Rose Marie-Winter is Done

Hello ...... well, gosh darn it ....... Winters of My Life is finally finished. Hop on over to my blog for an explanation of the blocks. I have to warn you, it is a lengthy post (3 separate parts).

Part 1: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2008/05/winter-is-not-over-part-1.html
Part 2: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2008/05/winter-is-not-over-part-2.html
Part 3: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2008/05/winter-is-not-over.html

Once again, many thanks to Tonya for issuing this challenge and for inspiring me to finally make a word quilt. A challenge it was at first; but once I started doing the freeform work, it became fun to make and I love my quilt! :o)

This quilt is being folded up and stored until next winter ..... but what a beauty I have waiting to be displayed.

Have a great day!

Kristin- Finally something to show!

Now it needs a border. A friend suggested it be a simple border rather than pieced so as not to distract from the center. What color? Any thoughts?

Heidi - finished finally

I'm happy, it's finished :-) Thanks for all the help and the encouragement, the 'yes'es and other ideas. I won't bore you with another full photo of the quilt, just the faces of the elks, as they have eyes and noses now .

Can't wait the next Christmas time to arrive ( ok, that'n not quite true, I'm looking forward to summer )....

So, where can I sign up for the Lazy Gal Summer Class ?????

The kiwi won't be landing for a while yet . . .

. . . on Helen's Christmas quilt. I have just been catching up with what everyone has been doing and I'd love to show you progress on my effort, but there hasn't been any! No excuses, but since I started teaching rookie classes at a local fabric shop I don't seem to have any spare time left, not that I had a lot before :-) Or maybe it is just that we are having the hottest summer for at least 10 years and it is too hot to do anything. Perhaps when winter arrives I might get started back on it. Is Christmas 2008 too tight a deadline to aim for? Well done everyone who made more progress than me. The variety is just stunning. I love them all.

Just snowballing along ....

Well ..... here I am a couple of weeks later and my quilt is not finished; but I do have something to show you.

I have to admit ..... I really do like the free form fans using just a marker and no stencil. The fans were drawn randomly and some had to be touched up a bit. Sure makes life a lot easier and the effect for this frozen lake gives the illusion of snow drifts and ridges.

My quilt has the combination of hand quilting and machine quilting. I'm in love with stipple machine quilting and it is being used throughout.

Haven't decided on a name yet for my quilt. Tonya wondered if it might be 'squeaky snow'. :o) Heard a lot of that lately and each time the noise made me smile. I'm open to suggestions for a name; but you might want to wait until you see the rest of the quilt.

Have a great weekend!

Heidi - help appreciated, again :-))

The motivation post worked !!! Which is the reason I could use a bit help again.
I want to quilt 'yes' in many different languages into the hearts of my quilt.
So far I have with the help of R.C.T.Q : German, English ( including some slang expressions ), French, Spanish, Italian, Scottish, Polish, Russian, Lazura ( don't even know where it's spoken ), Hawaian, Zulu and Xhara.

Maybe you know yes in any other languages ???
Thanks in advance
Heidi
P.S. Only 2 empty hearts left :-)))

How is Everyone Doing?

Heidi says she needs motivation to finish up. How are the rest of you doing? (I feel like a bit of a hypocrite since I have no intention of actually finishing my top until next winter, but i'm going to give some of you a nudge anyway.) Let's see where everyone is.

Brenda, who now has her own blog Scraps and Strings, finished her wintry quilt.

Kimberly at Loco Quilter finished Let it Snow!

Lisa at The Quiltery finished Joy to the World.

JMBMommy is Imagining Snow

Lynda finished her Goodwill house quilt.

Carol E. finished her little drummer boy inspired quilt.

Jude's peaceful quilt is finished.

Heidi's just about done with her Marry Christmas - keep at it!

Quilting Fitzy is doing such an unusual fun project. She's got a series of mini-finishes done for her signpost project.

Gillian has got to be just about done. Her quilting was in progress last we saw her stockings.

Rose Marie is quilting on her quilt too. I can't remember what she named it, I just keep thinking Squeaky Snow. hee hee hee.

Katie at Tao of Katie got her Santa Spock top done.

Sandy got her Let it Snow top done (unless she decided to add another border)

Heather has been travelling so understandably didn't get her blocks finished into a top (at least not that we know of).

Tracey did some fun liberated churn dashes and had a great snow man fabric to go with it. Any progress there?

Helen finished some letters. I'm still looking forward to seeing the kiwi wearing christmas stockings.

I know Kristin has gotten distracted with some fun liberated projects (which I always encourage) but I hope she comes back to work on her Better Not Pout project.

Jenclair made a great start with letters and trees...

Erika made a manger. Here's a nudge to come back to blogging and maybe to this project.

Laura has just been having way too much fun. hmm, don't think this quilt got off the drawing board....

McIrish Annie decided to finish up a ufo with the letters.

