Medallion Quilt

I have been delinquent again!  You would think that I would have tons of spare time to read blogs and add to mine, but the days seem to fly by.

I finished this wall hanging this week and it is hanging in our bedroom.  I found the pattern in the Fall/Winter 2019 Quilt Sampler.  It was designed by Mary Koval, who owns Mary's Quilt Shop in Bedford, Pennsylvania and has the name "Blend Together."  I had a toile for the center, but the picture is kind of light against the pink.  But that was in my stash, so I used it. 

The pattern called for one more border, but I thought it was big enough.  

Here's a close up of the medallion.

The weather has been beautiful lately!  And this dogwood tree is practically in our yard, but actually is in our next door neighbor's yard - about 4-5 feet from our driveway.  We're lucky to have it so close to our house!

We are thankful that it didn't go down when we had the ice storm a couple months ago - I think it was around Valentine's Day.  The branches were weighed way down across our driveway and I was afraid they would crack off, but they didn't!  Thousands of trees didn't make it and our town is still cleaning them up.

I had my 2 vaccinations and didn't have any bad reaction to them (Moderna) thankfully.  

Some of my time has been used up with yard work.  I have planted flowers in the ground and in pots.  My clematis has one blossom and lots of buds on it.  I purchased another one that is purple and will bloom all summer.  My bleeding heart hasn't appeared, so I may buy another one.  But my lily of the valley is blooming and other plants are poking their way out of the ground!  It's a beautiful time of year!

Two Quilts Finished

 Some close up pictures of basting my string quilt.  Notice the cat eyes in the first pictures.  I love that fabric - I bought it in Iowa a couple years ago and I think it's all gone now.

I do my basting on a table in the garage, unless it's too cold out there.  It was chilly, but I stayed in the garage.

Here is the finished quilt on my clothes line (which I put up just for hanging quilts for picture taking).

I was quite windy that day!

BTW, that bush under the quilt is gone.  I decided to put a clematis there instead.

The second quilt that I finished is the cat quilt.  This one was a lot of fun to make.  

I have been busy working in the yard and have gotten a lot done with help from a yard worker.  Our front yard will look a lot better once I get things planted.  Other improvements were made on our small patio and mulch will be put down soon.  I wanted to get it done early.  It rained a lot yesterday so it's too muddy to work in today.  

I'm trying to use up fabric and sewed a bunch of 4-patches together.  The 2 1/2" squares have been cut for quite some time and were left over from a quilt I made for DS#2/DIL and they got married in 2003.  It wasn't a wedding gift, but I think I made it a couple years later.  So it's about time I did something with the scraps from it.  A simple 4-patch will make a nice lap quilt!

Happy Spring!

BUSY QUILTING!

Believe it or not I've been busy quilting!!  I showed you this string quilt a couple posts ago and I had to buy some backing fabric before I could get it quilted.  So, I took a trip to Joann's, deciding to go their first and if they didn't have anything I liked, I would then go to my LQS.  At first, I didn't see anything at Joann's that I liked, but when I looked a little more, I found something.  Of course, all the fabric in the store was marked down to a sale price, so I couldn't use the 60% coupon that I had.

I finished quilting the string quilt.  This is the backing I bought for the string quilt.

I found this paw print fabric for the cat quilt. 

So I moved on to quilting the cat quilt.  I love this one!  The fabrics were cut out probably over 10 years ago!  What a UFO!  I enjoyed making the blocks so much, that I have already cut out a lot of fabrics for another one.

With the spring almost here, I have been doing a little yard work.  I am old now, so I can't spend too long out there at a time.  I decided to hire someone to help get the yard in order and put down mulch.  But before he comes, I'm trying to clean up the flower beds.  I'm not going to plant any vegetables this year.  It's not worth it to me since there is a farm nearby where I can get fresh veggies for great prices.  I guess I'm getting lazy.  I have always dreaded the summer coming (especially when we lived in Texas) due to the heat and having to do yard work.  At least it isn't so hot here in Oregon!  I am weird, I know.  But during the winter, there's no yard work needed (except mowing the grass a couple times) and it is very cozy inside.  More time to quilt!!

The trees are starting to bloom now and daffodils are blooming all over town!  Happy Spring, everybody!

I'm a Delinquent!

 I have been really bad lately - when it comes to blogging, that is!  I haven't even been looking at blogs very much.  It seems like I just don't have time!  Is it my imagination, or am I going nuts?  I am doing a lot of sewing, so that part is good.  I don't have much to show you though.  I will get to that down a ways.

