Happy New Year!

Happy new year!  Here's hoping for peace in our world!  A quote that I carry around with me is from my hometown pastor, from years ago - maybe over 40 years ago.  He said, you don't have to like everyone, but we do have to love everyone.  I believe that and strive for it in my life.

Here is my last finish for 2023:  Kay's Housetop, made totally from my stash (mostly Kaffe Fassett fabrics), including the backing and batting!  This is a Christmas gift for my BFF Kay (her name is Karen but I have called her Kay since the 7th grade), who is a master knitter, and lover of COLOR!  Her house is gorgeous, with walls painted in saturated colors, or covered with beautiful wallpapers, and lovely, colorful art everywhere.  

I did something very different for me - I hand-quilted it! I had sent it to my longarm quilter for quilting, but her machine was out of service for a while, so I decided to hand quilt it!  I was inspired to do so because of seeing Sujata Shah's gorgeous quilts, which she hand quilts.  I thoroughly enjoyed the process, was surprised how quickly I finished it (I did not heavily quilt it), and I plan to hand quilt more pieces in the future! I used a wool batting, which quilted like a dream. 

I shipped the quilt to my bestie, and she loves it!  I'm so glad that my quilter's machine was out of order, so I could discover the joy and relaxation of hand quilting!  I used a hoop, regular thread and a size 9 needle, and the entire 60" square quilt was finished in less than 3 weeks of my spare time.  

 

Couple more finishes for 2017

"Oh My Stars" for a special baby-to-be! My daughter's sister-in-law, Erica, expecting their first, a little boy, has planned an adorable aviation themed nursery, with navy, gray, white, and gold scheme.  I had lots of fun with this!  Did NOT turn out as planned, but better!

After searching locally, I found this cute border fabric on etsy, and the quilt was planned around it.  Simple blue stars (mimicking propellers?), set off by smaller stars, centered with compass points. 

Love this little touch of yellow, and the two different gray/white prints in the background. Quilted flawlessly by Sue Pawlowski.

Soft and snuggly for the little boy! 

Fun at Erica's baby shower!  L-R, daughter Genevieve (due in December), daughter Emily (due in February), Erica, me, and daughter Hannah (getting married in May. Needless to say, I have lots of quilts to make!!!

"Eleanor's 4-Patch" for a dear friend of the family's second born, little Eleanor.  I was unsure of her color scheme, so I used some soft baby quilt fabrics from my stash, with splashes of lime green, my favorite, and a wide white border. Simple quilting finished this quilt in a hurry!

Gratuitous puppy shot! Our dog, Buddy, loves to pose. 

Quilt on my antique baby rocker, which held me, my mom, and my grandma!

Cute baby Eleanor, with her equally cute mom, Cara.  Irrestible!

Butterfly Galaxy!

Butterfly Galaxy belongs to my daughter, Genevieve - here she is, showing it off over the railing at her cute apartment.  Gen requested blue, purple and gray as a color scheme, so I started collecting fabrics.  I had seen a similar quilt on pinterest (see below, sorry I know little about its maker or origin):

Inspiration! Nice large pieces of gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabrics, with narrow sashing and tiny cornerstones.  I bought various types of fabrics, and in different cities, also used some from my stash.  Gen helped with the block arrangement, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

I arranged the blocks on my design wall, auditioning my feature fabric as a possible sashing, and hoping to use the blue cotton lawn bird print as the edge/setting triangles.

Feature fabric (Gen named the quilt Butterfly Galaxy after seeing this fabric).  Initially, I planned to used the aqua flying geese "stripes" as the piping (fussy cut) but it was too intense.  I cross-cut strips instead, and the appearance was more fun and random.

Blocks with sashing inserted.

Blocks sewn into diagonal strips, marked and ready for assembly.

After the stunning machine quilting by Sue Pawlowski, I like to add a piping before the binding.  You can see the gorgeous feather quilting by Sue on that pretty cotton lawn.

Finished join seam of the binding.  I leave long pieces at the beginning and end of the binding application, so I can sew them together rather than overlap them. 

Close-up of the quilting, and the binding and piping.

Quilt at home in Gen's apartment.

I think that Buddy approves!

The best part? Genevieve loves it! 

Cedarburg Visit Part Two - Quilt Museum, and yes I do hand quilting

How fun to see Victoria Findlay Wolfe's ( I knew her from her 15 Minutes Play blog, you can also find her at other blog, bumblebeans inc.) Double Wedding Ring quilt exhibit!  It is a the Wisconsin Quilt Museum in Cedarburg, and it is well worth your time to visit! It is in a restored barn, on the edge of Cedarburg, and seeing quilts displayed in that venue is just perfect.  In the photo above, at the bottom, you see an awesome quilt made by Victoria's grandmother, made free-form from various fabrics, many polyesters - what she had to work with.  At the top is Victoria's modern quilt, of quilting cottons, but inspired by her grandmother's quilt.  

Close-up of the machine quilting (sorry I do not remember the name of the quilter) on one of Victoria's Double Wedding Ring quilts.

Full view of the quilt. 

Close-up view of another of Victoria's quilts - again, sorry I did not note the quilter's name.  Stunning work! Victoria has a book coming out soon, with all of these quilts in it.

Out behind the quilt museum, a blacksmith was demonstrating his craft.  Do you see how red-hot that iron got? His fire gets up to 3000 degrees! His work was fascinating - and a little terrifying! 

Who knew, me, hand quilting?  Yes, I have done it in the past, and I have recently picked it up again. Part of my inspiration is the blog of Tim Latimer (timquilts.com), an excellent and prolific hand quilter from Michigan.  I had this small piece sitting around, and decided to do some "big stitch" hand quilting on it, with #8 perle cotton. 

Close-up of the quilting.  I have gotten better as I go along!

H & M Bees

This wall quilt was made for our neighbors, Miki and Howard, who keep bees. Not sure if you can see, there are a couple bees among the flowers. Miki just sent me this photo, which is the only photo I have of it! And don't you love the cute hanger they found for it?