Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Coffee Anyone?

OK, I think I have a problem.  I like to START things,   But finish?  I don't know yet!  I've only finished one thing all by myself so far.  Oh well.  Hopefully, with many to choose from, I won't get bored, right?  That's my theory anyway.  We shall see!

This next project is one I'm still pondering.  I doubt that I'll ever become a designer, it hurts my head!  At work, we are supposed to make up a basket with a theme for our office to take to our next state conference.  This basket will be auctioned off with a silent auction and our department has decided to do a coffee or tea theme.  I volunteered to make a lap quilt for it so I immediately went googling coffee/tea fabric, coffee blocks, etc.   I  found a few choices and our office voted on which they liked best.  So I bought 1 1/2 yards of this (it's all they had left).  Yes, I tend to be a fairly literal person but will work on trying to think outside the box.
I can't decide whether to use this for the back (which will probably need pieced along with something else, or use it on the front design, whatever that ends up being.   I found this block pattern  on McCallsQuilting,com described as a tea cup but it's square enough to pass as a coffee cup.  I would love to do a bunch of these in bright modern colors but how to make that mesh with this coffee fabric?  Hmm!

And now to decide how in the world I'm going to put it all together and how big to make it.  Too many decisions!  Help!

I also fell in love with this wall hanging from 2010 and promptly bought the pattern which I will save for a future day.  It's probably old news to most of you, but I LOVE it !


I want to see this hanging in either my office at work or in my sewing room, IF we ever get our house built.  That's another whole story.

So this post really wasn't about anything I'm working on yet but things that are just ideas at the moment.  And I would welcome ANY thoughts and ideas about how to proceed with my coffee project!

Have any of you ever made any coffee cup quilts?  Inquiring minds wanna know!

I'm linking up with Lorna's Let's Bee Social link party at Sew Fresh Quilts and Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.

Happy quilting!

Janice


Monday, April 25, 2016

My First Quilting Project

Happy Monday!

I would normally have more progress to show but spent last weekend in beautiful sunny Seattle!  Ha!  No, really!  It was!   I was there to watch my daughter's school participate in a track meet and the weather was amazing!   Ironically, it was rainy and gloomy back in Idaho so a good weekend to be gone!

So instead, I will show the quilt that got me hooked on the quilting part of making quilts.  It's the very first one I made from start to finish.  Up until now, I was really only interested in the piecing part of the process.   My good friend Robin showed me how to do quilting on my Bernina and that's how it all got started.  I'm loving it!

I bought a layer cake from the Moda Storybook line of fabric to make a quicky baby blanket and there were enough squares in it to make three small quilts in pink, yellow, and aqua.  This fabric is so cute!!  Here is my first attempt at stippling on the yellow version.  I enjoyed that so much, that's when I went in search of a quilting class and joined Leah Day's Block party.





My mom lives in a retirement home and I have lunch with her at least once a week.  This week I took all my projects with me to show her what I had been doing and one of the ladies at her table wants to buy my pink version for her newest great grand daughter.  I wasn't even trying to sell anything so that was fun!

So now I need to quilt and bind that one.  I found this wonderful plush fabric for the back.  So soft!


And finally, here are my block 2's for the Leah Day Block Party.  Kind of wish I would have picked a darker pink on the first one as it doesn't have much contrast against the white.  Oh well.  It ought to show the quilting really well, right?  :)  Still haven't decided on thread color yet. 
Today I'm linking up with Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrap Bag.

Happy quilting!

Janice

Monday, April 18, 2016

2nd Colorway for the Block Party

As you saw in my post yesterday, I have decided to join Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Block Party and am doing it in two color ways.  I only had one of the blocks finished yesterday and here is the 2nd one. I think this is going to be my favorite!  I didn't really explain what the block party was about.   Each month we receiving instructions for piecing a new block and also instructions on how to quilt it.  I joined the party about 4 months late so I'm a few blocks behind.  I'm going to get all 8 blocks (because I'm doing two different colors) all sewn and then I'll work on the quilting.  Can't wait!

I just found out about something called a Blogger Blog Hop for newbie bloggers like me so I have signed up!  I have no idea what it's all about, but if it means learning how to be a better blogger, I'm in.  I'm still tinkering around with what I can do with the blog tools and haven't figured it all out yet.