Spring is coming and I have some mini daffodils along with the grape hyacinths!  They are so cute!!

My LQS always has quilts in the window and I love these two.  One looks real easy and might be one to keep in mind.  The green one looks a lot harder.

I had this quilt marked in the Quilt Sampler magazine from fall/winter of 2019.  I finally got around to making it.  I think I'll stop at this border - there is supposed to be one more.  It measures about 40" square right now and I plan to bind it with the same brown that that I used in the medallion.  

I love making 4 1/2" saw tooth stars for small items.  I finished some pink ones to use as coasters that I included in birthday cards to some friends.

Sawtooth Coasters

 Then I decided to make some mini quilts and have gotten this far.  Well, a little farther since they are now basted and ready to quilt.  At first I sewed them together without a sashing and then I took them apart to put sashing in - I like that better.

These can be used on a small table or as a toilet tank topper.  I like to have something on top of the tank and have had the same ones for years now.  

I have 2 quilts ready to baste and had planned to get it done, but I had measured wrong and will need to figure it out again.  What a pain!  One is the "cat" quilt that was on my design wall a while back and the other one is a strip quilt that I really like.  I had some backing set aside and now can't find it.  I think I'm either very disorganized or I'm loosing my mind.  

I will try to get better about posting and reading posts.  

       

Another UFO!

 As I was looking for something in my fabric closet, I cam across a baggie with some pieces that I had cut at least 10 years ago.  There was also a book named "The Cat's Meow, Purr-fect Quilts for Cat Lovers", but Janet Kime.  I decided to make a few blocks and see how they turned out.  They were fun and easy to make, so I kept going until all the pieces were finished.  Here's a picture of some of the blocks on the design wall.  I remember cutting these out and wonder why it has taken so long to make this up. 

                    

I used different scraps of background fabric for them.  My granddaughter came over and she loved it and did some sewing on it as well.  It is ready for quilting now.   I wonder if there are more UFOs lurking in the shadows!  If they are, I need to get them all finished.  That would be great!  BTW, is fabric that is being saved for something considered a UFO when you aren't sure exactly what it will be made into?

I made a Valentine pillow for a young friend of mine and plan to deliver it today.

The other day when I went out I saw some tiny grape hyacinths in my garden!  I love them!  This morning there is a couple inches of snow on the ground.  I don't think it will last very long as it's supposed to get up to 43º today and it will turn to rain.  It's nothing compared to other parts of the country.

Just a short post for today which is better than nothing.  I have been very bad about posting lately.  Hope you are keeping warm and dry!

2020 Review

Lately I have been keeping a journal of quilting progress and last fall I looked through my blog (From 2007 thru 2019) and made a list of all the quilts that were featured on my blog.  I wrote them down and counted five categories:  Donation, Gifted to family, Gifted to friends, Sell and Keep.  This week I went through my 2020  posts and added them to the list.  The list doesn't include any quilts that I didn't post on the blog - mostly ones that I sold I suppose.  Anyway, my list for all those years is up to 323 quilts.  Of course a lot of those are small ones such as doll quilts.  The major quilts for 2020 are on the "2020 Finishes" list.  I'm not going to show all the quilts in this post.

This morning, I finished the main section of the quilt (with no name) that I'm working on. In order to get this part finished, I had to piece the lighter colored portion of 2 setting triangles.  I had found it at a quilt shop in Washington and ordered it, but they refunded my money saying that they couldn't fill the order.  My LQS didn't have any of it (that's where I got it).  I did have some small pieces and pieced them together so I could finish the triangles. I don't think it's very obvious, so that is good.  The next part will be borders that will make it into queen size.  I'm going to put it away for a while.  This picture isn't very good, but is the best I could do with it on the floor.  

This is the last block that I made and I think it's my favorite block.  I found it in a 100 block magazine from several years ago.  The blocks measure 12 1/2".

My priority for next week will be taxes!  Ugh!!  I'm sure I will do some sewing too, but it will probably be on some projects that are ongoing piecing - like string blocks or Christmas star blocks.  

In know some of you are getting a lot of snow and hope that you don't have to go out in it too much.  My sister near Chicago is supposed to get snow later today.  Stay warm!

A Couple Goals for the New Year

I haven't really prepared a list of goals for 2021, but I do have one specific goal and that is to finish a queen size quilt that will be a wedding gift for a grandchild.  I think I explained earlier that I wanted to have a quilt for each of my five grandchildren's wedding prepared so that in case I am not here when they do get married, they will each get a quilt.  This is my last one.

