Playing Catch-up Once More...

Mercy!  It's been six months since I posted!  Here's some of what I've done...

Back in July, I began working with a group of scholars at our local charter school.  With the support of the community, we now have a sewing club at Furlow Charter School.  The local school district ceased teaching home economics several years ago, and donated about 20 sewing machines to our club.  Individuals from the community also donated fabric and funding to the cause. 

Since the school is founded on principles such as service to others, the scholars made items for local children in foster care at Christmas.  They made pj shorts, pillowcases, stuffed animals and tote bags.

We hope to take up simple quilting soon!

Hurricane Irma came through our area back in the fall.  We were spared significant damage, but were without power for several days.  When power was restored, I started making improv scrappy blocks with solids, which became this quilt named Irma.  Our lives were topsy turvy for a few days; this quilt feels that way to me.  

At Christmas, I was privileged to make a few things for a little girl in foster care.  Since I only have boy grandchildren, it was especially fun to sew for a little girl.  I had the best time making the little rag doll and matching dresses for the child and the doll!  It was like I couldn't stop; I made 5 matching outfits!  I NEED a granddaughter!

After Christmas, I finally got around to making my husband's Harley Davidson tshirt quilt.  He's been waiting 3 years for me to get around to it!

As I write this, I'm almost finished with three Harley Davidson quilts for a friend's daughter.  The daughter lost her husband in a motorcycle accident in November.  The quilts are for their young children and her inlaws, for Valentine's Day.   

Last, but not least, I wanted to share a quilt I made for a silent auction supporting the local Smith Smarr Foundation.  The Foundation was created following the tragic loss of two young police officers in our community.  The foundation raises funds to support local law enforcement.

Feeling Patriotic!

So...   I retired AGAIN a few weeks ago, and am back to quilting more regularly,,,,

I've been on a patriotic binge lately; here are the fruits of my labor!

Missouri Star Baby Blocks quilt

Wall Hanging

Pillow Covers

 

Tabke Runner and Dollar Tree dishes I sponge-painted

It's not a holiday at my house without a themed tree!

A Huge Honor

In early December, our little community of Americus, GA was rocked by the senseless killing of two young law enforcement officers, Nick and Jody.  The two were best friends.  As the wife of a retired law enforcement officer, this hit me especially hard.  I was reminded how very blessed I was to have had my husband return home safely after each shift for 33 years.

http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/cops-shot-in-fatal-americus-shooting-were-best-friends/366057510

Last weekend, I was approached by organizers of a special event to celebrate the lives of these young officers with their families and the community.  They asked me to make memory pillows from the uniforms of the young officers.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but what a privilege it was!

Here are the finished pillows.  Each had a piece of the other's uniform included because of their deep connection.  Their names and badge numbers were embroidered on the front, and a special poem was added to the back of each pillow.  My prayer is that the pillows will be bring comfort to the families of these young heroes.

Catching up once more...

Goodness!  It;s been more than six months since I posted!  A lot has happened in that six months... our second grandson, Mick, was born a few weeks early;  we lost my mother in law just days after the new grandchild was born; and I've been helping launch a new charter school in our community (opening in just two weeks!)  But I have done some quilting in between, so will share some of my work from the past several months...

This is a quilt I made for our son...  the scripture is one my hubby shared with him on the birth of his son...  Psalm 127:3-5.

Here's one I made for our pastor and his wife when they moved away this spring after seven years...  sniff, sniff...

I liked my pastor's quilt so much that I made myself a smaller version for a wall hanging.

I made another Lulu quilt for baby Mick...  these are the quilts I'm making with pieces of my mother's favorite gowns...  The bunnies on this one are from one of the gowns.  Labels on these quilts read  "This quilt was made with love so you'll have a piece of your Lulu who's watching you from Heaven above."

