Navajo Code Talkers

An update on the comfort quilt I am finishing for the scout I mentioned in the previous post... he had surgery, it went well, but it is still iffy on what the future holds.  He should be allowed to go back to school this next week.

I am finishing up the binding while watching more of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies.  Tonight there is one that I haven't seen yet (though i realized just now I have missed The Amazing Race... oh well).  The quilting isn't my best, but when I made this quilt top I had a utilitarian quilt in mind--I think the quilting does reflect that (not at all fancy).  I was frustrated with some of it, and my walking foot wasn't cooperating, but I did figure out a solution to help with a gathering issue I was having.  My plan is to have the binding finished this weekend so that the hubby can give him the quilt for me.



Flannel backing to go with the plaids and homespuns on the front.  I think that screams comfort, I am hoping it delivers.

Allietare Mystery Pt 1

Here we go!

I am a little sidetracked however.  I needed to get my Bitty Block strips off my wall so I ended up sewing the strips together.  I am guessing on Tuesday the final strip pattern will come out, if not, then one more week.  But also, one of our boy scouts hurt his eye while working at Christmas tree lot set up Friday and I am contemplating finishing up my Navajo Code Talkers UFO as a comfort quilt.  He underwent surgery today and it is iffy as to whether or not he will lose his eye sight in the hurt eye.  It was a freak accident; as he was hammering on the pallets (prepping the lot) a piece of metal came off (small metal fragment from either the hammer or nail) and went all the way through his eye.  Kevin said he couldn't see anything in the boy's eye though the lid seemed puffier than normal, but the next day they went to Children's Hospital because he was still in pain (and likely swollen).  Today Kevin bought 35 eye protectors for future scout projects.  Prayers for the young man would be appreciated.

I opted to make the HST's for the Allietare Mystery clue by using papers.  It went pretty quickly, I was able to finish it up within a few hours (including the time I sewed my bitty block strips).  I ended up cutting too many of my gray fabrics though, hoping that won't be a problem and I will be able to use them if required.  Bonnie Hunter likes scraps, so I'm guessing it will be fine that they aren't in larger pieces.


All finished!  I removed the papers while watching my Hallmark movies, a perfect Sunday IMO.

304 HST's... I would have had two more but when I was cutting from the papers, I messed up two.
At least I only need 294 :)  I'm looking forward to the next clue!

Monday Link Up: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/11/mystery-monday-link-up-allietare-part-1.html

A New Christmas Sampler Project

I had hoped to have a 2nd block made before posting about this quilt a long from 2014, but I have only gotten as far as cutting out the paper piece patterns and laid out to figure out color placement.  Anyway, the free QAL is here in case you are interested in checking it out.  I had to also print out all the finished pattern pictures because the patterns do not come with any identifying information, so when you print, make sure to group the pages together.

I took the picture with my kindle, so it seems a little distorted, but it is a cute 12" tree block :)  I plan to use the same background for all blocks--I hope I don't run out!  There is a QAL flickr group page here.  It was nice to see what fabrics worked with the patterns.  I plan to finish all 12.



The next pattern that's ready for me to sew is the dala horse.

A little bit of this and that

 Today I spent most of the day cleaning up my closet.  It has become a place to stuff fabrics and other things.  It got to the point where I couldn't see what I had on hand, which is very frustrating.  This is one of those projects that I really have to work up to before diving in.  Today was the day.  It started when I wanted to gather up fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's mystery that starts at the end of the month.  I knew I had the reds, but I couldn't get to them... And now I am 90% organized and I have my fabrics for the mystery ready to go.  I haven't decided yet which gray to use.  I think the lighter version will be too light and will blend with the background too much.


I'm all caught up with my Bitty Blocks, now I wait for December to roll out.  I was first planning to make the tree blocks by regular piecing... well either I have lost a triangle ruler or I never had one that size, but I could not get the angle correct.  I bit the bullet and paper pieced the 20 trees today.  I don't mind paper piecing, but I don't enjoy it as much.  For the log cabins I finished last week, I just pieced them as normal vs paper piecing.  It was a little tricky being sure I had the right size and seam allowance, but they turned out great.


