I Finished It!

Wow, this took some doing! :-)  I decided I wanted to design and make a quilt for my grandson (who is now 16) in an adult size that would reflect his love of animals, and also use his favorite color turquoise.  I started this quilt in Tucson at least six months before we moved.  I started the applique sections and pretty much finished them, then I had to give up and pack it away as we prepared for the move.  Of course, moving in was as time-consuming and difficult once we got here, and I didn't drag the quilt out to work on it till months after our arrival.  I did the herringbone piecing sections, then added borders to make it a Queen size.  But, now I had a problem...it is so big I knew I needed a good big table and some help to get the quilt sandwiched and ready for quilting, and this took me a few months to finally get accomplished.  Once it was safety pinned to the batting and backing, I was overwhelmed by the aspect of quilting it on my machine, but I started slowly.  Finally I finished quilting the center sections (not without some problems), and was able to start quilting the herringbone sections, which was a breeze.  But once I started working on free-motion quilting on the borders, I started having problems with my thread feed.  That was a battle!   I took the machine to the shop and had it cleaned, oiled and adjusted (another two month wait) and then went at it again.  Overall, what I had wanted to give my grandson over a year ago, he will finally receive....better late than never! :-)   I'm glad it's done!  He has seen it, and loves it, so that makes me happy!

The lake and the animals in and around it are all machine appliqued...

The frog in the water was the first "critter" I made

Do you see the lizard?

There's an osprey with a fish flying overhead.  Turtles on the rocks are watching it and the fabric-painted clouds. I did do a little bit of fabric painting on the center panel also.

Viet Nam Wall Hanging

Quite a while ago I had thought about making my husband a lap throw representing his Army days, but he also served in the Air Force, and has a desire for a War Between the States lap throw as well.  It was just too many lap throws!  So I decided to make two wall hangings to represent his service time...this is the first one, just completed.  It commemorates his time in Viet Nam in 1970-71 where he served in Chu Lai as a helicopter door gunner for Nighthawk (under Blue Ghost, F Troop, 8th Cavalry).  I happened to find an authentic piece of camouflaged fabric (the real stuff!) in our things...why we had it, I have no idea.  It was perfect for this project!  I's about 3 1/2 feet by 3 3/4 feet.  I recreated some of his photos onto fabric and appliqued most of the wall hanging, adding his patches.

The right side, including the map of Viet Nam.



The left side of the wall hanging.  Cleaning his M-60.  Also shows the Blue Ghost patch.

The Nighthawk patch is below my favorite photo of him with his mini-gun.

The red arrow in the top left photo points to one of his "hooches" or places he lived during his year there.  Look at that SMILE!!!

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.

Baby Quilt Finish & A Few Other Things

Our dear friends just became Grandparents for the first time.  Myra is from Scotland, so I wanted to give "Wee Fair Bairn Emma" a quilt of Scottish fairy tales.  It is finally finished!  I had everything done in time for Quilt Guild Tuesday night, except tacking down the binding, and I took it for show & tell.

I designed this quilt using fairytale illustrations from Pinterest as my inspiration.  The panels are all embroidered and then fabric painted.

The thistle in the center is applique.

This panel is the Silkie story, though I opted to go with an actual mermaid for the quilt.

This of course is a unicorn story.

The Water Horse

The wife who could not spin or weave....unfortunately in this shot the window looks askew, but it's actually the way the quilt is hanging.  It's straight, I promise. :-)

At Quilt Guild  Paulette attended with me, and here are the two quilts she quilted:

I also really liked these two from show & tell:

Four of us from church have made a quilt we will be raffling off to raise money to help out the Robinson family, whose small child has a devastating disorder called SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy).  We four pieced it, and Paulette attached the borders, and is now quilting it by hand....(more on this quilt when it is completely finished):

Second Queen-sized Finish

I posted this quilt top two and a half years ago....see that post HERE.  (You can see however that I added additional bordering to it after that).  This quilt has been a long time in the making!  I made the first squares (about 9 of them) when we lived in Texas.  Then later, when we were in North Carolina, and I attended Quilt Bee with Mom in Suffolk, Va every month, I made the rest of the squares. Once we moved here to Tucson, I decided I wanted a center medallion, and I added the appliqued and embroidered parts of the top...when I was done, I took the photos of the top, and then put it in the closet while I made a quilt for my daughter, and worked on some other projects.  Six months ago, I decided I needed to get the top quilted, and I FINALLY finished yesterday!

The center medallion

 

Finally it is Complete!

This is the queen-sized quilt I made for our daughter and son-in-law.  It is broderrie perse on the top border, and of course pieced Ohio stars throughout.

This view is of the back.  I had three Ohio star squares I utilized into the piecing of it.

Some of the quilting.  This was my first free motion quilting complete!

I pieced a two-tone beige Ohio star on the back also.

This was such a sense of accomplishment for me!  My first queen-sized finish.  Lots of hard work, but so worth it!