Catching up... part one... :)

I've finished a handful of projects in three months since I last posted...

The sun shining through reminds me of stained glass. So pretty. And yay! for the clothes line my husband hung for me in our back yard!

This is the Saturday Sampler from AQ back in 2010-2011. I blogged a bit about it back when I was still making the blocks while the class was running. I actually had the whole thing done and even quilted a long time ago - I think before 2011 was over. I just needed to trim it and add the binding, but for some reason it ended up just sitting around all this time. Lame! I finally finished it back in September or so (2014), but I'm barely getting around to blogging about it.

I really loved making this quilt. There were so many new blocks to learn about, and I love the colors and look. My friend and I both decided we didn't want to do the redwork pattern that the designer had in her original design. It was a cartoon-like duck pushing a flower cart. It was cute, but we both wanted something a little more grown-up. My friend found the design we ended up using. I can't remember what the three small redworks were originally (maybe fruit?), but we changed those out, as well. I think I had almost finished the original duck/cart redwork when we decided to change it.. and even though it was some wasted work time, I'm really much happier with what we ended up with. We also left off a bunch of yo-yo's that were in the original design.

We pretreated our red embroidery floss as instructed, but I still had the color bleed when I washed it. This is after several washings:

It never all came out, and without the sun shining behind it, it's not quite as noticeable. I would be much more upset about the color bleeding if I was giving this away, but since I was just hanging it in my guest room, I just let it go. (Sorry if you're now singing "Let It Go" in your mind!)

I backed it in white muslin because it's just going on a wall... and here's the label after being washed probably 5 times (trying to get the bleeding out). It's faded a bit, but that's okay.

I hung this Saturday Sampler in the guest room, where the 30's reproduction fabrics look really nice where the old photographs of my ancestors and my grandmother's old buffet table reside. It helps to brighten the room. :)

It was machine quilted by Stacey G.

I also finished this camping-themed quilt for my oldest son. He's a grown man and married, so it might seem a little juvenile... but he and his wife like to camp, so when I saw the fabric and sample at the quilt shop, I decided to make it for him. I purchased the pattern and fabric back in the spring (2014) at Broadbent's.

It's made in a Turning 20's pattern.

A simple backing.

This is my favorite block... the blocks had to be made from a panel piece, so that's where the bear came from. I was able to add extra borders to make it the right size, and I love how it turned out.

This quilt was also machine quilted by Stacey G.

So there are all the pretty pictures of it... but here are some pictures of my frustration with this quilt:

The center of these blocks were all cut from a panel, then a border was added to make them the right size for the Turning 20.

It started out being four columns by four rows, but I just could not make the blue canoe fabric work. The color tone just didn't come together with the other fabrics. I kept laying them in a pile together to see what the problem was, and it seemed like it would work...

 ... but when I finally laid it all out on the design wall, it just did not work at all. I was so frustrated by that point that I had no desire to unpick those blocks to add a different border, so I just tucked them away and made the quilt 3 columns by four rows. It was a bit disappointing, because I had picked the canoes for a specific reason, but que sera sera, right? (Maybe those canoe blocks will make it into a baby quilt someday?)

It still turned out to be nice size quilt for snuggling up for a tv show or book, so I'm content with the finished product. And I am happy that my son and his wife both seemed to love it. Here's a picture my son sent me when he got home with it:

Haha... that's his wife's arm there... and he probably could have spread the quilt more to the middle of the bed so they could share the warmth a bit... :) Luckily, I'm in the process of making a quilt that is for both of them... so his missus won't be shivering for long. She can just claim it for herself if it comes to that. ;)

More updates in the next post!