First Haphazard Quilt

One of my friends found the pattern for this quilt somewhere and immediately thought of me.   It requires no measuring until the blocks are ready to put together.  It requires no exact quarter inch seams. It uses up big chunks of leftover fabric and is adaptable to many color schemes.

 When I showed the top to my friend C, she immediately asked to buy it.  When I got home, I found the almost-perfect backing for it.  She loves butterflies and the colors purple and red.

Fittingly, for a Haphazard Quilt, the backing was just a little narrow.  No problem.  I added a flip-and-sew red border and Bob's your uncle.

She seems to really like it.  The bed in her Assisted Living  room is small and the quilt is just the right size.

Score.

My Daugters Gift to me - Photo Book

At our Thanksgiving gathering, my daughter presented me with this wonderful book.  It's full of pictures of me, my quilts, and many of the people that I've given quilts to.   And no, I have absolutely no idea how many quilts I've made.   Keeping track and maintaining statistics is not my strong point. 

The book includes lots of family members, lots of baby quilts, many high-school graduation presents, a wedding quilt or two, a quilt for a 50th anniversary, Quilts of Valor, Linus Quilts, and some I-thought-you-needed-a-little-bit-of-love quilts.  

This page shows a number of my great grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, including Will, whose quilt is getting threadbare from use.    

Love that!   I want all my quilts to be used, not put up into a closet and forgotten.     

The guys on the stairs are my nephews sons; the quilt in the foreground was made by my grandmother Leone Baumann. 

.My son in law, Luke, posing in front of his portrait.

.. 

                                                                              My granddaughter Natalie and her husband Brennan                                                                                                       with their wedding quilt layered over my Dear Jane Light

This is the last page.   It includes my GGD Kaycee with the pillow I helped her to make, Kaycee with her high school graduation quilt, my great niece Katie with the crocheted basket I gave her, my grandson Aaron with a quilt that I had made for his dad and he received after Scott's death,   my hermit great-grand-grandson Leland with his high school graduation quilt, and my Katie with her high school graduation quilt.  (Katie is the one who, when she became a senior, gave me some fat quarters in colors she liked  because she was hoping I would make her a special quilt.  That was some very satisfying affirmation of my hobby!

 What a special gift.

What a special daughter.

Duckworth bordered panel quilt

 My local guild passed out preprinted panels to anyone willing to make a quilt for the Linus connection out of it.

I took one and pulled fabrics from my stash to make 4.5" Modified log cabin blocks to use as a border.

Because of the panel proportions, I also pieced two coping strips to add to the panel before adding the border.

Because this quilt turned out so well, I arranged with the challenge coordinators to give it to a 90yo friend of mine - a former quilter who has given away all her quilts and and has become bedridden.

As a part of the arrangement, I agreed to take two more panels to finish and donate to Linus.  One is done but the other is still on the design wall.

I've posted this picture in a Facebook group and received over 400 Likes and 60 comments.   

Hibiscus - raw edge applique with thread painting

I recently took a class from Susan Knight and made this sweet hibiscus applique block. 

As usual for a class, I used fabric that I already had, but this time I think it worked well.

Since most of my walls are full, I turned the block into a pillow for the recliner in my living room.
 

Texas Landscape

 When I saw this Moda panel, I was quite taken with it.  I ordered it online and was very pleased with it when it came.  

As quilters do, I made finishing it up into a quilt a lot harder than it might have been.  I made four strips of flying geese, in four different sizes to frame it.  At least I had the good sense to put in cornerstones of bluebonnet fabric, rather than the curved flying geese that I first thought of.  

It's a real pretty little quilt.

Cherrywood Challenge 2023

At last year's International Quilt Festival in Houston,  my daughter talked me into purchasing one of the Cherrywood fabric bundles for their yearly challenge.

The theme was Monarchs, and I had previously done a fragmented monarch butterfly.

The rules are pretty involved.  This is my submitted entry.

Sadly, there were 475 entries for the 200 available spaces, and mine was not selected.

Can't wait to see the display at the Festival in November.

Silliest Portrait Ever

I made this carrot as a wall hanging many years ago. 

While thinking about how to make my "Pfaces" more unique,        I created this one.

Makes me smile!

Finally on my bed - Dear Jane Light

Dear Jane Light - started maybe 20 years ago.   I worked on it off and on and finally decided to tweak the design.   I substituted blank squares for half the blocks and spread out the border as well.  So it's so much lighter looking than the original Dear Jane.   And much less work. 

It received tepid reviews at the two    quilt shows that I entered it in, but I love it anyway.  It looks better on the bed than it did hanging in a show, anyway.

 

NACQJ Award of Merit

 I entered three quilts into the 2023 Chisholm Trail Quilt Guild show.   Although I won no Guild awards, I was given an NACQJ Award of Merit.  On the accompanying letter, it states that the quilt "represents excellence in design and/or workmanship".   

There were so many gorgeous quilts in that show and I am at a loss to say why mine was singled out, but let me tell you, I am one happy camper! 

Quilt shows are such a great  way to focus on finishing a project and on working to improve one's technique.  The critique forms give honest feedback on possible ways to improve and encouragement by recognizing good techniques and design choices.  

                    Jane’s mother wanted her to become a writer like her idol, Jane Austen.          Unfortunately, Jane is dyslexic.   She now has a thriving career in retail sales, as she has a good eye for line and color

Corpus Christi trip

 Linda and I had a great time on our Corpus Christi trip.   The groupkloved the trunk show,  with lots of followup comments on how much fun it was.

