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| American Heroes |
Today,
Memorial Day, is set aside to honor those heroes who died while
protecting our country.
I
sewed this 44” wall hanging with red, white, and blue remnants.
Simple, yet striking.
I cut blue prints with two segments of Charming
Rings die, and appliqued it to one corner of a 22” square. Then I
sewed red wedge pieces together, aligned them, and appliqued.
I
carefully trimmed the excess fabric underneath before sewing all four
squares together. I quilted with white thread in diagonal lines.
I
love the result of my day of playing with scraps. American Heroes is
on the wall in my dining room, alongside my other red, white and
blue quilts used to decorate our home from now through July 4th.
Today,
remember the heroes.
Dies
used:
Blue
Wren 6858 Charming Rings 8”
Accuquilt
55439 Wedge 9”
Our
screened porch is one of my favorite places when it's not too hot
outside. You might find me having morning coffee before I start my
day, or catching up on my reading with a glass of sweet tea in late
afternoon.
In the past two weeks I have done a porch cleanup and
moved some of my houseplants out for their summer vacation. The hummingbird feeders are filled and my mama's roses are blooming.
The
seat cushions on our outdoor furniture were looking a little shabby.
In my recent fabric bonanza, there was a lovely tablecloth that was
way too large for our dining table. I decided to use it to make new
cushion covers and pillows.
I plumped up the glider seat with a new
layer of memory foam, measured, and cut. I lined them with flannel and quilted before sewing. Velcro fasteners make
it easy to remove them for washing. And they're Callie Cat approved!
I
got a wild idea to redo the flower bed in front of the porch by
myself. (My guy was working on something else.) I dug up the nasty
weeds, then thinned out iris, hosta, and day lily plants. New weed
barrier was easy to lay, and I moved some old stepping stones to make
a border. Now I'm deciding what to add for mulch. I want rock, but
we'll see.
This
week I'm resting after my spur of the moment project. It felt so good
to dig in the dirt. I have always enjoyed planting flowers, just like my mama and both my grannies. However, the rest of the landscaping needs a major
update and I may be getting too old for that much manual labor! Guess
I'll be calling around to get yard work quotes.
Going
back to the sewing room today...
I
couldn't resist these luscious batiks when I found them listed in an
assortment bundle at Goodwill.com. Bright yellow and orange contrast
beautifully with crisp white for today's cheerful quilt.
Alternating Nine
Patch and Flowering Snowball blocks create sharp lines and graceful
curves with a nice secondary design. I
stitched them all on my sweet Featherweight, Annie, and it didn't take
long for these 12” blocks. I chose white on white vine print backing and binding.
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| Orange Pineapple Parfait |
I
switched to the Janome to quilt, using bright yellow thread on top
and white underneath. I sewed a simple straight stitch, following
the curves for emphasis. Binding was secured with a blanket stitch
in yellow.
Orange
Pineapple Parfait is 60” square and looks good enough to eat!
Accuquilt
dies used:
55252
Flowering Snowball 12” BOB
55018
Small Value Die (large square 4")
55017
Strips 2½”
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| Charli's Lone Star |
Baby
quilts are just so sweet and happy. I make a few to have handy as
gifts, but I prefer to design something personal to complement the
nursery décor.
Miss
Charli, the first granddaughter of my good friend, is due to arrive in
June. Her room has a western theme, featuring cowhide and pink. I
decided a Lone Star quilt would coordinate nicely.
Black
and white mini gingham and a bandana print contrast with tiny pink
roses on black and two pink fabrics. The layout was completed in EQ8 so I could preview color placement. I added three borders to frame
the star and a larger black gingham on the back.
Quilting
was done using dark gray thread in straight stitch to emphasize the
star design. I added serpentine stitching on the borders. Final
size is 43½” square.
I
presented Charli's Lone Star to her grandmother last week and the
family is delighted. We're all waiting now to see how the little cowgirl
looks wrapped up in this soft quilt.
Dies
used:
Accuquilt
55453
LeMoyne Star (diamond shapes)
55001
Half Square Triangle 6½”
55054
Strip 4½”
55017
Strips 2½”
Blue
Wren
6522
Half Square Triangle 8½”
Machines
used:
Rockette
(Singer 500A)
Janelle
(Janome Horizon MC9450)
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| Free Wheelin' |
Now
this is a scrap quilt! I was reorganizing my fabric storage and
found two bins of medium size scraps that got pushed back under my
cutting table. Nothing to do but start cutting a new project.
At
first I was just going to cut Mill Wheel blocks, but then I decided
to go a little crazy. I used bright colors to cut 4½” HST pieces.
I randomly sewed those together, making 4½” squares, then cut
them again on the Mill Wheel die to make perfect quarter circles. I used
neutral white and cream prints for the middle sections.
Then
I cut black, white, and gray scraps to make 2½” sashing to go in
between the blocks. Light prints went next to the colors, grays
beside the neutrals, and black for the cornerstones. I created the
quilt in EQ8, then placed the pieces on my design board to better
distribute the fabrics before I sewed them together.
This
one was so much fun to create and sew, although it did take longer to
finish. It's a summer throw, so I chose lightweight flannel for
batting. I used light gray thread to straight stitch along the
sashing, then switched to free motion for filling swirly loops across
the middle sections. I like the way it gives the impression of
movement.
Free
Wheelin' finished out at 52” square. I think it's fabulous that I
can use remnants to make bonus quilts. I have so many bins of scraps
that I may have to re-evaluate just how small a piece to save. I did
throw away a big bag of tiny unusable pieces last week. I'm running
out of storage space!
Dies
used:
Blue
Wren
6865 Mill Wheel 8” block
Accuquilt
55031
4½” HST
55159
2½” x 4½” Rectangles
55059
2½” Squares, multiple
55017 2½” Strips
