Saturday, July 03, 2010


Area 51

Straightening up my sewing room I found UFO's I don't remember piecing...now that is bad! I am joining an open sew group once a month and I'm only bringing UFO's starting with Taylor's graduation quilt. I pieced the top at a retreat in May but he's grown a foot since I bought this pattern. I picked up a green check homespun for the first border and will use left-over pieces from the top for the outside border. Not sure what I'm going to use for the backing but it will keep him warm at college in Burlington, VT.

The star's on Spencer's quilt needs to be machine appliqued before the borders can be put on. I was originally going do do another pattern but he saw this one and I was over-ruled. The nine & four patches were part of my round robin for guild. In the guild's round robin we pass out baggies of pre-cut blocks w/directions and a picture of how the block should look. Your name gets put in after you've made 6 blocks for other members. This is the second quilt I've made with round robin blocks. Hopefully, my name will get pulled soon, I already have my next pattern picked out.

Some of my other UFO's:
The was a guild BOM using common fabric. Going to be a runner for my bureau.

Totally forgot about this one, 2005 Thimbleberries Club, will be made into a tablerunner.

This was from an Alphabet Block Swap I ran at guild. The background on the blocks had to match the letter. Mine was the X block, the background is a black & white check with X's from a crossword fabric line. I decided to be different and started adding wonky borders on my set.

2008 Little Lamb Quilt Shop BOM, maybe I'll finish a few more or maybe these will be a runner.

I stopped this 12 block series deciding that I would like it better in wool. This will make a nice little walling hanging for the dining room.

Oh look, the aliens are starting to show up!








Thursday, February 04, 2010

Dot gets a "Dot" Quilt


Wow, its been a long time since I've had done some serious sewing, but with some help I managed to whip up a quilt for our quilting friend Dot's 90th birthday. Dot is a prolific quilter and over the years has given countless quilts to Odyssey House in Hampton, NH. I don't remember how I came up with the idea, but I thought it would be fun to make Dot a quilt of dots.


Last spring I stumbled on a wonderful quilt from a block swap on about.com using the bricks and cobblestones pattern. I had a wonderful pile in my stash of polka dot fabric from several Keepsake Quilting medley's that I got at Christmas from my sister-in-law. Cutting up the fabric into 2.5" strips, I joined an open sew group on a Saturday and pieced together most of the blocks. I made a baby quilt with some of the brighter ones.


Funny thing is that I just remembered I was at a retreat with Dot when I pieced this top. The owner of the Inn let us tack batting up for a design wall. I placed each block on the wall thinking I would only have to move a few. WRONG! Sitting a few tables back, Dot started "instructing" me as to which blocks to switch and didn't stop until she was satisfied. After piecing the top I brought the ladies to Little Lamb Quilt Shop for some fabric shopping in our PJ's. With the help from my fellow retreaters, I picked out the two border fabrics. With the top completed I sent it home with my friend Terri to be quilted.


Fast forward to Dot's birthday in December, pulling out all the left over blocks I began to square them up. Yes, Virginia, I squared all the blocks up! I could not make a quilt for Dot and not square up all the blocks. Just the thought of not squaring up the blocks gave me nightmares, all of Dot's discussions (lectures) about squaring up blocks were coming back to haunted me. With the squaring up complete, now I play the design wall game. Satisfied with the layout but realizing I'm running out of time I call a few of Dot's friends for some help. The first pass off was to Lynne at McDonald's who puts the borders on. Next is the mother, daughter dynamic duo of Kris (who did the machine quilting) and Pat (who did the binding). WOO HOO...the quilt is done, and what does Dot do? She goes to Florida! We decide to give Dot her quilt at the January meeting of the Seabreeze Quilt Guild.

As you can see Dot loved her quilt.