Heart Strings -- photos

HEART STRINGS
Stats:  Finished measurements 61 1/2 inches wide by 80 inches long, unwashed
Fabrics:  Strips of 1 1/4 - 2 1/2  inch wide fabrics from my extensive stash.  Backing from a 5 yard      length of a fabric bought on clearance at Walmart.....rose print, name unknown.
Batting:  Pellon brand, 80% cotton, 20% polyester, with scrim; 96 inch wide, by the roll, 9 yard roll, from Walmart                ($29.00)
Machine-pieced on 10 inch-square papers from Missouri Star Quilt Company.
Machine-quilted in the ditch of each seam, on my Singer Model 15 sewing machine.


Updating yesterday's pre-finish photos,
I took a few shots today.

I haven't washed the quilt yet.  Normally, I CAN NOT WAIT to wash and dry the quilt, and see the crinkly shrunken goodness of a new quilt.  But this time, I like it so much, I don't want anything to change.

And yet, this is a new batting for me, and I want, NEED, to see the final results, lookswise, as well as how it feels to the touch.

Time.

I need time.

Linking up  with crazy mom's finish-it-up-Friday

Heart Strings is FINISHED !

I don't have final pictures, but I took a photo today while the light was good. The top and bottom borders were still waiting to be bound, but I knew that I'd finish late and I wouldn't be able to get a decent photo.

So these

will have to suffice for now.

I JUST  NOW decided to name it HEART STRINGS.  It doesn't have heart shapes to the string-piecing, but when I 'pet' it, I see SO MANY fabrics from years and years of quilting love, and it just does my old heart good to see the beauty of so many colors and designs.

Got to get up bright and early tomorrow to take hubby to have a PET scan.  He's not feeling so great right now, and I'm not the most loving and patient wife.  I think I'm actually a bit mad at him for getting Cancer.  The LORD and I need to have a little talk about that.....I think I might have some repenting to do.

"I LOVE QUILTING

A few days ago, I got the idea that it would be easy to baste a quilt INSIDE in two sessions......basting one half stretched on my basting frame, and then unpinning, repositioning, and basting the second half.  I thought that this would be much better than experiencing the heat outside under the semi-protection of my carport.

WRONG.  I set up the frame in my small front bedroom, which was cramped with just HALF of a 63" x 81" quilt top stretched out upon it.  After basting the first half, it was a NIGHTMARE getting the second half properly stretched in place.  I do believe it actually took me atleast a third again longer than the traditional basting time.

ANYWAY, I finally DID finish that chore late that afternoon, and my hubby was perplexed at how crippled up I was walking and how worn out I was.  He said, "you don't really have to do that, do you?"

Sigh...........I said, "honey, after your being in the hospital for five days, and then ending up with a diagnosis of Lymphoma, I have just been WAITING, HOPING, LONGING to get back to some semblance of normalcy."    And for me, a day spent doing anything connected with quilting spells normalcy.

To misquote a long-ago-spotted bumper sticker, even a physically depleting day spent quilting beats the best day spent beside a hospital bed !

So, the point I was going for is, I GOT IT BASTED, and yesterday I spent a wonderful day machine-quilting in the peace and comfort of my pretty newly-painted aqua bedroom.

And I fell in LOVE with this quilt .  I felt "ho-hum" about it before, disappointed that the setting of it wound up being assymetrical, which drives my sensibilities bonkers.  But, crazily, I am taking the time to use my walking foot and quilt in the ditch of EVERY strip, and even go down the center of the widest strips.  And I LOVE how it is looking already.

Another lovely bonus is the back of the quilt.  I had forgotten that I bought this 5-yard piece of fabric at some ridiculously low price at our local WalMart.  I found it stuck away in a drawer of my quilt-fabric chest of drawers, and I will share a photo or two of it also ,  .......soon, hopefully.

As far as news of my husband, today he underwent his first hour of chemo, and he goes back tomorrow morning, EARLY, Lord willing, for a 4-hour session.  He's feeling just fine tonight, with a good appetite, and I am feeling very thankful.  Praise God, we couldn't make it without His provision, mercy, and loving compassion. The hospital chaplain that he met today is a motorcycle enthusiast, as is James, so he enjoyed their talk and asked him to visit again tomorrow !

HUBBY'S HEALTH

I don't want to write much right now, as I am going through all kinds of emotions.

My husband was just diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, which is an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. 

Chemotherapy is being scheduled.......so the journey begins.  Thank GOD, we do not have to traverse this valley alone.

Improv

This isn't much to share today, but for my own records, I want to remember this project.

I ordered a 9-yard bolt of 80% cotton/20% polyester batting (with scrim) from Walmart.com, and I am supposed to be able to pick it up on Friday, September 9th.  I have never used batting with scrim, but the reviews made it sound good, so at $29.00, I decided to give it a try.

So, wanting to be ready to baste something right away when it arrives, I started searching for something to use as a backing for the recently finished Fall quilt-top.  Having little successs, I instead starting trying to clean up the mess of fabrics left on the cutting table from the top's piecing.

Then it occurred to me that I could PIECE a back FROM, rather than PUT UP, all this fabric.  I mean, I piece backs all the time, but usually out of  big lengths of fabric that are just not wide enough or long enough by themselves to do a ONE-piece big back.

But these are anywhere from one yard (rare), to 1/2 yard pieces, to PIECES, literally.  But it's been interesting........maybe the MOST interesting fact has been that it's taking so much more thought and time than the original top did.

Here's a photo of my progress thus far.  It doesn't look like much here, but it is actually quite striking in person.  I especially love the horses !  The piece is more green than it appears here (I also have it in rust).  I've had that piece in my stash for years and never found a place for it.   I think I'll enjoy it here !  Did you notice the little log-cabin-surrounded tree, too?  That was my original inspiration block, remember?  So fitting that it gets to ride along on the other side.  I may just quit calling it a BACK.......in fact, the piecing at the upper right looks like a number '2', so I'm thinking of this as 'side two' !

This is fun !

♪ ♫ An-ti-ci-paaaaaaaaa-tion ♪ ♫

September has arrived, and along with it we received a COLD morning on this second day of the new month.  I was able to turn off the central airconditioning unit last night for the first time in atleast a week, and open  my bedroom  window.  I turned my little room fan on high and went off to La-la Land.  In the middle of the night, I woke up cold, and I had to close my window !   Then this morning, my husband wanted me to join him for coffee on the front porch, but I weenied out, saying it was too chilly !   Kindof made me dread seeing the end of Summer, but that's silly, since I've spent most of it hiding inside under the air-con.

Anyway, the anticipation of Autumn found me designing a new quilt.   I thought that it was for my husband, but now I have someone totally different in mind.  The funny thing to me is where my inspiration came from, and how different the top became from what I first loved.

My two inspirations were  THIS QUILT

StashStars by Quilt Expressions (blog)

And, this little block that I made once while playing with leftover triangles and scraps (it's a 4" sq)

This is all I can  show right now, but I hope to finish it soon.

T