Bonnie Hunter Frolic - body of quilt top completed

I finished putting this together this weekend.  The next step is an inner border and then the outer borders of raspberry/neutral half square triangles and blue/neutral half square triangles.  I want to slightly expand the dimensions of the quilt, so I'm thinking of widening the inner neutral (off-white border).  It's supposed to be a queen size but needs to be a little wider to provide adequate drop over a thicker mattress.  At the moment I'm stabilizing the outside of this section by stay stitching and then will trim to even up the edges into a straight line. 

work in process - Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt - "Frolic"

I've been working on this since the beginning of the year off and on.  I have the 25 main blocks made and now in assembly, but also making the half block setting triangles as I go.  this fills one of my long term goals of a quilt with a hidden secondary block that emerges when the blocks are assembled.  (the white areas of the quilt).  Also the blocks are set on point by doing diagonal rows.  This is a weird color way, so not sure where I will use the quilt .  After the block assembly, there will be a sold white/neutral border, then a red/neutral and blue/neutral 1/2 square triangle external borders.  I may make add another neutral border in between the 2 half-square triangle borders to add a bitt of width and length. to the quilt.  

Hand quilting project not on my 2020 goals - work in progress

a couple of years ago I searched EBay for quilt tops and found this beautiful top that had been embroidered and cross-stitched and already had the quilt sandwich.  It was a preprinted top that had the quilting markings ready to go.  After I finished the gingham sunflower handquilting earlier this year, I started the hand quilting on this one.  Of course it is a much smaller project, about the size of a crib quilt.  But I have made good progress.  Now working on the outer detailed hand quilting, so I probably still have a month or more of quilting while watching tv  .  I inquired of the EBay seller who the maker of the embroidered top was, but he/she had purchased it at an estate sale on the east coast and had no more info.  My deep gratitude to the skilled embroiderer!

Goal 12: various non-quilting sewing projects for new granddaughters

While we were in South Bend last month (where my embroidery machine lives currently), I got around to adding machine embroidery designs to some onesies and snappy shirts for the 2 granddaughters.  (these were sized 6 months, so I had to get them done before they outgrew them.  )
I watched a number of videos about embroidering on knits, stabilizers, needles, etc., as well as working with my Embrilliance software for transferring fonts and designs into the embroidery format. 

Doing this number of projects helped me get more proficient and "automatic" about the process.  Before this I had mainly used my embroidery machine to make quilt labels and only made 3 or 4 a year (my quilt output lol), so every time I had to relearn the process.

Here are the results:

Here is Ori modeling 2 of her shirts:

And here is Elin in one of hers: 

cleaning stuffed animals

It's pretty embarrassing, (I'm not a hoarder), but due to an intown move at a time when I and our family were leading very busy lives, our nanny packed the kids rooms (without really sorting anything), so old and new toys and stuffed animals ended up in boxes and trash bags, and then we just moved things into storage.  now, 20 years later, both kids have had beautiful daughters, and I've pulled this stuff out to see if they want any of the old toys. 
(I've only started on stuffed animals and dolls and baby books.  (there is still a box of puzzles, another of Halloween costumes, and several boxes of legos - another time).

Anyway, so these stuffed animals are 20-30 years old and have been in storage for 20 years  (at least no exposure to covid !)  but some of the stuffed animals had some soiling from years of loving. 

So I decided to clean up the most precious ones.  And it worked!  This Carebear was pretty soiled, as seen in the first "lineup " picture.  And then the next picture is "after".

First I used stainremover spray on the obvious stains.  (spray n wash).  I then soaked the stuffed animals in a sinkful of warm water, with a 1/2 cup of Biz and a tablespoon of Dawn liquid dishwashing liquid.  I let  them soak about 45 minutes.  Then I looked at them and used a brush to scrib any remaining stained places.  I took them out, squeezed out most of the water, and then put them back in a sinkful of clean water and let them soad another 30 minutes.  squeeze out and then another 30 minute rinse.  I squeezed out the moisture really  thoroughly and then put them in the dryer on "casual" with a couple of large towels.  It took about 3 cycles to get them close to dry. 
The bear looks almost like new!

5.. complete quilt as you go Westalee quilt

I have finished the sampler quilt using the Westalee rulers.  With some trial and error (taking careful notes and making samples), I seem to have identified the right settings for free motion on my Pfaff, and these work on the Westalee foot and rulers as well.  (I still need lots of practice).

I finished the last block, just filling it up with linked circles. Then I did the quilt as you go sashing, which was surprisingly time consuming.

I originally made 14" blocks, but only used 12" interior block space for the quilting.  That left an inch seam allowance all around.  I used 2.5 " sashing, so the 1 inch of seam allowance filled up those 2 inches.  On the outer sashings, I sewed an extra 1.25 " strip of batting to the seam allowance so the outer borders would be full.   the mistake I kept making was forgetting to sew the sashing on both sides at the same time.  The nice thing is the quilt is totally reversible.  it's about 45 x 45.

Gingham sunflower

I just finished hand quilting and binding this quilt.  It has an interesting story.

In 1985 we went to a family reunion for my husband's family. We had been married 3 years and our daughter was about 10 months.  We stayed in the old officers' quarters in Ft. Robinson State Park, which were 3-story duplexes build in the late 1900s.  One evening we had dinner in a local restaurant that had art and quilts for sale on its walls.  I had always loved quilts but didn't own one,  I splurged and bought the quilt. ("Quilt One").    It was the pattern shown above.  I fell in love with it because of the blue and yellow, which is one of my favorite color combinations.   I was not yet a quilter and really knew nothing about how quilts were made.

For years we used the quilt on our bed, and our children played on it and took naps on it. 

In 2001 we moved to a bigger house just a few blocks away, and somehow Quilt One never showed up when we unpacked.  I kept thinking that it was in a box that we hadn't opened, or in a box we had put in storage. Our lives were busy with 2 law careers, kids in high school and college, elderly parents, etc.

I finally starting quilting myself around 2007, and I have made many quilts.  In 2017 I finished my Grandmother's Flower Garden, which I hand quilted.  I also finished cross-stitching a stamped pillow case.  So my mind went back to missing Quilt One.  I did more searching in storage boxes, but to no avail.  So then I thought maybe I could find the pattern and recreate Quilt One.

I started searching on the internet and found images of the quilt and learned it was a Bucilla embroidery kit.  I then searched on eBay.  I didn't find a kit, but I did find a completed top for sale.  ("Quilt 2"). The maker of the embroidery had passed away, and her daughter had posted the completed top for sale.  I was so excited and bought it on the spot. 

I had my long armer, Maria Hall, create the quilt sandwich and backing and baste it together for me.  So I started the hand quilting in the fall of  2017, and I just finished the quilting two weeks ago, added the binding, and washed the final product.  It really turned out beautifully.  I am so grateful to the quilt artist in Missouri who created the top.  (I have misplaced her name but have sent a letter to the daughter who sold the top, so I will update with her name when I get it. ) 

Somehow I didn't have this project on my 2020 goals! 

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