I guess I'm rested now--actually I'm feeling a lot more relaxed than when I made my last post.  As you can see by the photo, I knit too much!  Another kid's sweater for donation to charity is finished.  Now yesterday morning I awoke to realize that an idea for a new quilt, or actually quilts, had come to my mind.  I thought that my little (well they're not that little any more) granddaughters would love to have quilts with their names on them.  And since Jera is not only the oldest of the three, but has the shortest name, I decided to start making a quilt for her first.  Now don't fret girls, I plan to make you each one (as my Grandma used to say in a determined voice), "I should live that long." (Oh happy day--my blog now has spell check! Thanks Google.  Now if you could just make more adjustments to how the photos look on the page.....)

I've gotten this quilt top sewn together.  And the good news is that I found a good piece of fabric in my stash to use for the quilt backing.  The bad news is that I'm feeling a bit tired.  I guess I'm going to have to slow down a bit.  I think that I might do some applique or embroidery for a change.  My life is complicated.  Meanwhile, my knitting for charity is going along very well.  I've got a couple of kid's sweaters that I'm knitting.  With so many parents having hard times, I'm thinking that in the Fall when kids start school, there'll be a need for some sweaters.  Not so much need for hats and mittens, because I live in Southern California.  Speaking of Southern California, I'm hoping that our weather will settle down to its usual spring stuff.  Last week it rained and there was snow on the mountain tops--that's really weird for around here in April. We get a lot of clouds in May and June, but rain is generally not in the picture.  It's beautiful here now, all the streets are lined with flowers.

Liberated Log cabin

When I have left over scraps I start sewing them together.  Eventually, I have a pile of blocks either pieced as string blocks, crazy blocks or liberated log cabins. If I have a lot of juvenile prints, I make a baby quilt. I don't use any foundation for these blocks, I just piece the scraps together. There's less decisions to be made that way. I wait until I have about 20 or more blocks made.  Then I square  them up and piece them into quilts.  Right now, I happen to have finished sewing 20 blocks in a liberated log cabin style.  I squared them up into size 9 1/2 inches (that is including the seams.) Then I cut some 2 1/2 inch strips of a plain solid fabric to use for borders.  Sewn together, 4 by 5 blocks will give a quilt measuring approximately 46 by 57 inches.  When I find quilt batts that are about 48 by 60 inches and are on sale, I purchase a couple to have on hand for when I can use them to make a lap or baby quilt.  I sometimes donate these quilts to charity, too. 

I love coffee, I love tea

Oh happy day, my quilt is completed.  I was inspired by Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking II.  There is a photo of a tea cup quilt made by Joyce Hart on page 117.  Now I must say that this book of Gwen's is like dynamite and chock full of ideas.  A lifetime of quilting in there!  I have already begun a new quilt (to be continued.) Meanwhile, I have knitted this kid's sweater.  I made it for charity (http://www.spinoc.org/) that stands for Serving People in Need.  I have knitted so many hats for them, so now I decided to switch to making children's sweaters for a change.  I added that knit-in bird design, and I guess that I should have positioned it a bit higher on the sweater. The sweaters I want to knit are pullovers in sizes 4 or 6. I always need a little knitting project to carry in my purse. 

Oh goody!  I have completed the free-motion quilting on my "I love coffee" quilt.  And then I was so happy to find a very good piece of green solid sitting there near the top of my basket of solid color fabrics!  So now I am going to be hemming that binding while I watch movies--I hope I don't have a movie that has subtitles this weekend (then I couldn't sew while watching.)  I get rented movies for the weekends.  Now I have a question--do you remember the very old song, "I love coffee, I love tea?" It was sung by the Ink Spots.  When I was a kid, they played Ink Spots music every Sunday on the radio.  I bet the Ink Spots never knew that they had a weekly radio show in a remote part of Canada.  Where I lived, no one knew or cared what color the people who sang on the radio were, so there was no prejudice on the radio!  I never heard of such a thing until I moved to the United States in 1955.  I guess that Ink Spots recordings are still available, I have them on a cassette.

It ain't a quilt until...

I don't know who said it but some quilter said, "It ain't a quilt until it's quilted!" (And bound, I would add.)  So now that I have taken all the pins out of the "Perfect" quilt (see previous post) I took it upon myself to pin baste the tea cup quilt.  And the first thing I said to myself was, "Why did I make such a big quilt?  Did I have to get so carried away by all the fun I had putting these fabrics together?"  Now the free-motion quilting is starting to feel too much like work. Well, at least it's not too big to fit under the sewing machine.  And I did find a couple of lengths of fabric in my stash that I could piece together for the backing.  Meanwhile, my head is buzzing with ideas for making the next quilt or quilts.  Probably I'll make a quilt to donate to charity, or perhaps a humorous wall hanging. And I do have the beginnings of a sunbonnet Sue embroidered quilt that I ought to work on.

"Perfect" Amish quilt

Here it is--my liberated Amish type quilt is completed.  I made this quilt for Tonya's challenge.  See http://lazygallibamish2010.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much, Tonya for letting me join in this fun blog!  My quilt was inspired by the book "Amish Abstractions."  There are several string quilts in the book, a Chinese coin quilt, and a baby quilt called "Joseph's Coat."  And I learned how to do the free-pieced letters from Tonya's blog
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/
I've been enjoying the free-pieced letters for some time, and I've made wall hangings and a quilt incorporating them.  This quilt was made using only solid fabrics.  Over the past year or so, I've been collecting an assortment of solid fabrics.  I purchased the hot pink especially for this quilt.  The quilt is hand quilted except for the outer borders, which I sewed on the machine.  I enjoyed doing the hand quilting very much, especially because in a liberated quilt, you can stitch with some abandon.  If you are doing hand quilting, I advise getting a good light.  I purchased an inexpensive reading lamp because the lamp that I've been using all along malfunctioned, and had to be disposed of.  Now, about the binding.  I make a straight of grain binding, which I cut 1 3/8 inches wide.  I sew it to the quilt front in a 1/4 inch seam, then I turn it to the back and hand hem it. 

Kalanchoe

I've made some progress with my hand quilting, and it's a lot of fun because liberated quilters can make any size stitches they want!  I've been mostly quilting down the middle of each stripe and around the lettering.  I don't use a hoop. I thought that you might like to see pictures of  the potted plants that are flourishing outdoors on my patio ledge.  We've been mostly having sunny weather here in Southern California.  It's what we call "cold" today--about 62 degrees or 17 celsius.  I have three or four kalanchoe plants.  They grow here all year around, and can be started from cuttings.  This time of year, they bloom in various colors.  If you are looking for an easy-to-grow plant, you can't go wrong with this one.  I'm wishing all a very happy holiday--either Easter or Passover.