FINISHED--Dream Weaver for Ted

 I finally am able to share this quilt that I finished before Christmas.  It is the fourth in a series of quilts that I am hoping to get made for my 5 brothers.  Before now,I had gifted one to John, Jim, and Jeff (sensing a theme here....I was the next child born, and I think that my name should have been JOY !)  Anyway, next on the list was my little brother, Ted, who turns 61 on February 24th of this year.  

He came by my house on Sunday, after me calling him to tell him that I had a quilt ready for him, but that I didn't trust putting it in the care of USPS at this time.  

His quilt is called Dream Weaver, and I drafted it up after seeing  a three-fabric quilt of this design on Fabric Cafe's YouTube channel.  I hoarded these batiks for months, thinking that I was going to make myself a quilt from them.  But eventually, I did give it up to him.

Each of these quilts so far have been about the size to fit on top of a twin-sized bed, and actually meant for napping in the recliner or on the couch.  

 I teased him that, with this backing fabric, he could throw the quilt into the bed of his work truck, let it get stained with grease, and no one would ever know the difference !   I surely hope he DOESN'T try that, though ! 

My friend finds this fabric atrocious, but I actually think that it's quite beautiful.  I guess it appeals to my quirky side.

And Marley just says that all of these quilts are just second-hand anyway, because SHE OWNED THEM FIRST !

Starts, but no finish......

  Since Christmas, I have pieced three new things, ALL SMALL.

 First, I decided to make a small quilt to put on top of my made-up bed, so that when the cats sleep on it, and shed, I won't have to wash the bigger bed quilt so often.

 

 Actually, I finished piecing the back on New Years Eve !  It's reversible.

Do ya think that Marley knows it's for HER  ?

 

I'm Big-Stitch hand-quilting it with embroidery floss in the pieced scrappy blocks, but I haven't decided what I will do on the cow-print alternate blocks.  And, of course, having made it reversible, the quilting decisions are even more difficult, especially since if I want to machine-quilt, and use white thread, the machine-quilting is going to REALLY SHOW on the solid-colored areas of the back-side.

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 Secondly, this little quilt is coming into being.  Before Christmas, I bought this white print that I have used here in the background.  I wanted to make a very light Christmas quilt wall-hanging/lap-quilt .  Most of my quilty Christmas things are strong red and green colors, so I felt the need for some relief.   Well, I never got around to choosing a pattern.  This white print was found at Walmart around Thanksgiving time.

Come end of December, Walmart took their coordinating 20-strip jelly rolls and one-yard cuts, and marked them down to $1.00 EACH ! ! ! ! !   Not knowing what I'd use them for, but unable to walk away, I bought 10 rolls, and 3 green plaid yards.  Then, browsing through some quilt photos that I keep for inspiration, I happened across a Rail Fence quilt where the maker had used a strong plaid in one of the rails.  That was my start !   Somehow, the tree idea came into being;  Finding the dark green print in the jelly mini-rolls, I guess that it would let the deer in the background  have some cover to run to if they needed it ! ! !  LOL

So, anyway, it is all pieced and basted, ready for quilting.  Don't know yet if it will be done on the machine or by hand.  I backed it with $2.97 per yard white muslin, also from Walmart, and it feels scrumptious.

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My third project came about when I decided to cut up some old newpapers into squares for string-piecing. I started playing around with some dark/light combos in blocks, and this top came to be.  (Before you worry, no, there was not any newsprint ink transfer to my hands or to the strings.  These papers have been aging, and didn't  BLEED.  Plus, I removed the papers after stay-stitching around 6 or so blocks at a batch.)  Right now, it's just a top that I finished only yesterday.

It may look like I accidentally laid it out wrong, cutting the light blocks in half instead of making them appear whole.  But I didn't.  I purposely avoided a traditional layout, wanting as much focus as I could get on the dark strips, even though I was aware that the light areas would come forward visually.

If you keep the quilt mounted this way, you get two full vertical rows of the dark 'diamonds'.Turned one time to the right, you get two full vertical rows of the light 'diamonds'.  So it's pretty equal.........until I made a border of mostly darks.  

Gifts and other projects from this Christmas season

 I made myself this lap afghan this December, using bits of yarn skeins that I found at our local second-hand store.

  It's a wonderful size for my lap and legs inside, but I'm currently finding it helpful for when I get into the cold car on these Winter mornings.  I very much enjoyed picking up some crocheting for the first time in a great while.

This quilt was made earlier in the year, and gifted to my friend's mother-in-law, Jo Easley, also a friend of mine. 

The yellow quilt, measuring approximately 50 inches square is actually two-sided, having begun with me piecing 8-inch hexagons together. I then took the leftover triangles, from cutting out the hexies, and turned them into stars.  As it developed, what was intended for a backing for the hexagon quilt turned out to be what I now consider the front, instead.  I gifted this one to my sister-in-law, Deb Powers, for her 65th birthday, on December 27th, 2020.  She said that I need not give her another gift for the remainder of her birthdays !  She treasures this quilt !

