Blast from the Past: Quilts of August 2011

I’m doing a little series of posts that feature old blog posts.  I have been going back and looking at them.  It’s been fun.  I started blogging in June of 2009…WOW.  Over ten years.  I’m so glad I’ve kept the blog as a diary of sorts…today I’m telling you about my quilting in August of 2011.

First up. I finished Kalissa’s crumb quilt.

I had such an overwhelming response to it that people were asking questions right and left.  I ended up deciding to host a “Crumb Along” and I started tutorials on how to make one.  Those tutorials are still available on the blog.  You can find them HERE.

This quilt ranks right up at the top of the list of favorite quilts I ever made.

SO FUN!!

I was super busy in the garden so I was surprised at how much quilting I got done.  We had this quilt featured on Moda Bake Shop.  The pattern proved to be one of most used from our Moda Bake Shop stint.  The pattern is available on our blog HERE.

Kelli was quilting a lot at the time.  She came home one day and shared some of what she was working on.  This is…
Kelli’s scrappy version of Bonnie Hunter’s My Blue Heaven pattern.   I am loving it!!  You can find the free pattern at Quiltville.

The next quilt top isn’t quite complete.  It was the center portion of Bonnie Hunter’s Fair and Square.  It can be found in her book Scraps & Shirttails II: Continuing the Art of Quilting Green.

I went on to make both of these quilts as well.

I was doing some work with Accuquilt at the time.  They had asked me to write an article for them about the Rob Peter to Pay Paul quilt block.  I thought I’d share a bit here…In the article, I explained that most Rob Peter to Pay Paul quilts has a positive and a negative block as shown here.

Here’s a pastel version of the quilt…using a positive and a negative block.

Here’s a neat variation that uses a snowflake die in the center of the dark blocks.  It would look so neat with a snowflake quilted in the center of the white area.

Here’s a patriotic version that I am really in love with.  Look closely.  There are no longer positive and negative blocks.  Now all of the blocks have the same blue in the center but the “bites” that were taken from the blocks vary being either all white or all red.  This would look neat as a graduation quilt using the school colors…like our school’s red, white and black.

Again this version no longer uses the positive and negative blocks….this is a scrappy version…If you are thinking about making this version I have a video that shows tips on cutting the “bites”.  Imagine some neat quilting done in the center of the white blocks…

Of all the quilts…I think I like this last version the best.  The black with the bright colors is stunning….

I did a tutorial on how to make this pincushion.  I used an Accuquilt die to make it but you can use any Rob Peter to Pay Paul pattern pieces to make it.  You can find the tutorial HERE.

Kramer and I had gone to an antique show and I snapped all the pictures I could of quilts.  Here is one…

You can follow THIS LINK to see many more.  What a bunch of beautiful quilts!!

There was an online contest featuring Pets on Quilts.  I submitted some pictures of our then-beagle Gracie on some of my quilts.  THIS IS A LINK to a tutorial on how I made this quilt.

She was so good at posing on quilts.

I was also prettying up some of my canning jars.  I simply cut a piece of fabric the same size as the ring and popped it in.  I think it’s so cute.

We also had this quilt 1934 Nine Patch featured on Moda Bake Shope.  This one was so fun.  It’s a quilt made entirely of nine patches.  You can find the pattern HERE.

Gracie wasn’t up for posing…

She was such a good dog.

My niece Jody came for a play day.  She made quilts for her daughters and wanted to quilt them on my machine.  I taught her how to use it and she quilted them.

It’s wonderful to see her looking so good and healthy.  This was before her breast cancer…before her recurrent breast cancer and death.  Oh, I miss her.  She was such a good mom…and a great friend to me.  We shared all sorts of crafting and homemaking hobbies.

It’s soon coming up on the second anniversary of her passing.  I’m so thankful for this picture of happier days.

That’s the quilting that was happening…a whole lot of canning happened in August of 2011.  I think that was my year of the best garden I ever had!  I canned 72 jars of salsa in one day…oh my.  There were pickles and pickles too.  I am so amazed I got as much done as I did that August…but I wasn’t doing childcare then either.

Stay tuned…next month I’ll show you want I was doing in September of 2011.