Quilt Show!

Heritage Quilters held a show at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. One of my favorites on display ...not my quilt...just my taste, was this one by Jackie Hicks called "Red Doors and Double Chocolate". Isn't it delicious?!?

I  like the play of the stars and squares and even houses in this design. Her varied blocks used as a border are one of the places your eyes can spend a little travel time. 

This was my first quilt show, and I may just be spoiled, because how can it get much better than this?

A few more quilts will be posted here later. Right now, though, let's just wander in and out of the red doors to a double portion of chocolate. Shall we?

Still Monkeying With It

Not really even sure when I started monkeying with these blocks. The pattern, though, was seen on page 86 in Fons & Porter's Love Of Quilting magazine ... May/June 2010 issue. The polka dot fabric was a Wal-Mart purchase made on one of our overnights in Bristol, TN on the way to see grandchild #1...or perhaps even grandchildren, by then. My intention was to make a single block just to try out the method, but I got a little carried away and then began having the concept of using a rainbow of colors for the points of the star. At last count I have eight blocks. If I go with the layout below, I could stop at this with the following star point colors : red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, turquoise, dark blue, and purple.

Each block uses:
one  3.5 " center sqaure    (A)  [monkey center]
four light 2" x 3.5" rectangles  (B) [*]
four light 2" squares  (C)  [corners]
eight dark 2" squares  (D) [star points]

* The stitch and flip method is used to make the points on the rectangle pieces. 

 Anyway... wanted to record this block here, as I tend to loose track of the origins of the projects in holding patterns. These poor monkeys were lost for a few months because of a dash to stash the stash house 
decluttering episode last year.

Hope your monkeys are keeping you in stitches...or vice versa.

Notes on first run of block...from a sewing sleepover, in which the block is identified as either "Ohio Star" or "Variable Star".

Just had an idea for a center square...make one more Ohio Star and use eight colors for the points! 

Making Tracks for Tot's Train Quilt

The train quilt needed to be quilted. The borders were bright yellow (mostly), with a few squares of blue. Suddenly, the squares took on the semblance of tunnels in my mind, and all that was needed was a track to run through them. Free motion to the rescue! All aboard! Looks like we'll be running on time, after all!

Patriotic Mosaic Lap Quilt ... Continued

"WITH THE LIGHT FROM ABOVE"
quilt completed and ready for presentation.

Top left shows the finished quilt in black and white. Some people seem better able to see the flag and dove if viewed in B&W. The actual quilt colors appear in bottom right section of grid. The two other sections show the label attached on the bottom right corner of the quilt's back.

If you look closely you can see the quilting used. Free motion stars were worked on the blue and white patches. Waved lines were used on the red and white stripes, and various free motion feathering was used on the dove's wings and tail. Quilt back is anti-pill fleece.

You Are Getting BEAR-ry Sleepy!

Finishing up day on this quilt was just fraught with mis-placed stitches that had to be removed and bobbins that emptied at just the wrong moment, etc. etc., making the "letting go" much easier!

      Second time attending a Blanket Dayz quilting/knitting/crocheting day for the local chapter of Project Linus. A friend from church had told me about the event after she found out I liked to quilt. Quilts and blankets are provided for the local hospitals. Some quilts go to teens, so it's not all baby quilts. 

       My first project was too ambitious for this type of thing, but I had seen the appliqued bears quilt in a book quilt instructor Sandy had given me, and I just wanted to give it a try. Project Linus provided me with most of the fabric. I already had the brown for the bears, and used some old trim for some of the decorative bedding. 

       A young lady from our regular quilting group let me have some scraps she had already pieced and trimmed away, which became the pink patchwork blanket for the bear in the upper left corner of the quilt.

      I enjoyed doing this quilt, but will definitely choose something more straightforward for next time 'round. Sure hope whoever gets this one enjoys the little bears as much as I have.

Leftovers .... Yum!

                                           Third Patriotic Quilt
When the first two veteran's home quilts were finished, I found I had made one block over-sized of the Godey Star, and decided to use it as a center block for this one. The red white and blue strips were also remnants of the Homeland quilt. I added some solid blue, and appliqued the stars that were cut from leftover squares from the patriotic mosaic quilt. The quilting on this one was based on a free motion design called "icicle lights" by Leah Day. I decided to do some free style fireworks in that middle pathway beside the stripes. All in all, this quilt, that almost wasn't, may be my favorite of the three.  

1st patriotic quilt - the mosaic

2nd Patriotic quilt - the Godey stars


So, when you have some interesting scraps, consider how they may become your next project. You may surprise yourself, too!

Dedication to a vet was penned on back of the remnant quilt in a be-ribboned star shape.

Go Go Godey!

Nancy Zieman's video for half square triangles was the inspiration for this quilt. I really liked the Godey block she illustrated at the 13.53 minute mark of her instructional video entitled "No-Hassle Half Square Triangles", which aired October 2014. 

Squares of fabric were leftover from my patriotic mosaic quilt. Many of those fabrics had been garnered from a share pile at quilting class, and the share pile was intended for the veteran's care facility quilting project. So, I decided to see if I had enough extra fabric to get a secondary smaller lap quilt put together in time for the donation. 

Rummaging through my own stash I found some 1980's fabric featuring patriotic sections that gave a faux pieced look. Fussy-cut and sashed to size, they made a great filler for the Godey blocks. From that point getting the rest of the borders was just a question of color and width. I went for a stripe and came up with the Homeland Stars and Bars lap quilt pictured below.

Label on quilt back.