Quiltlet

What is a "quiltlet"? It is a little quilt that is made for a big brother who does not want to give the new baby the quilt made for him!! You might remember that I made a quilt from this fabric and sent it to the my friend's new grandson. The big brother wanted it so I said hold on I will make him a small quilt of his very own. I heard from the young mother today thanking me for the little quilt. She said there was only one problem, big brother wants both!!!




















So much fun to make, dogs, trains and Tarheels on the back.




















The daughter of a very dear friend of mine is graduating from high school and going to North Carolina State University. Such an accomplishment deserves a special quilt.


















I used my beloved Disappearing Nine Patch pattern. The black and red is stunning. My husband saw it and was very complimentary. He rarely says anything about my quilts but he loved this one.



















He also did not approve of the fabric I had chosen for the backing so off to Walmart we went and found this dot fabric and actually he is right. This is perfect.




















This is what is on my design wall. I worked on this last winter, put it aside to get ready to go to my workshop in Texas and now I have brought it back out. My idea is to put it together alternating the dark and light squares and add a fabulous border. Any ideas? Please feel free to make suggestions. I was thinking a spiky border with black and colors. Each square is unique. I am very excited about this one and it might just stay with me.



















Off to the beach this weekend with the family. We are taking the grandsons and the dogs early tomorrow. We are taking them on the "scenic" route to the ferry. It is a short ferry ride but that is always exciting for kids. Having extra folks for dinner Saturday night. It will be fun. Next weekend all the female members of our family are having a beach weekend. I am really thrilled about that.

Finally finished

I am not officially part of the Bloggers Quilt Festival. Somehow I missed the info about it but I wanted to post my recent finish of which I am most proud. Please don't ask me how long it has taken me to finish this quilt, I won't tell!

I am most proud of this quilt because it is for my older grandson. His room is done in whales. It is all free pieced and done with liberated techniques. And to top it all off I hand quilted the whole thing! I had a lot of fun doing it, and it was my first hand quilted piece.





























Here he is pretending to surf like his father used to, well like he still does. Isn't it amazing what you can do with a box.































This is his very tall father, also known as my oldest son. Notice the different blues at the bottom. Gwen would be proud. I used Tonya's letters for his name. It is meant to depict the whales swimming along the surface of the water and the other sea life in the deeper water below.
I did wavy lines across the bottom to represent waves.































This is the back. I ordered fabric for the back and when I was ready to put the back, the batting and the front together I discovered that I didn't have enough. I ran out to Hancocks and got this fabric. I absolutely love it, much better than what I had to begin with.

Measure Twice

A couple of years ago my darling daughter gave me some fabric for Christmas. In my own sentimental uptight way I have never been able to cut into any of it. I really wanted to use the Yoga Monkeys on the back of my Texas quilt. I measured and it was not quite wide enough or long enough so I thought I would add a piece of aqua. I cut the aqua and sewed it and it was not wide enough. So I took it out and decided to add purple, I cut again and again it was not wide enough!! So I measured twice and cut three times! This is the way it ended up.































It is different but I think I will like it. I am hand quilting this one.




















I am doing free hand fans. If you have never hand quilted I would encourage you to try it. It is so relaxing when you get in to the rhythm of sewing.

I had a finish this weekend.





















This might be my very favorite quilt ever. I read that many folks wash their quilts for that "old" look and I did that with this one. I love the way it turned out and it is now on the way to a brand new baby boy. I hope they enjoy it.

Bittersweet weekend

What a wonderful weekend. We went up to stay with our daughter on Friday. There was a very nice party Friday night. It was wonderful to meet so many people from all over the country, really all over the world. One of our daughters friends is a couple from Israel.

Saturday we even got in some shopping at the local quilt shop. Saturday afternoon our son and his wife came and I gave my daughter in law her birthday quilt. Be careful when you go in my sewing room and admire what I am working on, it might soon be yours. Not everybody would like this color combination but I think she really liked it.

I really loved working on this quilt.

































We had a great dinner Saturday night and Sunday at lunch we were all together. Our other son and oldest grandson had lunch with us. Don't you think climbing a tree is a great way for a boy to spend mothers day? I loved having all my children with me on mothers day.















Then it was off to the graduation ceremony. We didn't go to the big one, only the one for the Masters in Business program. I was so thrilled that my aunt and uncle could be with us for this special occasion.
















Her graduation was in the Dean E. Smith center on the University of North Carolina campus.

















We are soooo proud of our baby girl.

Monday morning her boy friend loaded all her things up, including her car, and took her off to Indiana. I am happy and thrilled for her but really sad that she is so far away. She has a very good job and so many in her class don't. She is very fortunate.




























I never thought he would get the car in!!! It was tight but they got it all.

Cousins

What is better than lunch and an afternoon with your cousin? Lunch and an afternoon quilting with your cousin! Our grandmother always quilting and my cousin is getting interested and finding she is obsessed too! We both agreed that we would spend hours working with fabric and quilting if we could.










One of my cousin's daughters had a baby boy in February and her other daughter is having a baby boy in June so she will have her hands full. This first quilt is for the one that is already here.














She did a great job. I love love the red sashing. It just makes the squares pop!

This one is for her grandson that is coming in June. Her daughter had used the plaid to make some tabs for curtains for the babies room. Another quilting friend helped her with this one. She had made some blocks and her friend cut it and turned them all on point! It looks great. Her other friend has a long arm machine and did a wonderful job of quilting.

We are hoping that the three of us can spend a day quilting soon. Of course my cousin and I laugh and cut up so much I am not sure how much we will get done.

















Family is so important to me. When ever I feel down I think about how fortunate I am to be born in the family I have. We are a big southern family and we love getting together.

















I could not resist showing you my best Hosta. I love Hostas, the others are not big at all but this one is beautiful. My day lillies are healthy and I hope will bloom soon. They are my very favorites.















Big weekend planned. Our baby is getting her MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has a job in Chicago and is moving on Monday. I am happy for her but very sad that she is leaving. I want her to fly but I wish she was not flying so far away.