April Showers Bring May Flowers

This is my finished mini quilt for the Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap. (The color in the photo doesn't seem quite true, but it was the best I could get.)

The quilting was somewhat improvisational (my husband calls it "jazz quilting"). I couldn't decide on a quilting pattern ahead of time so I just put it in the frame and started quilting. First I quilted the diagonal lines from corner to corner. Then I decided to quilt the center cross. Then I quilted around the inside and outside of the blue inner border. Next I thought that the green strips needed some quilting so I quilted the outside of the strips. Then I thought that the inside needed quilting, too. Then I just kind of echoed the lines of the quilting into the border of the quilt. I think it worked out pretty well.

I hope my partner likes it.

Finished Mini Quilt Top

I have my quilt top finished for the Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap, but I haven't decided how I want to quilt it yet. I'm a hand quilter, so I need to decide soon so I'll have time to get it done by the June 21st deadline.

Soccer Balls at Sea

This is my latest UFO that I finally got around to finishing. It is a soccer themed quilt that I plan to use on those cold fall nights at the soccer field while I watch my youngest play soccer.

The quilt is 47 inches wide by 64 inches long. It is made from six 16 inch storm at sea blocks. And surrounded by a border made from soccer ball fabric with appliqued corner stones. The quilt is machine pieced, hand appliqued, and hand quilted.

I've always liked the storm at sea block and I thought that way the block imitates a pieced circle was reminiscent of a soccer ball. I'm not sure that the circle idea shows up as much as I would have liked in the finished product, but I'm happy with it.

A long over-due window cover

At my husband's office he has a long narrow window in this door that he wanted to cover up. A few years ago I started making this fall themed hanging to cover the window, but never could decide how I wanted to quilt it, so I just set it aside.

I finally finished it, back on March 10th, we took it to his office and hung it on the door. I even took a picture of it hanging on the door, but then I forgot to post it here. Yesterday was my middle son's birthday (and of course Mother's Day) so I was going through my camera to make some room for new pictures when I saw the picture in the camera.

So anyway, the long over-due window cover, that was long over-due in the making and in the posting, is finally made and finally posted.

Mini Quilt Swap

I've just joined this mini quilt swap hosted by Quilting Blogger. It sounds like fun and I'm interested to see where the quilt will come from. You can sign up through May 4th. Follow the link above and give it try.

My 2009 Project Linus quilt

I always intend to make a quilt for Project Linus every year. I did good for a while, but then I started back to graduate school and got out of the habit. It was not unusual for me to START a quilt for Project Linus, but I seldom actually finished them. But now I am finished with graduate school and getting settled into a teaching routine, so I have more time. Plus, I've moved into a new house where I have an actual sewing room so I have more space as well. So here is this year's Project Linus quilt - completely finished and ready to deliver.

The material was left over from the last baby quilt that I made (featured in the previous post), but this one is pieced in a different design. Because the messages on the novelty print were so cut up on the last quilt, I wanted to have a larger panel of the material featured in this quilt, so I designed this pattern to showcase the center fabric. This way you can read all of the wonderful messages. I think the design would work well with any large scale novelty print and you could alter it to use different 6 inch blocks for the inner border if it seemed more suited to the fabric design.

This quilt is machine pieced and hand quilted and measures 42 inches by 48 inches.

Shooflies in the Snow

This is a baby quilt that I made for an old friend of mine from high school who just had a baby right before Christmas. I designed the pattern myself. I started with a snowball block then added cornerstones and sashings around the squares. This made a secondary pattern of shooflies emerge from the intersection of the blocks with the sashings. I decided that I had to complete the shooflies around the edges so I added a narrow pieced border, and then I added a 4 inch border all the way around in the same fabric as the centers of the snowball blocks. The snowball blocks are 6 inches square, finished, and the sashing is 2 inches wide, finished. The final quilt is 38 inches square.

It is machine pieced and hand quilted. The snowballs and sashes are outline quilted a quarter of an inch from the seams. And I quilted a sun motif in the center of each snowball block and quilted the border in straight lines two inches from the edge of the quilt.

Sampler quilt squares

A lady that goes to church with my parents is making a sampler quilt and asked all the quilters in the church to make two blocks for it. She is going to donate the quilt or raffle it off or something, I'm not really sure. But anyway, I decided to make a couple of blocks to donate and here they are. I think they turned out rather nice. The one on the left is an Ohio star. I'm not really sure what the name of the other one is.

