Raintree Guild Christmas party gift exchange items.....

Every year at our December meeting, besides having a pitch-in dinner, we have a Christmas exchange for anyone who wants to take part.  Earlier in the year, we are given a fat quarter of a Christmas fabric to use in a gift.  You can use as much or as little as you want, but there must be some part of it in the gift.  Then at the meeting we hang them up for all to see and numbers are drawn to see what you win.

 Apron with chef hat and runner

 Wall hangings and pot holders.

Wall hanging, tool caddy, thread/scrap caddy 

Topper, stocking, table topper, hanging. 

 Runner, apron, table topper

 I made this teapot wall hanging/table topper.

A project carrier and a runner 

I won this one!  I may give it to a friend who had to miss the meeting because she was sick. 

A beautiful banner 

I took extra photos of a few....this was very nice by one of are art quilters 

Table topper 

A handy thread caddy and a pretty little table topper.

I missed a couple things that were sitting on a table and I didn't see them.

Fabulous Crazy Quilt, bed runner in progress, and my "hexie" Christmas tree.....

I had the great good fortune to purchase an old crazy quilt this past week!  I had seen this quilt 5 years ago, but the owner was not ready to sell it at that time.  I was amazed that she had hung on to my name and phone number and called me to say she now wanted to sell it!  

It is absolutely gorgeous and in very good shape.  A few places where some silk patches are just beginning to tear a bit, but basically no damage, otherwise.

It wasn't an heirloom from her family and I have no knowledge of who made it or how old it is.  Here are photos of each individual block.  Click on them to make them larger.  Having to reduce the size of the photos  to save blog space detracts from the clarity of them.   Very nicely done initials on the side......BWT?

 Obviously someone named Walter in the family and the initials....WMT.  Can't decide if the single letter is a T or an F.  Looks like an F to me, so I'll just say it is for my name....Freeman :-)

A heron? embroidered over the black and red patch.

 The flower embroideries are wonderfully done and all the seam stitching is very varied and intricate.

 I need to research why a "hand mirror"? 

 She had two other quilts and they also had the mirror shape on them.

The spider web for good luck.   That rose in the center is very nice out of large ribbon.  The rainbow is painted.

Beautiful sunflower.   I doubt you can see it, but in that pink patch next to the sunflower is a hand with a top hat over it.

A fan area and a butterfly. 

 The embroidery on the blue is of a soldier.

There are 3 umbrellas on the quilt....one closed and two open.   A fan.

All in all, a very beautiful quilt!  I love it!

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I've been busy on a couple of projects for myself, and several Christmas projects that I won't post in case my relatives look at this post.

I've been wanting to make a bed runner and saw this pattern in a magazine for an entire quilt done with these blocks.  I liked it but didn't want to make an entire quilt and thought it would work for a bed runner.  The top is basically done......except I'm trying to decide on the size of the border.  In the top photo you see a 4" border on top and bottom. 

In this photo I have folded the border down to only 2" top and bottom which matches what is currently on the ends of the runner.

Shots of the ends.....top one unfolded.  If I decide on the 4" borders, I will add another 2" to the ends to match it. 

 Folded here to match the ends.

I had fun making it and that is always a plus for me.  I would make more of these blocks for another project.  Very simple log cabin style blocks.  I wanted a variety of batiks in the fabrics and just happened to have the light colored batik that ended up being the rest of it.  Almost ran out of it, but my local quilt shop owners sold me some they had in their personal stash...thank you, Holly!

My "hexie" Christmas tree.  I am embroidering over some of the background snowflakes with white thread and beads and then will have to decide how to finish it.  It started out oval rather than round and may end up that way.  Won't make that decision until I finish with the snowflakes.  Also debating on a star for the top of the tree.....a star button?  an embroidered star?  none at all?

Raintree Quilter's Guild quilt show 2013

This past weekend was the local Raintree Quilter's Quilt Show.  Our show is for anyone in the guild and you do not go through any sort of selection process to have your quilt in the show.  Our quilts are not judged.  The only ribbons are given for "popular vote" in several categories.  I will post the photos of the winners of the popular vote with their ribbons pinned on them below.  To see photos of all the quilts in the show click on this link....Raintree Quilt Show photos.

 A bed size quilt in the traditional Dresden Plate pattern.

One of Karen Hampton's beautiful leaf art quilts.....I love this one!  

All of her quilts were for sale.

 Small wall hanging.......lots of hard work here!

 Purse......there may be a better photo of this in the photo link I posted.  Very nice work on this.

 Gorgeous bed runner by Linda Bohlen

 Small lap quilt in bright colors.

 Children's quilt category.....very pretty!

......and the over-all most popular quilt.....this beautiful appliqued roses quilt by Sharon Jefferies!  

I love it.

 I had 3 quilts hanging.....my lap size maple leaf quilt....

 ......my Nature Crazy Quilt in the wall hangings category.....

