Table Projects

Back during the summer, my darling husband took me on a road-trip up to visit +Keepsake Quilting. It is a day trip from here and I usually get to go at least once or twice a year.  I especially love the bargain outlet and usually manage to find some great deals.
This year among my treasures was a package of remnant odd cut strips- all in blues, tans, and creams.  They were not uniform in size, but pretty close, so I decided that some table toppers would be a great use for them.  I created two, a rectangle and a square.  Not in any pattern really just making it up as I went along.  I added borders from my stash and ordered a nice brown print from +Missouri Star Quilt Company  to use on the back.

Quilted them both on my frame with my Janome 1600 and my favorite King Tut thread (Sands of Time - variegated creams) from +Superior Threads.

Most often there is at least one cat asleep on top of these and sometimes a rather large pile of books from the kids as well. I have to get my blog worthy photos quick around here.

Blessings on your sewing journey~

For Our Kitchen

Steve has encouraged me lately to have some fun with what I work on and wanted me to make a wall-hanging for our house.  So I opted to do something to hang in the kitchen and really wanted to make it country-homey looking.
Out of my head I decided to combine a few different elements to work on some skills at the same time.  I dug around the web and found some things I liked and created a rough 9-block plan in my mind. From Forest Quilting I used a paper piecing pattern for my 4 corner blocks.
Paper piecing can be tedious and fussy, but this worked up pretty easily and I was very pleased with the results.

Then I decided to make an applique block for the center and wanted it to be simple but fitting to our home, so again I turned to the web to find a simple line drawing to use for a template.
I used the freezer paper method to hold things together while I appliqued the apple, leaf & stem and then removed the paper. Nothing fancy, but since I don't do much applique, I was pleased with my efforts.

For my last 4 blocks I wanted to go with a sampler look of traditional pieced blocks and found a few ideas at Quilter's Cache as well as just some standards of the quilty world.

These are what I came up with:

Now for the fun part!  Jess helped me plan the layout and I sashed everything together with a green allover print.

Trying to decide how to quilt it was a challenge as I didn't have much in the way of small scale pantographs to use but I did find one free leaf vine pattern that was just slightly larger than my sashing width.  I like the way it came out sort of overlapping into the edges of the blocks.

Steve hung it in the kitchen for me and I snapped this quick photo with my phone (which is why the lighting and angle is a bit wonky).

All cotton fabrics from my scrap bag and stash, machine pieced, quilted with King Tut thread on my Janome 1600P and New Joy frame. Each block is 6" finished.

Happy sewing!

Make a Joyful Noise

My dear friend Lisa has 3 daughters that are all very special.
For her middle daughter's 16th birthday, my daughter Jess helped me choose things to create a very special quilt.  Jess & Julie have been friends since the 1st grade (I think).  So I was very thankful for all the insight and suggestions she offered to make sure the quilt would be something her friend would love.

As Julie is a music lover and plays more than just a few instruments as well as writes songs and performs in church, it made sense to use that as a theme.  Jessica helped me choose a pattern (Metroplex by designer  +Tony Jacobson from the ( +Fons & Porter  Easy Quilts Summer 2014)

Then she helped me hunt around the internet to find the right fabrics to fit our theme.  We found a large number of them from FabricShack.com and I was very pleased with the quality and prompt shipping.  We chose materials from the "Let There be Music" collection by Whistler Studios for Windham, "Music to my Ears" collection from Blank Textiles, and "Maestro" collection by Barb Tourtillotte For Clothworks, as well as a white on white print from one of the local quilt shops in our area.  All 100% cotton quilting fabrics - machine pieced.  The backing is Windham Essentials tonal scroll-work design wide back flannel so that it would be a snuggly and warm quilt for our NH winters.

I machine quilted it using a variegated thread - Riverbank - from Superior's King Tut line.  The pattern is a pantograph design called Celtic Braid by Patricia Rutter from UrbanElementz.com. The quilt finished to 64" x 84", and the binding is double fold with the flannel and hand stitched to finish.  I created the quilt label and named the quilt "Make a Joyful Noise" including the reference to Psalm 100 as it is most appropriate.

This was a fun project and given that I spend a fair amount of time praying over my work when it's for someone specific, I know that Julie is covered literally and prayerfully with this blanket.

**Photos mostly by my amazing husband Steve

Just a Sweet Baby Quilt

I took these random squares...

And began building a baby quilt for a baby girl that is scheduled to arrive late summer I believe.  The ladies group at the new church we are attending hosted a shower for the new mom and since quilts are what I know... that is what I thought I'd give as a gift, well-laced with lots of prayer as that is what God has gifted me to do. 

