2021, Christmas cookies

 I make Christmas cookies and candy every  year to send to the children.  These are the sugar cookies which is a standard, and their favorite.  I thought this year I'd keep from breathing on them by wearing the ever present masks.  Vere surprised me by snapping this picture.  If I'd known that was going to happen, I'd at least have combed my hair.  Also, I'd have worn something other than my ugly house dress.

October 2021, full size, fifty states with state flowers embroidered

Finally finished this quilt.  It  was a lot of work and time.  An earlier post describes the origin of this quilt and showed the stack of blocks ready to be joined.  I didn't have Laura's plan for arranging these blocks, she might have planned  to put them on "point" with a turquoise block between.  I decided to make them straight, alphabetically, seven across and seven up/down.  But  that left "Wyoming" all alone on the bottom row.  Had to pull a couple blocks apart and rearrange them like this.  It worked out well.  One picture  here shows the back with a thin strip of the turquoise sashing that join the blocks.  Vere has said several times he really likes  this quilt and Sonya's eyes lit  up when she saw it.  So eventually it will go to Sonya.  I spent many wonderful, restful hours sitting out on my deck, doing hand embroidery. In the summer I was out there early in the morning in the shade.  As it got cooler I sat out there in 55 degree weather in the sun, watching the blue sky and green around me.  Did I say this quilt took a lot of time.

 

September 2021 Two 40" X 60" quilts for Linus Project

I know, it might seem that I just repost pictures of this quilt.  It's just that I like this pattern and it's easy to do when I have boxes full of 2" squares or 2 1/2" squares.  This is the last of these squares for awhile, but I can see the supply building, as it does when I make quilts.  These two will go to the Linus Project, an organization that gives quilts to children in hospitals and foster care.  The fabric for the backing came from the fabric shop in town, the owner donated about 9 partial bolts of fabric for this project.  The black/gray one doesn't picture well, but the words say, "security is a thumb and a blanket" with splashes of color, it's very charming fabric.  The other backing shows pictures of Snoopy dancing and the words "Hugs for Heroes".

 

 

September 2021, 40" X 60" quilt for "Project Linus"

I had a box full of 2" squares and started sewing them together for this quilt.  Then I found another bag with more of the same.  I spent two months sewing squares together and will post 2 more quilts when they are done.  These are for "Project Linus" which is a national charity organization that gives quilts to children in crisis.  Project Linus - from the Snoopy cartoon with a character named "Linus" who walks around with a quilt over his shoulder and his thumb in his mouth.   A woman in our quilt guild who also owns the fabric store had several bolts of fabric produced specifically for "Project Linus"  and she donated them to me to use for backings.  This backing is cute with pictures from the Snoopy cartoon.  A national representative for the project lives in Gr.Junction and I can get my quilts to her by calling, her husband works in the area and is often in Moab.  Handy, I don't have to mail them.  

 

September 2021, T-Shirt quilt

Bruce showed a coworker one of the quilts I had made for him from T-shirts.  He expressed an interest in having a quilt made for himself, paying me, of course.  He sent me these 10 large pieces, with direction on how he wanted them joined.  He did not want the usual square or rectangle quilt.  He wanted more like a bed-runner, one to display on the end of the bed.  I did not add sashing as I usually do because the pieces were so large.  I sewed them together and added a distinctive top stitch  on either side of the seams.  I was able to quilt it easily enough around the logo pictures.  I like the way it turned out, the fabric, smooth and flat.

 

Augus 2021, makings of a quilt with state flowers embroidered

 My friend Laura in the quilt guild had started the elements of this quilt, she cut batting and backing for 50 blocks and had imprinted the pattern for 50 states on 50 squares.  She had started to embroider the blocks and done about 10 of them and had also started to hand quilt some to show her intent on finishing each block,  then she gave the huge container to me, filled with all this plus lots of embroidery thread, some needles, the patterns and instructions.,  I've been working on this project for a little more than 2 years and just finished the embroidery and quilting on the 50th block.,  There is still so much to do, to join the blocks with sashing.  There are some dark turquoise blocks to go between there somehow (my daughter Val did some quilting on those blue squares).  It will be a huge quilt and I do wonder what will become of it.  I could give it to Laura's family, auction it off for charity, or save it for one of my kids.  For now it will stay with me.

July 2021, Two 40" x 60" quilts for charity, one for a friend

I saw this idea in a magazine, half square triangles, one side black/white fabric and one side bright fabric.  Of course I was hooked.  Sometimes I sew the blocks together randomly, or like this, together in a bunch.  The back is 12" squares using fabric from the front.  

I had a stack of squares left from another project, so I put them together  for this quilt.  I rather like simple quilts like this.  The back is a pretty pink flowers.  I quilted in straight line on either side of the seam line, vertically and horizontal.  Takes a lot of thread but not as much time as  you would think.  These two quilts will go to the charity, The Linus Project.  They take quilts for children in distress, either ill, or in foster care.  

A friend from church had made this quilt for a new grandbaby.  She asked me to quilt it for her her.  As a reward, I got the left over fabric from the backing and the cotton batting which will be useful for the pot holders I'm making for Christmas presents.  I love this backing material, it'll take me some time to find the best use for it.