Covid-19 Quilts and more...

 It has been quite a year so far in 2020.  Who would have guessed a year ago that today we would all be wearing masks when ever we enter a store... All entertainment events; concerts, sporting events, Summer town festivals  ...everything has been canceled.  For good reason, as of today we have had 96,328 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Michigan and 6520 deaths.  In the United states the number are over 5 Million cases and 161,000 deaths.  Just staggering...I would never have believed it a year ago if you had told me this...

SO having said that...I have been sewing and sewing.  I think I have a few things I can show you.

This is a quilt that I made for my nephew who graduated from high school this spring. I started it on the weekend before the state was shut down in Mid March. This quilt is called "Nolan's Catch". A few years back Nolan was fishing during our annual camping trip to Sand Lake and the resident eagle followed him all over the lake watching his stringer of fish.  When Nolan pulled the Kayak up to get out of the water, the eagle decided it was time for dinner.  It swooped down to the water trying to get Nolan's catch. Needless to say Nolan was startled but was able to save his catch. So I added a surprise to the back of the quilt.

This was my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt that was started after Thanksgiving 2019 and finished during our state "stay at home " order. I usually do not start Bonnie's mystery quilts because the holidays are just so hectic. I usually save all the clues and start it on New Years or just after.  But this year I decided to try it because I was really motivated by the colors and she promised that the clues would be smaller projects and she would extend the clues out into the new year.  I did a pretty good job of keeping up.  When I got to the reveal, I was not really happy with the border she picked.  SO I decided to wait and watch for a while and see what the other quilters decided to do.  This is the border I decided on and I love it. I have not taking this to the quilter yet.. This one is call "Frolic on Lake Huron".

This was a SewQuester quilt by Cozy Quilt designs started in the middle of the "Stay at Home" Order. My sisters and I all decided to do this quilt.  It was so fun because we all have different taste in fabric and different amounts of "stash".  They all turned out beautiful!  We all finished a few weeks apart. I finished mine up as the state was beginning to open up.  The process for this quilt was much like a mystery quilt because each week or two we got a new set of instructions for the week.  When this reveal was done...I decided on a different border again.  The truth be told, I got carried away when I was making my half square triangle. I just went upstairs each night and mindlessly kept making them.  So I decided turn all these into quarter triangle square. What else would I have used all the extra the half square triangles for?   So I added them to the border. I also want the quilt to fit nicely on a queen bed so it needed to be a bit bigger. I have gotten this one quilted but have not put binding on it yet. This quilt is called "Summer Breeze".

This one was completed last fall and I sent it off to the quilter this spring. I made this one for my bed. That's a funny statement because I make a lot of them for my bed because I love variety BUT....this one was really made for my bed. I love log cabins. It was the first block I learned and when I saw this in a magazine last summer I knew I had to make it for me. I had bought jelly rolls on clearance of this fabric and they would work perfect for this project.  I have given all my other Log cabins quilts away.  I am keeping this one.  It's call "Charlotte Takes the Train" The original quilt name in the magazine was "Charlotte"  and my fabric is travel related with train tickets on one of the fabrics.  The border also reminded me of a train track. 

This one was a quilt that I made late last summer.  It was a "Buddy Quilt".  My "Buddy" was my sister, Sue.  Her quilt is the opposite of mine.  Her's is black in the center.  then gold, then green and the outside rows are red. When I finished this, the black was just too stark for me.  I have never made a black quilt before...and was not sure how much I liked it. So I sat on it for a while to see if I could figure out how I could soften it some so I would like it better.  And this is what I decided on...and now I love it!  This one remains unnamed. It will speak to me in time and I'll know what to call it. 

It has been a long time since I posted here.  I'll try to do it more often.  This could have been five posts but instead it was one. I am still posting on my other blogs weekly.

Notice the difference in the grass..I always take my photos in about the same place. We have had hot stretches this summer with little rain. Now we have a large brown patch that I tried to cover with this quilt!

Hope you enjoyed this. Happy sewing to you too!

Love Jan

Sisters Sewing Sunday Sessions....

