2019 Quilts

I started this post back in January of 2020...but then we all know what happened to 2020..

So I figured that I would post these quilts that I completed in 2019..and I will get something up about what I did in 2020......

I finally got serious about getting some of the backlog of quilts completed this year. I made this cat quilt top about 4 years ago and it sat on the unfinished project pile till just December of 2019.

I was happy to complete this quilt and put a label on the back. It's a small quilt about 40x50. The backing is a sheet that is really soft.

I was lucky enough to take a class with Katie Pedersen in August. It was called Double Trouble because you make half square triangles and add an extra little piece of fabric to the opposite side of the triangle. I worked with red & blue triangles for in the class and was not sure where this one would go.

 I finished it in late November and I really like the color. It's a bright mix of red and blue. Again this is a smaller quilt about 60x70.

I found this pattern on line at Missouri Quilting Company (I think). I stated to make it and was getting a little frustrated as the red polka dots were too distracting for me. But I kept on and finished the top. It's just not my favorite. I also made a chevron strip for the back of the quilt but as I was really unhappy with this quilt it went on the pile unfinished tops. I think I will take a look at it again in a couple of months. It may hit me as something to complete. 

I made a jelly roll quilt that the internet said would only take an hour. Well if you speed sew yes it will. But I'm not a speed sewer and this took about 5 hours. It was all from scraps that I had in my large scrap bin. I cut 2 1/2" strips, separated the prints and the solids into bags. I would then take a solid and sew it to a print and then back to a solid. It was all kind of an improv type of project to get me moving with our thinking and to just see if this was something I wanted to complete.

I completed this one for a friend. She had cut and sewn all the blocks together I just finished the strips. Now to get it quilted. I have a fun backing for this top...when I get to the long arm machine.

Another quilt from a class, this one with Anna Marie Horner. The class was called Folk Flower. It's an appliqué quilt which I don't usually do, but this one was so easy. I had dyed the blue fabric that is the foreground of the blocks and then picked really bright fabric for the center of the flowers. This is quilted with a heavy knit fabric on the back of the quilt.

Blocks from another class I took this year. This class was with MJ Kinman, who makes beautiful jewel type quilts. These are the only two blocks that I completed but I want to make an entire quilt with this type of block.

This quilt is a called the disappearing 9 patch I made this quilt about 6 years ago and it sat in my studio waiting to be quilted. I made it for my sister and her wife when they got married and finally gave it to her for Christmas of 2018. I just wanted to show it because it took me so long to get it finished.

This little fella was a gift for a friend that was having a baby. I wanted to play with 2" precuts that I had and this is what came out. It's bright and fun for a new baby.  It's also very small, only 36x36. 

Psychedelic Western shirts

This pile of old sheets became this set of shirts

 A friend of mine has been collecting old bed sheets for some time. She asked me to help her make them into some western shirts. So off I went on a sewing vacation for a week to sew. Have I mentioned that the only part I don't like to do is cut out the patterns. My friend cut out all 3 of the shirts and the interfacing. I then set out to iron on the interfacing on all these shirts and then started the process of sewing them together. She kept me well lubricated and we completed these shirts in about 6 hours, the pattern is Simplicity 8473 from the 80's. I have also used McCall 6380, it's a decent pattern from the 70's. 

I liked the way this one matched. The pockets, cuffs and yoke are a different sheet than the main body and arms. But looking at the photos it's hard to tell that they are not the same. We attempted to dye the piping on this shirt but it came out as a very pale blue thus you can not really see the piping. 

This is a very bright shirt, we made a different western shirt from the green stripe material (you can see that shirt below). The piping on this shirt is reflective, so my friends partner can wear it when he rides his bike, hoping that the reflective part will give him a little more visibility. I was happy that the front lines matched up, too bad we didn't line up the pockets better. Next time we will pay more attention to the lines, but I don't think it really detracts from the shirt as there is so much happening already. 

 The Blue and Purple combination is quite flowery. We used blue snaps on the front.

These were the shirts that started the whole vintage sheet western shirts. I had helped my friend cut out the polka dot shirt on the left several years ago and she sewed it together. She then cut out the striped shirt and sewed most of it together before she shoved it in a drawer. When I arrived, she pulled out the shirt and I sewed on the front placket, sleeves and cuffs...to complete the shirt. I hate to cut out patterns and iron on the interfacing, so the fact that she had most of the things I hate to do complete made it easy for me to finish the project. 

