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I’ll Take the Chance Miniquilt - Finished!

This fun little quilt measures 19×19″, and is a gift for my FIL for Christmas. The center embroidery panel was purchased from a small company that sells embroidered panels.  I got this at the same time as the ones from CATS! the Quilt.  The blue snowflake fabric is leftover bits from Festive Flurries.

I did paper piecing to put together those little 1″ HSTs because I’m not that crazy!

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Grandma’s Garden: Finished!

For reference, here is a picture of Grandma P., who inspired this quilt. She’s my dad’s mother, and this is her wedding portrait.

When Tiny Stitches did the Saturday Sampler program with the reproduction fabrics, I was a little aimless in it for the first few months. I was already attending the Saturday sessions for a quilt I really wanted to make (what became Furever Homes, and now Memories of Provence), so I figured what the heck. But inspiration struck when I started thinking of my grandmothers.

I’ve talked a lot about Grama Eddie (my mom’s mom) on the podcast because she died after I started podcasting.  My dad’s mom died several years before, and was preceded in death by her husband, my only grandfather, who died when I was in college.  I always think of my Grandma P as eminently practical, whereas Grama Eddie was more fanciful.  Now, I know they were both more complex women than that, but I consider anyone who lived on a farm to be rather practical. Particularly this farm:

This is where my dad and his siblings grew up in Ohio. I have great memories of visiting every summer (although my particular personality quirks probably make it seem like I don’t enjoy being anywhere except home, even as a child).

I imagine the words of wisdom that I embroidered on these blocks are Grandma P-inspired.  She was a woman who did not put up with a lot of nonsense, so while I’m sure the words “Crack don’t smoke itself” never crossed her lips, I’m pretty sure she’d agree with the sentiment.  So here’s the finished quilt, interspersed with the individual blocks and some quilting detail shots.

You can click through to look at the pictures individually to see more of my feather work. And here’s a parting shot of my grandparents - my dad is the oldest son:

My Dad and His Family

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Nostalgic Tablerunner: Finished!

This morning I finished binding the tablerunner while waiting for a query to run for work. Then I had to re-run the query for work because something barfed in my computer, but that’s neither here nor there.

The total project measures 58″ x 23″ (I think - don’t quote me on that), and was made from a charm pack, panel, and vintage postcard print from the Sentiments line by 3 Sisters from Moda.  I took the panel and cut it up and got one of each of the 6 postcards to embroider the names of my female relatives on my mom’s side. Since this is for my aunt, I used me, my sister, my mom, my 2 cousins and my grandmother’s signatures gathered from various family records and mildly suspicious emails sent to my cousin promising not to steal her identify if she would just please send me her autograph.

I also used green from my stash to set the postcards wonky and for the binding, and some red for the final outer border.

Here’s a picture of the quilting/embroidery detail on the postcard I “signed” (click through to visit flickr and enlarge).
I used a new (to me) quilting pattern from the Angela Walters book. On a the scale of Jacked Up Quilting that goes from “Eh… not bad” to “OY VEY”, I give it a “Huh”.  I like the texture, and I like it for smaller quilts since I find that quilting patterns that repeat on themselves frustrate me with the seeming lack of progress, of which pebbling is the extreme. You can also see a bit of the quilting on the HST border, but here’s a better shot of that.
I drew that heart and the fans, and just free-handed the fans in the white part of the HSTs to match.

For the back, I used the postal print from the line along with some additional charm pack squares to make it the right length.

Phantom quilt view, taken from behind facing the sun!

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Meet Moxie, the Irish-bound Mini Quilt!

Well, at long last I can finally reveal my mini quilt that I did for Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting as part of the Atlanta-Irish MQG swap! Despite the lack of numbers anywhere in her address (which was a common occurrence amongst all the Irish swap partners - we Atlantans were a bit dubious!), she told me today the package got there safe and sound.

Meet Moxie:

Cindy said she liked “clear, bright colors” and of course all I could think of in my stash was the collection of mottled burgundies and browns. Fortunately, I also have a pantload of oranges and lime greens!

Moxie originally started off as an applique pattern but there were issues with the stitching. So I went with embroidery instead.

It’s sort of a risk to use the chevron print (from Riley Blake, which I got from my friend Andi’s shop) for embroidery, but I think it mostly paid off. It makes it interesting, to say the least.

I used a couple different quilting techniques to finish it:

Zapper approves.

