Double Wedding Ring quilt finally finished being handquilted!

I have finally finished handquilting on my queen sized Double Wedding Ring quilt!! I am so excited. Doing the Snoopy Dance here tonight in my Minnie Mouse flannel jammies! LOL! I have been handquilting on this quilt since May 2012. Started putting the top together back 3 years prior. It was a love hate relationship with this quilt pattern. Took a class..teacher had a weird method of putting it together and all of the students hated it. Most of them have not finished theirs. Even students that had the class a couple years prior to me. One of those friends I met after I had the class. I bent her arm this past spring to finish hers along with me. We finished putting the tops together while sewing together. Great encouragement helping each other...should have seen our whips. LOL! It was a HUGE accomplishment just to have the tops together. I immediately basted mine and started handquilting it. I knew if I let it sit, it would be that much longer before I got back to it. I now have to make the binding and put it on. Will be working on that on Friday!! Can't wait to have this one finished. It's for my wonderful husband! He picked out the fabric and has been waiting all this time to see it finished. He too has been prodding me. LOL!

TESSELLATING TREE'S

I had a lot of different odds and ends of Christmas fabrics that I needed to do something with. So, I started playing with paper, scissors, and tape. I came up with a tessellating tree pattern. Then I put the pattern to fabric! You can get one tree out of a 22" length of fabric. I cut my strips to 2 1/2" wide. I don't see why they can't be made in other sizes like 2" wide strips. Below are pictures of my paper pattern with sizes written on the pieces. Next time, I will make the end tree's 2 inches shorter. I will have to trim that amount off of the sides of the quilt top pictured below. I plan to put borders on this quilt top. Still debating whether I want to put a narrow border of black, red, or navy..leaning towards black. Have held all 3 up to it and black is winning out with my husband and friends. LOL! I wanted red..shows what I know. Listen to the peanuts in the gallery that you involve..you involved them for a reason now listen to them. LOL! This pattern also produces waste triangles. So, I sewed them into 1/2 square triangles and then squared them up. I will use them also as a border on this quilt. I have counted my tree's across including the 1/2 tree's on each end and I have 11 tree's across. That's 5 right side up and 4 upside down and 2 halves. I have 12 rows of tree's from top to bottom. I think I am going to remove the bottom row because things are going to get too wonky for me when doing the borders. I do not want an extremely long quilt. I even thought about doing extra borders on the sides than what I do on the top and bottom. Still deciding on that too. So far, this top has been made for a couple of months..decisions of what to do next is the hold up. With the number of tree's I have, that created 30 sets of waste triangles per each row of tree's. In case anyone wanted to know. They are squared up to 1 1/2" half square triangles. I have 360 of them to use on borders! On my paper pattern you will notice 4 rows to each tree. I only used 3 when making my tree's. I decided to go with 3 so that I could use width of fabric strips of fabric and cut them in half and get two tree's out of one strip instead of one tree out of one strip had I used that extra row. I am trying to use up the scraps not create more. Here are the pictures:

One ticked off puppy dog!! This is Jack the Jack Russell Terrier that owns me. Yep, he owns me and I must do as he wants he thinks. LOL! He is the bestest little dog ever. But, he hates me touching anything other than him and I mean anything and he let's me know about it with sigh's, hacking, begging, and anything he can do to get my hands on him. He loves blankets and being pampered too. As long as it's all about him, he is a happy camper. If I lay a quilt top down while in the process of making it, he will jump on it. Does not matter where it is, or how many parts it's in. He insists on being the center of attention. So, when I laid this quilt down on the couch to get it out of the way for just a minute, he promptly jumped up there and gave me the look that you can't get it unless you touch me first! He was mad that day that I had been working on that quilt and not petting him. So, I had to take a picture this time. That's my Irish Mist quilt under it by the way..not finished yet..got to add the last border and then quilt it. It did not turn out as I had hoped..not very happy with it as it is..the quilting will have to save it..more on that after it's all quilted up.

