Thursday, May 8, 2025

Finishes and Flowers in May

 Progress on quilt finishing seems to be going pretty slowly these days. The tops get done, backs get made or purchased, and then things stall. To be fair, my in-house quilter has other things he likes to do. But getting the bindings made and applied and then sewn down just feels like it's taking longer than it used to. 

For the first time in our history we have sewn down the bindings on the latest quilts by machine. I prefer to hand sew them. I enjoy the process and I like the look better. Since the painful flare-up I experienced last year in my wrists and forearms I've been trying moderate my hand sewing activity. The stitching I do on my postcards or scrolls or textile books don't seem to be a problem. Maybe because I don't stick with that one activity as long as I tend to do when sewing down a quilt binding. 

This green quilt began simply as a way to use up some of the green prints in my stash. As the blocks were accumulating on the design wall Son commented that he really like the look. Green seems to be his favorite color too. So we decided that quilt would be his and I made it to the dimensions he requested. It's much narrower than most of the quilt I make at about 48 x 75 inches.

He quilted it with an overall leafy design.



 The other quilt I just finished is the Welcome Blanket, 40 inches square.

I found a brown remnant in my stash that worked really well for the binding. I like the way it disappears visually. 

Coming up with a quilting pattern was a bit challenging due to the single heart block and other considerations. In the end we decided on this simple gentle wave across the width of the quilt.


 And now for the flowers 😊  This is the lilac we planted in our front yard two years ago (or has it been three years?).


 Not directly, but across the street there's this marvelous specimen with paler florets.

I have no idea how old it is but look how tall and big it is! That's the roof of the garage on the property at the far left in the photo. 

Meanwhile, my roses and peonies are budding. The front lawn is sprinkled with delightful yellow buttercups too. 

What's growing in your corner of the world?

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Postcards for the #Kookypostcardsal2025

 I have been remiss in sharing the textile postcards I've been making this year. You may remember this one for January's Snow Day! prompt:

February's prompt was Feathered Friends. I'd recently acquired a vintage hankie featuring a pair of machine embroidered birds so I used them as a starting point for my postcard.


 The prompt for March was Time for Tea. I'm not a tea drinker. Tea time isn't really a thing here in the States either. (The prompt originator is a UK resident.) It wasn't until I came across some Dr. Who prints in my stash that I was finally able to come up with a plan for the March postcard.

I called this one Timey-wimey Tea with the Doctor. 😁

April's prompt is Secret Garden. If you're familiar with the book or the movies you will know about the garden brought back to life behind a hidden door. That was just a little too obvious for me but I didn't have any other ideas until a conversation with friends in a Zoom call. One of them spoke of how love grows in our hearts. Bingo!

Hmm, I should have photographed it on a different background. Oh well. Lately I've been scattering tiny upright crosses to give texture to background areas. I enjoy the process and like the results visually. This postcard also gave me an opportunity to use some really tiny heart buttons I acquired somewhere along the way. The prompt for May is Faerie Tales. I wonder where that prompt will take me!

Friday, April 18, 2025

Welcome Blanket Quilt

 I admit that I composed the layout for the Welcome Blanket in haste and not at the top of my game.This is what I put up for Scrap Happy Day:

Since then I have tweaked the block placements just a bit.

And today I have added the border that will finish at two inches, making the quilt top 40" square.

 

It's kind of busy but I think it works. Not only has this small quilt given me the opportunity to use blocks from the Parts Department and some scrap batting, I was able to use another remnant for the border strips. It's been fun to complete a quilt top so quickly. That's all kinds of success! 😁
 

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Scrap Happy in April

In the middle of making all those Hourglass/Big Dipper blocks and flights of geese (see previous posts) I received an email from the Welcome Blanket Project. I've contributed to them in the past but it's been a while. They request blankets that are 40" square. I want to use the geese and the Hourglass blocks for a larger quilt but I have a quantity of 6" Shoo-fly blocks in the Parts Department. (I have even more Hole in the Barn Door blocks that size but I'm not willing to part with them at this point apparently.) I can put 36 of the Shoo-fly blocks together with a two inch border all the way around to make a 40" square quilt top. 

So I pulled out the blocks and auditioned them on the design wall. 

They still need to be sewn together and a border fabric chosen but this is a good start. 😊

Scrap Happy Day is hosted by Kate with the intention of giving us the opportunity to share something we've made out of scrap materials or have repurposed in some way. We show our work on the 15th of each month in our various time zones (Kate is in Australia and we have players all over the world). Click on the links below to see what everyone else has been up to.

KateEva, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan
Moira, SandraChrisAlys,
ClaireJeanDawnGwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue LVera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Hannah and Maggie

 


Sunday, April 13, 2025

Celebrating Spring

I follow Kate at the Last Homely House and the Last Homely Garden on YouTube. She just posted this charming video from her garden in the north of England. Enjoy!