Why do I quilt

First let's explore what is a quilt... In technical terms a quilt is 3 layers of textiles joined together by stitching.  A woven top and bottom layer with a layer of additional material like batting for warmth and loft.  In simplistic terms it is a blanket or bed covering.
To me a quilt is much more. 
A quilt is:

• A warm hug when the world is cold
• Comfort for one in need
• A place to rest your body when you are weary
• A fort for children at play
• A place to have an impromptu picnic
• A colorful addition to a room
• Memories of loved-ones long past
• A piece of art to adorn the world
• A work of heart pieced with love and prayers for one who I may never know or know very well
• A labor of love 
• The smile on the face of a loved one.

Dad and Me with his Quilt
Picture by Mom - used with permission

So why do I quilt?  To feed my creativity, and to share my love.  I quilt to wrap someone in love and comfort, to bring a smile to their faces.  I quilt to thank our service members, to let them know I appreciate the freedoms their service provides.  I quilt for the love of creating something beautiful and meaningful from a pile of fabric.  I quilt because I must.

 

 

Practice makes (Almost) Perfect

I am happy to report that my machine is back in working condition - the bobbin winder works as smoothly as it ever did!  She just needed a little drop of oil.  The repair company didn't even charge me!

There have been a lot of projects in the works in my basement workshop. 

Maybe last week, you'll remember I was working on the Prayer Shawl for my sister, practicing with feathers. Just when I was happy with the practice, my machine decided to stop winding bobbins.

This week I was able to finish the quilting! I started out with the feather wreath in the center using a color that matched the backing - oh mistake #1...

The picture doesn't show it, so hopefully nobody will notice all the little green dots here and there.

I wanted to carry the feathers throughout the piece, but I didn't like the way it was turning out - so out came the seam ripper.  After 2 days of ripping out feathers, I thought I'd never want to do them again...

 I decided on an all-over loopy flower-stippling design for the braids....

 

and back to feathers in the border.

 

I'm loving the way it turned out.

 

 



Now all that is left is the binding, and slip it in the mail for a quiet surprise.

The flying geese are for a quilt I'm making for my father-in-law.

 

 

For him, I wanted to do something fun!  My original thought was some kind of I-Spy design and gathered up fat quarters for many of his favorite pass-times, camping, cars, snowmobiling, fire department, fixing things, and collecting yardsticks. There are many stories of various things shown here, like the ice cream cones.  When our son was little, they'd let him have "a thousand scoops" ice cream cones, "but who says we know how to count". 

The flying geese come from a story he tells about how he'd watch the geese every year and as he tells it, geese mate for life.  One day on the road he passed a goose sitting on the side of the road next to a goose that had been hit by a car. The rest of the flock had gone on their way.  The next day he passed the same spot, and the goose was still there, sitting next to his fallen mate.  Every day for about a week, he'd pass the same spot, and see the same sight. On the last day, both geese were down.  The second goose had died of a broken heart.

My in-laws have been married for 55 years, and have one of the strongest marriages I've ever seen.  I hope in 25 years, our son will say the same thing about us.

Linking to Leah Day's FMQ Friday Linkup.  I wish my work looked half as good as her 'mistakes'...

FMQ Friday - Practice, Practice, Practice

Friendship Braid Prayer Shawl

This week started out like any other week - a full week of work - with a little quilting thrown in.  As I got started on the week working on the backlog of work from being gone the better part of two weeks, I filled in some time teaching myself a new FMQ skill - feathers.  I really want to use it on my sister's gift. 









I took little bits of time - while waiting on hold, or while puzzling out some great bookkeeping mystery - to sketch out what I was trying to do.

I've never done feathers before and really wanted something special for the large center square on the braided shawl.  When I finally felt like I had the motions down, as time allowed I started to practice on the machine.

Practice #1



Practice #2



Practice #3



Practice #4
 

I figured I was getting pretty good at this - the feathers are almost the same size, the travel stitching is fairly consistent, and I was feeling pretty good about my efforts. Just when I thought - by Jove She's Got it - my machine decided it didn't want to wind bobbins any more! YIKES!  I can't wind bobbins?  What is going on here?  What the heck am I going to do?

I put Sis's present aside for now.  I guess I wasn't ready for this challenge just yet. 

Because I had a number of white bobbins already wound up, I picked up the Christmas stockings I'm making for deploying soldiers as part of a group over at Missouri Star and started quilting on the outside pieces.  Basically doodling around.  Because the stockings are going to be fully lined, I quilted on the top and batting only.



On set is swirls and loops



The other set is outlined and loops

As I was quilting the second set with the outlined stars the machine was jamming and breaking thread.  I used every trick in the book I knew to power through the last half of the last one. 

 My trusty Elna is now at the machine hospital for diagnostics.  I sure hope it can be fixed!

Linking to Leah Day's FMQ Project