Aloha Shirt Quilt

The loot!


Playing with combinations.

I have been mighty busy these past few months- Sorry I have not
updated the blog. I did not get to sew at all this Summer. It was
a great disappointment, but it could not be helped. After Josiah
graduated from high school, I put my focus on Daniel and his
Boy Scout activities, as well as working on discipline problems
with my little boys. It all paid off- they are all doing well.


I was able to start sewing again and here is the fruit of my labor!
My first professional quilt! I made this for a gentleman who owns a
shop in downtown Sacramento- I traded him for a huge box of fabric he
had (top) in exchange making the quilt top. I feel I got the better
of the deal, and he thinks he did, so I guess it was a good deal!
I am hoping to make more of these quilts soon- he thinks lap sized
would sell well in the store.


So now, I have to make the backing with 8 yards of this lovely
gray blue fabric and send it off to the quilter next week.
Yahoo!

Mom's Quilt

I have been putting this quilt on hold because I was stuck
as how to get the balance right- some of the blocks
were sewn in the wrong order and it just looked like
there was a "hole" where an everglade block should be.
I finally took the whole thing apart across the middle,
flipped it, and voila! it worked. It's not perfect, but
I knew my Mom would love it anyhow. She just wanted it done!
It ended up being 60 X 80- which is a lovely size to
snuggle up in on the couch!


Here is the pieced backing. I wanted it to be an ode to
the Gee's Bend quilts my Mom loves so much.
I did not have time to make it any more intricate,
or I would never have gotten it done! I was able to get
it ready to take with me to a church women's retreat I
went to a few weeks ago and finish the binding there.
Whew! If you click on the pic, you can see the
variegated thread and how I quilted it to look like
streamers. (Same thread as the wall hanging below.
I am very happy with how it turned out, and Mom LOVES it!

Evergaldes Wall Hanging

I finished the little "vote on the border" wall hanging.
She really liked the brown border.


I used variegated thread to quilt it. I love the way
it turned out, it looks like streamers!



I know she is going to love this. It matches her
furniture so well. Sorry about the washed out look-
silly flash! The back is as fun as the front.

Vintage Patterns

While looking through many boxes of photos for a huge
project(Josiah's high school graduation presentation
board) due next month, I cam across a box full of old
family photos my aunt had given me a few years ago
after she cleaned out my Grandmas' house. I Little did
I know the box was a time capsule! In the bottom were
THESE! I still have some investigating to do, but I
think that my Gram got these on a visit back to see all
the family in Arkansas in the 1990's? sometime. My Gram
did not quilt, but she brought back a few family quilts,
and the pattern at the end, Grandma's Fan, had the same
hand quilting done on it. ENJOY!




I really want to try Palm Leaf.



V Block is very cool-
I cannot wait to try it with vintage fabrics.

Click on this to enlarge and you can see a dotted
quilt pattern, a very sweet spider web.





I call this Sand Dollar



Here is the pattern. It is not from 1922-
it is pattern # 1922. It is complete.

A Gift

This giant tub was given to me at church a few weeks
ago by our pastor and his wife. His Mom had passed
away and they wanted to pass her quilting goodies
onto a quilter- so I was the lucky recipient!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank You!


I called Princess Buttercup to hot foot it over
so I could open it up with her and share its riches!


Besides many desirable pieces of fabric and notions
was this twin sized pieced eight point crumb star flimsy.
It was probably made in the 50's (some of the pieces
give it away) and the edges were turned and hand
stitched to be what PB thinks was a useful bed covering.
I can understand not wanting/ having the time to had quilt!


A closer look.


This beauty is a string quilt that is badly worn in some
areas due to the really just inappropriate use of stretch
fabric as quilting material. PB says she can show me how
to repair and reuse this fabulous quilt! I was not so sure
I wanted to take that on, but I am willing to try and I know
I will learn a lot in the process!

Happy Great Day!!!

He isn't here! He is risen from the dead,
just as he said would happen. Come,
see where his body was lying.

~ Matthew 28:6, NLT

Vote for the Border

I finished the little 3" scraps mini- which
finished at 22 X 17- and I can't decide
which color to use as the border. I am going
make a wall hanging for a dear friend at
church. I am leaning towards black. What do you
think? Please vote in the poll on the side bar.


Black- this one would really highlight the colors,
but will it detract from the brightness? I'd frame
it in a 1" border.


