Quilts! Finished ones!

It's been awhile!

I got a new job at work, and it's a lot busier. And since I only have computer+Internet access at work, I haven't updated this for months.

Holidays and travel (both planned and unplanned) happened, and lots of sewing.

I did little projects, which I'm just realizing now that I didn't photograph. Boo.

But I have finished TWO quilts so far this year!



Maybe my favorite quilt photo ever.

It's a values quilt. For Tim. Since I started quilting, he's said that his favorite kind of quilt is scrappy patchwork. So that's what I did, for his birthday.

I took ALL my scraps and cut them into 1.75-inch strips, and then sorted them into dark and light piles.

I followed the Bright Furrows quilt pattern from Modern Log Cabin Quilting , but did the chain piecing a bit differently. Instead of working through four blocks at a time with each block in a different place to facilitate randomness, I worked on six blocks at a time with each block in the same stage but used different fabric strips.

Does that make sense? No? Maybe this does:



OK.

The finished blocks are 9 inches, and the quilt is 9 blocks by 8 blocks. It's bound with a small black dot on a white background, and backed with a sheet! It's held up very well through several washings, and the best part is that it was only $4 at Target. Boom!



Up close, you can't see the pattern at all.



First time free-motioning.









OK, one more. Of a cute helper puppy.



:::

And then I finished another quilt! The top had been almost done for months.



Dense quilting:



So dense that I ended up cutting the quilt top down a bit. I planned on it being a wall-hanging anyway ...



:::

And now, I'm working on my first ... paying quilt job!



It's a baby quilt for someone to give as a gift!

:::

We also moved recently, and Chowder is having a hard time with it.



And Tom is still Tom.

Season shift

That's it. I'm calling this fall. Even though the garden doesn't agree. And it's supposed to be 70 degrees on Thursday.


Go Vikings. I'd add an exclamation point, but it's hard to do when they're 1-4.

That's tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and beets. And gourds, for some reason.



Welcome to the (tomato) jungle.



That photo doesn't quite do it justice. There are probably -- no exaggeration -- 40-plus green tomatoes on those plants. And with the weather we're having, I don't think we'll lose them to frost.



What a beauty.

I have a confession: I pulled the zucchini plants -- with a few blossoms still attached. Honestly, I just can't eat another zucchini. I picked two today. There's still a six-pounder in our kitchen waiting to end up in a cake or some other dish that transforms healthy food into a butter-and-chocolate monstrosity.



That poor little lavender plant in the lower right corner hasn't seen sunlight since July, when the zucchini went bonkers and grew 10 feet in a week. But it smelled like lavender when I pulled away the squash vines today.

Get this -- I had a strawberry from the garden today. I didn't think to take a photo, but the strawberry plant is thriving. Especially in the last three weeks. I know it's an ever-bearing variety, but still. It's strawberries. It's October.

:::

Billings' first dog park opened over the weekend. We took Chowder.



That's what she did the whole time, when she wasn't busy peeing on her own tail. She was so afraid of the other (all very nice) dogs.

Even these guys.



Staying a safe distance from everybody else:



Total panic.



:::

As much as Chowder failed at the dog park, we succeed at the Friends of the Library book sale.



All that = $12. That's a lot of new books there!

I found a great Amish quilt book too. Not patterns, just photographs of a collection. Tons of inspiration.





And this book. Totally impractical, but awesome. And only $1.







We had the kind of day on Saturday that makes me like Billings. We ate at a killer restaurant we've been meaning to try for months. We made out like bandits at the book sale. We went to a party at the brewery. All that happened within blocks of our apartment. We basically did Democrat-liberal-hippie things in this very cowboy town. If we keep having Saturdays like that, my opinion of this place might turn a corner. I also had three cupcakes that day, which played an important factor in my happiness.

:::

I finished up this wonky piano keys quilt during the Saturday rainstorm. It's made with 1930s reproduction fabric. I started this top months ago, and then it just sat around while I worked on more time-sensitive projects.



At first I was pretty "meh" about this quilt, but once it was bound I had a total change of heart. I finished it while we were watching Fargo on the couch and it went into insta-use. That's why it's so wrinkly in the photo.



:::

I got a start on my next project, but I don't have any good photos to share yet. And I won't for a while because I'm off to Seattle on Thursday!

Baby quilt done!

I finished this last week, but am just getting around to the photos now.


We love us some gas in Billings. Seriously. There are three refineries.


Back.


Here are the details:

It's 45 inches square
The grey is Quilter's Linen in grey, but the wrong side.
The binding and back strip (dots) are from Momo's It's a Hoot, as are some of the prints in the log-cabin blocks. The binding is by hand and took about 90 minutes.
The elephants are Japanese and the sashing is Essex Linen.
The rest of the fabric came from random fat quarters, but I know the wood grain is Joel Dewberry and the blue herringbone is also Joel Dewberry, one of my favorites.
The blocks are wonky log-cabin style, and finish at 10 inches.
The sashing is Essex Linen in PFD (prepared for dye) 3 inches finished. I used PFD a) because it's what I could find in stock and b) it wasn't as harsh as white or as cream-colored as ivory.
The batting is bamboo.
The quilting is an easy free-motion pattern, and I think technically stippling, since nothing overlaps (except one tiny mistake that only I'll ever notice).


Here's more of the piecing.

And here's a closer shot.






I really loved using the Essex Linen with this quilt and think it'll become a regular for sashing in the future. As long as I can find it in stock.

We snagged those photos right before heading to the horses races.





He almost broke even. Basically.






And, continuing the theme of running animals, we hit up the Reed Point Sheep Drive on Sunday.









It was a very American event.


There was Miller Light, after all. And these pants, which I'll post about next.








So that was a massive amount of photos. Speaking of massive...





This desk. It's in my, ahem, new sewing room!

All I have are cellphone photos right now. But you get the idea.






The desk was Tim's parent's. They bought it in New York a long, long time ago. It's called a partners desk. It's meant to have two people on each side, hence the double drawers. And ridiculous size.


It's solid oak. I can lie diagonally on it, reach my arms over my head as far as I can and still not touch both ends. I love it.


And, to wrap things up , adorable dogs. And a Tim.