Quilts! Quilts! Quilts! I have been making progress on more quilts since I last blogged. And since I can't seem to upload my photos to one of my quilting groups today, (just a technical glitch) I can share my progress here on the blog instead. Hubby's Minnesota Retirement Quilt! UPDATE! Here is the quilt top with all the pinwheels on and more borders added. After the navy blue border I added a print with bears, moose, trees, and wolf paw tracks. After that I added the pinwheels all around. I think there were 36 of those! All from plaids and from flannels in outdoor prints. The blue outer border was purchased from a garage sale and was perfect! It has old fashioned steam trains (which hubby loves), Mt Rushmore, Mount St Helens, Lady Liberty, Space Needle and several other places my husband and I have traveled together. Onward now to sandwiching, quilting and binding! From a previous (but related) posting: Primarily sharing my projects since August! Starting wit...

All that practice on the tablemat WIP #29 and #30 was in prep for doing the same center flower frond shape all over this lap sized authentic 1930s-1940s sampler quilt completed this month from  34 extra Depression Era blocks. Most of these hand quilted blocks were rescued from a musty garage sale oblivion. (126 blocks in a shoebox for $1.00)   My goal in 2013 is to get ALL my UFOs done. That includes things that have been on the shelf a while. So, I used another 1940-1950 bowtie top (seen below) for the back. The bowtie piece was given to me free with another garage sale quilt top purchase and it needed a use. However, the bowtie top was not a strong enough top to visually or practically stand on its own as a front. Putting it on the back of the 30s sampler was era-appropriate and a great solution! Happy choice for a back. Coral colored binding going on it this week. Done will be good! Here are some of the quilted fronds in the front of the 1930 block sampler. I...

This one is a baby quilt. I didn't know I was going to make a baby quilt last week but when I was done with the last UFO, I decided to pick up a couple things around my sewing desk. At the bottom we a small stack of about 90 miscellaneous pastel charm squares from the six totebags I did for my mom's bible study ladies. Well that was just enough to make a baby quilt! Here are the pics! And I used the same flower frond design to quilt it. Not too shabby for extras! It may go off to charity or if may become a gift. Not sure yet. But it is always good to have one in reserve. Plus it was great to get the sewing area cleared up a bit! Now those charms are sewn up and useful!

(topside/front) This lovely little table mat was a quick practice for some of my free motion quilting and happens to be my 29th work in progress. I purposely used cream thread so I could easily see where I was going and see where I needed to improve.  (backside) The center is free motioned with what I call flower fronds. I was inspired by Angela Walters video class at Craftsy but someplace between watching her video and going downstairs to sew, I lost track of how to do the backside of the flower!! Too lazy to go back up and restart the computer, I just winged it. LOL Yes that is me. So I improvised after the echoing and I like it! The next small border out is pebbling and I learned that I like only one or two rounds of thread on a pebble. Not so into the look of the thicker thread painting that results with 4 or 5 layers. Maybe on a larger scale project or with a matching thread I would do more layers. Lastly, I did some freehand feathers along the outer border. ...

My grandmother is 90 years young this year and her favorite color is PURPLE! Any shade of purple, lilac, lavender, or plum will do. I dug in my stash and came up with lots of scrappy possibilities for this quilt and even though I am a bit late on this surprise delivery, I  know she will love it.  This is my 28th work in progress for 2013. All from stash of course and all pieced, free motion quilted and bound by me!  I love it when goals are being met and a plan comes together! The colors in the middle photo below are the truest to life. Enjoy, and find some time to be creative today!   Linking up to Leah Day Free Motion Quilting with this one too.   Happy belated 90th birthday Grandma Helen!  

This completely hand pieced hexagon quilt UFO 9 for me was started when I got the half done top at a senior center garage sale for five dollars about 10 years ago. Funny part of the story is that when I got to the senior sale ten years ago my eye spied this right away and I made a beeline for it. I got to it split seconds before another gal and at garage sales once you pick something up it is yours kind of like dibs until you lay it back down on the table. The gal that was a slim moment too late after me got all testy about it. She followed me with a grim frown for about 5 minutes around the sale while I shopped. Finally she said Are you going to put that quilt down or not because she wanted it! I said no I intended to buy it, thank you. Off she stomped casting looks as she went. Sorry, hon! :D The parts of this quilt top that were already done were the coral, green and some blue in the center top region maybe 1930 and early 1940s fabrics. In the bag were also the o...

UPDATE! May 17th! Hurray it is completed! The blue on blue D4P birthday quilt I was making for my daughter Jen is now done! Hurray! I took many breaks from this blue beauty this last month to also work on a hexagon hand pieced quilt UFO. My mom has been visiting us here in Minnesota for three weeks and one of those weeks we took her out to see our daughter Jen on the east coast. The hexie was a more portable project for our 8 day vacation to Virginia Beach. More on that in my next post. So, even though I have been quilting like crazy person in my spare time, I have not had much spare time! LOL  We did have a great time in Virginia Beach! But I came home from vacation, got busy finishing the last few feet of quilting free motion leaves on this lovely blue disappearing four patch and then bound it. Here are some final pics! DONE!!! (And now that I am done free motion quilting the leafy motifs on this beauty, I am linking it up to Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project...