Local Quilt Show Does Good!

Well the Squirrels in my head are running as fast as they can.  This is a by- product of the last 5 days of Quilt Show production.  But the Quilt Show went really well and we did not get Rained out so I'm happy.  And now I can get back to my sewing room!
Here's what I made for the Challenge Quilt.  The theme this year was "Why Quilt's?"  This was my answer in the form of a Pie Diagram. The Challenge fabrics were the 3 red fabrics and the shirting fabric in the upper left.

I had a long explanation that went on the label but somehow I forgot to take a picture of it, but you get the idea.

Happy Monday!

Cheers, CW

The Bees have it!

I started this post last Fall but it's been sitting in "Drafts" ever since.  I thought I would post it now since I don't really have time to write much these days.  Bees are fascinating animals.  We owe about 70% of the production of all  of our food to Bee activities.  Whether it's direct pollination of crops or the pollination of plants used by other animals for food. 

Here's a peak inside one of my hives:

I opened my Bee hives last Fall and shifted things around a bit to get them ready for the Fall weather and harvested a little honey while I was at it.  The bees got very creative on their comb formation on this frame.  You can see the square edge of the frame and normally the comb would be built straight down but because there was space to the right they built out and made this massive honey comb thingy.  So I shaved off the stuff sticking out to the right and that is what I took away as my portion.

There's a great book called "Bee Democracy"  that explains how Bee colonies work.   If only our Government could work as cooperatively as a Bee Hive!

Of course the whole thing is run by the female Bees.  I've always wondered how a female majority would do in Congress?!

Cheers, CW

Looking at the Clock...

Once again time has flitted by. While I have been sewing I have not been posting.
Here are some of the things I've been working on in the past month.

Baby quilt for a friend of my daughter.  They've been friends since pre school.  Does make me feel a bit old but I'm very happy for her!  Shown here as a flimsy but I did get it quilted and bound and it's ready for the mail!

From a pattern.  It was an interesting construction.  That part was fun but the packet of fat quarters,  in my opinion, did not really jive very well and I had to monkey things around to balance the blocks. But it will do for a donation quilt.

This is an all flannel quilt  made with a layer cake of cute winter theme prints.  I got it all pieced and quilted before xmas in hopes of sending it as a holiday gift to my son's family.  I don't even remember why it stalled out and I could not get the binding on .  Oh well,  I'll be way ahead on my gifts for this year!

I'm determined to improve my machine quilting skills so I put this cheater panel on the frame and doodled around.

It was fun!  and I think it will make a fine donation quilt!

Here's the back,  you can see my boo-boos  but they don't really show on the front 'cause it's so busy!

This next quilt was inspired by a Layer Cake of solids.  I am currently practicing on a solid white top with grey thread.  When I finish that I'm going to try this one.  Much more challenging all the mistakes will show Back and Front!

These last two quilt tops were finished a long time ago.  I don't generally job out my quilting but there's a new machine quilter in town and I thought I'd give him some business and get some of my donation quilts finished

He has 2 of those big fancy computer guided quilt machines and he's been very busy right from the beginning just with local customers.

For this first quilt he chose an Oak Leaf and Acorn motif I thought it suited the Fall color theme of the quilt pretty well.

And for the second top he chose a swirl, that was a pretty good match too!

I was generally pleased.  I'm not wild about overall patterns but it gets the job done!  And I'm already +3 on my charitable quilt's quota for 2019...that is if I can get my butt in gear to bind them, lol! 

Part of my being so MIA in blogland is that I'm the head chairperson for my local guild's Quilt Show this year.  I consider myself a pretty good worker bee but I'm not a great admin. type person so I've really been feeling challenged.  But I have a great crew of committee members and we are all in all pretty together!  And the Fair is at the end of Feb. so my job will soon be over!

'Til then my posting will probably continue to be spotty at best.

I hope you are all having a wonderful new year!

Cheers, CW

More Charitable Quilts

I thought I'd show this quilt first.  I'm not a'verse to using a panel now and then for a quick gift or a charitable quilt, especially one as cute as this!  The only problem with panels is they usually come measuring 24" x 44".  Which is an odd size for a center.  Young kids quilts I generally make to be 44" x 50".  Starting with a panel that means really wide side borders and skimpy top and bottom borders.  Kind of awkward.  I made the yellow and brown stripy border and then added the cute green fabric.   That worked pretty well.