Brown- this looks good at first, but the more I
looked at it, the more it seemed blah. But in a
1" band, it could be just right.


Green- If it was not for the green block on the
left that disappears into the green, this may
work in a funky fashionable army sort of way.
Not sure.


Yellow- this seems too bright, but for someone who
LOVES color- it could be just the ticket!

this and that

I finally made a decision to try to find more of this
Shamash Brothers fabric online. Unfortunately for me,
they have stopped making collections for fabric
retailers and have sold off old stock. They mainly do
upholstery/ design fabrics now. This print was from
2006- so I was very lucky to find 2 yards on ebay!
I had 2 fat quarters, but could not get a good fussy
cut of the designs for the Arizona Cross quilt.
Having more of this means I can fussy cut the strip
designs and incorporate them into the quilt somehow.


I finally had a break through on my Mom's Everglades
quilt. I had shelved it because it was just so
unbalanced and I could not figure out how to fix it
without opening the middle of it and adding one of
the everglades blocks. I had DoriAnn over last week
and asked her opinion of it and she agreed that
there seemed to be a "hole" where an everglade
block should be. We both had an epiphany at the same
time "Rip it down the middle and flip the bottom up
to the middle section." I sat and ripped seams,
flipped it and it worked! So I was able to get the
borders on today! Wahoo!


I cut the leftover border strips and solid color blocks
into 3" squares and played with them for a while until
I came-up with a pretty good design. This will be fun
to make into a doll sized quilt.

Little Project

I whipped up this little 24 X 30 flimsy today using a
handful of nine patches left over from my quilt groups
swap. I decided to make a little wall hanging for the
Ladies Room at church. Maybe I'll get to quilting it
this week.

Rocking Chairs Project Complete

I finally finished recovering the three rocking chairs
for the church Nursery. I did not know what in the world
I was doing, but with a little info and encouragement
from my Mom and Princess Buttercup- I did it! Thanks
ladies. It is a big load off of my mind to have it done
and out of my sewing area and garage!!! I'm Soo happy!

Accidents Happen

My blog has a whole new look! I was trying to download a
new background this afternoon and accidentally reverted to
a classic template. Oh well. It will take me a while to
replace all the fun stuff that was on the side bar.


update: I found a template that restored all my items, but
it is not one I am going to stick with- I need to figure
this out!

Until next time,
Moorea

Arizona Cross Block

Well, it's a little after one am here, and I just finished a
mock-up of a block I designed that will go into my southwestern
quilt. It may be a very common design and have a name, but I
am going to call it Arizona Cross, as it will go on point
and look somewhat like a Catholic cross from that area. I cannot
believe the points came out so beautifully. This machine has
made my confidence soar! I always thought it was me that could
not get the points to match- but this is the fist time I have
pieced with this new machine and look how it turned out! I did
not have to undo one point to redo it! WOW!


I flanked it with the beautiful fabric Aunty Ruthie sent.
It is so soft and of such quality! I cannot wait to set
it next to the beautiful blocks.


You can see the color looks better with the fabrics.
It is slight, but it sure does make a difference!


The turquoise fabric on the left is the one I will be
using- it is just a tich darker and matches better with
the turquoise found throughout all the other fabrics.
You can see how bright is in the mock-up block. It's
just too bright for my liking. Playing with the half
blocks was so much fun. I had about 5 designs, but
none of them was southwestern enough. This one is perfect!

Surprise!

I received a box in the mail Monday from a dear friend of my
Mom's in Honolulu- Aunty Connie! She generously sent me the
scraps of old sewing projects she and her daughter worked on
in sewing classes. I just lOvE scraps- they make my world go
'round! I part and parceled them out into various projects,
OK- a fEw dOZeN projects, if truth be told. Don't look at me
like tHaT!!! Oh sorry- I now it see it is a look of agreement-
you have a few dozen quilt projects stashed away too!


Oh La La -This one was one of my faves, and there was about
a yard of it- I'll put it into the "purple quilt" stash of
course! There were some tone on tones and some cute yardages
that could become pieced backings. I am going to cut up the
small scraps for my Bonnie's Scrap User System (BSUS):0)

It does my heart good to have new fabric in the stash- there
was a turquoise piece that inspired me to work on my South West Quilt design and I'll post the block I
designed a little later this week.