This is the color run that I used for the second quilt. These are colors that I know he loves. It took a while to coordinate the fabrics and a design that would satisfy him. But the top is pretty well completed as you can see here. I let him unwrap it for Christmas with the knowledge that it's still in progress. I have to finish the border and then quilt it. Now, if I can find the box that my rotary cutter is packed in and my threads, we may be able to accomplish this soon. By the way, he was delighted with this quilt!
This is a quilt that I made for my son Andrew who lives in London, England. I titled it crop circles. Somewhere I have a picture of the finished quilt. It has black borders with colorful inserts, the back is bright orange batik with colorful inserts which reflect the design on the front. He didn't like it. He said he liked it but it wasn't really his color preference. So this year I have made him another quilt. I will be finishing it up here shortly when I am feeling up to it and will mail it off to him when he has his new apartment located. He uses this one for picnics with his friends. Ouch. That will teach me.
Again, blue to match my dishes. This was a fun project, not difficult at all. Simply wrap fabric strips around clothes line and then zigzag stitch the cord to itself. Goes together quickly. I have lots more cord from the dollar store and plan to make up several to put away for presents as needed. You can make them any size or shape, with or without handles. This one is big enough to hold a cassarole dish or can be used on it's own to hold bread or biscuits or fruit, what ever. Washable, just toss in the machine and then in the drier!
I love to make table runners! This one is blue to match my calico blue china. I have it draped over the side board here, but it looks lovely on the table, I'll have to take a picture and upload it. I collect rabbits and this is my little gnome friend riding a bunny, couldn't resist.
This is another quilt I entered which did not receive a ribbon but is one of my favorites. This is my own design. It represents the fall harvest with beautiful hand dyed fabrics which create dimensionality to the piece. There are two oak leaves appliqued at the bottom of the piece and it is quilted by machine with a meandering design behind the pumpkins and around the border are quilted oak leaves and acorns.
Another fun small wall quilt that I saw in a magazine. I'm sorry but I don't remember which issue, I probably still have it somewhere and if I come across it I will post it here. I entered it in the 2009 Colfax Quilt Show and received a ribbon from Cal Fire. I was very honored, my quilt was by no means technically superior to any of the quilts there but I think that it was the only one with a patriotic theme which I am sure won me points.
I saw this pattern in McCall's Quick Quilts November 2007 and kept the magazine. Finally got around to making it. Very happy with how it turned out. It was fun quick and easy.
The design is by Debbie Field for Granola Girl Designs and the finished wall hanging is 30" by 47".
This quilt top will be for Elder Lloyd who now lives in Utah with his beautiful bride. Elder Lloyd baptised my husband John and when he left to go home he asked if I would make a blue and brown quilt for him and his new bride.
This quilt top does not thrill me, yet. It's a simple turning 20. Yes it went fast, but I'm not enamored with the result. So, I am thinking that perhaps some appliqued stars might be in order. Big Golden Stars...what do you think? Any other ideas?
I was also thinking about cutting it across the diagonal and piecing in a banner with a patriotic slogan. That might add some interest.
Someone had donated or made some nine patch blocks. I took those and added some snowball blocks and got this fun southwestern flavor quilt top as a result. I know someone will enjoy this too. Again, this was bordered, batted and tied by the Colfax Relief Society.
I so enjoy her, all cleaned up and with a cute little dress that I made for her. The socks are wrong, but we will have to go shopping, she and I. One of the next projects for her will be a traditional christening gown with french lace insertions and pin tucks...some fancy sewing. And I think some little black patten leather shoes, mary janes are in order, don't you?
I use to have a doll when I was a little girl, I don't know what happened to it. My mother made all kinds of clothes for it, I still have the clothes. Well, one day, when John and I were out and about, we stopped at a little junk store in Colfax and sure enough, there was my doll in a heap in a box with dirty clothes on. The store owner was asking $45.00 for this dirty doll. I asked him if he would take $15.00. SOLD! So now that I have my dolly back, I am making little clothes for her. This was my first little dress...my husband John is holding it up for me to humor me. I love him for that. Of course it has matching fancy panties!!!
Our Grandson Cayden loves Thomas Train, so this quilt was created just for him, with bright primary colors, blocks set in at angles. The binding was a lot of fun, I used left over strips of the bright colored fabric pieced together randomly. The plaid in the blocks gives the impression of rail road tracks. A warm green fleece completed the back.
Sometimes things can be overwhelming in life. For me, when those times happen, if I can throw myself into a quilt project for someone else, my cares drift away. This was one of those times. This was a fun, quick and easy quilt top. It took one day to piece together out of fabrics that were donated to our church. I returned the completed top and the gals in Relief Society completed it with batting and tying. I hope someone is enjoying it tonight!
These are squares that I made up from pieces that were collected at a quilt guild that I belonged to over in Kelseyville, Lake County, CA. I have gazillions of 6 inch squares, so I have been stitching them into these quilt blocks. I think I want to find a connector block that might expand the design a bit. Suggestions appreciated!
This is a finished lap throw for my other aunt, she loves pink and green. Again, using up dribs and drabs of material, no batting because they live in a warm climate, simple fleece backing, bar tack by machine every four inches. Done in a jiffy!
Again, this is a take off on the Eleanor Burn's Quilt-In-A-Day. This was a bunch of fat quarters that didn't really go with anything. I used them up to make a lap throw for one of my Aunts. Since they live in Florida, I just backed it with fleece, left out the batting and machine tacked it every four inches. She loved it. I don't have a finished picture of this one.
This is the reverse side of another rag quilt. Like I said before, I don't really like these. This is all flannel, nice and warm, but a pain to clip all those seams! Won't do another.
