Thanks, everyone, for your compliments on the Vivian sweater progress. It’s nice that so many of you think I deserve a break from this but believe me when I tell you that I have taken plenty of breaks from knitting this sweater. I started it back in April. My goal was to have it finished by Hannah’s birthday and that was September 3rd. Whoops. My goal now is Christmas but I’d really like to have it done by Thanksgiving so I really just need to keep moving forward. So far I have resisted the call of the Hawthorne but I’ve told myself I can cast it on as a reward when I get the second sleeve finished.

In the meantime, I have finished another lap quilt. The fabrics are from a second jelly roll that I bought at Keepsake Quilting when we visited last summer and it’s totally different from the one for Hannah.

It’s all blues and browns, for one thing.

And the pattern is a more traditional block, for another thing.

I dug through my fabric stash for the border and and binding fabrics found this floral print which is perfect. I think I had bought this for a Civil war period tie for Dale but either I never got around to making it or he didn’t like the fabric. It’s all used up now, though, so too bad for him.

I also found the backing fabric in my fiber stash. This, too, was bought for Dale. I believe it was going to be a Civil War period shirt but then he announced that he would only wear white shirts and black ties because that’s what General Hancock did. Whateverrrrr. Again, it’s a win for me because I didn’t have to go shopping to buy something to go with this quilt. That meant it got finished faster and for less money. Yay.

And it’s also a win for Dale since I made this quilt for him. He  clearly loves it and it’s much more useful than an 1860s style shirt and tie. It’s warmer, too.

I finished the Bali Pop Lap Quilt last weekend and I’m so excited to show it to you.

The colors are vibrant and gorgeous and it will be perfect for keeping my Hannah snuggly and warm this winter.

The pattern couldn’t have been easier. You just take all those strips and sew them together into one really long strip. Then you bring the two ends together with right sides facing, making sure not to twist the fabric. Sew that long seam. Snip it apart when you get to the end. Repeat.

It took about 90 minutes to sew the quilt top, then another hour to press it, square it up,  and attach the borders.  I sandwiched it with my backing fabric (same as the borders) and Warm ‘n Natural batting and then spent about two hours doing some free motion quilting.

I stippled Hannah’s name into the border at the top to personalize it. I already wish I’d included the date but I didn’t and, well,  done is better than perfect.

Once it was quilted, I squared it again, attached the binding and I was done.

It’s not a fancy or complex quilt and it’s certainly not the finest quilt I’ve ever made, but it was the perfect re-entry into quilting for me. And, let’s remember – it’s going to live in a dorm room.

It’s been quite some time since I have sat down at my sewing machine and quilted anything. Probably years, in fact. A couple of weeks ago, though, I spent a day visiting a couple of local quilt shops with my friends Lois and Blogless Sharon. Turns out, that was all I needed to kick-start my quilting mojo.

I bought this adorable little cupcake potholder kit and I’ve already made it. It didn’t take long, maybe just under 2 hours, and it’s pretty cute. I had to find my supplies and it took a while to remember how to use my walking foot but once I got going I found that I really enjoyed myself.

It’s going off in a care package to Hannah this week and I’m already working on my next quilting project. Remember this jelly roll?

Those strips have now been sewn into a quilt top and I got a beautiful dark blue bali print to use for the borders, backing and binding.

I’m still a fervent knitter and occasional spinner but it sure feels good to quilt again.

When my dear friend Debbie was killed last summer she was working on a quilt. No surprise there, as she was just about always working on a quilt. However, this quilt was for her son and Debbie’s husband asked if Sharon, Lois, Wendy and I would finish it. We agreed, knowing it might be painful at times but also knowing that Debbie would have wanted us to do this.

Debbie had the center squares all pieced and sewn together so we just had to decide on the border and do the final quilting and binding. Lois really pushed us to get it finished, I think she felt the burden of it the most, maybe because it was “living” at her house.

I would have been happy to ignore it for a good long time as facing that quilt was just a little too much like facing my grief. But I was dragged through the process by my friends and now it’s done.

If you know any quilt folklore then you know that the red in the center of a log cabin block represents the hearth or the heart of the home. Since Debbie’s death I have realized that she was truly the heart of our little group so it seems fitting that this last quilt is a Log Cabin design.

The fabric for the piano keys border came from all of our stashes so this quilt is truly a combination of all of us — our efforts, our fabric, our time and our love.

It’s a legacy and an heirloom and completing it is one more act of friendship towards Debbie. I guess it was a gift for all of us, too.

When Saftler’s Fall Class Schedule came out a few weeks back I got inspired. I decided that Lois, Sharon, Wendy and I should take a class together. Not a big ass commitment or anything but something fun and quick – a way for us to learn something together and maybe help us not miss Debbie so much. And lo and behold there was a class that was just the thing – A Quilted Postcard Class. Never mind that not one of us knew what a quilted post card was, the day and time of the class worked for everyone and that’s really all that mattered. So Lois signed us up and last Wednesday night we all met at Saftlers to take this class together.

I’ll admit that at first I didn’t really get it. Quilted? Postcard? Huh? But once I looked through the instructor’s scrapbook of postcards, well, I got a teeny bit inspired.

I gathered my supplies. Luckily, Lois brought a whole container full of landscape type fabric scraps to share.

I cut out fabric and fused it into place with Steam a Seam.

I embellished. And did a bit of quilting.

In the end I wound up with a cute postcard of some mountains. And a sheep. It’s a sweet little reminder of my trip to Utah. And no, I’m not mailing it.

Not to worry, this isn’t turning into a quilting blog. BUT. I actually quilted at quilting a few weeks ago and I have a bit of bragging to do.

This quilt was a true collaborative effort of my entire “Hungry Crafters” group. You might remember that my quilt group used to be called the “Hungry Quilters” but since these days most of us often knit instead of quilt, we have changed our name to “Hungry Crafters”. You’ll notice: we’re still hungry. You’ll also notice: we still get together every Wednesday. It’s the getting together that matters, not the hobby pursued while we’re together.

In any case, this quilt was put together by all six of us. Some of us pieced and some of us cut and some of us pressed. The color scheme was my idea but everyone contributed scraps for the project. Lois did the quilting and I sewed the binding in place. It’s being donated to the History Alliance at Hannah’s school. They will sell raffle tickets for a fundraiser for this year’s trip to Richmond, VA. Hannah visited New York City with this group last year and will be going on this year’s trip as well so it’s fitting that those of us who love and support Hannah should make this contribution on her behalf.

I don’t have details yet on the tickets but I will soon. In the meantime, if anyone wants to buy tickets, let me know. I’ll cover the cost of shipping the quilt to you if you should win.