February Goal for ALYoF

My February goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes is to make twelve pillowcases.  Part of the retreat I attend every June is making something for a charity.  For many years we made 22" quilts, aka Love Covers, for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Louis Children's Hospital.  One year we made a quilt for every retired nun at The Mercy Center.  For several years now we have been making pillowcases for the patients at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.  

We started out a little slow in 2011.

We made quite a few more in 2012.

In 2013 we really outdid ourselves. 

This year every person who attends the retreat is being challenged to make twelve pillowcases, that's only one a month so should be very doable.  I pulled fabric this week for pillowcases so that will be my goal for February - to make my twelve pillowcases for retreat.

I think it's a nice variety of fabrics.  Something for everyone from toddler to teen.

I'm linking up with the Goal Setting Party at Fiber of All Sorts for A Lovely Year of Finishes 

January Stash Report

Blogging about my stash a few months ago has really motivated me to use it!  Sew My Stash 2015 is going to be a huge success if I can keep up this pace.

In January I was able to pull from my stash to make a backing and binding for the Blueberry Lemonade quilt, and I also used stash fabric to make the backing and binding for the baby quilt.   Then I pieced a Purple Quilt and made the backing and binding for it.  

Before the month was over I put together this baby quilt for a great-nephew coming along soon..... 

.....and pieced a backing for it.

  

I'm especially happy with this project.  I was able to use every bit of the bird fabric left from another project, and I managed to use an ombre piece.  I never know what to do with ombre.

All in all, not a bad start.  Here's my report :

January

Fabric Added in January - 0

Fabric Used in January - 13.25 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date - 0

Fabric Used Year to Date - 13.25 yds

Net used in 2015 - 13.25 yards

Another UFO Finished

The last time I was in St. Louis for a quilt retreat I got by one of my favorite quilt shops, Janie Lou, and bought these great fabrics for a baby quilt.  Friends  of ours will be having their first grand baby this coming July, and since he's an engineer for Boeing I thought this line would be perfect.  

I decided to use the pattern "Colorblock" by Bijou Lovely.  

The backing turned out to be an interesting experience.  I used some of the leftover fabrics as I often do, along with the white..... 

.....but when I laid it out to baste it, I discovered that for some reason, the backing was too small.  Drat!  Have you noticed that fabric is not as wide as it used to be?  You could always count on it being 44/45" wide, and now you're lucky if it's 42" wide.  I think I was using the 44" number when I was figuring out how to cut the backing.

Seems like I've been ripping out a lot of stitching lately.  

This is what we quilters call a "design opportunity."  Back to the drawing board, or I guess I should say back to the design wall.  I actually like this one much better.

I set out to quilt it by hand and had a terrible time needling through that white fabric.  In the areas where I would have to quilt through two layers of the white fabric I just machine quilted instead.  This is the first quilt on which I have ever combined hand quilting and machine quilting.

Anyway, the quilt is done and ready for baby.  This may be the earliest I have ever had a baby quilt ready!

Purple Progress

If you've been following my blog you know that I'm determined to reduce my stash this year, and the first stash-buster is a purple project.   Starting out with 4.5" purple squares I made modified snowball blocks by stitching 1.5" ivory squares onto three of the corners and pressing them back.

I thought I had cut enough to make 120 squares for a total of 30 blocks, but I ended up with extra.  That happens to me quite often.  Either I don't know how to make hash marks while I'm cutting, or it's "the dreaded math" and I set out to cut the wrong number of pieces in the first place.  Either way, I just use the extra blocks on the back of the quilt and pretend that it's a design element.  

My original plan was to have bright yellow cornerstones.

Once I had the first row sewn together,  Hubby asked me if I didn't think green would look better, and guess what?  It did!  So, I ripped.

It still needs some yellow, though, so I think I will embroider centers into the flowers.  Or maybe find some cute yellow buttons to use there?  Hmmmmmm.

I had the quilt top finished last week so this week I focused on piecing the backing.  Ahhh, yes, time to use up some more of that stash!  I spent the past few days on it, but I wasn't really happy with the results.  

First of all, I completely forgot to put the extra two blocks in.  I most certainly did not want two leftover blocks.  That would make me feel like I have to use them, and by using them I mean turning them into another whole quilt!  So I ripped ..... again. 

I added the blocks, then ripped out that large ivory piece near the top and replaced it with a pieced strip.  NOW, I'm happy with it.  

Time for basting and quilting.  I should be able to get to that pretty quickly.  This is one project that will definitely not end up on the UFO list at the end of the year!

January Goal -- Done!

This is my first official finish of the year -- I completed a quilt that I started in 2011.  At the beginning of the year it was a flimsy.....

.....and now it is a quilt.

Some time ago I had set aside this great fabric for the backing.  It has all the colors from the front on it.  It's "Chasing Butterflies" by RJR Fabrics. 

I machine quilted it using a medium/large  stipple with yellow thread.

I know a lot of quilters hate binding, but it's my favorite part.  

The name of the pattern is Root Beer Float by Hyacinth Designs, but because of the colors I'm calling it "Blueberry Lemonade."  I am very happy with the way it turned out.  Not only did I accomplish my goal for this month, but I got to check a UFO off my list, and I have a charity quilt ready to donate.  This one is going to the St. Baldrick's fundraiser in St. Louis. 

I am linking up with the Finishes Party at A Lovely Year of Finishes.  

GROW YOUR BLOG

This is my introduction for the "Grow Your Blog" 2015 Party. 

I grew up in a quilting household.  There was always a quilt in the frame in my house.  My mom's parents were both quilters.  My Gramma quilted with the church ladies at Zion Lutheran Church in St. Louis, MO regularly.  This is a photo taken of that group of ladies around 1960.   Gramma is second from the left.  

  
I don't have any photos of my Grampa actually quilting, but this is one of the quilts (in the Hearts and Gizzards pattern) which he hand-pieced and left for me to finish.  It was the first time I ever hand-quilted something.  I put it into my hope chest and used it for both of my babies.  They were boys, but the color didn't matter to me because it was so special to have it.

This is my mother with one of the baby quilts she was famous for making.  She made many quilts during her lifetime so this picture is special to me, as it is the only quilty picture I have of her.

And this is me!  I'm Sandy.   

I grew up in St. Louis with my seven siblings and lived there, with the exception of a few short years, my entire life until moving to Huntsville, AL to be closer to our grandchildren.  I home-schooled my two sons, Adam and Aaron from baby through high school and then continued being a stay-at-home mom.  I have been married to Hubby, Philip, for almost 40 years.  I am Gramma to Noah, Gavin, and Aidan and MIL to Brandy.  

Besides quilting and spending time with the grands I love to read, knit, and play around with photography.  

Quilting has become my real passion.  Every quilt I make is special, and I hope they bring joy to the people who receive them.  I wish I had time to make a quilt for every single family member and dear friend in my life.  And I often think about how proud of me my mother and my grand-parents would be, if only they could see the quilts I make and how much I enjoy making them.

A big "Thank You" to Vicki at 2 Bags Full for organizing the Grow Your Blog Party.  I hope you will check out her blog as well as some of the other bloggers participating.