Knight's To Remember!

Hello friends, how have you been?  I've got the ick.  It was bound to happen, seems like everyone at work has it.  Just a matter of time.  Any who.  Before I had to go back to my full-time job, (shock! horror!) I tried to get as much of my stitching done as I could.

My mother-in-law Ann commissioned me to make her mother, Jeannette Knight, a quilt.  The photos are of a cross country trip she took last year with one of her other daughters, Cathy.  There's a lot of Knights... I think Jeanette had 10 or 12 children and still has SO much energy!  You can imagine she hasn't had much time to do a lot of traveling over the years.  So, Ann wanted to commemorate the occasion with a memory quilt.  They got some GREAT photos!  Looks like she went to DC, New York, Hershey, PA, they caught a Kenny Chesney show or at least saw his tour bus!  Looked like they had a grand time & I hope she enjoys the quilt for a long time!  I had been putting that off until after the holidays, my December was packed.  I was really excited to use that Cherry Mint fabric, I'm so in love.

 Then Bethany had also asked for a t-shirt quilt with some of her favorite shirts and pajamas from high school.  Her 21st Birthday is the 27th so, I had a goal.  Funny enough, they are the Triad "Knights"!  HA HA  I put the fuzzy jammie fabric up top so she can get the fuzzy touch going when she's cuddling.  This girl has been the same size since the 3rd grade.  Those polka dot pajamas had lasted a LONG time and still fit.  She's just ready to move on, understandable.  That's her behind the quilt, straddling between the recliner and sofa to be tall enough.

Hedwig got a revamp and I'm SO much happier with him!  I used a solid for his book and I got his feathers in the right place!  If I was going to be super picky, I'd put the feather direction going down but there's no way I'm re-doing him a 3rd time.  It took about 2 hours to do the one block!

 I did the Butter Beer block.  I messed up, here's what happened.  I printed a bunch of the pages out at once.  Some have alternate components.  I think I made the Butter Beer with extra books because that block was much longer than the others.  So, I added it to a book only block, thinking that I split that one up some how.  Now, the row will be longer.  Not sure if I need to add some books to each row or remove some books from this line up.  I just looked at the designer's page, the green vine book and the blue lightening book don't belong...but the purple star does.  You can find the patterns at Fandominstitches.com.  You can find any kind of paper pieced geekfest quilt blocks imaginable!  So great!

 And Professor Lockhart's Peacock Feather Quill.

 Decided to reward myself with a book only block.  Paper piecing takes SO LONG!  For me at least.  I almost bought a bolt of wood grain fabric but the only option they had left looked like it had a green tone to it, so I may wait until the perfect color is available.  I think I want a whole bolt so I can do the back in it as well.  Why pay retail for that much when I can get it wholesale and sell what I don't use, right?

 I used a 3M strip to attach my magnetic pin cushion to the wall next to my design board.  Took an embarrassing long time to figure that out!  Very convenient.

 Then, because I'm giving a lecture on Crazy Quilting at the Waterloo Guild in February, I decided to make a pillow out of this crazy block I made a few years ago!  Quick and easy, I felt very accomplished.

I've also been working on the upholstery for a couch that Hunter is using on Lucky the tiny bus.  I will share more on that later.  That was on my list of things to finish before going back to work but it didn't happen.  He's gotten so much done so far and it looks amazing.  Yes, I'm bragging up my kid but he's mechanical like his dad without the ADHD and artistic like his mom without the laziness.  It's pretty great to see.  Check out their blog!