Quilt #3: The Outdoor Quilt

I call this quilt the "Outdoor Quilt."  My niece, wanted an outdoor themed quilt for her high school graduation.  I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but I found some fabrics called Alpine that had foxes, birch bark, pebbles, topographical maps and other outdoor images on them. 

So I picked up the jelly roll and started to make this quilt.  That was 4 years ago.

I took the quilt back out in January on my quilt retreat and sewed the borders onto it.  Here is it getting pinned to the backing.  Once I got it home, I quilted it on my longarm and it looks so good with the quilting on it. 

Last weekend I held my first Quilt Retreat weekend here at my house.  Five of my quilty friends came over and we sewed all day on Friday and Saturday.  Here I am sewing the binding onto the quilt.  I can't even say how good it feels to finish these projects.

I told my niece today that her quilt was ready.  She told me that she's graduating from college in a couple of months.  I told her the quilt was for her graduation- I just didn't say which one!  LOL  She hasn't seen any of it yet, so I hope she likes what I interpreted as an Outdoor quilt. 

Patchwork Kitty in Finally Finished!

A few years ago I started a Round Robin sew-along with some ladies that attend a Quilting Group at my church.  Each person had to make a center square and then every month your project got passed on to the next person and they added something to it. 

I started with a kitty applique square.  Here is the photo from my original blogpost  on Sept 13, 2013.

Well, I finally pulled it out and did some machine quilting on it during my sewing retreat in January.

I wasn't able to cut out any new quilting projects due to my hand surgery but I was able to finish up this smaller project.  Now I'm proud to say that my Patchwork Kitty is finally finished and hanging on the wall in my sewing room!  I just love how it came out.  :)

One project done.  And there's more where this came from.  LOL

Do you ever work on and finish up projects that you have started years ago?  Doesn't it feel great?

Staying Warm During the Blizzard and Finishing Up Projects!

Okay, so I'm not really one for blizzards, especially in March!  Today is my second day off from work and I am enjoying having time to finish up some of my projects. 

I started this throw a couple of years ago and although I used to do a lot of crocheting, I don't do much anymore due to some problems with my hands. 

Over the years I've made a number of afghans using the ripple stitch, however this time I used 2 strands of yarn throughout, rotating the colors to give this throw a variegated look.  I saw this idea in a book from Vanna White and thought that I'd give it a try.

In this photo you can see it better.  Each time that I changed a color, I crocheted in the back loop only to create a raised line to give the pattern some interest.  The edges were a bit curly so I crocheted a few rows around the entire blanket and that made them lay flatter.  The outcome: a beautifully warm and oh, so soft throw to put on when I sit to watch tv in my family room!

Here's my view while I'm finishing it up!  Don't you just love finishing up old projects?  What sort of things are you completing that have been sitting around for a while?