And altogether now..... :)


After cleaning out my closet today, I decided that I cannot make any new fabric purchases.  Or maybe I'll change that to whim purchases.  I have so much fabric and I doubt I'd use it all up in my lifetime, I need to use it!  I'd like to start making more charity quilts, but I haven't lit that fire yet.  I need to start looking around for various requirements for the different charities.  I think I'd like to look for something that focuses on foster kids or something with children in general.  We'll see what 2016 brings.

Bitty Blocks

I am almost caught up with my Bitty Blocks.  I have October left to do and I have already started cutting for it.  Maybe tomorrow I will have all available 11 months complete.  For the picture I put them in order (except for November, I didn't want to leave a placeholder space for October).  I like how they look together--reminds me a little of a Nordic sweater. 3 and 4" blocks:


BTW, yes, I did purposely turn around some blocks... I was irritated after reading about a friend who was publicly called out for missing a point on a block, and this is my way of saying--who cares? Enjoy the process because if you don't then the joy is missing.  Quilting then becomes a chore and that's really the last thing I want to do in my creative endeavors.

And because I cannot get enough of this goofball...











Loki is now a year old, and one huge cat!  His size right now is very close to what the mama cat's size was.  He still likes to lay on his stomach in a "superman" pose with his back legs out, and when he collapses into a laying position he lets out a chirpy "oof" sound :)  Lately he's decided that he wants to be an outdoor cat and will race out the front door if given a slight window of opportunity.  Because the neighborhood coyotes are becoming more open about showing themselves, Loki will remain an indoor cat.

However, I did have a good laugh when I saw this coyote vest.  I wonder if I could make up something for Loki? LOL!

QM Bitty Blocks--Catch Up

The last two days I've been actually sewing. I gave my Juki a break and pulled out the featherweight... I sure love that little machine!  I haven't been doing a lot of sewing lately, but at this point I am now only four months behind in making my Bitty Blocks.  That's progress.  I also sewed my finished blocks into strips so little by little it's getting closer to being a quilt top.


This layout is in order as each monthly pattern came out.


And the blocks all sewn together, moving around the strips.

For the layout that QM suggests for this size, it requires 14 rows of blocks. I don't think I'm going to do that. I have already made up the flying geese as suggested (3 rows of 60), and I think I've decided I'm going to add 2" strips of white between each row to add to the length and some white space.  I'm not sure what I am going to do for the outside border, but QM suggested a checkerboard border.

A New Finish

I finished up my version of scrappy trips yesterday.  It's all washed up and ready for me to trim some thread tails.... and then on to the new owner it goes!  I am not so great about surprises, so she actually saw this when I was quilting it :)  She was surprised that I was making her a quilt, and loved it.  I plan to leave it at her house this weekend as I will be dog sitting... she doesn't know it's finished.



I think I already noted that I chose Aloha Girl fabric line from Moda.  My friend is Hawaiian, and this summer they took a family vacation to Honolulu, so I basically already had my theme going regarding the quilt pattern and fabric line.  I chose to quilt a Maile lei around the quilt in the white--though some of my leaves turned out a little fatter than what the Maile is.  Maybe a mix of rhododendron in there? :)  I used a variegated pink to yellow thread throughout.


I don't know why I have such a hard time with colors in pictures.  Maybe I need to face facts that I might just stink at taking pics!  But it's generally sort of close.  The backing is a magenta pink, but it looks blazing in the pictures--it's not quite that bad.  My original pictures of the quilt top from a couple of months ago are closest to the colors.

Back:


Front:




I finished it with a hand dyed navy binding, it worked great with the darkest blues of the fabric line.  I can't wait for her to see it!  She isn't a blog reader, so I think I am fairly safe that she won't see this... if she does, I know she'll call right away :)