TWO FINISHES!

I had a little spare time, so I put together a small donation quilt with some squares that were available at my quilters' guild.  I decided not to put batting inside it because I used flannel for the backing and thought this would be a good summer quilt.

I also took the easy way out and turned it instead of binding it.  Then I quilted with Xs across the blocks and used a fancy stitch for the edges.  It didn't take too long and I hope someone will like it.

Here's my finished brown/pink basket wall hanging measuring at 38" wide x 48" long.

Close up of some blocks so you can see the quilting better.

The sashing was quilted with a very easy stitch which you can see in the pink between the brown triangles.

I'm going to hang this at a memory care facility that has asked our guild to loan quilts to help decorate the walls in their new facility.  We will go their after our next meeting and take some wall hangings for them, which we will leave for as long or as short a time as we wish.

Friday I'm going on a weekend retreat for the ladies at my church.  We're going to Lincoln City, OR on the beautiful Pacific coast.  It will probably rain a lot, but hopefully we can get out to walk on the beach a little.  I'll take a few pictures to post.  

E PLURIBUS UNUM

E PLURIBUS UNUM  is quilted, bound and labeled.  It measures 28" x 35" and I made it to fit on my hanging quilt rack.

I also finished Row I of Dear Jane for February!  I think setting the goal is really helping me get this going.  Some of the blocks were super easy and others had around 40 tiny pieces and they were paper pieced of course.  Actually, every block was paper pieced except 5, 6 and 11.  Number 7 was paper pieced and then had a teeny tiny triangle on each side.  I cheated by using fusible web and machine appliquéd those because I had read comments by other women that just couldn't get them straight.  

I'm on a roll!  Thanks for visiting!

SHOP HOP AND FABRIC SHOPPING THOUGHTS

I just finished quilting this UFO, which has been hanging in my closet for several years.  Today I sewed on the binding and moved it into the living room so I can hand sew it to the back while watching TV.

I'm so glad to have this almost finished.  A friend of mine bought me the pattern after she saw me admiring the made up sample in a quilt shop.

I stitched in the ditch first, then quilted feathers in the brown setting triangles.  Once it is totally done I'll take a better picture of the quilting so you can see how I quilted each section.

A friend and I went to 8 shops on the "Snowflakes and Stitches Shop Hop" - 6 of them on Monday.  Below you can see my purchases.  I bought more than I had been planning on buying - surprise, surprise!  I have some projects in mind.

When shopping, I always look for the "scrap bin" that some quilt shops have to see if I can get some scraps that I can use.  I didn't take a picture of them, but Grandma's Attic in Dallas, OR had one and you can fill a plastic bag with as much fabric as you can squeeze in for $4.99.   I debated doing it, but decided to see if there was enough fabric I liked to make it worth while.   I starting wondering how much fabric you actually got for that amount of money.  One of the other shops in the shop hop is our local quilt shop, Boersma's Sewing Center and they have a little chest of drawers with scraps in them - those scraps cost 50⍧ per ounce.  I wondered if that was a better deal than a baggie for $4.99.

So when I got home, I decided to weigh some fabric to see how much one yard weighs.  I weighed 4 fat quarters and they weighed 4 1/4 oz.  One yard of a different fabric weighed 6 oz.  So, I kind of averaged it out and figured that 5 oz. is about what one yard of cotton fabric weighs.  So, I weighed the baggie from Grandma's Attic and it weighed 11 oz.  That means that I got approximately 2 yards of fabric for $4.99.  If I bought $5 worth of scraps from Boersmas, which would be 10 oz, I would get approximately 2 yards.   So, I think that price is pretty good.

Am I the only nutty quilter who loves to dig through the scrap bins?  Please don't tell me that I am!

And, oh, BTW, my friend and I both agreed that the best shops we went to were Boersma's Sewing Center, Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, Grandma's Attic, and The Quilted Hill.

OREGON'S 157th BIRTHDAY

I have been busy quilting my E Pluribus Unum wall hanging.  I'll try to get it bound soon.

Close up of the quilting - Cross hatching inside the panel and feathers all over the bow tie blocks.

I also finished a top that I started 2 years ago when Barrister's Block had a Quilt-A-Long.  I made 43 blocks then, but didn't finish it.  Now, she is having another Bullseye Quilt-A-Long and I got my top done.

There's a "Snowflakes and Stitches Shop Hop" going on although I haven't seen any snowflakes lately.  A friend and I went to one shop yesterday - The Quilted Hill in Yamhill, OR.  This shop had gone out of business a few years ago, but recently has reopened and it is out in the beautiful countryside of Western Oregon - picture of countryside below is taken looking at the view from the front of the shop, which is on a farm.  The picture is taken with my cell phone, so it doesn't do the view justice.

After shopping at The Quilted Hill, we went to the Yamhill County Historical Society to help celebrate Oregon's 157th birthday.    Here are a few pictures taken in the museum.

Quilt brought in a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail.

Treadle and hand crank sewing machines.

A quilt top at the museum (no information available)

If you live in Western Oregon, are you going to the shop hop?  We plan to go to some more shops on Monday, but I doubt we will make it to all 15 of them.  

NEW BOM, A FINISH AND DESIGN WALL

When I saw Barbara Brackman's new BOM, I had to join in.  It's only one block per month!  And she is adding lots of history about wagon trains going west - one of my favorite topics.  I love to read about the "Westering Women!"  Here is the first block.

Independence Square

I showed this quilt in December when it was just a top.  Now it's finished and will be donated to a child in the hospital.  I am demonstrating how to make the ten minute block at my guild today and this is the sample to show how it looks when put together,

When I was looking for backing I cam across this "cat" fabric in my closet.  The colors were perfect, but it wasn't quite enough.  That was easily fixed by surrounding it with this coral colored fabric.  I probably got the cat fabric at a garage sale.  The fabrics for the top of the quilt were from Good Will.

It was fun quilting the top with the squiggly lines.  Some of the quilting thread was variegated.  The purple shows up at dark blue in the photo.  I didn't really put 3 squares of blue together.

In September I participated in a "bow tie" block exchange and had been trying to decide how to use them.  Yesterday I saw the eagle block (found at a garage sale as well a few years ago) in my closet and when I put it up on my design wall with some of the bow tie blocks, I knew it was what I wanted.  It has to fit on a particular quilt hanger which is 29" wide and with 7 blocks across it comes to 28".  It's not all sewn together yet, but that shouldn't take long.  It will be nice to have another patriotic wall hanging for July 4th!

Have a great quilty week!