Placemats for The Liver Foundation Event!

For part of the Fundraiser for the Liver Foundation people were able to bid on a dinner with a local restaurant/chef in Tucson.  Our son-in-law who is the chef at Union

 had 16 special dinners to prepare last night!  Union Public House serves American comfort foods so SIL Jack wanted the guests to not only have a meal featuring special American dishes from all regions and a goodie bag of delights (including daughter Yvonne's gingersnaps and home-made S'mores) but to eat their meal on an Americana placemat....and that's where I came in! :-)  I was given the task to make these placemats for the restaurant, which was a privilege  and delight, and a LOT of hard work for a week and a half.  But, I got them done, just under the wire! I have no idea why most of these printed sideways!

One of two I did with frayed seams.

The second with frayed seams.

T-shirt comforter

This is the T-shirt quilt I just finished (my first completed project on my new machine!)  I really gave the Viking a workout, too!  Not only is this T-shirt material, it is also pieced and backed with flannel.  It slipped a lot even though I basted it in place, and I had some trouble binding it as a result.  I also made some mistakes with this first T-shirt effort that became a learning experience!  But, overall, I think it turned out pretty good.  It not only covers most of the T's and sweatshirts my daughter wore (a couple of them made by her grandmother) but I quilted it with remembrances from her childhood, like a viola, a pair of pointe shoes, her cat and dog, etc.  There was no way I could try to free motion quilt these difficult designs because I was quilting the comforter with a stretchy stitch, so I did a LOT of turning! :-)  But it was worth it.  It's cozy and soft and warm....and really fun.  Here are a few pictures:

The range of shirts goes from military campaigns (her Dad was in the Air Force) to ballet and school shirts, to a couple sent to her by her aunt who was modeling then.  I realized too late I should have tried to cut them all at least two basic sizes....the puzzle effect of all the different sizes was hard to deal with.

A close up of a few...an exercise bear her grandmother did with fabric paints was one.  Her summer program with Joffrey was another.

I added the heart to a blank square.  Her grandmother made the snowman.  She was first chair viola at her school.

A view of some of the quilting...this is the viola.

And this is a pair of pointe shoes.  Our daughter danced for 14 years.

It's Paid For!!!!

YAY!  I picked up my new Husvarna Viking Sapphire machine after being without a working machine for over three months!  I then took a class the next day to learn how to use it, and BOY is it wonderful!!!!  I just want to sew and SEW!

I LOVE this plexiglas sewing area extender, which was extra...but so worth it!  I had been looking for a machine with a deep "throat" so I can quilt easily.  This one is perfect!

And it does EVERYTHING!  It adjusts itself automatically to whatever you are doing, all you have to do is push the buttons!

It does all kinds of stitches, and never has to be oiled(by the owner).  It even picks up the bobbin thread automatically from the bobbin case when you start to sew!

Here's the T-shirt quilt I have laid out on the bed ready to sew together.  It's most of our daughter's childhood T's.....she was a dancer, was first chair violist in the school string orchestra,  even modeled briefly when she was very young (her aunt was a model with elite management in NY) and her Daddy was in the Air Force so you see an interesting mix here! :-)  I can't wait to get it all sewn together!  I used two-way stretch stabilizer to back the T-shirt pieces because I am backing the quilt with a piece of  pink stretchy flannel.

Arizona Centennial Quilts

A recent visit to the Arizona History Museum in Tucson gave me a chance to enjoy the wonderful Centennial Celebration quilts....(click on the photos to get a closer look!)

I really love the different aspects of Arizona represented in this one!

This is an agave quilt....to learn more about agave, and see my recent post on A Colorful World of one blooming, click HERE (also do you see the rattlesnake?)

Different ranching brands...I thought this was interesting

A great Arizona wall-hanging...it includes Kitt Peak Observatory and the Butterfield Stage Lines!

Wonderful!

This quilt uses Sunbonnet Sue in AZ scenes! 

A closeup of one of the squares in the Sunbonnet Sue quilt....

and another.

Lovely cactus quilt....

and another with a 3-D element!

closeup of above

Stunning landscape includes Casa Grande....

Indian Basket Designs

I didn't get a good angle on this one...it's really wonderful!

Watermelon Kachina

Arizona birds

Another stunner with a 3-D element

My grandson loved this one.  I decided even though it isn't my favorite AZ subject it is a wonderful quilt!

My Top is Finally Finished!

It isn't the most perfectly executed top in the world, but I felt like it turned out pretty well.  I was so ready to move on to something else! :-) It's a queen-sized quilt, machine pieced and in places embellished with hand applique and hand embroidery.

 I started some of the squares as a BOM project with my guild in Texas many years ago, and then made additional squares for it with the Quilt Bee in Va that I attended with my Mom.  The Quilt Bee blocks were put together by everyone to make a lap sized quilt, but I wanted to add my blocks to the ones from before and make a larger quilt.  A view of the "top half"....

 and the "bottom half".....

 Then I decided to add the center medallion of appliqued grapes and embroidered berries, which led to me appliqueing and embroidering additional parts of the quilt.  I think it all works well together!

Heirloom Treasure

I am not sure what year this quilt was made, but I know it was hand-pieced and quilted by my great-grandmother, Emily Joella Pruett Butler and her oldest daughter, Emily Mary Ann Butler.  It is feedsack, and has always been one of my treasures.

 The quilt is lap-size.  I think the size was a determination of just how much material they had right then, because the top is "cut-off" to accommodate the size of the backing which has been curled around from the back to make the border.  It's a shame that some of the front was lost in this way.  One thing I absolutely LOVE about it, are the colors and the way they work with the design.  All of the background triangles are green.  All of the little squares are blue, either light or dark (and just a few pink).  All of the stars are red or pink.  It looks like they were put together randomly, and that makes it all the more interesting.  I know that each woman had to have pieced each square by hand from a basket of cut-out pieces, and then in the end, put it all together.  So, one didn't really pay attention to what the other was doing, necessarily.  The design follows a perfect pattern, but the randomness of the lights and darks is what makes it so much fun!  I adore the bright red against all the light pieces in the one square, and that right next to it is a light star with darker pieces around it.  Two totally different "looks."

 And look very closely at the top left of the folded quilt.  There is a light green triangle that was pieced with a piece of darker green, because I guess they ran out of light green and needed just that tiny little bit more of the green to make that triangle!

This quilt is proudly displayed in my living room on a quilt stand given to me one Christmas about eight years ago.  I used to have the quilt across the back of my couch when my daughter was small, but it's been protected in a pillow case since then, waiting for a chance to display it again.