Winter Quilt block swap at MJF

This is a swap that was over at MJF last month. I haven't decided if this is one or two quilts because there are two color schemes happening: a winter one, which is white and blue (snow men and ice), and the other is red, white and green (Christmas). Since I am still waiting on one set and for me to embroider 17 snowmen, more details on this below. I might wait on that decision for now.

Sheryl Lynn's Blocks (sewgirlie)

Tammy's blocks

jessica's blocks (smoothiejuice)

Camille's blocks

Cheryl's blocks

Creatmyworld's blocks (Beth)

Khartquilt's blocks (Kathlen)

Grace's blocks (Katmom's)

Denise's blocks (levisgrammy)

Linda's blocks ( yarnmamma)

corrinne's blocks

Corrine's came all the way from Kuwait where she is in the service.

Kathy's blocks (Ktknits). I'm waiting on those still; because she had some issues in her life, I am good on waiting for them to arrive.

Wendy's blocks (sunshine)

I was going to do two sets of embroidered blocks but ran out of time, so I embroidered and pieced blocks. The snowmen were to be the second set, but that never got swapped so I have 17 of these drawn. I might use them as filler blocks between the other blocks. That is, once I get them embroidered. I also have one more tree to embroider as well; 3/4ths of a tree is more correct.

Fall Quilt Top

I have assembled the quilt blocks from the swap at MJF. This will make a very good sized sofa blanket. Not too big or so small you can't share with the person at the other end of the sofa. This will be nice for the fall months in the coming years. I doubt I will get it all quilted before this fall is over, so next year hopefully. There are all kinds of styles in this quilt from embroidery to appliqué to pieced and rick rack, yoyos and button embellishments. I am glad I signed up for the swap twice; I like this amount of blocks. I am going to embroider in the center block with the names of those who participated in the swap, and I might embroider some leaves there, too.

A Heart for Dana

A heart for Dana, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

I was in a heart swap at Valentine's. After I posted my finished pieces on my blog, Dana said she wanted to trade for a heart. So this is the heart I made for her. I worked on this while taking care of my daughter at the hospital on and off these last few weeks. The fabrics are the same as the ones I used in my swag/garland at Christmas. Plus a strawberry one I received from my friend Berries at MJF.

Some of the buttons are new; some are vintage. The pearl cotton bordering the heart is antique pearl cotton.

This item is meant to be finished by the recipient. It can be added to in any way she wants, such as boarders to make it a little bigger to make a small pillow out of it; make it into an appliqué; or make it a pocket on an apron, you name it; what ever she can think off. I hope she likes it, too, because I did a different technique than I did before. Some love and some worry for my daughter are in this heart -- every stitch.

Wip Fall needle turn Applique with embroidery

This, as you can see, is a partially-done quilt.

This is also not the final lay out for one -- that yellow leaf at the bottom is facing the wrong way. A few more blocks need to be made as well. The muslin squares are 9 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches and make a finished 9 x 9 inch square. Please use a 1/4 inch seam allowance now and through out. You can actually use any leaf that is native to your area for this or use random leaves to give lots of variety to this quilt.

The three smaller leaves are for a vine boarder that will go around the entire quilt on a 7 1/2 inch wide, unfinished size, muslin boarder. But once again you can use any leaves you want, holly leaves would be good for a Christmas theme and maybe a few pine cones in the boarders.

This is my WIP for today. You can always make it yours, too; it's not a hard pattern. Pin pattern on pieces of fabric you wish to cut, yes you can cut more than one at once they won't be exactly the same and that is better -- more like real leaves. I recommend using scissors to cut, not a rotary cutter, but either would work. Then pin to muslin squares and use a needle to turn applique to attach them. It's a little random that way and each has its own personality, too.

Next, use a chain stitch to make the stem and veins. You can either make the embroidery blend or have a real high contrast. Sew blocks together, add a boarder, add a vine using handmade bias tape, pin small leaves in place. Finish them the same as big leaves. Then set up on quilt frame; quilt with echo quilting and bind. This makes a very lovely fall project. Blow up pictures to your desired size and make templates. Have fun.

WIP Friday sampler quilt

This is from a class I was teaching about 5 years ago.


There are a lot more pieces to this; I am in the process of cleaning out my sewing room, so I am finding them.

Maybe, in time, I will complete this and get it on my king-size bed. I taught a lot of different techniques; it went on for an entire year so there are lots of other blocks to this. Some of the techniques taught were embroidery, silk ribbon embroidery, bullions, Hawaiian piecing, fabric origami, applique, English paper piecing, foundation piecing crazy quilts.....it was a long list. The big black space is where an applique is supposed to go; it just hasn't been put on the quilt yet. If it hasn't become obvious yet, I like colors in my quilts and rugs. If you click on the links on the side with those two labels you will see what I mean.


Join group on Flickr English Paper Piecing

Utah Valley Quilt Guild Show and Tell

This is only a few of them. It was so dark my camera was having issues with the flash.

Plus, the quilts and other things that were made were going by so fast.

This first one is actually taped to the wall, just for displaying for the day. It has a picture of Jesus in it. The quilter said a lot of people have a hard time finding him in it. I could see him right away, can you? It belongs to the president of the guild; she also made it as well as number 2 ( all wool and a past block-of-the-month for the guild). I think the third one is also hers, but I could be wrong on that one.

I can't tell you who the rest belong to, but I can give a little information on some of them.

Included in here is a grandmother's flower garden with a boarder. The woman who made it's mother wanted to entertain her for a while when she was 13 years old and thought this would work. The daughter wasn't too happy with it and thought it boring to work on, so in and out of the trunk it went over the years through marriage and children -- a little here and there being added. The garden was a completed top about 5 years ago. The problem was, the creator of the quilt didn't still like it. After her mother died, it sort of became a tribute to her and she made a border. Then she decided that she finally liked it. That was two years ago. About one year ago she decided to finish it. This is a quilt 72 years in the making; now that is a long-time project. Her mother kept her busy forever. The owner and maker just finished it and is 85 years old. That is tenacity, if I ever saw it.

Also included is a flag quilt which will be taught, if I remember correctly, at a local quilt store.

A light blue on white applique quilt about 12 years in the making is also in this set of quilts. It is all hand appliqued and hand quilted in turquoise thread.

This one belongs to a lady in my quilting bee 'till Christmas when she gives it to her daughter. I go to that bee sporadically on Thursdays; not the one I go to sporadically on Tuesdays. This group that all the bee's belong to meets on the third Wednesday, once a month. If I went to all of these things, life would never happen; just quilts.

The rest are just other quilts. I can't remember all of their stories, but here and there I will tell what I can.

There was a series of five quilts showing studies of water color quilts. I only got two photographed; they were all hearts.

The last one is an old block-of-the-month were you were to make two of each block. As you can tell, there are only 16 blocks, not 24 like there should be; the person gave up.


Join group on Flickr English Paper Piecing