Let's see. I made a few "practice" quilts in 2011. I got ballsy enough to put some of them in the Fort Worth Quilt Guild's show in August. I actually entered one to be judged -- the Christmas quilt I made for daughter B out of fabric left over from her Christmas dress made back in about 1990. I also made a couple of funky quilts that I put in the show but not for judging. And made a couple of Christmas pillows for daughter B that I placed in the show. Here are some pics:
These two pillows were made from the very last of the scraps of the fabric left from daughter B's dress. I've been saving these remnants for years thinking I would do something "some day." At least now I won't need to worry about it any more - it's done!
As far as the quilt is concerned, I had a real pickle of a time getting it done. I didn't have quite enough fabric to make all the blocks and ended up having to piece things together to make some of the 3" squares. Just made it by the skin of my teeth having enough fabric to make the 9" bricks. The backing of the quilt is done in Christmas fabric that has all kind of little dogs all over it. Miss B loves her doggies and has about 4 of them...I think she has 3 doxies and one beagle, not sure, but the backing has it all - so cute.
I had this quilt professionally quilted by Karen Wilson - she did the quilting in Christmas poinsetta pattern in red thread. It turned out to be quite stunning. Well, at least I was pleased with it after I finished the binding. I did the binding in black.
I gave the quilt to Miss B for Christmas, but haven't given her the pillows. That's because I still have not made/completed the ones for daughter M. I ran out of strength, time, stamina. So guess what they'll get this year!!!
This is just a fun quilt I made out of 2.5" strips sewn together and then cut into 4 pieces and turned in opposite directions. I call this one Purple Madness. It is the first time I've experimented with using corner stones on a quilt. I also experimented with "stitch in the ditch" on this one. A silly little quilt but makes me happy. This one now hangs on the wall in my sewing room. For some reason I enjoy looking at it. (For those wondering, hubby really does have a face and body - it's just that he's always hiding behind the quilts so all one ever sees are his hands, legs and maybe his feet.)
I made this little quilt in 9 patch blocks and then put the blocks together. I did it this way to practice nesting the seams. It turned out ok. I used silver metallic thread to quilt it -- according to "the pro's" that's a no-no, but I believe in doing what pleases me and ignoring the rules. This little quilt was sent to Colorado - not as a real Christmas gift, but as packing to keep the Christmas stuff from moving around!!!
Ah! I wanted a new blanket for the dachshund, Bennie Jo. He loves blankets and has the two that I made for my daughters back when they were in high school 20 years ago! They are kinda ratty looking now days so I thought I would make a replacement. I had a bunch of scraps so just threw this one together not caring how it came out. For the binding I used scraps, too, not caring whether or not any of it matched, just making it scrappy all the way around. Turns out the dachshund did not adjust to the new blanket, preferring his old ones instead, so I have this one on the back of my computer chair and wrap up in it myself in the evenings while on the computer because hubby likes to keep the house cool to the point of icicles hanging off the body. This one could use a lot more quilting on it, and some day I'm going to press it and try my hand at some free motion "S" curves along the larger strips.
The quilting group elected making sunbonnet sue blocks for one of the project days. I try very hard not to get involved in anything involving handwork because I've never been very good at it. However, I want to make a sunbonnet sue quilt for myself so decided to participate and give it my best shot. I truly struggled with this effort. We used the "paper piecing" method for this -- I won't do that again. And the whole endeavor reminded me of participating in a kindergarten project! I managed to get glue on the "dress" fabric, could not get the silly thing to go together correctly. Finally gave it up and did it my way. Next time I do one of these I'll do it a much easier way! But, all-in-all, considering handwork is NOT my forte, it turned out ok. I intend to practice this a lot more - until I have at least 12-16 practice blocks - and then make a quilt out of it for myself...but that's in my "some day" bucket.
