"Bees" by Aranshi

Isn't this a sweet quilt?  I love hexagons.  However, I love to hand piece hexagons.  These were all pieced by machine.  I'm not sure which would be faster in the long run. (Although not everything is about speed, but about how much enjoyment you get from the process)

Since the entire quilt is a bee/honey theme, Aranshi chose the "Busy Bees" panto.  Really, what else could you use on this quilt?  Love it!

 

Blue and Yellow stars from Janice

What a pretty quilt to work on.  Marcia is a new to me customer, and has already brought me 3 quilts to complete.  This is just the first.  She let me choose the thread and quilting design, so I went with Tiramisu on this one.  Kind of feathers but loose and works well on lots of different quilt tops.  Expect more from her very soon.

 

"Layer Cake" by Ann

 I believe that this started out as a layer cake. (A collection of fabrics cut at 10" squares by the manufacturer".

Ann sent me an email stating "You might remember me."  We used to meet up with a biking group, so that's where I met her initially.  This quilt is for her mother for Christmas as the current quilt on mom's bed has been well loved.  I'm sure that there will be many more years of love in this quilt as well.

"Improvisationally pieced houses" by Carol

Actually, I have no idea if that is the name that Carol called her quilt, that's just what I'm calling it.  The top photo colors are wrong, bottom is much closer.  I don't think that this is foundation pieced, but will ask Carol when she gets her quilt.

 

"Sunshine Garden" by Sue

Here's another Sue quilt!  Sunshine Garden, and what a perfect name for it as well.  Soft and cuddly and sunny yellow.  Quilted with the Damask Roses panto, but difficult to find.  Trust me, those are roses.

Two "Yellow Brick Road" quilts by Kathy

 I've never made this quilt pattern, but now I see why it's so popular.  Take a collection of fat quarters and voila!  A fun twin sized quilt.  Or in this case, 2 of them.  Slightly different, but in the same color scheme.
This is the backing of one quilt.  Nothing like using up your scraps to create a backing.

"Yellow Brick Road" by Sue

I've never made a Yellow Brick Road quilt, but this really turned out quite lovely.  Quilted with an edge to edge design, and a pale yellow thread.  Nicely done, Sue.

Yellow and White by Rebecca

Rebecca is a new quilter, but she did great on this one for her sister I believe. 

Quilted with the dragonflies panto to mimic the ones in the fabric.  It's the bright yellow one on top of the next photo, but you still can't see it well.

Pineapple blocks by Linda

Linda mentioned that she made this quilt "when I was still teaching".  Not sure of the year, but I did find a few fabrics in this quilt top that are in my stash as well.  I love pink and yellow, it's so soft and feminine.  Perfect for her grand-daughter.

"Minions" by Mary

Here is your giggle for the day.  This quilt of "Minions" is made to go into the RV who has been christened "Kevin".  If you don't get the reference, you'll need to watch the movie.

 A jelly roll or two is all that this took to make a fun rail fence quilt.  Quilted with wool batt for loft and warmth, and the swirls board.  Too fun.

"Our Father" by me

You'd think that being a quilter, math would be a strong suit.  Sadly, no.  In fact, the only 8am class I ever took in college I "affectionately" refer to as "Bonehead math".  It was probably math 101, or the equivalent.

Sometimes though, my inability to count turns out in a positive manner, such as this one.  It all started out with the extra 2.5" wide strips in the light blue with leaves.  Crud.  I've got all these leftovers, what to do with them?  Joined them with some leftover strips of yellows, and made them into scrappy 4 patch blocks.  Just the 4 patch blocks was going to be a microscopic quilt, so I'd better add something else.  Add in the pale yellow with dots left over from a friends wedding quilt.  Still pretty small quilt.  Hmm.  Let's cut larger squares of this two left over blue fabrics, and alternate them.  Oh look, just enough of the blue that started it all to make a border out of it, and enough of the yellow for binding.

The name of the quilt comes from the fabric with lettering.  It's "The Lord's Prayer", or the "Our Father" depending on your history.  Both of the blue fabrics came from Officer Tori with the Portland police, so obviously it needed to go to her.  Quilted with the "Dove of Peace" pantograph that she chose for her daughter's school quilt.

Since I'm so lousy at math, I still had more of the original blue strips.  More 4-patch blocks made with yellows  More lager squares made from left over fabrics from Officer Tori.  This one isn't quilted yet, but be on the lookout for "Dove Chocolate."

Update to this quilt.  I carried it around in my car for about 2 weeks looking for an officer to give this to.  Never an officer when you need one, but that turned out well in this situation.  During the 2017 snow storm, I was working extra meetings for others who couldn't get out. Stopped at the coffee shop where I tend to see officers,  but no one there on my way in.  Back in the car, and heading the last 1/4 mile to the center, when there's a patrol vehicle!  Wait for me! I'm shouting in the car, even though they can't hear. Pull up and park really badly next to them, and who should be outside her vehicle but Officer Toni!  Hurray!  I knew that the "right" officer would receive this quilt, and it was her!  So glad to be in the right place at the right time, and that she got to see her extra fabric put into something useful.  Now I'm glad the quilt got to visit so many other locations along with me in the car.

"Gravity"

I am very sad to be coming to the end of a wonderful series of quilting mystery books by Barbara Graham.  This quilt is from the "Murder by Gravity, the Funeral Quilt"  Whatever will I do when I don't have a mystery quilt pattern ready to play with?  Don't worry, I'm sure I'll find something.  As usual, I pulled from my stash.  The yellow is something I purchased for my mother in law, the dark blue is leftover backing fabrics. The lighter blue came from a wedding gift, and the red background is something that someone gave me.  I've loved having that red fabric around, and am sad to say that I think it's nearly gone.

