A Happy Pillow

Appliqued quilt block,(about 14"), machine quilted.

Thanks to a lovely friend, I have a new pillow for the sun porch.  My friend Emily gave me several pre-cut quilt block kits that she decided not to use.  This one was an applique' block that I decided would look great as a pillow on the porch.  I machine quilted the block onto a piece of muslin (I'm learning to machine quilt on my standard machine) and then used a random fat-quarter of mottled blue for the back to create the pillow.

It looks lovely against the new lap-blanket my mom made for me!

This makes me happy and I think it is pretty as well as functional.  Now to wait for Steve to test it out and let me know if he thinks it will help with afternoon naps. :-)

My New Digs

This sign hangs on a wall in my new sewing room.

My new sewing room... in photos.

From the doorway looking into the room.

Cutting table, etc.

Fabric closet & doorway

Tools hung in a small corner space

Fabric storage closet

another view

another view 2 (yes... I have a LOT of fabric!)

shelf mini-closet with books, magazines & patterns

It's a bright and cheerful space and I am looking forward to many hours of happy sewing here.

New Space

For anyone still lurking around here... I thought I'd toss up a post. 

We moved in March out to "the country"...  a very small town in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire.  It is our dream and we are very blessed to be where we are, especially as we really saw God's hand in the entire process.
In the run-up to the move, all my sewing stuff was packed right away and put into storage.  This was due to time/space issues - not the quantum physics kind - the kind where I have WAY TOO MUCH stuff and it had to be put into storage in order to show our house and sell it.
Now that we've settled in a bit and have crossed off a few major projects in our new home, I'm finally unpacking my sewing things and all my fabric.
I am beyond thrilled to have an entire room for my sewing here - my very own sewing room!

These are photos just after the room was freshly painted and the new wood floor installed.
At the moment I'm in the midst of unpacking and washing all the fabric from the 6 giant cardboard boxes, 4 huge plastic totes, several miscellaneous drawer container units and figuring out where things will go in my new space.  Steve has mounted adjustable wire shelving in the closet for me and I'm sure that everything will have to be re-arranged 973 times before I'm happy with the arrangement and where things are set up.  But it is progress!

And, I've had the blessing of being able to work on some quilt ministry projects during the time that B is practicing with the worship team at church, so I'm being productive a little bit on that front.  I am almost finished with the hand-quilting on a baby-girl quilt, have binding to do on another girl quilt, have begun work on a baby-boy/generic quilt, and am part way into final piecing of a top for a scrappy lap size quilt that may be used as a ministry fund-raiser or for some other purpose.

Blessings on the sewing journey ~ I hope to post some finished projects before too long.

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.

Surprise Finish

I have a friend, Emily, who began a quilt with some lovely pre-cut squares in blues & browns and she chose a gorgeous paisley print in the same colors to sash the block rows together.  She was working along and hit a few snags, finally encountering the inevitable frustration of sewing... meaning... the dreaded need for a seam ripper.  So she handed the project off to me with a smile.  I was happy to take it off her hands and the timing was just perfect!
I took some things apart, swapped a few rows around, added some borders and merrily took advantage of having a quilt top done and handy to take to a class using a computerized long-arm quilting machine.
Last Friday I headed over to Bits-n-Pieces Quilt Shoppe in Pelham, NH with Emily's quilt top in hand.  I had chosen a light cream marbled flannel for the backing and cotton batting so it would be easy wash-n-dry for her family to use.  She has boys and I know how that story goes and wanted to be sure they could use it with no worries.

These photos were taken with my cell phone - so pardon the quality.  They show the quilt, batting & backing rolled onto the frame and the computerized long-arm at work.

Close up of the back showing the quilting pattern "Flowering Fern" done in variegated (blue/brown) thread.

 Back of finished quilt.

Finished quilt! 

I used the paisley print for the binding and managed to get all the handwork done in just 3 days - which may be a new record for me. :-)  I was anxious to finish so I could give it back to Emily - which I did today and she was SO surprised!  The look on her face was such a mixture of joy & surprise... a complete and total gift/blessing for ME! 
One of the dearest gifts God has granted me in this life is to be able to make/give useful things.  I sew, I bake bread - nothing earth shattering but these are things that make me happy and seem to be blessings to others at times.  I love that! 

Make something... create some joy!

 

Blessings,

Jacob's Quilt

A darling African fabric baby quilt for soon-to-arrive Baby Jacob.

4-patch blocks in gold & green with brown African motif fabric alternating with large single patch blocks of the fun safari animal print.  Machine quilted in an all-over meander/stipple pattern.