Michigan Blue

I'm in love with this quilt. It was tough to give away but fortunately, it was for a good cause.

My cousin, Aaron, and his lovely fiance, Jenn, are getting married in August so of course, I wanted to make them a lovely creation. I asked Jenn to pick out a color scheme and pattern. She definitely gravitated toward squares within squars. As for colors, she said that they liked blues.

I had purchased a fat bundle of awesome Lotta Jansdotter Glimma fabric during a visit to Crimson Tate in the fall so this project was the perfect excuse to cut in to the bundle.

The teal and gold mixed in with the blue reminded me Lake George in the summer. (My grandparents had a home on Lake George and my cousin Aaron and I spent many weekends together at Lake George.)

Here's a photo on progress. I added several of my own scraps to make this a a bigger quilt.

 Here are some photos of Aaron and Jenn at their wedding shower. It was held at Lake George on Independence Day weekend. (Check out the blue and red quilt used to hold the presents. I made that quilt - Anchor's Away - for another family member.)

Emily's T-Shirts

Tenacity wasn't the only person to receive a quilt for her high school graduation. My husband's cousins daughter - Emily - also graduated this year. Her mom had been sneaking t-shirts away from her over the years and asked my mother-in-law and I to put them together in to a quilt for Emily. Bobbie and I jumped at the chance. Emily is such a beautiful, strong, kind, and funny person; we were honored to make her a t-shirt quilt.

We started the project this winter, during a quilting retreat at my house. Bobbie put together most of the top and I finished the top, did the backing, and quilted it. Bobbie then did the binding.

Here is the finished project.

The back was particularly special because it featured a t-shirt that Emily and her grandfather (Bobbie's brother) designed for a fishing tournament they were in. (Uncle Tom passed away a few years ago and we all miss him. We especially miss seeing him and Emily together. They had a special bond.)

This t-shirt makes me laugh so I had to include a special photo!

We traveled to Hazel Park, Michigan this weekend to attend Emily's graduation. Bobbie and I were excited to give her the quilt. She LOVED it. It make her cry which of course made us cry. Her mom was thrilled and insisted on hanging it up to display it during the party.

Emily is headed to Michigan State this fall where I am confident she will have a successful four years of college as a Spartan.

Fragments

One of the great things about quilt camp at Camp Tecumseh is the fact that they always host a vendor who sets up a mini quilt store for the quilters to use in the lobby of the building. The quilt shops will have fabric, books, fabric, notions, and more fabric. It's fun to go shopping at 3 am. Or if you're in the middle of a project and you run out of something (or need additional fabric), it's nice to walk up a set of stairs and have lots of options to help complete your project.

At the January camp more than two years ago, I came across a fat quarter bundle that I fell in love with. I bought the bundle and it sat in my sewing room, untouched, for about year. I finally found a project for the bundle and started putting it together. Because it was an "extra" project - as in it wasn't designated for anyone - I worked on this project in pieces, finally putting the top together in April.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the quilt but when I received an invitation to my dad's, wife's, granddaughters high school graduation open house, I knew I wanted to finish the quilt for her. (I guess that makes her my step-niece?) I was able to layer and quilt this project in a weekend so that I could finish it in time for her party.

Tenacity is pretty cool kid and she totally deserves this beautiful quilt. 

It was hard to part with it - especially since I loved the fat quarter bundle so much - but I'm happy Tenacity was the recipient. Especially after receiving this text from her:

Tenacity is headed to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis this fall. She'll make a great Jaguar!

The Stars Align

When I first jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon, I saw a quilt block that I loved, loved, loved from Ellison Lane Quilts. I finally got around to making my own quilt with this starflower block. (Which is more than I can say for most of the other quilts I've pinned!)

(I just looked at the above photo and realized how awesome my piecing looks. Go me! I feel like a grown up quilter.)

I made several blocks and laid out the quilt. Of course, it's never quite as big as you want.

Luckily, I had plenty of the white on white fabric that I was able to use for sashing and a border. I love the floating stars affect of this quilt.

I'm donating this quilt to a cancer survivor walk in honor of a friend from work. So it's only fitting that I took a photo of this beautiful quilt on campus. 

One last photo.... I completed this project over spring break. My mom was visiting me and although I only had one finish for the week; she had THREE. Go mom! Here's our collage of finished projects:

I did spend a good amount of time over spring break working on a massive quilting project. The quilting is now completed - yay! - but I'm finishing the binding. I can't wait to show you that quilt.

North by Midwest

I've talked about the quilt block exchange I did with my guild in 2009. We made blocks out of black and white material and though my blocks sat untouched for several years, I finally put them together for a quilt for my cousin's graduation.

Those blocks are still in circulation! My mom also did the exchange. She used eight of her 20 blocks for a quilt several years ago. When we found out my cousin (a different one; I have A LOT of cousins!) was getting married and wanted a quilt in black and white, she pulled out her remaining 12 blocks for us to put together. We added some color for pop. I call this North by Midwest.

I think we've finally used all of our black and white blocks.

And since I have neglected my personal blog for so long, I thought I'd throw in this photo from the wedding. It was a fun night.

Covered in Threads 2013 Guild Challenge

As in past years, the women I quilt with decided on an annual challenge for our Covered in Threads quilt guild. You'll recall that the 2013 challenge was to create a polka dot quilt. Last weekend we gathered at my house for a few days of sewing during which we showed our polka dot projects. It's always fun to see what people come up with:

We also decided on our 2014 challenge. After several suggestions and a group vote, we decided that our next project will be a log cabin quilt.

This will be the sixth year we have a challenge. I love that we've been able to keep the tradition going.

Jungle Safari

This quilt was finished last summer but I just received the photos. It's a baby quilt for my husband's cousin's son, Max.

My mother-in-law and I worked on this quilt together. We decided to use the pattern I'd chosen for my solid's quilt challenge. The blocks are bit wonkier and it's cool to see how the prints play in to the quilt compared to all solids.

Here's a photo of me taken while we were measuring the batting during a spring quilt retreat.
 

I was uncertain of the colors. Max's mom had sent a photo of the jungle safari bedding she wanted us to try and match. It seemed like a lot of different prints and colors. But I think they work against the khaki and green.

We also found the great fabric for the back. It had all the prints and colors and matched everything perfectly. Most will think we matched the fabric on the front to the back which isn't the case; it just worked out that way.

 And here is my quilt partner, modeling the project.