This one is like I said, over ten years in the finishing. But here it is! Now all I have to do is layer and quilt it! But I need to wait until I can find some batting on sale! Meanwhile, I'm going to a friend's house tomorrow to do some sewing. I also did some knitting and needlepoint today to get going on some other projects.
This is the last block which I got finished today. I decided to do this beautiful star block instead of that silly Noah's Ark block with all the appliqued Animals! So I got it done today, doing the last of the applique while I watched a movie. Then I worked the rest of the day to get the top done.
This was a piecing nightm . . . I mean a piecing challenge! There were more partial seams in this one than any other project I've ever done, and I did a heart quilt for my friend Char where every single block had a partial seam. Anyway, the top is done except for the borders. Now I have to figure out if I want it to be a bed quilt because the instructions have a series of borders that take it from the lap sized thing it is now all the way up to a King sized. But I'm thinking definitely Lap robe. Two borders and I'd be able to use it for laying around the house at Christmas time.
Unfortunately the most creative thing I did today was make Potato and leek soup. But I did get the border on this quilt top. I'm going to have to do something creative on top of this project to cover up the holes. Why does it have holes? Because the strips weren't wide enough. The SNS technique requires that you cut strips of fabric and then trim them down at angles to create the blocks (If anyone is interested in this technique, I'll be teaching a class at Interquilten about it) Well, I think there was a mistake in the instructions on this block, because it seemed like that last strip was consistently about a half inch short. But not to worry, I think I'll take some pieces of the flower carpet fabric and fuse it on all the holes before I machine quilt it. That should take care of the problem.
Then I also got the borders on this quilt. Isn't he handsome? I think I'll go over to the shop tomorrow and get the backing fabric for him and some batting and get him layered. I can't wait for him to go up in the shop. I can't wait to hear the comments.
Now this one only had about three more seams left to do today so I sat and did them. Now the top is finished. I kind of like how the sides without being trimmed form points. I am thinking about doing the same thing on the top and bottom. Unfortunately this project is wider than it is long. I don't like quilts that go the wrong way like that so I have to fix it, maybe with more rows or maybe with a larger border on the top and bottom, or maybe with two extra borders on top and bottom. But I want to keep the points on the sides, I kind of like them. So I'm going to have to do some more thinking about this project.
Anyway, here is a detail so you can see some of the unique kitty fabrics I collected to make it. Man I had a great time collecting those!! Actually I still have several that I plan to use on other projects.
I finished two blocks today. This one is the last of the total hand applique ones. I finished it today and it turned out OK, I think. Now I can piece a whole section of the Christmas Sampler quilt. 
I also finished this block which is fused applique. Even fused applique takes a while to complete because of the use of fusible web. You have all of the prep work to do, even though you have basically none of the sewing afterward. So in other words, all the necessary stuff but none of the fun stuff! Oh well. I'm just trying really hard to finish this project. The last block that I have yet to do is a "Noah's Ark" block, but I couldn't really see what that had to do with Christmas other than the fact that it's a popular kids toy and a bible story both. But I just didn't want to include it in my quilt, so I looked through the Christmas blocks I had patterns for and found one that is called Nativity Star. It's wonderful and includes both piecing and applique. I pieced it today and I'll finish the hand applique on it either tomorrow or Tuesday. Wow, then I'll be done with a project I've been working on for more than 10 years.
I finished the binding on this little quilt tonight. That's the first thing I've finished in three days. I've been working on lots of stuff though.Including a new novel. Yes, I'm working on a werewolf novel. Jumping on that particular band wagon. I do believe mine is going to be a bit different though. More on that later.
Another project I've been working on lately is this Christmas sampler. You saw some of the blocks I finished for it earlier. I ran out of greens and needed to go buy some to finish the last two blocks for this quilt. I have yet to do that though. I will update more on this project later and keep you all posted.
I finished this quilt top today. Actually I started it today too. It's a store project designed to showcase the flowered fabric along with the Square in a square ruler and some of the many possibilities that can be accomplished for that. The pattern for this is the book Advancing on II. I still need to put a border on it, and you know, layer, etc. So I'll keep it on the list. But start to finish it was not a very hard project at all.
Finished the second one tonight. I also worked a little on the Bear from yesterday. I put on the first border and added the two leaves that went over the border. I think that Wednesday I'll be going in to Interquilten to get the rest of the fabric for the other two borders. So tomorrow I hope to run some errands and then come back and do some machine quilting. I have a pile of stuff that needs to be machine quilted before I can finish it. Maybe my next goal should be to finish everything that is layered before the next meeting. I'll take it under advisement!
I didn't finish anything yesterday, boohoo. We all knew these days would come. OK so I had my first one, of many probably. But I'll still try to catch up. But today I finished the fused applique on this wonderful bear. I now need to find some border fabric for it then I can finish putting the last two leaves on it.
I finished putting together this quilt top. We'll call this number 20. You've seen this before when I finished the blocks the other day. Well, I put the top together today. Then
I finished the whole top by attaching borders. It looks pretty neat huh? I love the 3-D effect this pattern gives. I have big plans for embellishing this one. I'll have to work on it. We'll call this #21.