Quilt of Valor This quilt was a team effort. A fellow stashbuster helped me learn to make fabric postcards a few years back. She also sent me some stuff she no longer wanted to use in the charity quilts I make. The six blocks in this quilt were blocks she sent me. I added the sashing fabrics and backing and put this top together. I met a lady that has a brother that was in Vietnam. He has some serious health issues due to chemical exposure he experienced during his service in Nam. He is wheelchair bound now and has recently had to move to a home that is wheelchair accessible. So, I put this quilt together with him in mind. He lives in Pennsylvania. His sister delivered it to him and he loves it. He can not believe that someone that does not know him made him something so wonderful. He sent me a thank you card too. It just makes me feel good that it brings a smile to his day..that's all it's about..making someone feel good.

Also, I tied the quilt for the quilting. That's what the quilt called for when it spoke to me. I bring my ties to the back of the quilt so as not to take away from the front, in case anyone is wondering where the ties are. LOL! I felt that machine quilting would have taken away from those blocks. Love that airplane! Wish I could take credit for putting those blocks together but I did not. Not sure if the lady that passed them on to me made them or not or if she obtained them from a swap or something..she never said.

The Twelve Days of Christmas. This is all appliqued by machine. I did raw edge with a small, almost satin stitch, zigzag for you that want to know..you know who you are. LOL! I still have to baste and quilt it. I will bind it in the same red that the red bows are made with. I put the question out to fellow Stashbusters on how it should be quilted. One lady came back with "cross hatching". So, I looked that up on the net and found many classy antique appliqued quilts were quilted in "cross hatching" and it makes them look fantastic. So, "cross hatching" it is! Thank you Jane in Austin!! This top took two weeks of hard work to get here. Most of the parts are scraps. The only thing I purchased was the backing, sashing, and bows.

I will be keeping this one.

Blue and White for mom! This quilt was the 2011 Block of the Month from my local quilt shop. It's called Blueberry Cobbler. I made it for my mom. Finished it in July 2012 just in time for her birthday. This was the first time I made sashing like this. It was a learning experience and not near as hard to do as it looks. There are no "Y" seams, but, there are partial seams that are really easy to sew when sewing attachments in the other directions...you quilters will know what I mean here. That sashing has scared off a lot from completing this quilt. If they would just sit down and do it, they would see it really isn't that hard. Just had to lay out all the parts and not move anything until it was all quilted. Had to pick up two to three parts at a time and go to the machine and sew. Then, lay all that back down in place and pick up two or three more parts and go back to the machine. Had to do this to sew the entire top together. I add details like this to help other quilters by the way for those of you reading this that don't quilt. We quilters for the most part hold hands and help each other with tips and tricks.

I haven't uploaded pictures in a while. It's such a pain to do so, so, I am slow at it. I could be sewing instead of uploading. LOL! I found this tropical rain forest fabric at my local quilt shop that I fell in love with. I made 4 baby quilt tops out of it. One for my cousins baby Sean. One for my nephew's baby Evelyn. Two for charity. I backed 3 with this really cute fleece fabric that had jungle animals on it. The 4th I backed with banana fabric that I got at the quilt shop when I found the tropical rain forest fabric. I also made prairie points with the banana's on the one with banana backing. This is a link(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfCryJwye_c) to the method I used for the continuous prairie points. Do not buy a special glue though, use your Elmer's School Glue that you already own that washes out when the quilt is washed. Lord help us when Elmer's finds out we use their glue all the time for quilting..the price will shoot up on us when they do find out. LOL!

This quilt was from the 2009 Block of the Month from my local quilt shop. We got 1 star block each month and on the last month, we got a bonus block. I saw the quilt hanging on the wall in the quilt shop and new this one had to be for my nephew Wild'n. He is an artist and can paint or draw anything freeform and from looking at something. He is really good. So, I wanted to show him how I paint with fabric. LOL! I can't do what he does, but I can do this. It was fun making this quilt and I am so glad that Wild'n loves it. He really appreciates the artwork in it. I am posting it today to share with some folks on the Carol Doak site. Someone asked what to do with the blocks we have been given lately and from time to time. I think set in a layout like this quilt would be great for them if we used all batiks for each block. The blocks in this quilt are 12 1/2 inches unfinished which is the same size as the blocks we are talking about over on the Carol Doak group. See, all batiks go. Just tie it all together with the sashing! I call this quilt Wild'n Woolley Stars for my nephew Wild'n Woolley!!

