Bowtiesnstars

Last year was a mixed up year in so many ways. The first half of the year, several things were accomplished and started. The summer brought time for a lot of quilts to get finished. After moving to Portland in August, I completed two quilts. I finished another ‘flimsy’ over break, but it is covered in so much dog hair, I don’t know that I want to do too many large quilts this coming year.

I have one must make on the list. My nephew is getting married! I really want to make Nick and Michele a quilt for their wedding gift. But it is in four months! I really need to get started and nothing too complicated. So I was thinking of doing the “Secret Santa” pattern from Temecula Quilt Company in the blues and greys Nick mentioned. I would like to make it a little larger, but since it is all squares and rectangles, I think I have a good chance of getting it done if I can find fabric. So far I have found a grey that I like for the background, but not a good mix of blues. The search continues…

Most of my quilt room is still in storage and not very accessible. When we transferred my belongings from the moving boxes to the storage unit, I pulled out one box labelled quilt kits so I have a few “shovel ready” projects. A few years ago now a popular sew along on Instagram was Sweet Escape by Camille Roskelley. I ordered a couple Honeybuns of Strawberry Jam and background fabric, printed off the directions and it sat waiting for me to make it. I told Kim about it and she made two of them! Fabric is with me, but the directions will need to be reprinted.

I am also a sucker for Block of the Months. At this point I think I have signed up for six of them, and completed two of them. The large picture at the top of the blog is one of the completed ones. I loved it and gave it away. Hopefully I will find another fabric line that would work well with the patterns. The other completed one is Charcoal and Cream from last year. But I had signed up for another BOM from them in 2018 called Autumn Splendor Mystery Sampler. I would love to get that completed this year. But of course I signed up for another BOM from them for this year as well. As well as a Sew Along from Primitive Gatherings…

Speaking of Primitive Gatherings, in 2017, Lisa offered a sew along called Triangles Gathering. I think she offered about 90 blocks made from Half-Square Triangle blocks. I saved the directions to all the blocks and loved how Nicole from Sister’s Choice Quilts put hers together. I bought fabric using some of the rich colors that Sandy Klop uses and even some paper sheet templates to help make all those triangles. I know I have seen that ‘kit’ lately so it must be in one of the boxes near the top.

Another project that I have seen on her blog and instagram was a quilt by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts called Aurora. I love the purples from several of Pam Buda’s lines of reproduction fabric and it just happens that that color grouping is also reachable in my storage unit. Today I bought a lovely cream fabric for the back ground and am thinking this would be a great ‘leader and ender’ project to complete along with the others.

I also have fabric half purchased for a quilt from a book that I won last year that is no longer on my kindle….

And I am sure more projects will spring up as the year progresses. Looking forward to all the quilts to be made!

What a crazy year this has been. I am thankful I have a job, but it sure takes a lot of my time! Getting better at managing my free time so got a few Christmas presents made. The most important was the quilt for Denny, using his old uniforms as one of the fabrics!

I saw a similar pattern on Pinterest the beginning of the year and started ripping up the uniform in April, when the school was basically shut down and we weren’t feeding but a handful of people. I started in on the shirt first. Those uniforms are very well made! Is it called a French Seam, where one seam is sewn then folded over to create another seam? By the time I got to the pants, I was done, and brought out the rotary cutter and bypassed the seam altogether.

Quilt in a Day had grunge fabric on sale in the summer so ordered all three fabrics from them, but hadn’t yet determined how much I would need so still have more of each for another patriotic quilt another day. I wanted to make it wider than the center lay out so I drew up the ribbon border, again from a picture on Pinterest, and then reversed it for the other side. I think that was the most difficult part. Jeanette Nelson did a fantastic job on the quilting. We discussed it, but really it is all her inspiration and eye for design.

The post office was overwhelmed this year and they really had me anxious with this quilt. Jeanette mailed it to me and after five days, we started going back to the tracking. Still no delivery. At ten days, it was returned to Jeanette! Address was correct. Post office worker could not see any problems as to why it was returned so she mailed it again. This time I received it, but just had time to get a binding on and back in the mail to Texas. From his facebook post, I think he liked it! Wish I could have been there too but not a normal year for those family gatherings we all hold dear.

