Gran Gran's Quilt

I mailed a quilt yesterday to a very special lady.

I made this for my husband's grandmother.  Can you believe she is almost 95 years old and just lately moved into assisted living??  She has been active in her apartment at that location for many years, hosting bridge club and working on her artwork.  She recently transferred into the assisted living portion to get a little more help with her daily doings and meals.

My MIL suggested that GG might use a light weight lap quilt in the air conditioning.

A reason for a new quilt??  I'm on it!  :-)

This is the embroidery design that I did for the back label. It was a free pattern from birdbrain designs.

The front of this project is pieced using fabrics from  a fairly recent Carrie Nelson line.  I thought the bright and happy colors were good for springtime, but they were too light, in my opinion, to back a quilt that was made for function.  I was so happy when I found this April Cornell print at Joann's.  Although I wasn't specifically looking for green, the overall print coordinated with the rest of the fabrics, and it was dark and busy enough that GG can put this to regular, vigorous use without having to worry about spots, stains, or spills.   

I designed the pattern myself, and made it small enough to be used as a lap drape while sitting in a chair.

It is my daughter's job to choose a verse for every quilt I make.  She chose a Psalm for GG.

"I trust in your unfailing love;

My heart rejoices in your salvation."

Psalm 13:5

Here is the quilt in my favorite corner.  (Never model a quilt that you are about to mail away in your favorite corner.  It makes it hard to part with!  Ha!)

GG is an artist and writer, and has completed hundreds of paintings, sculptures, rugs, and books in her lifetime.  The painting on the wall is one she did of her husband, who was an avid fisherman.  It is one of my husband's very favorite paintings.  We "share" it with one of his cousins....we agreed to trade it back and forth every few years so both of our families could enjoy it.  The green pot on the little wooden chest was also made by GG.

I admire GG for her creative spark.  Papa (in the painting) was an amazing artist in his own right as well.  They shared a love of creative endeavors, and his many of his sculptures are on display in the community where they lived.

It's always fun to start a project when you know from the start who the recipient will be.  It gives you time while you're working to really think of that person, recount memories, and give thanks.

GG has two children, five grandchildren, eleven great grandchildren......and one new quilt.

This has now been sent to Kansas to live with GG.

A Golden Oldie

Today I'm sharing one of the first quilts I ever finished.  I made this in 1994.

It was a Christmas gift for my parents.

Clearly, powder blue and mauve were all the rage in '94.  :-)

Why I decided to pair it with that purple floral background?  Anyone's guess.

Ha!

It's funny to see how fabrics change, but I do still love a good old fashioned sampler.

This pattern was a sampler class that I took at a LQS.  I originally made this in Christmas fabrics, then reused the pattern to make this quilt.  That original Christmas quilt is still just a topper, packed away in a cedar chest waiting to be quilted.........someday!  (Maybe.)  Hard to get motivated on some of those golden oldies!

Mom still keeps this on her guest room bed in springtime.

I'll always be sentimental about this one.  I was so proud to have finished a quilt!

Well, Shucks

I have a feeling this recent development may cut into my quilting time.  :-)

Baby Kate's Quilt

I'm rather tickled with the latest project to roll off the machine.  It's always fun to get to work on a small project in bright spring colors!  My neighbor just had her third baby girl in less than four years.  She has her hands full!  In an effort to get to know her a little better, I thought it would be fun to put together an over the top GIRL quilt.  So, I pulled out the sweetest, brightest, most feminine colors I could find.  This is an older Moda line....Spring Magic, I believe??

I designed the quilt myself based on the types and amounts of fabrics that I had available.  Of course, this design begged for straight line quilting, which always gives such a clean and classy look, but I did add some stippling in the vertical striped border, just to add some interest.

I backed this one with a solid piece of yellow micro-dot.  I normally piece my quilt backs and add a hand embroidered label.  Since I had not done that here, I felt the back was just too plain.  I went to bed last night wondering what I could add to give it a personal touch.

Then it hit me.  So I got up, turned on the lights, grabbed a needle and two lengths of embroidery thread, then crawled back under the covers to stitch this little lamb. I knew if I didn't just get up and do it I would lay awake thinking about it, which probably would have taken twice as long.  :-)

(I know.  I have quilting sickness.)

I pieced together odds and ends to make a scrappy binding, which also gives some extra color to the back.  I just love polka dots, and the micro dot seemed like a great fit for a little baby.

I did a running stitch to make a circle around the little lamb, which served as the perfect guide for this quilt's verse, which is from the book of Matthew.

But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me...For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven."

The little label made me very happy, and compensated for the simple backing.

My favorite part of the quilt is this little monogrammed panel on the front.  Emma loves fairies right now, so that was my inspiration in choosing this little design to embroider.

It washed up beautifully, and is completely soft, crinkled, and cuddly.  It is all bundled up and ready to swaddle a mighty adorable little baby girl.

Thanks taking a look at my latest!

In a Zip!

I decided to send a care package of goodies to my college freshman and her room mate, who happen to have birthdays just a few days apart.  I used Randi's tutorial to make fun zipper pouches.

The thought of properly installing a zipper has always given me a case of the vapors.  But when I saw Randi's tutorial, it gave me hope that even I could accomplish this.

And as it turned out, I was turned on to zippers!  Once I started, I was hooked.  These little pouches are sincerely addictive.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they make such great stash busters.

I even decided to "go green" and use color coordinating zips.  Fancy stuff.

I filled them with fun trinkets, including these bird nest pendants that I made.

There are great tutorials on you tube to learn how to make them.

Such a fun little treat to sneak in the mail, and the girls loved receiving them!

Thanks, Randi.  Mission successful!

A Mouse House

So much for my dazzling idea to host a week of blogging leading up to Valentine's Day.  My confident plan was immediately followed by out of town guests, broken pipes, sick children, etc. etc.

Life happened.  And so did March.  :-)

Moving right along....

I have accumulated a few projects during my break from this space.  This first idea was one that my Mom shared with me. She saw it on a blog somewhere.  I'm notorious for not keeping track of the cute things I see, so I apologize that I can't link back to give the original creator credit for this cute idea.  I'm not the one who thought up this concept.

It's a very cute way to repurpose an Altoid peppermint box.  You just jazz up the outside...

...cozy up the inside...

...and create a little someone to live there!!

How clever is that??

It's the perfect size to throw in a purse or diaper bag to have a quiet activity during church.  Young kids just love anything in a miniature size.

I gave this to my four year old for Valentine's Day, and she has spent hours fiddling with it.

She plays and plays and then tucks her little buddy under his covers, whispers something sweet, 

and closes the lid!  :-)

The end!

Bloopers

I've got my Valentine craft on this weekend.  I've been able to finish up a few projects that have been in the works and I'm feeling pretty chipper about that.  So much so, in fact, that I thought it might be fun to host a little Valentine party this week.  I'm calling it LOVE LIVES HERE.  Each day this week I'll show a little Valentine project, and I even have one silly tutorial to share.  So tune in.

Meanwhile......

I was completely motoring on a Valentine table runner Friday night.  Full speed.  Pedal to the metal and loving the roar of the walking foot.  Paying way more attention to the episode of House Hunters than to my work, apparently, because believe it or not I quilted AND TRIMMED the entire thing before I ever bothered to flip it over.  And once I finally did this is what I saw....

OOPS.

My backing extended a good four inches past one side of the runner and didn't even cover the other side.  How could I have completed an entire project without noticing????????

Since the machine quilting was already done (and looked dashing from the front, I might add), I didn't want to add another row of stitching.  Of course, this backing was some random remnant from two years ago and finding more would be impossible, so I pilfered through my trash can, rescued some discarded trimmings, joined them, hemmed them, and got busy hand stitching them to the edge of my backing.

SHEESH.

On the bright side, I'm rather proud of myself for staying in the game on this one.  When I first realized my mistake I sat completely confounded, drawing long, hard sips from my Sonic sweet tea straw, trying to come up with a feasible solution.  Too often, when I hit a major road block on a project I "set it aside for later".  It's the crafting equivalent of a graveyard.  But this time I stuck with it and I'm glad I did.

Then, I was on to my BIG project.  The one that was intended to be quick and easy.  Fast and fun.  One should never, ever start a quilt with that mentality!!!  It's been nothing but bloopers from the start on this one.  Yesterday, I added to my list of troubles and woes when I realized that, no matter how I cut it, my backing was too small.  So, after my second third fourth trip to the quilt shop for a solution to the problem, I pieced my backing, and when I flipped it over I saw this.

Right side up birds fraternizing with upside down ones.

Grrrroooooar.

"I've spent so much time on this I should press on and make it right."

But.

"No one is going to notice the back since I intend to hang this on a quilt rack anyway."

But.

"I can spend an hour fixing it or a lifetime of regretting that I let it be wrong."

But.

"I should save the time and move on to another project...I'll accomplish more that way."

Anyone else hear quilting voices in their head?  Am I the only one??

So.....guess what I did??

You'll have to come back this week to see the finished project and find out the answer.  :-)

Y'all have a great day yelling at the TV and eating finger foods.  And if you decide to spend some time quilting....learn from me and pay attention to the back of what you're doing!  :-)