As did Sara Ho, who has just gotten way too distracted making whacky baskets. (Who wouldn't be?) Someday Sara will follow her star.

Diane unfortunately had some health issues, so was unable to keep working on her incredibly fun Bah Humbug quilt. Maybe sometime soon though.

Kim and Soren, it's not too late to get started if you still want to play.

So we've actually had seven finishes - woohoo and congrats once again. And several more almost theres. That's great.

I apologize if I haven't given you proper credit for your progress. just let me know! And post some pictures, let's see how your quilts look.

Officially there's still several weeks left of winter, even though I am seeing snowdrops and daffodils appearing in blog posts. Keep working on those projects. Good luck.

This winter class inspired me to start my own blog

Hello: After months of being a blog voyeur, I've finally started my own called Scraps and Strings. I've posted more about this quilt there, and I'd welcome your visits to my new home in the blogosphere. I'm hoping to share more of my attempts at liberated quiltmaking over there. Thanks for the visual feasts on your blogs, and for your kind comments on my winter class project.

Heidi - need motivation

Yes, please Quiltingfitzy and all the others, post photos of your progress. I lost a bit of my motivation and there are only 5 hearts left to be filled. Here's a photo of the first finished.

Cat Napping

No ….. not a photo of a cat napping. :o) A cute quilt for a gorgeous baby.

Have a great day!

Pattern Source: Quiltmaker magazine, May/June 2002, No. 85

Edit note: Oops ..... sorry folks, my husband has been posting for me while I'm away and I forgot to tell him about this site. This quilt is not free form, but a few folks have commented and it's winter time and I'll just leave it (unless Tonya, you would prefer to have it removed).

I have been busy working on my Winter quilt and I should have something to show in a few weeks. Until then ...... keep on quilting!

Let it Snow

Hello-I finally got back to my winter project and got it finished. Although looking at it now, I think maybe the snowmen should have some stick arms embroidered in. I added some sequins for ornaments on the tree and for the eyes. I kind of liked adding the embellishments-although I have done some embroidered things I have never added buttons or quilted with big stitches and pearl (perle?) cotton. It was fun! One thing I wish was different is at the top where the letters end, I ran out of the background fabric , so they are "attached" to the border. Oh well.
I still have Santa to finish but I probably won't get back to him for a while, mainly because I'm not sure what to add to him, but I have a couple of other projects to finish up. I would like to put Santa up next holiday season, so I plan to get back to him and finish him up eventually. This has been fun-thank you Tonya for doing this class! It was a fun project!

Whacky baskets

I have gotten distracted from the Winter Quilt by Whacky Baskets.

I put a little explanation on my Blog, tho' I can't imagine anyone in this group needs an explanation once there is a photo!

Sara

http://saras-scraps.blogspot.com

Tonya made me feel guilty...

So I finished the flimsy. :) I sent Scott out to a model show (with really little stuff, not hot girls) so I could work on it today. He's got the camera, so these were taken with my phone. Sorry for the quality.

The border is a dark blue print with gold dots, like stars. Like space... the final frontier...

Here's the face. I'll be putting buttons on for the eyeballs.

Aside: Scott said he didn't get the humour. I said, "Other than vulcan logic precluding believing in the existance of Santa Claus, or trying to imagine Mr. Spock being anything close to jolly?" He still doesn't get it.

It's finished

I took the advice that lots of you kindly gave me and didn't put any borders on the quilt. This decision was made easier by finding a striped fabric that I fell in love with so I used to make a wide binding. Hopefully you can see the quilting if you click on the photo and expand it, though it's just a simple stipple.


I have a huge sense of accomplishment about finishing this quilt. It feels so good to look at it and think *I designed that, I made it and I quilted it*. Sure there are things I would change but I am proud that it is all my one work. I can't thank Tonya enough for giving me the opportunity to challenge myself in this way. And also everyone who has left comments - thank you for the encouragement.

The big question is.... what next?

It seems my quilt was a weather forecast!

Hello out there from Winnipeg, a place where the snow is actually as described above, and we're in the deep freeze temperature-wise. My winter quilt is completed and up on the wall and I'm just a bit sorry it's all done. I had lots of fun working on it, and I really liked quilting those freehand fans. I'm going to quilt them into my next project too. Thanks Tonya for hosting the class and being so gracious with your comments. I'm having fun with making letters, and I think I'm developing a style or a font. And for the rest of you, there's lots of winter left in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, so if your project is still in progress, you've got at least three months more by my calendar.

I'm off to a quilting retreat at the end of the month, and I'm taking this quilt for show and tell and I'm going to direct everyone over to this blog so they can see how great you're all doing.
FYI: this quilt is about 37 inches wide by 28 or so and fits nicely on the wall above my fireplace./Brenda

Heidi - finished with fans

The fans are done, the binding is done, what's left is to fill the hearts, give eyes and noses to the elks and sew the hanging sleeve on ( and then put it away till next Christmas :-)) )

As you can see in the first photo, one heart is filled already, I'm still pondering about how to fill the others. Maybe with question-marks or with 'Yes' and 'No' and 'Maybe' or 'love' and 'joy' and 'bliss ' ??

