Summer has yet to arrive in the great Northwest, it's still cloudy, cold and drizzly. I'm not sure what Mother Nature is thinking, summer usually shows up July 5th, and I was counting on seeing the sun, at least my tomatoes were! I have two tomato plants, one is loaded with tomatoes, the other is trying, which is a first for me and my tomato-growing-attempts. I'm almost giddy with the thought that I could actually pick a ripe tomato before Halloween! While the sun ain't shinin' there is still much quilting to do, at least the cooler temps are good for that!
You've seen this quilt before, but now it is finished and definitely worth seeing again! This is Jenny's Washington quilt - and it shows everything that is particular to our beautiful state. I didn't notice the umbrella block with the gray stripes (rain!) until I saw my picture - and those ferry blocks are pieced! The block with the red barn and the colorful strips? Those represent the tulip fields - love that! Such a cool quilt - way to go Jenny!
Most quilters care as much about the backs of their quilts as they do the front...sadly I'm not one of those, I'm too excited to get the thing finished so I'll just slap any old fabric on the back. Jenny made sure to find the perfect fabric for her Washington quilt. By the way, Jenny owns the Super Cuts at Pine Lake by QFC, and she would love to have you as a customer!
This would be torture for me...Stephanie sewed a bunch of scraps together into blocks and then sewed the blocks into a quilt...the blocks are pictured above...and they are now blocks again because she TOOK the quilt APART!! Those blocks are now on their way to being scraps again!!! What the %&%$?!?!?!?!? My brain hurts just thinking about that! Stephanie is an artiste...I get that...but isn't there some fine line between art and madness?!?!? I fear she may have crossed it! And I will happily eat those words when she RE-sews all of those pieces into something even more fabulous! Oh...one more thing...the scraps now have a "stitching line/fold" that she plans to PRESS out...oh my aching cerebellum...RE-PRESSING seams!!! That is just toooooo much! I laugh just thinking about it. And then I reach for the Advil.
This is why I can laugh at Stephanie using tiny bits of fabric and pressing all the way...she makes fabulous quilts. Quilts I can only dream of making, like the one above, which was made with a layer-cake. Stephanie said she wasn't as happy with this as she hoped to be - she thought it was a bit small but she was done with it...our resident wit said, "If you're done with the top then it's big enough!" And Helen was exactly right, feel free to quote her!
Isn't this just adorable?? Denise purchased this quilt at Value Village for $7.00. Just let that sink in. $7.00. And it's in perfect condition. Who would ever let this little gem out of their hands?!?! The world is full of freaky-non-quilt-loving-people!!! Denise was in the right place at the right time and now this quilt has a forever home.
Denise finished her Easter quilt - this was a group project, so to speak. When it was Denise's turn to have us make her blocks, she asked for Easter blocks. I think she may have gotten 8 or 9 blocks from us but the rest she made. I love this little quilt - it's so fun to see the blocks we made again - and see the basket quilt on the bottom? Those little crocheted flowers were from Stephanie who found them at Value Village!
My notes say this quilt is also from Value Village - another find made by Denise...but now I'm not so sure - maybe Denise made it? Either way, dang cute! My notes also say Denise made a Santa cross-stitch but I failed to get a picture of that...sad for us!
Barbara finished this baby quilt for her newest grandson - it's just perfect and of course she found the perfect binding, too! This is really a great little quilt - perfect for the baby and when he gets too big it will look great over the back of a bench or at the foot of his bed...this one will never go out of style.
Barbara's house quilt - there is just so much to love about this. Like her background fabric with words - very clever! And her dark sky at the top - it's perfect and of course even more baffling to me, it lines up perfectly straight! That never happens in my quilting world! I love the happy, colorful houses...this was a group project, too. We all made house blocks for each other. Mine are still in the "aging process" and when they are ready (when I'm sick of seeing them stacked in my to-do pile) then they will be sewn together into a quilt just like this...at least that's my hope!
Diane made this quilt - it's a thing of beauty. A real quilt as they say...and by they I mean me - because real quilts take time and patience, two things I never seem to have so I admire real quilts when I see them.
Now you can see why this is a real quilt...the border will be differently pieced houses - all the way around the quilt. Wow. The work involved...the math involved...I feel a cerebellum freeze coming on! This is going to be so beautiful, I'm so impressed and also jealous/mad that I didn't get the "real quilt" gene! Way to go Diane!
Helen whipped up this little beauty. I love her pieced border, little gray squares floating along...Helen said she actually did the math so everything would be spaced evenly...I may have let out a gasp. Helen is infamous for saying, "We don't DO math!" and then she goes and does it. Where is the real Helen? What have you done with her?!
If you are going to make a baby gift any time soon, this is the gift to make! Janet made this - swears it's easy - said it's sewn like a pillow case and you buy that fluffy, soft trim and sew it on. This was so soft and cuddly, I would love one just for me!
We all loved this one...Janet is working on this for her new grandbaby. Janet said she doesn't have quite enough fabric to put the piano key border on all four sides...after some discussion we thought it would be good if Janet cut the border in half, then she would have enough to go around the entire quilt. Which reminds me of one of my favorite quilting quotes about fabric, "You can't go wrong if you buy too much."
Mary had a little bowl of these wafers on the table for us to nibble on...they are highly addictive! She bought them at Trader Joe's and so, in true monkey-see-monkey-do fashion, I stopped at Trader Joe's on my way home from our meeting and bought two bags. Those got eaten in a very short amount of time and we are now on bag 4!!! They taste just like the ones you can buy in the South - a little bit of Charleston in Seattle. Thanks Mary!!
That's it gang, time to head back into the workroom to get some things finished. I'm working on a two new quilts - so excited to see then come together so hopefully I'll have something to show you soon! Hope you're having a great summer - send us some sun!
