Quiltpiecer

I'm still chugging along on my Y2K quilt.  I'm not sure what happened to these next two charm sets.  The top squishy set had two signature charms but no bio.  The bottom set didn't have a signature charm but did have a bio.  It just happened that I had an extra loose siggy square so I added it to one of the blocks.  I've kept all the squishy sets in a plastic bin which was put away for the past 20 years so who knows what happened here. Top two signature squares from Darla Hamilton in California and Greg Hamilton in Canada.  I think I can safely assume Darla and Greg are related and perhaps they were nice enough to send the 2nd siggy from Canada since international siggy squares were sought after. The bottom siggy square is from Beth M. also in Canada.  This little square was floating around the bin, footloose and fancy-free.  It could have been part of the 2nd or 3rd quilt I made and it somehow found its way to this bin. The charms in the bottom t...

  I FINALLY finished quilting and binding my daughter's Batik Star quilt. Yea!! This quilt was 13 years in the making - my second oldest UFO.  In 2008, DD was living in Texas when she made this quilt top.  When I visited her in 2009, she asked me to quilt it for her since it was so big and I had a quilting frame.  I gladly agreed as I was newly retired and brought it back to California with me. I had never quilted a queen-size quilt so I put it aside as I dealt with other priorities.  But as the years flew by, the thought of finishing this quilt kept nagging at me.  It wasn't until 2013 that I ordered the black batting with the sincere intention of getting this quilt finished.  Well, the years kept flying by and before I knew it, we were celebrating the new year of 2021.   Since DD would be visiting this year, I knew I had to get this finished before her visit.  Part of my procrastination was deciding how to quilt it but once I decided to do ...

I started working on this top a couple of months ago and posted updates about it here , here , and here .  And, I am so happy that it is finally finished. My original plan was to make 56 blocks with a simple 7x8 setting and was so happy when I finally finished the 56th block.  But I was inspired by Marian Birch's scrappy quilt with the beautiful ribbon inner border and decided that's what I wanted to do.  After I started working on the twisted ribbon border, I realized I would need more Dandy Star blocks LOL.  I ended up making 11 more blocks, for a total of 67 blocks.  I need only 52 blocks to meet the challenge so I am definitely in!  I didn't have a pattern for the ribbon border, so I had a bit of a problem with the corners.  I used instructions I found online and after a couple of misfits, I found the perfect fit.  However, the corners were another issue.  They're not perfect but I'm okay with how it turned out. I hope I can get the quil...

  Last week, I posted about my oldest work-in-progress project: my final Y2K quilt.  And, this past weekend I was able to finish four blocks from two more squishies.   From Barbara Y. in Pennsylvania: ...I was born in...a small coal-mining town and both my father and my grandfather worked in the coal mines...My hubby and I were foster parents to 47 children over a period of 14 years...I learned to quilt from books and thank goodness for TV and computers...My first quilt consisted of 2 flat sheets and batting.  I drew my design on the sheet and just hand quilted along the lines...Recently I discovered Foundation paper piecing and a new world opened.  We never stop learning. From Shellie G. in Oregon: ...I have lived in Oregon, Washington, California, Kentucky, and Germany...My husband and I...adopted our daughter Emma almost two years ago from China...We hope to travel to Vietnam...to adopt a sister for Emma...I am in the process of starting an online busin...

I have a couple small completed quilts to share this week. This first one is a Warm Wishes Dr. Seuss quilt which is the second charity quilt from the pile of UFOs I posted about way back in February. I used the same E2E alien/spaceman quilt design I used for the Heavenly Bodies charity quilt.  The backing is a colorful crayon print with a red with white polka dot binding.   The quilt measures 39" x 49" and it'll be donated to Quilts For Kids or Project Linus. I am also happy to share this finished Quilt of Valor for my friend's husband that I posted about last month. I quilted it with an allover E2E star quilting design that I downloaded for free from Urban Elementz .  This is my first panel quilt and I was worried the quilting design would detract from the beautiful eagle print.  I used a light blue thread and am happy to see that it blends in beautifully. I used a patriotic print for the backing and also added a sleeve for use as a wall hanging.  It measure...

  This is the beginning of my 4th and final Y2K quilt - my oldest work in progress.  I call it a WIP since the charms are already cut but it's just been sitting around for 20 years waiting to be completed.  This set of 3-inch charms was swapped in 2001, and I suppose after 20 years, it's about time I get this quilt done! Since this is my last one, I want to do something more than just sew squares into rows.  A couple of designs are stored with the fabric, but I found a few more ideas online, including the quilt pictured below. I really like this design, so much more interesting than just squares in a row.  But I especially like it because the signature square is included in the block.   With my previous Y2K quilts, I received 80 sets of 25 charms plus a signature square; these are called squishies.  But this final set is different as I received 25 sets with 80 charms plus the signature square.  From each set, I can make 2 blocks but have...

  It was sometime last year that I stumbled upon Sew Pretti's International Sister Quilt  and immediately fell in love with it! Sew Preeti first came across the African Queen block in 2017 but couldn't find a pattern or tutorial so she drafted this one, which she named International Sister. I am thrilled and thankful that she so generously provided the  free instructions  for this cute block.   When I found Sew Preeti's quilt, I also stumbled upon these instructions which I believe were a document from The Quilting Board but are no longer available.  I found out the hard way they were not accurate so I made the corrections in red. I definitely wanted to make a quilt with this block and included it as one of my 2021 quilting goals.  These are the first 3 blocks I made as samples using both patterns.  The 10.5" block is made with Sew Preeti's instructions and the 10" block is made with the Quilting Board instructions which use a small...

  I've been busy making quilt tops and have no finished quilts to show you.  But I do have two completed flimsies to share. This pattern is Uncle Sam's Star from a 2000 American Patchwork magazine. This is one of my quilting goals for 2021 and thought I'd finish it for July 4, but that didn't happen.  I'm adding it to my UFO pile for now and probably won't finish it until next year. And I FINALLY finished my Grassy Creek Mystery quilt top.  Yea! I'd been putting it off because I was undecided about the border.  The thought of making all those string blocks wasn't very appealing so I thought I'd do a plain border just to get it done, but I didn't have anything in my stash that would work.  Then I realized I'd done all that work for the center and why should I go with a boring border.  So I bit the bullet and worked on those string blocks, 7 at a time for a couple of weeks; and I am so glad I did.  This one is also on my quilting goals list and...