Stroll Down Memory Lane - My 2018 Quilts

Happy New Year's Eve!!!

Welcome to my stroll down memory lane as I review the quilts that I made this year. Some I've blogged about and some were done before I started this blog. Unfortunately, I was not very good at keeping information on my quilts like finished size or fabrics used but next year I plan to use a Quilt Planner Project Sheet for each and every quilt so I have that information at my fingertip. 

That's the first of my Quilting New Year's Resolutions.  Do you do resolutions? I usually don't but this year I've planned a few for quilting that I will be sharing with you guys next time.

So anyway...in 2018 I have made 16 quilts. A few were made for friends and family but most are folded and stored in containers in my house. Every now and then I take them out to use on my couch or for picnics or just to look at and pet.

Here they are...

Carpenter Star

Poetry

   

Dave's Quilt

Dave's Quilt II

My Blue Heaven

Scrappy Crosswalk

Little One

Sweet

                              

Home Sweet Home

Lullaby

    

Star Blossom

Bindama

Sea Glass

Welcome Fall

Ruby Fleur

Banadana

And based on how awful the layout of these pictures came out I think I need to spend more time learning how to post on Blogger.

So anyway...there you have it.

Before I sign off for 2018 I just wanted to say Thank You!!

Thank you to everyone who has followed my quilting journey thus far. 

Thank you to my family for putting up with stray threads everywhere.

Thank you to my friends who put up with my lack of being able to have a conversation without including quilting it in somewhere. 

And thank you to the all the quilting bloggers, quilt pattern makers and quilting enthusiasts on Pinterest who inspire me each and every day. 

Happy New Year and I hope your 2019 is filled with joy, laughter and lots of love.

Camille

What Happened to 2018?

OMG!!! I can't believe it's days away from 2019.

I don't know about you but every year at about this time I look back over the year and all I see are the things I didn't get accomplished. 😞

But guess what, a new year is right around the corner and I get to try to do better.

Anyway...I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I wanted to get a post out before Christmas, but it didn't happen. Both boys were home and with getting ready for Christmas, Christmas parties, getting together with friends in town for the holidays, baking and cooking....it's been busy and crazy. And I loved every minute of it.

Now comes the quiet again. And quilting.

We put our Christmas tree up in our loft which is also where I have my 'quilting studio'. So every year I pack up all my quilting supplies, sewing machines, tables and everything else and lug it all down to the basement. And for at least 2 weeks all I can do is dream about quilting.

I've gotten used to it and I think its good to take a break but by the time I start "deChristmasizing" the house in January, I am foaming at the mouth, ready to play with my fabric.  Hopefully,  this will be the last time I'll have to do all that because in 2019 the quilt studio will be moving to Connors' room. I think I'll still take a break during Christmas but at least I won't have to lug it all down to the basement.

Before Christmas, I was able to finish a quilt made up of all bandanas. I'd been planning this quilt for about a year.  I love the bandanas from Walmart so I buy a few every now and then. So when I decided I had a nice stack this is what I did with them.  Plus 2 of the bandanas were from Jace (my oldest son).

So without further ado here it is...The Bandana Quilt.

This quilt is HUGE (or at least it is for me). It fits our king size bed with a drop and is approximately 94" x 94". It's based on the Diamond in a Square pattern. The quilting is just stitched in the ditch and an 'X' in the center of each square. The backing is a black sheet I found at the thrift store with a strip of leftover fabric. I didn't do a label on this one because I don't plan on giving it away or selling it. I might go back and write the label information on one of the blocks later on but I haven't decided yet.


FYI. If you try a bandana quilt don't prewash them. Ugh, what a mess. I knew better as this isn't my first quilt using bandanas but for whatever reason I did it. Made it a little more difficult because they lost their shape but I think it turned out okay.

Well, that's it for now. I'm planning to do an end of the year post on the 31st but just in case I don't get to it....I'll see you in 2019.

Ruby Fleur - Hour Glass Quilt Reveal

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I last posted. Time flies when you're living life. I could say I've been busy but that wouldn't be the truth.

So what's been going on...

Have you ever been in a state of mind where you feel like what you're doing isn't good enough? Well, that was how I was feeling about my blog. So I kept finding other things to do instead of blogging because I felt like, "What's the point. There are so many quilting blogs out there for people to follow. No one is going to follow me or read my blogs."

I was wrong. There are people reading my blog and following me. Not many but that's okay.  That's not why I started this blog. I started this blog so I could have a place to post pictures of my finished quilts and talk about quilting.

So let's talk about quilting...

In my last post, I talked about the next quilt that I was going to work on. Well, I finished it. The kit that I purchased from Craftsy was the Scarlet Chain with Boundless Ruby Fleur fabric. When I brought the kit I loved the fabric and the pattern but when I opened it last month I wasn't in love with the pattern but I loved the fabric, though I did throw in a few other reds and whites that I had on hand.  Instead of following the pattern, I decided to to do a quilt based on Amy Smart's (www.diaryofaquilter.com) Hour Glass Quilt.  I love the simplicity of the design and that it allows the beautiful fabric to be the focus. The only change I made was not to have a border. 

