Winter Quilt Retreat 2019

This year I finished 2 and almost 3 projects at the winter Lighthouse Quilt Guild Retreat. It felt so great!!!! (When I say finished, I mean pieced the top, pieced the back and cut the binding in preparation for longarming it). First one is a super traditional Christmas quilt. It was made from my grandmother’s fabrics that she had collected in the 80s and 90s. I have to admit this is NOT my cup of tea when quilting, but I LOVE it for Christmas!!! Since I knew I wouldn’t be able to piece anything from these fabrics myself, I passed it around as a row by row in the Big Red Quilters guild in Holland, Michigan, U.S.

The next one I have ready is fabric some family members provided at my baby showers for signatures. The ones in a strait line down will become my backing and are from my side of the family and my husband’s friends. The blocks on the front are from my husband’s side of the family and my friends.

Last, but not least is a Holiday quilt that I bought last year. I just need to put the rows together, cut the binding, and piece together the back. It is called Merrily by Gingiber for Moda. This uses the Merrily line with the Critters Galore Panel.

I feel so accomplished. Now to finish up the Merrily quilt and get my aunt’s t-shirt quilt done so I can longarm some of these.

Retreat Suprise

I belong to the Lighthouse Quilt Guild in Grand Haven, MI. I had to give up some of my duties as I moved an hour from there and won’t be able to make it every time. The one duty I did keep was co-chairing the guild’s spring retreat with my crazy awesome friend Sue. I am so lucky to be working with her for two reasons 1) with all the changes I have been a wee bit absent-minded and disorganized (okay a lot bit) and 2) Sue is a ball of fun!

I’m so excited at what we have planned for the retreat in April. Here is an itty bitty sneak peek.

Ugly Fabric Challenge 2017

My guild did an ugle fabric challenge last year and I participated again this year. 

Since this needs to be 15-20″ finished and someone chose this fabric because they either didn’t like it or didn’t know what to do with it, I decide to chop it up in ittg birth pieces to put back together again. 

Say hello to Primitive Gatherings half square triangle papers. There is over 270 little 1″ squares there. I can’t wait to show you the finished project! 

Memory Quilt and Round Robin

I have been working on my Aunt-in-law’s 2nd memory quilt. This one is way different and I live it! I have some jeans in it, some pictures in it, some t-shirts in it, and a bunch of work shirts!!! Loving the idea I came up with. The hard part was cleaning up all the cotton button up shirts, but this definitely makes me want to work more with button up shirts. Here they all were after taking them apart.

And here is the top so far.

I’m really loving this look. A close up of the bottom two rows. 

Also this week we had our guild meeting, which I happen to be the historian for. This means I take all the pictures and document as much as I can for the guild to keep the history. Well this week we had our guild meeting about two of our members and their love for antique quilts. See our Facebook for the beautiful pictures! Lighthouse Quilt Guild Facebook Page

This week we also got our round robbins back. This was mine. Now I need to find ish it for the next meeting. 

I only had the center black portion with the wool applique. It turned out beautiful!!!!

Row Robin and Round Robin -Round 3

Today I finished us row 3 of my row robin for Big Red Quilters Guild. My row is the 12″ squares on the bottom. Her rules were civil war based in pattern and fabric. She provided the fabric. Luckily she doesn’t follow me so I can post this. Two more rows to go on this one.

I also finished my third round on my round robin for Lighthouse Quilt Guild. She also (hopefully) doesn’t follow me. There is one lady in my round I won’t be able to post, but I’m not there yet. 

After 3 failed ideas ( this just wasn’t working for me today) I finally got a great idea. The tree was round 1, the border around it was round 2, but luckily this is a round robin with no rules. I was originally doing a border with friendship starts around it, but for many many reasons that fell through. Therefore I added them to the ‘sky’ and added the log cabin on the side. I’m very happy with it now. I don’t know why this one was kicking my butt, but it was. 

I know my progress has seemed spectacular, but it is most attributed to the fact that I will be having surgery on Friday for an Inguinal Hernia and I am not sure how much quilting I will be able to accomplish for a little while after that. Therefore I’m trying to accomplish much of it now. 

Aurifil 2016 Designer of the Month – December, Row by Row Robin, and Round Robin

The featured image is my Grandfather’s Christmas Cactus flowering for the first time. I love you too Grandpa and miss you.

Now today’s finishes:

I did the first row around the center for my round robin.

