Quilt Donations for Veterans

One of my co-workers from the quilt shop gave me a motorcycle themed quilt kit. It had all the fabrics and written instructions but no pictures of the finished quilt.  The instructions were well written so the picture didn't matter much. I put the blocks up on my design wall to see if they made sense so it all worked out.

The only problem was that I fussy cut all the motorcycle blocks as instructed, put them up on the design wall to see where they best fit, then proceeded to sew them together accidentally turning the blocks 90 degrees. So when looking at the finished rows, some of the motorcycles appeared sideways. I took apart the blocks in question and flipped them back the right way. 

I quilted it with variegated red and black thread which gave it a nice look on the black background fabric. 

The quilt was donated to the American Legion National Convention to raise money for veterans.

I also chose to make another red, white and blue quilt from my stack of donated fabrics. I didn't use a pattern, just a photo of a finished quilt. I cut the fabrics into 5-inch squares to make the top. 

I free-motion quilted this one and it will be raffled off in fall at a Legion Auxiliary event.

Finished Quilt Projects

I have so many carrots in my garden that I can pick a bunch like this one every single day. I love it. No matter what the will never go to waste around here. If they aren't eaten right away they will become jalapeno carrots. The cucumber in this photo was overlooked on the vine. I can't believe how hard it is to find them sometimes. I only have 1 cucumber plant but the vines are so hardy sometimes I just can't see them.

My sister is turning 60 this month so I made her a t-shirt for her birthday party. 

Here's my little helper. When I'm sewing she sits nicely on whatever quilt is loaded on the longarmer and when I am longarming, she sits on the sewing table and watches intently.

My poor boy is curled up in this new bed. All of a sudden he likes to be surrounded while he sleeps so I got this for him to enjoy.

I finished quilting and binding Her Maj this week. I love how it turned out. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Maybe it will become a gift for a little girl.

I made this quilt using my Accuquilt cutter. I used the half square triangle die for all the blocks. Isn't it amazing how just turning the blocks different directions make a total different look? It was a fun experiment and will be a good quilt for Quilts for Kids.

I made this quilt using a 3-Yard Quilt Book pattern. It went together quickly and will be turned in at my next Quilt for Kids meeting.

Barbenheimer

I've had some success using my new Cricut Maker so I thought I would try my hand at making a t-shirt. Again, I go to YouTube to find some good advice on the vinyl products and how-to's. Then I headed over to Etsy to find this fun Barbenheimer graphic. I couldn't wait to make this shirt and it turned out great. 

It's amazing what happens when you follow the instructions, haha!

I enjoyed wearing the shirt when I took my granddaughter to see the Barbie movie. And what a great movie it was. I had so many memories of the Barbies depicted in the moving.  So much nostalgia. It was a great girl-power movie full of positives for little girls like Avery.

The same week we saw Barbie my husband and I went back to the theater to see Oppenheimer so I got to wear the shirt twice. 

Cricut Maker 3

I finally started using my new Cricut machine. One of the first things I made was this sash for my granddaughter who is the state of Wisconsin Poppy Princess for the American Legion Auxiliary. I think it turned out great. Plus it matches her dress very well.

After making the sash, my legion friends noticed it. They asked if I could make them some ribbons with names on them. I told them I was a novice but I would be happy to give it a shot. So I bought some ribbon.

I made the names up in Design Space and added a few stars. It felt like a nice and patriotic addition. I used a YouTube video demo to apply the lettering to the ribbon choosing to use only the red because the blue was grosgrain which meant there was a texture to it. I thought the lettering would adhere to the satin ribbon a little better than the grosgrain. 

For a first try, I think they turned out great.

And here's what they look like finished.

We spent a week on vacation in northern Wisconsin. It was a wonderful week away and when we're gone, our friends come to our house twice a day and hang out with our cats. Our older cat, Ruxin is on hypothyroid medicine and has been for about a year.  Our friends just love Ruxin so very much that we know he is well taken care of when we're away. 

When we returned from vacation Ruxin was his same old self. But two weeks later, he lost 2 pounds.  He was already down from 10 pounds to 7 pounds from his disease but now he weights just 5 pounds. I don't think he has much time left. I can't stand the thought of losing him. 

Her Maj WIP

I came across an adorable pattern called Her Maj and I just had to have it. As soon as it arrived I got out my scraps. I knew this was one of those patterns that was scrap friendly. All I had to do was purchase some background fabric. 

I had such a great time matching fabrics to make the hat bands and the center of the dresses. There are lots of pieces to these blocks so they were a bit time-consuming. However, once I got the first block done it got a little easier. 

The corgis were almost as much fun as the dresses. This quilt top took me a few days to make and I loved every minute of it. I think I like making blocks as much as I like longarming - haha!

There's not enough fabric in my stash to add the backing so once I've purchased that I can think about how to quilt this little gem. What a fun week!

Where I've Been

I've been planning this project for over a year. The thing is I wanted to collect up a few different stencil sets to make the letters for each of the signs.  They weren't easy to find and they weren't all cheap. Some came from home parties, some from the local craft stores and some I ordered online. It was fun to search for them but time consuming. So it took me a while. 

Last summer I worked on the boards. They are mostly pallet boards. I cut the points on one of the ends of each of the boards. I made sure I left the more interesting ends uncut. I also tried to keep the nail holes, cracks in the boards, and the imperfections in the wood. I want all those interesting features.

I looked up the mileage for each of the signs I made. I started by making a list of places we've traveled to. I was surprised to see how many places I had listed. We've been very lucky to travel so much. It was such a fun project figuring it all out. The thing I didn't do very well is plan the direction of the arrows. I just slapped the stencils on and painted without any concern for where they would go. What an afterthought that was - ha! 

Once I started planning how I would mount the signs I realized I should have planned things better. First I had to decide where the center pole would be positioned in the yard. Then I had to make sure that each sign was pointing in the right direction. So all the cities east of Oak Creek point east and all the places north point north, etc.  After I worked things out there were signs on all four sides of the pole. So now, depending on where I place it in the yard, I will get to see different cities. How fun!

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.