A BIG Finish

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The Monster Quilt is finally done.  
My 2nd Great Grandson is arriving some time soon and so I've been working really diligently to finish his quilt. I got this pattern from Angie's Bits and Pieces as a BOM last year.  I only did 9 of the 12 blocks but I am very happy on how it worked out. 

I also did free motion quilting on this whole quilt which is fairly new for me too. I am working at getting better at FMQ  so this was a good chance to practice. 

And this was also my quilt for "A Lovely year of Finishes"  so I will be linking up to that. 

Thanks for stopping by.  

Blessings, 

Lynn 

Grow Your Blog

Hi my name is Lynn - welcome to my blog!  This is my place to record my accomplishments, a place that I can write my goals and wishes. A place to remind me of my never ending list of unfinished projects. :)  
I'm married to my best friend.  I have 3 children, 5 grands, 1 great and 1 great that is making his appearance in about a month. 
I grew up in Southern Oregon until I was a teen, then moved to Northern Oregon where I lived all of my life, until recently when my Husband and I retired and moved to Arizona.  So I have gone from being an Oregonian to a what our cousin called a "Zonie".   
I love to do most anything crafty - however I'm focusing on quilting right now.  I got my desires and talent from my Mom. She was extremely talented, she could draw, cook, paint, sew, carve and wood work, you name it she could do it.  I am blessed to get most of that, except I struggle with the drawing part.  So much of my childhood was watching and eventually helping her with whatever she was working on, and through it, I was learning. Even though I learned to sew clothing, it really was not a passion of mine. I originally got very interested in counted cross stitch.  I don't know how many small, medium and very large cross stitch I did over the years and gave away pretty much all of them.  So how did I get into quilting? When I was in 7th grade many many years ago in Home Ec class, we sewed some blocks together for a quilt, so I guess I always had a little bug in me to some day try one of my own.  After my Mom passed away and I inherited her sewing machine (the one I grew up with) I started playing around with sewing some squares together.  I looked on the Internet and found a pattern that seemed to be close to what I had already done and decided I was going to make this for my oldest Granddaughter.  As a beginner quilter, I was pretty naive  about the complexity of making a whole quilt, so i started with a queen size. :) And after talking with a couple other quilters I decided I needed to hand quilt it.  That took me around 2 years to finish.  :)   No I didn't learn there, I made another queen size and hand quilted over 3/4 of it also.  I ended up machine quilting the borders.  Here is the center of my first quilt.  Our Granddaughter is a book worm and this was one of my cross stitch patterns that I created myself.  

Above is the whole quilt that I made her.  It was made with mostly scraps that my Mom had left over. 

Here is the second queen size quilt that I hand quilted. I originally started this quilt for my husband and I, however our oldest daughter fell in love with it and so a couple years later when I finally got it done, I caved in and gave to her.   
From there I moved on to several projects, wall hangings, table runners, more quilts in all sizes, baby quilts given away to friends and  members of our church, and I love it all.
  I've been quilting for about 5 or 6 years now and I'm still learning tips, and tricks to make them easier and better.  Some people are real focused into one type or style of quilting and for me I love learning it all.  Folk Art quilts, Applique of all sorts, including wool applique,  (one of several I have done - or started) 

paper piecing, traditional piecing, you name it.  I'm getting to experience a lot of new things and loving it. 
 Recently I have been working a little harder to practice my Free Motion Quilting skills including using my free motion foot to do some thread painting on some mug rugs.  (zoom in to see) 

I will also be doing a lot of thread painting on this wall quilt from a class I took.  

And because the UFO's need to get finished some day I am hoping all this practicing will help me to tackle the big quilts with some Free Motion Quilting. 

I could go on forever, and I wish I could post all my quilts and projects but there are many more people to visit.  So go back to our host Vicki at 2 bags full and check out some other bloggers.  Thank you Vicki. 

If you have time scroll through some of my older posts and take a peek at some of my other quilty stuff. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

I'm giving away a pincushion OR a pair of mug rugs. (Sorry the mug rugs above are already taken) Leave a comment which you would like. I will pick a winner and announce who the winner is on February 15th. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Blessings,  Lynn 

PS ...  When you have a moment check out my other blog where I record revelations that God shares with me, where He leads and I work at following.   Growing in His Love 

Modern Quilting

Before we moved here to Arizona I went to a few classes in Oregon about "Modern Quilting".  I was hoping that we would get into making some modern quilts, and they may have, but I didn't get a chance to keep going. However for the classes I went to, there was a teacher that is a fabric designer for Michael Miller, explaining the 7 elements that are considered to make a quilt "Modern", such as expansive negative space, and minimalism.  From what I've heard, there seems to be a lot of strong opinions such as  "It's not modern, it's what quilters have always done"  which actually goes along with one of the descriptions of a modern quilt, "Traditional Modernism" traditional piecing with bright or bold fabrics.    