This is the latest finish... my first try at English Paper Piecing. I had grand plans of making the background with muslin hexies, but once I saw how long it took to simply make the medallions, I ran out of patience. Hexies are machiine appliqued onto wholecloth muslin. I really like how the quilting came out! It fits a full-size bed.

Lastly, here is a peacock panel quilt I made for a dear friend who loves peacocks. I started with the printed panel and added mitered borders of solid black and floral striped fabric.














I;ve also done a number of tshirt quilts on commission. It's been a busy six months!


Please send me comments if you'd like how-to info on any of these quilts.

A Princess Quilt

A young mother from our church recently commissioned me to make a princess quilt for her three-year-old's birthday.  I really had a good time doing something "girly!"

For the main section of the quilt, I used half square triangles to make the chevron pattern.  I used white Kona and some cute Waverly prints.  The outer border is also a Waverly print, as is the stripe for the binding.  (I LOVE striped bindings!)

The darling 3D applique came from Bows and Clothes on Etsy.  She has several other princess appliques.  I'll be getting more!










Here's a closeup of the princess.

And one of the back and binding....

Catching Up!

Mercy!  I just realized it's been nearly three months since I posted!  I kept meaning to catch up, but I guess life got in the way....

Anyhow, I've completed several quilts/quilted items in the past couple months, most of which were Christmas commissions.  I also did a few charity quilts and wall hangings AND some things for a crafts show. Plus I made several quilted Christmas gifts...

NOW I remember why I haven't posted:  TOO BUSY SEWING!

Here are SOME as finished products...  sorry, no in-process pics were taken.

I made 2 sets of these scrappy strip placemats for Christmas gifts.  (This is my daughter's dining room.)  I also made but never photographed a set of solid woodgrain-quilted placemats and a runner for Christmas gifts.  Both sets were reversible.  WHY didn't I take pics???

This is one of the commissioned memory quilts.  It was for Pat Spann,  a local restaurant/pub owner, using tshirts representing the 30-plus years he's been in business. This quilt measured 110" square; the largest I've ever done!  I had a blast doing this one; it brought back lots of memories!  I've whiled away quite a few hours there, beginning way back in high school, when my dad forbade me to go!  In fact, it was there that my hubby asked me out for the first time...

Here's another memory quilt commissioned by two daughters of a departed Harley rider, for their mom.  Each shirt was from a different state.  I can't wait for us to have time to really travel on my husband's Harley and collect shirts like these!

And another memory quilt...  This was for my husband's cousins, whose sister lost her battle to breast cancer a couple years ago.  They presented the quilt to their parents for Christmas.  This was a bit of a challenge, as it combined tshirts and woven blouses.









Here are a couple of the charity quilts.  They were small; about crib size.

         

Baby quilts...  The golf themed one was a commission; the modern one was for a dear girlfriend of our daughter.  The modern one has wood grain quilting I learned from Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt. http://theinboxjaunt.com/2014/11/18/woodgrain-a-free-motion-quilt-tutorial/.  She posts new tutorials daily.

I made OLAF just for fun; had been wanting to play around with strip piecing and quilting with wavy lines. I learned wavy lines from Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations.
http://sewsweetness.com/2011/09/back-to-school-free-motion-and-other.html.   I also quilted in some snowflakes.

This next two items were for ME!

I did the pillow cover out of suede cloth; my first attempt at quilting feathers in a circular pattern.   I learned (and am still learning) this technique from Ivory Spring.
https://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/thread-talk-from-my-sewing-machine-37/.

I learned the Icicle Lights quilting design on this embroidered and quilted wall hanging from Leah Day at The Free Motion Quilting Project.  http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-264-icicle-lights.html  I've learned MANY techniques through Leah's blog!   She has a new tutorial nearly every day!

