Hibernating....

So I have been hibernating in the blogging world. No I did not disappear from the face of the earth. I just have not been recording what I have been doing. :( No I have not stopped quilting either but true I have not done as much. My life has been really busy with other things but I have still eeked out a few moments for sewing on my quilts.

So I am going to get on the ball and post some of the latest:
(be warned...I probably should have broken this up into many individual posts but I was to anxious and did them all at once, so it is a bit long)

Starting with Ma Z's Zoo! This was a fun one from my online "Sew Kid st Heart 2" quilting bee.

When it was my turn, I sent out some strips of animal and animal alphabet fabric (pictured)

along with one fussy cut animal to my quilting friends and they made me a mod and crazy log cabin quilt using some of their stash. I love the zoo of fun that I ended up with. Can't wait to get this quilted and used.



It is so fun to look at all the fun animals in the zoo!!! I think some grandbaby is going to get lots of fun out of looking for all the wonderful animals!!

Springtime Symphony....this is one I made about a year ago but I finally got it quilted. This is a quilt for Jenelle and her future baby.

There really is quite a story with this quilt. The fabric for the main part was got at two totally different times with no thought of each other. Once at Joann's I could not resist a fat quarter stack of 5 fabrics with no idea of how I would use them - I just loved the colors. Basically the same pattern but in different colors Green, Yellow, Blue, Purple & Red. The fabric with the dots was got from Walmart for another project (the camp "In Tune" bags I made back in 2009) Sometime after making the bags, I noticed that my leftover scraps just matched the colors in my fat quarter packet. Then I got excited because I knew exactly what pattern I wanted to use. It was a booklet I had bought and only had done the table runner from it but when I bought it, the pattern I really wanted to make was "double-time duet". Now was my opportunity!!!

After I got the center part done, I struggled with how to border it - more of the plain white or what? When Aunt J and I were out shopping at 3 Dude's Quilting I bought a charm pack for a new fabric line called "Clementine by Me and My Sister". When I came home I noticed how the flower swatchs were so perfect with the colors from the duet quilt so it was back to the store to get just enough fabric to border the edge of the quilt...perfect. When I went to Jaimes to quilt she had just finished quilting with orange thread - how fun I love how the orange is so perfect and we found a wonderful flower pattern to quilt it with. And the final perfect touch is the purple border that Jenelle chose for the binding!!

Springtime Symphony back (using more of the rainbow fabric from Aunt Janel's wedding.)

Road Trip #1....I got this really fun car fabric and thought of Kathryn's boys and their car bed that needed a great quilt to go with it. This is the first one made (probably for Porter) I still need to add borders and quilt but it is coming.

Road Trip #2....this one is the second using some of the same car fabric line (probably for Mason). While I liked Road trip #1 - I wanted more of a "road" feel, so I decided to do a bargello quilt for the 2nd one. I like it better though I wish I would have continued going up at the end after that first bottom spike, oh well... I LOVE how fast bargello quilts are - so easy, so dramatic and so fun!!!

Last but not least this is another finish. This one is called "Panache in Check". I made this for my display wall to hang because I loved the Moda's fabric line of Panache by Sanae it is so fun fresh and modern but matches all my colors in my house but I could only afford to get one charm pack to enjoy & play with so I added a green check and other stash to make this quilt.

I simply quilted this one with straight lines with my sewing machine - just to get it done!!!

Love Blooms - Again

Whoo....hoo.....it is another quilt festival.....
Since #1 this quilt festival is right during our anniversary, #2 it is just getting cold enough here to put on this warmer quilt on my bed, so it is on my mind and #3 one of my daughters just got engaged....I am thinking about love and this my "Love Blooms" quilt. This is what I made 2 years ago for our 30th anniverary.

Happy Anniversary!!!

We went out-of-town for the weekend before, so on Monday (our actually anniversary day) I had a free day, that of course I didn't want to do anything I usually do and especially not any housework. So I escaped to make us a quilt for our bed. I had recently purchase a small jelly roll of strips in fun colors that I couldn't resist. I looked around in my stash and found a sparkly maroon that I liked with it and I was off. I really didn't have a pattern in mind but just started making block. I took 8 1/2" block out of the maroon and sewed the strips to the outside. After I got all those sewed the next step was to figure out how I was going to place them, straight or on point and what in between. I decided for simple and straight with just a plain block of dark green (from a bolt I had from a possible upholstery project. And I was going to town. I got a lot of it done. In the next few days I just had to pick out my favorite 4 prints to buy and add for borders and then off to Jaime's to quilt it with a wonderful flower stitch, going along with my love blooms quilt.

