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Rita is one of our mail carriers. She has one of my quilts but not a flannel & wool snuggly one. It's time. Using Suede flannels by P&B Textiles from Beverly's online except for the tan, a Moda flannel, from Fabrics.com.  Week 1 Nov 17: Maybe it is the super cold outside, maybe it is the Santa panto Intelligent Quilting is giving away this week, maybe it is my love for wool and flannel, whatever -- it is time to make Rita a winter quilt. Yep! I am going to quilt Santa on this for Santa Rita. Well, she does deliver a whole lot of Christmas packages and every other kind of package too like QUILTS to and from the cabin all year long. Quilt top pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. Nov 21: The solids came in today. Nov 22: The tan fabric with trees is on the way. Week 2 Nov 23: Pre-washed the solids. Studied the directions & started cutting late tonight. Nov 24: More cutting. Spent most of the day with my sister in great need of help. What a privilege. Still managed to cut what I have & can start sewing strips tomorrow. Camel shade of fabric with trees will be here Wednesday, the 26th. Nov 26: Cutting & started sewing. The last of the fabric is here now in spite of the snow.. Nov 27: Power was out until noon. In addition to getting ready for some quilters this weekend, I cut the red border & binding, cut & pieced the red backing. Made all the blocks. Started squaring them. Nov 28: All 35 blocks are now squared. Week 3 Dec 01: Main quilt is in one piece. Dec 02: Piecing finished. Loaded. Dec 03: Quilting. Machine broke down just before the end of the first full row. Waiting on parts Week 4 Dec 10: Parts are here and installed. Quilting has resumed. Dec 11: Quilted. I ran out of backing (meant to add a strip top & bottom but forgot. Had to remove the quilt, add a red strip, sew it on the back and then reload before basting & quilting the final row. Week 5 Dec 13: Attaching the binding. Started the hand work. Dec 20: Bound & finished. Dec 21: On my mind & in my heart for 34 days spanning 5 weeks, I can't wait to deliver this later today. Well, that didn't happen. Week 6 Dec 23: There will be a delivery today. It is raining so I will just leave this in the rocker on the porch. I won't get to see Santa Rita open it & that has broken my heart. What is important is that she will have a warm quilt to come home to after a long cold days delivering mail and packages.
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 Picked up fabric to make this little panel quilt. The baby is the 2nd grandchild of Rita & Bennie, the local mail carriers. Boy or girl? -- no one knows. Due in December but can't start too early. Jun 19: Bought the fabric. Jul 08: Selected Animal Crackers panto. Jul 10: Pieced & loaded. Jul 11: Quilting. While testing tension, I see now that this is not a premium quilting fabric but more like the quality of a novelty fabric even though it carries the Wilmington Prints name. So disappointed. Darn. Also found a flaw in the panel. Quilted. Making binding. Binding is attached. Hand binding... Aug 03: Finished the binding and delivered to Bennie when he came with another quilt.  A friend and neighbor has asked for yet another quilt, this time for a baby expected soon. Perhaps this will do. Print fabric is for the backing. Mar 23: Cut out all the pieces of the quilt top. Mar 24: Made 9 patch blocks, sashing & got the flower blocks 1/2 way together. Mar 25: Things slowed down as I started assembling the blocks & tried to keep things fairly on point. The rows are together such as they are. I admit fudging was a bit of a factor. Mar 26: Fudging never works. The sashing did not fit the rows. Took apart most of the rows & sashing, trimmed as needed & reassembled. Thus I am exactly where I was at end of day yesterday. This was supposed to be a one or at most 2 day little project!! HA! I must say it is very good for a longarmer to stop and piece now and then to appreciate her customers all the more! Mar 27: I have pinned where I need to re-seam the sashing. Hopefully I can then connect the rows with more success than I had yesterday morning. Hope it doesn't take all day again. I so want to see borders on this baby (quilt). YES! I am ready to get back to longarming but I don't dare quit now less I never get motivated to finish this before that baby is born and too old to use it! HA! Got it together at last! And 2 out of three borders now done. With Joan's affirmation (comment), I am stopping right here...after stitching around the edges to hold everything in place. Mar 28: Pieced the backing and prepared the binding. Once I choose an IQ Pattern, it is ready to quilt. Mar 29: My friend/customer loves the quilt!. Like most men, he does not wish to pick an IQ pattern but likes the idea of using bees. Apr 02: After much deliberation, I have decided to go with my first choice--a Bee Border by Deb Geissler. It is just too cute to use anything else. I learned Karen is interested in the whole longarming process so I invited her up to do this quilt with me. Perhaps Friday. Apr 06: Karen & I decided to postpone until next Wednesday, April 11. Apr 11: Quilting...ran out of steam...had to abandon my baby until morning. Apr 12: Quilted. Apr 24: Binding is attached. Only hand work left to do. May 10: Binding is finished.  