A little bit of everything!!

 Can you imagine a friend, one that makes your paper pieced blocks; knowing that you are just not good at it?  Lyn, my Australian long-time friend, made these for me, for the Splendid Sampler!!!  Lyn, I am honored to feature them in my quilt!!!  Love, love!!  and thank you so very much!!

 I have been in a basket making mood!!  This is a small one for my tubes of hand cream and miscellaneous, for the bathroom.  I got a stabilizer from Joann's which really helped make the basket have some shape.  Hurrah!!

 Are you doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt??  Here is my start!!  They are supposed to be neutral scrappy four patches...but hey, you know I have to change it up, LOL!!  So, I made these, and think they will work just fine too!!

 Another basket...this one without the stabilizer.  Not as good, but I did put handles on this one...

And last, but not least!!  Snowmen have shown up at my house!!  They must think Christmas is coming!!!





I always kind of panic around Christmas, on a more serious note...will everyone be happy and fulfilled and the house be just right and the food be perfect and the gifts sublime???


But really?  It is the time we celebrate Jesus' birthday, and I think that is the most important thing to for me to focus on!  So I am taking a deep breath and saying a small grateful prayer!


Onward!!!



Julie

In-the-car quilting

 I finished the hand quilting of this quilt recently...so this is a Friday Finish!  whoop!!!

Here is the whole thing.  It is the perfect size for cuddling on the couch!!


Hope each of you had a wonderful Turkey day, full of Thanksgiving!!!



Julie

Borders!!

 Well, friends, as you know...I always am at a sticking point when it comes to borders.  So this morning,  I pulled out a couple of quilt tops without the borders and put some on!!!

 This is what happened with this one, after several auditions.

 And this is what happened to this quilt, after several more auditions!!

 I am delighted to have them finished to this point...and it was not as painful as I imagined!!


I think that I get stuck on the borders because I just love the quilt so much, that I don't want to mess it up with an incorrect border choice.  A cooling off period worked with with these quilts...just GETERDUN!!!!

I also completed a couple more eight inch stars.  Loving my plaids, this time mixed with prints.







DID YOU SEE THAT GORGEOUS MOON?  All the Log Cabin Lunatics were loving it...HEHEHEE!!



Have a great day!

Julie

Log cabin quilting!!

 I have all eighty blocks of this log cabin quilt together.  Here are a few of them laid out.  I enjoyed making the blocks, and loved using some of my scraps, BUT!!  next time?  I will make sure that there is even MORE contrast between the blues and the neutrals...and the CENTERS will be RED!!  It went fast, and was fun, and I liked the process...just thinking of ways to improve it for next time.

Two more blocks for the Splendid sampler...of course, I made them my own!!



Nurse's notes:


As I am getting older, I am missing my friends from days of old.  After you have been in a particular place of employment for a lot of years...people start retiring and just moving on.  I miss them!!!  Even though I love the new nurses, they move on very quickly, and there is just something about working with a person for twenty plus years, knowing that we can count on each other through thick and thin.  I miss those people!  We had a lovely quilting group at the hospital, and made countless charity quilts for American Heart.  Now?  I am the only one left!  Everyone else retired!!!


I had a stable heart to recover today...it is good, and I waited for hours for them to arrive from surgery.  That was wonderful...and very satisfying to this old nursie!!







Have a great day, everyone!!

Julie

Log Cabin Lunacy continues!!

I was just kind of thinkin'!!! (watch out...she is thinking again!) What if I used my blue scraps, and made a quilt like this one, below?  I featured it on Log Cabin Loonies earlier, and it is just lovely...so I figured out all the strip sizes to make the block.  

 shared on MyQuiltPlace by Lynn Welton Zimmerman, and we thank her so much for sharing this with all of us...gorgeous quilt!!




Just thought I would share the measurements with you, for this block, since it a generic log cabin block.  I start by cutting a bunch of strips...these happen to be blues; 2 inch...and neutrals; 1 1/4 inch.  (half of a 2 1/2 inch strip, if you have a bunch of those you want to use up)  You could go scrappy, or one color way, or batiks...whatever makes your heart go pitty-pat!!


So!!  

middle square. 2 x 2 inches

1st strip:  1/1/4 x 2 inch neutral

2nd strip:  1/1/4 x 2 3/4 inch neutral

3rd strip:  2 x 2 3/4 inch blue

4th strip:  2 x 4 1/4 inch blue

5th strip:  1 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch neutral

6th strip:  1 1/4 x 5 inch neutral

7th strip:  2 x 5 inch blue

8th strip:  2 x 6 1/2 inch blue

9th strip: 1 1/4 x 6 1/2 inch neutral

10th strip: 1/1/4 x 7 1/4 inch neutral

11th strip:  2 x 7 1/4 inch blue

12th strip:  2 inch by 8 3/4 inch blue



This yields a 8  3/4 inch block, finishing at 8 1/4.  I plan to make 80 blocks, and have cut for that....

1/4 inch seam allowance is important, and I always make a test block first, just to make sure those measurements are really correct, LOL!!


Have a great day!

Julie

Splendid sampler progress

 I have made the decision to put my Splendid Sampler blocks together with triple sashing and nine patches.  I have completed several quilts this way, and love the effect.

These blocks mean a lot to me.  At the time I started this batch (yes, I had a couple of false starts, including some blocks that are just plain missing!), there were multiple attacks against the US...terrorist stuff.  I decided to make my quilt out of red, white and blue, standing for the United States.    Additionally, and this is more personal yet...I was called in one day to help in the operating room, to help with an emergency bypass surgery, at my work.  This surgery saved this man's life.  I was wearing a dark blue scrub jacket, that got caught on the C-arm x-ray in the operating room and tore beyond repair.  So?  I cut it up, and that is the dark blue in my sashing.  This quilt means a lot to me for another reason...my dear friend Lyn is making it too, and it is a connection to her, over the miles and continents.

 So!!!  Here is where I am so far.  I may not make all of the blocks...and may substitute some other favorites...but here it is!!!

 Making pie per request today...before baking!

And a cherry one as well!!

Did you notice that Bonnie Hunter announced the colors in her Mystery quilt?  Please see her post here!!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2016/10/en-provence-quiltville-mystery-intro.html


Have a great day, everyone!!


Julie

Just a little forward progress!

 I have been slowly making a star or two, as the fancy strikes me  These are mostly from plaids, but have some batiks and also reproduction fabrics in there, as well.

 Closer view...These are inspired from a quilt from Karen's blog, the Log Cabin Quilter.  Thank you, Karen, for letting me make a quilt like yours!!!

It takes a wonderful true friend to make blocks for you, for your Splendid Sampler!!  My friend Lyn not only made these blocks, but copied others for paper piecing for me, on her special paper.  Thank you so much, dear Lyn!  I so appreciate you!!!


So...I was just working and working and working at the full moon time, and forgot all about posting for Log Cabin Loonies!!  Maybe we could, instead, start something new.  A fun quilt, a few blocks at a time?  Would there be any interest??? I will show what I have in mind soon, and you can join in at will!!!


Have a great day, everyone!!


Julie