Knot-a-long

Cheryl Willis is doing a quilt-a-long on the Trinity Celtic Knot! It seems Deborah Cohen has redone the pattern to where it can be strip pieced now and that pattern is now out. Please check out Cheryl's blog here: http://knot-a-long.blogspot.com/2012/03/welcome-to-knot-long.html

There is ordering information there on Cheryl's blog. I also linked to Deborah's blog on my last post here on my blog.

Will you be doing the Knot a long with Cheryl?

Koa's quilt

Just found the lady that created the Trinity Celtic Knot pattern. She posted today on Stashbuster Yahoo group. That was fast. I posted last night that she would pop up and boy that was quick! She is Deborah Cohen in Naracoorte, South Australia. She comes up with some interesting patterns. The Trinity Celtic Knot pattern is being republished..just read that on her blog. Here is the link to her blog: http://www.pilgrimsquilts.com/ . Check it out.

Koa's quilt

This is the quilt I made for my niece Koa.

It is a Trinity Celtic Knot. Lynne C. did a mystery quilt-a-long and gave us steps every week or so until we finished it. I was one of Lynne's testers to make sure she was giving out the pieces correctly. This was so fun to do. Thank you Lynne for doing this for us. Another lady in Australia came up with the pattern and published it months later in the Autralian Quilt magazine. Can't remember what issue or what that ladies name is. It will turn up somewhere on the net and when it does, I will give that credit that is do.

This was a scrappy quilt. We were to use all our scraps in certain colorways. I used all my whites for the white, all my blacks for the black, all my green's for the green's and all my purples for the purples. Also kept buying remnants from the local quilt shop to give me more variety of the purple's and green's and then along came Lynne's quilt-a-long that worked perfect for my pieces.

I finished the quilt top back in the summer of 2010 and finally got it quilted in 2011 and delivered to Hawaii where Koa my niece lives.

Zach's quilt

This is a quilt I made for my son. I finished it on Thanksgiving day 2011. It was a block of the month from the local quilt shop. I added the red myself. It was supposed to be just black and white. I added the red to give it some pop. The red has Japanese lettering on it which Zach loves all things Japanese. I also added some Japanese fabrics to the black and white connecting blocks.

Mother Goose

I bought 3 Mother Goose quilt patterns a few years back. They are designed by Mary Englebreit. This panel was not one of the soft books panels. It was for a quilt and the site of the manufacturer had a free pattern on their site..can't remember if it was something like Robert Kaufman, Moda, or what???? Might have been Marcus Brothers..who knows??? My old computer died..I do have a back up on an external hard drive...I will look it up later and post the link to the pattern if it is still there.

Anywhoooo..I got sick...took a year off from sewing and did other things and got well.

After not sewing for a year, I tackled this Mother Goose quilt. My friend Marty called one day and I told her about the quilting slump I was in. Told her about the new baby due in the family and how I wanted to make Mother Goose. I had a lot of the fabrics already in my stash. Marty made me get off my duff and bring all I had over to her house. I did. We shopped her stash too..rejected some of my fabrics and chose some of hers. Still needed two more fabrics to pull it off. So, we went to Joann's and got the white background fabric and the green border and binding fabric. Got back to Marty's house and she twisted my arm and made me sit down and start this quilt. Marty started cutting up my fabrics and made me sit down and sew at her machine. She had several of those trigangles for those star blocks cut out and I sat there and sewed most of them up. They measure 1 inch finished.

Anywhooo...Thank you Marty for breaking/twisting my arm and making me get it done for the new baby that was 2 months later. Baby Evelyn, my nephew Jonathan and his wife Rebekah's baby got this quilt.

Quilt for Amy

I went on the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop back in March 2011. The only purchase I made was for 4 yards of Georgia fabric. The fabric was specially made to represent things in Georgia. Some of those things are long gone and some are new. The fabric needed a pattern to showcase it. Wasn't a fabric that I wanted to cut into small pieces.

A friend of mine has a quilt book by a lady that does Mystery quilts and put's them in books. I do not own the book, nor can I remember the author's name. I borrowed my friend's book and made this quilt for my lovely SIL Amy. Amy sew's, knits, crochet's, makes beautiful items out of wood and has done many other crafts. She knows the work and expense that is in this quilt so I felt she deserved it. She loves it! It's a queen size..it's on her queen size bed in the photo's. Her daughter took pictures for me...I had forgotten to take pictures before I delivered it.

