Wool ornaments

Wool ornament

One subgroup from guild focuses on wool.  Yum!  I do enjoy handwork.  Another set of fabrics to collect, too.  And now I am starting with the pearl cotton as well ( Valdani if you choose).

This is a 4 inch ornament made for the Christmas Tree at the church where we meet. 

This was part of the collection that others made as well.

 

Long time coming

 I have had this back from my quilter for a few weeks.   Today I finally cut off the extra fabric and batting around the sides. 

This is how it looked prior to going to the long-armer:  It is a large quilt.  I don't remember the dimensions. But to give you an idea, each heart is 6 inches on point making it 85 inches long. 

I reallly LOVE, LOVE, LOVE  how she quilted it.  Oh, my GOSH.  I did ask for custom quilting versus an edge to edge design and wanted to accentuate the piecing I did.   

The back, boring, is  stippling down the stripped rows of 30s fabrics and the heart designs with cross hatching are amazing.  It is a light turquoise/ green color. I had purchased 9 yards for it. I have since become used to being extra wide backing fabric which is cheaper at 15 dollars a yard versus 9 yards of something. 

Different views.  It is tooo cold to take it outside.

A close up of the beautiful scrolls, cross hatch and hearts between the pieced log cabin hearts.

This quilt was started with the intention of giving it to my mother, born in 1931. While she now lives in a nursing home and no longer needs it,  it is a memory made by me and I thought of her through the whole process.   Ode to MOM!  Lots and lots of "Hearts" to you!

Louisiana visit

I worked like crazy to get this quilt ready to go on our trip to Louisiana. My daughter in law had selected the pattern and fabrics over 5 years ago when she lived with us in Wisconsin. She had even cut it out, but I hadn't taught her how to sew on a machine yet.

So I put it together, had it quilted by my long -armer and then attached my first machine binding.  For this purpose, it was the quickest and easiest way to get the binding on quickly,  nd it worked fairly well for my first attempt. 

I have included other views:   It finished as 66 by 77 or so. And the pattern was very easy to make. I enjoyed working with the batiks and felt the fabric was easy to sew for accuracy.

The colors are bright, which she LOVED!

The back is a wide blue minky which she also LOVED. The quilt motif is a geometric zig zag which I felt went perfect with it.  

And I mean she really loved it and immediately took it to put on her bed. 

It is not queen size, but she did not want to share with all the boys. 

I think I will have to get her a solid duvet or coverlet. 

Happy early birthday! ( November 2)

As a part of our visit, I had asked that my son take my HB to the Army base where he was stationed as a combat medic for 6 years in the 10th Mountain unit and now works as security as a civilian. 

He took us all to see it.   One huge piece of land where there has been lots of newer construction in the past 10 years.  The base was an old World War 2 built facility.

We enjoyed their mini golf range on a warm (80 degree) day as well as the go carts. 

The boys got their Halloween costumes and Iron Man wanted to wear his gloves all the time even though his hands become sweaty.

We took the kids enjoyed walking down by the river in Natchitoches, which is  their nearest shopping town to where they live.  We had fun at their library and park, something which the boys always enjoy. 

I so had the time of my life reading books, playing games and spending quality time with them in my lap. It was their fall break, although they had been off school for a week and a half as the little one had Covid.  They kept begging me to stay longer. 

But we are making Christmas and spring break plans to solve that. 

 

Retreat

 This past weekend we had a Quilt Chicks retreat in Madison, Wisconsin. The weather was dreary, but maybe that was a good thing so we could get more sewing done.   It is always a blast to have a bunch of quilters in the same room.  So many ideas floating around and lots of creative ideas to help get the juices flowing.  

Here are two of the projects I was able to put together:

The first one is a retro panel from a fabric line called Kitty Corn.   I thought it was so cute, but loved the more muted colors.  I had fun with the borders and even had some inspiration from my fellow quilters.

The second was a table runner using a charm pack.   I thought it was a little bright when a put it together for my dining room table, so I added lattice to calm it down a little. The pattern was a mini yellow brick road by Terry Atkinson. 

Both of these need quilting. But this week I have 3 meetings in the evenings and 2 sew dates for the guild.  Busy, busy.

I have another lap quilt made from batiks, but I forgot to get a photo once it was together and now it is at the long-armer to  take to my daughter in law this week. 

My dear spouse and I are looking forward to seeing my son and family, ( mostly the boys, right) this week.  Covid is going around.  In fact our little guy the 5 year old came down with it early last week. We hope that is the end of it.  So far no new cases in the family. Fortunately, the parents have all 3 vaccines. This will be me in a week. 

Hand work

 GOOD NEWS!  I revisited my heart doctor, the one who prescribed the month long wearable heart monitor. And the conclusion was that he saw no evidence of the atrial fib which had been identified some 5 years ago. I am so happy!  No blood thinners for me.  Plus I was able to keep my weight down a little.  This was a tricky one as I had gained a few pounds on retreat a couple of weeks ago. What a relief! 

So onto quilting: I have been doing lots of hand work in the evenings in front of the TV. 

I have steadily been working on this wool project. It was purchased from Primitive Gatherings a few years ago. Granted, it will not be summer when it is finished, but it will be great for NEXT year. 

The Valdani green pearl cotton is actually a little variegated. It was easy to assemble. I purchased a kit with the shapes pre-fused and mostly punched out. Such a life saver for all this little red flowers. The pattern is still available; I don't know about the wool kit. 

This is a photo of the whole project before I started the leaves. The words at the bottom will be last.  I haven't decided whether to do the half square triangles around the borders.

The other project for now is a cross stitch.  I do not know what kind of fabric this is, but I love the beige with the flecks.   I am using variegated floss for this project.  The pattern has 3 different leaves each in a different colorway. 

I just made my own diagram to see the count better. 

Here are all the flosses I purchcased.  I think the red is too dark.  But it is still fun to stitch it. 

I leave for retreat in 2 days.  I will have lots to show afterwards.