Where Has the Year Gone?

 I had to go quite a way backwards to see how far behind I am! Here is one of the first quilts I completed  after the Longarm was set up in the new house. Sandy made it as a souvenir of their trip to Alaska, purchasing the fabrics while on their trip. 

Cross hatching is sometimes the best way to treat a lot of different images to make the quilt more cohesive, with a simple sashing and border design. 

Originally the Cal/King quilt below was meant to be done for Rick's birthday last September! Obviously with our move that was not going to happen but I did finally get it done and Ricky and Erica are very happy with it!

           These photos were taken on my bed before I delivered the quilt. The back is pieced with a center medallion of all the fabrics in the blocks and Rick and Ericas names embroidered in the center.

The custom feathered border is enhanced with piano key quilting on the outer edge and pebbles on the inside. The main body of the quilt is freehand feathers.

Helen has brought me several vintage/antique quilt projects, mostly blocks that her grandma-in-law left behind. These adorable Sunbonnet Sue and Sam blocks are sashed and bordered with a red and white dot and blue cornerstones.

I absolutely love the way it turned out, they look fresh and bright and I know Helen has made a place to hang this one.

My nephew Wesley and partner Louisa in Australia were expecting a baby boy so I sent a quilt for the baby, and not wanting the big brother and sister to feel left out, I also sent a quilt for each of them.

This is the quilt for baby Stetson Todd Brooker, made from blocks of random scrappiness! And a bright cheerful quilt it is for a baby, lots of interesting colors and designs in the fabrics.

                                                      Next, one for big sister Paisley.

                                           

And finally  batik with a cozy flannel back for big brother Dustyn

                                       Nephew Wes with Paisley and Dustyn and all three quilts.
                        There's more to post to get up to date, that will have to wait for another day

A Lot Of Catch-Up

After being on quilting/sewing hiatus for a few months[see explanation at the end of this post] I quilted the three large baby quilts below for my friend in CA. Hannah does not like tight quilting which I wouldn't consider for a utility quilt especially for a child or a baby. Each of the three has a different quilting design and different threads. Hannah also prefers 100% cotton thread so my default there is something from Superior Threads, usually King Tut or Masterpiece. I also use Connecting Threads Essentials Pro and their 100% cotton, though it seems to be a little more linty.

                   The first quilt has my old favorite Peacock Feathers always appropriate and fast

              The quilt below I used Line Dancing where you quilt block to block with no stopping.

                                                  This quilt has separate border designs.

                 I failed to take a pic of the back of the third, but the large feathering shows up on the front.

                               

                                                       I used E-E freehand feathers

Hannah's quilts are always a joy to quilt, the quilt backs are as neat as the front with all seams well pressed  and the quilts flat and square.

The batting is my default also, Quilter's Dream, I used the 80/20 pink, which sadly, is no longer in production at QD. I used King Tut in a blue variegated on one quilt, King Tut variegated gold in another and Masterpiece neutral in the third.

Now to try and fill in the past 6 months, I hardly know where to begin so much has happened. We found a new single level home in Phx with a nice pool and hot-tub, only 4 miles south of the old house, and after major renovations moved in the week before Christmas. All the packing and moving was laborious and exhausting, not to mention the unpacking which is still not complete with all my quilting necessities mostly still packed.

The bad news is that DH was diagnosed in November with cancer of the jaw and after three surgeries, the last a 17 hour marathon at Mayo in January, they removed the center of his lower jaw and replaced it with bone from his scapular.  He is now in the final days of six weeks/five days/week radiation, so our lives have been severely impacted. He is now cancer free praise God, we hope forever, and soon can look forward to rebuilding what was torn apart!

Consequently I have only had my longarm up and running about a month and temporarily it's in the area where the dining table should be, as we are planning an addition to provide me with a quilting/sewing room and a workshop for DH. So I am quilting under a fancy chandelier, makes me feel like the queen of quilters, LOL.

And below is the "before" picture with the dining table in its proper place. Fortunately the open floor plan is a huge area so we can still traverse the space without running into furniture!! We had to remove a wall and a gigantic "beehive" fireplace to make the one open space.

As goverments typically go, after 5 months the city of Phoenix still hasn't returned the architect's plans for the addition so I am sewing in the library and quilting in the dining room! It beats not doing either LOL, but most of my tools and all of my fabrics/batting are still in boxes and rubbermaid tubs which is very inconvenient and I cannot find my embroidery machine or any of my longarm rulers.

To add to the stress, our little Aussie Terrier developed a draining tract under her left eye last June 2020. In spite of constant vet visits, 7 different vets in fact, two surgeries, biopsies, cultures, antibiotics, anti- fungals and steroids, a CAT scan all over nearly nine months and about $4,500, it wasn't until the 7th. vet  that the reason was diagnosed-a broken tooth that had abcessed. Such a great little dog and so patient through all she has had to suffer in the interim. We had the tooth removed a couple of weeks ago and she is healed, praise the Lord. She is cuddled up beside me wagging her tail as I rub her ears.

We are praying that after Easter our lives can begin to find some kind of "normal" with DH finished radiation and AZ now mask free! Hooray! I hope all of us can now  be freed from the ubiquitous and onerous  flu mandates. 

                                 Nova is very happy she never wore a mask and never got the flu!