This is my row for my row by row robin. (And here is where I pray neither person looks at my blog. They are signed up for emails, but who knows.)

Lastly, the last block of the Aurifil 2016 Designer of the Month block. Now I can’t wait to get the setting to put them all in. Not sure they all go together, but oh well.

I have been a bad blogger

So I don’t know what happened, but life got crazy. I’ve had no time to quilt it seems, and have been crazy. I don’t even know what I have been doing. I know I lost a few weeks in September due to losing my grandmother. I still miss her and I feel awful for my dad. He has tried calling her and doesn’t remember she is gone until he picks up the phone. 😦

Then we were working on finishing our basement. We hired a contractor to install a new wall, install all the stuff in the walls, and drywall. I have since then painted all the walls, installed all the finishes, installed the floor, and have painted the trim. I just need to finish installing the trim. Also, both my quilting rooms have been moved to the basement, all except parts of the longarm that we need help moving. I still need to install the trim and in the future I WILL have built ins on the whole wall with the windows. When it is done I will take another picture.

I took a class to make a tuffet. It matches my basement decor. The class was through my guild, Lighthouse Quilt Guild who I am not the historian of. The class was so much fun I took a second one home to make. I just have to convince my husband to do a math problem to assist me in what angle I need to cut the pieces in since I am changing the width. My first one has become the spot the cats must fight over. It even has loose threads as proof.

I also went to our Guild Winter Retreat! I love those women! I always have a blast, though I pushed it way too much this time. 7 hours of sleep all weekend is not enough. By Sunday I was so out of it I left a couple of items that a friend of mine kept for me. I was supposed to get them back, but our December guild meeting was cancelled due to a lot of snow. Here is what I made at the retreat.

The two finished quilts were UFOs that I obtained. The first one is nothing but triangles, sadly I didn’t realize this quilt would be nothing but points until I started stitching it. The white part was the only part already cut. I picked the colorful fabrics, cut those, and pieced them. I laid it all out Friday night and had to have it pieced by Saturday noon or I was going to lose my tables for lunch. Therefore 3 hours of sleep and I got it pieced. I just need to get fabric to border it.

The second one is November’s block of the month for Aurifil. All I have left is December.

The third one was some UFO I obtained. Most of them were full blocks purple and full blocks of stripes so I just made something up. I had to square a ton of them up, but I love the finish. This was so fun. I don’t know the original pattern and I think that makes it even better.

I also finished this for the Big Red Quilters Guild row by row challenge. I decided to do a Christmas row by row.

I also put together a center block for a round robbin which I just started and need to pass on. We were supposed to pass it on at our cancelled guild meeting. (See photo at the bottom of the post).

We also went to a bunch of College Football games. We supported 3 games this year! I have never been to more than 1 per season. It was so fun! Two were with my husband’s family and 1 was just with his aunt and uncle. He got tickets to the rivalry game for our anniversary and I got to choose who we invited.

I was looking through and have all sorts of other events I have been to, but I am going to stop there. That is most of my fall with quilting at least. I can’t wait to get done with the basement so I can get back at it!

Here is the round robbin photo. I still need to sew pieces down, but at least they are attached for now.

Other things we have been up to, my husband and I went on a trip up a few hours north in Michigan (a friend surprised us with a retreat), we visited my parents to borrow their miter saw and mom gave my husband copper mugs, I sold my car and got a new one (it has a back seat so it is a little more friendly to having a possible baby in the back seat), etc. And no I’m not pregnant, there are plans and I am a planner so I am ahead of the game.

Oh and did I mention I have a hernia? I didn’t cause it by carrying heavy items, it was a thin spot in intestinal lining. It is slowing me down a bit, though on moving my quilt rooms. It basically feels like I have a knot in my side. You know that pain you get in your side when you run and have a “stitch” in your side? That is what it feels like after about 3-4 hours of being up. Luckily, I lay down and all the pain goes away. I will find out what needs to be done on January 4. I’ve heard it is outpatient surgery. Okay, it was nice catching up. I missed ya’ll. I will try to get back on track to posting more.

Small Wonders – Lighthouse Quilt Guild

Yesterday I worked on my quilt for our guild show for approximately 8hours. Even though I took many breaks and stretched, my neck is feeling it today. 

I finished quilting the lone star and designed my background for my open space around my eight pointed stars. 

This is turning out beautifully!