I should be gardening this morning, but it’s raining….
Where did the time go since our Guild’s quilt show in March? If you haven’t already checked that out, be sure to click the link and have a look at the fabulous entries by our members. I entered several items this year but my favourite was, of course, another HST quilt. This one was totally scrappy as is much of what I make these days. Other than the white, the fabrics are almost all from a friend who is only too happy to give her scraps to me and I’m too foolish to say no! She has such good taste in fabrics and colours that her scraps are a total joy with which to work. Thanks Kathy! Pieced by me and custom machine quilted (straight lines and feathers) on my Sweet Sixteen (8 million+ stitches on it and counting!). And if you come to stay with us, you’ll likely be sleeping under it.
Size: 78.5″ x 92″.
Once the quilt show was over with, I could move on to other tasks. A friend asked me to make some novelty machine embroidered coasters so on a welcome change from quilting, I whipped these up. I haven’t heard yet what the reaction was to the last one lol. Machine embroidered ITH (In The Hoop) on my Bernina 790 Plus and custom designed by me.
And then the mini oven mitts…..I tried a new design and enlisted my daughter to test them. We are both going hmmmmmm…shouldn’t they be a little smaller? And the answer is yes, but I haven’t had time to modify and make the second pair; other more fun projects have preempted that one. In the meantime, my old ones are almost falling apart…..
And then there are the bibs…..full body ones. I’ve been making bibs from this pattern for at least 20 years. The pattern is “Overall Bib” by Pieceful Expressions and is still available online. I prefer to make them with flannel on one side and rip stop nylon on the reverse side so moisture doesn’t soak through onto baby’s clothes. Moms love them. And even tho the pattern calls for a Velcro closure at the neckline I was soon advised (probably by the first recipient) that that didn’t work well as once the child was old enough a good tug would result in the bib coming right off! The closures of choice are either buttons/buttonholes or heavy duty snaps. Ha, ha! let them try to get that undone! I like a button the best as Mom can reposition it to control the size of the neck opening. Never let it be said I can’t outsmart a baby!
These bibs are for a charming little man who is almost 10 months old and I’m told he is always happy. Mom loves anything dinosaur themed so when I spotted this fabric at a sale, I knew it had to be mine even if it meant begging a quilting friend to put it in my hands instead of hers. Lucky for me, she could be coaxed. There are two sizes here, 12 months and 18 months, and he shouldn’t outgrow them for a little while.
And now for the last two quilts…… If one of my sisters-in-law is reading this, she’ll be wondering ‘but what about my quilt???’. Last fall she gave me one to be quilted and what with the quilt show and some of these other fun projects, I just haven’t worked my way around to it. And I did have to leave it on the table for awhile waiting for it to ‘speak’ to me……lol. But now it’s next; I promise!
Our Guild provides quilts to people in need in our community. As examples, some go to Oncology at our hospital and others may go to fire victims. Annually, we have a quilt sandwiching bee where we assemble the tops, batting and backing and our Community Quilt Coordinator hands them out to members who quilt them. Well, we just had one of those sessions and I took a couple of the quilts, one I’d made and one another member pieced, and I just finished quilting them. Our supply of Community Quilts has run low so this will help top it up. Both were custom free motion quilted by me on my Sweet Sixteen.
And now the sun is shining and yard/garden work is calling me!
myrtBquilting 