2010 - 2014 We each have our strengths--quilt design is NOT mine. I knew enough to realize my plan would not do justice to this fabric. With help from Joan Taylor (my friend, customer & sometimes partner) & Joanne (my daughter & quilt shop owner), I am excited about this revision of my original November 2010 plan. The focal fabrics are from Moda's Winter on Walden Pond. The tan border is from Khaki Ethnic Echoes. The green sashing is a blender Piecing Jan 2012Dec 22: New plan suggestion from Joan Dec 25: Joanne helped me select additional coordinating fabrics. Now all I need is time!! Jan 01: Start cutting Jan 03: Making stars Jan 10: Now have all the parts of the stars made and all the pieces cut except the green inner border. Not sure how wide I want that to be just yet. This is bigger than I imagined and the two borders will add 14-16" to the height and width since this quilt is square. Piecing it will shrink it. Should be about perfect when done. Jan 11-12: Assembling the pieces into a quilt top. Still need to attach corners and 2 borders. Jan 13: While snowing, added corners and borders, completing the top. Too big to photograph though. Quilt top finished. Jan 18: Prepared the backing. Jan 29: Added three photos taken with new little Sony Camera. Can you tell a difference? Quilting & Binding Dec 2013Dec16, 2013: Decided several days ago to finish this with double wool batting for Bennie. Drew the IQ pattern today using just the mathematical sine wave. Every other row is shifted a bit to create the braid effect. Expanded the pattern to the size of the 77x77 quilt top then produced the overlay. I bought the fabric in late 2010 so I am very happy to have a final plan at last. Dec 22: Prepped & loaded. Dec 28: Quilting. I love this pattern on this quilt. Would work for any open field scene. Quilted. Jan 05, 2014: Binding attached. Started hand work. Jan 08: Bound. This quilt is gray, lime and shades of pink from light to maroon with dark red tonal backing. The pattern is classic log cabin. When Bennie asked about a large quilt available for sale I thought about this one. He loved it and bought it from Joan.
I am anxiously waiting for a spool of Deep Purple thread to come. Did you know it takes only a day or two for a quilt to ship across country but 6-10 days for a spool of thread to be mailed regular mail? What is a quilter to do? Start a new project, of course! This one has been on my SOON page awhile as I planned it and bought fabric months ago. I saw a quilt block on the eQuiltPatterns website that I fell in love with called Hunter's Star. About that time, a neighbor/friend wanted a blue quilt. I picked out a couple of matching blue batiks and decided to try them in a quilt of identical Hunter's Star blocks. Well, that neighbor called this week & will come by soon so I got busy cutting! If he likes it, great! If not, I'll come up with something different. This is one I would love to keep, but then, truth be told I want to keep them all!! I always make quilts I like in case they stick around a long time! Keeps me smiling! Jan 02, 2011. While the star pieces are cut out, this is more of a some day quilt than one in progress. Not made the first stitch YET even on scrap samples. Jan 04: EQ7 images added April 29: Began piecing May 08: Finished piecing. May 29: Quilting. Uh Oh! The circles ate up my stars when I used the extra warm Quilter's Dream Puff Batting. Ah! but it so light and warm. Just wonderful. June 03: Binding finished! I love emerald green and I instantly fell in love with the main fabric in this quilt. The quilt top pattern was one I wanted to try. Thus this quilt. Never been quite sure the white and yellow were the best way to go but it is what it is. 05/14/2010: Purchased fabrics for Sweet & Simple quilt. Sandy made the quilting pattern to match the quilt. July-August 2010: My best guess as to when I pieced and quilted this. It was a pre-website quilt and the dates on my photos are not correct. 04/26/2011: It is time this quilt had a home. I would have loved to have kept it but it swallows my bed whole & the borders disappeared over the sides. There is a couple who share the task of delivering our mail. When a package comes, whether by Bennie or Rita, it is delivered to my porch 1/2 mile out of the way each way. Always cheerful and friendly, we are fortunate here in Fleetwood to have just personable and dedicated mail carriers. The last package Bennie delivered is one I opened immediately and then handed back as it was for him and Rita! I hope they either love emerald green or it grows on them like the summer grass!! In 2011: Sandy made a matching stained glass block to match this quilt. I eventually gave that to Rita too.  Main fabric is butterflies and flowers from the Kona Bay Nobu Fujiyama Collection. Green backing. Quilt Top Pattern: "Sweet & Simple with a Twist of Lime" by Designs by Lavender Lime (Kathy Skomp) Longarm Design Pattern: Panto by Sandy Daugherty especially for this quilt. The butterfly and the flower design were taken from the fabric itself. Size: 76 x 88 |
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