Keepin' On

 I found this little Teddy  at the Dollar Store and he fits nicely into my recent finished kids quilt pocket.  No removable parts or eyes - OK for kids.  With gasoline costs, I'm staying closer to home these days and glad to have a simple Dollar Store nearby.  This little guy is exactly what I wanted, so I purchased several!   

This started as an ordinary Shaded Nine-Patch, meaning I was only planning on making one block.   I made 100 blocks  !!!!! and am close to the last of quilting it.  I did have to purchase several more green FQs.  I was playing with side lit photos in this clip.  I'll post the entire in a few day.  Lots quilty things happening.  Size with borders will be about 64" x 64".

Fall has arrived - had to turn the furnace on this morning.  

It needs a name!

Apparently I've forgotten how to rotate my photos - this is a sideways version, but it's D-O-N-E.  All those triangles went together easily.  It's looking either "watery" or "snakey".  I finished it with a Faux flange binding, hardly visible in this photo.  Opinions for a name?

Below is a kids "I Spy" quilt that started as a Disappearing Nine Patch but it was so overly busy and uncoordinated-looking, that I took every piece apart, trimmed each piece to a more accurate size and finished it up like below.  This was a good lesson to remember "Structure" in a quilt.   This will go to a niece who is a Social Worker Extraordinaire, who always had babies coming and going in her home.  She calls the quilts "mats", because her floors are frequently "crawling" with darling babies of various ages.  Some return home, some are adopted or fostered, etc.  The baby might take a quilt with them if possible.  

I'm showing the back to remind myself to keep on using what I already have using the multitude of cute kids 4-inch squares.  The back still needs a pocket and I'll tuck in a store-bought little teddy bear (child-approved).  

My very first time ...

I’ve been procrastinating long enough – could anyone possibly be interested in my projects? Self-doubting here.... Visiting Quilt Blogs seems so friendly and personal, like quietly passing time with a friend . My friends like what I do – we quilters never seem to get enough visual stimulation – I myself, receive such pleasure reading all the other quilt-related blogs, and salivating at photos of fabrics, quilts, sewing rooms, stitches, etc., and ... I just bought that new digital camera ... so, OK, no more excuses ... what’s the worst that can happen ... I’m going to see what’s around the next corner!

I live amongst fabric, threads, projects, books, piles of projects. Sometimes the fabric clutter is inspirational, sometimes the disorder is depressing, so I go through periods of tidying up and neatness or else, ignorance of my mess. My husband and I share a small studio, where we both work in our respective projects. He is a neat person, I am not.

A neighbor asked me to make a quilt for her 18 month old niece, to celebrate the child’s arrival in the U.S. An Alphabet Quilt seemed a likely choice. I absolutely cannot do “soft pastels” ... and always end up with bright colors. I chose to wonky-up those letters, to make it look less structured – and ... it’s easier to ‘center’ them when you make them crooked!

Sometimes I add a large label/pocket to children's quilts -- this time I put this little rabbit inside!

More to come,

Elaine Adair