This is the quilt that became my Dad's 80th Birthday present.  In a previous posting, I showed the Lone Star I attempted to make.  I finally gave up, and decided to use the blue and brown strips in another design.  This is the result!  My Dad was a fox hunter, and this represents his favorite pastime.  At 80, his foxhunting days are long past, but this commemorates a part of him that was important for so many years.  I think I am much happier with the end result than I would have been even if the Lone Star had turned out!  The blocks are called Roman Blocks, and I machine appliqued the figures in the center panel and then embroidered the borders of each.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted.

Sweet Roses For Baby

This little baby quilt was made with scraps and a rose-colored sheet!

Roped, Hog-Tied and Branded by a Texas Lone Star!

I know that many of you have made beautiful Lone Star quilts, and you will likely laugh me to scorn over this. My plan was to make a lap throw for my Dad's 80th birthday. He made a Lone Star as a child with his mother. They probably did foundation piecing, and I know it was beautiful. My lap throw was to be an homage to his childhood achievement. But....don't EVER try to make something without detailed specific instructions! You may end up like I did, tied up in confusion and branded with frustration! It just isn't worth it. Here is my auspicious beginning.....

I started with a search online for directions. This yielded me a lot of vague references to what you do OR order forms for books or dvds on the subject. Nothing of any real HELP. OK, so how hard can it be!? I had my strips all cut out, and then sewed them meticulously together, ironing the seams open as suggested on one website.

I cut the strips on a 45 degree angle....

Carefully measuring so my diamonds would be the same size (might I add it didn't help that I was working with such narrow strips ie small diamonds!)

At first I didn't realize that I needed an equal amount of strips so what I had sewn together was definitely too long.

A paper pattern helped me envision the right size.

And viola! a perfectly shaped diamond star point! Only.....on careful inspection I suddenly realized that the colors are not placed correctly. They don't go ACROSS the width of the point! WHY???!!!!

This is what it is SUPPOSED to look like! Well, maybe if I remove the ones off either side. Only then I realize you can only remove the strips from ONE side and get a nice straight edge. The other side becomes jagged. Nope....this can't be anything like what I was supposed to do!

I GIVE UP! It bested me. Oh, well, I guess a good set of instructions would have been a HUGE help! I'm turning my strips into something else!!!!

Log Cabin for a friend's baby

This quilt is for a young couple at our church who just had their third baby. It is my fourth machine-quilted quilt, and only my fifth completed quilt. It was partially hand-pieced. Click on each photo for a larger view.


Detail of one of the corners...I had found this wonderful bird fabric to use as my inspiration fabric and I built this great color combination for the quilt from the colors in it. But, I fussy cut four of the birds for the corners.






Here are two views of the back. I used a cute whimsical light blue to back it.

Quilt Gifts!

Guess what I got for Christmas and my birthday (which is right after Christmas)--this awesome Debbie Mum bag came from my Mom, with fat quarters inside, and a giftcard to JoAnn's which was immediately used to buy the great fabrics leaning to the side of the lamp. And that brings me to the lamp--a wonderful magnifying glass lamp for close work for these failing eyes! I'm in good shape now!



Here are the fabrics I chose with my gift card, which incidently had more money left on it and I will share the second trip purchases I made on a later post! These are three light blues, three light beige, three darker blues and three browns to make my Dad a Lone Star lapthrow. I want to make it for his birthday in February. When he was a little boy he helped his mother make a full-sized Lone Star quilt, which was used and much-loved and finally fell apart. I am making the lapthrow in honor of his awesome achievement. He will be 80 on this birthday!!!!



This is where I have to do my cutting and measuring and dreaming at home, and though I have a sewing machine there that I can use....



You usually can find me at Mom's working away! (I mean, she has this great quilt room with design board and all that....do you blame me!? :-)

First Quilt for CPC

I finally got the first one completed...I didn't like the way it looked without a border and had to go in (after the quilting was already done!) and add a border, and though it was a little "tricky" it worked fine, and I like the way it looks a lot better now!

These were 2 1/4" squares and I just loved the way the blues and yellows worked! I hand-pieced the entire quilt except for the border, and I machine quilted it, just because I am a slow hand-quilter. I'm excited that this will go to a little one whose Mommy was at first worried about keeping him or her. I send blessings with this baby quilt! I love being a part of this wonderful ministry!

Rose and Grey Baby Quilt

It took me a while to finish this one but it is now an officially completed UFO! (unfinished object) I was given some of the fabrics and I loved the colors! I designed this quilt myself. Click on the pictures to see a close-up view.





I hand quilted around the birds and then machine quilted the cross-hatching on the little squares, and the "ribbon" designs in the borders.

Quilt Bee Today!

No, I'm not singing opera, but it sure looks like it! :-) I was the one person who was brave enough to raise my hand and say I would share something about Log Cabin quilts! Not because I KNOW anything! No, just because I like them (especially the really unusual ones) and didn't mind sharing whatever I could come up with!





Mom and I had seen Mary Ellen Hopkins on Simply Quilts and she had some awesome ideas about thinking "outside the box," and I thought maybe I could share some of that. Well, I had in mind I would make enough squares that I could demonstrate them in a dozen different configurations, but hey I did good to have as much made as I did. Last week was our regular day, and we were "nor'eastered" out so the Bee Friends met a whole week late, and I still didn't make anywhere near what I had hoped to! Still, they all seemed to understand, and well, it was fun to share.



Thankfully our fearless leader Pat had some great books and other resources to share, and some great information she worked on as well, plus we had lots of show-and-tell items so the day was a huge success!