Tea or Coffee?

We had such heavy rains here that I had to stay at home for a few days.  I was happy to have this project to work on.  I'm having fun making not only mugs, but also I designed this teapot.  And I'm working on a cream and sugar and a coffee pot.  I followed Gwen Marston's suggestion in her book "Liberated Quiltmaking II" and made sketches of the different things I wanted to make.  And what a good idea that is.  I think I ought to try sketches before doing free-pieced letters.  Now these cups in the photo do not have borders on the tops and bottoms yet.  I only have a vague idea of how I'm going to arrange these odd sized blocks. 

I love coffee, I love tea

The book came!  I now own "Liberated Quiltmaking II."  I sat down and read it cover to cover.  Although it covers a lot of material from the first book (except for houses--which are mentioned) there is some great new stuff. I love this book!  And congratulations to Tonya Ricucci http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/  for having a quilt on page 123!  I was inspired to try making my own version of "Cuplets" by Joyce Hart, that is on page 117.  But I'm adding saucers. Two years ago, I made a Jan Mullen teacup quilt and it's on this blog back in May 2008.  That was one of the best quilts I ever made.  So I do love the teacup theme.  I was lying in bed at 3 AM listening to the rain (we are having some heavy rains here in Southern California) and I thought of the title of the quilt I want to make, even before I sewed a stitch--"I love coffee, I love tea." I plan to break out some of those bright fat quarters that I've been hoarding to make some mugs and  saucers--and I have no idea what the finished quilt is going to look like.

                                        
I finished the quilt!  I'm so happy.  My daughter wants to give it as a gift to one of her co-workers who is expecting.  Notice the yellow binding.  I had cut yellow binding strips for the king-sized denim quilt that I made a few weeks ago.  But I didn't use them on the quilt after all.  I made a turn-over-from-the-back edge on it instead.  However, I found a use for all of those strips in the next few quilts that I made.  So they came in very handy after all.
I had no idea of the amount of different juvenile fabrics I had on hand.  I had about 40 different prints. A couple of them are used up in this quilt, but I still have the majority of them for next time.
There's two important things to blog about today.  Of course, we are all so sorry about the earthquake in Haiti. I not only sent in a donation, but I counted up the change that I had in my personal Charity Box, and I sent that amount in also.  I sent it to a charity that I trust will use the money where it will do the most good.  And then on Monday it's Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday.  So a salute to his memory is in order.  He was a great American.
I'm grinding my teeth because Google didn't manage to include a spell-check in this "improved" blog composition thingy!

I spy baby quilt

I was browsing around on www.flickr.com as usual, and I noticed two or three quilts made with this simple pattern. It's just rows of blocks with horizontal strips. And I wondered how many juvenile prints I had. Recently I had purchased some fat quarters with cute cat designs. Well, I discovered that I could round up about 40 different fabrics in my stash. And I didn't even look in the big storage box that I keep in the closet! After I cut out 35 six inch blocks, I decided that I had enough to make a baby quilt. Now, I have no particular baby in mind. But there are some young people in the family who might produce one one of these days. Or I might give it to a charity. Anyhow, this is the easiest pattern, as there are really no seams that need to be exactly matched. And it need not be made into a baby quilt. I should think that the pattern could be used to show off any good fabric collection. I do have a batt and some backing material. So, I have to pin baste this later.

"Hear" art quilt

This is it--my wall hanging. I think that I'll be calling my wall hangings art quilts now. I sewed on the binding last night, and I hung it up on the door today. I used my favorite fabrics in this quilt. I love turquoise, mottled red and I have a bunch of yellow fat quarters. I have to thank Tonya and Brenda, I learned how to do free-pieced letters from them. It's a whole new world of adventure out there in blogland. I guess that I ought to give the address of their blogs
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/
http://scrapsandstrings.blogspot.com/2009/01/strip-pieced-letters.html

No photos today. It's my further adventures. Last fall I knitted a cardigan and a shrug for my daughter who lives in Florida. And I mailed them to her on November 27. I was so disappointed when she said that the package didn't arrive. I went to talk to the man at the post office about it and everything. The package as insured for $50. But who wants the money--after all the work that went into the knitting! My daughter told me not to give up hope, wait and she would go to the post office again first. Anyhow, on December 30th, she phoned me. A battered and moldy box was left at her door--the sweaters had arrived! Imagine that it took over a month to go from California to Florida? I think not. My opinion is that someone riffled her mail. And when they found that the things inside didn't come from some store, they delivered the package. Fortunately, over the years it has been my custom to put knitted items inside plastic bags before placing them in a shipping carton--and that's what kept the sweaters from getting moldy. Today I sent her the Shoo-Fly quilt but instead of the post office, I sent it UPS, and to her place of work instead of her home.
I'm diligently hand quilting my free-pieced wall hanging, but I haven't been at my sewing machine for a couple of days, (except to hem a pair of pants) because my life is a bit hectic sometimes. Maybe after I dust the living room (I hate dusting) I'll sew a couple of things.

Free-pieced letters Wall Hanging

This is the free-pieced letters Wall Hanging that I've been making. It's a Biblical reference. But my daughter is objecting and telling me that I should have used the word "listen" instead. That's because more than just hearing is implied in the Biblical passage. She's correct, of course. It ought to be "listen and pay attention". However--this is free-pieced lettering--and the shorter the word, the better, in that case, as far as I'm concerned. Now-a-days people are so careful about being politically correct--so I want to say that I'm hoping that I'm not offending anyone. Anyhow, most of the wall hangings that I've done have some sort of religious connotation. Can't help that--it's part of my personality. I'm not out to convert anyone. Live and let live.
Now back to the quilting. I cut out the applique heart free-hand, slapped it in the middle without measuring, and I hand embroidered the edge in a blanket stitch. I'm hand quilting with a dark blue quilting thread. That's the bottom photo. One helpful hint: somewhere along the way I acquired a round-tipped scissors. It's so handy for cutting threads and removing basting without the danger of accidentally ripping your fabric.