Sunday, December 21, 2014

Birds' Quilt

My Mom started this quilt for me many years ago, and I decided to add it to the UnFinished Objects (UFO) list for this year so that it could finally get completed. I had a difficult time deciding on a fabric for the sashing. A cream/light brown fabric with swirling vines found its way into the stash recently, and ended up being the perfect choice for breaking up this very busy quilt pattern. I was able to find and order more of the sashing fabric online, to use for the backing. This quilt is now on my bed, with a coordinating pillow case and mini-pillow -- perfect for lying in bed in the early morning hours listening to all of our backyard avian winter visitors singing. Long-arm quilted by B&B Machine Quilting of Orland, CA, in a swirling hearts pattern.
Birds' Quilt.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Takin' Care of Business: A UFO Bonanza

This year I joined the UFO ('UnFinished Objects') Club with the Carquinez Strait Stitchers: You list ten of your languishing projects and then finish one per month. Since summer, I've so far completed the following:

UFO #1: I bought these blue Tonga Batiks at the Portsmouth Fabric Company in Portsmouth, NH in 2006. I usually don't gravitate to the color blue, but these blues were just luscious. Later, a blue-and-white summer quilt pattern in a magazine caught my eye. When the piecing was finished I bought two different backing fabrics, but neither were quite right. The perfect backing finally jumped out at me while at Hawaiian Fabric Mart in Honolulu this past August. Quilted by B&B Quilting in Orland, CA using a loop-D-loop pattern with fish and starfish motifs.
UFO#1: Caribbean Blue, front.
UFO#1: Caribbean Blue, back.



UFO #2: This second UFO goes WAY BACK: It was started in a class that I took with my Mom at the Road To California Quilt Show, January 2004. This quilt was then in storage for years and is well-traveled from Boston to Hawaii and finally back to California. It is a lap quilt and was quilted by B&B Quilting in Orland, CA, using a large all-over stipple pattern.

Holly and Anita at the Road To California Quilt Show, January 2004.
UFO #2 "Road To California" finally finished, November 2014. It has a light green back and binding.
UFO #3: This past January I took a class with the Carquinez Strait Stitchers in Benicia for the first time. I had done this "twister" pattern with template once before (see "Girly Girl") and liked the effect. For this project I chose all of the fabric from the stash, and thought the Raggedy Ann panel would be cute with the heart. It is wall-hanging sized and was quilted by me, with stitch-in-the-ditch and free-motion hearts (!).
UFO #3: "Lil' Twister Heart".
UFO #4: My Mom's quilting group at the Martinez Senior Center started doing projects with this table runner pattern, and I started one too a few years ago. Now it's finally finished, and is the perfect size for the entry-way furniture. And, I had enough left over to make a little coordinating table-topper as well. I quilted both with stitch-in-the-ditch.

UFO #4: Fall table runner.
Fall table-topper.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Vallejo Piecemakers Quilt Club Show, May 2014

Our guild, the Vallejo Piecemakers Quilt Club, had their very first quilt show, "Sew Amazing", this past May 2014 at the Solano County Fairgrounds -- and both my Mom and I entered quilts. This was also our first quilt show! It was really neat to see our quilts on public display, and I had a really wonderful time volunteering and enjoying the show all weekend long. Our show quilts were:

1) I entered "Raven Love", which was a birthday gift wallhanging for a friend. This quilt won a ribbon for "Best Use of Pattern" in the guild's quilt challenge (to make a quilt inspired from a guild library book), and was selected to be featured with an artist photo. I really liked the artist photos at the show -- I think it makes the quilts mean more to see a picture of the artist with the quilt.

"Star Attraction": My photo with "Raven Love".
"Raven Love", by Holly Jessop. Quilted by Holly.




















2) My second quilt was one that I made from fabric given to me by Kim West when we were sewing buddies in Honolulu. I love, love, LOVE this fabric, and scoured the internet to get MORE! I did a "twister" pattern with it, and called it "Girly Girl" because I think it's very feminine. It is lap-quilt size.

"Girly Girl", by Holly Jessop. Quilted by B&B Quilting of Orland, CA.

3) My third quilt was one of my recent scrap-busters, and is nearly a twin size quilt. There is a previous post about this quilt here.
"Mumbo Jumbo", by Holly Jessop. Quilted by B&B Quilting of Orland, CA.
4) And finally, my fourth quilt in the show was another scrap-buster -- a very traditional star quilt, made entirely from fabric out of our scrap baskets. It is a large twin-size quilt. I previously blogged about this quilt here and here.
"Frugal Stars", by Holly Jessop. Quilted by B&B Quilting of Orland, CA.

5) My Mom also made a star quilt with the same pattern, but all out of 1930s reproduction fabrics that she's been collecting. I think it's fascinating how these two quilts turned out, made from the same pattern but different fabrics.
"Ode to the 30s", by Anita Jessop. Quilted by Anna MacCallen of Napa, CA.
6) My mom's guild challenge quilt won First Place for "Best Use of Color". She and I both love yellow, so we were quite pleased with this ribbon!
"Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy", by Anita Jessop. Quilted by Anna MacCallen of Napa, CA.
7) And last, but not least(!), my Mom entered one of the first quilts that she ever made. It only recently was finished because we picked out all of the home machine quilting she'd done (and didn't like), and she had it long-arm quilted (huge improvement!). This quilt was also selected for one of the "Star Attractions" quilt-maker photos.

"Okra Coke", by Anita Jessop. Quilted by Anna MacCallen of Napa, CA.





Sunday, January 12, 2014

It was just a matter of time ... Holly Hobbie

This year a Holly Hobbie fabric line came out, and so of course it was just a matter of time before I made something! I saw and had to have this kit, at the Ironstone Vineyards quilt show in Murphys, CA this past Fall. It reminds me of the Holly Hobbie bedspread, lamp (that my Mom painted), and desk vase that I grew up with. I put one of the line's coordinating fabrics on the back, so this quilt can be used as either a lap quilt or wall hanging. It currently makes its home draped over the back of my reading recliner.
Holly Hobbie wall hanging quilt.