 The backing is made from the original backing to a quilt I re-did for Marielle, my niece.The panto is called "Fantasy Flame".  One I have never used before but it's one that's been kicking around for way too long.  I really like it! Also for the police.

Owls by me for charity

 Quick!  Find the "humility block"!  Those are the blocks that you intentionally make a mistake in because only God is perfect.

This is one of the quilts that ended up starting out as a king sized mystery quilt.  I wasn't happy with my color choices, didn't like the lengthy piecing, so finally bailed on it.  Now I've got all these blocks, and no plan to finish the project.  What to do?  Charity quilts!

This is a new panto that I don't have listed in my pantos yet.  Owls with leaves.  Really cute.  I used a variegated thread in the top, and a a dark green in the bobbin to really show up on the bright yellow backing. 

 I was giggling to myself because it was "Cyber Monday", and I was on a bike ride with friends. Kept seeing police officers in cars.  Just driving past me, doing their jobs.  I interpreted this as my late father, and former cop with City Of Portland, telling me that I needed to get this quilt donated to the police and soon!  I'd had the quilt done for a few days by then.  Sure enough, after dropping off the quilt at the police, I stopped seeing so many police officers driving around.  Thanks for the nudge Dad!

I just looked. I'm up to 3 quilts for charity from this one planned quilt so far.  I think when I was looking in a bag for another quilt, I found another quilt top from this same grouping though.  I REALLY hope that I've found all the blocks and got them all made into tops, but one never knows what you can find in the sewing room closet.

Log Cabin by Carin's relative

The second of the quilts from Arkansas.  Much later than the appliqued flowers, probably circa 1980's to my untrained eye.  All cotton fabrics though, not polyester or double knit from the 1970s.  Quilted with an edge to edge design of hydrangeas using poly batt and machine bound.

 A close up of a block, and the backing with the hydrangea panto and teal thread showing.

"Newton" by Mary

Mary has another granddaughter, so of course she needs a quilt.
"Newton" is the name of the fabric line, he's the lamb above, but he has other friends as well.
Quilted with the "Oriental Cloud" panto and Glide thread.  Lucky little girl.

Baskets by Linda

Linda is our wonderful tax person.  I went to drop off our taxes this year and surprisingly left with a quilt to quilt.  Since I didn't have any of my check in materials with me, I offered some suggestions to her, and Linda was agreeable to all.I quilted this quilt with the Hydrangea panto in light blue thread from Glide.  Hope she likes it, she's on post tax season vacation out of town.

Skiing at Altenmarkt by me.

Oh so many years ago when I was in high school, I was lucky enough to meet and become friends with Ursula.  She was an exchange student from Modling, Austria who was staying with another family that we were very close to.  At the time, I knew how to knit only the most basic, unattractive slippers in two colors.  It was the 1970's, so you can imagine how bad they were.  Ursi and I were taking a weaving class, and she decided to knit a sweater for her brother at home, Georg.  I wanted to learn to do that!   Hence my love of knitting was born, even before it was cool.

When I saw this quilt pattern, I knew that I had to make it, but didn't know where it would end up.  I just saved the pattern for a while.  Meanwhile, Ursi writes to share that she's going to be a grandma!  This was the perfect excuse to make this quilt.  When Ursi was pregnant with her oldest son, I knitted a little blanket and sleep sack for him.  Now I'm just continuing the tradition.

Quilted with an edge to edge design called "Tangles" which is what my yarn would do when knitting with multiple yarns until I learned Fair Isle knitting.  Much better!
This quilt is approx. twin sized, really too big for a "baby quilt", but I hope that it's something they'll use as the baby grows.

Because every child needs a little blankie, and because I had so many extra 2.5" squares cut from the quilt, I put them together to make this random small quilt.  It's maybe 30" square, and quilted edge to edge with continuous curves.  

I will admit the "Humility block" in the larger quilt, and have fun looking for it.  I was finishing the quilting on the last row of the quilt when I happened to look at it from another angle and realized that something was out of place.  Drat!  At least when I hung up the quilt to photograph it took me a while to find it again, so maybe it's not as bad as I thought.  Besides, only God is perfect, so I've included a mistake in my quilt.  (Like I have to purposefully make a mistake!)

African Animals by Claire

 Friends are so important.  Especially friends who get you into wonderful hobbies like quilting.  Claire is a friend of Sara's, and Sara got her into quilting.  This lovely is for a new grand baby to be, so I'm pretty sure that more quilts will be coming from Claire.

 It's difficult to see the quilting design, but trust me, it's there.  The shot above is from the back.  Quilted with a Windy Sky meander in the borders of the quilt, but Claire chose one of the African Pull Toys singles to go in the body of the quilt.  Can you see the Zebra?  This was a new technique for me, combining freehand with a panto, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  Also planning more charity quilts that would just have the 4 different pull toys and do them as a whole cloth.  Oh the ideas!

Rail Fenc by Carol

I love Rail Fence blocks.  They are quick, fun and satisfying.  Besides, how can you go wrong with purple and yellow?

Quilted with a panto of dragonflies, made even more appropriate since the backing has dragonflies on it.

Ruler practice

Oh my, I need practice with rulers, don't I?  This is another of those quilts that started out as something else and became a charity quilt.  I tried using double batting of wool and cotton, and dont' think it worked on this quilt.  Then I played with some rulers, and that didn't really work either.  You'll notice there's not really a good  close up shot of this quilt, and there's a reason for that.  Suffice it to say that it will keep someone warm, and I hope that they will be able to look past it's myriad of flaws.