End of year finishes

    Yikes, the Christmas holidays trampled me. My daughter moved from Rochester, NY to Meadville, PA to join her husband at Allegheny College teaching chemistry (two of them are professors now). They got married in May, he moved to Alleghany in August, and she was able to get her PhD work done in December. Organic chemistry in college sunk my destiny in engineering. Go figure, Ria is an organic chemistry PhD. December 20-21st and Dec. 26th were devoted to moving her. Rain and snow added to the mix. I am so proud of my daughter and her husband, but sad to have her move farther away. 
   I was able to complete a couple of things that I can show. I also assembled and labeled blocks for three comfort exploding squares quilts and the orange one previously. I did not photo the assembling, wait until I sew the tops for photos. I got  a "new" Singer 15 sewing machine that appeared to be in better shape than it is. And I have some machine bumps in the roads.
   First, the finishes. Made my grandson a truck pillowcase, taco style.

Bought the fabric at the Ivy Thimble in Fairport, NY

     Finished the Aurora Aura quilt I started in September 2011 at a Karla Alexander class. The quilting was done in the blue areas to relate to water, and the green bands to suggest leaves. Each band has a different quilt pattern. Just finished the binding yesterday.

56" x 82"

Border Detail

     Next, Flippin 9 patch that I started a couple of years ago as a class at Threads of Time. It sat around just waiting to be quilted. My son and daughter in law want it to top their bed as they love these colors. I used Glide thread to quilt; I just love, love it.  I tried not to use a lot of curved lines to keep it not real feminine. Just the borders have curved lines with added leaf shapes. All the quilts free motion quilted on the Singer 301.

Border lines

Free Friday Pattern Giveaway

      Today I am going to try a new thing- Free Friday Pattern Giveaway! I have accumulated patterns that I thought I would use, but other things took their place. I still like the patterns, but they need to go to other homes. This Friday's pattern is for the holidays or maybe anytime celebration if you change the fabric. It is called A Pretty Package by Suzn Quilts and is a quilt as you go. Just leave me a comment if interested and I will draw a name randomly and send it to you, free of charge. If you could just pass my blog on to one other person to look at, I would be grateful.

     On the home front, I started quilting Aura Aura, and a new chemo care quilt, one that uses the pattern from the Missouri Star quilt company from 2 Dudes Quilting using two bocks of strips, sewn right sides together, strips in opposite directions and sliced from corner to corner.
     The refinishing of the new treadle cabinet is underway, slowly, using Formby's refinisher and denatured alcohol in stubborn places. I have gone over all the cabinet once, but it still needs more. I will try to photo that today.
     Today, my 2 quilts get shipped to the View in Old Forge for their Quilts Unlimited Show. Good thing it is an open show, as it usually has quilts way above my league. I plan on attending the opening with my sister in laws this year.

Aurora Aura top done!

Finally, after 1 1/2 years, I finished the Aurora Aura top that I started in a class with Karla Alexander. Now, I have to buy some backing and batting and finish the whole package. I love the colors. My sewing ability has improved since I started when I did not know how to sew curved pieces. I used Elmer's washable school glue to hold the borders in place instead of pins, and boy, does it lay a lot smoother than when I used pins. I have been using the glue for bindings as done by Sharon Schamber- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hWQ5-ZccE and get great results every time.

Actual colors are much clearer and bright, but it is a rainy day here in Buffalo.

What is on the Wall?

I have a lot of different projects going and the wall is getting crowded.

In process, scraps sewn on heaving interfacing by sandwiching water soluble interfacing over the scraps before free motion quilting, then dissolving the interfacing after sewing. I have some spots to touch up where there are gaps. I am undecided whether to finish this with a facing or mount it in a shadow box. It is about 12" x 12"

These colors did not turn out well photographed- please come back sun! This is Aurora Aura that I started in a workshop with Karla Alexander in September 2011. I have to sew all the columns together and choose border colors. This uses the stack the deck method.

This is Acadia, making this as a baby quilt for a friend. I don't know whether I like the color arrangement yet so I am pausing to think about it. Again, the colors are not great on such gray days and a flash wipes them out. Will show progress.

These are two samples of Liberated Stars from Gwen Marston's book. I don't know why these are so hard for me to make. I am undecided if I will make a quilt of these as I find the stars very confusing to make.