Designing Monday

I am working on comfort quilts for the local quilt guild.  The recipients are children in the pediatrics ward at one of the hospitals here in town.  Our church stitching group was gifted quite a bit of fabric from someone's stash.  Most of it was bits and pieces so I had to sort thru piles and piles and then iron and iron until I had something useable.

 There were some larger pieces like quarter and half yards, but much of it had been cut into in shapes like bodices or facings or collars, so I had to really be creative to find the grain line and then to figure out what size square I could come up with.

I tried to stick with a color theme, but soon I realized that to get best use of the fabric I would need to focus on size.  So I created stacks of 8" down to 5" squares.

 I ended up strip piecing some of the larger blocks to have enough. 

 Right now I have enough to make 6 tops.  I have finished piecing the two made from 8 inch squares 

(Might as well start with the easy ones first, right?)  

One in pink and purple

One in RW&B

I used my Joann's coupons to buy backing and batting for these two and plan to finish those this week.

 I just love the cupcakes and stripes and pink cows and purple butterflies.

The lady who organizes this project for our guild made 80 of these quilts in one month using 6 inch blocks and she quilted and bound them as well.  She must be one with her Bernina! 

Hop on over to Judy's blog for more designing ideas. 

All Done

As much as I enjoy piecing and especially hand appliqué, I find the quilting process to be the hardest for me.  To finish this little quilt, I combed through several books until I found a cable pattern that I liked.  I ran it through my printer/ copy/ scanner and reduced it a couple of times until I found a size that worked.  Then I traced the pattern onto tissue paper.

I simply pinned the tracing paper to the borders of the quilt and sewed thru the paper to do the quilting. This works pretty well for me.  Especially for a little quilt which doesn't require too much thought.

 This piece is now done and ready to gift to my friend.  I made this for the quilt of the month being sponsored by Kathleen Tracy at the Sentimental Quilter blog.

Designing Monday

I am working on this little doll quilt for Kathleen Tracy's quilt of the month on the Sentimental Quilter blog.  Kathleen has written a number of books and each month she is selecting one quilt from one of her books and encouraging others to quilt along with her.

I am making this to give to a friend as a housewarming gift.  She is moving back to our area after 3 years away.  We are so glad to have them back.

This little quilt was quick and easy.  I think it might be the first time I have made these little hourglass blocks.  That seems hard to believe, but they were fun to do.

Hop on over to Judy's blog to see some more Monday goodness.  I am really tempted to start the Christmas Town Sampler quilt.  Anybody else?

I am Blessed

Yes, I am truly blessed.  June was a potpourri of blessings and emotions.

Our daughter returned home after a year in the Marshall Islands.  She was on a remote island teaching English in the elementary school for World Teach.  She survived a year without plumbing, electricity, telephones, or computers.  She learned so much about the people and their culture and history and has so many great stories to tell.  Now we are waiting to find out what her next step in life will be.  She is such a joyful person and fun to have around.

Then I received this great news via UPS:

I was selected as a winner in a giveaway from Quiltmaker Magazine.  Wow!  What a great prize.  I received a gorgeous glossy book of the first two issues of the 100 Blocks magazine called (what else?)  200 Blocks.  It comes with a CD to print out all the patterns.  How great is that??  Plus they sent me two mugs from the first two volumes.  Each mug has the quilt blocks printed on them that appear in the magazines.  I feel so lucky.  Thank you Quiltmaker Magazine and the Quilty Pleasures Blog!!

The peach truck came again in June and we are working our way through a half bushel of peaches.  My husband requested peach cobbler so I have made it twice.  This was a first for me.  I don't love cooked peaches, but was happy to make it for him.

My dear sweet mother- in- law passed away in June also.  She was the sweetest person I know and never ever said an unkind word about anyone.  It was so sad to lose her.  We shared quilting and reading and we are the only ones in the family who shared these passions.  I know I will miss her for a long time.  She quilted for a group at her church that made prayer quilts.  I found a box of photos that she was saving of the many, many quilts she had made over the last 10 - 15 years for this group.  I was truly amazed at how prolific she had been.  I was also dismayed that she had quit sewing on her machine almost a year ago because she could no longer lift her arm above the table to guide her work.  She had been hiding this from me and it made me even sadder.  Because she loved to read so much, my FIL had written a computer program for her to track all the books she had read.  He called up the program while we were visiting and found that she had read over 2500 books since 2005.  I think we figured that was about 1 book every 2- 1/2 days.  WOW!  I doubt I will read this many books in my lifetime.  I am so grateful that God brought her into my life and that she was the perfect mother for my husband.  She did such a remarkable job of raising him and making him the best husband I could imagine.