Two finishes this week

What do you mean it's not MINE?  Buffy thinks
all quilts belong to her

Actually, it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted about a finish...

Welcome Home

This quilt was made to honor and bring comfort to a recently-returned veteran from our town. 

The pattern is called Fourth of July by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.  I used Red and blue homespun along with an off-white background fabric. 

 

 It is quilted with Stars and loops in the center .

 

   ... and words honoring his service all around the inside border.  I finished it off with feathers in the outside border and a red and white ticking for the binding.  I hope to be able to present this next week sometime (after I finish the binding and wash it a few hundred times with some color catchers!).

 



100 Hugs a Day

My next finish was a baby quilt I whipped up for one of my husband's co-workers.. 

The pattern is from Deanna at Wedding Dress Blue called 100 Hugs Quilt

I couldn't believe how fast this came together.  A 100 patch in the middle made from 2 1/2" squares from a jelly roll from Jelly Roll Fabrics (20 strips made the whole quilt with some squares left over for my scrap bin) and a nice white on white for the borders and triangles. 

I pretty  much had fun doodling with circles, balloon shapes, hearts, flowers and loops with swirls in the border area.  I finished it off with a multi-colored stripe in pink and purple, yellow and green for the binding.  It is so cute!

All in all, I'm having a good time with my FMQ - thanks to the excellent tutorials by Leah Day at the Free Motion Quilting Project.  Her guidance and inspiration have given me the courage to set my imagination loose and have fun with quilting.



I only have one obstacle. 

I'm not sure I'll ever get these Machingers clean again! (from the Welcome Home quilt, not the baby quilt!) OH yeah, and the cats keep pulling the Pinmoors off my basted quilts.  I know they're supposed to be non-toxic, but have you ever seen one that a cat has yakked up?  I have to put my basted quilts in the closet when I'm not actively working on them, and fold them in on themselves when I need to walk away for even 30 seconds! 


Until next time... Happy Quilting!

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

Oklahoma Quilts finished and sent

I have been away from home and my computer for a couple of weeks.  When I returned last week, Southwestern Wisconsin was under heat advisories for much of the week. 

While I was away, I was able to present my Dad with his quilt: Bowtie Hugs & Kisses.  He was thrilled with the letter, telling me he was saving it in his treasure box.  I also finished up the two quilts I was working on for Oklahoma.



Bright Days and Smiles

 

Bricks of Love

Bricks of Love Label

Each of these quilts included notes to the recipients telling them why I made the quilts, and closed with the following words:  "As the pieces were being stitched together, I prayed for peace and comfort for you and your loved ones.  Please find comfort in its folds and know that you are loved."

The process was somewhat cathartic for me.  I've always wanted to help people and didn't know what to do or where to start.  I was put into contact with Janice Grimes of Quilts of Compassion, who told me of her ministry to people affected by the Tornadoes of Joplin Missouri and Moore Oklahoma and surrounding areas.  These two quilts were shipped out on July 15, 2013.

I will continue to make quilts for others because it feeds my soul.

Does it need a name?

I guess there are two schools of thought about naming a quilt.  One is that you give it a name, and the other is that you don't. 

I adapted this quilt from a picture I saw on Christa Quilts.  She called her pattern the Jolly Jelly Roll Quilt.  Since I didn't use Jelly Rolls but 5" charms, I don't want to call it a Jelly Roll quilt - right?  Usually when I create a qulit, it is for a specific person, for a specific event or milestone.  This one was created specifically as a way to give love and comfort to someone who was affected by the tornados in Oklahoma after reading a blog post over at Quiltville.

I dove right in to my 5" charms and starting sewing them together.  I sorted out the brights from the more sedate colors and came up with this cherry little quilt.  My hope is to bring a smile and some comfort to a child.

 

I quilted it fairly densely in an all over loopy pattern with spirals in the first border and attached a bright binding. 

So I'm back to my original question:  Does it need a name?  What would you call it?

Linking to Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project FMQ Friday

An Open Letter to My Dad

In a previous post, I showed a quilt I was making for my Dad.  He will be 78 years old this December, and is in failing health.  I'm grateful to have him in my life.  Even though we live so far apart, he is never far from my mind.  I have the opportunity to present this to him in person over the 4th of July weekend.  A fitting time to spend together, with Mom, our son and his family.



Bowtie Hugs and Kisses

 June 2013

Dear Dad,

I remember the first time I met you. It was 1972, and I was just a little girl when I answered the door that day at Nana and Papaw’s house. There you were in your Dress Blues with a bow tie. How handsome you looked! Later, the story goes, you were taking Mom to the Ball.

We had our ups and downs as all Dads and Daughters do and through it all, some part of me always knew that I was loved.

How can I ever begin to remember all the lessons you taught me? Do you remember teaching me to drive that very first time “keep it between the ditches, kid”? Or how about “don’t panic on the first enlistment” when I’d get my feathers ruffled? Or “I’ll always be proud of you. If you want to be a ditch digger, be the best d*mn ditch digger you can be”?

I grew up strong on the lessons I learned from you. I was able to choose a husband who is the love of my life and raise a son who is also proud and strong like you; all from the lessons I learned from you. He will make a good husband and father one day, just like you.

The lesson that sticks with me to this day is, “You have to look at yourself in the mirror”.

Today when I look in the mirror, I see a loving daughter, wife, and mother; a warrior and worrier; and a strong, proud woman who is creative, courageous, caring and grateful to have you in my life.

I regret that we live so very far away from you that we don’t get to see you very often. I created this quilt for you as a reminder of how much I love you. The pattern is made from Bow tie blocks, and it is set in an X and O pattern. I hope that when you wrap it around yourself it will feel like being wrapped in hugs and kisses from us.

I love you Dad.