Rainbows, Christmas Blocks, and Bonnie Hunter

I love rainbows. There are two reasons. The first is the religious reasons. After that it is just because they ARE rainbows. Beautiful, colorful, miraculous, fascinating. We have been having a lot of late afternoon storms in my area for over a week. I took this panorama picture behind my husbands shop yesterday. I have so many pictures of rainbows now. 

As I was cleaning a stack of papers yesterday I find a wonderful large block pattern. It was an insert in a package from American Patchwork & Quilting. I decided the blocks would be great for a Christmas quilt. Below are the first two blocks. They are very large. They are 15.5" unfinished.

 Over at Jo's Country Junction with Jo and Kelli, they are having a little Show and Tell Challenge. The challenge will run for a few weeks, so I need a quick-ish finish. To use her words, "The goal is to get a project further along or maybe even to get it finished-either a Bonnie Hunter project or a project that Kelli and I have designed." So I broke out this quilt. I started working on it about three years ago. I finally have it finished and sandwiched. I started quilting it, but got frustrated and put it away. Well, this looks like a good way to break it out and finish it. 

This is the top.

Here is the back. I used up a bunch of larger scraps to make the back.

Here is my idea for the quilting. I drew this design into every main block. I am not sure what I will be doing with the other blocks yet. 

Here is a quilted block. I still like the design, I just need to relax and do it.

TTFN

Scrap Quilt Challenge and a Finished Top

Over at Fabric n Quilt, Shannon, is hosting Scrap Quilt Challenge 5. I thought I would jump at the chance to make a fun scrap quilt. How about you? Go check it out. 

I wanted to show off my finished quilt top. I have worked on this off and on for a long time. Now I can add it to the top box. One day I will work on making them all finished quilts. HA HA But for now, it is a finished top and that makes me happy. I have not even measured it but it is big enough for at least a twin bed if not bigger. 

I eve got a bonus baby quilt out of it. I need to trim and iron it. I love both of them. 

I wanted to show some other fun blocks. I finished four blocks for my quilt group. These are 7.5' unfinished paper foundation string blocks. They are so fun and quick.

These are the two Farm Girl Vintage blocks I got done. This is block #1 for week 11. It is named Grandma's Quilt Block

 12.5" Unfinished

 6.5" unfinished

Both together.

TTFN

Minis and More

For a few years I participated in Another Year of Schnibbles. I made some fabulous patterns.

2012

2013

2014

Now Sherry over at A Quilting Life and Michele over at Islandlife Quilts have started Minis and More. It will work like before. At the beginning of the month they will pick a new pattern and you will have all month to finish it. On the first of the next month there will be a parade. Come join, it will be fun. 

What I Have Been Working On

These days with going back to school I don't get much time to sew but I am working on that. A while back we had a Sew-In with PQA, my quilt group. I was able to work on this beauty for a while. I just love these colors. It is an older line of Bonnie and Camille's, Vintage Modern. I am doing  the On The Road To Spring Quilt Along. This is about a third of the quilt. I will have to pick apart a few pieces, because when I worked on it last time, I just started sewing things together. If I just leave it as it is, the quilt will be long and narrow. I need to make it a little wider. 

I also have been working on the blocks for Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet blog. I have not had a lot of time to work on it, but when I do I make both sizes. The 12" and 6" finished blocks. I have jumped to the first few blocks that I made to the newest blocks. That way I don't feel like I am getting left behind.

 Week 1, Apronstrings

Week 2, block #1, Autumn Star

Week 9, block #1, Feed and Seed

Week 10, block #1, Gingham

 I will be back soon!!

TTFN

Almost Finished H2H Quilts

Well I did not make the deadline but I wanted to post the almost finished quilts. All I have to do to finish is sew down the binding. I will get them done as soon as I post this and link up to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Jump over and check out the cool H2H quilts everybody made.

