Weekend

I added borders to the two quilts I am making for friends of my daughter in law. I thought the pinwheel quilt had enough movement and needed a plain border. I really like this quilt. I will definitely use the pinwheel idea again. It is very versatile. I have a really cute print with trains for the back.



















I gave the star quilt a pieced border. There is some blue in the dots and I wanted to introduce a bit of blue into the border. I enjoy a whimsical border. This is for my daughter in law's friend that lives in Germany. I have a cute animal print for the back of this one. My goal this week is to machine quilt both of these.



















My goal last year was to teach myself to hand quilt. Life got in the way but I really want to do it. I tried it a bit yesterday. I can't decide whether to use a hoop or not. I want some portable handwork and this would be perfect. I am thinking of hand quilting Owie's whale quilt.

QUESTION: How about combining hand and machine quilting? Machine quilt the long lines and then go back and hand quilt small areas.





















I am absolutely fascinated by Gari's Snail Trails blocks. I would love to do a quilt like this with two colors or be a copycat and use batiks like Gari is using. I wonder if you can liberate this pattern. It starts out with a four patch and you add triangles to make the "path". I just love what Gari has done, very impressive.

Mojo working

My mojo has been working overtime this week. First of all Monday was my birthday and although I had a quiet day it was very nice. I had a very enjoyable day. My grandsons gave me a bag with the appropriate monogram "NANA". Just think of all the neat things I can carry around with this bag.



















My aunt sent me some dot fabric. She knows I have an obsession with dots!! I have no idea how I will use these but I surely will.




















I thought I had my mind made up about what I was going to do with this next quilt. I made this square and it just did not speak to me at all. I don't know what it was but I just could not go with this.



















I went to Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilting for some ideas and inspiration. Her pinwheels really appealed to me. This is a great technique and really goes together fast.



















I made a square or two. I really wanted to use this print with the balls. I decided to use the print and some solids, primary colors. I wanted to combine the pinwheels and 4 patch. The pinwheels and 4 patch are a natural combination.




















This was my first arrangements. I thought lets go totally random. My orderly mind just could not handle all this randomness. Lets put a little order, not much but just a little.



















I decided to put the 4 patch on the outside and the pinwheels on the inside. This is my first arrangement on my design wall. It is so helpful to be able to put it up and see what it will look like.




















I put it all together this afternoon and I am very pleased with how it looks. Totally liberated and unplanned. I guess sometimes it is better to wing it and see what happens. Notice how the yellow from the 4 patch and the yellow from the pinwheel sort of "bleed" into each other. I love those unexpected little things.

My grandmother

My grandmother was born 112 years ago, July 3, 1897. We are fortunate to have many of the quilts that she made. One of her favorite patterns was what she called Dutch Doll. It is also known as Sunbonnet Sue. Almost every grandchild has one of her quilts. I have fond memories of sitting on the floor beside her on rainy summer afternoons making doll clothes. She enjoyed all kinds of sewing.


















She cut her dolls free hand so they are not the same shape or size, similar but definitely not cut with a template.


















This quilt has muslin on the back and is hand quilted with very small, very even stitches.



















Many of the dolls were topstitched with black floss. Much of that has worn away. All of the dolls have solid color hats, hands and shoes. I am so glad that so many of her quilts have survived.

Floating stars

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions about my liberated stars. My aunt who has seen the squares in person said sew them together and I did. When you do that they seem to float over the dots.

















My project next week will be to do a dynamic pieced border. I want to add some blue to the border along with the print, orange and yellow. Notice the Virginia Tech square at the bottom. This is for a college friend of my daughter in law.

I also want to do something for another friend of my son and daughter in law that lives in England. I drew my little sketch and I thought I had my mind made up. I did this square this afternoon and it just does not speak to me. I thought I would love the teal and it is ok but it does not look good with what I want to put on the back. I think I will use more primary colors. Oh well!



















I could not resist any longer. I had to have Gwen and Freddy's new book. A lot is a repeat of the first book but there is so much more. I am taking this with me to the beach this weekend. I will be busy.


















I also got another book that is very interesting. Janet Berlo is a writer and she used quilting to over come her writers block. She writes a lot about women and this book explores how quilting fits into our lives. For example are you in another zone when you go into your studio? Do you constantly think about color and pattern. One of the very interesting things she discusses is how it is ok not to finish a quilt . In most other aspects of our lives we always try to finish what we start but we can start a quilt and finish it years later or even do a few blocks and abandon the whole thing. Much of what she discusses is how so many of us love the process of making quilts even more than the finished product.

















I hope all of you have a glorious holiday. Take care and don't eat too many hot dogs!

Seeing Spots

I worked on my liberated stars while I was at the beach. I discovered that I did not have enough of the dot fabric but I found some similar fabric in my mothers stash. My aunt said we are liberated so you can use the two fabrics. I feel like it creates more visual interest to use both fabrics.

















But now I have a problems. I wish I had made the squares a bit smaller. I wanted 4 X 4 and strip it with orange and yellow but I now realize that will make it much larger than I want. What do you think about no strips, just sew the stars together and make a neat border with all the fabrics? This is the squares on my make shift design wall that by the way works just fine.


















I read Belinda'sblog all the time and I love her attitude and ideas. I got the idea for the liberated stars from her although mine are bigger. I am not as good at the small ones as she is. I love all the folks that follow my blog. I do not intend to show anyone how to do anything, only show you what I am doing. When I left my classroom I didn't want to teach any more. I can do some teaching, if you want to learn some Algebra I can teach you. I can complete the square, graph exponential functions, I can even solve word problems!!! I am not trying to sell you anything or to be an expert.

I enjoy blogging. I love seeing what you are doing and sharing a bit of your life. I do not intend to take your ideas as my own. I am just having a good time. I am enjoying developing my creative side that I have supressed for years. Once again thank you to all my readers. And a special thank you to all the bloggers.

Name and New Fabric

We have been at the beach most of the week. I brought my little Janome so I could sew in the afternoons. We had a great Fathers Day visiting our daughter and her new BF. I made her name to take to her. I think I will do her a wall hanging but I could not wait I had to show it to her. I used the balloons for the A because she is so upbeat, the Tarheel fabric for the first N because she is true blue, beach fabric for the second N because she loves the beach and world fabric for the second A because she loves to travel.



















And of course I had to take a picture of the King, my constant sewing companion.


















Sunday afternoon she took me to Thimble Pleasures in Carrboro. I love love to go there. They have the most fabulous quilting fabric. They are building a new store that is much bigger. I may have to rent a room in the new store I love it so much.


















I have so many ideas running around in my head. I am making the liberated stars for my daughter in laws friend. I am going to do a disappearing nine patch for another friend of theirs who lives in England. I have some cute fabric. I also want to do some more houses "I Spy" houses. I thought this fabric would be great for those.

Building Houses pt. 2

I cut a triangle in the shape of the roof I want. The sky is the hardest part for me. I lay my house on the sky fabric and line up my ruler and cut.
















I sew on one side of the roof, trim it off and sew the other side.















I decided to square these up to 12 1/2 ".
















Finished house. To be honest I don't like the way this house looks. It is too long and there is too much yellow fabric.














So I made another house.
I like this one much better. I like more sky and less house or roof. Somehow this one is more pleasing to me
















But opps, when I try to square this one up it is too short.
















So this one gets a nice green lawn! I really like the way this one looks.















I have lots of things going. We had a great Fathers Day. We went to visit our daughter and her new boy friend and to pick our oldest son at the airport. He took his family to Pennsylvania to visit her family. I have some neat things to show in my next post.