A Quilt

A Quilt

A family clan is like a handmade quilt,

Pieced together through love and care.

Each new member adds a square,

Each departed is remember there.

Some squares are bright and colorful,

Others more subdued.

 Each enhance the other one,

Bringing out its hue.

When a member is far away,

We bend our heads and pray,

That we may be blanketed with,

Their love and care each day.

                                 - P. Wiley Merkle

Happy Easter Everyone!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Breaking from Reality!

I tend to get trapped with the need to be too realistic with my art. I need to let go just a little bit, that's a good thing for an uptight quality engineer. So I decided to just go with some geometric patterns for another section of Goddess hair.

 

By no means perfect, but I still like it. I'm still having fun and that's what is important.

I'm linking up with Leah Day for FMQ Fridays at the Free Motion Project.

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Easter Egg Potholders

The other day, while out perusing Pinterest, I came across the cutest Easter Egg shaped potholders. They looked so cute and when I clicked on the link, there was a tutorial at Miss Mary's Sewing Classes on how to make them. Pattern included. Sew, you know I had to give them a try.  Here is my first attempt.

Not quite as smooth and even as I'd like, but not bad.

It kind of looks like I took a bite out of the egg. It's where I hand stitched it closed after turning it.

This really is the perfect size potholder

I added an extra layer of plain batting on top of the Insult-Bright for a little more protection. I plan on using the potholder and just using Insult-Bright usually isn't enough. I hope this one turns out a little smoother and egg-shaped.

 This only took an hour, that included printing out the pattern, cutting enough for two potholders and finishing one potholder. I think they will look really cute for Easter (and beyond).

I did work on my Express Your Love quilt and embroider a set of towels. My big find this week, was a quilt top that my grandmother made. It will definitely go on my WIP list. Hopefully, it gets done faster for me that my grandmother or mother!  ;)

Here are this weeks stats:
In-process: (4)
Elephant quilt
Express Your Love
Layers quilt
Grandma's Quilt

New projects: (1)
Easter Egg Potholders

Finished (1)
Embroidered Towels

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Bad to the Bone!

I've been doing a little machine embroidery lately. I needed something to give my stepdaughter, to thank her for making and canning a plethora of stock for me. She's an absolute wiz at it. Yummy! So when she said she needed some new towels, I set out finding just the right design to embroider. I think I found it!

 Violet (one of my stepdaughter's dogs) posing next to one of the towels. She looks so innocent, but she's "bad to the bone"! No, not really, she is VERY sweet, but she does love to chew on a bone.

The embroidery design is from Urban Threads: "Bad to the Bone"! I embroidered a wash cloth, hand towel and bath towel. The bath towel gave me some trouble, it took three tries to get it done. It was so heavy is kept pulling it out of register. I ended up having to hold it up the whole time it was stitching. But I think it was worth it!


I'm linking up with A Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday and Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday. 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Unexpected Treasures

I have been cleaning out closets for the last few days. Closets upstairs, stuffed with my mom's stuff, mostly sewing, but some more personal stuff. When she passed away (about 2.5 years ago), I hauled 3 or 4 truckloads of stuff to my house. I have gone through most of it, but some of it I just packed into closets in totes and bags. The time has come, the hole in my heart is strong enough (I think) to go through some of the more personal stuff.

 This is just part of what I am going through, but the stuff I cull out will be so much better donated to people who will actually use some of it.

 

I did find these cute little ceramic quilts, that now hang in my sewing room. I little reminder of mom.

But the biggest find was this unexpected treasure, a quilt top. I'm pretty sure that my grandmother (my mom's mom), made this back in the 1940's or 1950's. It's about 71"x80" and almost modern in design, everything old is new again. I'm really looking forward to quilting this quilt, three generations of quilters. Pretty cool!

So even through this has been a tough few days, going through my mom's stuff has had its rewards. I hope that both mom and grandma are smiling.

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

What Does Goddess Hair Look Like?

Personally, I think that is a good question. I have been working on my Express Your Love Goddess. I love that Leah Day made her hair green in the panel, it kind of opens up the possibilities. I decided to stick to the colors in the panel, using similar color thread.

I love the texture and movement, but I still haven't decided if I will do all of the Goddess's hair this way or do something different in each section.

I divided up the section and did bouncing curves to fill in the open area, then thread painted the smaller areas

Close-up of the thread painting

I am so enjoying quilting this project, taking my time and savoring the FMQ. This quilt is for me and my soul.

I'm linking up with Leah Day for FMQ Fridays at the Free Motion Project.

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

YA YA's

I really love my day job, it's all about the people who work there. The are just like family. A couple of years ago, a co-worker gave me the most incredible hand knit scarf for my birthday, really out of the blue. I have been looking for a way to repay her generosity, so when she asked if I could embroider a small saying for her, I jumped on it.

Prototype for her review - I really should clean up the jump stitches between the words.

Now I just need her to point me to the right fabric color, thread color, size, etc. I really like this little saying, it fits her to a tee.