I made this in the summer of 2011.

Reviving Traditions quilt-a-long

I have the quilt book "Relax and Quilt" put out by Leisure Arts. The one I have was a second printing in 1999. There are several scrap quilt patterns in this book that I want to make. The first one being a pattern that I have seen over and over in many different quilt books and magazines over the past 35 years. Not sure who originally came up with this pattern but I am sure it was someone's long ago ancestor.

I have been sewing strips together from my scraps of fabric. I am cutting several different strips in widths varying from 3/4 inch to 2 inches by 4 inches long. I will cut those strips into sections of 3 3/8 inch widths by 5 inches long after I get a bunch of long strips of fabrics sewn together.

I am posting a picture of the cover of the book, the picture of the quilt I am going to make and a picture of my shoebox of scraps I already have cut up with some strips already sewn together.

3 Inch House a day quilt-a-long

I have 9 houses completed. I have all parts made for 51 more. I have repeated some fabrics in these parts, so I am waiting until I make more to put the sections/parts together to get more variety in my houses.

Twisted Bargello

I took a class for this quilt. It was very easy to make..just got to follow that diagram that comes with the pattern very closely and have no interuptions and hang each strip up as you go and check that that strip goes with the previous one..making sure the pattern is where it is supposed to be.

We were recently talking on Stashbuster about borders..to border or not and to use slabs of fabric or piece borders. Well to me..this is an example of one of those patterns that really needs the slab border and not a pieced border..pattern calls for a slab..anything else would be too busy and take away from the pattern or the ribbon twisting.

This is the only quilt that I had someone else quilt..it was huge and I only have a domestic sewing machine..this was the biggest quilt top I had made yet. hangs way over on my queen size bed. I found an 87 year old woman in Kansas while on vacation at a friends house that lives in Kansas. That friend used this 87 year old woman to quilt a lot of her quilts. This lady only charged me 49.50 to quilt this quilt in the clamshell pattern on her long arm machine. I supplied batting and backing. She supplied thread. Her machine was an antique too...she had it from an old sewing factory. I have it written down somewhere the exact number customer I was of hers..she wrote down each and every customer....I was number 2000 something!!!! That was about 7 years ago. I wonder if she is still alive and doing well.

Anywhooo...Bertha..the quilting lady..she loved the batting I brought with me...I was suckered into this very expensive batting at a quilt shop here in Georgia. It was like 32.00 for that batting. It is Quilters Dream Poly. I will never ever ever ever ever ever buy that type of batting again..even if it was given to me..I would not use it. It has ruined my quilt!!!! The batting beards on the outside of the quilt on the top and back each and every time it is washed. It also is a hot batting. Now..it's not the quilt maker, nor the quilter, nor the fabrics..it's that stinking batting. Many others on my quilting groups have had the same problem with that awful batting. A few have had no problems..but..most folks don't wash their quilts. I always wash my quilts as soon as they are finished..if anything is going to happen to that quilt..I want it to be on my watch/wash/dry!! I take them all to the laundry mat and use the triple load, front loading washers to wash them..I use Tide detergent. I have never ever ever ever had a problem with any of my quilts other than this one. I have used a lot of different battings from cheap ones to expensive ones...I will never ever use Quilters Dream Poly again..for shame on them for selling this stuff!!!

Accidentally loaded a picture of the turning twenty here. OOPS!

The models are Zach and Sadie. Zach wants one of these quilts in blue..I have got to do that for him.

Turning Twenty quilt

This is my Turning Twenty quilt...was supposed to turn 20 fat quarters into this...I had two sets of 10 fat quarters..the same two sets..so..I turned 10 twice.

My husband has claimed this quilt. I really do not like the Turning Twenty pattern..surely with all those pretty fabrics we can do something better than just throw patches together..but...I love my turning 10 and the fabrics I used..looks like an old time quilt.

I stitched in the ditch around the big squares that made up each block. This was no where near enough quilting. So, what to do!!!???!!! I decided to learn how to hand quilt and hand quilted a ton of stars on this quilt. I put 1 star in one patch, 2 stars in another patch and 3 stars in another patch on each block..yes...6 stars in each block on this quilt that are all hand quilted. This is a very attractive quilt in real life..so much for me not liking that Turning Twenty pattern!! LOL!

Sweet Treats Bag

I bought this as a kit from the local quilt shop. I made this cosmetic bag and sent it to my sister in Hawaii because it is tropical looking. It was easy and fun to make. I hope she likes it.

I recently made another one and failed to get a picture of it..it is in browns and beiges and I gave it to my son to give to a friend of his at college..a girl..just a friend.

Here is the free pattern: http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_sweet-treat-bag.pdf

Sock Monkey Purse

I bought this as a kit from the local quilt shop. I love the Sock Monkey fabrics!!! I always wanted a sock monkey as a kid..never got one though. Mom taught me to make sock puppets from old socks..but..they were not sock monkeys like some other kids had. So, when I saw this fabric and the kit for this purse..I had to buy it and make it up. I now have my sock monkey..it's just on fabric and on my fun purse..doesn't match anything but I don't care..it's fun and it's mine!!! ROFL! The brass rings I took off of an old purse and recycled them!

Pineapple blossom

I took a mystery quilt class a couple of years ago and this is the quilt pattern we made. It is very fast and easy to make up. I still need to quilt it. I took a class for this and could have just made one up without the class. There are several free patterns for this on the internet. Even Bonnie Hunter has one on her site...I took Bonnie's idea on the border and used the leftover/cut off triangle pieces to make the border..had plenty to go around the quilt!! Was scared at first there would not be enough..there were!!

I made this from scraps except for the background fabric which was already in my stash. I have the backing fabric in my stash too..got to get this one quilted!

Orange Crush quilt

This quilt I made from the 2nd Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt a long. I love this quilt and it is one of my favorites. Had some doubting moments while making this quilt. We had to make two different blocks from several units. When I got those blocks made...I was scratching my head wondering how in the world this was going to work. Beside each other laying on the table..it looked awful...they were ugly together. Even my family..everyone of them that saw the blocks laying there said they were ugly...my family loves my quilts and are brutally honest thankfully. Then Bonnie came out with the big reveal..oh my gosh..what a surprise it was..the quilt all put together was gorgeous!!!

Now, there is supposed to be a border around it..I made that border and put it on...it did not go with my quilt..other folks did the same..looked fine on their quilts..but..mine did not look right. So, I seam ripped that border off and made a small quilt top out of those leftovers and used some of that blue checked fabric leftover from my first quilt also on that small quilt top..still need to quilt that one..the small top. Another lady did it first..she also did not use the border on the Orange Crush..she is the one that I got the idea for the small quilt top from. Can't remember her name right now too. I have been on a quilting break for too long...have forgotten too much and also having a computer die..lost all those favorites I had saved. Sorry to whoever had the idea of the small quilt top first and not giving you the proper credit you deserve.

The Orange Crush quilt looks like a Civil War era quilt to me. I live in Tara..where the story of "Gone With the Wind" was written about. Yep..Margaret Mitchel used to ride the train from Atlanta to Jonesboro to the train depot here which is a block and a half from my home. She would visit her relatives here that lived through that war and get their stories..she then wrote the book. The Battle of Jonesboro was fought here and it's where the war took it's turn and the north started winning.

My First Quilt

I started my first quilt when I was 12. My next door neighbor's mom taught me and her daughter how to make a quilt block. Betty was the mom..Betty made all sorts of things from quilts to clothes..gosh she can sew..still does. Betty taught me how to make one block. Made me cut up newspaper too and had to use that to sew the 3 pieces of the block to. I worked on that quilt top for a while. Betty let us have our pick of fabrics from her stash...not all her stash..just a certain section that she pointed to and told us to have at it. LOL! All those fabrics came from her stash. One of the fabrics I should not have picked and no one told me any better..that one was like a linen type of fabric..the only fabric that has worn in this whole quilt. It is coming apart at the seam lines on that one fabric...have been hand sewing those seams up over the past several years. Finally got to the point of using fabric glue in a couple of spots on those seams.

I had no direction on this quilt other than that one block. After that, I was on my own. I used a sheet for the backing...brought it around to the front for the binding/border..had no clue what I was doing..but..I did it..the quilt is not square..it's wonky..but..close enough for my first one. I tied it too..didn't know what I was doing..there was no internet back in those days either..we are talking about 1977 here. I just figured it out from quilts I had seen in real life from time to time that were tied. I used a dark blue yarn I bought from either Richway or Zayer's. The yarn has held up all these years and all those washings..this quilt has been washed over and over again. The yarn does not even fuzz up as some quilters have mentioned their's has...I don't understand why their's did and mine has not..must be the type of yarn???? I dunno!!