My sister Sue has decided  last fall that maybe she wanted to learn to quilt  since she is now retired and has a bit more time on her hands.  She started out last fall making pot holders...we all learned from Annette Sweet.  A blog of another time....Then she has taken a class or two while she was in Florida and gotten her sewing machine all warmed up.  One day she found this great deal on Jelly Rolls online and decided to by some and have me show here what she could do with them.  She bought a blue roll, a green roll, a red roll, a purple roll and an aqua roll... Even though she did not have a plan for them.  She showed them to me and I suggested that I teach her how to make the Jelly Roll Quilt.  As it turned out each roll was really more of a half a roll. They each had 20 2.5 inch strips. A traditional Jelly Roll which consist of 42 2.5 inch strips of fabric.  But we could combine them and a bit of fabric from my stash and we would have enough. So we scrounged through my stash to find a fabric that would go with the jelly roll and found a cute floral that would work.


We asked the other two sisters, Sharon and Pam, if they want to join us...and before we knew it, it was ....Jelly Roll Time.  We picked a Sunday afternoon after church. At 1 PM, they arrived promptly all ready to Jelly Roll.  Some quilters race while they make these but since the two of the girls were making their first Jelly Roll quilt ....it would just be a stroll for this afternoon.  Sister Sharon (not the nun...) has made two of these before but it has been a long time!

Sitting room sewers - Sharon and Sue

Dining room sewers - Jan and Pam

Pam ironing

An afternoon full of laughter, jokes, and reminiscing. No fighting over sewing machines like when we were kids...We all had our own.  I think this will likely be an event that we will repeat again sometime!

Our completed tops.

We all need to find border fabrics.  When completed they make a nice size throw for the back of a couch!

So if you have a bunch of sisters...who sew... have them over some afternoon and make a Jelly Roll quilt.  in a few short hours you will have a quilt top made.

Happy Sewing,

Jan

Stack N' Wack

Our Wednesday Quilt group got on a binge this winter and we decided to do Stack n' Wacks.  and we did alot of them.  Personally I only did one but several of the ladies did more than one. Mine is called "Running with the wind."  It was a horse fabric. The background fabric was way outside of the box for me.  It was a pumpkin or paprika blender fabric which would not normally be a color I would look for but it was perfect with these block.

Initial Layout without corners and insets.

With borders

 The first border is a light teal blue and the large outer border is a great choice which that brought out all the colors in the blocks except the darkest browns and black.

Close up of blocks

Fabric was of horses

After completing this quilt I can see why so many of the girls decide to do more than one.  They are addictive. Once I get it quilted...I'll post a picture again...

Happy Sewing,

Jan

Quilting on Wednesday with my Quilt group

I thought I would show you some of the stuff I have been doing.  Did a donation quilt for the local hospital.  Well, My sister had the quilt top...so all I did was quilt.  But it was fun anyway.

I have found a wonderful group of ladies to sew with  bi-weekly on Wednesday.... We meet on the First and Third Wednesday of the month to sew. (sometimes more often) It is an open sew...you can work on what ever your current project is. Or if you need to finish something from a class you took...And sometimes we have classes.  Last winter we worked on a Rapid Fire Hunter Star... It was a class that several of the ladies took in the Marlette Quilt shop.Then they came back and show us how to make one too.  It is a two fabric quilt and I was bound and determined to use fabric from my stash.  I had a great oriental fabric that fit the bill!

Sewing production style at home...I got it finished and set out once again to find a border. This time I was looking for a small inner border...Never did find anything I liked so I decided to not have one.  I just sewed on the wide border from my original oriental peacock and called it good!

 Here is the block.  And  then the quilt top with all the blocks put together while deciding on the borders... This one is waiting for me to quilt this winter too.  With the garden and all the yard work...there just isn't as much time to quilt on the long arm...so they become winter projects...

I had so much trouble deciding on an inside border that I left it off all together.

(this is a blog I wrote last fall and forgot to post during my busy garden harvesting time...so now I have even more projects that I need to quilt...

Happy sewing!

Jan

Quilt of Indecision

I must say I have never had a quilt give me quite as much grief as this one...I bought these charm packs years ago waiting for the right project.  When saw Jenny's tutorial of the Lattice Quilt.  I knew how I was going to use these charm packs! 