Well I don't care what you want to call this style of quilting, I like it.  

Back in April of 2014 I made this little doll quilt for my swap partner in Germany.  It is paper pieced but using the bright bold fabrics.  It wasn't orginally made to be a modern quilt, however has several of the definitions to make it a modern.  Minimalism (one block), use of bright bold colors, and the traditional modernism (traditional piecing, using bright and bold).  So for me, I believe it's legit. :) 

You can read my original post here.  

I'm Linking this up to Tuesday's Archives hosted by Val. 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Blessings,   

Lynn 

Sunday Slow Stitching and More"

I had a wonderful day stitching and sewing.  I worked a little on my "Twas the Night Before Christmas"  which is what I'm linking up to the "Slow Sunday Stitching" 

 But  I also spent a big part of the day quilting "The Monsters"  which is for my Great Grandson Benji who will make his appearance in February. 
I have had my issues with quilting this but I'll explain that tomorrow when I show you some pictures. 
Blessings,
Lynn 

Guild Day and Monsters

Today was our monthly business meeting for the Colorado River Quilters Guild.   However today was my day to bring food,  and I was the coordinator for today's lunch.  There were 7 of us so that helped but we were making lunch for approximately 60 people. I made two different types of meatballs, we had rice, soup, enchilada casserole,  green salad, fruit salad and rolls.  It was a feast.  

Oh and there was plenty of dessert too but it got cleaned up too quickly for me to get any of that.  In my normal fashion I was a plan-a-lot-a-mus and woke up way too early wanting to make sure it all got done right.  And like always it did.  We even got a "Job Well Done" from the main coordinator, she told us this was the least amount of work she's ever had to do for the lunches.  Almost makes me want to volunteer to coordinate again,  ALMOST.   Ha Ha.  After I got home I tried to take a nap but that only lasted for about a half an hour.  So I got up and took apart part of the Monster quilt and fixed a couple of blocks that just weren't laying right.  I'm backing it with Minky and not putting a batting in so it's now ready to start pin basting it.  

So to update on the week.  Tuesday mornings sit n sew went really well. I've learned some new techniques lately to make your block press right and lay better  - so I only got one block made, but it was so nice and crisp I really can see the difference the pressing and the laying of seams can make.  Funny once you know that it ruins it for doing it sloppy anymore and I ended up taking out part of the other block that's why I only got one done.  :)  

Then Tuesday night's other guild meeting went really well - and I am now a new member of that guild too.  Which of course brings more projects to do and choose from. So much for moving to a new town and not knowing anybody so I'd have plenty of time for UFO's.  Ha ha.   Not a problem - I'm having a blast. 

Wednesday we took our friends that are visiting from Oregon to Hoover Dam.  So no sewing there.  

Tomorrow I'm going to a class at the quilt store - Handi Quilter Educational Event... The first class tomorrow is  "The Fun of Finishing".  They are going to talk about ideas of how to quilt your top. That's the only class I'm going to. I am a long way from needed or wanting to buy a mid-arm or long arm machine.  I'm hoping that when I get home I will be able to start pinning the monster quilt so I can start quilting it soon.  

Well that's what I'm up to  - thanks for stopping by!

Blessings, 

Lynn 

American Hero - Revisited

Today I'm linking up to Tuesday's Archives with a quilt that I made for American Hero's quilts.

My original post about it was here.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Lynn 

Busy Bee....

Quilting Bee that is.  Yahoo - I've had a really busy week sewing - isn't that the best kind of busy week? 
Well on January 1st I listed my goals and in just a little over a week I now see how easy it is to get off track. 
On Monday the 5th we had what is called "Mystery Monday" at the local quilt shop. Well we didn't come close to getting it done and so it carried over to the Tuesday Sit n Sew.  Nope we still didn't get it done.  It's a 35x35 wall hanging or table topper.  I was able to complete one of each of the two different blocks.  There will be 5 of the left block and 4 of the right one. And as much as I still want to continue with it - I looked at my list of goals and I have to put it aside for now.  

So Wednesday we had to run errands and so I didn't spend any time sewing.  
Thursday was the work shop for the quilting guild I'm in and we had a guest teacher Kim Schrader Fauth teaching us her method of quilting called "ABCD" .  Well it was a lot of fun and it's a great way to make a few blocks and turn them in to hundreds of different patterns.  Here is an example of taking the same blocks and just moving them around.  (they are not trimmed to size or sewn together yet) 

Looking at my list of goals, I listed this as a ??  because I was unsure of what to expect so I guess it's okay that I will need to set it aside for a later date.  :)

In the evenings, I have been working on the first stitchery in the free BOM from Jenny of Elefantz called "Vintage Kitchen"  I did a little twist on the red work.  I am going to do in one color but it's more of a salmon color to match a little different setting too.  I'm such a rebel aren't I.  I went looking for some suitable vintage kitchen fabric and found this and I absolutely love it and so it went from there.  The color isn't showing true, it's more of a coral or salmon color and I will use the green for sashing around the blocks.  

