February UFO

 I love a good deadline.....so most years I make my list and assign numbers.  Every month American Patchwork & Quilting pulls another number....and I start on another project trying to make some progress on it.  Here is a the latest finish.  it is #11.....I moved it up to last month so it would be done before the baby to will embrace.

This baby quilt was made from fabric of a long time guild member who passed in 2020.

The mosaic sections were treated as a jelly roll race.  The scraps were already sewn into a few long strips.  After a couple rounds of the "Race" the chunks were a good size.  The purple fabric framed it all nicely.  I love how these look like they are hanging on strings.  I love how brave Sue was in her color selection.  I'm not sure I would have been that brave.  These scraps have so many different colors in them.  That variety is what makes this really sparkle.

It should arrive in the one of the hardest hit parts of Texas on Friday.

Pick up some fabric and sew something.....

Jane 

Just Another Quilter

Quilt of Valor in Progress

 Today is the day to tame this pile.  These have been waiting for a trim for almost 6 months now!

This blocked is based on Bonnie Hunter's String X free pattern.   A little modification by adding the gold around the string section.  Gold measures 1 1/2".  I did some cutting for the gold.  The gold is slightly longer with the ends cut on the diagonal flipping a 45 degree ruler back and forth across the length of the strip.

  

Check out how nicely these come together.

This is the second quilt of this style.....check this one out from a couple years back.  This was presented as a Quilt of Valor in 2019.

The colors are reversed and is missing the gold bars.  It is so fun to just sew scraps together, here red or above in blue....those sets get cut down to the 4 1/2” x 10 1/2” chunks as Bonnie’s pattern instructs.  Then......drum roll.......I use the Block Loc ruler to cut the points on ends.  No template to tape to a ruler.  

Fold the scrap section in half lengthwise, slide the Block Loc ruler to the end and trim,  slide it to the other end and trim.  Presto.....the unit needed, now to just add the corner triangles.

This is a great way to decrease those scrap bins!

Happy Quilting,

Just Another Quilter

A Charming Quilt

The tried and true charms came out last January.  These charms are from a swap with Black/White fabric about 6 or so years ago.  Check out the quilt made.  It is incredibly easy.

                                 

Make it look hard and not be hard....and let the fabric do some of the work.

How does the fabric do some of the work? The black/white fabrics were set into 2 piles, dark or light. The block is just a charm with a frame around 2 side

           

So lets back up, why 2 different color bolts through the quilt?  Not enough of either fabric to stick to a single choice.  As this was a retreat quilt, no additional stash available.  These 2 choices made a nice baby quilt for a unknown sex.  Designs choices on the run.  I have been working out of the stash instead of purchasing fabric.  After the piles were separated, the framing went on each.  The final blocks would finish about 6", so a 8 x 11 layout was planned. That means 88 squares.                    
To start, each pile of the light and dark charms had the 2 different frames attached.  I just sat down and sewed for awhile,  made about 15 of each category-dark charm & green border, dark charm & plaid border, light charm & green border, and light charm & plaid border.  That gave me about 60 to play with. 

                                        
It took some time to be happy.  In the end the quilt comes together with light green charm, light plaid charm, dark plaid charm, dark green charm, repeat.  The frames of like fabrics always touch and the like charms always touch.  Each row just steps to the side once.

     

Hope you enjoy.  It was a fast, easy and fun one to make.  Make those quilts have complexity visually....not necessarily in the construction.

For the quilting nothing more than a loop on the top side of a wavy line here and there as you go across the quilt.  This fast and easy pattern keeps light quilting, just what a baby needs.

Happy Stitching,
Just Another Quilter, Jane

 It's been a long time since anything has been posted here.  I hope to do a better job with that since I am picking up some lecturing gigs.

Here is one of the quilts that was finished during the quarantine.

This totally came out of the stash.  I will say the border stripe has been used in the past....so at least one of those mitered corners is pieced together.   You really can't see the seams.  This picture is not February.....we have it very cold here now.   Temps are in the single digits and the snow is DEEP.

 

Check out the quilting.  Three different flower stencils were randomly placed and circles helped fill in around them.  

