Darlene's Quilt #3

This is the kind of quilt that I'd like to try sometime. It's like a round robin having many borders.

 It was fun to quilt coming up with something different for each border.  I also wanted the colors to pop, so I didn't quilt in the color squares.

 This picture has the center squares.

 I did large pebbling around the applique.  It doesn't show up easily, but then it's not really supposed to.

Shadow Trapunto Wedding Quilt

 This quilt is my Blogger Quilt Festival Entry.  It is a quilt I made for a wedding present in 2010.

 I invited the bride to my house to look through books to see what she liked.  She loved the wholecloths in the Karen McTavish book and especially the shadow trapuntos.  Blue is her color.

I took some other ideas from the book and drew out my pattern.

I used my longarm to sew the batting to the sheer fabric and then cut away.  I had only a couple of tiny bad cuts.  I thought that was pretty good for a first  time.

 I took some time to find a blue that would show through the sheer without looking like mud, but I found one that was beautiful big hydrandeas and it worked well.  Quilting it was so much fun.  Trapunto helps you to keep to the lines quite easily.  It's like your machine wants to flow.

And here is the finished quilt on their bed.  I heard for a fact that they are using it right now.  It's so nice to have my  quilts used.

Shirt Quilt

This is the last of the quilts I'm making for Bonnie.  I did the jeans quilt and the T-shirt quilt.  I believe these are all going to her children as a memory of their father.

 I kept some of the pockets from the shirts.

 The backside of all the quilts are these nice warm wool blankets.

Eloise is at school.  Which book should she read now?

Darlene's Quilt #2

I believe this one is for her granddaughter.

I did my standard overall for a feminine quilt.  It's feathers and flowers.  You can barely see in on the picture below.  This is a busy quilt and didn't need anything to really show.

Baby Hats

I'm really enjoying making baby hats with the boy and girl Drops pattern and their Fabel washable wool yarn.  I think the color mixes of their yarns are beautiful.

You've seen this one on Eloise before.

And I made one that was bought by a friend for Azalia which is a different color mix but as nice.

 She's only just over a month old and this newborn size has plenty of growing room.

 Isn't she sweet?

Luke was kind to pose for me in the  earflap hat.

This is the smallest size.  It still fits, but you can tell it won't last.  The hats have a lot of stretch

 And this is the 6-9 month size.  He's not 6 months yet, but it fits his little round head nicely.

 

 I really like the colors in this one.

Look at all these yarns I have yet to use - the wonderful colors.  I can't wait to get my needles on them.

This post is linked to Too Cute Tuesday.
and  Today's Creative Blog

Sometimes Losing Old Items is Good

There are times when I'm missing items from my kitchen.  I have a large family and they are very social.  I keep 18 dinner plates in my cupboard and it's difficult to set the table if there are only 10 plates between the cupboard and the dishwasher (that are dirty).  In that instance we scoured the neighborhood and got a couple back from my neighbor and the rest were up the street (at our church).  But I got them all back.

Then I lost all my potholders but 1.  It's difficult to take things out of the oven with one potholder.  We weren't able to find those.  They weren't at the church.  They weren't at my neighbors, but they are old and used any how.  It was time to make new ones.

I had made an apron with this fabric which I love so I used a scrap for a nice large potholder.

The back is nice also.

And I had this fruit fabric which I love.  I also want to make a tablerunner with this one.

 When Eloise was a tiny baby, her Dad started teaching her drums.

Now she's drumming all by herself.

Quote for the day

The economic freedom which is the prerequisite of any other freedom cannot be the freedom from economic care which the socialists promise us and which only can be obtained by relieving the individual at the same time of the necessity and of the power of choice: it must be the freedom of economic activity which,  with the right of choice, inevitably also carries the risk and the responsibility of that right.

The Road to Serfdom  Friedrich A Hayek



This post is linked to Skip to My Lou 
and to
Dittle Dattle

Darlene's Quilt #1

This is a rather patriotic quilt.  I did a light custom and with each square being different I came up with something for each one.  I used red thread which I wasn't sure about, but Darlene came while I was quilting it and liked it, so that is good.

 I did curly feathers in the border and am not sure that they are a favorite of mine.  Next time I thought I'd mix them with regular feathers - not so many curly.

Eloise learns to can tomato sauce

A couple of years ago on vacation, my daughter Naomi learned how to can tomato sauce from Aunt Jo.

So she decided to try it this year and Eloise wanted to help.  She is listening diligently while Naomi explains to her how it's done.

Look at all those peeled tomatoes!

Now it's her turn. 

"Let's see if I can get a tomato!"

Looks like she got one.

Now it's time for the pureeing and roasting process.  Eloise is learning the word "No" .  She doesn't like where her chair is situated and wants to be up close. We won't move her closer and whining is not allowed.  This is love, all for her own benefit.

"I want to be moved closer so I can see better"

 The roasting is done and Naomi's filling the jars.

 And now there's lots of good home canned tomato sauce.

 Scripture for the day  - 

 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 

Deuteronomy 6 : 4-9

This is linked to Delightful Order

Ode to the Thirties - Squares almost done

I have all but 3 squares for this quilt finished.  I had them all cut out before and got them sewn last week.
The first shown is the 12" square I did at my quilt guild and then finished at home.  I love this square, mostly because I enjoy applique so much.

 

Here are the 6" squares.  I did have one 9" square which had applique, but when I washed the blue marker out , the red ran.  Now I know the care this quilt will need.  I usually test my fabrics before I cut them, but I must have missed that one.

 

 And then there are multiples of three inch squares.

I may work ahead on Nov. and Dec. squares just because I want to get it done.  One woman in our guild had the whole quilt done and showed it last month.  It was beautiful.  It gets me excited to get mine done.  We'll see.

What's happening here?

Tune in tomorrow for the story behind this picture.

Eloise's New Sweater

I knit Eloise this sweater.  See how sad she is?  The sweater is almost too small and that does not make her happy.  So I decided to knit her a larger one.  She liked the colors and the ruffly edge, but the sleeves felt a little tight and almost too short.

So I knitted her a larger one, just the same.

Now she's much happier.

 This is knit with a cotton blend and is very soft.  It's the yarn I use most of the time these days.  The pattern is another Sirdar pattern.

 You can see here how the sleeves fit much better.  This sweater will last her a while 

The Wedding Quilt Completed

Here it is with the help of 2 of my sons to hold it up and one to take pictures with his iphone4S.  He was telling me his pics would be better than my camera and he can just tell his phone to send them to me.  They are very good pictures.

You can hardly see how on  the sides the white is a little shorter than the black.  I had to use a bias binding for the ins and outs.  The quilting was much fun.  I used my curved rulers on the squares and  a spray bottle cap for the center circles of the whites.  The rest was all freehand.

 And the backside.  It seems it could be reversible and used as a whole cloth if they would like.

 A close up.

Now I just need the label and it can be given to the young couple.

A quote for the day.

"In vocation, God is hidden
even in the mundane activities
of our everyday lives.
And this is his glory."

Gene Edward Veith

This post is linked to Skip to My Lou 
and  to Esther's WOW .