Before Christmas. my sister sent me a picture (below on the left) of a Star of David quilt,.along with a request that I make one for her. http://quiltingafterdark.blogspot.ca/2013/03/star-of-david-finished.html.  When Christie came to visit a few weeks ago, just after Christmas, we made the quilt on the right while our hubbies watched college football.  We hadn't been able to find a pattern, so we used her photo and a 60 degree triangle template to work one out.  Christie counted all those triangles and figured out how many of each color to cut and then laid them out in order for me to sew.  I sewed and she ironed.  We make a pretty good team!  I quilted most of the stippling, but she tried her hand one a small section.  You can't see it, but we quilted a scripture from Zephanaiah 3:17 into the white border...  She did the first 3-4 words and then went home to Alabama, leaving me to finish!  I quilted a simple swirl wave into the blue border. It turned out very nicely, we think!  Thanks to Angelina Kendra for the inspiration!  http://quiltingafterdark.blogspot.ca/

WHEW!  Now that I'm caught up with blogging, I can go back to sewing.  I'm working on a girly quilt for my daughter in law; can't wait to share it!

Winn's Baby Quilt

Recently, I was commissioned to create a baby quilt for the newborn son of an avid fisherman.  The client asked that the baby's name be embroidered on the quilt and selected the fishing bear applique. She left the rest up to me.  I LOVE it when that happens!

Color selection came first.  Lately, while perusing Pinterest for nursery ideas (I have another grandson on the way!), I've noticed gray being used in nurseries.  It's a great departure from the traditional pinks and blues, in my opinion!

With the fishing theme in mind, aqua blue seemed the natural choice for a secondary color.  I'm in love with the combination of colors!



This quilt began with strips of varying widths ranging from about 3" to about 7".  No pattern here...  if you follow my blog, you know I rarely use a pattern.  Too many rules!

Next, the appliques were added: the bear, the baby's name on an oval patch, and two trout. That bear is so cute!

Then came my favorite part, the quilting!  I used my midarm quilter for the free motion quilting, which included some wavy lines to resemble water and pebbling to resemble, well, pebbles in the water.  I also quilted the outlines of several trout "swimming" across the quilt. 

The quilt is backed in the aqua and white crosshatch fabric and bound with one of the gray prints.  

Making it was tons of fun!

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Welcome to Heaven!

One of my latest creations... inspired by one of my mom's paintings....

Honestly, I cannot take credit for this alone...  the painting (on the left) that inspired the mini-quilt was done by my mother, Coy Lou Ryan.  My sister, Christie, and I discovered it while cleaning out her things after she passed away.  Neither of us had ever seen the painting.

A little history...

Our mother battled cancer off and on for about 27 years, beginning with breast cancer.  She was one of the most creative, glass-half-full, deeply spiritual people I've ever known.  Her positive outlook and her faith were, I am certain, what kept her alive all those years.  She was beautiful inside and out, and brought joy to everyone she encountered.  Here she is with one of the many Santas she created.

So back to the painting and the quilt...

Since we didn't get to talk with Mom about the painting, we are left to speculate about its meaning and her thinking as she painted it.  Daddy didn't remember the painting or ever hearing her talk about it.  Christie and I believe it is a depiction of Mom in heaven. We think she is the woman, welcoming someone new, who is being escorted by the angel at the bottom of the painting.  Note the city of gold in the upper right corner and the lion and the lamb below the city.  In the sky, you can see angels flying...

Both my sister and I really liked the painting, and each of us would have liked to have the painting in our home.  So I decided to make a replica in a quilted wall hanging.

We made photocopies of the painting (in sections) and then pieced them together to have a same-size reproduction.  We cut the copy into pieces and traced the pieces onto fabric, fusing the fabrics in place on our background fabric.  Christie did most of the tracing and cutting while I did the sewing.  This took HOURS!!!  It was great sister time.  All told, we spent about 18-20 hours over the course of a day and a half on the quilt.

The plan is that we will take turns trading out the painting and the quilt in our homes...  we each like both so much that we decided that was the fairest solution.

Gray and Yellow Bricks

Gray and Yellow Brick Quilt

My second retirement is giving me lots more time to quilt, and I'm loving it!  This one makes two finishes within 10 days. 

