Quilting for Alzheimer's Research

I'm pleased to be able to able to assist Ami and her crew in their endeavor to fund Alzheimer's research.  Check out how you can help too... even the non-sewers...    http://www.alzquilts.org/

These little quilts are about 8x11", made from scraps left over from the piano key border on my Liberated Quilt Challenge.  I then layered them with batting and backing and hand quilted them using perle cotton.  The top one is done in triangles and the bottom one is done with clamshell shapes.  The photos are a bit funky since the light is yellow in the library at night, but they are bright and cheerful and hopefully someone at the Houston Quilt Show will find them fun and purchase them.  The top one is dedicated to the memory of Grandma S and those that loved her and the bottom one is for Terri's Grandma and those that love her.  I'm happy to be doing anything that might help us find a cure for this dreadful disease.   

No baby, but I have the blanket!

I took this off the loom last week.  It took forever, mostly since I have been too busy quilting to go to weaving class much, but it is done and I do like it.  I tend to do rag rugs and projects using chunky yarn on the loom, so this is one of my first real attempts in 30 years of weaving to really do a consistent pattern and the lacy boxes turned out beautiful and pretty much square!  The blanket is 36x42" and finished with bias binding. 

Blues is finished and on the bed

It is quilted with a medium sized meander that I just freehanded, it came off the long arm on the Tues, I bound it on Wednesday in the really dark blue, and washed and dried it this evening.  It did shrink up a bit, from 102x102 to 97x97, but is still plenty large enough for the king sized bed and H even said it looked nice.  I could get so much more done if I just didn't have the day job...   

Inspired by the Red and White Quilts

After seeing photos on-line of the fabulous red and white quilt exhibit in New York, I had to make my own.  I used lots of scrappy reds, everything from almost orange to almost purple, with a scrappy white to gold background, framed it in black and bordered it with more dark red.  The stars are 8" blocks, there are 11 across and 11 down, with a 1" black frame and a 8" red border.  I plan to bind it in red too.  It ended up being 98x98" but will shrink up some with quilting and washing.  I think I will quilt it with a simple grid pattern across the stars.  Next week...   

Blues

I have finally gotten the Blues quilt on the long arm.  I'm doing an all over swirly pattern and although it's a practice piece and for our bed, which means the dogs will be on it, I think it's going to look good.  I haven't done anything on the long arm since K's quilt in May, so I had to look up all the directions again.  But...in a couple weeks, H and I are attending the classes that came with the quilter and I needed to get in some practice.  The funnest (I know, I'm making up words) part of this was that I couldn't find the perfect backing fabric so I bought something and then dyed it the color that I wanted it.  I'll take a photo of the backing when I get it off the long arm...    

A Wacky Bird

I took a class with Suzanne Marshall in Ann Arbor last Friday on hand appliqueing.  I made a wacky bird using one of her patterns and then embroidered a swirly tail, head dress, and eye lashes to dress him up a bit.  I took it with a friend and it was alot of fun.  The background for this is one of my hand dyed pieces of fabric that I made a few weeks ago.  I'm pleased with him.  I think he will make a cool bag or pillow.