The other Christmas presents that I made were for my nephews here in Oregon.

Very popular in the Northwest, I knitted this from yarn and pattern from Purl Soho. Super soft yarn and it turned out HUGE. My brother tried it on and it fell to his nose! It was really funny, but I started making another hat for a back up.

I made two of these. But they were a one-size-fits-all kind of pattern and were kind of small. Still a beginner knitter so need to learn how to modify a pattern. Next time…

Otherwise, the month has been all about baking! Mary Alice sent me the recipe for her mothers Almond Rusks. She would often give me a small portion when Mary Alice and I were able to quilt retreat together. So yummy! Mine turned out a bit rustic, but very tasty!

Swedish Visiting Bread from Dorie Greenspan book, Peppermint Marshmallows and Hot Cocoa Mix, Spiced Honey Pecan Bars from A Kitchen Addiction blog, and Peanut Butter Stars. Attempted Orange Rolls also, but they over proofed and were not as good as I would have liked. Still want to try Cardamom Rolls from the Baked Bree blog. Still time, another few days before I need to start thinking about work…

Looking forward to 2021! I’ve already started my first project – one of the kits from the Figs and Friends program that Fig Tree and Co. offered this past year.

Classes began August 31st. What a week that was! Very short on student help, still learning the routines, abilities, confidence of the full time people. And corporate support. Bless him, I could not have opened with out him, but at times, the job also became more difficult.

Then lets add in my lack of computer skills and IT issues. Computer screen says to reboot so I did. And lost everything on the desk top. Which held ninety percent of the information I need to use every week. Everything was gone. And of course it was Friday. IT had sent out a message that they were overwhelmed with help tickets with new students & faculty back on campus. A whole week before IT even helped, but it was too late. They fixed my credentials so the campus links would work again and I could start hiring students. But Pioneer links still need to be installed.

In the midst of all, this happened

Water main broke between Brad’s house and the neighbor. Crawl space under the house totally filled. Even in the air ducts of the house. What.A.Mess. They lost a few things in the garage and a lot of sleep. Fans were set up in the crawl space for at least a week. And then…

Forrest fires. Donna said they are historical in that so much area, in different locations have been affected. A coworker of my brothers lost her house and barn. The smoke in the air is oppressive. God bless fire fighters!

So with all that has happened I only made a Peanut Butter Pie to celebrate a day off and finished the heart quilt with straight line quilting. Miss having Jeanette around the corner…

So much has happened in the last month. 97 percent of my belongings are in Uboxes out of my reach. Starting to feel like they are being held hostage. With school starting and their delivery schedule, I think the first realistic date is Sept 13th for me to actually get access to them.

Glad I brought my sewing machine and a few projects with me in the car. But then a baby came early so I had to go shopping. My SIL recommended the perfect store… here is my start.

I actually got it done last night. Hopefully I can start doing some quilting this week end. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the trip out.

My brother offered to come along for the ride and I would never turn that down! We didn’t have a plan, but to start heading west towards Mt. Rushmore. As we drove, we kept seeing more and more motorcycles. Denny looked online and sure enough, Sturgis festivities would be starting up on the week end. His wife went online to start looking for a hotel for us. Almost triple the budget, but it was comfortable and nice. That night we talked to my oldest brother and decided we wouldn’t be driving through the area again anytime soon so we should be tourists. Which led to stops at Devil’s Tower, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone.

As we were leaving Devil’s Tower, I got a message from my realtor. It was the first day for showings of my townhouse and I already had offers. Devil’s Tower is a bit off the beaten path, so there was no cell service. We pulled over at the first town to get the details. One of the offers wanted to know by 6:00 that night if the offer was accepted. None of us appreciated being given a deadline with no reason, especially when there were still a dozen showings still scheduled, so no, and we kept driving. By the time we got to Gillette, Wyoming, things had changed again. One of the offers had improved, but someone else came in with an offer 22,000 over list price. We were not expecting that. Not at all. Now we are just hoping it will appraise for that as well. Definitely a sellers market.

