Just in Time for Christmas

My last quilt project of the year is finally finished! Front side is Bella Wave...

and back side is Tee Shirt pattern. 

I really enjoyed piecing the Bella Wave pattern that I plan to make another quilt with this pattern next year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Prepping

I'm moving slowly on this quilt. I just finished the basting! Now onto the quilting.

 A peek of the other side of my son's quilt.

Slow Progress

I have finished most of the back my son's quilt.

The back is made up of his old tee-shirts. I will have to add more black fabric to make it slightly larger than the front side.

These are the fabrics for the front of the quilt. The pattern is Belle Wave. I need to get busy on this quilt since it is to be a Christmas gift for my son.

Finding Peace

Back in 2010, I started a tee-shirt quilt for my daughter, who was then in college far from home. I was missing her. The joy of making that quilt inspired me to make more quilts. Somehow in my researching of quilts, I discovered vintage sewing machine and treadling. I so wanted to share my new hobby with my parents, and one way for my parents to see these projects was through blogging. Yes, I started this blog for my parents. I thank my sister for the suggestion of starting this blog since it has brought me so much joy. Over the past year, my focus has changed to hiking and enjoying the outdoors, which I now post on Tootling Around. This focus on the outdoors started with the passing of my husband's mother. I wanted to help my husband heal is pain, his loss. I just wanted to get outdoors, hike, and enjoy nature with him more than sitting at home quilting. With the passing of my father, I know that my mom will not be looking at this blog unless I show her. So, my future posting of quilt projects will be few and infrequent.

I have started another quilt; one that I have promised my son, a tee-shirt quilt. He has just entered college. Earlier this summer, he asked if I would make him his college quilt. He surprised me with this question since I didn't think he would have wanted one. Luckily, I have saved some of his tee shirts.  And so, I start my next quilt project. The treadling will be good for me since it is peaceful.

So when I'm not quilting, I'll be hiking with my husband... and we will be healing each other's hearts.

End of the Road

My 90 year old dad passed away last week. He was a strong and witty trouper up until the last weeks of his life. I will miss him dearly.

May his new journey take him to beautiful and peaceful places- for he is truly an angel.

Tootling Around by Touring the States

I finished my quilt that will be used in my RV.

I made a mini RV for the touring.

The completed back.

And the front of the quilt, a trip around the world pattern.

Thinking Pears But Seeing Avocados

My Mother's birthday is coming up, and I want give her a new table runner for her dining room table. She always has the table beautifully decorated with a runner and flowers. 

When I had seen this pattern at AlamosaQuilter a year or so ago, I knew that I would make it for my Mom. I had a screen shot of the pattern sitting on my computer for such a long time, and I would remind myself that one day I would get around to producing my own runner whenever I took a glimpse of the photo.

Since I enjoy machine stitching over hand stitching, I stitched the edges down with a decorative stitch using the Singer Treadle 224.

I decided that I wanted to make this into a circular top. So, I looked around the house for the largest circle that could be use to trace a circle onto the fabric. Yup, that worked!

After pinning the layers together, I started straight stitch quilting using my Davis Vertical Feed. It had been awhile since I had used the Vertical Feed. Oh, how I had missed quilting with this beauty. The machine hummed and I was at peace. This was a fun project! My son asked if the fruit were avocados or pears. I had thought pears, but now I'm seeing avocados. 

Slow Progress in Map Making

The States are all cut and ironed in place.

I started machine stitching around each state.

Later, I will add an RV and the title to my RV blog. But for now, I'm busy with another quilting project that I hope to get finished in the next day or two.

Map Making

My school semester has ended, and now I have time to do some quilting projects. I started a quilt for my RV, the Trip Around the World quilt, back in January. Today, I started working on the back side of the quilt. It will be a map of the US with a RV and the title to my RV travel blog, Tootling Around. I was able to cut out twelve states today. Kansas has Toto as the fabric theme. I had just the right size piece of scrap fabric for pulling that one off! Texas of course gets the Stars and Stripes, while California theme is the Golden State.

It's fun looking through the scraps to decide what fabrics will represent the States. Some fabrics are the colors of the state flower or bird. Washington state is red since majority of apples come from that state. It will be interesting to see if I can continue to carry a theme of each state with the fabrics in my stash.

1080 Squares

Surprisingly, there are 1080 small squares! It didn't seem like I was making that many squares during construction and piecing. By using Bonnie Hunter's method for this scrappy Trip Around the World, this quilt top came together very quickly.

Next step is designing the back of the quilt. The back will not be constructed as quickly as the front since I'll be cutting out each of the 50 States. My classes start up next week; so, I will only be working on the back design during my free time, which will be weekends.

792 and Counting

My quilt in progress. There are presently 792 small squares. When complete, there will be 1080 small squares- unless I add another row. This quilt top is coming together much faster then I had expected.

The back side will take much longer since I will be cutting out each state to make a map of the US.

Travels and Maps

I started the new year off by working on a scrappy A Trip Around the World quilt.

My goal is to work on this quilt when I have some free time this spring semester. This project will most likely turn into a semester long quilt project since I'm taking three classes and working as a sub. Since classes don't start up for another two weeks, I have been busy with piecing this quilt top and subbing at the preschool. Luckily, the quilt blocks go together rather quickly and are fun to piece using my Two Spools. My present plan for the other side of this quilt is to design a map of the US along with a travel trailer by using the leftover scraps of fabric from the front of the quilt. And yes, this quilt will be used in my own travel trailer when finished.