Red Flowers

This is a photo of the antique Red Flowers from a F&P magazine in 2005.  Below is my rendition of this quilt.  As you can see, I have changed the orange leaves from the last post back to yellow and still haven't made up my mind which I like the best.  I had also simplified the leaves for ease of applique, but am kind of rethinking that decision too.  I did look closely at the photo to determine the original quilting design and it appears to be a big sweeping clamshell pattern.  I don't know the dimensions of the original and can't find it on google images, so my squared up blocks at 27" unfinished seem too big, or the leaves too small, or something.  I think I'll have to do more trimming to get that "bit of crowded" look that appealed to me.  I do like the idea of the big sweeping clamshells, specifically because I still struggle with marking and I will not have to mark to do that pattern.  I'll just get it started with a big arc and go from there.  You can also see that I have to remove a couple green (misplaced) leaves.  Three more flowers to go.  I should be able to finish this week, Don and Em are here so I've cleaned up the florida room and dismantled the sewing center so we have room to eat at the table.  Hand work goes faster when using my machine isn't happening.

Finishing Up

Well, in fact,

I had just barely started.  I made one of these blocks in June 2012 and ran out of the red fabric.  I looked for several months, but never found anymore of it.  The other day, I was looking in the stash boxes and saw a really vibrant red and wondered if it was close...I knew it wasn't the same fabric, the original was a Moda, and the new one a Danish fabric called STOL, but when I compared them, I can't see any difference.  So I had enough of the new red for 5 more and pieced the last three flowers. I appliqued these 2 new flowers yesterday and today so I am now well on my way to a 9 block appliqued flower quilt. 

Something for Everyone

Out of focus...  but these are the Jo Morton little quilts.  Most of these are from this year's patterns, but a couple from last year's too.  The white stuff behind some of them is batting of course.  Those are the one in the midst of being hand quilted.  Some of the others are hand quilted and a few are machine quilted.  Some are quilted and bound, but most have more work to do.   I like the scrappy, brighter ones, but the ones that are browns and golds or blues, not so much... Those are a bit matched for me...  I definitely like the bright colors with strong contrast better...which leads to the one that I finished this morning.

This one is a 6 sided string star quilt.  It has light blue sashing and orange corner stones.  The good news about being out of focus is that you can't see where my edges don't quite match.  This one is big enough at 76x86 so I can practice with the long arm.  I'm going to bind in the light blue.  The next string star will be an eight sided lone star.  I actually  thought I was doing it this time until I realized that I was sewing on 60 degree foundation diamonds instead of 45 degree diamonds.   Duh.

 And finally, I finished the applique last week on the "be thankful".  I really like this one, and although I sometimes wish that it was in brighter yellows, greens, and blues, these colors will go better in my house.   It is a large wallhanging, but will be a good addition to the Sept/Oct decor.  It will be quilted with an oak leaf and acorn design and bound in blue.  BTW...this is the camera instead of the phone camera...amazing difference in the photos.  Guess I won't lose this camera.

So I am all over the place, looking for a style that's my own, and finding that I like something from most every style...  I'm still working on the appliqued red and green Jingle Belles, picked up a new Jo Morton pattern this morning, am appliqueing on the CWB's quilt, and, of all things, bought a package of hexie patterns and a gluestick yesterday at the AQS show.  So, I'm still in search of a style....

A Quilt of my Own Design (More or Less)

 

I wanted a modern, clean looking king sized quilt with a sunflower theme, so I spent a couple hours on the web looking at museum and google images of sunflower quilts.  I found an asymmetrically designed wallhanging with new york beauty pieces along 2 edges and a sunflower design in the middle.  I used that design for inspiration and in the stash of books and patterns, found a paper pieced new york beauty unit with a large center.  Using lots of scrappy yellow/gold/orange fabrics, I paper pieced the units, hand appliqued them on my background, and used narrow green borders.  In the center, I also hand appliqued the stems and angular leaves.   I wanted angular because I intended to use a smallish rounded flower pantograph for the long arm quilting.  You can see the pattern in the last picture.  I had a bit too much negative space in the center medallion above the sunflowers and when I went looking for a binding fabric because I had run out of the green, I found this gold batik with a butterfly pattern and they were, amazingly, the proper scale, so instead of having to create butterflies, I was able to cut and applique them directly onto my background.  I hope my niece likes it.  

Jingle Belles

This is a free BOM offered by Erin Russek at One Piece at a Time blog.  Since I took this photo, I have completed one more pieced block.  I am still working on a secret quilt with some appliqué, so I am behind on these appliqué patterns.  I should have the other one done in a week, so I will have more time to work on this.  In fact, I am going on vacation in a couple weeks and am prepping lots of appliqué to take with me.  I love the idea of being able to sit on a deck overlooking a lovely lake and leisurely sew.  Pure luxury!

Ella Jane

 This is our new granddaughter, Ella.  I think she is gorgeous!  

The Month of May and a new grand baby!

The month of May has been BUSY!  I have a new granddaughter, the first one, we are so excited...  born yesterday, on her mom's birthday.  She is still in the hospital for a few days getting a little oxygen, but it seems that all will be ok given a few days...  I'll have pics and a name soon... more to come.  Congrats to Kate and Tim!

Chrissy graduated from college and needs a civil engineering job... we are hopeful that something will turn up soon.  She is finishing up the research job up north and will be home in a few days.  Harold and I, EB, and Terri and Patrick were there to celebrate with her....  Don and Kate were there in spirit.  She is the one on the right, on the left is her room mate, Merete.  Congrats to Chrissy and Merete!

Merete got her quilty gift, a thoroughly modern quilt, made of white strips and squares, like the next photo, but with turquoise squares.  But as usual, I gave it away without the photo.  Harold quilted it with a daisy pantograph, so it is a great summer quilt...light, crisp, and cool to look at.   Compared with this one, Merete's was easy.  This one had to be washed 9 times with oxiclean and color catchers to wash out the dye from the navy batik squares.  It ran and ran and ran, but I finally used the hottest water I could get, another 6 color catchers and a cup of oxiclean and it came out white!  I was sure that I was going to have to make another quilt!

Don's friend, Emily, graduated with her Masters from MSU this month.  She also got a quilty gift.  She was in the Peace Corps in Africa and had brought me home many yards of lovely African fabrics.  I found a Ghanian batik of women working and dancing around a tree and used it for the center medallion.  The rest of it is strips of African fabric and the hourglass units made with her fabrics and a light commercial batik.  I think it turned out well and she loves it.  Congratulations to Emily!  But I also gave it to her before I got a photo...ugh.  Chrissy hasn't received a quilt yet, because I had too many others to give as gifts.  Hers will get done after the summer wedding quilt is finished...

Though her graduation is technically in June, Dr. Kate, the new mom, will graduate from her residency program next week and be a graduate medical doctor.  She is exhausted this morning, but I'm sure will be like new in time to celebrate her achievements next Saturday.  She will start work in September after taking the summer to be with her new babe...  our new babe, though I'm not sure that we mentioned that she is expected to share...LOL.