Thursday, September 22, 2016

My Daughter Is Getting Married Soon

My daughter is getting married soon. Raise your hand if you've been in my shoes!

We have 8 days to go, and what a ride it has been. I knew to plan for the unexpected, but didn't plan on something weird happening every day for the full month before hand. Ah, well, it all works out in the end. Right? Tell me I'm right!!!

Here's my daughter at her bridal shower. This isn't a very quilty post, but you will see quilts and table runners in the photo. They are such a part of my life, how could they not be in the photo?


Her fiance arrives Friday, and relatives start arriving Saturday. His family will all be here Tuesday, with the wedding being Saturday. I'm thinking I need to be done with everything by Friday. This is all making me tired, but in a good way.

Thanks for letting me share with you, just a little bit, before all the flurry of activity begins. My days will be quite boring once this wedding goes down in the history books. But right now, a day in my sewing room sounds awfully nice!

Quilting with a smile,
Barb

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

My New Favoritist Quilt




Okay, so that title isn't grammatically correct, but this it is my most favorite quilt to date. It was simple, easy, and the pattern lets the fabrics speak for themselves. And I'm going to keep this just for me!


This is one of the projects that I started in the quest to Make All The Quilts That I've Already Bought Fabric and Patterns For.  I'm not sure I'm the only one, but I seem to have a bit of a problem that is akin to people over-filling their plates - my eyes are bigger than my stomach is!  When I find a really good deal on fabric, or kits, or patterns, my mind races to the possibilities. So I buy it, and then it sits. And sits. And sits. Sometimes for a good long time.


This quilt sat for two years. Then it moved out of hiding to sit on my cutting table, uncut fabric and pattern, and there it sat for, oh, about 9 months.

Auditioning thread - I chose a teal Magnifico, a #40 thread by Superior Threads. I used an off-white in the white blocks.


This was the first project that I started after my retirement this spring. I had been drooling over the teal and dark gray and yellow for so many months, that I just had to get it sewn up! And once I got the top sewn, the quilting went rather quickly.



Here's a photo of the back. The pattern was a little odd to follow (I would have written it much differently), and so I ended up with lots of chopped off pieces. I turned these into a random patchwork, added my original backing fabric and a splash of the yellow. I do like the way the back turned out, too.



Oh - when it came to quilting, I had aspired to do some inventive FMQ. I started on the upper right hand corner with a design I drew that resembled the paisley fabric.  I didn't trace it on the fabric, I just eye-balled the design as I was quilting. However, it merely blended away into the fabric. SO not worthy to repeat that process throughout the quilt, so I'm calling that right-hand corner my Signature Block because I really didn't want to rip it out. The ultimate design element.  End of that story!




I did enjoy sitting in the evenings hand-stitching the binding down. Now this fun lap quilt is thrown over the back of our couch, and I look forward to snuggling in it this winter.

But before winter gets here, I snapped a photo of some violets that were blooming among the strawberry plants.  The purple and hint of yellow looked so fresh against the green, that I almost thought it was spring!



So, one project down. On to the next. Hmmmm, I wonder what that will be?

Quilting with a smile,
Barb

Linking up with:
Linky Tuesday
Sew Cute Tuesday
TGIFF
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop
Show Off Saturday
Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday

Remembering All The Little Things

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