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“I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may make all that I have commanded you. “ Exodus 31:6


“O Thou who art the all pervading glory of the world, we bless Thee for the power of beauty to gladden our hearts.
We praise Thee that even the least of us may feel a thrill of the creative joy when we give form and substance to our thoughts and, beholding our handiwork, find it good and fair. “.
Walter Rauschenbusch


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"Come, and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me.
I cried out to Him with my mouth; His praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD woud not have listened and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God, Who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!" Psalm 66:16-20
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Monday, March 28, 2016

Old quilts and new.......

It's been awhile since I've posted.  I am still plugging along on the Orange Peel quilt top, having hand-appliqued close to 150 of the little peels.  I try to do 5 at a time, but don't always meet my quota.  I'm loving the look of it, but don't have enough on the design wall to look much different from my last photo.

In between times of working on that, I pieced up another little project.  Digging around at our local second-hand store, I came across a bit of hand-piecing and some leftover patches that had not been worked.  It was all in a zippered clear vinyl pillow bag.  They charged $1.00, which I was happy to give, so I took it home.  Pulling out the finished part, I found that it was set into 14 rows of 5 blocks per row, making a long skinny piece.  Well, I picked it apart with a seam ripper, between the 7th and 8th rows, and then placed those pieces side by side, piecing it back into a top that was 10 rows of 7 blocks .  Here it is laying on the fabric that I chose for a border.

Looking through the bag further, I found about 10 more finished blocks, and pieces to make more.  I made enough extra blocks (I pieced mine by machine) to be able to piece a backing with a strip of blocks down the center.  This way I only had to buy a 2-yard piece of fabric for the backing, a wonderful peucy-green solid.  Adding a 2-inch strip of the border fabric on each side of the pieced blocks, I had enough width for the backing.

I basted it out underneath my carport a week ago, thinking I would quilt it by machine, probably immediately.  But life, and SPRING, intervened, and it is still beckoning to me from the back of a chair sitting alongside my bed.

It is very roughly handpieced, and had a lot of bagginess to the blocks.  But it is just TOO LOVELY to not be made into a finished little quilt to be loved and admired.  I just wish I knew who made the blocks, and why they gave up on them.

Adding to my quilty enthusiasm is my latest project request from JoAnn in Oklahoma.  She sent me a kit of the Swoon Sixteen Quilt, and asked me to piece it for her.  Over the last few days, I've managed to get the fatquarters cut, and one block pieced.  Tomorrow I hope to drop in on the local quilters at the senior center and maybe get the rest of the white background fabric all cut.


1 comment:

Thanks for stopping by !