Band from 1968 or today? The 3 shirts on the recipients. I believe they were quite happy and two of the men were surprised that they were allowed to keep the shirts. They all fit the men nicely we only had to make an adjustment to the length of the arms. I'm now on the lookout for vintage sheets, I will have to hit the garage sales this summer in search of cool looking sheets to make more of these lovely shirts. 

The Flat Square States

Living in the PNW I have never really driven through the central part of America. What my husband refers to as the flat states. So this being my turn to pick a vacation spot I wanted to see the area often referred to as the middle of America...Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas. I had also wanted to go to New Mexico because my Great Grandmother was raised down there in the early 1900. She was married in Raton New Mexico in 1905 before moving to Oregon.
We flew into Albuquerque and rented a car to drive up to Santa Fe. We drove up the Turquoise Trail so we could stop at TinkerTown. I have heard of TinkerTown from several folks that have gone and I have looked at pictures on the internet...but to go there in person was magical. It's a small place if you look close but the way you walk through all the wonderful displays you would never know. All I can say is if you ever find yourself in New Mexico north of Albuquerque and you like folk environments check out TinkerTown.

 One of our main goals was to go to  Meow Wolf, a wonderful artist created environment that was built inside an old bowling alley. We spent about 4 hours inside looking at all the different rooms and interactive installations that were housed in this huge space. If you go expect to spend about 3-4 hours inside exploring the space.

Then we headed up to Taos and spent one night. I liked Taos but it really is a small artist community with a huge emphasis on shopping.  We set out for Raton after a night in Taos, driving the Enchanted Circle. I really loved the drive and wish we would have spent a night on one of the cute small towns along the way but we really wanted to get to Raton on a Saturday as we heard that the city closes down on Sundays. Our stop in Eagle Nest was a little disappointing as we stopped for a beer and thought we would get a slice of pizza at the small shop across the street that promoted Fresh Hot Pizza. Only to find out that when we ordered they had to turn on the pizza oven..?!...so we wondered the 3 block area for 20 minutes only to get a melted 10" cheese thing...not sure what happened to the pepperoni.

Raton was a bust, very depressing town, hot, not very appealing with several closed up businesses. So we had a beer and headed north to Trinidad Colorado. Oh yea...we got carted in the local beer joint...I have bras older than the young lady the carded me.
Trindad was OK, cute little town. We had Italian food at a small joint that  cooks each plate individually, that is to say we waited for about 45 minutes to get dinner.  Saw a cool looking art van and in general liked the vibe of the small town.

Getting up Sunday morning we headed out east to Kansas. Our destination was Liberal Kansas, the home of Dorthy Gale from Wizard of Oz. We drove through some of the flattest areas that I have ever seen. Lots of corn, lots of grain silos and trains moving agriculture across America. Once we got to the Home of Dorthy Gale we found the crushed penny machine was out of order...?!!! We wondered through the museum and looked at interesting history of Liberal then headed south for BBQ in Texas. We drove straight through Oklahoma..about 40 miles but I really didn't want to stop in the state. My husband had heard that there was good BBQ in Delhart Texas so that was our destination. Only all the BBQ places were closed on Sunday. We did stop at a tavern that was quite interesting. The bartender was a low talker and talked to us for quite some time but neither of us were able to really understand what she was saying. She did give us a piece of Apple Pie that had Hatch Chilies in the pie. It was quite good. Since Delhart Texas was a bust too we left and headed back west to Tucumcari New Mexico on Route 66.

The town has one route through with several old neon signs from the days of car travel across Route 66. We stayed in Motel Safari, a very cute little motel that has been nicely remodeled to match the late 50's designs.

From there we headed sort of north to Las Vegas New Mexico...a town that was supported by the railroad in the 1800's. Several older building are being remodeled and the whole town seems to be having a growth sprout of younger folks and hip stores. Several small boutiques and handmade items by local crafts folks. Still seems affordable and might just be the next place to move. After a couple of days it was back up to Santa Fe for one more night before we flew home. We really liked the Turquoise Trail on our way up to Santa Fe we decided to explore it on the way back down since we had all day to travel about 100 miles. We found a cute little town called Madrid and spend most of the afternoon in the town looking at various shops and sights. It's mostly a town to walk up and down the road looking at rugs, jewelry & clothing. Since we were not packing any else home it was all eye candy for us.