Then I sat down to watch some videos and finished this one sock. Number 22. I'll start the other one tonight yet. I don't really like to wait too long before starting the second sock. Sometimes you forget how the first one was made and then you have to try to figure it out. I eliminate that problem by starting the second one immediately and trying to finish it within a few days as well. So number two will be coming up soon.
I promised you and here it is. The completely finished Tomato Quilt! I woke up this morning and sewed the binding on first thing. 
Here is a picture of the back. Notice the label! Yes, I labeled it. And also notice the quilting. Most of it is in white because the front was white, but it's pretty neat to see the pattern on the back.
Here is a detail of the quilting on the back. I also did some quilting in green on the dinner plates. Isn't it funny how much green food there is in Italian cooking?
I'm including this picture, not because I finished anything on this quilt but because I found the label. I knew I had printed up a bunch of labels for quilts that I was nearly finished with and I stored them . . . somewhere! I found them this past winter, I had them stored in a page sleeve in my quilting journal. So I figured, it was about time for me to sew it on.
So here it is, attached! All of this happened before noon while I still had some energy. But I figured that I still had some energy for a short time after lunch. So I finished the blocks for this project.
It's an attic window quilt with a halloween theme. I found this little cartoon depiction of tricks-or-treaters. I cut them into 3 inch squares. They have been up on the design wall for a good long time, maybe even months. Today I finished sewing the blocks. I have an interesting idea for embellishing this one. I'm going to have to think and plan a little, but in the mean time, I intend to finish the top of this. The glitz will come in the embellishments. 
A couple of days ago I finished the last of the applique blocks for this quilt, and today I finished the quilt top. Imagine it with a bright red binding. I'll be machine quilting it soon too, as soon as I can get a bat cut for it. I could very easily be done with this whole project within a week. I could make that a goal, couldn't I? 
I finished that big organizing project this morning and then tried working on the tomato quilt, I was planning to finish that top today. But then I had a meatball sub for lunch and it made me sick to my stomach. Those of you who know me know that I had stomach surgery two years ago and have lost about 100 lbs. But I am still prone to some stomach ailments when I eat wrongly! So I spent the entire afternoon napping listlessly in the chair and trying to ignore the book on CD playing in the background. So I thought today would be the first day that I actually missed finishing something. Then tonight while watching TV I picked up this block and managed to get the last 9 cherries on it. I was saving this one for a day that I worked. Guess I'll have to prep a new one!
Yes, I was working hard on the Christmas Sampler. Some of these blocks were not precisely done as planned but so what they are finished. I used fusible web on the appliques. But it still took me several hours to do.
My son is a chef trained at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute. So when I saw this cute little wall quilt I had to make it. The original design had a BLT depicted on it, but that was hardly culinary. So I switched it. I designed the salad with the bacon bits and cherry tomatoes. Today I finished appliqueing the last block, this Pizza block. As you can see, it's kind of a California style pizza with the tomato slices on it. Jake is really more into Sicilian pizza.
All of the blocks are now finished for this quilt top. I can spend some time this week putting it together. In fact, I might make that one of my weekly goals. 
Here is my offering today. I finished these four blocks. Two of them are for the same project as the two blocks I did yesterday, it's a Christmas Sampler. The other two, the ones with the blue backgrounds, are for my Chicago fire quilt. That's a long story and I'll tell it later when I get around to finishing it. But for now I'll tell you about this Christmas sampler. 
Yesterday I finished a whole 20 year old quilt, my oldest UFO, and today you're just going to have to give me a break. I managed to finish two very complicated blocks today. I'm nearly finished with another and I did some prep work but I'm going to call it a night. I had some dishes and laundry to do today as well. I know, that's not really an excuse but I can't spend all day every day on my hobbies!
I started it in 1989 when a customer of mine at Erickson's brought in a finished top wanting to know how to finish it. I loved the look of her quilt top and thought that I could have done a better job of hand piecing it myself. So I started the project right away when I got home that night. I wanted the look of those wonderful pastel thirties prints but since they had no reproduction fabrics at that time I had to find prints and solids that mimicked the look I had in mind. I used whatever odds and ends of muslin I had in my stash, and this I wish I had not done. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that it was going to be my masterpiece!
I finished the blocks in 2000 after working on them during my breaks at Polk. Then I finished the top working on it at Border's with the Border babes in 2005. I layered it so that we could use it as a hand quilting demo at the Northwest Michigan Fair. We began to hand quilt it bee style. Members of the Rumpled Quilts Kin Guild worked on it on and off for the last five years. Members who worked on it included: Eleanor Howard, Char Blanchard, Alice Rogers, Karen Hill, Laura Munck, Arlene Kish, Nancy Larson, Nancy Crow, Mikki Gauthier, Sue Shipman, Dorothy Weber, Marsha Frick, Sharon Siladke, Elaine Penny, Terese Gavar, and Diana Siloff.