I’m excited to say that I will soon be selling the center design as both an embroidery and applique design! I’m still working out some details with a partner and we’ll have some exciting launch news soon!
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A Picture-Filled Weekend Recap

I would have included these with the Sunday Night Stash Report, but was too engrossed in Mad Men to go fetch the camera. Also, it’s possible I was too lazy.

It was Saturday Sampler pick-up weekend at Tiny Stitches, so I got the next block for Grandma’s Garden and Memories of Provence:

“Wear clean underwear” is this month’s grandmotherly advice.
I also got a quilt top pieced for a commission quilt for a friend. This isn’t the whole top, but as soon as I got it on the floor to audition border fabric, Zapper started helpering.
And then we had the “Applique the Sharon Schamber Way” class Sunday afternoon. We were learning a technique more than completing a project, so the sample is rather small. I’m planning on using it in a quilt for Project Linus. Fused (before stitching) on the left, and stitched on the right:
I’ll talk more about the method we learned on the podcast next week.
And finally, a touch of awesome. I’m afraid that I don’t properly express gratitude, enthusiasm, appreciation, or other positive emotions appropriately at times, mostly because I’m just not a gushy sort of person. But I was truly touched when my friend Alison from my guild handed me a package before the meeting and said she had made me something because it made her think of me when she saw the pattern.
 It’s a fun zippered pouch! With a black sheep! I was telling my husband that I needed to think of a way to work it into some gathering with his family, and he suggested wearing it as a hat. A pope-ish sort of hat.
Obligatory mirror self portrait! Which… no. Zoom concurred. Think I’ll use it to carry my next wool felt project instead.
P.S. - Yes, that is a lot of toilet paper. Don’t judge.
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Snow Friends Tablerunner - Finished!

While the kids were playing outside after school I put the finishing touches on the binding for the Snow Friends tablerunner (click any picture to go to Flickr and embiggen!)

The finished size is 50 x 24″, and the center embroidered panel (which took the longest by far) is 8×32″.  I added a little interest to the embroidery by lightly filling in some of the embroidered area with colored pencils in similar shades - yellow stars, grey hats, blue birds, etc. It gives it a little more pop on the Kona Snow background.

I ended up going with a “wind swirl” sort of quilting pattern in the sky area, and a gentle wave of sorts under the snow. Decorative stitches in the sashing, and just the button in the center of the Hunter’s Stars. Simple, but I think that’s best with the focus on the embroidery.

For the back I used another piece of Christmas Thimbleberries fabric I had in my stash, which goes well with the front and my in-law’s house.

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The Weary World Rejoices

I finished re-framing the nativity cross-stitch I talked about in Episode 43.  As it turns out I had 16×20″ frame where the glass broke, and it was the perfect size for this finished piece.  Since I didn’t want to quilt over the cross-stitch, I think framing it is the best bet.
The quilted portion fits exactly in the frame, but without glass there’s a danger of the edges poking out (I can see it happening a bit at the top). I will probably go in an add 1″ strips of fabric along the edge of the piece that I can wrap around and tape down on the back of the matboard inside the frame.
The star at the top is the Guiding Star paper pieced pattern from Quilters Cache- I reduced the size 50% so it’s 3″ square - that’s crazy small to paper piece.  The quote at the bottom is from “O Holy Night”, my favorite Christmas carol. I cry EVERY TIME I hear it, which makes it near impossible to listen to the Christmas carol station on the radio when I drive because I never know when it’ll come on.
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Lemon Wallhanging

I finished this up last night as I waited for my husband to come from rescuing one of his customers who had to land in a field in Tennessee because of a blocked fuel line. Ah, the life of an “aviation widow”.  The stories are a little more interesting than those of a “golf widow”, which my mom is.

Anywho, here is the finished project, which is now hanging in my dining room.  I used a whole lot of different techniques in this - embroidery, paper piecing, machine quilting, hand quilting, etc. And it’s probably the best machine binding I’ve ever done.  Apparently the trick is to go slow. Go fig - one of the things I’m no good at!

 
Yes, I did pair an inspirational quote from Dale Carnegie with a snarky one from Liz Lemon, Tina Fey’s character on 30 Rock. That’s how I roll.

Also, here is a very good recipe for Lemon Bliss Cake.

You can click through the slideshow to go to Flickr and see the pictures in more detail, or click here for the set.
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Easter Wallhanging Finished!

Ta da!

Some close-ups of the center and surrounding chicks (I made use of my machines decorative stitches for the green border - I just wasn’t feeling the free motion quilting I started out with)

And here’s a preview of two of my next quilts (in addition to finishing up the Layer Cake Quilt Along quilt):