New Hop and a little show and tell

I'm going to be participating in a new blog hop coming in November; Marian at Seams to Be Sew is lining up participants for Christmas is in My Heart. When I heard about it, I couldn't resist. Stay tuned for what I make...

Now for some show and tell:

I made this simple dress for my granddaughter Hailey while we were at their house a few weeks ago. She suggested the ruffle. I also made a pink belt to tie around the waist but she likes to wear it without, for the most part.

 

Our quilt club learned to make this Triangle Frenzy Swirl table runners. The pattern is by Bunnie Cleland. I have made a bunch--these are a few of them.

 

Then I found 3 of these Halloween panels in my stash, so I have made up two of them, one for each of our daughters and families. This one has coordinating fabric for the outer border. The other one has some of the extra figures that came with the panel as its border--kind of hard to explain, and I neglected to take a picture of that one. Anyway, I hope to get the 3rd one made up for me before the month is out.

I made some scrubs for my veterinarian brother after our visit to their house last month.

One is from cat fabric and the other from dog.

So glad they fit and he apparently likes them. :)

 

My newest project is making table runners from the Triangle Frenzy Swirl pattern.

They are beautiful, I think!

The one below is not quilted in the photo, but it is done now, along with another in a different border print. So lovely!! AND, I have more in mind!

My finished East Central IL Shop Hop Quilt from 2012. I got half the blocks pieced right away and then put the whole thing away. This year I was determined to get this done. Thank goodness I had bought some extra yardage since I decided to set the blocks this way, but I still didn't have enough of the cream, so I had to look for it. After ordering the wrong color, I started calling area shops and found one that still carried it. Thanks, Stitch and Sew in Arthur, IL! I'm holding the quilt with my brother John who was the recipient of it, along with his wife Kris. It now adorns their lovely home.

I labeled that quilt, explaining some about the Shop Hop. Sorry you have to get a crick in your neck to read it.

 



 

These are some purses I made from neckties for my sister-in-law Chris from her father's neckties. I have started making more since there are a lot of girls in that family! Stay tuned for more photos.

 

Camella, our newest granddaughter (born May 5) is the recipient of this quilt.

I drew the butterflies and flowers myself to applique on the quilt.

 

 

Then I decided to use some of the leftover squares to make a doll quilt for big sister Amelia who is nearly 2 years old.

 



I like to make skirts for my granddaughters, so I made these--2 skirts for biggest sister Harper (age 6), 1 skirt for Amelia, and matching skirts for their dolls.

 



 My newest toy is my Babylock Tiara II. I am excited to have this instrument to help me FMQ my larger quilts!! It was SEW frustrating trying to quilt the over-sized queen-size Delightful Stars on my home machine. I can't wait to use this machine often!

 

I used my Tiara once so far--finishing up the quilting on this piece, made of antique Dresden plate blocks that I set in this blue. I made it as a wall hanging, but it's so long, I have it hanging over our loft railing right now.

 

I have 1 quilt sandwiched, ready to get started quilting, and 1 more will be sandwiched after tomorrow. Yippee! Now to find time to quilt!

Quilt Retreat 2015

 

Last weekend 6 of us showed up at Threads of Time in Danville, IL, for our annual quilting retreat. We had our own work room, called "The Parlor," even though we hadn't asked for this deluxe accommodation, because the retreat center was full. We enjoyed having our own space but missed the opportunity to visit with all the others who inhabited the retreat center with us and the opportunity to see what they were working on. We had to tour the building now and then to see. A bonus was seeing a couple of women from another group that we had seen last year and getting to touch base with them. We probably would have chatted with them more frequently if we had been out in the "big room." We still had a great time and could have stayed longer.

 

Here are Kathy and Becky. Becky is making faces at me while Kathy is diligently getting set up to go to work.

Brenda and Nanette are consulting on a seam for one of Nanette's t-shirt quilts.

Betty Sue is cutting strips for her string pieced quilt-as-you-go.

I love this shot--we are all looking at Betty Sue's blocks and trying to decide the best arrangement for them.

 

Here is our whole group. We missed a couple of our regulars: Rosie and Denice. Hope they will be able to come next year, along with a few more from our quilt group.

Brenda is displaying her blocks. She spent a lot of time cutting fabric so she was ready to sew when she finally sat down to her machine (then the pattern illustration was wrong--how frustrating--but she stuck to it and figured it out). Her blocks are lovely!

These are blocks I worked on during this wonderful weekend. The 2 on the left are disappearing hourglass from Missouri Star Quilt Company. The ones in the center are the East Central IL Shop Hop Quilt from 2012, I think. The block I am holding is for our Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. I have made a block for our congregation for the past several years.

Kathy worked on another library quilt for her daughter Anna. I love the hand-embroidered knight sitting with the dragon.

 

Here is one of Nanette's t-shirt quilts. I think she already had this one pieced when she came but she worked on 2 others while there.

Becky quilted on this beautiful flannel quilt the entire time (so dedicated and determined). The recipient is going to love this quilt.

 

Betty Sue's string pieced blocks--are they lovely? I can't wait to see it when it's done.

 

We are already planning when to go next year--in March this time so we hope it won't conflict with other schedules. We want to stay Friday through Monday this time too. Whoo hoo!

Completed projects

This wall hanging I designed based on the Pointed Poinsettias I learned how to do in a Quilt Club lesson. Some of us said this method would be pretty in sunflowers, so I drew my petals and leaves and went to work.

 

 

I put the border on and then FMQed the background with a flower design. Then I sewed on the flower petals.

There are 3 layers of petals--it took a long time to turn them right side out and press them. Maybe you can see the beads I sewed in the flower centers and the beads on the leaves.

I quilted straight lines around the border to make it look more like a picture frame.

I named it Jeweled Beauties.

 

Then I made a set of 16 placemats for my friend Tracy. This picture shows 8 of them.

 

I finished this table runner too. This was another Quilt Club lesson.

 

It is quilt-as-you-go and reversible. Here's the other side.

 

I'm in the middle of a baby quilt for my new grandbaby, due in early May, and I have also started working again on the East Central IL Shop Hop quilt from maybe 2012? I had half the blocks done. Now I have 1 more finished. There are 12 blocks.

Gifting the Delightful Stars Quilt

 

 

 

 

Here are my sister-in-law and her husband opening up their quilt for the first time. They loved it--sent photos to friends and relatives and had the next-door neighbor come over to see it. She loved it too. I value her opinion since she is an artist--she said that I have a really good color sense. For someone who thinks she has no talent for drawing or painting, I am thankful to know I have some artistic sense. :)

Sandra and John are going to purchase a new queen-sized bed in the near future and will use the quilt on their bed then.

 

I brought some sewing work to AZ with me--some placemats to sew, a one-block wonder to work on, and some embroidery.

 

I also have visited 3 quilt shops in the area--each different, of course--and purchased something at each one, of course. :) One of the shops must have 10,000 bolts and all fabric is $7 per yard. Wow! I might go back next week when they are having a sale...