A Finished Row by Row

I decided this year that I didn't want to participate in the Row by Row, last year was fun, but mostly because Darrin and I had our road trip to get them.

I decided to make the Seahawks wave from Keepsake Cottage (Bothell) so I could have a tablerunner for football season.  I added some Seahawk m&m's for the photo op too :)






I have been collecting the Summer Block of the Week from Primitive Gatherings.  I am behind by 5 weeks now!  I am not in the mood for any wool applique right now, but I will eventually do them.  This heat that we are getting is not fun, we are pretty spoiled in the Pacific Northwest because it's typically so mild.  We normally only get a couple of weeks of hot weather (90+), than it usually does not happen until the end of July and into August when it does hit.  This year June was HOT.  We decided to buy a portable AC unit just before the heatwave hit, and I am so glad we did.  Our house isn't too bad until we have many days in a row of hot... I think records have been broken, we had the hottest 4th of July since 1971 at 92 degrees.  We usually say that summer doesn't start until July 5th (because it tends to rain on the 4th), not this year.  So until I get my quilt room to cool down, I'm guessing there won't be a lot of machine sewing going on.

Hopefully I'll get another project done before July is up :)

Woodwinds; Ocean Waves Quilt

I attended a great retreat last weekend.  I was able to finish quilting one quilt that has been on my UFO list for some time, caught up with my May Bitty Blocks (along with the added flying geese), and I started two new projects. I will post about those items soon, but for today I am posting about the quilted UFO.

Ocean waves quilt called Woodwinds by Stitchin' Post.  I purchased the fabric kit in 2003, finally started putting blocks together in 2013, basted and ready to quilt shortly after... but quilting was finally finished in 2015.  12yrs.  Sigh.  I know I have older UFO's, but it was basted so there was no excuse.  Next up is my Orca Bay.  I have already started it, but I need to decide if I want to stick with my thread choice before I continue (I have one block done, I haven't decided if I like it or not).

So at this point I am working on the binding, and I am about halfway done.  I laid it out on the floor, and bam! The Quilt Inspector came from the other room..... immediately!  How do they know?





I'm going to update this one as done.
Previous post about this project: http://melissadevin.blogspot.com/2014/08/old-post-7312013-finished-quilt-top.html

2015 Doll Quilt Swap

What a weekend we had!  First I delivered the Desert Stars quilt to our oldest and his fiance (which it makes my year that they love it so much!), today I got the backlog of mail we had on hold and I received the quilt from my partner, Carmel Lewis, for the Doll Quilt Swap.  I absolutely adore it!  I got a little teary even (strange response, but it just hit me).



I love everything about it.  I am also an orange lover, so it's perfect.  Carmel handquilted it along with the embroidery.  Isn't it sweet?  I might have gotten teary eyed because I always sing "You are my Sunshine" to the kids (and hubby), so the phrase Carmel chose was wonderful.  Such a great day!

The Amelie Purse

Over a year ago I purchased a couple of purse patterns from Geta Grama.  Today I finally got around to making one.  I was thinking about having a new purse for our trip, but really I have come to prefer the cross-body purses.  We'll see if I decide to use this on our trip.



The pattern was fairly straight forward.  The only issue I had was in regard to the straps.  There aren't any measurements that I could find as to what width to cut them.  I guessed wrong, and being almost out of fabric I made do.  I also made the handles longer than what the pattern shows, we'll see if I like that.  I don't like short handles, but now it seems more of a tote.  It is a large purse, two outside pockets in the front, a zippered one in the back.  I made one inside pocket instead of two because I was just done with the pattern (or sewing in general as the kids were home early today).  Take a look at the link for what the insides look like.

http://www.romanianquiltstudio.com/english/bag-patterns.htm

Desert Stars, Finished!

It seems more nordic to me than desert, mainly in design. The colors that were preferred were teal and browns (as in desert tones) and the Stonehenge line did fill that need.  Kind of nice to have the quilt turn out nearly exactly like my EQ6 plan.



I first attempted to take a picture on the living room floor, but this guy saw what I was doing and decided he needed to inspect the quilt. Such a stinker.


Now I am going to have to see if I can fit the quilt in someone's carry-on for our trip on Friday.  I really didn't think I would be finished with the binding before Thursday, but little by little it got done with a little help from Amazon Prime and watching the first two seasons of Vikings... I got hooked this year during season 3.  I've decided that I don't think we've ever stopped living in barbaric times (considering current events).  I think about my ancestors living in the rain, cold, and constant struggles and have to say that I much prefer today's time.  Sure, I live in the PNW, but it isn't on a rocky fjord.  Plus I really like having hot water at the ready :)

I think I need to quilt up my Orca Bay now.  I think that will be my fair entry for this year.

Finished is Better Than Perfect

I decided that I needed to stop marinating ideas for the engagement quilt I started last year.  I had plans to perhaps applique something on a corner area, but I couldn't get it right in my head what that was.  I was also considering a strip border, but decided to do a stay stitch instead and get quilting.  This quilt is 8 rows x 7 (56  12" blocks), and at this point I only have 21 more blocks left to go--I am 2/3rds done!  Hopefully by next week I will be starting on the binding.  It would be great to have this quilt finished before we head to Nevada next Friday (to hand deliver), but I don't see that happening because of the size (and a lot of hand stitching on the binding).  I think I have settled on a name for this quilt: Desert Stars.





So far I have gone through 13 bobbins of thread! For the final three rows, I am guessing 7 more.

Doll Quilt Exchange

Here is my quilt that I sent out for the Doll Quilt Exchange:


Old Maid's Puzzle.  This was the copy of the crib quilt from the 1800's.  I need to do a light rinse to remove some markings, but other than that the quilt is finished.  I don't recall the size, I want to say it is about 21-24" square.

All washed to remove pencil markings:


The pinks and cheddar were hard to photograph, the true colors are somewhere between the two pictures.