Proof II'm still here!

 

Fooling around on a quilt mailed to nephew (nothing to brag about here but ...)  - he complained "why don't I have my own quilt when all my sisters have one from Aunt Elaine?"  ... So, now he has one.  Here's another view.  I tried to keep it somewhat gender neutral as I've only met his wife one short time.  I got kinda "stuck" on those quarter log cabin strip designs during these last several years.

They wrote back that their 11-ish  daughter noticed all the mountains, swirls, circles and heart designs that were sewn into the quilt.  I have to know that arty youngter a bit better!  The quilt was named "Listening" because I was hearing my Mom as I made it.    

Over the Christmas holidays I offered to make a queen-size quilt for a friend who wanted something for her adult son (below).  I agreed because she's a teacher and now THAT job I could never do, but I COULD make a quilt.  His mother had started the project but ran into difficulties.   We agreed - she would stay a teacher and I would stay a quilter.  And, since I'd never made a quilt specifically for another person, I wondered if I would still enjoy the process.  As it turned out, I LOVED making it and probably did a better job than if it had been for myself.  Who knew that would happen?  My friend had started with the star color theme, so I stuck with that.  

Here it is, in it's almost-completed form a few months ago.  I quilted it all on my Janome6700P, although I kept that last wide blue border separate, and added it QAYG, since the project was now very large.  The recipient was happy as well as his folks.  He then offered to help me put together a small sewing cabinet that had arrived in hundreds of pieces, so everyone was happy.    

Incidentally, I DID have those hanging squares perfectly meeting at each corner (yes, using my special formula for that tedious technique) but decided it truly was just too much!   So after removing a few, it truly was better - a good solution to remember.  I have a permanent image of me dragging a partially finished large quilt from room to room, meeting my demise by tripping on it and breaking a hip!  I wonder if a quilt would break my fall and then ...... 

Happy Independence Day July 4.  

Shaded 9-Patch

 

Humble Shaded 9 Patch.  From a box of scraps, and some 2 1/2" strips.  I used Karen Comb's book,  Combing through your Scraps, to help plan a design so I wouldn't have to get up and down from the floor/rug.  This finishes at 60" square.   Yes, one mistake .  I liked it that way, just to be stubborn.

I am quilting non-glamorous swirls in the dark areas and a wandering leafy thing in the lights, starting in the middle dark, then stopping at a border area to change thread.  I guess my  concentration skills applied only to the quilting part, and not on the value under the needle.  I "forgot" 3 separate times - you'd think a person can remember to STOP when moving between lights and darks!   Lots of picking threads out when I realized, too late, that my quilting just kept on going, crossing over border lines.  

  

Trunk Show to Guild Members

 

(I have no idea why these photos were difficult to post  few days ago.  I tried again, and voila! )

Thank You, Peg who posted these photos from my recent Trunk show.  After displaying my quilts, I left then out on the dais for closer inspection for an hour or so.  The subject of most comments and questions was the deer outline quilted in the borde. Perhaps the viewer has not been looking closely in previous shows as I've always put various critters, handprints, silliness, etc., in the quilting.  (Hope you can see it.)

Here is larger photo of the above Star in the Forest, thinking about a much-loved bicycle trail in the Smoky Mountains where I pedaled years ago.

 

The previous quilts have all been shown on my blog.   And  YES, that Jacob's Ladder is made up of 6 inch blocks, and is hand-quilted (by me) .  Again, the re-engineered log cabin second on right is my best of all, and where I learned to machine quilt because it was professionally quilted by the astonishing quilter Judy Woodworth, who was a guild member long ago.  I saw her amazing work on this quilt and I wanted to DO THAT MYSELF and now use her creativity for my own inspiration altho my quilting is more free-motion style on my DSM.   I call this my Water Logged Log Cabin, and what you cannot see, is a "million" tiny, hand-sewn blue beads on the corners, suggesting under sea bubbles.  Again, the ladies never noticed the bead bubbles until they saw them close-up.  

I'll again show this Quarter Log Cabin  treasure, held by friends Jody and Tina.   Most of these blue scraps came from the Free Table.   Inspired by their beauty, I had the quilt finished with 2 months.      

The pattern just WORKS doesn't it?  I've made this design 5 or 6 times recently.  The Logs are sometimes too wide, or too narrow - I didn't worry.  I believe it WORKS, every time, because of the contrast of lights and darks.  

It was a good day! 

A Trunk Show

 Last week I presented a Trunk Show to my Guild, followed by giving a class on the Kaleidoscope block.  It turned out well, and I' had planned on thanking Peg  for her photos.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to translate them into Blogger, but then, I've posted them over the years so ... you've seen them all.  In the meantime I have to learn something new ... again.  And I AM working on "trying new things".

Lesson 48624:

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you already have.  

Plenty sewing, one photo

 

Trying new things ... a friend asked me ... can't show more ... staying busy ... one more border ... QAYG.

Minor adjustments to border width

  My packages (3 quilts) finally arrived at destination, safe and sound, but very much later than expected.  One less thing to cause stress.

 I always disliked the width of the border on this string quilt.

Me and my trusty Clover Seam Ripper made it better by cutting off about 2 1/2 inches all 'round.  Much better.    Yes, it's got a slight curve to it.