Lots of sewing goin' on

Good news today--I'm actually finishing Jacob's quilt. It's all quilted and I'm working on sewing on the miles of blue binding. I watched a movie on TV yesterday and got a lot of progress on the hand hemming. Maybe too much, I had to put an ice pack on my neck. After the quilt is totally complete, I plan to find a couple of folks to hold it up for a good picture.
In case you might think that some of those blue fabrics look like denim--you are correct in one respect--they look like it, but they are only cotton that's printed to look like denim. And furthermore, I have cut up a lot of fabrics from that fat quarter bundle I had the luck to acquire--and that has been "burning a hole in my pocket." I want to make a four patch quilt for a charity donation. Here's a little picture of those fabrics in motion--as it were.And another thing, I realized today that this is post number 492 on my blog. I guess that I've been chatting and quilting on the web for quite some time. I'll have to try to come up with something special for the 500th post--whenever that may be.

Jacob's quilt

I have to tell you a story first. On Tuesday I was taking a transportation bus.  It's a bus for handicapped folks and so it has a different route each day.  On Tuesday the bus driver, obviously not familiar with the neighborhood, was driving the long way around.  I suspected where he was headed, because buses frequently pick up a certain lady that lives near me.  And sure enough, after a bit of a meander, the bus driver stopped in the street in some confusion.  "Are you lost?" I asked. 
"I'm supposed to go to X Street," he said.
Seeing that he was now two blocks away, I told him, "Well you are doing so good!  It's right over there, just make a left at that stop sign, go one block and turn left again."
The man was so happy that I had told him that he was "doing good."  I know that it made his day.  When we picked up the person he was looking for he told her, "We have the most wonderful lady here on the bus with us today!"  As they say, some positive reinforcement goes a long way.
And here's the quilt top, all assembled.  I get such a feeling of satisfaction when I get something assembled.  Especially when I started this with no really clear idea of what it was going to be.  I was trying for the free-pieced lettering from Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts, the liberated style from Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking II, and at the same time for a simple color scheme and a bit dignified feeling of a quilt for a young man.  Now on to finding a backing and doing the pin basting--

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!

Sabrina's quilt under construction, continued

Here it is!  I finally felt better enough from my allergies to assemble Sabrina's quilt top.  I used dark green for the sashes.  The top now measures 47 by 74 inches.  I have to decide on whether to add borders, and if so, what?  I guess that what I ought to add is about 4 inches to each side.  That's not very much, I think that I ought to look in my stash for some fabric to sew onto the sides. (Maybe some of that bubblegum pink? or bright green?) Speaking of fabric, my stash is getting away from me a bit, and I just ordered more!  I'm going to have to stop buying all these wonderful solid colors until I use up some of this stuff. 
Meanwhile, I find that I've now become allergic to cherries.  (That's on top of my allergy to one of my prescriptions.) I haven't been able to eat peaches for many years, and now it's the cherries.  It seems that the allergy to peaches and cherries are connected somehow.  I keep having to give up more and more of the foods I love as time goes by.  As they say, it's the penalty for growing old.  Speaking of feeling old, this week on the 21st of July is our Fiftieth wedding anniversary!  We have recently had a family reunion in honor of the occasion.  Unfortunately, my darling husband is not in the best of health.  However, we are so happy to have been married all of this time.  As they say, "Marriages are made in Heaven."  Well, I guess that seems not to apply to all marriages.  But with all of my husband and my eccentricities it worked out!  And we are blessed to have three wonderful children and six fantastic grandchildren.

I changed my mind--again

I was so excited today, it's time for me to lay out the blocks for this quilt.  I just have a bit more embroidery to do on the flower appliques.  I spread out the blocks on my bed (no design wall for me--my quilts are intended to be put on beds anyhow, not hung in a museum). I got out my big tape measure and my calculator and started planning the sashes.  Sashes were in my original sketch for this quilt. I had that all figured out.  I was trying to decide on the color of the sashes--and then I took a closer look at this photo.  Guess what, I decided that I don't need sashes!  I think that I just need to square up these blocks, cut out some yellow blocks to go on each side of Jenna's name, and sew it all together.  Then I'll add a border to the edges.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have washed some cute flannel for the back of each quilt--although Sabrina's quilt is only a thought in my head at the moment, I already picked out a backing for her quilt. There's a lot of quilting to do!

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.....)

"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. 

Coffee or Tea?

This is a photo of some of the blocks that I've made lately.  I invented a cream and sugar block and a coffee pot block.  It's been fun.  I've been sewing a bit less lately.  That's life, I guess.  I think that I got somewhat tired.  I've been reading my book, Liberated Quiltmaking II, and some of the things in there are so helpful. I especially liked the section about liberated triangles.  It was really a help for making the teacups that are angled slightly on the bottoms.  I have a few more of the blocks cut out, and I hope to have time and energy to join the pieces together today. Then comes the challenge of composing a quilt with all of the blocks and free-pieced letters! And I went to the Target store yesterday afternoon.  The stores are so jammed right before the Super Bowl football game.  But a really nice saleslady gave me a good box, so hopefully, I'll be able to ship the sweater that I knitted.

Getting to the Truth

The "truth" now has fringes and a backing. I added the backing in two pieces that overlapped. Like making a potholder (see my previous posts about making potholders back in the Spring sometime.) I made sure that there was a selvedge edge in the center, so I could just stitch the opening closed. The fringes are made of strips that I folded and machine stitched. Onward--

The train is coming

This is what the letters look like now that I've sewn them together. I have to decide what to sew on the top and bottom. Probably some strings or blocks. I thought of the word "Truth" because it's in one of my favorite prayers. And now, the Orphan Train is rolling on, as Finn would say. http://orphantrainsfromfinn.blogspot.com/
I have dug out some orphan blocks and joined them, to make a table runner. This I'm planning to hand quilt. That might take a bit of time, as I'm knitting three things (and have the yarn for more), joining up afghan squares (I hate that job, so it takes me longer to join the squares than to crochet them), and crocheting some flowers (I only made one of those so far.) But the orphan blocks are in the queue.

"Beauty is truth"

Home Sweet Home wall hanging

I finished it. The wall hanging is hand quilted. I never did learn how to quilt in a hoop. I guess that you can tell. I think that I will have to get more of those stick-um up hooks for the hallway. I still have the two bathroom doors left with no wall hangings on them. The thing about quilting a wall hanging as opposed to a bed quilt is that it will not be subjected to the same wear. So then I can use thin fabric on the backing. And that facilitates the hand sewing.

USA Wall Hanging

I'm feeling a bit better from my bad back. And I finished this wall hanging today! The letters are free-piecing. I decorated the wall hanging with a few white buttons sewn on in a rather haphazard manner. Luckily I had bought this patriotic fabric as a fat quarter last month. It fit right in.

Peace Breaks Out Banner

Good news, I have completed the Peace Banner. It is both hand and machine quilted. I hand quilted the letters with blue perle cotton, and meander quilted the clouds by machine.
I had a busy day today. I spent some time with my relatives. It's great to get together with our cousins.
I do want to say by this banner that we all need to achieve some peace of mind. And my needlework helps me to get to that place.

Peace breaks out

I so enjoyed making the free-pieced "Life" wall hanging that I decided to make another one. This is my Peace Banner. I always keep some blue fabric that looks like denim, but isn't, on hand. It's sort of something that I require for my palette of fabric. And fortunately, I found that I had enough sky fabric left over from the Tree wall hanging that I made a few months ago. I had no idea that I needed it until I got to the point of deciding what kind of border to put on. This will need some quilting next. I'll think about that tomorrow!