It's a kit from the quilt shop that went together very quickly.  I didn't realize until I hung it up, but I forgot to embroider the nose. I will wait until fall when I take it down and correct that for next year. I guess it went together too quickly - haha! 

A few months ago I got the opportunity to purchase a used barrel from a local brewery called Lakefront Brewery. It's a very popular spot and when they put the call out that they were selling their barrels I immediately responded to the ad in hopes to snag one. Luckily, I did get to go pick one up. Once the weather got better, my husband had to figure out how to cut it in half. 

After searching online, Jeff found a very creative way to cut the barrel. He took my garden wagon and turned it upside down placing the barrel between the wheels. Once that was done he measured to find the center then cut the barrel while I turned it. It worked perfectly. Now I have two new barrel planters to replace my old ones which are rotting away. And what a great story about where they came from to share with friends.