Good news is that I finished the first block last night so that is one thing on the goal list that will get a check mark - Yahoo for that.  

Today I had a few hours to work on the baby quilt I'm making for my new great grandson Benji  The Monsters.. I got the bottom final row on - and let's just say that wasn't exactly easy. The sashing/setting was stretching, so getting all the intersections and points lined up was very challenging.  I don't think I'll use that setting again any time soon.   :)  I only have scraps left of all the material I've used so far - so I will need to pick up something for the borders. I already decided I was going to back with Minky and so I'll need to get that too.  I'm really hoping I can finish this up by the end of the month.  Here's how it looks so far.  Still a couple of stretching parts, I'm really hoping will work out with quilting and a washing. 

So now you know what I've been up to.  It looks like I have a busy week coming up next week. Sit n Sew on Tuesday,  a potential new guild meeting Tuesday night.  They have a waiting list and this is the annual meeting where they accept new members. A lot of the members in the one I'm in already are also a member of this one as well.  On Wednesday we are getting together with some friends form Oregon, and Thursday we are having my normal guild meeting of which I'm coordinating the luncheon.  So somewhere in there I have to get a couple of different sauces ready for some meatballs.  Another of the ladies is bringing rice so I think I'll do a brown gravy on some and a sweet n sour or marinara for the other part of them.  Originally I was going to make them from scratch, but considering all else that is going on, I'm thinking pre-made with my sauce will be just fine. :) 

I hope you have a nice rest of your weekend and I'll let you know how it all goes.   

Blessings, 

Lynn   

January Wish List ... Goals

Well I'm going to start blogging my ideas of what I want to accomplish each month in hopes that it keeps me a little more organized and focused.  For years now I've said I want to finish UFO's and that's not happening very quickly. Also last year I had this nice Idea that I would work on Christmas all year long so I could finish some of these really cute Christmas things I have collected. I even found a group of people that were dedicated to doing "One Christmas Item a Month"  - Ya that didn't happen either.  I will cut myself a little slack - we did retire and move 1000 miles away in August - but this year - I need to kick into gear and get some of these projects done.  I didn't even do the projects I thought I would start for 2014.  So if you made it through all of that thank you and here is my list.  

1.  Work in Process  (WIP)  a  baby quilt for my newest great grandson "Benji"  I'm calling it "Monsters"  It's a pattern from AJ Padilla she offered it as a BOM last year.  I have all of the Monster blocks done that I'm going to put in and the top stitching done.  Goal for this month:  I want to finish putting the borders on the blocks and complete the top and have it sandwiched ready to quilt.  Bonus would be if I can start quilting it too.

And if I do get this done - I will be linking it up to "A Lovely Year of Finishes 2015"   

2. I did a scrap busting BOM from Peggy Anne's Quilt shop.  My friend in Mississippi and I were doing it together.  We got the block and then it would tell you what colors to add for the sashing from your stash - we thought it would be fun to see how different they came out when we were each done.  I have 11 of the 12 blocks done.  It's going to be pretty big when it's done. 

Goal for this month:  I want to finish  the top - which will include the 12th block and the borders. There are two borders, one of which is piano keys around the edge.  

3. I am working on a Christmas Sampler called "Twas the Night before Christmas"  That I got from Kaaren Johnson at "The Painted Quilt Blog" It was one of her First Friday Freebies.  She did her's in Red Work, but I did mine in colors.  I am on the second to last stitchery the Santa.
Goal for the Month:  Finish the Santa block.

4.  BOM's -  

I am currently doing a BOM with Jacquelynne Steves - I love her work and her style.  She started a BOM in October called "Sew Sweet Simplicity".  I have 1 1/2 blocks done of the 3 she has published.  Catch that up to Current.  

Here is what I have so far.

Tried several times to rotate pic and it won't turn. :)

5.  New BOM  I want to join Jenny of Elefantz she is offering a new BOM  called Vintage Kitchen.  So I want to do the first block. 

6.  New Stuff -  I am a member of the Colorado River Quilt Guild and one of the projects they are doing is called the "ABCD" Quilt that is being taught by Kim Schrader Fauth,  I will be going to that on the 8th of the month.  I'll keep you posted on that. 

7.  For a couple of years now, I have been wanting to get a good start and keep going on a quilt for my Sister that has 2 bears in the center and other woodsy animals around the edge.   So in January I want to finish the bear blocks with the top stitching and all.  The top stitching will provide I lot of the detail. Today I started the fusing part of one of the bears.  

I

7.   My Monthly Doll Quilt swap - theme is "A good book". 

Extra Credit - 

 If there is any additional time this month - I want to finish the binding on a quilt that I've been trying to finish for years.  And then if there is still time - I want to work on a Christmas item. I'm still trying to get all the Christmas projects done.  

Thanks, 

Lynn