Fifth finish -- Hugs

I love making baby quilts & take any opportunity to make one.
Your neighbor's second cousin is expecting? Does she want a quilt!?!

My recent opportunity was not quite so oblique. The woman who does my hair. She's very sweet, has a 10 year old son & is awaiting a daughter at the end of October. A quilt is in order!

This was made entirely with materials on hand -- both pleasing & slightly embarrassing to me.
Anyway, the quilt, Hugs, along with a baseball pillow case for the big brother, has been given to the growing family & they were quite pleased with both.

Fourth finish -- Del Mar

Del Mar is finished, but rather than folding it away to use on the bed in the coming winter, I put a sleeve & label on it & packed it up to ship -- because it was accepted into the Made in Texas exhibit at the Texas Quilt Museum. I handed the quilt over to FedEx on Friday morning 25 August -- that night hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast between Corpus Christi & Houston. Over the next week we got nearly 46 inches of rain, but unlike so many unfortunate Houstonians, we did not have water in our house. I won't go into the drama of the week, except to say that it was rough watching the horror unfold on television. Again, Shug & I were safe & dry, but it was hard to see our city struggle.

My quilt, Del Mar, inspired by houses on the Texas Gulf Coast, sat somewhere in the care of FedEx. I was not really worried about its whereabouts, just wondered if it might be sitting in muddy water somewhere. Then I thought, if it was in muddy water, I would just wash it as best I could & the quilt would tell a slightly different story about life on the Gulf Coast. But it arrived safe & dry in La Grange (which had its own bad experience with Harvey).

Third finish -- Healing Feathers

A friend I know through work is facing an uncertain future.

Less than 2 years ago, he was diagnosed with a degenerative lung disease. At the time, he was symptom-less, but it was not long before he had a 24 hours/day CPAP machine & restricted activity. Now he is in the hospital on high levels of oxygen & is on the short list for a double lung transplant -- waiting, waiting.

Well, there is not much I can do except make a quilt to show that I am thinking of him. So, with Anna Maria Horner's feather pattern, I made a quilt that I hope has healing powers.

Second finish -- Ribbons

Last year, when I was planning a quilt for my oldest niece's Big Birthday, time was passing & I still hadn't decided on a pattern -- I needed to start *something* or I risked running out of time! So I began 2 quilts. I quickly knew which was hers & had a second that would be a gift for someone else. The second one got moved to the back burner. I pulled it out earlier this year, quickly finished the piecing, then put in about a 40 hours of quilting!

It was not until I was editing my images for this post that I noticed my mistakes. They are not glaring, you may have trouble finding them & I don't think the new owner will mind.
:-}

First finish -- Pompoms

I began these blocks in January or February of 2016. Audrey at Quilty Folk was hosting a quilt-along: Quilty 365. I didn't manage 365 blocks, just 196. I finished it this year just about the time our brief Gulf Coast winter ended. Oh well. It is still very jolly, all dots with a few checks & stripes.
I am calling it Pompoms.

Finally finished & on to new things

I quite literally let out a "WHOOP" when I finished the plum & gray quilt. (I don't know why, even though it seems a little pretentious, I feel compelled to name my quilts. This one I have dubbed "Rock the Casbah". The rich colors & the pattern make me think of Morocco. And then there is the memory of walking past my 3 or 4-year-old niece's room, she was in there playing with her dolls & singing "rock the casbah, rock the casbah". So, the plum & gray quilt is "Rock the Casbah".) Then I said a prayer to the goddess of quilts in transit & sent it on a journey to its owner.

It arrived safely & -- my Birthday Girl loved it. So pleased, so relieved. Her sister said the nicest thing, "it really is "her"". {happy sigh}

After that, there was a period of post-finish slump, that little let-down after something you have worked on long & hard is finally done. Then I started thinking about what is next. Of course, there are the WIPs/UFOs I pulled out as diversions while working on Rock the Casbah -- WIPs still, just a little farther along. And there are the new projects I began, also as diversions -- broken dishes with the 60s prints, hummingbirds with Cherrywood scraps, string blocks. But, something new, what could that be? Handwork, hand-sewing, has been on my mind. Appliqué? English paper piecing? Plain, old hand-piecing? Hmmm? Well, since moderation is not my strong suit, how about one of each? I was in the process of planning 2 queen-sized EEP quilts & a hand-pieced quilt & a big 4-block applique quilt, when I gave myself a shake & said, "hold your horses, Big Eyes, lets keep your focus small." So I am thinking of a 4-block applique (or maybe just one block, we'll see) with EEP hexagon flowers & a second project of hand-pieced bow ties. Those sound do-able!

