This past weekend my 90 year old grandma came up to visit my sister and I and she brought two quilts with her. This one is a sampler quilt she made for me. (She never has gotten away from the idea that girls should have quilts in pastels. I think every quilt I've got from her has pastel sashing and borders. My sister always gets the reds, but only because my sister is pushy enough to say that she doesn't want pink and I can't be anything but grateful that she'll make anything for me at all - so much work goes into it, how can I tell her to make something in a bold blue or a charcoal or something stronger anyway than Easter pastels?)

A lot of the colours and patterns aren't things I could imagine doing myself, but they're so very much what my grandma does and has always done. Even though I'm a little bit frightened of Sunbonnet Sue (Has anyone done a sort of... Brothers Grimm version of Sunbonnet Sue, with wolves peeking out of the bonnets and bloody axes dripping behind the sweetly-dressed girls' backs?) this is so much a product of my grandma's sort of quilting style that I can't help but love it and find it amazing and so much more special than some of the things I could bang out in a weekend and have look perfectly polished.


This is the quilt she brought for my sister - all done in redwork, which looks so amazing. She used to do a lot of blackwork and we've got some of that downstairs in our house, but it's quite beautiful to see it done in colour and made into a quilt, rather than just a framed piece of embroidery.

Rumour has it that she's working on another quilt each for my sister and I. I can't quite imagine how she does all this, when she's almost completely blind in one eye - it's all hand sewn and hand quilted in her chilly basement on her homemade frame. (My grandpa made her a frame out of saw horses, c-clamps, and two by fours.)

So, barring further acts of god, I am going to be in Austin for the quilt show this weekend. Who else is going?

Some of you know what happened right after I started quilting a year and a half ago. I was finishing the binding on my very first quilt, for a friends' daughter who was a preemie, when I got a phone call that she had passed away. I never finished it, and started a second one for another baby, who was stillborn. I swore I would never make another quilt for a baby, and actually hadn't until this week finished any quilting project, only blocks - I have 30  tops started, but one finished.

Being held up by my friend Sarah at her shower! I made it big as baby boy (as yet unnamed) has 4 older sibs who will want to cuddle, i'm sure. Quilt is about 52" square, with machine applique star blocks in the middle squares of the irish chain pattern. Inner border is the blue print (both are same print in a different color) and outer border is a 3" piano key.

Well, they were suppose to come if possible. Of the 15 people signed up I saw maybe 5 of them. The person who picked up our donations really was fantastic -- she helped sort what was basically someone's stash. There were some beautiful fat quarters and half yard cuts as well as tons of solids for backings and stripes. We have approx. 5 paper boxes full of fabric.

We also got a batch of 12 inch squares I had made 10 years ago for another quilt class laid out into 2 quilts of 12 squares each. Well, one has only 11 squares so I lost something somewhere and will need to make a replacement. I can now get the sashing strips cut and get these two to the point of being tops ready to be tied into layers.

Did I mention I reworked the office and craft room so that another book shelf is now full of stash and supplies? I need to get another surge strip to put the sewing machines on and the iron, as well as a couple of lamps. I don't dare put anything else on the power strip where all the computer stuff is engaged.

I'm beginning to feel the urge to get back to quilting. The last 4 weeks of farm market and magnets no longer appeal to me, yet I have to wrap up some things or they will be piled around during the winter in my way.

To ofenjen and/or any others for the Linus Project:

I've gone through all my quilting stuff, sorting what I can donate to the church's quilt forum now that I've been put in charge of it. I came across the quilt top I promised to send you and I am determined to mail it before one of the church people think it goes with their stuff.

Would you please send me your address for shipping to this email address: nanbear@sbcglobal.net? Thanks much. ~Suri

X-posted on quilting

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of anything I've quilted. It's been a year of completion for me. I started out the year with 14 unfinished projects that I intended to complete. (I got rid of the UFO's I didn't like.) Three quarters into the year I have completed five of them, as well as started and completed new other quilt projects.

I have 5 more of those quilts/wallhangings just waiting to be quilted. I'm feeling pretty accomplished right now.

Anyway, below the cut are some of the projects I've finished so far. ( probably not good for dial up )

The Quilts of Gee Bend
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/other/geesbend/home.html

There is going to be an exhibition in Philly Sept 16-Dec. 14th. Here is the info
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/311.html

Change the world one loan at a time - visit http://www.Kiva.org to find out how

Just some shameless self-promotion...

A while back I entered my latest quilt into the Lazy Days of Summer Photo Contest. Voting has now opened. Go take a look and if you feel so inclined vote for your favorite, ah...A Bed of Roses.

Here is the URL: http://quiltinggallery.com/tag/lazy-days-of-summer-photo-contest/

For quite selfish reasons, I've created a new quilting/swap community called orphanblockswap.

As the name suggests, it's specifically for swapping orphaned (or extra) quilt blocks, something I seem to have an abundance of.

Spread the word, clean out your stash and swap away!

All swaps will be personal and un-moderated. This is not intended for group swaps, but is a way to clean out your stash and get some fun, quilty things in trade!