All machine-quilted

This little log-cabin quilt, just big enough to cover the knees while sitting, was made as a gift for Carole B. after seeing a bed-sized quilt that she had made many years ago.  Carole's husband, (both of them in their 70's)
, mysteriously disappeared this past Summer, and has not been found.  He was suffering early stages of dementia, and his car was found abandoned in the center of a country road, with the drivers' side door open, and no sign of him or any struggle.

And this one was gifted to my fellow quilter-friend, Darleene.  The fabric line was called Air Mail, and thusly, I thought that it was fairly appropriate, as Darleene is a formal Post Office Mistress/mail deliverer.

There are a couple more finishes but they will have to wait until received by the intended family members.

I'm getting behind !

 I finish things now, and I think, "I need to make a new post on my blog about this !"  But time passes and I start something else, and..................I GET BEHIND !

So, to catch up, I think that I have just two new finishes.  

First, if you've read my blog for a while, you may remember that last year I made a very big throw quilt,       

close to twin-size, for my daughter, using her papa's flannel shirts.  It was her memory quilt, and she loves it.......snuggles in it on her couch.   Well, it's been bothering me, since then, that I still had a big zip-lock baggie of the leftover pieces that were just too big, and frankly, too dear, for me to toss out.  

So, I got them out with the idea of making myself a rag quilt.  Instead, it turned into a lap throw without a batting, just big enough for me to snuggle under in the recliner, and feel like I still have James close by (just a little bit) !

 I bought a piece of flannel, for the back, that reminds me alot of the brighter flannel shirts that he wore in his younger days.  As he got older, he got more conservative.

I included a couple of pockets, and several of the shirt labels, and I'm really happy with it.

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Then while a friend and I were visiting another widow last week, I showed her my memory quiltie, and she acted (teasingly) like she was going to keep it.  I said, "do you want a quilt?"  She promptly went back to her bedroom and then returned to hand me a plastic bag filled with pieces of poly-cotton solids in quarter-yard or so cuts.  I thought, "oh, no....not poly !  

But I told her that I would see what I could come up with, and she told my friend that as long as it was made with love, it would be wonderful.  Well, later I went to a secondhand store that I haunt, and I was hoping to find more fabric, possibly for a backing .  Then I came upon this beautiful sheet, and realized that the print contained several of the fabric colors from her bag.

 I went right home, washed and dried that sheet, and cut out my design.    That was Saturday, and on Tuesday I put the last stitches into the binding. This is a photo of the top before quilting.

  It was a challenge to work with the poly-cotton after so many years of 100% cotton fabrics, and don't even ask what it was like to join two pieces of extra-loft batting together by zig-zag stitches on the machine !   But, I am very happy with the finished product, and I hope to be able to give it to Mama Nelly on Sunday, at church.

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And, oh yeh !   This will be an upcoming finish.  The center portion is all pieced, BIG HEXIES !   But I haven't decided whether or not I want any borders. Stay tuned !

Yard sale treasures

Hello friends.  Just popping in to journal my treasure find.

  I came across a yard sale today at the end of my street.  The man who lived there died this summer, and the house has now sold.  The people who bought the house also got all contents of whatever was left in the house and sheds.  

 I walked up to a tarp lying on the ground, scattered with what looked like quilt piecing.  Turned out they were quilt tops, hand-pieced (tucks and all), and the lady said that they were priced at $5. each.  I chose this one with black blocks as it's piecing seemed to be the best of the lot, and I was intrigued with what could be a somewhat more masculine colorway.....the others were pretty bright, or very pastel/girly.

 When another shopper saw me looking at these, she told me that there were more in one of the sheds.  I went through those also, and then chose this one with string blocks.  I'd like to copy the design if I don't actually finish this top into a quilt.  I mean it's a simple block that I see everywhere, but perhaps having this where I can see it often, I'll be more inspired to actually make one. 

 It's mostly hand-pieced, but I can see where someone took some of the quarter blocks and machine-sewed them into the final block size.  There are bits of newpaper stuck in some of the seams as well. I sprayed them both down with my waterhose, and the fabrics in this one dried VERY stiff.  They don't seem to be thicker, so I don't know what that's about, but I wouldn't want to try hand-quilting through THEM !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINISHED....Oklahoma Stars inTennessee......a project from the past and present

 Oklahoma Stars in Tennessee

This one goes back to my Oklahoma days, but I'm not sure of the year.  Maybe after 2000?  Anyway, I dug it out a few months ago, and found that the inner skinny border was cut too short, and was pulling the corners inward.  So I removed it,........and it was in a lovely bright green that just really picked up on the green in the final border..........but I had no more of it, so I went with this gold.  Then it hung on my design wall until I felt so guilty that I just HAD to quilt it.

