Thursday, March 24, 2022

2021- Christmas Quilt

 In honor of my grandmother Goff, who belonged to the group "Quiet Quilters" in Rose Park, Utah, I make a quilt every Christmas and give it to someone who has touched my family's life.  The "Quiet Quilters" is what this group of Relief Society women called themselves, but if you ever attended their gathering, they were, "anything but quiet."  These were a group of retired women who met together and tied quilts on a weekly basis and discussed individuals who needed some extra love in their life.  Then, they would have my grandfather doorbell-ditch the quilt on that persons' doorstep.

This year's Christmas quilt goes to a neighbor family who was there for my family in a very dark time.  They had a similar trial and bore their testimony to my family that if you "just keep praying and just keep reading your scriptures - particularly the Book of Mormon, everything will work out."  Because their outreach meant so much to me, they got this year's "Portable Hug."

Here are photos.  For this project, I made my "Sweet Sixteen" quilt and set it on point.  It was quilted with my Baptist Fan "Groovy Boards."






Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020 - What a year!

 2020 saw the Coronavirus pandemic, my parent's home burn down, my oldest son graduate high school ("virtually"), taking a road trip to hike Bryce Canyon, more high school football, entering the world of high school wrestling and me changing teaching to the school my children attend.  My youngest son is in my honor's biology class this school year.

Sewing Coronavirus masks..who knew sewing would come "back in style?"


GHS "Virtual" Graduation, 2020.



Hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park











I miss my old classroom and department at THS.  My new classroom at GHS is just a room, no lab.  At least I get to be with my own children.  

I miss teaching chemistry with the lab bench and the fun students had doing experiments.

Green flame!



After not having a working quilting machine for 2+ years, my husband let me purchase a used HandiQuilter Sweet 16 in late October.   I was able to do some quilts for Christmas.

The quilt setting pattern I used for this one was from Angela Walter's "Dot to Dot" class on Craftsy.  I changed the center 4-patch into a star.  Unfortunately, the "lifetime membership" to that class has been wiped out by the change to "BluePrint" and then back to "Craftsy".  I gave the quilt to my daughter's violin teacher.  She has come out to our home for lessons and even helped us choose a new violin for her, even in the middle of a pandemic.  She has served my family so much this year and I wanted to do something to show our gratitude.





This "Checkerboard Christmas Quilt" went to my mom and dad.  My dad really liked it and was grateful for it.  These sentimental items were lost in the fire.  Here is hoping to getting their home rebuilt in 2021!  The cardinal and holly sashing fabric was actually from my mom's "craft cave", prior to the fire.  The other prints reflect my children at Christmas time, when they were young.

My new/used HandiQuilter is stitch regulated, a luxury I've never had before.  I was able to quilt the "Christmas Cookies" pantograph by "Urban Elementz" on this project.  I chose that panto because my daughter used to sing "Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts" non-stop in the lower elementary school grades.


I gave this one to my in-laws.



I free-hand quilted bump-back feathers on it, edge to edge style.





Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Here is to a hopeful 2021!  Sending good vibes to anyone out there!

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

I'm sure that wasn't the "Manufacturer's recommendations"....

Yay! It's off the frame and completed. I'm not sure what happened to my quilting machine head. I took it off the frame to put on a domestic machine. In the process, I removed the new presser foot and knocked off the fly wheel. Then, I hit it to put the fly wheel in. Fixed! It's no longer jammed! My hubs said, "It's working? Don't hit it again, you'll jinks it!" I'm sure its not manufacturer's recommendations, but I got my daughters quilt done!


Thanks for all of the comments on my last post.  I agree, I do enjoy reading the "story" behind the quilt and project that can be shared with blogging -- and agree it is missing on Instagram. :)

Have a great day!

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Where did everyone go?

Well...I spent some time looking through my favorite blogs and discovered that no one is updating them anymore.

Where did they go?

INSTAGRAM.

So...I made myself an Instagram page...then found new blogs and "Linky Parties" to follow and updated my button column.

Please follow me on Instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/moderntraditionquilts/

In other news....."Big Bertha" -- my quilting machine bit the dust.  I took it in in march to have it overhauled.  While sewing last Saturday, the shaft in the fly wheel jammed and the crank came off.  It's done -- so my quilting blog may have to take a look at hand quilting for a while.

NUTS!


I was working on this quilt -- it has 20 blocks to do.  I completed 3 rows -- but not the 4th when the machine broke.  I'm not sure how to finish this quilt now.

They say "good luck" comes in 3's.  Does "bad luck" come in 3's?  My teenage son's car blew out a piston and needed a new engine, so we gave that vehicle to charity and purchased a new vehicle.  The following week, the quilting machine broke....and last week we got another teenage driver to insure at our house (that's a good thing -- not a bad thing).  So...no $$ to fix or buy a new machine.  I guess for now, I'll stick with my husband's quote: "Good thing...bad thing...I don't know!"

At least mom and grandma taught me how to hand quilt!

This is how I was quilting it.

Cross-hatching and feathers!

And...this is how far I got when the machine broke.
At lest I finished these two before it broke...nice edge to edge to edge.


This is the edge to edge pantograph from Urban Elementz called "Plumeria".  I can be downloaded for FREE here: https://www.urbanelementz.com/quilting-designs.html?category_ue=264&p=2

Thursday, June 13, 2019

9-Block Charm Square Sampler QAL Finish!

Well, it took me a few years, but I finally finished my 9-Block Charm Square Sampler, I started back in 2015.  https://moderntraditionquilts.blogspot.com/p/charm-square-quilt-along-2015-block.html





Why did it take so long...well, when I started it, we moved to another county.  Then, I started a Master's Degree, then started teaching school again, then off again, then started  back up again...finished a few more endorsements until and finished some "loose" credentials...4 years later...I have a summer with time to quilt!

This quilt top was the closest I ever came to not completing a project once it was started.  At one point, it looked like "barf" -- literally!  One of my lovely children got sick in the night and threw up on the pile of quilt blocks (he was aiming for the trash can but didn't make it).   I had to soak, clean and then press...and re-press all of those seams.

Do you remember how careful we were at pressing perfectly to get perfect points?  Oh!  After washing them...that was a challenge to get it back!