Bricks quilt

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when this Bricks quilt was completed. I was impressed by the contrast between the light and dark sections. That made the pattern much more interesting. Sometimes the full visual impact only occurs when viewing the completed project. The fabrics in this quilt comprise some of my very oldest scraps, along with a couple of fat quarters that I received as holiday gifts. I have included a couple of photos I took of the succulent plants that I grow on the ledge of my terrace. Clare http://dordognequilter.blogspot.com/ challenged us to post some photos of things in our ordinary lives. By the way, she is also collecting quilt blocks for "Quilts 4 leukaemia." I'm hoping to sew a block or two for that cause. Many years ago when I was a nurse, leukaemia was a virtual death sentence for kids. At least now the medical profession has some treatments for the disease.

Dove quilt

This is the Dove quilt completed. Now I have to do the application process at http://www.alzquilts.org/index.html because this quilt is to be donated to the great cause of medical research to find help for those suffering with Alzheimer's Disease. It took six hours to make. It's an original design of mine. And I hand appliqued, embroidered and quilted it. But it's quite tiny, under 9 by 12 inches. The embroidery stitches are blanket stitch and fly stitch. Now on to the exciting topic of Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts. I'm the proud owner of a copy. It's so well written. And the illustrations are excellent. Tonya, it's a triumph! I'm sure that it will be a popular book with quilters, and words will be sprouting up on all sorts of quilts. Furthermore, the book has a great deal of humor, and it's entertaining. That's a big achievement for a technical book. For anyone who has been in the Antarctic for the past few months, Tonya's blog is http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/

Advancing on the brick quilt

About the changes in my husband's Medicare: My husband's new doctor was very good, and reassuring. My granddaughter came with us in the special taxi to help with the wheelchair. My husband tolerated the trip. He's back safely in the Care Home. So far, so good.

So now I was doing some quilting! I sewed the brick quilt patches together. As you can see, I have the ends extending. I decided not to drive myself crazy figuring out the size and placement of the end patches. I just will trim those extra ends off now and baste the quilt.

And I'm so excited about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative http://www.alzquilts.org/index.html that I decided to start another quilt for that. I'm making a hand-appliqued and embroidered block. I designed this block in 2005, and I used it in a tea cozy and in a "bird" quilt. I had to make the design in a smaller size to fit into the requirements for these donation quilts. I plan to hand quilt it.

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year!

Quilters raise money for research on Alzheimer's Disease

Here's the link
http://wp.me/pZ0C5-5r

And life goes on

It's been a rather trying week for me. I don't usually mention personal stuff. But the truth is that I have a sick husband and the changes in Medicare have had a big effect on his medical care. The Medicare has changed the criteria for what kind of care you can get from the Medical Insurance. The nurses at the Medical Insurance could hardly believe it themselves. Anyhow it now turns out that it doesn't matter how weak and frail you are anymore. Instead, Medicare judges if they think you need medical nursing care or not, and the answer is--NOT MUCH. So I was busy arranging for him to have a new doctor and other important stuff. Imagine me not feeling like doing a lot of quilting? I cut out some strips though, for my current project. And I sat around sort of gritting my teeth and I crocheted a lot of squares from scraps of left-over yarn. I'm making a granny afghan for charity.

Just to prove that I still have lots to be thankful for in my life, I'm putting in a nice photo of sunset over the shopping center. My family has been great and very supportive, and we've been enjoying the Holiday. That includes my husband who ate chocolate and sang happily when we went over to the Care Home to celebrate with him.

In honor of Tonya Ricucci's book

Today is the big day--Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts published by Martingale is being released. In her honor, I'm posting some of the quilts and wall hangings I made recently through her tutelage. Tonya's blog http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/ has been a big inspiration to so many quilters!

Two for the price of one

I couldn't decide whether to make a Bricks quilt or a Half-log cabin pattern. I realized that I was digging through my scraps for the quilt blocks and that both have to be made with a definite dark and light assortment of scraps. So why not cut out both types of blocks at once? Maybe I can finally really use up some of this old fabric. I have scraps that hang around for years before I decide what to do with them. I finally made a start on them yesterday. I made my sample blocks. Sample blocks are so important. Sometimes I think that I like a pattern, but when I make the sample I decide that making this quilt block is such a drag--forget about it. Anyhow, down to brass tacks, the bricks are cut out 6 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. The Half Log Cabin is made with 2 1/2 inch strips. These measurements include the seam allowances.

The other photo is of a big bunch of baby hats that I made for charity. There is a nice lady that comes around to our knitting group and donates baby receiving blankets that she makes. She sews flannel into receiving blankets by the "pillowcase" method. The blankets are so nice. And she asked us ladies who knit and crochet to make some hats to go with them. I thought--how does a hat go with a receiving blanket? But my daughter pointed out to me that if a mother has a nice blanket, and can pop a cap on the baby, the baby will be all cozy to go out. So I dug through my left over scraps of yarn (I'm a real scrap collector, aren't I?) and I surfed the Net for directions. I tested out some of the directions that I found. I still need good directions for a knitted hat that uses sport yarn.

It's Holiday time, so Happy Chanukah to all my Jewish friends!