Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Projects in the Works

    Of the many quilts I have made I have not made one especially for my younger granddaughter.  She LOVES dogs and I have been planning a dog quilt for her which I hope to have finished for her 5th birthday in July.  I am finally making good progress.  Here are 8 of the blocks with 12 planned.


 I love the 3 D ears.  The faces are paper-pieced.

     I am blessed to have my mother’s 1923 Bilo baby doll and carriage. 

Many years ago my sister Irene made the body for the small Bilo style baby doll. I did not like the extra wide hips so I recently cut down the hips revising the body and made an outfit.  I plan to make more. 


      April 13th I am scheduled to teach a class at Creative Sewing for making a coiled fabric bowl or basket.  Here is a small sample I recently made. I plan to make a few more before the class.  


      This lovely spring weather also has me spending more time in the yard.

Hope you enjoy some time sewing or quilting.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Finishes This Week

    This week I have had guild meeting and church quilt group meeting so not much sewing/quilting time at home.  At GCQ guild meeting we had a terrific trunk show and talk by Laura Blanchard of Plum Tree Quilts.  Her TAW pattern includes the addition of geese to add an interesting accent. 

As you sew the blocks for this pattern you also create the bonus HSTs for a smaller quilt.


      Even though I have been away from home 2 mornings, I finished quilting a small wall-hanging that will be donated to Ashe County Piecemakers Guild ( West Jefferson, NC) for their small quilt auction in July.  I pieced the top a couple of years ago as a class sample for turned edge machine applique. 
 

 I practiced dense background quilting to add dimension for the applique.



    I also finished my Lego comfort lap quilt for church group.

     It is a little cooler this morning but this is my day to get out in the yard to do a little more cleaning of flower beds and such.  Then this afternoon I will be ready to relax and piece some.


Enjoy some time sewing/quilting.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Scrap Play and Finishes

     I love playing with scraps, rainbows and bright quilts so I am excited to be participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year. The color for March has been red.  I pulled scraps from my stash plus spent some time cutting units as well as made-fabric play. I put this month’s creations with the past 2 and here are my blocks so far. 




 By the end of the year I should have several beautiful bright small quilts to donate or gift.

    When I am at my home away from home, I frequently piece made-fabric from crumbs.  Last summer I created many green/blue blocks.  I started sewing them into a quilt top and decided I wanted it larger.  Next time I sewed green/blue made-fabric, I did not have the others with me.  When I put them with the first batch, they had much more bright green and not much blue and I felt they did not match.   The next time I paid closer attention and made more.  I have a lap quilt of mostly green made-fabric blocks which I finished a few months back and now the full bed size green/blue quilt is finished.  The design was inspired by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. 


To go with the modern design I used my walking foot and quilted the center using the serpentine utility stitch. I did a FM motif in the border which does not show up well on the large print.


I also finished a couple of pillowcases for our local Ronald McDonald House.  The main fabric was donated by Springfield Fabrics of Fort Mill, SC.



It is still too cold to work in the yard.
Enjoy some time sewing or quilting.
I'm linking up with SoScrappy Scrap Happy Saturday .  

Monday, March 13, 2017

Playing with Scraps

    Not a lot of sewing has been going on this past week since I am visiting family and spending time with granddaughters. I have spent some free time cutting up odd scraps into usual size squares and strips such as 6  1/2", 4  1/2", 3  1/2" and 2  1/2".  I did take time to this morning to piece a red scrappy star for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge since red is the color for March.

   I hoped to work outside but it is too cold and damp.  Better day to sew.  Enjoy some time sewing and quilting.   

Friday, March 3, 2017

Kids Quilt Finishes

     For the past week I have split my time by working in the yard in the morning and quilting in the afternoon.  Today I finished sewing the binding on 2 kids quilts. 

This quilt started with 6 orphan nine patches. 

I quilted with several FM motifs. Not perfect by any means but simple. 

Next is a design I am calling 4 and 4 Patches.  It was a good leader/ender pattern.

I love the bright backing.

Enjoy some time sewing or quilting.