Go to youtube.com and search for Jenny Doan tutorials lattice quilt ...you are going to love it. I also bought her book which has this quilt in it too. So I set out to make it last winter during my Wednesday Quilt group sessions.  I had in my mind thought that I would find a floral to use as a border much like Jenny had used. So I got all the blocks done and thought surely I would find something that would go perfectly...

I looked and looked for border fabric...I must have bought 5 pieces of fabric that I felt certain would work but they were all too busy...Most of them were Batiks...I even sewed some of them on and I did not like any of them...so I ripped them off and kept looking...So here you have it. I found a marble that looked real close to the lattice fabric.   Now...it is sitting patiently waiting for me to quilt it.(it will get done this winter...

Enjoy, Jan 

Table Runner fun....

I found this really cute fabric from a Quilter friend I met online.  She had a bolt of it and I fell in love...Now, you all know that I need more fabric like I need a hole in my head but I had this fabulous thought...."It is such a fun summer fabric that I could make table runner out of... and maybe  as a border for a quilt or throw."   Then I thought "maybe it would work for the border of a batik top that I am struggling with"  "It is so colorful and fun I can use lots of my stash to go with it!" all these thought went screaming through my head at the speed of light.  And just as quick I wrote the check and sent it off to Sue!  I waited anxiously for a couple of days for the fabric to arrive!  Oh MY goodness the fabric is as fun as I thought it would be! 

Once I decided to make table runners out of it I had to fussy cut the the borders so that I can turn them 180 degrees from each other so there is no right or wrong side to the table runner. now it's time to pick a back fabric and a coordinate fabric.  I have lots to pick from.   I will then take a 2 inch strip of the back fabric and sew the two borders onto the strip so that they are each facing the opposite direction. Then I cut 2 inch strips of the coordinate fabric and sew it to the two outside edges of my new panel. Then I take the back  and sew it on...

This is my take on the 10 minute table runner...I call it the 20 minute table runner because you are adding a couple more strips to the runner!

So here they are..What do you think?  I gave them to all my sisters and we are loving them!

A tropical flare

Close up of the babes!

My table runner

Aren't they just the cutest!  I still have a couple more that I need to send to people and I can make 5 more...am thinking I might have to get a hold of Sue and see if she wants to sell any more of the bolt that she has because I think I could even think of more people who would love one!

Hope you enjoyed it...Happy Sewing

Love Jan

More Bright Baby Quilts

I have been working on Baby Quilts of late.  I have finished them all, they have been sent and received so now I can show them to you.

Last fall I found some really sweet Jelly Rolls (on sale) that I thought would make great quilts for the three new babies due to arrive starting in early December and continuing into January of 2015.  I knew that one was suppose to be a little boy and one was suppose to be a little girl.  Which made picking these Jell Rolls and easy decision.  I found them on sale a Missouri Star Quilt Company.   If you have never visited their site, you ought to. (right now!)  https://www.missouriquiltco.com/ Sign up for their daily specials. I love this company and Jenny..... more on that later....back to my blog after getting a bit side tracked.

 As it turned out Landon Alexander Tietz was the first to arrive in November.  He caught me off guard since I was expecting him in mid December.  I had the quilt top maqde but it was not quilted yet!  He arrive November 19, 2015.  Landon is my first Great Grandson.  I had hoped to get Landon's quilt done before Christmas so his Aunt Elizabeth could take it home to him but the holiday mad house got in the way.  I sent it  to him in mid January instead.  I used a pretty blue Minky on the back.  It makes a baby quilt so soft!

Landon's Bright Quilt

Merry Christmas from Great Grandma Jan

Then came Isabelle Semp, my great niece, who arrived on December 17.  She was a little passed her due date.   Isabella got this sweet pastel quilt last week while her Grandma Pam and I were in Florida visiting our sister.  Derek tells me that it goes great in her room. She is a sweet little girl.  I'll have to ask the proud parents if I can post a photo of each of them.  Gotta ask first these days.

Bella's Sweet Pastel

I used Purple Minky on her quilt.  I gave her a purple baby blanket too. With any luck at all she will love purple as much as I do! 

 Things have finally settled down into the dead of winter..... and I have plenty of projects to keep me busy.  I am planning to get more blogging in to show you what I have been working on.  So stay tuned!

Happy Sewing!

Jan