Casual Breakfast to Deluxe Dinner - All Within Bounds

My kitchen peninsula is quite narrow; most standard store-bought place mats are usually too deep for the small expanse. The sewing project was added to the ever-expanding "To Do" list. 

The original plan was to use these as great practice for some free motion quilting. However, I pretty much stayed with a simple corner curve for them once it came time to quilt. The right binding for these diverse fabrics posed a problem until I remembered what one quilter told me: "brown goes with just about everything." So, the binding is a brown/beige cut from yardage found at Hobby Lobby. I was in too big a rush in getting the photos and neglected putting out utensils/napkins, etc. But you get the general idea, I'm sure.

Lattice for a Little Lady

This lattice quilt was made with a charm pack from the Missouri Star Quilt Company using their  "Lattice Quilt" tutorial. Actually, the instructions are also in their BLOCK magazine...can't seem to lay my hands on it, but it was from the first year of the magazine. 

Jenny suggested laying the blocks out and testing the tones by snapping a b&w photo...which I did. That helped with placement. 

I used some extra scraps of fabric from my daughter's toddler days. At the time I was piecing this our granddaughter was not yet a twinkle in her father's eye, but I was able to put this together ahead of her birth and in time for the baby shower. (Yea!) 

Now she's six months old and sitting pretty!

Finished!

Figuring placement.

Labeled on front with machine stitched strip of red.

Another chance to practice free motion.

Backing fabric was too pretty to cut, so it found a home here.

Love a Piped Binding!

This small project was a 2013 foray into free motion quilting (FMQ) using a zigzag in free motion. It sat on my bookshelf for these many months and a couple of years (sigh) unbound. 

Recently I decided to bind it using a piped binding method explained in detail here. [<--- click there.] [[or....here:

http://www.52quilts.com/2012/05/tuesday-tutorial-susies-magic-binding.html ].

1. Shows the finished front. 2. Shows the best corner of the four using the piped binding method. 3. Shows the little triangle that I worked into the upper two back corners beneath the binding, so that the piece may be hung by slipping a project width dowel beneath the triangles.  

This is the back of the finally finished project.

Thankful for Henry Ford

Guys are wonderful, but they are hard to buy for, don't you think? When I saw this BBQ towel project in an old Quilt-It Today  magazine*, it seemed the perfect project for the fellas. 

Anyway, it was already December before I got started, and I had not ever done applique, so somehow I figured that using my embroidery machine might avoid that particular hurdle. Henry Ford to the rescue with his assembly line method of construction, and I was off to the races.

Assembly was a bit of blur, and I can say now,  should there ever be a "next time", I'll opt for researching applique over doing the embroidery, as I definitely remember having fits getting the lettering lined up and stitched with my little embroidery machine. (We're not friends, yet. I haven't even named it.)

Finding the exact Argyle printed fabric as was used in the magazine for the band was what made me decide to do multiples. The issue was the May/June 2013 of Quilt-It Today, and the shopping didn't take place until December of that year. Seemed providential.

So, next time you think maybe I'll make that little project, go ahead and get enough supplies to go all Ford-like, assembly-line fashion and roll out a production line that will put last year's models to shame!

*A web search suggests that Quilt-It Today magazine is no longer in print. It seems their back stash is being offered for sale in UK. Guess I have a bit of a collector's item in my short stack.

Quilt Show... Falling Off a Log

Teresa Belyea is Sandy's assistant in our local quilting group. She is a prolific quilter and usually does quilts in very bold and vibrant colors. Color-wise one would never know this was her work, but scope and precision-wise, it's her all over. And her creative playfulness in naming the quilt is also evident. Well, whatever else she had in mind when naming it, though, surely it was not the usual pre-phrase, "As Easy as..."!

The tonal-induced design is more evident in the photo than in viewing the actual quilt, so my friends and I just had to step back and look at this one again (and again). 

Don't you love the four patches in the border???

Quilt Show Third Day... a Quilt With Real Heritage

Katherine Weathers' quilt entitled "Daddy Was a Bee Keeper" is packed with heritage. Little wonder it would garner some recognition at the Heritage Quilters' Fanfare! 

Based on the design of a quilt made by her great grandmother some time before 1891, Mrs. Weathers changed up some of the math making the sawtooth squares measure one inch, rather than the original quilt's 3/4 inch and adjusting the setting triangles accordingly. She stuck to the green and white, though, and ended up with a really charming reproduction.

The quilt label tells all, and shows both the original quilter and the inspirational quilt...or vice versa, perhaps.

Quilt Show . Glacier Star

Glacier Star by Linda Snellgrove
I think this quilt won "Viewers Choice" award. Linda is a member of our quilting circle, so aren't we proud of her work?

 There was another quilt by the same name and style, but smaller. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of it. 

Linda had the quilting done by Deanna Plotts, who used a track machine for the beautiful quilting.