I had these two cute flannel fabrics for the back all cars and trucks to compliment the front.

Next up is a scrappy flannel quilt.50" x 60".  I made the top a long time ago.

I used some of my "I Love Lucy"  flannel in it.

It still makes me laugh!

I used a polyester blanket like material for the backing and cut it extra big so I could fold it over,  back to front to make the binding.

The quilting made some cool patterns on the back too!

I got a whole bunch of pre-cut plaid squares from the guild flea market awhile back and I made two 36" x 48" lap quilts for wheel chair bound Vets with them.  This is the second one.

I showed this top when I finished it  but I finally got it quilted!

56" x 68"

They are all really simple quilts.  I don't think quilts have to be really complicated to be enjoyed.

Happy Holidays!

cheers, CW

Old Brown Blocks

About 3 years back I asked for and Orphan blocks as my Thank You Blocks for having coordinated the Block-of the-Month for 2 years running.  I probably got well over a 100 blocks.  I had a lot of fun sorting them and I have been making charitable quilts with them ever since. One stack of blocks particularly surprised me.  It was a rather large stack of blocks which were mostly in shades of brown and white or tan.  I think this color scheme must have been popular in the '80's +/- ?  I had to laugh because tho' my stash is expansive I probably own a total of about 3 yards of brown fabric, maybe not even that much!

Anyway,  nothing like a challenge to get me going.  I kind of split them into 3 groups:  red-ish browns, darker browns and lighter browns.  And out of that grew these three quilts tops.

I felt lucky to find that amber print for the sashing in my stash but it seemed to help tie things together.

This picture shows how I get started.  Once the color scheme is established I put them up on the design wall grouped by size and see if some layout suggests itself.

I deconstructed the block in the lower left to make part of the lower border. 

Then cut up another larger 9 patch block to add to that. 

A few pieces of added print strips to fill in the gaps,

traded out the right border for darker brown blocks, And done! 

This last quilt was actually the first one in the Brown batch finished earlier this year. 

About half of these blocks were so old they were hand pieced.  Imagine!  I'd never get any quilts done if I had to hand piece them!

These quilts measure about 36" x 48", to be donated to wheelchair bound vets program.

It's a great size for these Orphan block projects because there are enough of one type or style of block to make really big quilts.  But the smaller size is manageable.

Happy Holidays!

Cheers, CW

Happy Holidays!

Goodness Gracious!  It's been almost a month since my last post!  Where has the time gone?! I have actually done a lot of sewing!  But since Hanukah is almost over I will share this picture.

 Since my grand daughters live far away and mailing a lot of packages would be expensive I make them a little Hanukah 'bootie' bag. They are only 5 and 2 1/2 years old so I send them simple little gifts like sea shells, hair bows, buttons,  Dreidels and a bit of chocolate.  Each night of Hanukah they can reach in the bag without looking and feel around for that evening's gift. 

I thought I'd also share these pictures.  We finally got some rain and we've had some spectacular Rainbows!

 You can just see the second rainbow outside the first?  It was actually much more vivid but my camera skills could not catch it.  The arch of the rainbow went all the way across the sky it was amazing!

I will share some of my finishes next time.

'Til then However you celebrate the winter Holidays may they be Joyful!

cheers, CW

Student's Finish!

I taught my Scrap Strategies class for the Sierra Mountain Quilter's Association (near Yosemite) earlier this month and one very talented (and speedy) student surprised me today with an email and these pix!  Sue, chose Xmas / Winter scraps for her project.  What a wonderful Holiday quilt!

Look at all the variety in the blocks, aren't they fun! 

Sue did all the quilting as well.  The overall pattern really complements the theme. She said 'the quilting is her favorite part!'

It is so much fun to get pictures of finished project from students it really makes my day!  

Thanks Sue for sharing!

I hope you all have some fun with your Holiday projects!

Cheers to the Jolly Seasons!

CW