Tree Lot

The tree is probably my favorite part of Christmas. Well, after gathering & sharing with family & friends, then the Christmas tree. I have been known to leave the tree up until springtime -- an artificial one, we quit having real ones after we realized we both were sneezing the whole time it was in the house. But because we often travel at the holidays, I don't always get to have a tree. This year was the second in row without one at chez Shug & smazoochie. I hung a wreath on the door, our stockings on the mantle, my old Christmas tree quilt on the wall & called the house decorated. Easy to clear away when the holiday was over, but not very cheery.

I began thinking about a another tree quilt in mid November. I love my first one, am looking at it now while I type, but I wanted to make another. This time I wanted more freely pieced trees. I thought & thought, looked at books, on Pinterest, watched Craftsy lessons. Finally, I went to the source: Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking. I pulled a mix of greens, old & new, then began making liberated geese. The trees grew quickly. While I sewed, I remembered tree shopping when I was very young. A guy with a semi-trailer full of trees would set up business on a vacant lot in my town -- the Tree Lot -- this is where my family would go to choose ours. While Mom, my brother & I looked for The Perfect Tree, Dad's input was a tree with a straight trunk. I don't remember a tree ever falling over in our house, but the straight trunk seemed a very big deal. Perhaps none of these trees would have passed his standard, but it was such pleasure making them & remembering those old times.

This quilt may hang until Spring.

Office Geese

first finish & a short story made long

I put the final stitches in the binding of this one in the early days of 2016. Technically, it is not my finish, I merely turned a top into a quilt, but it is now a charming & cuddly quilt in our home.

I bought the top years ago. When both my parents were living & well, I would go up to visit twice a year. During these visits, Mom & I would usually take a day & go to the thrift stores & flea markets. On one of these trips, I found this bright, simple vintage quilt top. I always had plans to quilt it, had folded it away with fabric for backing & binding. For more than 10 years, it had been on my shelves until late last year I pulled it out & decided it was time to do this thing. I simply & quickly quilted it, was sewing on the binding -- rats! -- it lacked several inches of meeting up. Well, time to formulate & implement Plan B.

Under my sewing table, are 2 vintage suitcases & a decorative box, all are filled with fabric. I knew one held my gathering of 30s looking fabrics where I might find a binding-gap filler. I wiped off thick layers of dust & began exploring.

What's in the box? Oh! It's my collection of Day of the Dead, Virgin of Guadaloupe & bright florals. Eep, I had forgotten all about them.

What is in the black case? Well, flapjacks, more things I had forgotten I had. Woven stripe, ikats, batiks -- beautiful stuff, but, whhaaaat!?! I'm sure I had some lofty plan that did not materialize. But now what!?!

 The brown case was Mom's high school graduation present. She took it with her to college & several years later, it went with her on her honeymoon. Now it holds fabric. And here is what I was looking for, my 30s fabrics that I gathered together after I cut up Aunt Evelyn's embroidered tea towels & set them into blocks. I was thinking of something cheery & kitchen-y -- it still could happen, I suppose. And, look! There on top is the perfect substitute binding!

 Early in my quiltmaking history, I read or heard that, for cohesive quilts, we should keep like fabrics with like fabrics -- no vibrant Day of the Day prints with florals in chalky pastel with indigo hand-wovens. I pretty much kept that axiom close to my heart all these years. Now I am trying to let it go. You may soon see many of these coming together!

a finish & a greeting

I whipped up a little doll quilt for a super hero-loving grand niece who is expecting a special baby doll for Christmas. I have been enjoying watching Audrey's quilt along, wanting to join in, but haven't had much time with Holiday preparations. This quick little toe-test of the circle blocks have me wanting to make more -- next year.

Wishing all y'all a safe, warm, love-filled Holiday.
xxx, smazoochie

Misses & Hits

There is a Modern Quilter whose lectures & lessons I listen to online. It seems like with every quilt of hers she uses as an example, she will exclaim, "I LOVE this quilt!" I find it a little off-putting. Does she really LOVE every quilt she has made? Is there nothing about any of them that she would change, do differently in the future?

