Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sewing Bricks

Here awhile back, I decided to cut some rectangles and make a small "brick" quilt top. Then they sat in a stack for quite awhile. Finally the other day I got them sewn together. With the help of a chocolate sundae.



Friday, April 26, 2013

Drying

Washed the reproduction feed sack print fat quarters the other day. Here they are, drying on the line in the Oklahoma breeze under an overcast sky.





A Messy Table Is a Productive Table ...

About three years ago, I cleaned off my dining room table from home, so I could have it looking neater and have a place to work. You have to understand how nice this is, considering the silly house we live in, and that over four years after moving in, I'm still trying to organize and find a place for things.

Anyway, here's the neat table about three years ago:



Then a few days later, I moved it to the corner, to be nearer the outlet to plug my sewing machine in:



Today it looks like THIS:

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Retro Feed Sack



Checked out the fat quarters at the nearby quilt store today, and found a couple of retro feed sack prints. LOVE this type of fabric! I want to make something with some original feed sack fabric I have, and also something from the reproduction prints (like these two) that I have.

Baby Comforter

The baby comforter (gift) is finished! Finished it a couple of nights ago, tacking down the binding while listening to it thunder all evening. A few pictures of the last steps:

Tied, trimmed, ready for binding.



Binding strips cut and sewn end-to-end to make a "continuous binding," pressed, ready to sew on.



Beginning to sew binding on.



Finished comforter - front.



Closeup of binding & back. The mom-to-be's preferred colors are soft green, turquoise and lavender. I wanted to use that darker purple to bind it, because it seemed to frame and set off everything the best. I BARELY had enough, but it worked!



The back.



Closeup of front.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Baby Comforter in Progress

About two weeks ago, I got a baby shower invitation in the mail. The mom-to-be is expecting a girl, and her preferred colors are "soft green, lavender and turquoise." Since we are in trying financial circumstances right now, HOMEMADE was the way to go. So in addition to several pairs of knitted baby booties in colors that will hopefully go with the colors on the list, I decided to also make a small baby comforter in similar colors, since that will go faster, being tied instead of quilted.

Night before last, after spending quite awhile working on the knitted booties, I pulled several material choices from the stash. A couple more of these got weeded out, ending with six material patterns.



A stack of the cut squares, six different colors/patterns.



The cut-out squares.





That evening, I also started sewing the blocks together into strips, and the strips together. Got a couple done before bedtime.

Then the next morning (yesterday), I was back at it.



M & M's always help. :) You can see these replaced the three pieces of taffy in the apple bowl in the previous picture, that I ate.



Yesterday evening, the finished top out on the clothesline.



Closeup.



Next steps: Cut backing, cut batting, layer everything, pin together, tie, cut binding, sew binding on, tack binding down. Plus sewing the seams on all the booties. I CAN DO THIS! A week from today is the shower. :)

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Trip Around the World



More "this-n-that:" This is a "Trip Around the World" quilt I made back in the mid-1990's. The batting isn't real thick, so it's more of a coverlet than a warm quilt. Put this in the county fair whatever year it was, and got reserve champion.

This-n-That

I was scouring my photo albums for some old pictures, and came across these that were quilt-related. May have posted some before, but if so, here they are again. ha ha

A baby comforter I made when I was expecting our first son. Got this made and put it in the county fair the summer of 1992. Got a blue on it.



Two sisters I went to college with and roomed with, they gave me a bag of scraps that their mother had had from making their outfits through the years. So I made each of them a quilt from the scraps. One got a 7-star pattern, and one got this 9-patch. Mom helped me quilt this 9-patch, so it was set up out at Mom and Dad's house in the living room, over the dining table. Probably around 1992 or 1993 or so, judging by the crib in the background!



This is an Irish Chain quilt I made for friends who were expecting a baby. Worked on this in 1988 and 1989, and put it in the county fair the summer of 1989, before giving it to my friends later. Got a blue on it. This was my first solo try at making a quilt. (The big white "border" is actually a sheet that the quilt was laying on in the yard. The colored squares go right up to the binding.)



Me on the front porch swing at home, holding the Irish Chain quilt. I was in my late 20's. Hadn't met my husband yet. Had just got moved back home from living and working in another town for about a year.



Closeup of the Irish Chain. I had it laying on a sheet out in the yard for photos.



(Note: Yep, I've posted the baby comforter and the 9-patch before. Blame it on poor memory!)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Bricks

Spent yesterday evening cutting out some "bricks" for a small quilt top.