Sunday, October 26, 2014

More Favorite Things

Flower Garden was made because I love hand work and this quilt is pieced and appliqued by hand.
 While I was waiting for hip surgery in 2012, I got to the stage where I couldn't even sit at my sewing machine for more than a couple minutes so hand piecing and appliqueing this quilt was my sanity.
 I gave it to my son and daughter-in-law for Christmas but they had to wait for six months because I wanted to enter it in Showcase.  I am so excited because it was photographed hanging in show by Quiltmania magazine and is pictured in the latest issue.
It actually hung flat which was a miracle because I had put an extra apple core in one corner and it isn't a perfect square.




Next is A Pieceful Garden which is one of my favorite quilts, not just because it is brown but for me it was a creative leap.  I didn't have enough of one brown fabric to do all  the background and while I was "what iffing" I thought "I'll just use different browns" and then I thought "what if I  pieced the backgrounds". While I was sewing I was just about hyperventilating because I was so happy with the effect I was achieving. It was a real "step outside the square" for me.






Country Album was meant to  be a "baltimore meets country".  I wanted to combine some really traditional Baltimore blocks with some country style pieced blocks and really just have a bit of fun.






So until next time

Happy stitching

from Therese.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Busy, busy, busy.


Even though I haven't been posting for a while I have been sewing.  I have had some personal health issues to deal with plus a good helping  Winter Lurgies which is why I have been a bit quiet here.  I did finish a quilt I started about two years ago out of my leftover strings and strips and triangles from bindings down the sides. It is hand quilted and bound now.  All I have to do is the label.








I quilted it vertically in all the strings and it looks great. sometimes the simple quilting is the most effective.

















We have been running some classes this year encouraging our students to actually use some  their stash, especially bits left over from other quilts. I called it Ginger Beer quilts. Does anyone else remember homemade ginger beer and you halved the "plant" each time to make  that batch but added stuff to the original and left it to ferment till the next time. Very much like Sour Dough bread.
The Pennsylvania Log Cabin quilt was one of the classes and is a great way to use 1 1/2" and
 2 1/2" strips.  I made a queen size quilt from stuff left over from other projects. The only problem I have is that it hasn't made a dent in my stash.







So until next time

Happy stitching

from Therese.

p.s. I will be making a big effort to post more often.