You can read the first post or comm profile for more guidelines on posting blocks for trade.

x-posted to quilty comms and ofenjen

Pictures, picture -- I did some quilting.
So a lady about 3 weeks ago saw my table runners and said she liked the pink one but wanted something more in blues or greens for....the back of her toilet. I told her I'd have to make them a lot smaller. She laughed and said "no" and then I said "yes, a toilet cover is only 6 in x 15 in-- and that's vague off the top of my head".

Turns out my own toilet thing is 6 inch by 18 at the back corner and 6 inch by 15 at the front. So I had to figure out something last night as I need them tomorrow. I did not want to cut into all my nice fabric for something so small, so I dug out the huge pile of 3.5 squares I had been stacking up and pulled out these squares. I photoed the penguin squeeze toy that usually sits there -- he grips just fine in my fist. It's hard to see the white I used in a couple of them.

And then I had to brag about the penguins on the door that my aunt made me. It's a penguin bathroom, after all. And finally, the last picture is what I usually spend all of August stitching. These are 2 days worth of magnets. Can you tell I had a lot of orders for colleges and sports stuff? Sorry for the fuzziness -- tons left to do yet tonight and still get up at 4 am. Enjoy.
( Two Days Flat )

August-busy busy month.  So I'll settle for 3 goals.

1)  T-shirt quilt

Done!  Here's a pic!  :)


2)  b-day blocks
3)  quiltswapblocks.

Nope.  Can't say I did any of these.  I have 6 blocks to complete for these swaps this month.  Sigh.

Okay.  So September is shaping up to be busy but.  Let's see what I can do.

1)  birthday block swaps (4 blocks)
2) quiltblockswap (2 blocks)
3) practice machine quilting so I can finish the fairy quilts
4)  handquilt the $10 quilt
5)  handquilt the kitty panel I bought
6) find the pattern again for the fairy frost fabric and start contemplating.
7)  find a pattern for all the goodies I bought on vacation (complete list of shops and pics of goodies to follow soon....)
8)  work on jean quilt

Okay.  OVERLY ambitious.  But I found a pattern I loved in MT but I kick myself for not buying it!!!!  (I think it was MT.  It may have been Spokane, they're all running together at this point...sigh)

My nephew Brandon, who is the 5th generation of quilters in our family, entered a quilted wall hanging in his county fair. That's the 2nd highest award you can get at fair in this category.

I'm so proud of him!! Yes, he sewed the pointed edging himself (his mom whips those things out so has a technique she taught him and he promises to teach me). He has is own sewing machine (a hand me down) and loves John Deere tractors.

Most of you who read my journal know that I am an avid supporter of micro-financing through Kiva.org. It was ellen_datlow that first introduced me to the concept of loaning through Kiv.org to help people build themselves a better life.

It has been almost a year since I made my first Kiva.org loan with my birthday money. Since that time, when someone pays back their loan I turn around and loan it out to someone else. I had two more of those original loans completely paid back this morning. I was just about to go re-lend that money and into my email box popped a message from Kiva.org. Kiva has instituted a new way of doing things…they will now return repayments to lenders as soon as those repayments are received by Kiva. Because of this change, you are able to re-lend funds right away instead of waiting until the end of the loan term.

They have also launched a new feature on the site whereby people with a similar interest can join together into Lending Teams – each person still lends individually but is now able to connect with other lenders and make an impact as a team. This sounded like fun to me so I went and created a lending team called Quilters International. Here is the team page on Kiva:
http://www.kiva.org/team/quilters_international

or, you can go to the Kiva home page and click on the Community tab and search using the Team name Quilters International.

It is an open group - not just for quilters - so if you or anyone you know micro-finances using the Kiva.org site let them know about the new group (Kiva calls them Lending Teams) Quilters International.

Change the world one loan at a time - visit http://www.Kiva.org to find out how

I saw a quilt with this "block" pattern in a store yesterday and left without finding a pattern for it. It's perfect for some fabrics I picked up recently.



Does anyone know what this pattern is called? And if so, does anyone know what book, or pattern company may sell it?

My sweet Dearest took pics of the new quilt for me today. I just got it back from the quilter and I hope it shows off her lovely work. It still needs to be bound but I thought I’d show it off.

As you can see, it has been cat tested and approved already.









Danu tested & approved


Change the world one loan at a time - visit http://www.Kiva.org to find out how

Ok, I'm at the stage where I need to put my blocks together for my next top.

I followed the pattern and the blocks are about 11.25" square. The pattern says to trim to 10.5"


Is this really necessary? Can't I just sew as is and make the outside trim longer? It just seems silly to trim them and waste that fabric ...

I posted pics on my blog if you want to see, but I can't seem to get an answer to my question :(

www.thetomboyprincess.blogspot.com

HELP!

 Heading out to the Pacific Northwest in a couple of weeks.  Looking for quilt shops in 

Salt Lake City, UT,  
possibly Boise, ID, 
Spokane, WA, 
Portland, OR
near Glacier National Park, MT
Seattle, WA

Those are the areas I know we might be...

Thanks guys!