Birthday Quilts Are BACK!

Birthday quilts are back on the calendar! And aren't we happy? You betcha! This is our group, the Amazing Quilt Babes (less one). Each year we have chosen a day for our own very stitch day, and the others give their time instead of presents. Even though that day isn't our official birthday, it becomes an Amazing birthday because our friends are helping us make a special quilt. The "birthday" girl this time, is Carol, on the right of the picture. She has fallen in love with Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and this is the result of our morning sewing!

Last year, Carol had us help her with a French Roses quilt for a friend who had liver cancer. We all fell in love with the fabrics she used, so she "kitted" up enough for us all to make one, too. This is Shirlee's (left) quilt with Carol (right). When I have my French Roses completed, you'll see some of the same fabrics, but mine will be king size for my bed! Shirlee chose to back hers with flannel, and it will be a yummy reminder of the happy summer come this winter as she curls up to sew!

At the end of the day, stormy weather has us outside taking pictures instead of inside taking cover!

This is what is known as the leading edge of the storm. See the anvil shaped cloud?
And it is sure a good thing that I've finally gotten my big board set up (on a sofa table rather than an ironing board). Clyde has declared this his favorite spot to sleep while I sew! Isn't his smile sweet?
If he grows any longer, I'll have to order a wider board for sure!

Big Bad Momma!

The Big Bad Momma of all quilts is finally done - or at least it's a flimsy, as my friend Nancy says:) It finished out at 106" X 117". I modified Bonnie's Patches and Pinwheels pattern to use 2.5" strips that made the blocks a bit bigger. I really like this quilt a lot, and I think I will probably make another one using smaller strips out of my bins.

We have a deep mattress king bed, and my quilts never seem to drop quite far enough. Well! I think this one will! I always put my big quilts sideways on the bed and make a matching pillow case to go along with it. Since I never make a pillow roll on my bed, this works just fine for me!

The first picture is of the backing folded on top of the quilt underneath on my sewing table. The second photo is the quilt on my design wall (without borders). I couldn't decide whether to make another row all around or to add plain borders. I guess you can see which one won, right? This quilt was originally started at the beginning of the summer for my birthday quilt by my stitch group, The Amazing Quilt Babes.



Now, it's off to the quilters for a true finish!

Now I'm on a roll!

Back from Mayo yesterday, and all is well!

Today I spent a bit of time in the garden, repairing fencing where the deer got in and ate all the tops of every plant that was there. Beans, squash, and even the tomatoes! Then I spent a wonderful couple of hours in the pool, and now the grandchildren are here splashing around. The girls will stay all night, the wittle boy goes home for his own bed. A wonderful day, all in all!

Here are my quilting buddies, the Amazing Quilt Babes, with the latest birthday quilt. We worked on it the day before we left for Mayo, but I just didn't have the time to get it downloaded, etc for the blog. It's Carolyn's and we managed to get all the hundreds of blocks required for it. It will be a BIG beauty when it's done!

While at Mayo, I was able to get two more charity quilts done, one completely quilted AND bound - the other bound in the car, and the last one bound while waiting for his testing to be complete. I also finished up the class sample for the circles class I will be teaching at a LQS. I quite like it, and I think I must make at least another one for me, this time! If you double click on the picture, I think you'll be able to see the circles inside the circles or on the sides of the circles.

Tomorrow is back to the gym, then back to more charity quilts!

Another Birthday Quilt day

Today was another Amazing Quilt Babes birthday stitch day. Since it's been a while since I've explained how my stitch group does this, maybe I should explain it again!

There are 6 of us in the group. Usually in December, we set our calendar for the next year, planning a stitch day about every 6 weeks (none in the month of December). Then we draw names to see who gets which stitch day for their "birthday" gift. The birthday girl chooses the pattern, makes sure to bring instructions for everyone, and might even teach a new technique or review and old one for the day. She also brings everything already cut and ready to sew - it is susually "kitted" up in baggies for the subsets of the larger blocks. For example, today, we had log cabin block baggies, and flying geese baggies.

We begin the morning about 9 AM or so, and sew until lunch time. We all bring our own lunch; the birthday girl brings dessert. Today it was a Baskin Robbins chocolate mint ice cream pie! Then back to sewing again until we run out of parts or out of steam or out of time. Today we got all but 16 blocks completed, and about 1/3of the quilt sewn together.

This is what Ibby brought as the diagram to show how the log cabins were constructed. She was REALLY prepared! And we even got a new phrase to use when pieceing; as in "I've got a 1230 here". This means that one of the pieces in the baggie was cut at 12:30 at night, and probably was cut the wrong size.

Here's the group, once again in our usually places. The birthday girl is wearing RED.

Not bad for having several 1230s along the way, and numerous re-takes on some blocks that weren't sized quite right. Lesson learned for today? Check the size of the block as you go, instead of waiting until you have almost 100 of them done! LOL! It made for a lot of chatting as we unsewed some of our early pieces. This quilt pattern is Double Duty by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, 78" X 78". Most of the fabrics used were from Jo Morton's line. It's a great fat quarter project, too, as it takes 6 Fats for the geese, 10 Fats of lights for the log cabins and 18 Fats of mediums and darks, plus yardage for the setting triangles, backing and binding.

Now, I've got to get the suitcases out and get them into the room for packing. I'll pack my gear until the NCAA basketball game starts in about an hour then, I'll be in front of the television rooting for our KU Jayhawks! Then back to packing, and hopefully to bed early. Out of here bright and early tomorrow morning for Asilomar, near Pacific Grove California. See you in a week with tales of circles, ovals, un-paper piecing, and wavy gravy (my term) from Dale Fleming's class!