....and my orange quilt in the bed quilts, although I just consider it a large lap quilt.

I also had two little challenge pieces which don't get voted on.....my "Fence Row Charm" and my "Hankies For My Mother".  I think both have been in my blog before, and I didn't take individual photos of them.

A year of UFO's ended....

Today was the last day of the UFO challenge at the Quilter's Nest Quilt Shop.  Last August we signed up to work on 12 of our UFO's.....UnFinished Objects....completing one each month.  I didn't expect to get many done, but managed to complete 10 of the 12 on my list!  It has been helpful in cleaning out my project stash :-)  They are getting ready to start a new year of the challenge next month, but I don't have many unfinished projects left to work on, so I may just start a bunch of new UFO's instead......LOL.

 These were the three UFO's that I finished up and took to the final meeting today.  My batik table runner.  I started this as a way to demonstrate how to make this block at a quilting bee that I belong to.  I used some of my favorite batiks and did I want to get it finished, so I am happy to have it done and ready to put on my table.  It turned out to be too wide to go on my buffet, where I really wanted to use it.....oh, well.

 My sister gave me this pattern, called "The Wave Purse".  I called it the "dreaded bag".  Some people make bags easily.....I don't.  I found it a struggle from start to finish and that is why it was a UFO for several years!

 Putting the bottom on it was the worse part and I hope it doesn't fall off (just kidding!)  I'm glad to have it done and will probably use it as a project bag to carry around quilting stuff.  It has nice pockets.....the area below the right strap button....2 on the outside and 2 on the inside.  Great place for a water bottle....or skeins of yarn....or whatever!

 My 3 projects together.

The final one was a tablecloth.  I started this as a test of a pattern for making a tablecloth for my other sister.  I liked the fabrics so well, I wanted to finish it.  However, I started it so long ago (2004), that I didn't really have enough fabric.  I ended up adding a border from a newer fabric (you can't really see it in this photo).  I bought a green leafy fabric that I really liked for the back figuring that I could just turn it over and use that side if I don't like the top now that it is done!  It has no batting and is just the top and a bottom sewn together and turned.  I didn't do any quilting on it.  May have to or when it is washed it might cause some problems.  I'm just glad to have it done! 

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So.....10 out of 12 projects done....not bad!  The rest are somewhere else in this blog, so I won't show them again.  Some are already gone to new homes.  Time to start some new UFO's....or better yet, finished projects!  

Snowballs, finished at last!......

I finally finished all my "snowballs" and got the top sewn together for my "Snowballs All Year Round" quilt.

The name is because I made crazy quilted "snowballs" and then appliqued them to traditional snowball blocks.  There is one for each month of the year.  

 I'm too short to stand up and hold it.

 Mike holding it for me :-)  Guess that tells me about how big it is.....he's 6'4".

 The bottom half.....

.....the top half.

Now I have to get it quilted by someone.  I don't think I will add more borders around it, but may change my mind after I look at some fabrics.  I need to get backing fabric for it, too.  It was fun, but I am tired of hand sewing for now......I'm ready for a nice normal quilt project I can piece on the sewing machine!

Newest Crazy Quilt project in progress...

I saw something on-line about crazy quilters making "snowballs" and "throwing them" at each other and thought that was a cute idea.  Round crazy quilt projects to trade with others.  Anyway....it made me want to do something round.  So, I started a February round "snowball".  That led to me wanting to do one for every month.  So I'm working on a quilt I call:  "Snowballs All Year Round". 

I have finished 5 of the snowballs and am putting each one on a 4-patch block.  I  wanted to see how they looked with black in between the blocks, so I took some photos.

 This is the June block.....white for weddings....since I was married in June :-)

 February....red and lots of hearts and flowers.

 March......shamrocks, and a rainbow and pot of gold, and flowers.  These are all pinned to the blocks right now, so there are pins showing and I'm not sure any of them are totally finished.  I can't decide if I like that big yellow dragonfly or not, so it is not sewn on.

April is basically an Easter theme.

May....I think this one is my favorite so far, but maybe because I like the purple and May is my birth month. It feels a bit unfinished, so I may add something in the un-decorated areas....not sure yet. Harder to work on them once I sew the edge on because it is a piece of fabric wrapped to the front to make the binding.  No idea why I did it that way, but am committed to the idea now.

These are January and July.....I am just getting started on them.  Need to go shopping for some red/white/blue trims for the July one.  I have every month planned for colors, but haven't made the rest of the snowballs yet.  I'm more likely to get done working on only 1-2 at a time :-)

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I also just finished the labels for the back of my Nature Crazy Quilt.

 I will probably put the quilt in our local quilt show in September, so I need to get these sewn on.

Well....those are my recent projects.  Still working on another set of blocks, that I haven't posted because I don't have that much done on them yet.  In the non-crazy quilt area, I just got my Maple Leaf quilt back from the quilter and need to make binding for it.  Also, working on a triangular project.....more on that later.