 I started out hand-quilting, then added quite a bit by machine, returning to hand-stitching for going around the design motifs in the outer border.  It has an all cotton batting, so I may find that the batting in those open areas of that border  migrates upon washing.  But being a wall-hanging, I hope to not wash it TOO often, and even then, to do so in a gentle manner.

 I haven't had any success in coming up with what I want to piece next, so I'm basting up my daughter's second signature/friendship quilt top from her days of joining me at our Spinning Spools Quilt Guild meetings.  Today I bought the backing fabric, and moved the living room furniture around in preparation for tomorrow's thread-basting.  I'd start it now, but know that after mowing the front yard, I don't have the stamina to finish it tonight, and Marley cat would just love to claim it as her hammock.   

Remember, this is how I baste my quilts.......although, NOW I use my living room rather than doing them outside.

A post for August

 How sad it would be to let this month get away from me without atleast posting ONCE !  

  I kindof lost my sewing mojo for a little bit, just not feeling the usual energy, but I did get a small top pieced, and another one pieced AND quilted and bound !

 

This one is taking it's time telling me what kind of border it wants, IF ANY.  So it is on hold for now.

 

Of course, the photos didn't come out in the order that I wanted, and I no longer see the option to delete one and add it back.

However, with this little one, I finished the binding last night, and washed and dried it today.  A you-tuber that I watch mentioned a stitch-along that she was interested in, and I took the idea and ran with it.   It's small, 36 inches square, but it was a fun distraction.  I machine-quilted near the seams within the colored squares, (2 inch finished squares), and hand/big-stitched with embroidery floss inside the white four-patches.  The most fun was making a binding to sortof complement each colored section around the outside edges.   The backing fabric was not chosen until I had pieced the top, and it's amazing how the colors go perfectly with the piecing.
 

The binding fabric is a favorite from Connecting Threads.  Sadly, it's made with a very loosely woven griege goods, causing it to ravel terribly, but it gives such a wonderful look when cut along the stripe.

 And, NOW, just because I'm between projects again, and still hankering to play with fabric, I took the triangle cutoffs from making bias seams in the binding, mixed them with some scraps from a friend, and made myself another potholder/plate holder.  It was a good chance to practice some free-motion quilting.  Obviously it's been WAY TOO LONG since I've done any !  But I now have a fun daily reminder of quilting time.

Powers Family Reunion

In this crazy year of social distancing, we were finally able to gather these 5 siblings, me and 4 of 5 brothers, and some of the extended family for another reunion.  The last one was 4 years ago,

 at Fathers' day, 2016.  Since then my sister, Mary,  has passed away. 

A big change for me was that I have been widowed since then, so I was going alone.  But at the last, I got in touch, (through Facebook!) with a niece that I had not seen since she was maybe 2-3 years old.  She is now 46 !   She wanted to come !  Precious reunion just right there ! 

  Even the rest of the family had not seen Ruhama, since 1998, at her mom's funeral.

 She and her husband drove to my house from just one county over , and followed me out to my brother's cabin on the Buffalo river.   Can you just imagine us living that close all this time and not knowing it ! ? !

Anyway, it made it very nice, and she was able to call her dad, Richard,

the last brother that I have yet to reunite with, and I got to finally talk to him on the phone (we send cards at Christmas/birthdays).  He was unable to come out and bear the extreme heat and humidity.


Jeff and Judy drove ahead of me to remind me how to find Ted's place.  Judy's daughter, Trista, and her man, Terry also followed. 

Ted kept the smaller kids busy playing in the river and creek, and most of us wound up escaping to the airconditioned cabin when we could no longer take the heat. 

  Ted and Gina layed out a spread of food that was just amazing, including ribs that were totally falling off of the bone !  And, OH!, the strawberry cake !

 John and Deb were there most of the day, and his son, Josh (and Sasha, his wife) came later, and a few of John's grandkids stayed awhile, enjoying some kayaking and good food and company. 

We were very heartened to have my brother, Jim, his fiance, Lisa,
his daughter, Kasie,

 and his granddaughter,Lindsay Victoria,

   there.  Sadly, Jim's son, Lindsay, took his own life a week earlier, and we will be reuniting for the memorial NEXT weekend, LORD willing.

My daughter, Kelley, and her husband and kids were UNABLE to come due to his position with the army, and the fact that his coworker had been exposed to someone who tested positive for the Covid 19 virus.  This caused Tim to have to be quarantined at home until the coworker is cleared or Tim is cleared.  Very disappointing, but life these days. 

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL day, and I am very grateful to GOD for the chance for us all to be together again.   We should NEVER take that for granted.  You never know when it's the LAST TIME you'll ever see someone you love in this lifetime.

  EDIT:  Ruhama's sister, Vivian, (who I also haven't seen since 1976 or 77,) and her husband, Chris,  just added me as a friend on Facebook, and shared this photo.

Joe, Tim, Chris and Micah,........Chris and Vivian, with Princess Jocelyn