I have decided to make an on point medallion quilt.  I have 13 12" blocks made (I will need one more).  I got the block patterns from Barbara Brackman's blog (civilwarquilts.blogspot.com) .  I saw this medallion design on her blog (I believe) and liked it, so I reproduced it.  At least, I thought it was from her blog.  Now I can't find it.  I will need to add sashing so it each side will equal 2 blocks.  The upper left edge has some blue and off white fabric that I will probably use as borders for the medallion.

You might be able to get an idea of the layout from how I put them up on my design wall.  This isn't the final layout, but I saw a lot of medallion quilts in Pinterest with this same design.  Each of the 12" blocks will have a 1" border.  Then I will need to make the setting triangles and make the border - probably 2 or 3 that will make it come out to the size needed.  The setting triangles will probably be blue and I hope I can find a nice border print for the final border.

When I was looking for a medallion pattern to use, this is the quilt that I was inspired by.

In my last post, I showed you some blocks like this and I have made some more and put them in a box.  I have a lot of the pieces cut and will work on this from time to time.

I also cut some pieces to make the same block out of these fabrics.  The squares on the top right will be the center block and the smaller squares will be used to make the points of the star.  These will measure 9" and will be used to possibly make a baby quilt or some table runners.

In between sewing, I am working on family history.  My sister brought a cassette tape that my Dad had made about his life.  I borrowed a tape player from my neighbor and transcribed it - 7 pages!  Then I started looking for more tapes to transcribe that I know we have somewhere, but I couldn't find them anywhere.  While I was looking, I did find a lot of old letters and pictures and I decided to start writing up my life story.  I have 3 pages so far.  I found some old "Date books" - the kind we used to get from card stores - like hallmark.  Actually, my parents had a gift shop and sold Hallmark cards, so 2 of the date books were from their store. The one that say's Gibson was for 1962 and that's the year they bought that store (in Elgin, IL) They got Hallmark cards sometime after that.  I had entered the dates I had with my DH - the first date was January 22, 1960!  It has been fun to find old love letters from him (that I had forgotten about), some things I had written down.  I didn't have a diary, but at times I did write things in a note book.  Luckily, I still had them and also some articles from the school paper, etc.

I will try to post more often from now on.  And visit blogs more often.  It seems like the time is going by so fast and I am so busy.  Isn't it weird?  But I'm finally getting some things done that needed to be done, so that's good.

BACK TO NORMAL?

 

I mentioned in my last post that my sister was visiting.  Well, she left on Monday, January 4.  We exchanged some small gifts and the picture below shows a couple of the gifts.  On the left is her gift to me, which is a kit to make a mini flag.  And on the right is my gift to her, a mini flag that I paper pieced (the pattern was in a magazine that I won a few years ago from Janet.  Isn't it funny that our minds were in sync!

This picture was taken when we went to Oregon City and were walking on the promenade and park above the Willamette River which you can see in the background.

Part of my getting "Back to Normal" was getting back to doing some sewing.  I made this block from Lori Holt's tutorial "Sew your Stash" which is available on YouTube.  I love this block and decided to make a lap quilt with Christmas fabric.  

Yesterday, I made a few more.  These measure at 12 1/2".

I actually did a tiny bit of sewing while my sister was here.  I made a new ironing board cover (made from a canvas type fabric) for my vintage ironing board.  I have had this wooden ironing board for many years.  It is very sturdy and even though I also have a ironing board cover on a chest of drawers, I usually have this one set up.  Mainly,  because the other one always has stuff sitting on it.  

I'm still contemplating posts about last years quilting and this years goals.  I better get busy with it if I plan to do that.  I do enjoy seeing other quilters' reports.  

My Christmas decorations are gradually getting put away.  I have enjoyed them since before Thanksgiving and now it is time to get the house back to normal.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2021!!

 

Happy New Year to my quilting (and non-quilting) blogging friends!  We don't know what 2021 holds for us except for our love of sewing, so I'm sure we will continue making quilts.  I don't know about you, but I have lots of fabrics and scraps that need to be made into quilts.  I haven't made a list of what I did during 2020 yet (and maybe I won't do that), but we had extra time last year and most quilters I know spent some of that time making quilts, finishing quilts and starting new ones.  I finished at least 2 quilts that were ten or more years old UFOs (unfinished objects).  That felt good!

Another thing that I did was donate a few quilts to fire victims and or shelters.  I wish I had donated more, but I will continue to make donation quilts.  

