A Patriotic Quilt Marathon

I was gifted 18 yards of red, white and blue fabrics. They were vintage bundles still in the packaging. I broke them all open to discover all half-yard cuts. I proceeded to wash all the fabrics, sort by color and press them. It was an all-day project. While pressing, I had to come up with a way to use up all the fabrics. Since they were half-yard cuts, there's a lot I could do. 

I chose three Villa Rosa patterns, making cutting easy and consistent since all these patterns requires thick strips to be cut. I liked the Olympiad pattern so much I made two quilts with it. They went together so quickly that it was an easy decision.

Using the scraps left over from the first two quilts I chose to use the Phoebe pattern next. It used up the ends of the strips from the first two quilts along with more of the half-yard cuts. At this point I was looking forward to doing a project that was not red, white and blue!

Once I completed the Phoebe there was still a bunch of fabric left. That's where the Daybreak pattern came in. It uses the same 5-inch square measurement as the Phoebe so I used up leftovers from that quilt along with more half-yard cuts. 

Of course, I had a helper. Jordy just loves to nap on quilts loaded on the longarmer. I'm sure it has the feel of a hammock and I know how much I love a good nap in a hammock so I don't blame him.

After all that, there was still fabrics left so I used it to piece the backs for two of the quilts. 

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to buy a single piece of fabric for 40% off. That's a big deal at the quilt shop so I purchased enough 108" wide backing fabric to complete 4 quilt tops. With 108" wide, I can get 4 quilts on the longarm with just 3 yards of fabric. What a bargain!

It didn't hurt that we're in a deep freeze here in Wisconsin so I wasn't going anywhere so I might as well get quiltinq!

What a fun adventure it was making all these. I'm sure these will become raffle quilts for events at our Legion Post or I will end up donating them to an individual as needed. 

I'm very happy to have given these old fabric bundles a new life.

The January Deep Freeze

Between the snow storms and the below zero temperatures, we knew we would be packing it in at home for a while. We loaded up on groceries before the weather came. I love the feeling of being home, safe, warm and secure. And it's so pretty after it snows. The backyard looks so serene. With temps around 8 below zero, I don't think we will be traipsing around on the patio for a while.

I'm planning on getting some charity quilts started this week. I'm going to take this fat quarter bundle of children's fabrics apart and cut a few quilt kits out of it. There's so many fat quarters that I think I should be able to get at least 3 quilt tops out of it. 

Jeff's favorite college football team, the Michigan Wolverines won the National Championship last night. He is so very excited that they finally won the whole thing! And here he is in his 1997 Championship t-shirt. I was happy to see it still fit - haha!

Wigglebutts

There's a deep freeze here in Wisconsin that doesn't seem to have an end in sight. So I'm quilting like a maniac.  Yesterday I took out my rolls of batting and cut enough pieces to longarm 6 quilts. Some have the backing and some do not. I'm going to start getting them on the longarm so I can get them off of my to-do list. I used 100% polyester batting for these.

The first quilt I completed was the Wigglebutts quilt top. It was one where the backing was ready. I did an allover meander so the quilt went quickly. And I hand bound it using leftover backing after the quilting was done.

I imagine that someday I will gift this to my neighbor, Sarah. She has a black labrador named Roxy that she loves very much. I've never seen so much dedication to a dog. It's a wonderful thing.

With this deep freeze and no where to go I also made some homemade bread and baked potato soup. My son Brian got us a Lodge dutch oven for Christmas and I've already used it twice. I love it.

Baking and cooking sure make the house feel warm.