Linda was amazing support.  We enjoyed visiting with our friends, sticking our toes into the saltwater of the bay, shopping at a going-out-of-business fabric store, and stopping at DQs for dipped cones.

Hope to go back sometime.   Both of us were told by our hostesses that we would be more than welcome.

Trunk Show in Corpus Christi

 This week I will be doing a trunk show of 22 of my Pfaces at the Coastal Bend Quilt Guild.

To see some of my work, check out my new website,  https://judybaumannart.godaddysites.com/ 

My daughter set it up and I'm trying to learn how to edit it.

So far, I haven't been able to add in my latest Pface, Vicki.   So here she is:

Vicki couldn't quit smoking.

Even after her husband died of lung cancer, she couldn't quit.

When she became ill, she refused to move to an assisted living facility because, as she said, "You can't smoke there.  Even in your own room!"

Don't be like Vicki.

                                            I miss you, Vickki, my friend.

Jane

Jane was made using Jane Sassaman's fabric.

Jane’s mother wanted her to become a writer like her idol, Jane Austen.

Unfortunately, Jane is dyslexic.  

She now has a thriving career in retail sales, as she has a good eye for line and color. 

Linus Quilts

     At .a quilting retreat in Stonewall two weeks ago, I put a binding on a quilt which is destined for one of my great-grand-newphes for his high school graduation.  When I got home, I labeled it and put it into the growing pile in my studio closet.

Next projects were to take panels given to me at the Linus Connection meeting and make quilt tops of them.  

 I finished one larger top, two for toddlers, and one for an infant.   The three smaller ones began as one piece of fabric, but I separated the motifs and featured each one in a quilt top. 

Real People

Most of my Faces are totally imaginary, fictitious, and a little off-the-wall.

Lately, I've tried my hand at making some based on friends and family.  

May I introduce Carolyn, Susan, Vicki, Dexter, and Megan:

Carolyn has been my friend for almost fifty years.  She loves to play bridge, drink wine, and is proud to be a Texan.

Her sister Susan published her first novel at the age of 72.  She, too, loves bridge and wine.   She prefers Italy to Texas, however.

 

Vicki couldn't quit smoking.  Even after her husband died of lung cancer, she couldn't quit smoking.   When she became ill, she refused to move to an assisted living facility because "They won't even let you smoke in your own room!"

Dexter loves to travel.   He works for an airline and goes as many places as he can on his pass.   

When he and a friend went to Vegas, they won $500 in the slots at the airport.

Dexter's cat was happy to see him return home.

Megan is a chameleon.  Her hobby is collecting hobbies.  Her profession morphs regularly.   She is never boring.  

She loves cats, dogs, her husband, and her Mama.   Not necessarily in that order.

 

 In an Exhibit!!!

Alfred, Betty, and Rosa were accepted into the Round Rock Arts Fiber Art Exhibition starting soon.

More Pfaces- Rosa and Lillian

Rosa is a true Texan, the great-great-granddaughter of the original Yellow Rose of Texas.

Her lipstick is Chanel Rouge Allure Intense Long-Wear Lip Colour in Pimpante. She gets it at Nordstrom and it’s only $37 a tube.

She likes Poblanos better than Jalepenos and Texas Bluebells better than Bluebonnets.

She loves Bluebell ice cream but is somewhat lactose intollerant, so rarely eats it.

Lilian is a florist.  She has been engaged three times but has never made it to the altar.   

She’s a little jealous of the brides that she makes wedding bouquets for and has been known to sneak in a little poison ivy into their arrangements.

An even dozen

 Yes. I am definitely addicted. I now have a dozen on my living room wall and two more in the works.

Retreat at Three Oaks, Yoakum, Tx

NOTE:   Whoops.   Just found this in my Draft folder.   I'll be going back this month!

 

I recently spent several days at Three Oaks Retreat Center in Yoakum, Texas. There were 11 of us there this time. Although the center is designed for 16 quilters, 11 was a good sized  agroup.  It's a  lovely place, with a decent sized workroom, four bedrooms, and a small but well stocked fabric store in the front. Best part of the trip was the Shop Hop on the day we left. Can you say SALE???? A traveling sewing machine repairman was there for several days, and several ladies took the opportunity to have there machines cleaned. He picked the machine up, took it to his trailer to clean and check up, and returned it a few hours later! So convenient! 

The group split up meal assignments and the food was very good. Of course, any meal that I don't have to prepare myself is a winner in my book. Cheryl's Pomgranite and Strawberry Margaritas were excellent. 

 I didn't take too many pictures, but will add some later. I bordered my yellow rose piece, made several of my Japanese-inspired blocks, and finished up a baby quilt for Linus.

Batik Linus Challenge and Mystery Class Combo

 My quilt guild in Pflugerville issued its weekly Linus Connection challenge and brought in boxes of batiks to choose from.   I nabbed some sweet blues.

Susan's Lifetime Learning class was just starting its Spring semester and the topic was Mystery Quilt.

So I decided to do a two-for-one.

The Mystery was harder than I had hoped, but I made some great blocks.   I only used six of them for the Linus challenge, so another quilt will be made later.

I really like the two-fabric binding.

Alice

 

 

Alice is at a quilt retreat.   It's July, but the Menopause Mamas who are in charge of the thermostat have turned it down to 65 degrees.

How is Alice supposed to get a proper quarter-inch seam when her fingers are frozen?