I haven't made a list of goals for 2021, but one of my top priorities is to finish my last grandchild wedding quilt.  I have 5 grandchildren and only one is married at this point and she was given a quilt.  I have 3 more wedding quilts finished and have one more to go so that they will be ready when the time comes.  One doesn't know if one will be here when they do get married, so I wanted to get them done ahead of time.  Right now my unmarried grandchildrens' ages are 25, 12, 12 and 10.  I got the idea of doing this from a lady in a quilt shop several years ago and thought it was a good idea.  If they don't get married, they will get one anyway.

My sister is visiting us now and we have been busy talking, doing some site seeing, making puzzles, etc.  so I haven't had much time for blogging.  We went to an antique shop and I saw this Double Wedding Ring quilt for sale.  It is hand quilted!  I didn't unfold it but it looks really lovely and the price is $160!  I thought it was well worth it,  I'm thinking about going back and seeing how large it is, but doubt if I will buy it.

On Monday we went to Oregon City to see the water fall in the Willamette River and the city elevator that takes you to the top of the cliff where this picture was taken from.  It's not a high water fall, but it is the largest water fall in the northwest US by volume.

We also drove into the Dundee hills and since it was a beautiful, clear day were able to get a good view of Mt. Hood in the distance.

It looks closer than it is - which is approximately 50 miles away.  I never get tired of seeing it!

Thanks for visiting and I look forward to seeing all of your blogs during 2021!

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!

I have been very slack in posting on my blog lately.  My excuse is that I've been very busy.  So, this one will be quick so I can get it done before it's time to meet my friends for our morning walk at 7:30.

We put up our Christmas tree a week before Thanksgiving - the earliest that we have ever done that!  I had gotten a new skinny tree because we don't have the space for a wide one.  Under the tree I put a doll that is over 100 years old in a little doll buggy.  The doll belonged to my Mother's sister who died from scarlet fever in 1912 at the age of 8.

I also put some other toys under the tree including a doll that I made and a wooden sled with a floppy moose on it.

Yesterday, I decided to make a set of "Christmas tree" napkins.  It's the first time I have made them and they are quite easy to make.

I made several of these Sweet Pea Pods designed by LazyGirlDesigns to give as gifts.  I filled some with candy for the grandkids.

This one is filled with fabric clips and will be given to my 28 year old granddaughter for Christmas - she doesn't read my blog.  She loves to sew.

One thing that kept me busy was making costumes for an angel, shepherds, Joseph and Mary for our church's manger scene drive through.  Actually I made 3 Mary Costumes and 2 Joseph costumes because there will be scenes of various episodes, such as:  The angel giving the news to Mary, Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem, the wisemen on their way to Bethlehem, shepherds in the field and then the final scene with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, etc.  That's why we needed 3 different Marys!  I'm looking forward to seeing this!

In case I don't post again before Christmas, I hope you will all have a wonderful and meaningful Holiday!  And my hope and prayer is that 2021 will be better and that the vaccine will work well to end this pandemic.  Thanks for visiting - I love all my blogging friends!

 

CHURN DASH FINISHED

I finished the churn dash quilt and quilted it with fans.  The blocks were exchange blocks and were all different - a great variety!  I wanted to use a lot of the 1 3/4" HSTs that I had in a baggie and decided to add a cheddar border first. The HSTs were left overs from other projects but I still had to make more to have enough to go around. Then I added the yellow border.  I really love it!

I might be able to get a better picture later, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like.

In the mornings I walk with 2 neighbors and I thought I would share some of the local scenery.  We live almost in the middle of town, but there is a ravine that goes through the town just about a block from our house.  On our walk, we pass a huge tree that once was a gathering place for native Americans.  The tree must be over 100 years old.  You can see my 2 walking buddies looking down into the ravine to see how high the water in the creek has gotten as we have had a lot of rain lately.  I just love the tall fir trees!  

Are we in a forest? No!  We're in the middle of McMinnville, OR.

On our walk yesterday we saw lots of mushrooms that we haven't seen before.

These mushrooms were very tiny.

I hope you all are able to enjoy some of nature during this time.  It is something that can give us joy and some perspective about life.  And I also hope you will be able to gather with your families for Thanksgiving.  We had a small gathering yesterday to celebrate our son's birthday, and since he will be out of town next week for Thanksgiving, we had our Thanksgiving dinner/celebration at the same time with our son, his daughter (and her husband) and son, who are all in their 20s.  We had a wonderful visit with them.