Sajou!

Happy Friday everyone!! Hope this finds each of you doing well!

Lori over at Humble Quilts hosted another one of her soooooo much fun SAL/QAL and today is the beginning of the linky party!! I have already taken a peek at the ones posted and they are absolutely fabulous!! Such creative quilters out there and oh my the diversity and oh so gorgeous fabrics!!

Lori mentioned that, though she was using French General fabrics for this French  inspired SAL, that maybe she should have used cheddar and blue! Bingo! I had used most of my French general fabrics for other projects....but several years ago I had purchased a FQ bundle of cheddar and indigo by Penny Rose Fabrics. What a perfect time to cut into them!!

Blessings and hugs!!

The Mega Quilt

I call it the mega quilt, but really it is such a beautiful vintage style double irish chain two color quilt! More than a year ago, a friend (April) of Mandie (DD2) asked Mandie if she would make a quilt for her (April). Mandie said “sure and I’m sure mom will quilt it for you”! I couldn’t refuse for our sweet April, but I was surprised when I discovered that the quilt was to be more of a bedspread for a king size bed! Approximate dimensions - 134 inches square! Hence the mega quilt!! But I was committed to the task! Mandie pieced the top and then delivered it and the backing fabric to me earlier this year. I was working on the boy quilts and had planned to tackle it soon after finishing them. But what a daunting task! Quilt the large masterpiece on my DSM! How was I to handle all that bulk!! And with my shoulder discomfort!! 

So I pondered on the matter for several weeks as I rehabbed/rested my shoulder. Then I had an ah ha moment! Quilt it in parts!! Sort of quilt as you go,  but how to make it not look like that!! Pondered some more. I studied the layout and determined that by quilting wreaths in the white squares and cross hatching the white patches, I could make it work. I disassembled the top into 3 sections of two rows and one section of 3 rows. I basted the first two rows with one width of backing fabric and a similar width of batting. The quilting from each section only had to match at the crosshatching on the white patch blocks. As I completed a section I would add the next similar to the first and quilt that section all the time keeping the bulk of the quilt on my left which kept a smaller amount of batted quilt going through the harp. (I FMQ on my DSM like I sew any other fabric).

Not the best photos, as it has been cloudy and rainy here for over a week,  but I did manage a drier afternoon, and I got a couple shots before I packaged it up shipping.

Isn’t this backing fabric just beautiful!! 💗💗💗

Hope this finds each of you filled with gratitude and joy!

Blessings and hugs!

A Couple Summer Finishes

Several years ago, a blogger friend from the Netherlands sent me some Dutch fabrics and I put together a little doll quilt top. Finally, I got it quilted this past summer and it now adorns the door to my sewing room. Not fancy quilting,  but I did have fun with the tulip border.

Our seventh grand was born April 4, 2018, and I finally finished his baby/ toddler quilt in August! Mandie’s nursery theme is woodland animals/ outdoorsy, so I decided to make a sampler of different quilt blocks that depict that theme. My focal fabric was a woodland scene and then I went through my stash and chose the solid fabrics to make the blocks - turkey tracks, flying geese, North Star, fox and geese, duck tracks, bear paw, pine tree, log cabin, birds in flight, darting birds, maple leaf, swallow, hovering birds, Big Dipper, and some patch blocks to finish up.

My oldest daughter had the perfect backing fabric in her stash, which she willingly let me use! And for the grands - their baby quilt is hand quilted!!

Hope this finds each of you well. 

Praying for all those affected by the adverse weather!

Blessings and hugs!

Aspiring Seamstress

During the summer, two of our granddaughters spent three days a week with us.  Gracen, our oldest, had been asking for months if I would teach her to sew, and I told her that I would teach her during the summer. So I fixed up the 1953 Singer Class 66 for her.

And she took right to it!! 

Her first project was a doll quilt for her cousins whose names all start with “E”. She chose the fabrics and cut the pieces and then I stitched them for her.

Her mom had a box of 4” and 5” blocks, so Gracen would select blocks and then stitch them together. I would pin them for her, and I marked the seam allowance on the plate of the sewing machine. 

She even machine quilted this little beauty all by herself. I marked the lines with masking tape and she stitched right smartly!

It was so fun to help her! Such a joy for Nene to share her love of fabric!

While we were sewing, Charlea, Gracen’s little sister, played with Cedric the guardian dog! 

Hope this finds each of you enjoying life!

Blessings and hugs!

Patriotic Quilts

Hello, hello!!

Since I was working on the boy quilts for most of the month of May, I didn’t do a thing for my girls for Mother’s Day! So I worked up some small patriotic quilts from a panel and FQ bundle I had purchased several years ago. It worked out just perfect - one for me and one for each of the girls!!

More next time about the sweet model in the above photo! 

Hope this finds each of you full of hope and gratitude!

Blessings and hugs!