The colorful background you see on my page is a picture of some fabric that I bought years ago and it is a perfect representation of my favorite color.  ALL OF THEM!!  :)  
I have never been able to bring myself to cut it up so I have three yards of this gorgeous fabric that has been sitting around waiting for me to figure out what I'm going to do with it. (since this post was written I changed the background to white and just used the fabric for the lettering so it wasn't quite so distracting)

I am working on another quilt project (baby quilt) for my niece Katie, but since I don't know whether or not she will be reading this, I can't show you that until after the baby shower.  I hope she loves it!   I can show you the quilt that inspired it.  It is one I found in the 2013 May/June issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.  I can show you my inspiration without giving away what it is.  So that finish will be for a future post.


Speaking of baby blankets, take a look at this . . .
 What you are seeing is a new project in the making.  The pink blanket is fuzzy and soft and perfect for a baby blanket except for that pink ribbon on the corner.  I want to applique a monogrammed initial over it.  Anybody got any good ideas on how to do this and make both sides look good?   I want to use the letter "m".  I'm picturing either a pink gingham or some kind of floral with lots of pink flowers.  I'm really liking this idea because it will be a pretty swift finish.  Love that instant gratification!  I am not just asking to fill space, I would be delighted to hear from anyone with some ideas on this.

I've got so many other ideas I want to share so I have to be careful and not write about too much in each post!  

Keep creating!  

Janice Holton

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Introducing Myself!

Hello fellow lovers of color and quilts!

My name is Janice and I am a new quilter!  I'm ready to plunge in!  I have been reading quilter blogs for months now and my mind is boggled at the talent out there in quilt land!  Wow!  As soon as I figure out how to work this blog thingy, I'll add links to the blogs that I love to read.  I can tell you a couple right off the bat that inspired me.  First is Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation.  I can't believe how many quilts this talented lady puts out, not to mention how much I enjoy the bright colors she uses and the patterns she creates.  Scrumptious!

Another one is Leah Day.  I just learned how to free motion quilt on my own machine and have been devouring all the information on her blog that I can.  I joined the Free Motion Quilting Project and am so looking forward to learning more quilting techniques I'm probably going to make two different color ways.

Here are the fabrics that I chose to use for this project.

Project 1
Project 2

I'm kind of puzzled at why I chose these colors because I tend to be drawn to bright, rich colors and neither one of these fit that category!  Curiouser and curiouser (my daughter's drama class just finished performing Alice and Wonderland so that just seemed to fit).

So you're going to see all my projects, warts and all and hopefully I can share what I learn as I go!

Another project I have is a small quilt with western themed fabric made from 2 charm packs and 2 mini charm packs.    This only made 21 blocks which is kind of an odd number for anything!     Anyway, I'm trying to decide what I want to do with these.  Sash them with something?  Just sew them straight together?  Make a checkerboard with alternating blocks of something else?  Make another whole set of blocks to make a bigger size quilt?  What would you do?


Here is another exciting thing that I'm going to need help deciding what to do with!  I was given a quilt top by my mother-in-law that is very old and has been completely hand pieced.  Unfortunately, she has no idea who made it or where it came from.  She said it might possibly be made by her grandmother but there was no way to know.   I did not recognize the pattern but after asking someone more knowledgable than I am about quilt piecing patterns, I was told it is called a bow tie quilt.  It has bright happy colors with lots of yellow.  I wonder if anybody could tell me about what year you think these fabrics are from?  I am guessing about 1940's??  What do you think?

Another decision I am going to have to make with this quilt is how to finish it and how to quilt it.  As you can see in the following picture, there is a yellow border; however, the border is only on three sides.  For some reason the fourth side was removed.  I would either have to find some yellow to match this color, or take off the three borders that are already there and replace them with something else.  Decisions!  Decisions!


I was also given this quilt  which is BLEHHH!    However . . .

the back is scrumptious!!  And I think would look pretty wonderful folded up in a display cabinet with some other colorful creations.


Well, that's probably enough for now!  I was actually going to write more but apparently there is a limit on how much space you can use for one post.  So I'll save it for another day!

I would love to hear from anybody who happens  stumble upon my blog.  Please introduce yourself!  would love to meet some kindred spirits and hear what projects you are working on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Today, I'm linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

Janice