February UFO Challenge

 I made it!  My February challenge is finished, and I gave it to my brother-in-law Dan last night. He was thrilled to get it.  The funniest thing happened when I was basting this quilt, Dan stopped by and saw what I was working on.  He loved the quilt, could not say enough about the colors and the pattern, the blocks, how it went together, on and on.  I just stood there smiling and finally said, "I am sure happy you like it, because this is your quilt".  He said "great I love it, when will it be done".

Moda Fabrics was coming out with some super cute panels in the late 90's early 2000, and I would rather have a quilt you can use verses something to hang on the wall, so I started cutting them up and making them into full size quilts.  One thing led to another and I began teaching panel classes. Some of the ladies that took my classes and some of my friends started giving me panels.  This quilt was made from one of those panels.

I can't be sure when I finished this quilt top, but I think it was 10+ years ago. Thank goodness for this challenge, I am finally finishing some of those tops I have been "aging"!

I wanted to try something a little different with the center panel piece.  I did a stitch around the diamonds to give them a look of being applique.

 In the small boarder I quilted loops, but in the bigger green boarder I quilted leaves. Over all I am very happy with how the quilt turned out. #allpeoplequilt

Simply Colorful

Today I am teaching a class at Sew Special Quilts, a nice little shop close to my house. We will be making this Simply colorful quilt. There are a couple of fun things about this quilt. First, the pieced blocks are made from one 5" charm pack! Second, this is a great quilt to do the square in a square block, if you have never done that before. I broke this quilt into two classes; the first one we will work on square in a square, the second putting the quilt on point and the borders.  If you have never put a quilt on point, this is a simple little quilt to learn on.

This quilt ended up darker than I had originally planned on it being.  The fabric I bought for the setting blocks clashed with the green in some of the pieced blocks.  I asked my class only to bring in the charm pack today so we can talk about fabric for the rest of the quilt before they buy it.  I am so excited about the class today, I love teaching and sharing my ideas and knowledge. Bonus, I teach at a great shop, and the ladies are always so great.

January UFO Challenge

All people quilt, picked #2 as the January UFO project to finish.  This is a quilt for my great, great niece! No I am not old enough to be a great, great auntie, but the truth is my niece's daughter has two babies!  So it is what it is :) I do have to admit this quilt only needed the binding and label, it was a easy one to get done.

A little background on this quilt, My great niece Tori is a barrel racer and this quilt was started for her.  Do you ever have those quilts that just don't work?  This was one of those quilts.  I found this cute cowgirl rodeo fabric maybe 10 years ago and thought it would be perfect for a quilt for Tori.  I kept trying to do different things with it and finally gave up and stuck it in a bag to "age".  When I was unpacking my fabric in my new little quilt house (more to come on that) I found it.  Happy days, because by this point Tori had a baby girl, and wa la, in one evening the quilt top was finished.  I had so much fun machine quilting it.  I did a big sun design over the pieced blocks.  I quilted around each of the pictures and then added in some double loops, trying to make them look like rope.  Overall, I love how Khloe's Rodeo quilt turned out.

A friend of mine Terri asked her quilting friends to join this challenge from all people quilt. The idea is you write down 12 UFO's, (unfinished objects).  Every month they pick a number and that is the project you complete.  It sounded like a fun way to get some of those UFO's that I have been wanting to finish done, so I signed up and here is my UFO list.   

Hello, welcome to my Blog! Let me introduce myself, my name is Susan.  I am married to a wonderful man named Ric, and we have a Brady bunch group of kids, plus three dogs.  I am originally from Montana, after retiring from the military I decided I did not want to live in the cold and was lucky enough to settle in San Antonio.

I started quilting in 1992 at the suggestion of my sister, Julie.  I was moving to Maine and she showed up with one of her “extra” sewing machines.  She added in a quilting class and enough information to give me the quilting bug!  I was an aircraft mechanic at the time, most of my co-workers were guys.  When you are a aircraft mechanic, you do step 1, step 2, step 3 and you do not deviate.  Quilting gave me so much joy and freedom!  It was a great way to connect with other women every time I moved, and the creative outlet that I craved. BONUS, if you change the pattern or don’t follow the pattern it doesn’t matter because no one will die!!!!  Oh the freedom quilters have.

I was lucky enough to be able to teach quilting from 2001-2003, but then my life got a little crazy so I had to take a hiatus from teaching.  I found so much joy in teaching, sharing my knowledge, and meeting great people, it was sad to let it go. Ric and I moved into a new house in 2013 about the same time Sew Special Quilt moved from Boerne, Texas to about five minutes down the highway from us. And to top if off, in 2015 they were looking for new quilting teachers, so now I am back to sharing my knowledge and meeting new friends!

I hope you enjoy what I have to share.  I am new at blogging, if you have any suggestions along the way please drop me a line.

Thanks, happy quilting!

Susan