black white and red comfy quilt

so my boss has cancer.
crazy blunt way to start a post, am i right?  i may as well jump in to it and rip that bandaid off.
so again, my boss & dance teacher of 25+ years has been diagnosed with a form of cancer that generally is linked with the HPV virus.  well, to her luck, she's in the 2% that tested negative for HPV and all other factors that could play in to it developing.  after a short notice staff meeting where we all were filled in to what was going on and that she would be starting chemotherapy and radiation soon i sat on the fact of wondering what could i do.  a few days later, it was obvious that i needed to throw everything else aside and make her a quilt that would be comforting to use throughout her treatments, forced bed rest and beyond.  our studio colors, which are also her favorite colors, are red, black & white.  once i found this great pattern my grandma had loaned me, i found a few packs of fat quarters to do just the trick.  just over a week later, this quilt was done start to finish.
i found that joann fabrics now has wide width flannel, so i got a big piece of red flannel to use for the backing.  due to flannel shrinkage, i had to trim down the third border, but if i hadn't told you, it wouldn't be apparent! a simple black binding to frame it all up, and all was exactly as i envisioned this quick project.  i was able to get my cousin (also a coworker of mine) to deliver it for me, and i got the most wonderful text in response from my boss.  cancer gets two thumbs down in my book, but this is the first time it has hit this close to someone in my every day life.  ugh!  happy vibes are being sent out, that's for sure!
quilt number: 102
pattern: comfy by lavender lime

teal, burgundy & orange boardwalk wedding quilt

jacob & sarah got engaged in january, at initially planned a summer wedding for 2018.  as their time engaged passed on and then may rolled around, they decided to change their date from june 2018 to september 2017.  oy!  being jacob's cousin, i of course planned to make them a wedding quilt, but now went from an entire year to make one to just a few short months.  ack!  they picked their wedding colors of teal, burgundy & orange and i began to think on how to make them a quilt using just these colors.  at the end of the preschool year, i received a pair of leggings in these colors, plus purples, greens & yellows and knew instantly how to work the colors in.  i found a great pattern by cluck cluck sew and started gathering dozens of fat quarters to complete this quilt.  a little gray helped balance everything out instead of a stark white, and their fall wedding quilt came in to completion.  i bought a few pantographs including "macrame" from urban elementz and after an instagram survey, felt like it would be the perfect way to finish off this quilt.  a few days renting the long arm (had a mishap that involved tension issues & seam ripping) it got all quilted & bound just days before their wedding.  i am so happy with the final result of this beast, i kept telling myself "i want a queen size quilt for my bed!"
someday, emily...
someday soon, i hope.
here's some pictures of this colorful fall wedding quilt!
quilt number: 101
pattern: boardwalk by cluck cluck sew

long arm quilting with natalia bonner

a handful of months ago, it was mentioned at one of our quilt guild meetings that a professional quilter would be offering classes at meissners in september.  i jumped online when i got home and registered myself for two out of the three classes being offered.

to be honest i knew nothing about Natalia Bonner at all, but i was excited for the opportunity to take some classes from a different instructor.  plus, every time i have gone in to use the long arm, i have steered myself away from thinking about free motion, and just stuck with pantographs.  the two classes i took were called "beginner's guide to free motion quilting" and "creative background fillers."  i opted out of taking "visual guide to machine quilting feathers" because i didn't feel like feathers were something that would interest me (since then, i've signed up for Angelina's feathers & swirls class in december)

i feel like with these classes i learned a good handful of things, but overall i feel a lot more confident in my free motion quilting.  when i took my initial certification class nearly a year ago, i felt very overwhelmed and put crazy expectations on myself.  plus, i was paired with someone who used to own her own long arm.  talk about intense!  now, almost a year later, i feel like i have a better grasp on the concepts of it, and enjoy it WAY more than when i did it on my home machine.  currently, i have one quilt that i do plan to free motion, just have to figure out what design will work best!

here's a look at some of my practice chunks, forever immortalized in blog format :)
day 1: beginner's guide to free motion quilting
day 2: creative background fillers
there are a few motifs that i'm excited to use from these classes.
i particularly like the wood grain from the first day, and i think that would look great on a baby boy quilt of sorts.  i really like the dense all over squares (did them both days) as well as the crackle looking one.  i think the crackle will look great on my pumpkin quilt, so hopefully i can get a move on that to make it happen!  surprisingly i didn't hate doing the swirls as much as i thought i would, and it was great to have angelina there to hang out with on the second day of classes!  i'm ready to get long arm quilting again, and will very likely be trying a free motion style when i am working on one of my projects :)

