BIG NEWS!

Announcing....  Applewood Quilts Etc. real presence on the web!

I took the plunge and now have my own domain & site for my sewing!

A Mug Rug

I've been seeing lots of clever quilty mug rugs or snack mats on Pinterest and thought it would be a perfect little gift.  Especially as my dear friend Lisa has a birthday this coming weekend.

Since I'm really awful with surprises I gave it to her earlier this week so it is safe to post some photos.

Paper pieced mugs with fussy cuts for the sheep centers.  Finished about 9" square.  All cotton fabrics.  It made her happy and she sent me this photo the other day.

A Block of the Month Project

I've never done a block of the month project from the web before, but stumbled on this one that begins this month and thought I'd give it a try.



I will post updates as I work on this new project!

Happy Sewing!

 

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.

Last Quilt

Okay... that is a misleading post title.
This is the last quilt completely made in Merrimack.  Prayerfully it won't be my last ever quilt!

I started this project months ago.  It covers the top of the queen size bed nicely and is soft & snuggly.  Grace approves heartily and has staked her claim on top of it at every chance she gets.

I used mostly left-over fabric from another big flannel quilt project made for a dear friend's daughter.  There has never been a sampler quilt before and this was interesting for me.  For no reason I chose 10" blocks and just started with whatever sized scraps I had and even invented a few blocks along the way.  Some are a bit wonky to fit, but it works.  There was even a bit of adventure in the first ever drunkard's path block as I'd not attempted rounded seams before now. 

The back is the floral print flannel that is in the front as well.  The sashing is a cream tonal flannel and the border is the green tonal flannel.  Machine pieced, hand tied, and binding finish is done by hand.  Finished on 2/11/2013.  My quilt label will be added once we move and I find the box that they are packed in. :-)

Blessings,

A stack of sheep

I have a very dear friend... several years ago I saw an adorable wall-hanging that I knew would be perfect for her, so I bought it and began to work on it.  And I worked on it, and I worked on it and I worked on it.  It was the perfect sized project to take on long car trips or work on when I was sitting for a few hours waiting for a child someplace.  But the project took much longer than I'd anticipated.
This month I FINALLY finished it and was able to surprise her with it.

Stacked Sheep wall-hanging

The background is pieced cotton and all the sheep and flowers are wool and are hand-appliqued in layers.  I've never done a project like this before and was very pleased with the over-all look when it was finished.  I hand quilted around the sheep and around the red border then backed the project with a flannel plaid and added a hanging sleeve along the top edge.

She loved her gift and it now hangs in her home so she can remember Psalm 100 every time she sees it.