This is the backing of the Christmas quilt I made for daughter M. I finished her quilt either the day we delivered packages to them or the night before (wee hours). I got in such a hurry I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt for my album. I sent her a note and asked her to take a picture of it so I would have it but that never happened. Therefore, this is all I have of that project. It turned out cute - it was also made from the remnant of fabrics left from her Christmas dress from about 1990. It was done in 9 patch squares to look like a single Irish chain.
In addition to a few fun quilts, I got the hair brain idea of making reversible Christmas vests for my grandchildren. Not being allowed to see them means I have no idea what sizes they are so of course I guessed a bit too small. This picture is a couple of the grandchildren modeling the silly things.
The boys' vests were denim with a lining made from Christmas fabric; the girls' vests were made with the backing fabrics from my two daughters' Christmas quilts and the fabric from the Christmas dresses of long ago.
I thought they were cute - right up to the time I delivered them, and then I realized they were a little silly. But I enjoyed making them! And the grandchildren obliged me by putting them on. N. preferred wearing his with the Christmas design on the outside!
This is another strip quilt made with a "jelly roll" (2.5" strip pieces sold in a roll; the strips all being from fabrics by a particular designer in one of their fabric series). This one is "Heart of Texas." I wish I had not used the neutral beigy color in the stack - I don't think it goes well with the designer's other strips. But -- I'm not re-doing it! This one I am making for our house. This one will hang above the sofa in the den if I ever get it finished. And I think I can get this one done fairly soon since I received input from friend JJJ on how to quilt the pink test strip quilt! I think I'm going to have fun quilting this one - in fact, I think it will be the first one on which I do free motion quilting using the EZ quilter that I purchased at the Dallas quilt show. I've already purchased the backing fabric for this one -- it's a pretty red with blue bluebonnet fabric that I purchased at Country Stitches in Burleson. I think this will go well in the den with our new leather furniture with the nail head trim, and the leather lamp table coverings that we bought at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in January of this year. That's a hint that we've decided to go a bit "Texas" in our den (but I do not intend to put a cow hide in the floor!).
This afghan is for my sweet great niece KJ. KJ and A. moved into a house earlier this year so I wanted to make something for her in her colors. She selected the colors black, brown and tan. I had no idea how I was going to make that happen but found a varigated yarn in exactly those colors. Here's the final result -- a simple large granny square using a large field of black yarn with the varigated yarn as the accent. Simple, but I hope she enjoys it.
This afghan was made to be donated by our Lockheed Blanketeer quilting group. I made it up from left-over yarns, again in the large, fast, easy granny square.
This little blanket was made as a project day exercise. It is the disappearing 9 patch pattern. I was told later that I put the blocks together differently than anybody else in the quilting group. Well, leave it to me to screw it up! I attempted "stitch-in-the-ditch with this one, and then put ties in the center of each block. At first I disliked the disappearing 9 patch, but have since made another top using it and think I like it after all. It definitely needs "all-over" quilting, which I can do now days since I have the EZ quilter.
I always wanted to try my hand at making one of the round table covers, so I cut out enough 10" or 12" blocks (can't remember) to make 15 rows across by 15 rows down, then hubby and i folded the thing in half twice and measured down the required amount to cover our then kitchen table and then cut out the skirt. I was going to line this with another circle cut from a sheet but the thing was becoming so difficult to handle (mass/weight) that I elected to skip the lining and just bound the bottom. I like it - it has the traditional rustic look I like. Unfortunately I own a male dachshund and so I could not leave it on the table. And now we don't have the table either - we gave it to our niece/daughter Tamara and Jason when they moved into a house. We moved the table and chairs from the den area into the breakfast room and now have only one eating space - which we never use because we eat in the den on the coffee table in front of the television!!! What I need to do is make a rectangular one of these for the den table. Our "coffee" table is actually one of those large ones that pull up and over to the sofa to be used as a dining table. I don't think I could cut the appropriate rectangle from this round one, but I'll check it out to be sure. If I can't, I may make one of those patchwork sweatshirt jackets out of this. I think I would cut up the squares first and possibly make them disappearing in some way before doing that.
