Help Me Decide!

I have a dilemma!  I have made a quilt top for my newest grand baby. It was super easy and it's super cute using only black & white solids.  My DIL saw a picture of it somewhere and I went from there. Made entirely of HSTs.

I found a white/black print for the back, and the aqua will be used for the binding. I plan to applique the baby's name on the back with the aqua also.

SO - I have no idea of what color of thread to quilt it with! Black? White? Gray? Clear? Maybe change colors to match the fabric in each section? I just can't decide, so I'm hoping someone will give me a solution and steer me in the right direction! And any suggestions on a quilting design would be greatly appreciated too!

Last weekend I had an itch to make a quick small project, so this is what I ended up doing.

Allover meandering turned out pretty well the very first time I used my new sewing machine.

It's a Juki and I'm really liking it so far.

Halfway June

Hard to believe that June is half over already. DD#1 & her hubby have gone to Cancun so I have their little boy for the week. Yep, feels a little like deja vu since I did the same thing for DD#2 a month ago! Sure do love those little ones, but I know why we have kids when we're young ourselves. Whew!

I met with one of my rug groups last week and there was some good show & tell. Kim hadn't done any hooking, but showed us her beautiful blocks for a square-in-a-square quilt she's making. She'd planned to make it for herself, but her younger son is making wedding plans so she decided it would be made for the newlyweds instead. Beautiful fabrics!

Sandy's husband designed and hand drew this awesome rug for her entry way. It's at least 4' x 6' - maybe a bit bigger. She plans to hook is using only brown & cream wool - very classic and totally awesome! I have several friends who's husbands are interested in their rug hooking and it always amazes me to hear of their support, since my hubby isn't like that. Lucky gals!

Yesterday I met with the Salt Lake Group - our newest member had finished her very first rug hooking project - a floral pillow inspired by a piece of fabric. The back and piping were black velvet - very rich looking.

I love the way she added bits of purple fabric to the black background when she hooked it.

Yvonne is making progress on her bright floral rug - plans to put it in the guest room where her grand daughters sleep when they come to visit. Isn't it happy looking?

Nancy is nearing a finish on her rug - she often includes clever and/or inspiring sayings in her projects and this one is a goody.

Myra has been very busy and brought two sewing buckets that are spectacular. She designed several of the motifs on the outer pockets to reflect the owner - this one is her's......

....and this is for one of her daughters. She has plans to make many more. What lucky family members she has! Makes me wish she would adopt me! LOL Over the weekend our guild had a workshop and made Nuno felted scarves. Sadly, I was too busy helping put in a sprinkler system and couldn't attend, but Myra brought her scarf and it was just beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that. I'm hoping to try this technique myself some day!

Mary Jane featured one of my rugs on her blog yesterday - I was honored that she asked to do so - she did a great job on it! You can read her entry here.

Dibs & Dabs

I have finished appliqueing the wool pennies onto these blocks, and I've got them all sewn together. Now I need to add more pennies at the corners where the blocks meet, and find a good fabric for the border - I don't seem to have a piece that will work in my stash - imagine that! Guess I'll have to go shopping! LOL

I met a gal who makes and donates small quilts to her local Ronald McDonald House in Texas. I have sent her blocks before, but last week I made a couple of scrappy tops to send. I found wonderful fabrics on clearance for the backing & binding to accompany them - she will layer them and quilt them and deliver them. Such a good project! If any of you are interested in sending orphan blocks or tops or supplies, I can send you her address. She prefers 10" blocks so the backing doesn't need to be pieced.

I have discovered a new author that I like thanks to the suggestion of my friend Terri. These are murder mysteries and feature London police officers who are married to each other, as well as their friends, family & co-workers. I haven't read them in order, but that would be the best way to do it. Maybe you'll like them too!

On occasion I've been working on a new denim quilt. I'm in love with hexies, and this is a version of one that's new to me. I put the word out to my kids asking for old denim jeans, so as I receive them, I cut the hexagons and then cut larger hexies from homespun plaids. There is no batting in this - the edges are folded over and stitched. Then the hexies are butted up next to each other and joined by a decorative machine stitch. Not sure how large this will end up, depends on how quickly I tire of it!

I'm getting close to a finish on my 20" hit & miss mat. Only about 2" left to go on one side.

On Tuesday I met with my group of hooking friends and there was some great show & tell! Sharon had finished this small mat - she will back it with a nice piece of wool.

Sandy is filling in the background on this Susan Quicksall floral design - lovely colors!

Coralee is also working on the background of her Cranberry Gobbler.

Tonia has made arrangements with an antique dealer to make this rug for him in exchange for some nice antiques - it's looking great! It depicts the Kirkland Temple.

And the two bicycles below are SO fun to see side by side! This is a Polly Minick pattern. Jeanette is staying true to the original with an Americana color scheme.......

.....while Kim is switching it up by omitting the star border and doing her own color planning.

It was decided that at our December meeting we will exchange wooly ornaments - either hooked, or appliqued, or even needle punched. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Hope you all had a nice Halloween - our trick-or-treaters were nearly non-existent this year - only 4 small groups came to our door - much different than it was when our children were small and we handed out hundreds of pieces of  candy!

Quilting Up a Storm

It's too hot outside to go anywhere, so I've been holed up in my studio for the last couple of weeks doing a lot of quilting - and I'm accomplishing quite a bit! I've had this small Kim Diehl quilt pieced and layered for a couple of years and I finally quilted it and got the binding on. Measures about 36" square.

Not sure why the edges turned out kinda ruffly - especially since I basted the perimeter before adding the binding. I usually like to wash my quilts when they're all finished, but I'm hesitant to do that with this one because of the wool applique - I'm afraid the colors might bleed out and ruin the whole quilt. Does any have any suggestions or experience doing this? Help would be appreciated!

