9-Patch Blocks & Lap Quilts

Sorry I've been away so long. I've been busy [well, lazy, more likely].

Here are 3 more of the quitls that are being made for our Assisted Living folks. The quilt at the bottom [bright block with black and bright border] has been bordered and needs to be quilted - I'll get that one when it's finished.

The blocks below total 54. There are 5 of the blocks that you can't see well that are made with 2 prints - for a funny 9-patch quilt

The 2nd photo is blocks that are brights cut 3" with a white background - there are 21 of those,

and the 3rd photo has 28 6" blocks.

I am trying to keep up with CrazyMom at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/ She is working on 1 9-patch block per day. I tried that for a while, but then found that if I cut my blocks one day, I could get a weeks worth done at once. I'm also working on 3 different 9-patch quilts at once, 2 brights and one that will be just a little more subdued.

June 2nd was the 37th day of the challenge, but I think most of us are keeping up.

I drove to Morro Bay the first full weekend of June, both to see my son and dil, and to go to 11 quilt shops in the Central Coast California Shop Hop. I did well with purchases. I picked a quilt to work on [in some future year] and bought fabrics for that quilt - only slipped up once and picked up 1 yard each of a dog and a cat fabric [and a pattern to work on another year].

Weather was great for driving - it was overcast with sprinkles - and the drivers were acting nicely [you know, nobody had to be anywhere 10 seconds before anyone else].

I also gave a quilt to my grandson [in his 30's] with lots of motorcycle stuff on it. I had shown it at the retirement facility where I live, and several folks were either horrified or loved it [depended on whether they knew a bike rider or not].

The dogs stayed with the vet over the weekend and Chico came home healthy [he's on lots of med's for congestive heart failure] so will continue to leave him there when I travel. Little Bit will go to the kennel where they let him out to play in a grassy area every day.

I'm also knitting when I'm not sewing or quilting - still working on caps and scarves for the merchant seamen in New York [that is where several of our residents worked either before or after they were overseas].

Auction quilt done!

Here are photos of a quilt that Gail M. made [well, she did all the hard work and made the top]. She offered it to me for the Cinco de Mayo auction/celebration. The border is a Frida Kahlo print [self portrait] that will be perfect for our auction.

The quilt came out to 70" x 70" and was more fun to work on than I imagined. I had a tough time starting it because I didn't want to ruin it, but once I got started, it was fun to get help with figuring out what should be quilted in the different areas.

I was going to make a twin size quilt top to put on e-bay, but this one turned out so busy that I made two lap quilts instead. The patriotic one above is one of two small quilts [one will go on e-bay and one will go to our assisted living group]

Here is another quilt - this one for e-bay.

The quilting group on the grounds has been busy helping me make tops for assisted living. We have 9 lap quilts finished and 3 more ready to put the binding down. Since my goal was 3 quilts a month, we are doing really well.

Two of the women have made tops and I will get those quilted soon.

I'm also making a motorcycle quilt for my grandson. The top is finished and I started putting the backing together [it will be "back art" with all the leftover parts of the front].

Lap Quilts

Here are the 2 quilts I described on my last blog. I am making them for our Assisted Living Unit, and plan to have at least 25 made by October/November so they can choose which quilt they want.













This quilt is the Wickedly Easy Quilt. You can type that into your search engine and find the free pattern for this one



The"Wickedly" quilt was fun to play with. I found a batch of pink, green and purple [and threw in a yellow] and cut up fat quarters for that one.

All of the fabrics for the quilts in this blog were out of my stash [scary thought! - but at least I'm using it up].










The Magic Tile is made of cat fabrics - I even threw in a single dog fq to liven things up. It's one of my favorite quilts - It's not intricate to do, but takes time to cut and sew each step.








And here are the next 2 in the saga of lap quilts



















This quilt was made from a whole batch of exchange 9-patches. I used the green 9 patches with the yellow print squares [those are the X blocks] on this one and really liked the way it looks.










And this quilt is made from Log Cabin blocks that were left over from a guild raffle quilt quite a number of years ago. As one of my friends said, it's nice to see them in the light of day instead of in one of my WIP bins [that's Works in Progress]





The dogs are still very happy here. My oldest, Chico, has been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and at this point is on meds. His liver has started to enlarge, which means the heart is affecting it. I don't think that's a good sign, but the vet doesn't think the end is imminent. Chico is having his teeth cleaned this week and the vet has given me the talk about not living thru the anesthetic. I think that's mandatory for his condition, but I'm hoping all goes well.



As Vice President of our Residents Association I have been busy finding programs for our Wednesday afternoons. I have a max of 2 per month and once I got over the fear of calling total strangers, I have been finding some fun ones.





Other than quilting like a fiend [I'm finishing a quilt for our Cinco de Mayo auction] I have stayed well this winter. No colds or flu.




I do want to say, though, that I HATE THE TIME CHANGE!!! Getting up early is not my cup of tea or anything else.

OK, I've finally decided to get back to blogging.

first up is Rachel's quilt. I made what felt like hundreds of Hole in the Barn Door blocks from 3" to 16" in size. Rachel picked the fabrics - pink and turquoise. I picked up fabrics on one of the quilt shop hops and had her pick out what she wanted. The blocks finally went together into a long twin size quilt - longer than the 93" batting [I put extra blocks on the back]. Rachel loved it.



This next quilt is Laura's quilt [also a twin size - but not quite as long as Rachel's]. While Rachel was going thru the fabrics to see what she wanted, Laura said that she liked them all - so I used all but one [which I didn't like]. I found this pattern in one of the magazines [but it's already back in the pile, so I don't know which magazine it was]. Laura also loved her quilt. Of course, the girls liking the quilts made the work worthwhile.

