This quilt has been in my UFO's for about 5 years. I made the top, and then let it sit for awhile before I finally quilted it. I wanted to use the same fabric for the binding as I did for the inner border, but I didn't have enough, so it just kind of sat there for a couple of years. I finally took it to the fabric store and picked out a different green for the binding, and then let it sit again for another year before I finally put it on yesterday. I do like it, now it's finished. It's made with a mix of recycled vintage linens and some newer fabrics. I'm calling it Dreaming of Summer, because we had more snow again today, and it's so bright and sunny.
I also have a smaller finish. I finished another pillow for my mom, she liked the first one so much she asked for another.
I've been quilting a little here and there on my little applique quilt. I'm not rushing this, it's very relaxed. I usually quilt in the evening while watching tv. I really, really enjoy the process of hand quilting, this is the second largish quilt I've hand quilted. The first was an Amish inspired crib quilt I quilted many years ago. Hopefully I can work on this pretty consistently and hang it as part of my Christmas decorations this year!
I made another cushion for my mom, using the same fabrics as I used for the first one. I used a Dresden Plate for the second one because I thought it went well with the vintage feel of the blue prints. She really likes this one too. Here it is on her couch. I should have thought to take a picture of the two together. Oh well, maybe later.
I made this little appliqued quilt top a couple of years ago and started hand quilting it on Sunday evening. I'm outline quilting around the motifs, and then doing the back ground of the blocks in a grid. The borders will be quilted with a feather garland.
I really like hand quilting, it's very relaxing, like spinning or knitting. I'm not great at it yet, but I think the quilting on this little mini is passable. It's also not the best picture but I went outside to take it and it is SO COLD! It's 15 x 17 inches and I'm probably going to hang it in my hall.
I'm looking forward to the next hand quilting project I do since I enjoyed the process of this one so much. My daughter wants me to make this quilt to fit her bed. I don't think that's going to happen.
I had another finish this week too. I made this cushion for my mom. She really likes blue and those vintage looking florals and I have tons of blue floral scraps. So this fills the bill. The back is just a light blue solid. When I gave it to her she was very happy and asked me for another one.
So I finished quilting this pillow top for my mom. She likes blue a lot. I pieced the strips into 18 1/2" lengths and then sewed them together. The quilting is 1/4" from the edges of the pieces. It's a cute little pillow, it will finish up at 18 inches square. It didn't make a dent in my pile of blue scraps though!
I've been hand quilting my Amish mini and hopefully it will be done by the end of the week.
I don't have a quilting finish today, but I have a pair of mittens knit from yarn I dyed and spun last summer. To be honest, I knit the mittens before Christmas thinking that maybe they could be someone's Christmas gift, and then ended up keeping them. This is some of my very favorite yarn, ever. I love the way the colors spun up, so I finally decided that instead of keeping the mittens as an emergency gift I was going to keep them for myself. I don't knit stuff for myself very often, and I needed some mittens anyway. The roving was dyed in the crock pot, and looked like this.
The resultant yarn is a two ply that I spun on a drop spindle.It's a bit of a thick/thin yarn and ended up as a light worsted once it was plied.
And these are the finished mittens. I like the subtlety of the stripes once it was knit. They are very warm!
Yesterday I was leafing through abook of antique Amish quilts and saw this picture;
I'm trying to do little projects to become a better hand quilter, and what better practice piece than an Amish quilt? But I really didn't want a whole quilt in these colorways, so I made a mini that I sewed together yesterday and then started quilting last night. I'm going to quilt the borders in a vine with leaves, and bind it with black like the original. The whole thing measured 15.5" x 17.5" before I started quilting it. The back is the same light maroon as the borders.
It's funny how 2 days can be completely different. Yesterday I was in a creative funk. I have a lot of UFO's I could work on, and there's so much inspiration on the internet, but it was just one of those days where I just wasn't feeling it. I finally sat down with some solid scraps and made this little crazy quilt block inspired by an antique Amish quilt I had seen. Eh, I think it will go into the pile of single blocks in the bottom drawer. I might finish the embroidery first.
This morning, however was a new day, and I seemed to be ready for it! My mom has been asking me for new cushions for her couch for a few months now, so I finally started one. I grabbed a piece of fabric that I had dyed a few years ago and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I had sliced a few strips off but still had a piece that was 18 x 20. Mom's couch is a dark gray, and she has a love seat that is dark purple and I though this color would look equally well on either. Then I pieced the patchwork strip and sewed everything together. I really like this, and the only reason I didn't quilt it right away was because I don't have a thread that I like. I guess it means a trip to the fabric store.
And then, just because I made these:
Pretty sure this is going to be a mini quilt. After lunch I'm going to go ahead and join the blocks, add batting and a back and finish it up.
I've been busy with other things this week, my mom doesn't drive and there were a couple of days of shepherding her to dr's appts, getting routine lab work, and she had to have her mammogram. My sister drove one day, and we all had lunch which is always fun. A couple of weeks ago I had shown her the case I made for my glasses and she really liked it so I made her one too. I took the picture on the back of my love seat next to the window because the light in here is awful. Still haven't taken down the Christmas lights!
I ordered some zippers from Etsy that came yesterday, and I got one of my zipper pouches finished. I think I need a bit of cream ribbon tied to the zipper pull.
This is the back of it.
I took both of these pictures with the bag propped up on this little cushion which I also made this week:
I'm still not crazy about this cushion. I picked the print out first and then picked out the embroidery pattern and other fabrics. The embroidery is really nice, I used a chain stitch for everything except the stem of the flower and the stamen. I hand quilted it with embroidery floss also. The embroidery pattern is from this book. Anyway, my mom loves it so it is going to her house. She's been asking me to make her some new throw pillows for awhile now.
We got hit with a nice amount of snow last night, and it's supposed to keep snowing into tomorrow morning. When I woke up there was about 6 inches I'd say, and there's a bit more. It's not snowing really heavily, it just doesn't stop. I'll get out at some point today and take some pictures.
I have some stash pics to share today. The first two are St Patrick's Day fabrics I have had for a long time, and I am going to use at least some of them this year. The first pictures are all smaller pieces, a yard or less. I used some of the back print in a table runner for my mom. I like the middle piece quite a bit, and I hope I can incorporate it into a quilt.
These next 3 pieces are all bigger yardages. The front piece is just over a yard, the back 2 pieces are 3 1/2 yards each. I meant to make shirts out of them and just never did. I really would like to make a quilt out of them, I just don't know what. An Irish Chain is the obvious choice, but I really don't want to make one.
I also ordered a scrap pack from Hawthorne Threads. I had heard that they were really nice, and one evening I was sitting at the computer with a bottle of wine, a credit card and the scrap packs were half off! I bought one in the cool colorway, and I am very pleased with it.
I already cut out and sewed together a couple of pieces for a zipper pouch. I am going to get this quilted today before the Super Bowl.
I made some other fabric purchases the night of the bottle of wine, but I'll share those later!
Speaking of the Super Bowl, today is the big day! We are heading over to our sons to watch it, and hopefully the roads will be clear. It's a pretty big deal for us, and John has been bugging me for a month about what food I am bringing. I finally decided on barbecue sliders and a cheese and chorizo dip. If I were to bet (which I haven't) I would lay my money on the Patriots for this one. I think Tom Brady really wants that ring! And for anyone who hasn't seen this YouTube clip from Jimmy Kimmel, it's funny as hell!
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