I worked more on my Now & Later quilt - when I start sewing the blocks together I usually do it this way - I think it's called spider webbing? Anyway, makes it so the rows don't get out of order - easy peasy.

I had extra blocks left over so pieced them together and added them to the back which makes it interesting and more fun.

I love this Jan Patek print I found for the back - it was on clearance at my LQS for $4.99 yd. Yay!

When I work on a quilt this big (60" x 80") I like to take it over to the church and lay it out on the carpeted floor in a classroom to do the pin basting since I don't have that much free space in my house. Sure makes it easier!

Years ago I bought some grapefruit spoons at the dollar store that work perfectly for this job. I know there are special quilt tools designed to do the same thing, but they cost a lot more than $1!

I quilted it with a cinnamon roll swirl that is kinda fun to do - and used a variegated thread.

I'll share one more picture of this quilt when I finish stitching down the binding in a few days - that's a nighttime TV watching job -  and put it through the wash. Sure do love that cozy crinkly look it gets afterwards. Meanwhile, a few Delectable Mountain quilts caught my eye one day on Pinterest, so I pulled out a bunch of blue and tan fabrics from my stash and started making one. It's kinda strange to make quilt blocks that aren't square - doesn't happen too often!

Sure wish I was brave enough to quilt feathers in a zig zag pattern, but will probably settle for something much, much easier. Anyway, I'm really liking this color combo! I'd like to think of a clever name for this quilt that pertains to the Wasatch Mountains that I live near.

Sure feels good to be spending some quality time in my studio!

Update

I'm making good progress on the modern quilt I'm making for DD#2. The top is sewn into two halves - which I had to lay out on the living room floor since it's bigger than my design wall.

And the foundation  papers are ready to be removed - a good thing to do while watching TV in the evening.

I drew my own pattern for the 8" blocks and printed them on inexpensive paper I got from the dollar store.

My rug hooking friend Lauren informed me last week that I had won a secret giveaway on her blog and this beautiful pendant arrived in my mailbox yesterday. The center is filled with a small piece of beautiful vintage wool paisley in my favorite color RED! I look forward to wearing this for a long time Lauren - thank so much!

A Productive Week

I've had a chance to work on several projects this week and made a lot of progress. I hooked two more sections on this rug I've been working on.

And one day I got the urge to stitch up a little quilt with 4-1/2" squares. Didn't like the first sashing I cut for it....

....so I cut some lighter fabric to use and I think it works much better.

I have appliqued a few circles for the medallion quilt I've been working on - these will be incorporated into one of the borders. I work on them while watching TV at night. The light in our family room isn't the greatest and so the curves aren't smooth and perfect, but I can live with it.

Wednesday night I met with my little quilt group and there was some great show & tell. I have amazingly talented friends! Kathy is enamored with Halloween. A few months ago she found a doll house and has slowly been turning it in to a haunted house filled with custom made furniture and other goodies. She shared these two pieces with us and my mind was boggled! The cupboard stands about 8" high and the shelves are filled with little knick knacks that she made and gathered. The upholstered chair looks cushy enough to sit in! These are both made with mat board & foam core board.

Jackie is an avid knitter (as well as a quilter). She has knitted innumerable sweaters through the years, and I know she's knitted a couple hundred pair of socks. She said this teddy bear is the hardest thing she's tackled to-date. It looks old, and weathered, and well-loved, doesn't it? But it is fresh off the needles. Amazing!

And Janet shared these two dolls she made that have a distinct Steam Punk vibe going on. Her workmanship is incredible and these were fun to examine up close.

She also had just finished this quilt made of beautiful batik fabrics. I'm afraid I missed hearing the information about who this is for and if it is for a special occasion or not.

Next weekend I will be taking a three day rug hooking workshop with Diane Stoffel when our Guild brings her in. I have decided on my pattern and needed to dye some wool for the background.

I used some of my natural wool and just did a spot dye using some black walnut liquid that I had in my supplies. I'd never dyed in my oven before, but it worked pretty well. The end result is much more subtle than this pictures shows at the beginning of the process.

Whew! Just in The Nick of Time!

DD#2 had her baby on Tuesday evening - 2 & 1/2 weeks before her due date. Tyce is three now & loves his new sister - Nora Mae. She has long slender fingers and toes - and quite a bit of dark hair.

I was in a bit of a panic when she was born because her quilt wasn't ready for her! I stayed up late on Tuesday night to finish the quilting and binding, and then threw it into the washer & dryer the next morning. It was all finished by the time she came home from the hospital - whew! Here's how it looked before I washed it.

 And this is the after.

Lately, I have been seeing some quilts with the recipient's name written on the back, so I decided to try and do that with this baby quilt.

 At first I was going to piece the letters, but I ended up using machine applique with a cute font.

Each row was done with a different quilting motif on my home sewing machine. Amazingly, I even attempted a little bit of feathering - not too bad!

The binding was made using leftover bits of the fabrics I had, so it's scrappy. I can't remember what brand of cotton batting I used, because I used leftovers from another project, but I was amazed at how much it shrunk! The quilt was 36" wide when I made it, and after washing it measured only 31" - that's a LOT!

Since my last post three weeks ago, hubby & I spent a week in Missouri & Illinois on vacation.  Visited the St. Louis Arch, the Zoo, and the Botanical Gardens. Then we drove up the Mississippi River to the beautiful small town of Nauvoo which was very significant in the history of our church. Now that we're home from vacation & the baby has arrived, I'm hoping that life will settle down to normal and I can start posting more regularly.

We're loving this new addition to our family -  we now have four grandchildren and hope for several more eventually.

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