This quilt was a mystery quilt that I saw on TV one day and so I purchased the pattern and the fabric, went over to my mother's house and stitched it up in a couple days. I absolutely love it. Very traditional and I have two of my favorite colors in here, green and red. Oh how vanilla I am sometimes. The quilt was machine quilted. I remember the look on my mother's face as I put it together, she was so amazed that I could do something like that. She passed away in 2006 from cancer. This quilt will always remind me of her. I did get a ribbon for it!
Pink and Blue Flannel done raw edge rag style, very soft. I don't like these quilts, they actually take more time for me to cut all the little seams than to just piece a "normal" baby quilt. But it was pretty. Not sure if she was having a boy or girl, so incorporated both colors, when you reverse the quilt it's more pink than blue.
Still working on finishing this one, not sure about the border. I was initially thinking I would put a wide band of black around and use bands of the original fabric to break it up a bit, but I'm not happy with this design...so it has been sitting waiting for inspiration. If you have a suggestion, please post.
This was the initial start of a quilt. I had it pinned carefully on my white board, to see if I liked the lay out. The cat did not. So she carefully took it all apart for me while I was sleeping. I was so frustrated that I put it away for a while.
This is one of my quilting assistant's Sophie, she is digging in the file cabinet for a pattern that she particularly likes. It's called catnip frenzy. I use to keep a little bag of cat nip in the file cabinet and this little stinker would open it up and get right in there. She is way to smart for her own good!
Our secretary Lisa's daughter had just given birth to a little baby boy, she liked vibrant color so we put together this modified split rail quilt, the rails were put together to look somewhat like windmills with a diamond in the center of each that contained a bears. The diamonds were stitched with a satin stitch heart. Left over rails were cut and stitched end to end for the top and bottom of the quilt. The back was flannel. Quick and easy.
The back side is really plain on this case, but you could use a quilt square that you have left over, or applique something pretty on it. You could create pockets on this side as well, that perhaps close with velcro or a zipper to hold counting rings or other items that are used. Just remember that you are going to want to be able to roll this up.
Also, you will want to get a length of pretty ribbon to secure the roll, and you can stitch it down along one of the quilted rows or along one edge so that it doesn't get misplaced while the roll is opened.
You can see that there are two pockets on this case, the yellow pocket was placed first and stitched down, allowing spacing for the needles. I ran the stitch the entire width of the fabric quilting the front the back and the batting at the same time. Then I placed the second pocket on the bottom and stitched, leaving a space open for circular needles or a patter to be placed. Once these pockets were on, the only thing left to do was create some binding around the edges to finish it off.
It was my friend Theresa's birthday and she is an avid knitter so I made this needle case for her. Quick and easy. Planning one for myself and one for the hygienist at our office who is also a knitter. There are lots of variations on the web, I used some fat quarters that I had, mixed and matched...again pulling my colors from the inspiration fabric with the hidden kitties. I took knitting needles and a pattern that I had and then also decided that she might have shorter needles or crochet hooks to store, so I adjusted the pockets accordingly. Made the flap big enough to fold over and secure the needles before it is all rolled up and tied.
This picture illustrates one of the methods that I use to select fabric colors for my quilts. First select a fabric that you really like. Along the selvage you will see the color run printed as little circles of color. Select other fabrics in those colors and you really cannot go wrong. This is a simple and quick method, doesn't require a lot of thinking and you get great results.
Sometimes, you will find a fabric and you just love the colors, but you don't necessarily want to work that main fabric into your quilt...again, just use the color band on the selvage as your palette indicator and you can pull together the color combination that you like.
Here is the matching crib quilt for little Isaiah. This was quick and easy. Eleanor Burns showed how to make this on her Quilt In A Day TV series. I adapted it and scaled it down to make a crib size quilt. I don't have a picture of the back, but it has a lovely soft flannel on the back.
When you look at the quilt, it looks like the bunnies are hopping across it!
This is the reverse side of the bib. The little bear is from a pattern that I bought years ago. Again he is placed with iron on fabric backing. I changed his positioning from the original design and tucked a little heart under his arm, which of course contains a bunny from the same fabric but a different color run. Simple blanket stitch to finish and stitched on a tiny blue bow.
Padded the bib with thin cotton batting, stitched and turned then finished off the neckline with some homemade bias tape.
This is a little bib that I made for our grandson Isaiah. I collect rabbits and his mother collects bears, so on one side of the bib I have a rabbit holding a heart with a little bear on it. To create the rabbit I photo copied the image from the fabric and enlarged it until it was the size I needed for the bib. I used some iron on backing to adhere it to the fabric and then used a blanket stitch to finish the edges. The next photo will show the reverse side.
We recently moved to Foresthill, CA which is otherwise known in these parts and surrounds as The Divide. Driving out here it's easy to see why, with deep canyons dropping off both sides down to Forks of the American River. Breathtakingly beautiful. There is quite the Gold Rush history here as well. But that is not the purpose of my blog. There is an abundance of creativity up here, hidden away from prying eyes. I'm going to root it out and share it over the course of this year, along with my passion for quilting and crafting.
I am still unpacking boxes of fabric and thought about the opportunity this presented to organize my fabric stash a little better and I came across this video on you tube
Really Brilliant. I have been folding like crazy ever since watching it. Fabric sorted into colors, now I have a much more organized stash to select from when I want to quilt.
This is the color run that I used for the second quilt. These are colors that I know he loves. It took a while to coordinate the fabrics and a design that would satisfy him. But the top is pretty well completed as you can see here. I let him unwrap it for Christmas with the knowledge that it's still in progress. I have to finish the border and then quilt it. Now, if I can find the box that my rotary cutter is packed in and my threads, we may be able to accomplish this soon. By the way, he was delighted with this quilt!
