Hayley's Quilt! (Finish #2)

Hayley's Quilt is finished!
Thanks to the moral support and technical tips from quilt friends last weekend on Worldwide Quilting Day! I finished machine quilting and bound it by machine. Those are both very unusual approaches for me - I am a handwork gal and I have little confidence in the machine quilting or binding. But, here it is! DONE!

There is a tiny handful of fabric left from this quilt. The project was a test of ingenuity and that is how it ended up with corners cut off. There was not enough fabric to make 4 corner squares so I made triangles instead! I like how the back looks with pieced scraps. The binding is also scraps from cut strips. Wish I could get photos to cooperate for direction of image...well you get the idea.


In January of 2013 this quilt and color scheme was selected was designed by my daughter based on inspiration from this Amish baby quilt in Pellman & Pellman's (1985) book. I quilted parallel lines on each side of major block seams. Batting is Warm and Natural. With help of my daughter it was spray basted over the Christmas holidays. This technique worked very well but definitely took two of us to do it OUTSIDE! Even then the spray was pretty stinky!

Haley's Quilt with spring daffodils.

Haley's quilt design sketch 2013

Haley's quilt in progress 2013

I just need to add some type of label before it is ready to go. The finished quilt is approx. 42" x 60 inches. Any suggestions on the label? I'd love to hear them.

When daughter gets home after school is out for summer, we will deliver it to the precious Haley and her wonderful mom

Amish baby quilt inspiration
(Pellman & Pellman, 1985, p. 20)

Amanda! SURPRISE!

2014 - The Year of Finishes!

Although I have neglected my dear blog, other things have been accomplished already this year! On the home front, a biggie for me was defending research proposal - now I am on the downhill slope to finish this degree. YAY!
 
SuperMom came to visit and we road-tripped to Indiana (for above event) and then on a few more hours to Holland, Michigan to visit cousins while up north. What an adventure to walk on the frozen waves of Lake Michigan! Omitted due to same problem with sideways picture :(

SuperMom installing design wall - Jan. 2014

SuperMom installed a permanent design wall in my quilt studio using two 8x4' foam core insulation boards covered with batting. It hugs the curve of the wall in the studio, that is the back side of the curved entry staircase. She made it work awesomely! (Is that a word? - well it is now!) Love it!

All CCC blocks are now lined up across the top in two rows (See completed installation below). It requires a ladder to reach up to the top, but this gives more space and what lovely inspiration I see everyday as I work (the real job and on writing for school) in this office/studio!

I will catch up more in the next post. ~ Happy Quilting!

Completed Design Wall 8'x8' feet

Update: Did you notice the swap blocks on my design wall?  (2nd row, 3rd block) - CCC Block #9 from Carole - Wheels on the Warrandyte Bus and the lower right Palm Leaf from Sharon - Chester County Criswell Quilt. Soon CCC Block #16 will be added from Chris - Quilting at the Farm and her block from me is flying North now. YAY!! Who wants to be next to swap a block with me?

Silk & CCC Block #16 Adaline Gibson

First some eye candy made of silk by my local quilting friend Terri G. (No blog so she said I could post a pic). No color enhancements needed for this beauty!!!

Here is an update on progress on these simple blocks #16 Adaline Gibson of CCC. My block and swap block (for Chris - Quilting at the Farm) have been traced and I have sewn one evening on one block. I have changed thread type and am happy with the result of a finer thread. What's the chance I will finish them by the end of the year? I guess that depends on how may evenings I sit with dh watching TV. With the college kids at home for the holidays we have been playing board games. They have always enjoyed this and now with some new games from Christmas, there is not a lot of sewing happening right now.
We'll see...

Still Frozen!

Here is a "pretty" frozen photo! The leaves, stems, and berries are covered with a thick coating of ice for three days now. Notice some icicles are going sideways! This is due to strong winds and bending branches. I have omitted the sad broken tree limbs and the other limbs that are still hanging so heavy touching the ground. We are just waiting for the thaw in hopes the trees will recover without additional damage.

There is not much is happening on the quilting front. I made several 6 inch blocks for guild Christmas block exchange. This star and some cute poinsettia baskets with rick rack handles. I am so sorry I did not get a photo. I have made little progress on the CCC twins block #16. Soon #17 will be out! Time to catch up!
Stay warm and Happy Quilting!

Spreading some quilt love!

I just sewed down the binding on a quilt that is on it's way to tornado victim family. This gave me an opportunity to practice my machine binding skills (I am getting better!). I was especially happy to do something of value for my community to help those still recovering from tornado damage.

The project was in collaboration with a sister guild in California who made the quilt tops and sent along pieces of backing fabric, and labels. Then our guild added batting, quilting, and binding to finish and deliver. Our local guild has given over 40 quilts to local families to show support and offer a small comfort to those who lost so much! I did not take a photo of the quilt, as it was quickly on it's way out the door, but had this label photo in my phone.

The other photo is of progress on the modern baby quilt that I worked on a few weeks ago. Here it is laid out ready to sew sections together. It was inspired by the photo of the quilt "Hi"by Tony Jacobson in Quilty magazine. But, then I made it based on different sized fabrics that I had on hand. This made me change width of all pieces (I was working with some 10 " squares...then wider sashing strips were calculated to make the shapes fit together and... and so on! When will I just get a pattern and follow it? HA!
Anyway, it was fun playing with some of these bright greens and blues and chartreuse!

Suzy Rae is just laying around

I am posting this photo of SuzyRae spread out on the floor to make me feel better because I have not worked on quilting for several days as I get some major end-of-the-semester work done. This quilt was started last year and needs some figuring out to finish the top. You know how it is when you just create with what is on hand and now have the challenge of making the fabric and design all come out. Right? Do you ever challenge yourself that way? This approach spurs my creativity and takes some time to make it work. It is fun too! You may recall when I started it for a special coach's baby daughter. I just thought (still think) the name "SuzyRae" is so adorable that it needs to be spelled out in a bright and bold quilt!

CCC - WIPs

Here is an update on my  s - - l - - o - - w  progress on the big Alice Criswell's #13 CCC block. (You can see it tacked up on top of the other CCC blocks where is patiently waits for me to grab it down and work on it - which I do from time to time.)

Below is the fabric and pattern for Adaline Gibson CCC #16. I am SOO excited to be making exact twins to swap one with Chris. The fabric is RJR "The Rising Sun" Smithsonian Institution Collection. It has been put aside waiting for a special project - and this is it!

It is still COLD here. We are not used to much of this. Local schools will finally resume tomorrow after 5 days off due to the big freeze. It is so unusual for the ice and snow to stick around so long but below freezing temps have not abated yet (7 degrees this morning). However, the sun shone today for the first time. So that got things melting.
Happy Sewing to All!