This was best of all, my brothers and I together. Hasn’t happened in a long time.

I finished my One Monthly Goal for July! I am normally very slow at binding quilts, but for these two, it wasn’t so bad. The hardest part was trying to space black binding along the black skyline of the quilt. I didn’t want one color all the way as the quilt is purposefully total opposites, the neutral, creamy top and the black on grey skyline. It isn’t a perfect match up, but considering the time crunch, I was happy. The pattern is Skyline by Coach House Designs. I bought it 3 years ago at a small quilt shop in New Ulm, near down town, on a state wide quilt shop hop. I was very intrigued by the design and mix of neutrals. Later I had the thought it would be great to use the school’s logo where I work (skyline of Minneapolis) in place of the patterned skyline. In looking at the pattern further, I didn’t want it to be as large, so had to start doing math to reduce the 12″ blocks to 9″ blocks. Not too bad. The next summer on the shop hop, I started buying fabrics. I was really happy with the mix of grunges, neutrals, and textures I found for the top. Erica, in Marketing, sent me over the jpeg of the logo easy enough. My first stall. I opened it up at home and wondered how on earth I am supposed to print off a 2 inch visual on my screen to spread out 63 inches on my quilt. Jeanette, machine quilter and graphics expert, to the rescue once again. No big deal she says! I admire her so much! Meanwhile I am making the different color combos and sizes of star blocks and loving it! My second stall. I am not an appliquer. I am all thumbs and have no confidence. This time Mary Alice to the rescue! She talked me through reverse tracing my skyline onto freezer paper and searching out the correct fusible foundation (which I found the third summer on a retreat at a store in Rochester) for the black fabric and how to bond them wrinkle free. This quilt would never have been completed with out the help of my friends.

I made this quilt for Jeremy. We have known each other for about 10 years, I would say, in different ways. He was a student first (we catered his grooms dinner), then a fellow employee at the college for several years. We then reconnected when he became my Realtor. It was such bad timing. The afternoon of our fall opening event, my realtor back in Litchfield called me with an offer on my house. I was so anxious I went to Todd, who told me that Jeremy was now a Realtor. He was so patient and thoughtful with me. HUGE decision to make and I only had a couple of months to find a new house. I even put an offer on one place only to have misgivings and he worked it out for me. Very happy with the house I did purchase – since the master bedroom is the largest with a great closet, it became my quilting room which is just wonderful. The next summer he came back to the school to work again! He truly deserved a quilt, just wish I could have completed it in a more timely manner.

I got a phone call just before noon today with great news, at least I think it is great news. There is an opening at an account in Portland! I could be roughly an hour away from my oldest brother! Honestly, for the past couple of years, I have been craving more time with family. In case I end up moving soon, I need to finish a couple of quilts that have been in the works for quite a while.

This is for Todd. He is over the Student Life Dept. Not an easy department and always such a pleasure to work with planning events, and even helping with students. And connecting me with the right people in times of stress. Like a realtor.

This is for Jeremy, my last Realtor, and then coworker in the Student Life office. He was so patient and diligent with me in my house search. He was a student at my college, worked there for several years, left to pursue Realty while the kids were very young, and is now back. I am leaving many good people behind. Too many to make quilts for everyone!

So my goal is to get bindings on these two quilts so they can be delivered before I leave town. Please check out other quilters projects for some great ideas at Elm Street Quilts.

June was a productive month for me! Three finishes for me starting with the Jacob’s Ladder top!

At this point, I only have one quilt for my bed, a lovely blue floral from last years Guild Challenge, found here https://wordpress.com/view/bowtiesnstars.net . This will be great to have in the fall months! I will start hand quilting it when it gets cooler.

As the Quarantine started, Laundry Basket Quilts offered a free mystery quilt sew along called “California” and is now available on the web site. I mostly kept pace with this one, although the week end was used as a catch up time as well. 90% of this quilt is from my stash of Fig Tree fabrics. I used a couple charm packs whenever I could. I bought more background fabric and the final border fabric from my local quilt shop, but am really glad about how much ‘free’ fabric I used since it has been on the shelf for a while now.

