2014 Block Swap Update

This year my friends and I have been swapping nine patch blocks. I first posted about it in April. We have been sewing and swapping since January-five blocks per person per month for a total of 25 blocks each month. 

I have been putting my blocks up on my design wall in random order as I receive them. They are all gorgeous and I can't wait for our final blocks in October! I have now run out of space. I guess the rest of my blocks will just have to go into a stack until I am ready to lay them all out and sew them together.

In case you are counting and I seem to be short blocks~one of the ladies in our swap lives in England and because the postage is so high, she has opted to mail us all of our blocks from her at one time in October. 

Happy quilting!

Grammy

A Tablerunner from Anne

When I went to the Charlotte quilt show I spent the night with Anne-not because it's so far away, but because it is so fun to do! :) We always have a great time together and I wish we were even closer and could visit more often.

When we get together we usually have a "little something" for each other. Sometimes it is something we made; other times it is something we found in a store that reminded us of our friendship. I was so tickled this visit when Anne gave me this adorable tablerunner that she made. These were leftover "bricks" from our swap for our soldier cot quilts. I love the way she set hers with the green. Isn't it gorgeous? I LOVE SCRAPPY!!

I have the runner on my kitchen table. It's perfect there and it's a constant reminder of a great friend and a fun visit. 

Charlotte Quilt Show

Quilt shows are always fun. Quilt shows with friends are a blast! When I found out that AQS was having their first ever quilt show in Charlotte, I knew it was a must-attend. Emails, text messages and phone calls with Pam and Anne ensued and our plans were made. 

There were a lot of very modern quilts on exhibit at this show, and since I am very much a traditional quilter, there were not a lot of quilts that inspired me. But, we had a fabulous day together and even made a side trip to both Mary-Jo's and Sew Much Fun. 

Here we are together with one of the winning quilts. We loved the color, applique and cute alphabet in this quilt. 

Here is another quilt by the same quilter. We loved it too. She is quite talented!

This red and green applique quilt was my very favorite in the show. Some day......

The three of us are getting together again in September to go to the AQS show in Chattanooga. I am already looking forward to it! 

Happy Quilting!  

Grammy

Card Table Makeover

My mother-in-law moved out of her house and into an independent living apartment building several years ago. She left a lot of things behind that she didn't want, need or have room for in her new home. The family got together and each took things that had special meaning or memories for them. The rest was donated to charity. One of the items my husband brought home was a old card table. 

At first I said "no, thank you". Then I decided it might be really cute with a coat of paint and a new top. My husband was so sweet and removed the top and spray painted the frame for me. I bought vinyl coated fabric and recovered the top. 

I love my "new" card table!

I Love Weddings

My sweet niece, Elizabeth, got married on June 28 to a wonderful young man, Jake. The wedding was beautiful, the reception was so much fun and I wish them many, many years of love, happiness and wedded bliss.  Happy one month anniversary!

Annie's Choice

My friend Anne had a birthday last month and Pam and I put our heads together for a gift for her. Pam's terrific idea was for the two of us to make blocks for her that she could make into a quilt. We turned to one of our favorite websites for quilt blocks, Quilter's Cache. 

We found a perfect block-Annie's Choice-and decided to make them in her favorite color-green. Pam had a solid light tan that we shared and we each picked 6 greens from our stash for the blocks. 

These are the six blocks I made. They are laying out on the floor in my quilt room ready to be sewn together. I had a great time making them, but I had to be very careful not to turn any of the half square triangles as I sewed them together. 

Anne had a happy birthday and she loved the blocks we sent her. Score! 

UFO Progress Update

In January I decided to challenge myself to finishing up some UFOs that I have hanging around. I blogged about it here and I proclaimed 2014 the Year of the UFO. I even added the 2014 UFO List to the right hand column of my blog. I have no idea what I was thinking when I did this! I am not into public humiliation and I believe I may have just set myself up for failure and some ridicule here! Oh well, my intentions were good. :-)

Fast forward to July (and I mean FAST foreward-the time has flown by!) and I have NO finished quilts. That is not to say that I have not been working on them though....

This Civil War Soldier Cot Quilt was my challenge finish for March. It had been hanging on my design wall for quite some time and I had no desire to finish it. I finally jumped in and sewed all the rows together and decided that the reason that I hadn't finished the top sooner was because it was not appealing to my eye. I didn't like it at all....so, I ripped all the rows apart and sewed them together differently and now my top is finally finished. 

The simplicity of this layout is much more appealing to my eye. And, it's done! It has now been moved from the "Unfinished Tops" to the "Needs to be Quilted" pile. That's progress, right?

The next quilt that had been on one of my design walls for a while is the Carson's Courtyard block swap that I did with my friends last year. Instead of sewing them all together into one queen size quilt, I decided to make my blocks into two throw size quilts. I was going to just sew on a white border and then maybe a piano key border made of 30's repros so that I could get the top finished in a hurry, but then I changed my mind. I saw another quilt recently that had two white borders with prairie points between them. It was such a clean and sweet looking border that I decided I would do my first ever prairie point project (try to say that three times fast!) 

I cut and folded and ironed more than 100 three inch squares to make the prairie points I needed. 

I have them on three sides now. One side to go, then the outer white border. Then this top will be ready to move to the quilting stack too. For the sister quilt I am thinking about a wide white border with some applique in it.  We'll have to see if that is still what I'm thinking about it when I get finished with this one. 

While digging for something else in my closet I came across these blocks that I made so long ago I can't even remember when it was. I know for sure that I made them BEFORE we moved into this house-so it was more than 8 1/2 years ago! Since it's July and they are so patriotic, I decided to lay them out and get them sewn up. It was a quick, easy project! This one is in the quilting pile now, too.

I finished another top recently too. Last July I got together with Pam and Anne and we cut out hundreds and hundreds of tumbler blocks to share between the three of us. Mine are finally sewn together and this top is in the ever-growing "to be quilted" pile! There are 756 tumbler blocks in this 64X81" quilt.

In the meantime Pam has her top done too and she added borders. I LOVE the way it looks!! Maybe I need to add borders too? 

And of course, Anne has totally finished hers-it's quilted, bound and snuggle worthy. That Anne's an overachiever! :) Showoff!

My friends and I are doing another block swap this year. It's just 9 patch blocks from Civil War fabrics. But they are beautiful and I think it's going to make a gorgeous quilt. We only have a few more months to stitch and mail and then we are finished for this year. 

Here's a little peek at all of my quilts hanging so sweetly in the closet, each awaiting their turn to be quilted. It's a little bit overwhelming. Make that a LOT overwhelming! 

Happy quilting.

Grammy