A quilt for the June bride

Our niece was married last weekend and I finished their wedding quilt with just two days to spare.  Her favorite color is red, and she wanted a controlled color palate.  Nothing scrappy for her!  Classic and classical are her style.

As I thought about the design I wondered "Where does the time go?  Sand through the hourglass."  It has been a joy to watch her grow and change, and she was a stunningly beautiful bride. Disappearing Hourglass is the pattern I chose for their quilt, in a two-color red and white.

Disappearing Hourglass 92" square

The white fabric has a sweet gray swirl which softens the look of the quilt.  Her bridesmaids wore burgundy red dresses quite similar to the red in the quilt.  I'll call that a win!

While I was sewing their quilt, I was reminded how a marriage and a quilt have some similarities.  As much as I try, on my quilt blocks there are always points that just don't match up right.  But, in the grand scheme of things that doesn't really matter unless the quilt is going to be entered in a competition.  A marriage is NOT is a competition!  Some points won't be perfect, but focusing on those too closely just makes you dissatisfied with the whole thing.  With a quilt, and a marriage, you need to  see it as a whole.  The imperfections become insignificant, the overall beauty is revealed and you see that marriage, like a quilt, is truly a work of art.

Winter birds

 This little wall hanging cheered up our cabin this winter after the Christmas decorations came down.  

Winter Birds 3x44 inches

When I first purchased my Elna embroidery machine I tried out a number of Embroidery Library designs. These winter birds were stitched on a piece of blue linen I had on hand.  They turned out beautifully, but I never could figure out what to do with them.  They sat in the orphan blocks box for years.

This January I finally used them to make a wall hanging, and it worked out perfectly!  I trimmed the blocks down to 9 inches and added navy linen-look cotton sashing.  It gave me a chance to practice my free motion stipple quilting.  I quilted right through the embroidery and it worked out well.   I used two different shades of blue thread for the wavy line quilting in the sashing and border.

Many Happy Hearts

 This sweet little quilt has been a UFO for over a decade.  The vintage 30's colors look just like springtime, and I'm so happy it's finally a finished quilt!  My hubby was kind enough to put up an old brass curtain rod near the ceiling in the hallway so I can photograph quilts through the bathroom doorway.  Hey, it works for me!

Many Happy Hearts 45 x 54 inches

The pattern was printed in Spring 2007 America Loves Scrap Quilts from McCalls Quilting.  I may have the book/magazine or maybe found it at the local library.  A single photocopy page, and all sorts of fabric scraps, were put into a project pack and brought up to our lake cabin.  I worked on it for a season or two, then set it aside.  This winter I was looking for something to work on and pulled it out of the sewing drawer.

Of the original pattern's 20 blocks, I had finished ten.  Two more were cut out and ready to applique.  It didn't take long to finish up those two blocks and call it 'good enough.'  Those 12 blocks became this sweet little quilt.  

The borders didn't take long, but oops!  Problem...

Border before re-stitching to shorten.

 Using fewer blocks in the quilt put the pieced border pattern off kilter.  This was actually a pretty easy fix.  I needed to shorten the sides by one block width. (2 inches)  Nothing was getting ripped out! Oh no. Starting with every-other horizontal seam (and then adding in a couple more as needed) they were re-stitched right next to the old stitching line.  Just a thread width. This took up enough length to make the border fit perfectly, and no one is the wiser. (wink)

 The backing is a white and gray plaid fleece.  No batting.  So soft and cozy to cuddle in on a cool spring evening.  

Moda Love for Ukraine

 So many quilters are showing their support for the people of Ukraine as they both battle and flee the invading Russian military forces who are destroying their country.  A floral print in the Ukrainian national colors of royal blue and yellow inspired this queen size version of the Moda Love pattern.  

I used 8.5-inch blocks to best fit the amount of fabric I had on hand.  Seriously, the math is so easy with this pattern that any size block can be used.  The yellow grunge and the floral were entirely used up, and the blues were mostly scraps. I won the bobbin race a few times too!   

Next step is to figure out what designs I want to use to quilt it.  I use my domestic sewing machine, so there may be a lot of straight lines and walking foot stitching.  We shall see. The pieces on this quilt seem huge to me!  The past few years my quilts have mostly been 2.5-inch triangles and Bonnie Hunter designs.  At that scale a simple stitch in the ditch, or diagonal through the block quilting pattern works well.  That's not going to work on this quilt, but there's no hurry.

Two wedding quilts for nieces with summer and fall weddings are next on my to-do list.  Those both have specific wedding dates to be finished.  Stay tuned!

Vintage Christmas

 In 1984 I made a Christmas quilt from pre-printed blocks.  It was the sixth quilt I had ever made.  No classes or instructions, no teacher.  My lack of skills clearly showed.  Can you see any actual quilting in this photo?  I thought not.  The only quilting it has was stitched 1/4 inch on each side of the seams around each motif and where the red and green met.  Never having heard of a walking foot, I fought with this big quilt to get that little bit of quilting done on my old Bernina Nova.  (How I miss that little machine!  It was a high school graduation gift from my parents.  The foot pedal died, and can't be replaced.)

86 x 86 inch Christmas quilt made in 1984

Wall hanging 2021

My choice of backing left something to be desired as well.  I used a vellux blanket fabric and no batting.  Now, this wasn't too bad considering the light use the quilt was given.  It was on the bed a couple weeks a year at most.

Over time though, the rubber in the vellux disintegrated. Yuck!  It was a sticky mess!  In 2009 I ripped the backing off - which wasn't hard considering the lack of quilting.  It basically fell apart in my hands.  The red, and some of the green fabric was re-used in other quilts.  The four corner motifs were made into hot pads with insulated batting and denim backing. The rest went in to the orphan block box.

Now, in 2021, more of those panels have a new life.  Last weekend I made this wall hanging for our cabin to add a festive holiday spirit to the hallway.  It was a fun, quick project for the holidays.  It looks a little wobbly in this photo from the way it is hanging.  Some of the other motifs will probably become placemats.  

Wishing you, and yours a very Blessed Christmas!

Just Takes 10?

 A series of doctor appointments this fall had me looking through my orphan blocks to sew up a small quilt so I could hand-sew binding on as I waited.  You never know how blocks will speak to you, but inspiration struck, and the result is this very Christmas-looking red and green lap quilt.  

The blocks have been sitting neglected in my box for ten years.  In 2012, Gail at Sentimental Stitches had a sew-along called Just Takes 2.  It was a lovely two-color red and white quilt.  I chose green and white for mine and enthusiastically dove right in.  Eventually though, I just couldn't keep up.  After making about 1/3 of the blocks, I stopped.  Was my background fabric was too busy?  Was it all too green? I'm not sure what.  No matter.  

Some leftover pices of the background fabrics were with the blocks.  I framed eight smaller blocks to be the same size as eight larger blocks and put them all together with a barn red sashing fabric.  The backing and binding is a cute homespun plaid from deep stash with just the right shades of green and red.  

It has a new home on the sofa at the lake cabin.  So cozy!  Since it took ten years to get these blocks into a quilt, maybe I should call it Just Takes 10!

Dorothy's Rainbow table runner

 Here's how the little table runner turned out.  The quilt pieces and blocks came from a thrift store called Dorothy's Rainbow.  The finished 15 x 45 inch runner rightfully bears the name.  

The background is cream, but the photo makes them look yellow. Only a couple cream pieces and four HST blocks had to be added from my stash to make things all work out evenly. 

The navy and red look so sweet together in these vintage blocks.  The fabrics seem to be from the 1960's and early 1970's.