I don’t usually do mystery quilts because I tend to second guess my fabric placement the whole time I am working on the quilt. In this case I did have to remake a few blocks because I had introduced another shade of green that just didn’t play well with the others. In looking at the picture, the red in the corners really seems to stick out, but it isn’t as bold in person. I do love how she presented the blocks – outside of the quilt in towards the center. And I learned new blocks and techniques. I am pleased how this mystery turned out. Six inch blocks with a six inch border. My stash is already increasing though as I would love to make a Fig Tree Christmas sampler or the All Hallows Eve line. Someday.

I have so many projects to do, I feel like I am a collector more than a maker. One day I decided that instead of checking out the latest sew along or something new on pintrest, I took a project down off the shelf that I had been hoarding for quite a while. The French Quarter pattern is dated 2013. I probably bought it that fall during the Minnesota Quilt Shop Hop in Anoka. The fabric is from V and Co., I think her first fabric line. The quilt is designed from the inside out, but sewn together in rows. It came together so fast! Love the Drunkards Path look but no curves makes it even better!

I like the green, but it was too strong for the center so I eliminated that, auditioned the multi print white, but that was kind of blah, and ended up with one of the blues.

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I love how it turned out. 72 inches square. Wish I could get a better picture…

Please go over to https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2020/06/one-monthly-goal-june-finish-link-up.html to see what other quilters have made this month! One Monthly Goal – great motivator to get things finished, one step at a time.

It is so unusual to be off from work. The days kind of run into each other and it is hard to get motivated. Good thing there are deadlines. Saturday is a drop off day at Bundles of Love so have been trying to get a few more knitted items done.

I now have 11 sets of Baby booties done and 6 dish cloths. Thanks to the patterns from Mary Alice, they are turning out pretty cute. I have a Cardinal, Hummingbird, Topiary, Birdhouse, Cherries, and Butterfly. Different sizes because two different weights of yarn and I’ve used 3 different needle sizes. The butterfly is pretty loose, but all cute.

My favorite summer flower – the Peony! Beautiful, lacy, delicate, fragrant and elegant. Just had to share.

In working on the Jacob’s Ladder quilt, I got back to my Christmas blocks as my leader and enders. They have been super fun to create.

It is hard to believe it is June already! Last post was about the fabulous find of my Jacob’s Ladder blocks so my OMG is to finish putting all those blocks together!

There has been much rearranging of blocks and after awhile, it was hard to keep straight -a color in block or color out, direction of block, etc. But I am now happy with the set up and ready to start sewing into rows and getting this top put together. Would be really nice to have my floor back! I don’t want to stack the blocks up again and risk losing yet again!

Connecting with https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2020/06/one-monthly-goal-june-link-up.html. Check it out for some quilt inspiration!

One of the quilts I made for a student was a Jacob’s Ladder quilt. I used Kansas Troubles fabrics and alternated the color placement in the blocks then hand quilted it using the Baptist Fan pattern. I loved the way it turned out so much, I started making one for myself. Then I sold my house in Litchfield and quickly had to pack up and move. They have been missing for the past 2 and a half years!

Last week, while drinking my morning coffee, I toyed with the idea of starting the Lucy quilt I have been collecting orange and black fabrics for a fall lap quilt. Who doesn’t need yet another Work In Progress? I decided it can’t hurt to read the directions at least. So I brought down the tote it is all stored in. Looked easy enough so thought I would check out the oranges to make sure I still liked them all, and there in the bottom were two storage bags with KT fabric.

I was so excited I went and searched for the notes from my first quilt. I had made it back in 2016!

I had 9 blocks finished and perhaps another 10 cut out. Now I am up to 40 blocks done and love how it is turning out! I am going to make mine bed size with a block layout of 7 x 8 so it should finish up at 84″ x 96″. I will hand quilt this the same way as Gina’s.

I love the warm colors of fall so am sticking to the reds, purples, oranges, and greens with a few browns and blacks thrown in. Easy to find in the Kansas Troubles lines. It is 90 percent KT with a few other Moda lines in the backgrounds, Primitive Gatherings and 3 Sisters.