AWOL But Busy

Hello! Long time no see. I have been very busy until recently. My husband and his brother's business just had two big orders to fill and I had been working almost everyday. Sadly things have been quiet this last week. But here are two pictures to show you what we accomplished. Seven of them. Plus one on the floor in the shop that we shipped out the next day.

I have been taking some time to get caught up on a few things around the house. Plus I have been quilting. Strange I know. Sometimes I won't get into my sewing room for days and then this last week there have only been a few days that I have not sewn something. I have a few deadlines I am working toward.

The first is the Hands2Help Challenge. Up until last week I had not made one stitch. I had the fabric and a plan, just no time to work on them. Now I am down to just needing to quilt and bind them. I saw the pattern on Quilt Kisses and love it. Each of the blocks is one blue, orange, and red piece. They end up being 12.5 inches square unfinished. Mine are fine but hers looked great. I think the orange and the red are too saturated and stand out too much but some little kid or young adult will love them, so I did not change them.

Next up is my quilt for our local summer festivities. We live close to the Snake River and back in the old days there used to be a fort here for the travelers passing through. Aptly named Fort Boise. We have a replica in a park here in town. Every summer we celebrate Old Fort Boise Days. My sewing group is holding another Quilt Show. We will be raffling off a quilt. I just finished the top. I will be working on the back today. After I am done I will take it to one of our members to quilt it on their long arm machine. Red Barn Quilts by Flynn and Co. is the name of her business.

The light strip is a fun find. I found it in the clearance section after I had picked out the gray, yellow, and teal. Here is a close up of it. It is perfect!

Now off to work on the back.

TTFN

Finished Quilt For Irish Chain Quilt-A-Long

 I AM FINISHED!!! 

I quilted it over a few days and I finished it yesterday. Today I put the binding on and took care of the thread ends. I love this quilt. I will wash it tomorrow and put it on my bed tomorrow evening. I can't wait to sleep under my own quilt. Chompie is helping hold down the quilt while I worked it around in my sewing machine. Nice doggie! Ha Ha!

Her is the finished quilt. I had my husband and brother-in-law hold it up. The both are over 6 feet and ti was way over their heads. I it s queen, 90" x 90". 

I thought I would show you what else I have been working on. I am now helping my husband and my brother-in-law make groomers for horse arenas. So I am working with metal. My hands do not look like a ladies hands, I can not get the black out all the way.

This is the finished groomer.

This is me cleaning one of the pieces.

I will leave you with a picture of my little family. Me, my husband, our daughters who are off at school again, my son, his wife and our two grand babies. 

TTFN

Girls and Flowers

Good morning everybody. I hope your day is going well so far. Mine is good but a little sad. My husband and I took our daughters back to college this last Saturday. They will be gone for about three months. It has been fun with them home. Now the house is quiet. Here are the 3 of us with Chompie at their apartment.

I'm trying to get caught up on my hexies. I received these from my February partner. They are great!

These ones are from my March partner. They are so fun.

 (Isn't it weird how my camera changed the color of the counter trying to capture the color of this flower. I tried to fix it but could not.)

TTFN

Irish Chain Twist Quilt-A-Long~Finished Top!!

I have been following along with Melissa over at Happy Quilting doing a quilt along, Irish Chain Twist. Tomorrow is the big day. We have gotten to the end of the steps and now it is time for the big reveal for our tops. This first picture is the top on my bed. It fits perfectly!! I am so excited.

 This picture is taken outside today in very strong winds. You can see how large it is. My daughters are standing on the seat of the picnic table. Sorry about the shade and sunny areas. With its size and the wind this was the only way we could take a picture.

 And then because the help I was getting here is a fun picture of the top facing into the wind. It did not turn out very well but the colors are truer to the way it really looks.

I went tonight and bought the backing and two bottles of spray baste. I will be working on getting it finished now. I want this quilt on my bed. We have until April 23rd, but I am hoping to be done before that. I love this quilt! Thank you Melissa for another great quilt along!

TTFN