I did finish a project this week, my Wrenly/fleece baby quilt. To say I'm thrilled with how it turned out would be an understatement, considering how simple it is. The back seemed to just "puff-up" after it was washed. A lot of people have asked about how I made it. Basically it is just quilters cotton front and fleece batting/backing (just 2 layers). I pin basted it, careful not to stretch the fleece. As a matter of fact, I didn't even tape the back down, just laid it flat on the table and smoothed the cotton down on top. I quilted it on my domestic machine (Pfaff QE 4.0). I was careful with my hands, not to let the fleece stretch. Really quilted pretty easy. I did use my Supreme Slider to make the quilt glide better while I was quilting it and stitched it using Aurifil 50wt thread. I did NOT pre-wash my fabric (I'm lazy that way), but I washed the quilt after it was done. Washed beautifully.

I also did a small amount of quilting on my Express Your Love quilt, quilted my world.

So all in all, it wasn't a bad week, especially considering how busy I've been at work (which tends to leak over into my "free-time").


Here are this weeks stats:
In-process: (3)
Elephant quilt
Express Your Love
Layers quilt

New projects: (1)
YA YA's embroidery

Finished (1)
Wrenly/fleece baby quilt

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Happy St. Pat's Day

I finished up my Wrenly/fleece baby quilt. I am amazed at how well it turned out, if I do say so myself. Whole cloth (Wrenly) front, fleece batting/backing and 50wt Aurifil "China Beige" thread (used 3/4 of a 1422 yard spool) to free-motion quilted around all of the objects in the fabric.

Front of Wrenly/fleece baby quilt. approx. 36" x 43".

 I was a little apprehensive to wash this quilt, since I didn't pre-wash any of the fabric. I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

The back after being washed, puffier than before.

The front after washing, nice and flat!

Of course I have to wish you happy St. Pat's day, my day. The green of the day makes me think of spring, fresh produce and the world coming out of hibernation, of life lived in the country. I am so thankful for living where much of the farming is done the old fashioned way, no pesticides or chemical fertilizers. I have joined a local CSA (community supported agriculture) for the past three years. Yesterday was sign up day, and they gave out a bag of root crops (carrots, potatoes, etc) and fresh cut spinach. YUM!

I hope you are all have a fabulous day!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Quilting My World

Well, I have been quilting my guts out the last few days, although I'm not sure that you would see that from the pictures. But I have been having fun.

 I have been trying to quilt a little bit of my Express Your Love quilt every week. This week I quilted my world. I probably put a few to many swirls in the "water", but I guess I like the turbulence!

What I have been spending my time on is this little whole cloth Wrenly/fleece baby quilt. Who would have thought that there was that much stuff to stitch around???

Lots of little pedals to stitch around

The back. I really love how the quilting looks on the fleece.

I have to quilt along the back edge, then I'm done. Maybe another hour (or two or three). 

Needless to say, my machine is running pretty good, only a few thread breaks.

I'm linking up with Leah Day for FMQ Friday! Can't wait to see what everyone else has been stitching up this week!
 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Playing with Fleece

Why is it when you have projects you REALLY should be working on, you don't want to work on them?  I really should be spending my time on the two queen sized quilts I have started, the Elephant quilt and the Layers quilt. I decided to make myself a new purse and a baby quilt.

Approx. 36"x 42"

I've never quilted with fleece before, but I thought it would make a really soft backing for a quilt - especially a baby quilt. It really could serve as the batting also. So as an experiment I decided to quilt this bold piece of fabric (Valorie Wells - Wrenly) to a fleece backing.

I decided to just quilt around the objects in the fabric

I was surprised how well the quilting showed up on the back. I hope it will still show up after I wash it.

This quilt is very soft and has a wonderful drape, perfect for a baby. The best part was no thread breaks. The only time I stopped was to refill the bobbin. I'm using 50wt Aurifil, so the bobbin holds quite a lot of thread.

The other project I worked on this week was my Queen of Hearts purse.

I love how this purse turned out. Perfect size (11-13" wide by 8" tall and 2" deep).



I also did a little FMQ work on my Express Your Love quilt. It is amazing how good working on this quilt makes me feel.

Here are this weeks stats:
In-process: (3)
Elephant quilt
Express Your Love
Layers quilt

New projects: (1)
Wrenly/fleece baby quilt

Finished (1)
Queen of Hearts Purse

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

 

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Queen of Hearts Purse

Every once in a while, I get the urge to make myself a new purse. So, when I purchase some new fabric to other day, it just screamed at me to make myself a new spring purse.

 The purse is approximately 8" tall, 13" wide at the bottom narrowing to 11" at the top. The bottom is about 2" deep. The Queen of Hearts embroidery design is from Urban Threads. The pattern/design is my own. The pocket with the Queen is just perfect for a cell phone.

 The back pocket is perfect for keys, pens and other things you want to just drop in to it.

The inside has 2 large pockets, lots of room to lose just about anything.

I'm quite pleased with my little bag and I'm looking forward to fill it up to take it out and about!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat