April Quilt Guild & Two of Mine

This month's guest speaker at Quilt Guild was Bonnie Lyn McCaffrey.  Wonderful source of inspiration and info!  Loved her presentation!  Unfortunately we sat too far back to get good shots of her quilts as they were held up (none were hanging) so I got "partial" photos of them laying on a table surrounded by dozens of members at the end.  So...I will also include a few full-quilt shots taken from her website so you can see the entire quilt.

In Full Bloom

 

 

 

 

 



The Christmas kaleidoscope at the top of these three was gorgeous.  That is my photo...these second two are from the website.

 

Her florals were gorgeous!

This last shot is from the website.  If you look closely to my pictures you can see the glittery effect of her use of tinsels and metallic threads.

This was one of my favorites!  It had a very metallic sheen!  Gorgeous colors!

 

And here is our speaker...Bonnie Lyn herself, after the meeting:

Her techniques were really fascinating.  To learn more about her (including her face painting techniques) check out her website HERE.

And to bring us all back to the ordinary....:-)  Here are my two latest finishes.  A lap robe for the nursing home, and a baby quilt, made partially with gingham squares given to me by my Aunt when she stopped quilting.  I used trapunto on the hearts for the first time in this quilt also....

Something Special

This is a raffle quilt our sewing circle at church made to sell tickets to benefit a child in our church with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  This is SMA Awareness Month and if you would like to learn more about this serious, debilitating disease, please click HERE.  If any of you out there would like to buy tickets ($1. apiece, or 6 for $5) or give a donation to the family, please let me know!  The quilt is 72"X 70" and is machine pieced and largely hand quilted. We will be doing the drawing on Veteran's Day and I will post the winner.  The quilt would be great for a special Veteran because of its colors, or as a Christmas present....or just to keep for yourself! 

A Few More Finishes

Here are a few more things I have recently finished.  The first is a doll I made for a child in our church that was to have a several day stay in the hospital....

Secondly, a pj set and bunny for the Children's Home...I plan to make another bunny in  grey for a boy....

And finally, another quilt for the Children's Home....this one is a panel and I just added the borders with some applique/fabric paint embellishments, and quilted it.....

Quite unintentionally there's definitely a "bunny" theme going on here! :-)

Two Recent Baby Finishes

If you follow my quilting blog you know our church provides items for the Children's Home at the Tohono O'Odham Reservation...new & gently used clothing, new & gently used toys, also diapers and wipes, and we ladies in the sewing group all make baby and child-size quilts, plus things like bibs and burp pads.  We received a huge blessing when we took items there before Christmas last year, and will be going again next month.  Here is my most recent child's quilt for them:

I had an old piece of "soft book" fabric that I cut up and used for the letters and other elements of the quilt, and did some of my own applique as well. It was fun to put together.

closeup of top half

Close up of bottom half

I also recently made a "play mat" for a child in our church out of the scraps from the quilt above.  Wade has SMA and can't use most of the muscles in his body.  He is about to turn 2, and cannot sit up on his own, and has limited use of his arms and hands.  I thought hanging this in front of him would give him incentive to try to reach and play with the objects and keep his mind stimulated.  His mother tells us that he loves Baby Einsteins on an ipad they have.  Being a toddler, and not a baby, I geared some of the items to his age level, but this play mat could be adapted to a younger baby and hung on the side of a playpen or crib.

All the items are "removable"...a slinky, flashlight and morraca, plus softer toys.  In the bag are foam shapes and also numbers 1 through 5 and the letters of his name. 

There is a Warriors For Wade facebook page here:  https://www.facebook.com/Warriors4WadeRobinson?pnref=story

And here is the cutie himself, taken from the facebook page:

Just wanting to get the word out there about Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and hopefully generate some prayer for little Wade and his family.

Most Recent Projects & a Spring Bouquet

I have mentioned several times to those who know me (and even on the blogs) that I have been sewing a lot lately...now's the time to share some of my finished and unfinished projects:

I made an oversized cushion for the seat of my Arts & Crafts rocking chair that belonged to my Great Aunt.  A&C is my style, as you can see, and these are my living room colors (my couch is red).

Newborn bibs and pj's for the Children's Home

An over the chair arm organizer for a shut-in at church.

I've had plans for a pineapple quilt for absolutely ages, and all the strips were cut.  One day I just had to see how it was going to look once I started sewing it all together.  This is the first block (but I will wait and work on it again in a couple of months).  It's a breeze with the pineapple ruler Mom bought me ages ago.  Works like a dream!

I am working on a wall hanging for my husband that is about his tour in Viet Nam.  Going to add fabric photos and his patches, etc.  Should have it done by next month.

These are the first two squares of the baby quilt I am making for a dear friend's first grandbaby, a little girl (I guess you could tell! :-) )  I am embroidering Scottish fairy tales on the blocks and then fabric painting them.  Our friend (the new grandmother) is from Scotland.

Here I am doing the fabric painting on one of the blocks. You add fabric medium to acrylic paint.

And these beautiful spring flowers came from Trader Joe's.  The bodhrain is from my trip to Ireland with Mom (as is the crystal vase and little dish in the next shot).  The green vase is very Arts & Crafts!  The table runner was made by me a long time ago and needs to be replaced with one of a more Arts & Crafts design with more of my lr colors....but it works for now.  All this is sitting on a A&C library table that belonged to another Great Aunt.  I am fortunate to have some family pieces!

Two special Robert E. Lee prints also hang in the living room. 

So, when the unfinished projects find an end, I'll be posting the finishes!  Till then...hope spring has come your way!

What I've been working on...

Christmas presents and blankets for two charities....

My offering for a Secret Santa gift at the Ladies church Christmas party...our theme was snowmen.

I based the table square I made off this line drawing I found on Pinterest.

This is an embroidered tea towel with crochet trim that I made for our daughter for Christmas.  Her kitchen is turquoise and red.

Fleece and flannel baby blankets for the Tohono O'Odham Children's Home.

One of the fleece  blankets (lined with the plaid shirt flannel on the back) made for the Homeless Veterans. My church donated tons of clothes, shoes, jackets, etc and also other blankets, some made and some bought.

The baby blanket I crocheted for the Children's Home (my church also donated clothing, diapers, etc)

The quilt square for the Christmas party at the Tucson Quilter's Guild last night..it isn't lying flat, sorry...we did a secret exchange, and I came home with a cute one with an owl on it!  The squares were also voted on, but mine didn't come in in the top four, unfortunately.

Here are a couple of photos from last night's party too...we had AMAZING food!  It was a potluck and I ate till I was miserable!!!!

These are all the exchange squares, up on the wall so we could vote on them.  Number 18 came in with first place. Number 1 came in second place, and I can't remember 3rd & 4th places.  Number 15 is the one I came home with.

While I'm at it, here are a couple of pictures from our church Ladies Christmas party:

You can see our snowman theme...the table square I made that is in the first photo of this series was for our secret gift exchange.

These wonderful crocheted snowmen were on each table, and happened to be the gift I won in the exchange!  Note the cute snowman toilet paper too...we all got one.