Toot-toot! I am done!

Fun, fun project! I did finish this before Christmas so that I could share it at my December guild meeting (Which was SO fun, standing in front of a crowd with it upside down and everyone thinking "Mons?? What does that mean?) I am enamored with small quilts right now, I think that it is the finishing thing. It is very intoxicating to get something done and off of the UFO list. I will continue to make quilts this way, it is so funny that trying this class took away a lot of my fear of failure. It also inspired me to make many of my presents this season and kindled a desire to just craft more. I would do another class like this in a heartbeat, and I am so grateful to Tonya for putting this together and to everyone else for their inspiration and ideas. THANKS!!!--now to finish that quilt-swap quilt that I also signed up for....

Back to the drawing board, sort of -Annie

I have all my weird sized blocks from "back in the day" all bordered and recut. I cut them on an angle and like how they look. These are just a few of them. I want to make this lap size so I may need to make more blocks. I'm thinking snowball blocks and maybe some wonky trees and snowflakes.

My letters are the back to the drawing board phase. I've changed my mind on the color of the background for the letters. Good thing I only had two made! Ha, Ha! I have also decided to do all the letters in Capitals partly, well because I am lazy. SO here are two J's. I've written down all the words I am going to do and I am doing all of the letters at one time. The Js are done! Woo Hoo!!

I've got three or four irons in the fire so progress may be slow but I am determined to finish this.

Tonya, if you decide to shut down the blog before I finish I won't be offended!

I have set aside time every day to do a few letters so when I have a whole word done, as Arnold says I'LL BE BACK!~

Fitzy - "Are We There Yet?"

I embroidered, layered, quilted and bound the "Christmas" sign yesterday. That's alot for me to get done in one day! I also cooked 2 meals (which is totally uncharacteristic) so I declare it a GREAT day.

The next sign is to be representative of the state of California. I'll be darned if I can find any city in California that represents Christmas!! The closest is "Angels Camp" and that just doesn't work for dh & I. I may resort to making a city name up, hope the quilt police don't come looking! Let me know if you have any secrets in your pocket, any cities YOU can think of that I may have overlooked in CA? Or how about suggestions for a city name to be "created"?

My background will be dark blue, all pieced together willy-nillie, and the snow at the bottom of the pole will be done the same way. I have in mind a green and white barber pole for the signs to hang on, and a golden ball at the top. I haven't decided if the pole will be pieced, will depend on what I can find for fabric (I'd really rather NOT piece it, lol.) I have some nice folk wooden buttons for the "nails" to hold the signs onto the post.

It's all playing nicely in my mind, just got keep going, stitch-by-stitch!

It's a flimsy

It's been while since I posted progress on my *Joy* quilt. I originally made my words in December but the colours didn't work. I had to order more fabric and then the silly season got in the way. It's only now that I've sat down and worked on it again.


I could use some advice... does it need a border on the top or right to finish it off? Maybe something narrow? Maybe this is just the *traditional* coming out in me - VBG.

I've had so much fun putting this together. Thanks Tonya for the class!!!

Rose Marie-starting to quilt

I'm anxious to get this quilt done and up on my entry wall so that we can enjoy it while winter is still here! :o) This section was first started with hand quilting, but was not happy with the look. Ripped it out and started doing machine stipple quilting and am much happier with it. So, all the words will have the stipple effect all around them.
The snowflake blocks (or as I see them, as figure skaters spinning) are being handquilted with beading in the centers.

It's a start ..... but at least it's being worked on! :o)

Have a great weekend!

Finished at last!

Hooray! My quilt has been hanging on the wall over Christmas and is now full of signatures. (There are so many of them because we have an Open House on Christmas Eve and lots of friends and neighbours come round.) Thank you Tonya for encouraging me to make this quilt, which will be a special reminder of 2007.

Today's post brought to you by the letter O - Annie

Well, I didn't get as far as I would have liked but I did get a couple of o's done for the word Okemo. Here are my o's!

This next picture is what I am working on.

I am going to add four resorts around the center and then the additional ones will be pieced in with the blocks or maybe as part of the border. The blocks you see I made back in 198??? as my first try at quilting. They should measure 6" but some are smaller and some are definitely larger soo I am going to add strips all around and then cut them on an angle so they will look like snowflakes. I have 15 white and 15 blue. I'd like to make this lap size for my son to have at his place which is wherever the snow flies!

My goal is to get two ski resort words done this week. Okemo will be one and maybe Burke since that's a short one! LOL

Heidi - Happy New Year

wishing you a Happy New Year from Germany....