I built a center and added some borders and corner posts

Then added a few more borders and corner posts 

And a final set of borders with 9 patch blocks as corner posts

This was FUN!

Backed in soft cuddly flannel

Quilted with an continuous line design that I think is called 'flower-power' in a variegated King Tut thread color: Liberty.  I was very pleased with the over-all effect and the new mom seemed pleased with the gift.

The quilt finished at approximately 46" square, cotton top and flannel back.  Machine pieced and quilted by me using both my Janome machines and my New Joy quilt frame.

*Several of the photos were taken with my cell phone and the lighting/quality wasn't as good as the ones taken with a regular camera and natural lighting.

Tangible Love

I often feel like I don't have a lot of gifts that God can use to bless others, but a quite a few years ago a dear woman offered me the chance to use something I love (quilting) to bless others and it changed a lot of things in my life.  It gave me the opportunity to make love & prayer tangible through thread and fabric and a bit of time.
It also taught me that a 'yes' to God is never wasted and even when we think it small, He can transform it into so much more.
So I said another small 'yes' and made this quilt - with more prayer than probably any other one I've made - perhaps because of the size it allowed more time to pray.  There was the piecing of the top, the pressing, the quilting at the frame and approximately 270 inches around by hand for the binding - many hours of prayer poured out at the Throne of Grace on behalf of people I don't know well but that God has put on my heart in a special way.  Time very well spent and fervently offered as service to the One who can touch hearts, minds, bodies & souls in ways we cannot know or imagine.

Scrappy version of a pattern called "Take Five"

The top is machine pieced cottons and the back& binding is flannel.  Machine quilting done on my New Joy Gold Frame w/ the Janome 1600P using King Tut variegated threads -- "Freedom" (blue/cream/red) on top and "Sands of Time" (cream/beige) on bottom -  in an edge-to-edge leaf design. 

As this was my last project for the quilt ministry at our former church, I am praying it will bless the people who will receive it in a very real way.

Quilt Ministry Baby Quilts

**Photo Intensive Post**

Other than the 2 quilts I'd done for the twins born last year, I hadn't had opportunity to get many of the baby quilts finished.  A dear woman I serve with monthly is about to become a great-grandmother and that event (probably happening this week!) was a catalyst to not only quickly create a very special quilt for the soon-to-be-born great-grandson, but also to finish up some of the other projects I've had hanging around.
I do have one more large special project that isn't quite finished yet and that may get it's own post... or not... it's emotionally special for me and I may just keep that private.

First is the newest quilt - for Elijah Robert - who will (Lord willing) arrive safely later this week.

The quilt is an enlarged version of a block I had seen a long while back and I transformed it into a full size quilt pattern - sort of an intertwining ribbon design.  It is made with 100% cotton quilting fabrics for the top in animal/Africa/safari prints that I just love.  The back is an all-over animal print flannel that should be snuggly for a small boy.  It is quilted edge-to-edge on my New Joy Frame with the Janome 1600P, using KingTut "Pharoah's Treasure" variegated thread in shades of green/gold/burgundy in an all-over leaf pattern.  The top is machine pieced and the finish binding is done by hand.

Next are 4 quilts that haven't been made for anyone specific as far as I know, but have been prayed over for whatever precious child God will allow them to be given to in the future.
First up are two 'girlie' quilts.  Both were made when the quilt ministry was in the capable hands of others and I just had opportunity to work on and finish them.

This one was machine pieced and sent out to be quilted by another generous lady with a giving heart.  It is all cotton, pieced front and back with an all-over large meander design.

Here we have a simple design, machine pieced in sweet small print cottons and then hand quilted in double heart designs and some outline work on the chenilled blocks.

The colors in these photos are very off - the closest one is the last one.  This is a full flannel quilt - both front and back.  Simple 4 patch blocks are alternated with solid squares and machine pieced and quilted in a broad line grid. The colors are soft 'baby' greens, yellow and big eyed owls.  So cute!

This was such a fun quilt to make - I adapted a pattern I'd seen in a magazine and built the colors off the backing fabric.  When you are working with mostly donated materials, you sometimes have to wing it.  We had this large piece of John Deere themed fabric and it was great for a back.  I dug through the stash to find fabrics that would coordinate and put this together.  It is in an all-over 'raindrop' pattern (again on my New Joy/Janome set up) using KingTut "Sands of Time" variegated cream/beige thread.  All cotton fabrics, machine pieced and the binding is scrappy and hand-finished.

Special thanks to my very helpful daughter for helping me with all the photos out in the chilly sun-porch.

May God richly bless each little one who will be receiving these gifts of prayer.

Blessings,