MY WEEK IN QUILTING/SEWING

 After last Sunday's quilt show, this week was a downer in some ways.  I have been under the weather, but not too sick to sew, quilt, read and watch TV.  I guess it's just a cold, but I feel very blah.  However, I can't sleep much during the day and get tired of TV and reading after a while.  So, I finished the Quilt of Valor - just need to put a label on it.

Quilt of Valor

Back of Quilt of Valor

The backing fabric came from Connecting Threads  and I am very happy with it.  I think I got it when they had a 50% off sale.

Then I decided to make Abby another outfit for her new 26" doll.  The first outfit that I made fit OK except the neckline on the blouse was too big.  I decided to make a blouse with elastic in the neck this time so she won't have that problem.  The fabrics and lace for this skirt and blouse all came from either garage sales or thrift shops!

The skirt has an attached slip with lace.

Close-up of blouse.

In between some other sewing, I decided to make a couple small quilts out of 1" strips.  One of them is quilted and ready for the binding.  I decided to trim it for binding and accidentally trimmed 3 sides of the unquilted one by mistake before I noticed it was the wrong one.  They measure 13 1/2" x 11 1/2".

Unquieted one.

I was reading some blogs and Shelby Stitcher was blogging about her wonky stars  made from triangles saved in a box.  I also have triangles saved below my sewing table.  Here you can see a large basket containing light strips, some freezer paper scraps and the instructions for my sewing machine (which I discovered has a lot of information in it that I hadn't noticed until this week).  To the right of the large basket is a small bag crammed full of triangles.

Here's a better picture of the triangle bag.  It must have contained a sheet set or something like that at one point, but it is a very sturdy plastic bag.  Occasionally, I will make HSTs or pinwheels out of left-over triangles.  This bag has triangles of all sizes in it just waiting to be used for something.

That's it for this week.  

STITCHES IN BLOOM QUILT SHOW

Sunday I attended the "Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show" at Oregon Garden in Silverton, OR.  One of these days, I want to go back to the Garden when there are flowers blooming because it looks like it would be gorgeous then.

I didn't include any information about these quilts, unless you can read it from the card which shows up on some of the photos.  These are some of the quilts that I liked best.  There were lots of other ones that I liked too.

This was a small quilt - some of the yellow and red squares were about 1/2".

There were several of these wall hangings done in black and white strips with appliqué on top - I think they were challenge quilts from a guild and they were very striking.

This "Vintage Tin" was one of my very favorite quilts at the show (designed by Crabapple Hill).

This forest quilt won the Viewers' Choice for Art quilts.

This flag quilt won Viewers' Choice for Traditional Quilts - it is also one of my favorites from the show.

This one is for Katie, because it looks like some kind of magnified cells.

Here's an enlarged one.

Don't you love the shovels?  Who would have thought?

And here's me with my Baskets of Blue quilt.  

It was a great show!  There wasn't any judging,  just the Viewers' Choice in four categories.   I didn't get pictures of all the winners.  Thanks for visiting!

ROW H DONE!

I met my goal for January of finishing a whole row of the Dear Jane quilt!  Don't you love the last block?  I did - can't get much easier than that one.  

Row H

I don't think I would have gotten this far if it weren't for this blog.  Anina is amazing with her instructions for each block.  I find that if I follow her steps, I am able to make the most difficult blocks.  I doubt I would ever be able to figure them out on my own.  Thanks Anina!!!

DOLL CLOTHES FOR ABBY

My 7 year old granddaughter, Abby, got a new doll for Christmas.  Below you can see her 18" doll on the left and the new 26" tall doll on the right.  So, as a sewing grandma, I thought I would make some clothes for the new doll.  But, there aren't any patterns for doll clothes that size, so after seeing some information on adjusting patterns, I thought I would try it.  

Of course, I had to make an outfit for the 18" doll too.  The fabric with bicycle wheels seemed to go with the pink bicycle fabric.

I didn't have enough of the wheel fabric, so I chose something else for the large doll.  Her capris aka peddle pushers are longer than they look in photo because they are hidden under the top.  I hope the blouse and peddle pushers fit.  BTW, my "model" doll was purchased at a garage sale for 50 cents.  Someone cut all her hair off!

I had to share the article about our town that was in the paper on Tuesday.  If you can't read it, it states that our town, McMinnville, OR, is on the list of "Best Places to Live in the West" in Sunset Magazine's February 2016 issue.

If anyone reading this plans to attend the "Stitches in Bloom" quilt show at Oregon Gardens in Silverton, OR this weekend, the quilt on my header will be there.  I haven't decided which day I will be going yet, but would love to meet any bloggers that might be there.

QUILT OF VALOR TOP

I've been wanting to make a Quilt of Valor and when I saw this quilt of valor pattern on someone's blog and decided it might be a good one to make.  The top is finished as of yesterday.

There is one basic block that measures 8 1/2" and it's very easy to make.  The strips are cut to 2 1/2" and then submit to 2 1/2", 4 1/2" and 6 1/2".  A dark blue and light HST and a brown and light HST are in opposite corners.

When you sew 4 of these together with the blue in the middle, you get a 16" block with a blue pinwheel in the middle.

Put together into 4 blocks wide and 5 blocks long,  it comes out to 64" x 80" which is within the correct size for a QOV.  A friend of mine goes to the QOV meetings every month and she said she will take it in for me when I get it finished, which I plan to do this month.  

I'm also working on my Dear Jane blocks for January - Row H.  Thanks for visiting!

NEW YEAR 2016!?!?!

My sister visited us for the New Year and she left today after one week.  Wow!  Weeks do fly by, don't they?  We had a good time together.  On Tuesday we drove out to the coast to see the Meares Lighthouse.  It is a short lighthouse of only 38' tall, but isn't the shortest one in Oregon.  It was cloudy and kind of cold, but actually pretty nice for viewing the lighthouse and the beautiful coastline there.

Cape Meares, 38'

Haystack Rock, Pacific City, OR

Oregon Coast viewed from Cape Meares

 I have 21 blocks that my grandmother made (probably in the 40s) with feed sack fabrics and I finally decided to get some fabric to put them together.  I hung the fabric on my design wall and placed a few of the blocks on it to show how it will look when I sew the sashing and setting triangles on them.
I'm thinking about using black for the cornerstones.  What do you think?

Here's a close up of the fabric.

I finished Row G of Dear Jane after January 1, 2016 and I'm happy about it.

Here's the first three blocks of Row H.  Hoping to finish the Row this month.

I haven't had a chance to think any more about yearly goals, other than to get as much sewing done as I can - is that a good enough goal?

Hoping that you all have had a good start to the new year and will enjoy more quilting and blogging!