Halloween Themed Quilt Projects

About a week ago or so I got the urge to sew Halloween type quilty stuff, must have been the cooler temps here in AZ or something. Anyways since this is a slow week business wise I have been working on a few projects....just a sneak peak for now ;0)

 

I had a Riley Blake Jr. Halloween Jelly Roll (had only 21 strips in it), &

 

 

 I dug around in my 2 1/2" strip bin for some solid black strips to add to it to make a Halloween lap/wall quilt.  

 

 With just a little bit more sub cutting I was off and running. But no more pics of this until I finish it and get it quilted along with 3 Halloween table runners. Stay tuned for the finish stuff before the end of October.

 

Plus just wanted to say a big THANK YOU!! to Marilyn for contributing to my stash scrap user system. These fabrics will go along with my other red white and blue fabrics to make some scrap quilts for future charities!

Scrappy Sew Day!

It was such a nice day out today....that I turned off the AC & opened up all the windows and sewed all day!!!!  Don't you just love days like that? No worries, no responsibilities (DH was in the kitchen, cleaning it and making dinner...such a great guy I have).

So this is what I have been working on lately....

 

The top left is a postage stamp quilt that I am making for one of my nieces for Christmas (it could end up as a lap size or  as large as a queen sz. depending on how much I can get done on it). The upper right is the 2013 summer leaders and enders challenge from Bonnie Hunter which is a split 9 patch and will end up as a Christmas gift for another niece (I have a lot of nieces & nephews). The center bottom stack of blocks is for a bare spot on the wall in my quilt studio, hopefully this also will get done before the end of the year ;0)

 

This is my next hexie project that I started, it will be a lap size scrap 1/2" hexie quilt for my office. I say next because I am still working on the king size Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt....yes, I thought it was finished but while it was waiting to be quilted I found myself putting it off and I didn't know why. Then it hit me, the reason for my procrastination on it was because it just wasn't what/where I wanted it to be or look like. So I took it back to the center and now I am reworking the border section of the quilt...already I am happier with the results I am getting. Sometimes you just have to let things be for a while until you get it to where it needs to be.  

  

I have always said "quilter's are the best"! My friend Kay gifted me her scraps! It felt like Christmas :0)

She knew I have been organizing my stash into a more "Scrap Friendly Stash" these past few years. In fact most of my current projects are scrappy!  And she was cleaning out her scraps from her sewing room and thought of me....Thank You so much Kay!

Not everyone likes to work with scraps or make scrap quilts, which is fine- but I love them...each little scrap brings a memory back or puts a smile on my face when I remember the friend that gave it to me. With that said....if anyone out there reading this finds themselves wanting to clean out their scraps but never knew what to do with them or you are thinking of donating them or heaven forbid are thinking of throwing them out....bring them to me & I will find the perfect spot in a future quilt. Also remember no scrap is too small....I keep scraps as thin as 3/4" wide and up. It doesn't matter if you prewash your fabrics or not, or if they are shoved in a bag/bin and are a wrinkled mess, or if they are pieces of old blocks/ test blocks or whatever. I will be more than grateful to take them off your hands :0)

OK so some of you have known that my 17 yr old daughter has been looking  for a job for over a year...and was even thinking of selling baby quilts she was making from my stash either on Etsy or on my website. Well looks like I will be finishing her quilts for her because she finally found a job! She now works at Sprouts Farmers Market a grocery store near by. She is so happy to have steady hours and a weekly paycheck. 

I am hoping to start the new year (2014) with quilts for sale on my website stay tuned! 

Quilters Have A Giving Heart

Quilters are indeed the best!

I am always grateful for the generous women/friends that I know and quilt for. It never fails whenever I least expect it one of them does something so sweet...here are a few photos to share.

A couple of months ago, Carol brought me a stack of batik 5" squares, a rotary blade and mini sq ruler. The batik squares were the same fabrics that were in a quilt I quilted for her earlier in the year. The colors remind me of a desert sunset :0) Thanks again Carol, I am going to use them in a hexagon wall quilt I am designing.

Then last week Rita suprised me with a Dunkin Donuts gift card!

This was one gift my whole family got to enjoy this past Sunday after church. Thank You Rita, the donuts were delicious! :0)

  

Then today Bobbi dropped off another large container of scraps! I say another because not long ago she gave me some. Sifting through the scraps was like finding buried treasure...spent a couple of hours tonight sorting them by color and size (the Bonnie Hunter way ;0) ). They are now tucked away with the rest of my scraps waiting for me to find some time to reorganize my stash so it is more user friendly for scrap quilts...I already have my 2" strips in plastic drawers by color, just need to get some more for the 2 1/2" strips and for the "strings". Still haven't  figured out what to do about 2 1/2" sqs. Hope to have this all worked out by summer. Thank You Bobbi!

There's an old saying "a way to a man's heart is through his stomache" well the way to my heart is through sweets and fabric scraps!

Quilter's are truely the best! :0)

Thanks Bobbi!!!

A good quilter friend of mine dropped off some quilts for me today, she is one awesome lady, I always love it when she drops by or when we talk on the phone. She is always willing to share recipes (she even taught me how to make tamales!), quilt patterns, new techniques and today she even drop off some goodies for me.

She gave me a new quilt pattern that uses a pretty cool technique and a huge tub of scraps!

The last time I talked to her I mentioned that I bought the Bonnie Hunter pattern books that uses lots of scraps to make awsesome scrap quilts and she said that the next time she saw me that she would give me some of her scraps :0)

Thanks Bobbi, can't wait to dive into them and create some cool stuff with it...stay tuned, but first need to sort and organize them into my scrap stash. :0) 

Unexpected Treasures

All of my customers are a great bunch of quilters. Over the years they have shared with me stories of their families, their joys, their sadness and some have even given me gifts of various sorts. Quilter's by nature like to share, whether it be stories, recipes, patterns, quilts, or other special gifts. I have been given delicious tasty treats that were baked with love, I have been given quilt patterns of quilts that I had admired, I haven been given lessons on how to make authentic tamales with the gift of some of the ingredients. I have also been given an almost finished quilt top shown here...The customerhad this UFO and had it all completed except for 2 of the 6" borders, she miscalculated the amount of fabric needed and ran short, couldn't find more of the fabric so decided to throw it away. I mentioned to her that she should never throw away a quilt in progress that she should just pass it on to another quilter to finish. So she did, me. It was an easy fix...

I took off the 2- 6" borders, cut them down to 4" borders and using the 4" scraps that were also sent with the projects I was able to get it too what it looks like above.

I decided I wanted to turn this Queen size quilt into a King size so I was able to locate the same fabric line and purchase these fabrics to add more borders to it. It will be a great quilt and used alot, instead of it ending up discarded. I have a great Kokopeli pantogragh that will look fantastic on this quilt, so it will be finished some time in 2010, stay tuned.


But these are not the only special gifts I have received, yesterday I received an unexpected and thoughtful gifts too......

These were wrapped up in this great bag that my customer made (all things quilty!)...There was a new rotary blade, a 50% off coupon for Michaels, 2 homade gift bags (large and small and a beautiful pendant that she made, in addition to making quilts she also makes jewelry.....this other pic is a close up of the pendant she made for me. How cool is this? Anyways I have also been given cash tips over the years as well. It just goes to show you that quilters are one of the most generous and creative groups of people out there in the world...they give with their hearts :0)