Sarah's quilt

Quilt I sent Janssen

This is a baby quilt that I FINALLY finished and sent to my niece when she had a baby. Then I had to email her and ask her to take some photos for me because I forgot to before mailing it off :/ Thanks, Janssen :)

I'm very taken, lately, with the satin/minke combo for baby quilts - so tactually rich.

Dear Jane color ideas

I've been researching color ideas for my upcoming Dear Jane/Sylvia/Hannah quilt (which ever one I end up doing). These are actually Dear Hannah quilts, I believe. That's one thing that I just noticed about that design, besides the blocks being smaller, is that the background was black in the blocks which I'm really quite liking - gives a richer look to the quilt. I like the second example the best. I also didn't want to be tied down to only a few colors in the entire thing since I'll be working on this for years I'm sure and don't want to get sick of the fabrics and colors I'll be using - and I want to have full freedom to use anything out of my fun fabric stash! I have two quilt tops I would like to finish up before starting this but don't know if I want to wait :)

Mini Samplers

This is for you Packrat :) Here is a Dear Jane quilt. It's a replica of an old quilt that was made a long time ago (won't go into the history - google if you're interested.) A newer version with the same idea is a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler - which is taken from one of the Elm Creek Quilt novels.

Both have 6 inch blocks. Call me crazy, but this looks fun. I haven't decided which book of patterns I'd prefer to get...the Dear Jane gives you those neat triangle blocks on the outside border - but I have an emotional response to the other one since one of my oldest friends (since 5th grade) is named Sylvia....what to do :?

P.S. I just discovered there is also a Dear Hannah quilt as well. Those blocks are 4 1/2 inches, though - that's getting kind of tiny for all the piecing and applique, think I'd rather do the larger blocks for now.

UFOs

Here's a Grandmother's Flower Garden that I've been working on maybe 3 years. It's all hand pieced - the project I take on car trips or work on while watching TV in the evenings. Finally to the part where the green intersections are going in - major accomplishment!

I have a hazy memory of when I used to think a UFO was a flying saucer. I now know the true meaning of those letters.....too well :) Until just a few years ago I would start a project (quilt as well as non-quilt) and finish it to completion before beginning another project, that was just my nature. Not so much any more, I've been brought over to the dark side and now have my goodly share of unfinished objects.

Here's one that is finally going to be finished up. It's a quilt for my little granddaughter that my daughter gave me a picture of, 2 years ago, and asked me if I could make it. After Ashley telling me that if I didn't get it finished by Kinsey's birthday (April) she was just going to go and buy her a bed spread! This is going on my LA on Monday!!! Yippee :) This is actually the first quilt of my own that I will have quilted in 2 1/2 years. I finally decided I just needed to schedule it in just like I do customer quilts. It will be finished on time.

I needed some new projects like I needed a hole in the head, but that's part of the sickness of quilting I've decided, we can't resist getting involved in yet another quilt. Our local quilt guild decided to do a Round Robin exchange and I hadn't been involved in something like that for awhile and it just sounded like fun, so I joined. This is our second month in this and this is the block I made for the woman's packet I got this time around.

THEN...being a glutton for punishment, I recently rejoined an online LA quilting group who had started a BOM group. Again, sounded like fun...I had some fabric that would make a really pretty quilt that would work perfect for this....I joined. Here are the two blocks I've made for that so far.

I currently have 9 of my own finished quilt tops that just need to be quilted...waiting for the time and the motivation to actually do them.

I can't throw fabric away, I keep pieces down to 1 1/2 inch square because they can be used in a quilt (I draw the line at that size though.....well kind of, I will keep strips smaller than that which can be used in a string quilt that I've started. Anyway, here is a Jewel Box quilt that I'm making from scraps. (those little squares are the 1 1/2 inch scraps.)

Each of these pizza boxes contain 2-3 quilt projects in various stages of completion. I'd really like to begin a Dear Jane quilt, and there's the one that Agnes brought to our guild meeting a few weeks ago that she's supposed to get me the pattern for. Will I live long enough to do them all? Absolutely not, but I firmly believe there are quilts being made in heaven :)

3 quilts

Bobbi's Quilt

Katie's Quilt

Louise's Quilt

This was a sampler quilt so I only took a photo of one of the 12 different blocks. These used to be quite challenging for me to figure out how to quilt all the different blocks, it's fairly easy now - guess I'm getting more experienced :)

Cool Needle

I just ordered this! There was an ad on my email this morning for this nifty needle and I'm so excited. Age has taken it's tole on my eyesight, blah!, and threading a needle is such a pain these days. I do have a couple of helpful needle threaders, but I'm especially excited for these needles in burying threads on a quilt while the quilt is still on my LA, and also to use with embroidery thread where there are 2 or 3 strands of thread. I hope they turn out to be as user-friendly as they look. I'll have to let you know :)