There are quilts I have made that I had great expectations for -- perfect colors, perfect fabrics, perfect pattern -- but when they were finished, they just didn't hit the mark I was aiming for. Some are just off a bit, others not even close. As blogging quilters, we show our efforts out here on the Internets & our readers, our friends, will applaud them. Even when we say 'I don't like this' or 'I wish I hadn't done that', our readers & friends often say, oh no, it is beautiful just as it is. I do this myself. And when I do see something about someone else's quilt that I don't like or wish had been done differently, I don't say so. We seem to go by the If-You-Can't-Say-Anything-Nice-Don't-Say-Anything-At-All rule. So on Big Reveal posts, the comments are full of praise. I find that sometimes it gets hard not to believe all the praise, hard not to think, 'yes, smazoochie, another awesome quilt'.  But I try to keep my feet of clay firmly planted in reality.

Anyway, all this is leading to this quilt. It isn't often that I am so unabashedly pleased with something I've made. This quilt is not perfect, but I really don't think I would change anything about it. I LOVE this quilt! I don't say that about many of my quilts, just a few -- one more now!

Collaborating with a friend

This was a new experience for me -- working with someone to make a quilt for someone else.

I think it was Wrongturn Rojas' idea to make something with Anna Maria Horner's feathers (very generously available for free on her web site) for our mutual friend. I said we could go through my batiks for some bright blues & greens suggesting macaw feathers. We got together one day to sew. Because of the odd angles & shapes, the blocks were a little tricky to sew, but we soon had *almost* enough feathers for a quilt. Then we ran out of our background fabric! What to do?!?! How about adding a different background with some red feathers! Problem solved!

We texted back & forth one Saturday morning deciding on layout. Wrongturn assembled the blocks -- she did a BEAUTIFUL job, let me add (I would have been very casual about matching feather shafts & corner seams). We met at a fabric store & found the perfect fabrics for a border & binding. Because she put it together so well, it was super easy for me to quilt -- my go-to wiggle stitch again. Back to Wrongturn for binding; back to me for washing & a photo session.

Voila! We are both very happy with our quilt & very eager to give it to our friend!

Quilt of Shame

My brother & his wife were married 12 years ago. They married almost exactly 8 months after my brother's & my Dad died. My sister-in-law-to-be had already been a part of the family for a while then; she was there with us through Dad's diagnosis, treatment, death & had been a support to all of us. Their wedding felt like a family renewal, so I wanted to make something special for them.

A wedding ring quilt, right?!?

But a cheater sort of wedding ring -- the ring arcs appliquéd on to squares. No problem! The finished top was gifted to them at their rehearsal dinner.

Then came twelve years of quilting.
Not literally, of course -- twelve years more-off-than-on quilting.

I am such a better &, more importantly, a smarter quilt maker now. I know my strengths & I know my weaknesses. This quilt was waaaay more quilt than I could handle back then. But as I got smarter in the following years, when I would pull this quilt out to work on, all I could see were its flaws.
Well, it is done now. It looks a bit dated (12 years, approximately). It will soon be with its rightful -- & patient -- owners.

BAM!

My finished quilts kicked it up a notch -- from 1 to 7!

A mini & a lap-sized, made with on-hand parts were shipped to new owners before I made photos. Here's one in its new home.  A big quilty hug to you, Mrs. O'Quilts.

Besides the massive amount of quilting on the hummingbird stars, I also added some perle cotton ties. I mentioned before how the block edges are all on the bias & these edges are where the heavy quilting *isn't*. So to keep the quilt from looking like a Jonathan Adler vase, I tied the block corners.

The Pop Art nail polish bottles are done -- quick & cute.

And a jelly roll race -- not completely done, binding is on & hand-sewing is in progress.

In the not-ready-to-count-as-finished-but-nearly-so category are these: I got another 2 bands of Laura's Lightning quilted -- it's another with dense, time-taking quilting -- much more to go, so please stay tuned.

Then there is my Quilt of Shame -- a wedding present? -- 12 years late! UGH! I am hanging my head. My reason -- not my excuse! -- was that the quilt was at the edge of my abilities when I began it sooooo long ago. Materials & my equipment were different back then. The all-cotton batting helped reduce -- but not eliminate -- the number of tucks on the backside but also made the huge thing weigh a TON.  Free-motioning it on my dear Bernina was hard. The deeper throat-space on the Brother is making it much simpler. The "bride & groom" will get this quilt before the year is out!