Did You Miss Me??

Did you miss me?  I sure have missed writing blogs!  And, I don't really have any good reason, except that life got busy for awhile there, and then all this COVID-19 business took over the world.  Speaking of COVID-19... I sincerely hope that all of you are safe and healthy, and actively practicing social distancing.  I know my sister and I aren't even seeing each other right now, and the only reason we've been in public for anything in the last month is to go to the grocery store.  This is some scary stuff!

I know all of us have been affected in different ways and at different levels when it comes to COVID-19.  My guild's annual spring retreat was cancelled, which was usually a wonderful break to get away from work and the daily grind, get some great inspiration from fellow quilters, and catch up on some of those darned UFOs!  And, our guild's bi-annual quilt show was also cancelled.  So sad and disappointing!  I had five quilts entered, and was considering a sixth.  I do believe we will all get through all of this, and we just have to be patient, be careful, social distance, and maintain the hope that things will get back to normal!

Now, on to more happy adventures in quilting... just a few of the things I've completed over the last few months since my last post...

First up, a couple of floral quilts that I quilted for a friend of mine, Georgann.  She made these for a couple of her family members, and wanted all-over quilting on them.  I opted for the same pattern on both, gdaisyfaste2e from Stitch Happy, to match with the floral themes of the quilts.  I think they're both beautiful, and I'm sure they're very loved by their recipients!

The first of Georgann's two quilts.

A close up of the first quilt.  Check out that gorgeous border fabric!

The second of Georgann's quilts.

A close up showing the quilting and that tiny pinkish purple border.  Love it!

Another close up.

A photo of the back, so you can really see how the quilt pattern looks.

Another friend of mine and my group of quilter friends, Pat, is having health and memory issues, and the group has taken on finishing all of her UFOs for her family.  This is one that I took on quilting for her.  It has kind of a folk art feel to it, so I tried to stick with more traditional quilting... echoes throughout the background, light stitching on top of the larger applique pieces, what I call "shwoop shwoops" in the half square triangles, and a fairly simply border design.  I absolutely love how it turned out.

Overall photo of Pat's quilt.  I love the motion that the echoes give the whole thing.

A little closer view at an angle, to see more of the quilting.

Another closeup, with the border and half-square triangles.

Next is another friend's, Becky's, quilt.  This one is based on the pattern for Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell.  Becky chose Civil War fabrics, though, and changed up some of the blocks within the quilt to better match her own tastes (and stash!).  I have to say, she originally wanted custom quilting for this quilt, and I spent several hours trying to figure out a set of patterns that would look good together, keep even quilting density, and showcase each of the different sections of the quilt.  I couldn't find anything, except possibly ditching the entire thing, so we decided to go with an all-over, and used Spiral pano 001, one of my very favorites, from Kimberlee Diamond at Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio. Love, love, love...

Overview of the whole quilt.  Beautiful!

A closeup view to see the quilting and all of the piecing!

Another closeup from a different angle.

Now, for another friend's, Jerrianne's, quilt.  Do you see a pattern here?  I haven't been getting many of my own quilts done!!  LOL!  These are simple nine-patch blocks, set on point and alternated with various shirtings.  Very scrapy, with I love!  And, and I have to say that Jerrianne's quilts are always a joy to quilt because they are so flat and so square.  This top was perfect!  We chose the Goose Down pattern by Dave Dennis, and I stretched it some so that the quilting wouldn't be that heavy.  As you may or may not know, heavier quilting stiffens up a quilt and makes it not-so-snuggly.

Overall of the quilt.  Perfect and beautiful!

Closeup view at an angle.

And now... on to a couple of my own quilts!  First up is one that I think has become my very most favorite little quilt that I have!  I've always had a thing for boot quilts, maybe due to my being born and raised in Texas.  And, add to that my alma mater being Texas A&M.  Last year, at the guild's spring retreat, Becky (same friend as above) had made a miniature boot quilt for our guild's mini quilt auction.  I fell in love!  Well, she gathered up some Texas A&M fabric scraps from a couple of quilters at the retreat, and made mini Aggie boot quilts for me and another Aggie friend, Cynthia.  I decided to really challenge myself with the quilting of this little guy, and I had an absolute blast doing it!  I'm not going to name all of the individual patterns here, but I used some fills and backgrounds from Anita Shackelford and Karen Farnsworth, the outer border is from Joyce Lundrigan, and the inner border is from Laurie Thomas.

Overall photo of Baby Boots.  It measures approximately 20-inches square.

Closeup view, at an angle.

Another closeup view.  So stinkin' cute!

Photo from the back of the quilt, which really shows the quilting done.

Last for this month, is one of my lessons in longarm quilting.  This quilt has been proudly named Snakebit!  I purchased the blocks at my guild's annual auction last August.  I do like string quilts, and this one has such bright, happy colors!  I just couldn't resist.  So, I laid out all of the pieces to my liking, stitched them all together, and loaded it up to quilt with an edge to edge pattern.  In this case, I used celestial pano 004, another one from Kimberlee Diamond at Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio.  Now, you may ask, why was it snakebit?  Everything seems to have gone so smoothly to this point.  HA!  I stitched out a couple of passes and noticed that there was a tuck in the backing.  ACK!  If it was a customer quilt, I would have taken out all of the stitched and redone it.  However, I figured this was a total utility quilt that only I would see, so move on, and chalk it up to a learning experience.  Okay!  A couple more passes, and uh-oh... somehow I didn't roll the quilt enough on the computer and two of the passes overlapped each other by an inch or so.  DOUBLE ACK!  Again, learning experience, and nobody will ever even notice except me.  I finished the quilting, unloaded the quilt (and noticed a few more tucks on the back).  Then... I sewed the dang binding on the wrong side of the quilt!!!  In any case, I do love this quilt, and I sleep with it every single night.  I'm always learning when I'm quilting, and I can only be glad that this all happened on my own quilt and not one that I'd have to fix.

Ack!  There's that first tuck that I spotted.

Double ack!  There's the overlapping passes that I spotted.

Overview photo of the completed Snakebit quilt.  So bright and happy!

Closeup of the top and quilting.

A closeup of my pieced back.  If you look closely, you might see a couple more tucks in there.

Well, that's all I have for this month.  I promise I'll be back sooner next time!  I've already got some photos ready to go for the next post.  Please, please, please, everyone stay safe and healthy while the world deals with this deadly virus.  I'll see you soon!

Keep on quilting!
Jenny