Wordless Wednesday - New Home for Mini Quilts

Lemons Done + Fabric

Today there were two finishes in my house - my friend Michelle who started quilting her quilt yesterday, finished the quilting. I can't believe how fast she did it - I tell you, Jukis are awesome machines! The second finish was my lemon block...


I went back to Joann's Fabrics today to get some more of the Denise Schmidt fabric for the background. Sadly our Joann's only has a few bolts of the collection, perhaps 8 in total. The plaid print from the collection made its way home with me too.


My idea is to perhaps use it as a sashing or border for the fruit and vege quilt, but we shall see. I just like to keep my options open! I'm quite disappointed that the plaid print isn't printed on the straight of grain of the fabric. When you are paying $10/yard for quality fabric, it would be nice if it was on the straight of grain! Some very creative maneuvering will need to be done when I cut into it.

Lastly, refrigerator art is alive and well in our house. Remember when I showed you the economics equation my hubby did on it the other night? It obviously put ideas in the kids' heads, because this is the latest on the fridge...

Quilting Amy Butler

I had a friend, Michelle, over today to use my sewing machine for her first ever free motion machine quilting experience. She made the most beautiful quilt top for her little girl completely from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern fabrics.


Here's the kicker - it's queen size! I told her that if she wants to start by quilting a queen size quilt then anything else will be easy! So she practiced on some scraps first and then she was off!


She did a fantastic job and got almost half of it done. Not bad for her first time machine quilting! Even her stitches are looking good...


This is why I am in love with my Juki. It makes machine quilting a breeze, even for a first-timer.

Lemons

Today I continued working on my new kitchen quilt with another block design. The first block was a bowl of oranges, but how could I possibly have oranges but not lemons?! So a bowl of lemons it was.


I don't think I'd ever bought a lemon until I moved to the US. In New Zealand you either have a lemon tree in or backyard, or you know someone who does. In lemon season they are given away by the bagful as they are so plentiful! So I have a definite affinity for lemons. Next I need to applique it all down, then move on to another design, perhaps a nice leafy vegetable. Suggestions are welcomed!

And onto something completely different, a rhetoric question for you. What do you have on the front of your fridge? And what do you think we have on the front of ours? If you said photos...kids' drawings etc, you would be wrong. My hubby has an economics final this week so what else would be on our fridge but this...


What? You mean YOU don't have an economic equation on your fridge?! I had no idea what any of it meant so I added an equation I do understand at the bottom...

Bridal Shower

If I didn't know how to quilt, I don't know what I'd ever get others for presents. People have such varying tastes and like such different things, that I fear I'd stand in a store, look around and talk myself out of everything I think of getting them, afraid that it just wasn't their taste.

Enter the framed quilted monogram!

At a time when money is tight, they are cheap to make. Yet they are something that you can't find in a store. I still have to take a guess with the fabrics I use, but I hope the personally made gift outweighs the perhaps unliked fabric choice!

Last night I went to a bridal shower and stuck to my tried and true gift. The bride's last name will start with the letter 'D'.

I was told she liked blue, green, red and yellow. So I went with red. I later found out her favorite color is green, but hopefully it still works for her!

I chose that particular fabric because it has hearts amongst the leaves. Did you notice them?!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

It's Quilt Festival time again, and this Spring it's being held in Salt Lake City, Utah. It's making me a little homesick, wishing I could be back in the place I called home for 7 years, and enjoying all the festival has to offer with my friend Brenda who is there as we speak! (Major envy going on, can't you tell?!)

But for those of us who can't be there, Amy from Amy's Creative Side is doing her regular Bloggers' Quilt Festival instead - a virtual quilt fest for those of us still at home!

This time around I'm going to share one of my most favorite recent quilts. After doing a lot of modern folk art floral type of quilts, I felt like a change of pace, so I created something with clean and simple lines.


I added some machine pieced veins to the leaves before needleturn appliqueing them down, then added more veining with the quilting.



I almost messed it all up - instead of making bias tape and appliqueing the green wiggly lines on to the red, I thought it would be fun to try piecing them instead! So piece I did, and wow talk about bad! The quilt top was of course quite a bit more wavy than I had hoped for, but with some careful snipping, steaming, and holding my tongue the right way, I managed to get it fairly flat, and then quilted the heck out of it with some intense echo quilting. Who knew the saying, "Don't worry - it'll quilt out" is really true?!

It is now hanging in the entry of our living room where it matches our red leather couches and celery green walls.


Enjoy the Bloggers' Quilt Festival and visit as many of the participants as you can!

Blogger...grrrrrrr!

As I'm sure many of you know, Blogger has been down for maintenance for the last 24 hours. This put a little dent in my goal to blog every day this year. I came on last night to do my daily post and was shattered!! So what's a girl to do but do a post anyway, but on Facebook! So I'll just cut and paste that post for you right now, and be back later with today's post...

Thursday May 12th, 2011

My house smells like Spring. And to me, the smell of Spring is lilacs. We have 2 lilac trees in our yard and this was the week they bloomed. I cut a bunch of them today along with some Forsythia and some other random branches of blossoms, put them in a vase in the kitchen and now my whole house smells like lilacs. One of my favorite smells on earth. Heavenly.






I also finished up the applique on my bowl of oranges I wrote about yesterday. I am very motivated to design this fruit and vege quilt for my kitchen! Below are the pics of the block before and then after being needleturned, just so you can see the difference.

Before...

And after...