Pokemon quilt

This is a sofa-sized quilt that I started years ago, I don't even remember how many years at this point. In fact, the child I was originally making it for will be going off to college this fall. However, his younger brother is happy to have it.

It is made from pre-printed pokemon panels with red sashing and blue borders added. The quilting is diagonal lines from corner to corner in the upper and lower squares that extend into the border and chevrons in the middle blocks that also extend out into the border. The backing fabric is white with pokemon all over.

Chocolate Twist Bag

I finally made some pictures of the bag I made almost two weeks ago. You know, it is hard to sell things online if you don't find the time to take pictures of them. LOL!

Oh well, I'm about to go post it for sale at my etsy store. If you are interested, come on by and check it out.

Kim's pillow

I made this pillow for my son's girlfriend as part of her graduation present from the family. The pillow is 14 inches square and is made from a 12 inch "54-40 or fight" block surrounded by a one inch border. The back of the pillow and the binding are the same purple fabric as the squares in the block. It has an envelop opening in the back to insert the pillow-form. Purple and green are her favorite colors and the walls in her room are off white. Plus she loves pillows!

My new etsy shop

I finally decided to try to sell some of the things I make instead of always just giving them away. I opened a shop at etsy.com. Here is a link to the shop if you are interested. I've only got one item listed right now, my cathedral windows wallhanging featured here. But I plan to add more things as I finish them. Hopefully I will have some purses for sale soon. Wish me luck!

My Renaissance Costume

My mother and I made this lovely dress for the Renaissance wedding I went to yesterday at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. It was made from Simplicity pattern 4488 with a few alterations here and there. I may use some of the left over fabric to make a bodice to either sell or have for a future trip to the Faire.

A Wedding Gift

This is a small quilted wall hanging (15 inches square) with foundation pieced hearts set in an alternating pattern with simple 9-patch blocks and surrounded by 3 borders. It is machine pieced and hand quilted. I made it as a wedding gift for a friend of mine from college who is getting married next weekend. It is a Renaissance wedding. My mom and I are currently working on a costume for me to wear to the wedding; it should be fun. I'll post a pic of the dress when it is all finished too.

Signed, Sealed and Delivered

Okay, so I didn't really seal it, but I did wrap it (if a gift bag counts as wrapping). I gave the quilt (pictured in the post below) to my friend Alicia today. She was very pleased and surprised. She had no idea I was making a quilt for her. I hope that baby Trey gets many years of use out of it.

Warm Wishes

I just finished this one today. It is made from the Warm Wishes pattern published in Quiltmaker magazine's Nov/Dec 2003 issue. It is machine pieced and machine quilted. It is a very simple pattern that sews together very quickly. I made this one for a friend of mine who had a baby boy back in September. I know, I'm running late finishing it, but I had two baby quilts to make at the same time and I was trying to finish up graduate school all at the same time. Better late than never, right?

Cathedral Window - finished!!

Click on the image for a close up view.

It is small (only 18 inches square), but I'm pleased with it. It was my first attempt at doing Cathedral Windows and I was just figuring it out from some directions I found on-line. It took some trial and error, but I think it worked out okay.

Hope on the horizon

Now that I have finally finished grad school, there is hope that I will now have time to finish some of the many projects I have started. I'm currently working on a baby quilt for a friend's new baby boy, who arrived back in September but his quilt was not ready to greet him. I'm also working on a soccer ball themed "storms at sea" pattern quilt and a cathedral windows wall hanging. Hopefully I will finish at least one by the new year. When they are done, I'll post pictures.

A new quilt for baby Allie

Obviously I haven't been too creative since I started this blog. So much to do, so little time. Well, over the summer I did make a new quilt for my new little baby cousin. I hope she will enjoy it.

Colorful Spring Snow

In the spring, the world is new
Life bounds forth everywhere.
The white snows of wintertime disappear
Happiness fills the air.

The grays of winter pass away.
Colors are all around.
A light dusting of spring’s own snow
Flutters down to the ground.

Unlike winter’s ice crystals
This snow represents life.
Even the yellow pine pollen
That gives our noses strife.

Azalea bushes fill with buds
The flowers soon burst through.
Their blooms of pink and red and white
Fill my heart with hope anew.

Wisteria vines climb the tall pine trees
Evergreens now have color.
The waves of pale lavender blooms
Release their own sweet odor.

Fruit trees put forth their blooms too
A promise of things to come.
The fruits of summer all begin here
An apple, a peach, or plum.

Flowers bloom and petals fall
What a colorful snow!
God gives his beauty to the Earth
For all the world to know.