The idea for this quilt was not my own but was inspired by another quilting blogger, Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation (http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/2014/09/loud-and-unruly.html).  Kelly made hers (shown below) with gorgeous Amy Butler prints.  She calls it "Loud and UnRuly."  I LOVE it!

Kelly wrote last week that she plans to create a pattern; I couldn't wait!

So I started plundering through my scraps and found the most wonderful prints in gray and yellow...  (My apologies; most of the scraps came from a purchase of scraps online a few years ago; I remember not from whence they came!)

So here's my unquilted top...  Aren't you proud of me???  I finally remembered to take some "in progress" photos!  I still forgot to take any of the cutting process, but I'm getting better!  I cut 4" squares, 4" by 8" rectangles and 4" by 12" rectangles.  All multiples of 4, so it should come together correctly, right????  More about this in lessons learned....

For the quilting, I decided to do concentric circles, beginning with the square with the horse...  a little above and to the right of the center of the quilt.  That's the only scrap of that fabric I had, so I fussy-cut it.  Since I love it so, I made it the focus...

Here's the finished quilt.  I'm calling mine Gray and Yellow Bricks,,,  

And a close-up...

And one with the backing and binding...

I used my walking foot to quilt this one on my domestic sewing machine.  Once I stitched the first circle around the horse, I simply used the walking foot to evenly space (sort of) each larger and larger circle.  As the circles got bigger, they went off the side of the quilt, which adds interest, I think.

The backing is a gray print from JoAnn fabrics; the binding is a tiny yellow polka dot, also from JoAnn's.  The quilt finished at 39" by 48."  That was not really planned; it's just what I had when the scraps ran out.  But it is a good size for a baby!  Serendipity at its best!

So what did I learn with this quilt???  Remember when I talked about cutting the pieces?  Well, I failed to consider seam allowances when I cut....  so I did LOTS of trimming so seams would match up...  This probably added several hours to my piecing time... and more importantly, tons of aggravation!  One of these days, I will learn to use the quilt designing software I purchased.  It would have told me exactly which measurements to use in order to achieve the results I wanted.  

Maybe next time...

Floating Hexie Quilt

There are a couple very special young ladies expecting babies soon, so I've been trying to get a head start on quilts for their little bundles of joy.  Neither expectant mother plans to use "traditional" baby colors, so I've really had fun trying different color combinations...  some I'd never dream up on my own!

This one is not my original design; it is from a pattern book called Modern Baby, by Martingale.  It is called "Fractured Hexagons" in the book.

I call mine "Floating Hexies."  

I wish I'd taken some in-process photos; must learn to remember to do that in the future!  

The background part went together very quickly; it was just width of fabric strips of Kona solids sewn horizontally, then "fractured" to get the jagged appearance.  Instructions in the book for doing this were very clear and concise.

For the hexagons, I used a charm pack of organic little prints. I swear I thought I kept the package so I could remember the name, but it appears the black hole in my sewing room has engulfed said package...

I made the hexies a little differently than suggested by the author.  I lined them with very lightweight fusible interfacing.  That allowed me to tack each one down with an iron before topstitching/applique-ing each to the background fabric.  I learned this technique when making circle appliques for the first Lulu Quilt.

The quilting is a simple meader/stipple using gray Aurifil thread.  

For the backing, I used a neat print found at JoAnn fabrics; gray with teal.  The binding is a contrasting antique gold with metallic microdots.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this little quilt.  I do want to figure out what I did wrong with the binding; it is a little ripple-y...  (see first photo)  If you have suggestions, please post!

What did I learn this time???  That hexies aren't quite as daunting as I thought they'd be...  but I sure would hate to have done all of them by hand by English paper piecing, which was one of the methods suggested in the book.  Guess I'm just not a purist...  I'm more from the "Get 'Er Done" school of thought!