One of the things I plan on doing this year is making a batch of lap quilts for our Assisted Living unit. The director said there are about 25 folks there at any time - so I am aiming for 25 - 30 quilts so there can be some choices.

I figured that if I finished 3 a month [of course, along with one I'm making for my 30 something grandson and another one for our Cinco de Mayo [Gail made the top for that one], I really do plan to finish the group of lap quilts for November.

So far I have finished 3 [that means quilted, bound and washed] - Magic Tile [mostly cat fabrics] , a Nine Patch and X block [green 9-patches with yellow blocks with green X], and a Wickedly Easy Quilt in pinks/lavender/green [you can Google that one]. I figure these are my January set. Photos later.

For February - I pinned another Nine Patch and X block [yellow 9-patches with green blocks with yellow X], I have a 9-patch and snowball [light green and off white - still quilting that one], and have another Wickedly Easy quilt ready to pin [as soon as I find the batting that I cut for it].

In November I was elected vice President of our Resident's Association at Westminster Gardens. That means PROGRAMS!!! The budget is small, and finding programs is something totally new for me. So, in addition to making way to many quilts this year [I have to empty my storage unit somehow], I'll be busy with phone calls and several meetings a month. And this is retirement?

4th of July

We had a rousing 4th of July celebration at the Gardens yesterday. As the dogs and I were walking in the park at the northern end of the grounds I began to hear marching music. I thought one of the residents had their stereo on really high, but realized later that the music was coming from the southern edge of the grounds.

It was a full and planned celebration - flag raising, national anthem, pledge [which I led], God Bless America, 4th of July address by Harriet Johnson [the president of our resident's association and missionary for more than 40 years to Japan], America the Beautiful and a benediction. The couple [Dick and Barbara Hettish] who put on the ceremony also offered us a continental breakfast afterwords. [photo of the table with juice, coffee and sweet rolls]

Since I moved in the middle of July last year I didn't know what to expect for this ceremony. It was worth getting up early for [7 a.m.] and I will go again next year.

Now for quilting:

Here are photos of my mystery quilt [Orange Crush]. I found the outer border at theTreasure Hunt quilt shop in Carpenteria, CA. I put a tiny inner border of dark purple between the border and the quilt [I had to stop the quilt somehow]. I will bind in the dark purple also.

I finally bought some clotheline rope to tie the dogs to so they can play out in my "back yard" [well, it is a common area - but it is outside my back door]. I can put them out there late in the evening and let them roll in the grass for a while as I sit just inside the door and play on the computer. The first day I did this I went out with them so they knew it was ok [but they both just sat and looked at me like I was nuts]. The 2nd time, though, they had it figured out and went running out to play. I think this will work.

Central Coast Quilt Shop Tour

I went on the Central Coast Quilt Shop Tour [one of the California shop hops] last weekend. I managed to go to 4 stores before I made it to Morro Bay and my son and dil's home for the weekend [actually to Motel 6, since they have a very tiny apartment]. The 3 of us went to the rest of the shops. For those of you who are interested, the web site is http://www.centralcoastquiltshops.com

My dil had asked if I would make a quilt for her 30+ year-old son who had been badly injured in a motorcycle accident. So we went shopping for [what else?] motorcycle fabric - with skulls, a bright swirly and lovely ladies sprawled on the motorcycles [maybe that one will be a pillowcase for him]. I'll find more down here to add to the collection and make him a quilt between a twin and a double. I think it will be fun.

The fabric above is the fabric I purchase for MY project. The dark colors are a variety of dark blues and with the tans and golds I think it will be every bit as stunning as the quilt in the magazine. It will have lots of 1-1/2" squares [strip pieced, of course], but I will put the fabric and pattern away until I have time to do this one [maybe I will start cutting some of the pieces as my cutting table clears so I don't have to do them all at once when I'm ready to make the quilt].

And, last but certainly not least] here is my mother's day present from my son and dil in Temecula. The chair couldn't have been more right for this table. It is comfortable and sitting down to have breakfast and read the paper is so much easier now that I don't have to balance the dog on my lap. Well, back to sewing.

Our quilt group in the retirement community is making quilts for 4th of July - and will hope to have them hung really soon. We have several tops ready for quilting, so I will get busy with them as soon as they are layered.

This is this year's Thangles Block of the Month a group of us are doing at our local quilt shop. We did not want to use the same ugly fabrics [well, we really didn't like the early American fabrics they chose for last year and this year] so they are cutting special for us. I think this quilt is going to be fantastic.

Here is the Orange Crush quilt - when I laid it out on the bed for the photo I was instantly dizzy!! I don't like triangles at all, but I used the Fons and Porter triangle ruler and my blocks lay flat on the bed and floor. I'm going to put a 1/4" border of black [or maybe my very dark purple] between the quilt and the border. I'm going to look for a Halloween stripe [since this is purple, orange and lime green] for the final border and am going to do diagonal corners with it.

That is Little Bit standing on the quilt [he misses very few chances to get into the photo - or just to stand on the quilts]

I'm on my way to Morro Bay [250 miles north of Duarte] this weekend for the Central Coast Quilt Run [that is in California]. I have a son in Morro Bay so I will go to the shops between home and Santa Maria and he and my daughter in law will take me to the rest of them.

I found a quilt in the August 2007 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting that I am going to purchase fabrics for. It is Blue Moon of Kentucky and is med/dark blue and tans. If I go on the run with a plan, I don't come home with scads of yards that I don't have a plan for. I will, of course, find some cat fabric that is just to irresistable [sp?] to leave in the store. With gas prices, I expect this years trip is going to be expensive - but I received and deposited my "tax incentive?" so that will pay for gas/food/lodging.