Sunday, September 30, 2012

finally some embroidery

 
Finally I have some Bird of Paradise blocks to post.  I have had this block appliqued for a few weeks.  I wanted to embroider the skipping rope before I posted it because the space looked so empty without it.  A friend came over Friday afternoon and provided the encouragement needed to get started.  Nearly all of these Bird of Paradise blocks need a bit of embroidery so it was good to make a start.  This block portrays DD#2 and DD#3.  I found enough pinks in my stash so they could both have pink dresses without matching  :0)  

This is my church block.  I was married in a church and every Sunday our family goes to church.  My faith is very important to me and I wanted to include a church on my quilt as a symbol of that. 

So now I have only 3 blocks left to complete and then on to the border.  If you can believe it - I don't have enough background fabric for the borders so the hunt is on to find something similar.  I have only myself to blame.  I was so eager to get started on this project and I thought I had a big enough piece.  I didn't measure it to be sure.  I won't be making that mistake again! 

Happy Quilting!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

a new little bag

 I seem to be having trouble getting back to the machine projects I was working on before summer came along.  I started something new again and made a new little bag.  I cut and used charm squares from Howard Marcus's line Friendship. It is just the right size to hold my Bible and a notebook to go to my weekly BSF Bible study.

I quilted it with free motion feathers.  I found it challenging to evenly fill the rectangular shape.  It was a good exercise - I need to practice more!
Maybe this week I can back to those machine projects before they become ufos...  :0)
Happy Quilting!!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

split 9 patch

This is another quilt to go to northern India. It's to go to a school set up for children who live at the dump. After seeing a picture of the last quilt I made with it's recipient, I knew I wanted to make another. When I heard they were collecting quilts for the rest of the children I got started.
I had some fabric I wanted to use up. I made some 9 patches - split them and sewed them back together again. It was fun arranging them as there were so many options. It is machine quilted very simply.
I hope this quilt will bring a smile to a child's face and keep them warm on cold nights this winter.
Happy Quilting!!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

finished panel 4

I was excited to finish panel #4 of my Susan McCord vine quilt this week and add it to the others. This quilt is slowly growing and so far I haven't lost momentum on it.
It's still difficult to photograph. I like the closer photos because I can see the colors of the leaves. However, when I see the whole thing I can enjoy the wavy lines created by the main stems.
I printed off panel 5 and will start on it soon. I'm working on a Bird of Paradise block for a few days. I really want to complete that project too!
I quilted my Temecula Summer Stars quilt this week. I am terribly out of practice with machine quilting! I did very simple in-the-ditch quilting.
DD#2 sewed herself a skirt to wear for the first day of school :0) I was proud of her! We went shopping yesterday for flannel to make fall/winter pajamas for her, DS and DD#3 and she asked if I would make them for her because she would rather make quilts than sew clothes. LOL! I can relate to that!
Happy Quilting!!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Summer Stars

I got my stars together for the Temecula Quilt Co's Summer Star sew-a-long. They posted their layout yesterday and somehow I had it in my mind that there would be 9 stars. Theirs has only 8 so I made up my own 2"center and made an extra block.
I had trouble deciding on border fabric. This navy is what I went with but I came very close to using this taupe/grey/brown.
I hope I can get it quilted this week. It's only 16" square so it shouldn't take too long :0) What a fun little project for summer.
Happy Quilting!!