This quilt was first used by my son when he was newborn..it sat in the linen closet for years until 1992. I have hardwood floors and had a newborn that rolled over and scooted across the room at 4 days old!!! Babies don't do that..but mine did!! So, had to have something big to layout for him to lay on...pulled that quilt out of the closet and it was perfect..he is 19 now..almost 20 and he still uses that quilt on his bed here at the house..he loves it. He loves all quilts to be tied now..he hates them quilted by thread and he especially hates a quilt that is quilted to death..they are too stiff..he and I like quilts that are soft that can wrap around you..don't want to wrap a board around us. He also had to have our Golden Retriever Sadie in bed with him. LOL! Sadie passed away 10-12-2010. She was a great dog!

Jonathan and Rebekah's quilt

I made this quilt for my nephew Jonathan and wife Rebekah for their wedding quilt. It's the Monet's Wedding Ring from the Judy Martin book "Scraps". I even created a Yahoo group to help others make this quilt. There were a bunch of us on the Stashbuster Yahoo group that wanted to make it and hold hands virtually while making it. There are many pictures of my assembly on that group site.

Another lady named Diane had made one. Diane came up with a different joining block than what was in the book. Diane's block uses 9 patch blocks and Judy's uses 21. I like the look that Diane came up with and did mine her way. She also changed the border and I made Diane's border.

I have all the parts made for a 2nd one in scrappy batiks..those Bali Pops are what I am using in the 2nd one. I do a quilt as you go no hand sewing method now on bigger quilts. I have a section of this quilt quilted. Got sick..took a lot of time off on sewing and I am back now..got to finish that one too..that is for a another nephew..one of those Hawaii nephews.

I think the Monet's Wedding Ring is more appealing to the newer generations than the traditional Wedding Ring quilts. I love them both myself!

Here is the link to the yahoo group I started for this quilt: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MonetsWeddingRing/?yguid=135195861

If you are interested in making this quilt..you need Judy Martin's book "Scraps" to do it. We have the alternate methods used on the yahoo group. There are lot's of pictures and some files on that group..check them out if you join. If you want to join..I will have to approve you. There has not been much activity for a while on the group..it's not a very chatty group..it's just about this quilt.

Mom's quilt

I made this quilt for my mom a few years back. This is the quilt that my husband learned to seam rip on. LOL! I had mis-sewn a whole row on 32 blocks...my husband felt sorry for me and helped me seam rip the errors out. I tell ya..he is WONDERFUL!!

I can't remember the name of this pattern but I still have it somewhere around here..it has 5 different layouts..this was my first quilt with triangles...those triangles were something else to work with..I was scared of triangles before and after that until that first Bonnie Hunter mystery..got me over my fears and the Companion Angle and EZ Angle 2 rulers helped with that..thank you Bonnie for teaching us to use them and making us make triangles. I am no longer in fear of the triangle...bring them on!! LOL!

There's a Dog on my Quilt

I made this quilt top from antoher quilters trash. Another one that buys more fabric than they know what to do with. I made all of the top except for the green strip at the bottom and the purple border.

Our local quilt shop has a project we work on all year long. We make items out of cat or dog fabrics. We meet once a month at the quilt shop and sew and sew and sew. We also make things at home and bring them in. I made this quilt top at home and then gave it to Jean the quilt shop owner to do with it as she wished for the sale. She has a sale around the first of June every year..all monies go to the Clayton County Humane Society to help the dogs and cats out. Jean added that green strip at the bottom for grass and then she added the purple border. She got this quilted up..she also provided the backing and binding fabrics.

Those with the most fabric when they die do not win in my opinion

I volunteer sewed with some church ladies every Wednesday for years. We sewed from donations of fabric from where ever it came from. Many times people came in with donations from family members that died. It's very emtoinal to me to work with this stuff. The whole time working with it, I wonder just what the person was thinking while they were working with it. Did they love it or did they hate it or was it a long ago started project that they fell out of love with or what. Many other thoughts go through my mind too.