I love the inspiration fabric, a Kathy Doughty design (Material Obsession) called Horizons Baob Plains Moody, by Free Spirit. She came to Prairie Star  Quilt Guild back in 2018.  A Different Box of Crayons brought several of her fabrics in for our meeting for us to purchase.  It was great to have the opportunity to see Kathy as she is out of Australia.  I still have some more purchases from that day that are yet to make it into projects.  

Hope to be back soon to show you another project.

Jane

Just Another Quilter

Mah Jong 9 Patches-Renamed to Floating Tiles Available in my Etsy Store

Most of my quilty friends know not to ask how many projects are IN PROGRESS.  So many of my quilts "in progress" have begun as leader and ender projects.  I have made a couple quilts from 9 patches that were made between other quilts.  

This one is based on Bonnie Hunter's Zig Zag 9 Patch.  It is still within the family collection and was completed in 2015.

Note the border is purple, not blue as the picture appears.  

Here is the latest quilt.  I love just a little black and some appliqué in most of my quilts.  Check out the quilt on our "his & her" Adirondack chairs.  We made these from a large pallet delivered from a home improvement center.  We made these chairs on the weekends while we split our time between our home and work a couple hours away. So far my DH has yet to join me sitting in the chairs.

I enjoy downloading a magazine on my mobile device and having some coffee (or other refreshment) while reading overlooking the lake.

You can see how close the chairs are to the lake.  We have 3...yes 3 snapping turtles that have made a home in the lake.  They like to hang out just in front of the chairs.

Check out the "lifesavers" added to the corners.  This is similar to some of tiles in my Mahjong screen version.  This time the corners were appliquéd down as part of the quilting itself.

DH has requested that this quilt stay within the family.  That is one way to tell it is a hit!

Hopefully come 2019, this will be a class offering through the Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild.

So FYI, I now have 2 guilds, Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild and Prairie Star Quilters Guild.  Both of them has shows coming up.  Both shows are great.  Here are the links to the guild websites.  I hope to check them both out.

MVQG-Mississippi Valley Fair Grounds, Davenport, IA  September 21 & 22
PSQG-DuPage County Fair Grounds, Wheaton, IL  October 12 & 13


Just Another Quilter,
Jane

Ready for Binding

After a year and a half.....it is ready for binding.

This is the quilt I said I would not make.....

Do you recognize it?  It is different than others you have seen.  I changed the background to black and shifted some colors.  Oh! and 1 sashing difference.

It is "En Provence".  Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery.

Why wouldn't I make it?  Enough projects were going. Didn't have time, high school senior, just plain ole too much going on.

Why did I change my mind? 

The scrap crystal quilt was using many of the same size and colors.  Might as well just run some of the mystery stuff through the machine.  So glad I did.  I just love both quilts.

Recently had the opportunity to take a Bonnie class in St. Charles, IL

Here's Bonnie's take

Coming soon....progress on Cathedral Stars.  So excited that I had the opportunity to take this class with a newer friend, Shawn.  Definitely a good new friend.  She so kindly put me up after the Bonnie class.  This was needed since DH has now retired and we have moved out of the temporary housing.  It is so nice to be back in our own house.  I will dearly miss all the new knitting and quilty friends from the Chicagoland area.

Keep watching......life may just swing to the quilty side.  Reporting here should happen more frequently.

Just Another Quilter, Jane

OMG.....

One Monthly Goal

Last year my goal of a quilt finish every month was close but not quite achieved. The list of finishes might be close to 1 a month.....but it wasn't close to the list of projects that I wanted to complete.  How does that happen....finish quilts but a number of UFO’s still exist. This was on the 2017 UFO list.

One of the ways this occurs is by not getting the "quilting" done.  I’m not doing much on the long arm lately, spending too much time with DH in the apartment.  That means lots of tops hanging around.  Scrap Crystals, the June 2016 Bonnie Hunter class is now off the machine and done.

My goal on this one was to practice diagonal straight line.  These are pretty good....a whole lot of them are awful.

I do like the design on the sashing.  It is amazing how an arched template and a little imagination can make a neat design.

The binding was put on in the apartment, a quick photo with the snow on the porch.

This quilt is now on the long arm.  So this month the goal is to get it off the machine.  Then the binding can put stitched down in the apartment.  Not today.  Sewing at my besties house for the day!

Linking up with OMG...One Monthly Goal
Happy Stitching,
Just Another Quilter