Lesson learned:
Love does bloom just like quilts. Sometimes we don't know exactly what we will get or end up with. We make a decision, choose our mate then we just jump in whole-heartedly. We make decisions as we go, keep working and working and working. Giving our all and doing the best with what we have. Bordering it all with lots of love, adding a little spice & sparkle or highlighting the favorite parts here and there. Behold we look back at the whole picture after 30 years of love and hard work and say WOW! Look what we have done and look at where and how our love has bloomed!!

Check out all the other wonderful quilts in the festival here
http://amyscreativeside.com/2010/10/29/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2010/

#5 Dot to Dot

When I first started thinking of a quilt for Michelle, I wanted to do something with Circles. Because she is currently (& seriously) dating Mike, when I think of them I think of M&M's. Just in time, I noticed a fun quilt pattern in my Quilting Magazine. It had a circle on every block which was a bit much for my simpler taste but being the "maker" of the quilt, I realized I could change it up any way I wanted. So " Dot to Dot is my version. Still filled with lots of wonderful dots (I love the dot fabric) and just a smattering of appliquéd dots to make it fun!!
I hope they get lots of use and fun out of this PicNic quilt and many, many happy memories.

So what have I learned......
I LOVE dots!!

#6 Turtle Crossing

This is the fourth quilt in the series of quilts made for the downstairs girls room. I originally got the pattern we used from a friend in the ward. We have used the same fabric and the same pattern each time and just mixed up the denim color placement each time (see Michelle's Magic on page 6). The plaid material was given to us by a friend. This one was made for my daughter that loves Turtles so I quilted it with turtles crossing all over it.

Quilt Bk Vol 1

I did it - I published (OK - just for me and my family) my "Quilt with Love...Lessons learned" quilt book. I have been wanting to document all my quilt I have made and given. Explain a bit about the process and the lessons I have learned while making each quilt. I finally gathered everything and published it. It is so nice to have this first volume in hand.

Just LOOK!!  (Click on the link and you can scroll through every page of the book)

It's fun to look at and remember all the quilts I have made. Most of these I have given away to others, so it is nice to remember.

I already have enough quilts tops (OK, ok they are not quilted yet) to do the next book. I need to get busy quilting!!

#2 Fruit Salad

I was shopping and saw a fabric that made me think of Nikaela. I loved this fun fruity print. I bought a small amount and set about to make a fun picnic quilt for Ammon and Nikaela. I was able to pull from my stash everything but the green with pink dots fabric. I had The green denim, and the other fun fabrics and thought a bargello quilt would be the perfect (and quick) was to put together a picnic quilt. When I was done is so reminded me of the yummy layered fruit salad that Nikaela made for us at a girls retreat. (the one at Camille's). Thus the quilts name was born.




So what have I learned...... memories are special and they creep into our lives from everywhere. A piece of fabric or even the look and placement of a pattern.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - My Entry!!

Amy is once again running her Online blogger's quilt festival. If you have never seen this, you ought to block out several hours over the next few days and sit down and check out all the great work. At the link here and below (where it sais check out all these other great entries!!) you will already find over 600 people's URL's with a posting of their favorite quilts.


ORANGE BLOSSOM JOYZ
This is my entry.....

This fun little quilt was all (OK just the inside) from scraps. It was all the little leftover pieces from the quilt "Kimree's Krumbs" and leftover scraps from a white sheets I have used in the past. I did plan it from the beginning though. While I cut out the pieces for "Kimree's Krumbs" I noticed I had leftovers in small short (about 8") strips of 2 1/2" wide, so I decided to use those stripes with my leftover sheet scraps (many which also happened to be 2 1/2 inches wide too) and make 9 patch blocks. I LOVE 9 patch block with white and color. It makes them so bright and fun. I love the magic made by just placing them in diagonal rows instead of straight and adding a white block in between each 9 patch.










What I have learned.......
Every little bit counts....every little bit adds....when you add it all together....WOW. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes. "We may not have it all together but, TOGETHER we have it ALL!
If we each stand alone, we are OK but can get lost and looked over easy but when we unite ourselves together....
..watch out world;
we become magnificent!"



When I got this quilt top done, My DH named it. He thought it looked like an "orange blossom special", I tweaked that just a bit and named it the "Orange Blossom Joyz" both for who it was made for and it is so happy and joyful with that bright fun orange. This quilt is backed with soft fuzzy orange just great for cuddling and quilted with blossoms to match the "orange" blossoms on the border.


Remember to check out all these other great entries!!!