The following two quilts were two of those projects. The green and maroon one had the center 4 blocks made and a bunch of fabrics cut out..not cut out in anything that I oculd tell what they were going to do..so..I made due and did what I did and made that charity quilt out of their stash that was donated. It went to an orphanage with missionaries from the church to Romania.

The other one was an already made quilt top..had to cut some of it off because it wasn't finished and the fabrics were not included in the donation we received..so..cut it down and made a smaller kids quilt. It also went to Romania.

So, please use up the fabrics you have. If you have a project started and are no longer in love with it..pass it along while you are alive to someone that will put it to good use..lot's of charity quilts are needed...everyone wins in this!! Don't buy fabric just to buy fabric...believe me..there will be more fabrics next year and the next that you love just as much as the fabrics that are out today. Use what you have..then buy more. Does not matter that the price will go up next year..if you don't use what you have..and buy more..you have spent last years price and next years price..so..you kinda payed twice for fabric in my eyes. Use what you have!!

Christmas in Georgia quilt

This quilt I made from the first Bonnie Hunter of Quiltwille.com mystery quilt a long. Bonnie is a member of Stashbuster. She recruited a bunch of us from their to do a quilt a long with her. A bunch of us bit the hook and we were hooked after that. LOL! Bonnie has done several more mysteries since. I have done two others of hers. I wasn't crazy about a few of them and did not make them. Don't hate me Bonnie followers..I don't have to like all patterns and neither do you.

We learned a lot on this quilt. Had to buy a Companion Angle and an EZ Angle 2 ruler for this quilt and other mysteries she has done. Love these rulers by the way. I am not a gadget person..but..these rulers sure do make life easier on making triangle units.

Bonnie did hers in all scrappy, blues, neutrals, and reds and it looks great too. It's in her first book she published. She did leave out the instructions in that book though about using the two rulers we had to buy...I have no idea why and a lot of us were kinda upset about that. We bought the book thinking it would have the pattern we followed while making this quilt in it..it does..but..it doesn't..she gives the traditional cutting methods of triangles in the book..not the Companion Angle and EZ Angle 2 cutting methods. Anywhoooo..I ordered the book from Bonnie directly when it first got published. Still love Bonnie and her patterns she shares with us..so..don't be hating me for being truthful.

Another lesson I learned while doing this mystery..was my very first mystery by the way...learned that the one giving the mystery might have not accounted for a step when they gave the fabric requirements..so..after that...I learned to wait for the mystery to be over to decide if I had in my stash the fabrics to make it. I had to beg 3 other Stashbusters around the world..yes world...one lady from Canada helped me!! I had to obtain more of the neutral fabric from 3 different sources because I ran out when the correction to the fabric requirements were found out.

I love this quilt though..it is beautiful in person. Love all those tiny pieces...we used a lot of 1 1/2 inch pieces in this quilt.

The model in the picture is my wonderful son. He is fantastic! He has helped me a lot in my quilt making. He is great at helping me lay out the top, middle, and bottom to sandwich. He is great at helping me with layouts and choosing fabrics..he is a bit artistic himself. He has a great eye! By the way...he has held this quilt hostage for a few years. He claimed it while I was making it. I have made tons of charity quilts..they all go out the door. He finally told me one day.."mom, charity starts at home, when are you going to make me a quilt?" Wasn't too long after that..maybe a week or two when Bonnie started this mystery..that was my next quilting project..when he first saw me sewing on it...Zach asked me, "who is this quilt for?"...I immediately thought fast on my feet and told him it was for him..he held me too that until it was done...see him in the picture..he has claimed it!!! ROFL! Finally made that wonderful son of mine a red, black and white quilt last year...I got my Christmas quilt back and he got the oriental quilt he wanted. LOL!

Piper's Tulip Quilt

This was the first quilt I made for Piper. Cindy in Seattle has a great site that she shares free patterns on. My old computer died...her site was saved to my favorites on that old computer..I have got to find Cindy's site again..if I had it..I would share it here..she deserves a lot of credit..she is a very sweet person and comes up with great designs.

This quilt was the first time I used a fancy stitch on my old Kenmore on the binding. Some of the folks on Stashbuster were talking about how they do it..so..I tried it...I wish I could see theirs up close so I could get better at it myself..oh well...mine is what it is.