Two More UFO's Done!

I finished two ufo's last week. Ryan's Tropical fish quilt, which I started in 2005. It is a combination of several different fish patterns from Quiltmaker. The Fall Wallhanging is from a pattern by Pat Sloan in Quick Quilts, 2004.

August's Dog Daze Angel

I finished an August Wallhanging last week. I called it "Dog Daze Angel" I really had a lot of fun making this quilt. I'm trying to make a new quilt for every month. QOR ladies suggested Dog Days of Summer when I asked for suggestions. I happened to have a pattern for an Angel Calendar Quilt. This was the August block. I had some trouble with the border. I did everything that I was supposed to.....I measured horizonally across the center, vertically across the center and cut my borders to those measurements, but somehow the border still ruffled. I'm going to take it down, wet it and block it. I'll see if that works.

Finishing UFO's.

I finished these two UFO's this week-end. The Dresden Plate wallhanging is one that I started about three years ago. After I finished the Dresden Plate, it looked too plain, so I added some
3-D flowers in the center, then I quilted the corners with a block pattern.



The Wallhanging below is one that I started a couple of years ago. I used a pattern that Gina Smith sent me for wholecloth pillows. She also sent two skeins of hand-dyed pearle cotton in
shades of turquoise and purple. I used the pattern and the thread to do the quilted center. After I finished hand quilting the center, I machine quilted the borders onto the center. I had a lot of problems with the seminole pieced border (matching the corners), but I decided that finished was better than perfect. LOL. Overall, I like it. I put both of these wallhangings in my office.

Reception

Yesterday we welcomed a new member to our family.

Chris, the oldest great-greatchild in our family, is

marrying Ashley on July 18th in Gilbert, AZ. Michael,

Rod and the kids all came home for the 4th to give

us all an opportunity to meet Ashley. We had a reception

for them on Sunday, the 5th. These are some of the pix

I took. If you notice the black and white cake, you'll know

that those are their colors. After we ate cake all of us

went around for a few hours with black lips and tongues, LOL.

Since all of the family was there, my sisters and I took a picture with our mother. Ina, is going to be 80 years old this year.

Bottom row: Steph, Mom, Barb Back Row: Diana, Sherry

These were the gifts I made for Chris and Ashley. I embroideried the pillowcases and crocheted the edges. The wallhanging has their engagement picture printed on fabric. I ran out of time, so I didn't get their names embroideried, but Michael is going to do that when she gets back to Gilbert.

All in all, it was a great 4th of July week-end.

A Week-end's Work

I completed this 4th of July wallhanging in three days. It is a variation of the wallhanging I made from Charm Squares last week. Ryan reminded me that I did not have a 4th of July wallhanging to put in the dining area. LOL.

I also made some little bags as gifts for my sisters and my DIL for their birthdays.

Needless to say, I did not finish my goals I set last week for quilting. I did finish Goal #1 and did catch up on my 2009 Mystery quilt. I am ready for the next installment.

For my Baby Mary.......I love you and miss you! Take care of yourself. Sorry I wasn't there to answer the phone, but someone turned off the ringer.

Goal #1 Done!!

It was my first goal this week to put the final border on this hand-pieced quilt top. I finished it this morning. This is a Jinny Beyer pattern called Columbia. I was interested in seeing what her pattern would look line in softer more romantic colors and fabrics. This is it! It has taken me three years to piece this quilt. I worked on it off and on. Now I add it to my list of tops to be quilted. LOL.

Jilly dressed Lacey up in her Halloween costume (that was too big at Halloween) for this picture. Lacey liked it so much she wouldn't let us take it off her for about three hours. LOL.

Project Complete!!

I finished my wallhanging finally. I am trying everything to use up the left over charms from the quilt I made. So far I have an apron, a wallhanging and several pincushions and I still have scraps. LOL. Anyway, this is the picture of the wallhanging.

Tonight I'm going to work on hand-quilting the charm square quilt. It is queen size, so it will take awhile.

A Soul Soothing Experience

Tonight the South Dakota Symphony and the Porcupine Singers performed a concert at the University's Multi-Purpose Center entitled The Lakota Music Project. The symphony was simply beautiful.....at the beginning they performed classical music and Lakota music alternately, then the last portion of the concert combined the Lakota singers as one part of the orchestra. It was simply awe-inspiring. It touched me to the core of my spirit and soothed my soul, especially the last selection entitled Black Hills Olowan.

New Fabric, new space

Sammie gave me a Pat Sloan pattern book for Mother's Day because I love Pat Sloan's patterns. In the back of the book was a process for creating new fabric from scraps. I didn't follow the process exactly, which was to put together strips to make 8" or 12" blocks. I took all the scraps from cutting out Katie's star quilt (which were on my cutting mat) and sewed them together. Since there were mostly diamonds and triangles, I sewed those together to make new fabric. As you can see in the picture, I still have more scraps to sew before I'm done. This will create space in my scrap box and I am going to make a pillow from the "new fabric".

Katie's Graduation Quilt

I finally finished Katie's graduation quilt and it is in Arizona for her Graduation Day, which is today. I made the top and Sammie quilted it for me. Before I added the binding, I staystitched it and washed it. Even tho, I washed it in cold water and dried it on Delicate, it puckered. It looks like an antique quilt. I was really disappointed. We figured out that the puckering was caused by the thread. Sammie used Star quilting thread and it shrank more than the fabric and batting, which caused the puckering. I steam pressed really bad areas, so it looked better.

New Family Member

This is my new baby, Lacey Jay. Mary & Paul got her in July and then moved to an apartment that wouldn't allow pets. I inherited her and she has become my puppy now. She is my constant companion when I'm home. I never thought I would see the day when an animal would sleep on my bed, but she has taken over and sleeps with me.

Sisters Christmas Presents

These are dishtowels that I made for my sisters for Christmas presents. I also made some Snowman photo frame ornaments for each of them for pictures of their grandchildren.

Another UFO Bites the Dust

This quilt is a Row Robin that was done in 2005 by Linda Smith, Judy McCatty, Veronica Goff, Dawn Lowry and myself. I finally put it together and quilted it during Christmas vacation.

This is the label I put on the back.

Everyone signed it as they finished

their row. After I put it together, I

indicated which row was done by each person.

UFO's completed

During Christmas vacation I worked on completing some of my UFO's. The tops were made in 2005. This one that I finished was a Christmas quilt from a free pattern from McCall's Quilting magazine. I started quilting it when Cleve was in the hospital the last time.