Life has been busy but obviously I haven’t been on the blog much…for months!  Now it’s time to catch up…photos mostly of projects completed and in the works.

My Sewing Room Wallhanging

My Sewing Room is a wallhanging that everyone in my quilting group made.  Each of us did our own thing with the pattern.  My background is made from Japanese Taupe fabrics with wool applique.  It was a fun quilt to do and I had the perfect spot for it in my sewing room.  I machine quilted this one on my Juki machine and it was my first time using 2 layers of batting.

Hollyhocks and Bunnies is a wool applique table topper from a Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  Most of the wool I used was hand dyed in my kitchen.  It was in place in time for Easter 2016.

I needed a project to practice sewing on my Gammill long arm machine.  I found this project in a book for a roll up picnic blanket.  Our youngest daughter had just become a member of Kappa Delta sorority so I made this for her.  She loves the beach so I made a beach blanket for her figuring that if my quilting skills were sub par it really wouldn’t matter.  Selecting cheap fabrics from JoAnn I drew out a Kappa Delta in the center and then did an oyster shell quilting around it with a feather border.  On the back (below) I used a denim and here you can see the quilting.

And here is the beach blanket all rolled up and ready to go….by the way, it did see a lot of use this past summer.  Well worth the time and energy.

Birdsong is a Jan Patek quilt design and I project I have carried around for 15+ years.  I am thrilled to have this one completed and on the back of my recliner now.  I quilted this with a meander stitch on the Gammill longarm.  Nothing cosmic…just happy to have it finished!

Bill and Cynthia, long time Air Force friends of ours from our very first assignment, now have 3 grandchildren.  Luke is the first born and we gave him a leather flight jacket when he was born.  His sisters however, Biss (Elizabeth) and Phoebe, had to wait awhile for their gifts.  Biss is now 4 years old, Phoebe a mere 6 months.  This spring and early summer I pieced quilts for them.  Upon Once a Time for Biss, who is in a princess phase of life ( not a bad place to be I must add!) and Zig Zag for Phoebe.

Some of my quilting friends were shocked I did some modern styles…and I rather enjoyed them…so much I have 2 more in the works.

My Beloved is a rug I began in a workshop with Lisanne Miller.  It is hanging above the fireplace in our master bedroom for our 35th anniversary this year.

Bee Garden is keeping my rug company as a fireplace screen.  Its a wool applique Maggie Bonanmi design.  My handyman, Tim, made the wonderful walnut frame!

Summer Popsicles is a Fig Tree Quilt design.  I signed up for a quarterly quilt project from them this year.  This will be a table runner and I need to quilt it.  Missed the boat for this summer so it will debut in Summer 2017!

My mother’s birthday is in August so I pulled out this project.  Mom (Jeanne) passed away 3 1/2 years ago….not a single day goes by that I don’t think of my parents.  This was something I was going to make for her.  The pieced squares were done by my grandmother, Pauline.  Many of the fabrics I recognize from clothing that my mother made for us.  I planned to use Grandma’s quilt as a backing and then purchased the 1930s (my mother was born in 1934) reproduction fabrics for the stars on the front.  I plan to call this quilt Jeanne & Pauline.  I’m very sorry I didn’t get this done for my mother.

This is such a useful pillow.  It’s a stitching pillow by Primitive Gatherings.  There is a place for a pair of small scissors and a needle keeper under the birds wing.  It’s a great place to rest your hands while sewing.  The back of the pillow has a zipper and I keep my projects stored there.  Perfect for the car as well as my sewing chair at home.

Sealed With A Kiss is a recent finish.  It’s a memory quilt for our friend Wade.  I made a similar type quilt for his wife Bonnie and wrote about that in a previous post.  The blocks are made from their daughter,  Lucinda, clothing.  Lucinda passed away at 19, nearly 9 years ago.  This is a wall hanging (a little large) for Wade’s office.  Bonnie helped select the motifs in the borders.  Each border is different.  I had several challenges with this one starting with how to make orange and purple more masculine.  In the end I embraced the purple, Lucinda’s favorite color, and worked with the black and orange from her school colors.  I used a black colorweave fabric from Moda for the borders.  It looks almost like an oxford cloth shirt. I’m happy with the way it turned out…need to do some blocking on it though.  I worked hard at keeping it square but the dense quilting in the borders made it a little wavy.  Don’t worry, I’m on it and it will be corrected!  Since Wade is a University of Florida Gator fan the quilt back had to reflect that obsession!

I have several other large projects in the works…My Crazy Life, a summer block of the week by Primitive Gatherings, a companion wool applique project, 2 more quilts for children, a quilted market basket in the production process, a Rebekah Smith wool mystery project…can’t show you that until it’s done – we were sworn to secrecy!  Next week is a 3 day rug hooking workshop with Cammie Bruce!!  I’m SO excited!  Until next time…hopefully not 6 months from now!