twin dogs in sweaters quilt

way back when i was in colorado for spring break, lisa and i took over 52quilters on instagram.  we planned to do something awesome for our dads, who happened to be twins.  now that this quilt has been delivered (since june, actually) you can watch the whole video of us being chatty cousins here and talking a bit about this project:
now that you've gotten caught up on us and the planning process, you can return here!
well, if you didn't i'll zoom through the highlights.
lisa & i have twin dads that even though we are very much cat people have a love for weenie dogs.  lisa's dad wrote a book about a wiener dog man, while my dad has a wiener dog puppet he uses for performances (such as our local cowboy poetry).  we spent my spring break together shopping for our fabric as well as completing the quilt tops before i headed back home.  also, dr. pepper is delicious.  our dads received their quilts at the end of june, which is their birthday month.
for my dogs (dogs in sweaters pattern by elizabeth hartman, btw) i chose yellow sweaters to "match" my dad's blankie from years gone by.  the background on the front is a moda grunge to tie in lisa's dad's "blue" color (the color is called peacock) which helps the yellow and brown pop out as well!  we both used the same fabric for the back of the quilt.  ideally, we wanted a blue and yellow plaid, but holly's quilt cabin didn't have enough yardage for both of us, so we got a blue one!  i used yellow as my bobbin thread when quilting to bring the yellow in like i had wanted.  now, on to the quilt!
the pantograph used for quilting is called "bauhaus" by urban elementz and i just love it!  sure, i should be working more on my free motion quilting, but when a template is this awesome, of course i'm gonna go for it!  here's some fun of our dads opening their quilts together at our grandma's house!
and now, drumroll please!
quilt number: 100
quilt pattern: dogs in sweaters by elizabeth hartman

the big question of how many

when i was in alaska this past june, my friend's husband asked me quite a major questions.
he asked me how many quilts i have made so far.
i asked, "this year?" and started to count on my fingers to which he responded that he meant in total.
i paused... because i hadn't really ever thought that far back and to count them all.
so now that i've been presented with that question, i feel like there needs to be an official answer.  at least to the best of my ability.
so after attempting to scour my previous blogs, craftster, this blog, and my brain... here's the running list.  a good chunk of these i had forgotten about!
(i apologize for not being able to link everything here for you, but i was able to scrounge a few up from my pre-blogging days, and photos are kind of thrown in here to make it pretty)

the quilt list
first quilt
27 shriner's hospital quilts (high school senior project)
3 t-shirt quilts for me
uncle barry's t-shirt quilt
cousin ben's t-shirt quilt
ex-boyfriend's star wars quilt
sister's t-shirt quilt
nemo quilt (for a swap on craftster)
desi's dinosaur rail fence quilt
best friend's graduation photo quilt (this one was a piece of work for sure!)
classic winnie the pooh quilt
black, white & pink squares quilt
pirate mouse rail fence quilt
snow white child's play quilt
cousin jacob's t-shirt quilt
music quilt (for del oro)
peacock colored daisy chain quilt
green & orange fat cats quilt
eeyore hexagon & triangles quilt
orange chevron wedding quilt
butterfly railfence quilt
green & brown pair of logs wedding quilt
joshua's t-shirt quilt
catvent quilt along
safari animal "circus in town" quilt
forest friends baby quilt
between friends junior elephant quilt
giraffe gatsby quilt
baby dinosaurs quilt (on the right)
map quilt
coloradifornia cameras quilt
hexing around quilt (sewvivor)
fun with flags quilt (sewvivor)
petite trellis superhero cats quilt
classic winnie the pooh daisy chain quilt
mod chevron baby quilt
the modern baby pink & yellow quilt
pink & purple parallelograms
daffodils and kittens quilt
pudgecatvent quilt
baby girl turtle quilt
lion king paper pieced quilt
mickey inspired triangle quilt
nerdy science ribbon star quilt
dragons & knights on the nine patch quilt
baby b's baseball themed quilt
blue & gold queen sized argyle quilt
goodnight, quilt - winnie the pooh baby quilt
baby a's charm (and 10!) squares quilt
andrew's disney i-spy quilt
fandom filled amy butler daisy chain quilt
stripes & triangles elephant quilt
giraffe abstractions quilt
bronco diamonds baby quilt
star wars strip quilt
feelin' blue fancy foxes quilt
tiger lily swoon 16 baby quilt
garden snails quilt 1
blue & gray baby elephant quilt
pink, gray & white stripe quilt
old fashioned cars pow wow quilt
10 dmmc raffle quilts (currently)
which totals to 99 finished quilts!

i feel like there is a lot of pressure for whatever is the next quilt posted, because it will be quilt number 100!
if you follow me on instagram, you've probably already seen numbers 100 & 101 at this point ;)

old fashioned cars pow wow quilt

i'll admit, i've been blog slacking a bit, but sadly my list of things i HAVE to do has been overpowering my list of fun things i want to do.  finally, here's another one of my little quilts i made back in june!
my coworker brianna announced she was expecting a baby boy, and when i found that out, i knew the perfect backing fabric i wanted to use.  i didn't find it when i was in colorado over spring break (yeah, that is how long it has been) so when i got home i ran off to a local quilt shop and swooped up some yardage.
her boyfriend works on cars, and in particular has some fabulous looking old fashioned cars.  i'm certain there is a more technical name for it, but it is all foreign to me.  this alexander henry car fabric was perfect, and once that was set, i pulled some colors from the cars to create the colors from the front.
i love a gray background (obviously) but it felt very weird using black in a baby quilt.  i had to keep reminding myself the car tires on the back pulled it in.  plus, using the same for the binding really helped frame it off, tying the front in to the back.
i stitched in the ditch for the quilting in order to not get too overwhelming with the pattern, and i think that helped with the backing also being it's own feature part of the quilt.  plus, it is a darker background so no reason to fear it getting dirty forever outside on the ground!
i'm so excited for brianna and her little one who is now two months old!
i know he has a great big sister as well :)
pattern: pow wow by cluck cluck sew