So here it is.

Ruby Fleur Quilt

Close up of the block

Back of quilt

Close up of the quilt back

Please ignore the badly stained carpet...unfortunately Colorado is not always the prettiest in November. The grass where I usually take pictures is almost as brown as the carpet. Oh well. I think I might have to look in PhotoShop or something like that so I can make the pictures better.

Anyway...there you go. I'm back and will be posting at least once a month.

Hope to see you then...

Welcome Fall - My Fall Quilt Reveal

Welcome Fall is complete and I can't be more pleased with how it turned out.

My son Connor claimed this quilt before I even started it and now I have to send it to him. But between you and me - I want to keep it for myself.

I LOVE THIS QUILT!!!!                                               

I love everything about it.

The pattern - I love the Plus pattern. This is the third plus quilt I've done and I don't plan on it being my last.

The colors - The fabrics are from JoAnn's, a LQS and sheets from thrift stores but they all play really well together.  Every time I look at it I pat myself on the back for picking these fabrics to put together for this quilt.

The quilting - Though simple, the straight line quilting on either side of the seams looks really good. And it's super simple. Which I love.

    

Of the 20 fabrics that were used for this quilt, only 3 were FQ's and I'll have to replace them but the rest were at least 1 yard, so I'll be able to make myself one and Connor can have his without me being jealous.

There are a lot of tutorials on making the Plus quilt. The tutorial that I used was The Modern Plus Quilt Tutorial from In Color Order which you can find here. 

The finished size is 64" x 75" which is a nice cozy size.


If you haven't made a Plus quilt yet, you should definitely give it a try. But I'll warn you now...it's a super addictive pattern.

Betcha can't you make just one. 

Changing of the Seasons

I can't believe summer is over. Every year it feels like summer is going by faster and faster.
Summer is such a perfect time of year. The weather is great and my wardrobe is easy. It just consists of shorts, tank tops, sandals and summer dresses. Clothes that I don't really have to think too much about. Love that.

The other great thing about the summer is my birthday is in July. And I love my birthday.

When I was in school I didn't like my birthday being in the summer because I missed the school birthday parties that my friends got and lots of times my birthday party was just my family because my friends were off on summer vacations.

So now it's fall. The weather is getting colder, the days shorter and my clothes have more layers. Don't get me wrong. I love fall almost as much as summer. The colors, the food, the sports. It's awesome in its own way.

Speaking of fall colors...

A few months ago, Jo-Ann's had their anniversary sale and I scored on lots of great fabrics and knew I was going to make a fall quilt.

It took some time deciding on the pattern...at first, it was going to be a falling leaves quilt but I was looking for something really easy and fast to make and I wasn't happy with any of the patterns I found. So I decided on a really classic design, one that I had done before and loved the look of.

Here is a picture of the fabric squares that I cut out...

I just finished the quilt top yesterday and was happy with it until I took a picture of it and realized one of the blocks is wrong.

Can you see it? I can't believe I did that even when I labeled each block. So needless to say, I had to unpick the stitches and fix the problem. 












TIP: Take pictures along the way. Even though I put this up on my design wall before sewing the rows together I still made the mistake.

After fixing the problem, I pressed the backing fabric (old shirt brought at a thrift store) I'm all ready for pin basting, which I will start on this weekend.

Hopefully, I'll be finished with this quilt in the next few weeks and can send it off to my son Connor who has already claimed it. (Thankfully I have enough fabric left over so I can make another one. But not anytime soon.)

Once I'm done with it I'll post it for all to see.

I already have my next quilt planned out. It's a quilt kit that I brought last year from Craftsy.

That's it for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

What Happened to the Jelly Roll Race?

Hi there!

Remember this... it's a Jelly Roll Race that I was working on a few weeks ago.  It was made from three jelly rolls that I got at Jo-Ann's. Before I took this picture I thought it was too narrow so I put borders on it.  Then it sat on my design wall for a while and the more I looked at it the more I didn't like it.

After searching online for inspiration on what to do with it I decided to cut it up. So I took the borders off and cut it into four large pieces...

and then sewed it back together. 

And I ended up with 2 baby size quilts. 

The first has a border and is named "Bindama" which is Japanese for glass (fishing) floats.

The 2nd one is named "Sea Glass" and does not have a border.

You might be wondering where I got the names for the quilts.
The colors reminded me of the glass fishing floats and pieces of sea glass.  I first saw glass fishing floats when I was stationed in Okinawa.



I'm really glad I took the risk to cut the jelly roll race top because I really think they look much better this way.

All in all the jelly roll race is a quick and easy way to use up 2.5" strips but I don't think I will be making another one. There wasn't enough randomness in it for me. Too many of the same strips were next to each other.  But at least now I know and I can mark this off my to-do list.

That's all for today. As always, thank you for stopping by.