Do You See What I See?

Do you see the new blocks in this picture?  I made my initials (JVP) in the wonky letter style and framed them.  Then I sewed the 3 blocks together so they wouldn't get separated.  Ever.

Do you think it's tacky to put my own initials in this quilt?

The bottom left block is a little leftover 4-1/2" block from this runner.  Another one made in 2008.  I made that one incorrectly.  I don't have any more "real" quilt blocks that will be showing up in here, so the few will have to be evenly spaced since they're so attention getting.

Sewing some more blocks this AM...sewing is sew relaxing for me, and heaven knows I need it right now.

~Joan

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Last night, just as I was ready to bake the home made crescent rolls I had mixed up, our power went off.  Bummer!  What to do?

Well, necessity is the mother of invention.  I baked them in our gas grill.  Yes, I did.  They were scrumptious.  And if you sniffed really deeply, they smelled like grilled hamburgers.  True story.

I have kept 3 oil lamps on the shelf in our foyer since we have lived in this house.  They are always ready to be used in case of power outage.  I am sorry to say that it happens often after a rainstorm.  That's one on the right in the picture above (from last night).

Anyway...the rolls turned out great.  We had two pans.  A couple burned on the first pan, but I just cut off that layer.

~Joan 

Crumb!

Usually when someone says, "Crumb!" they are frustrated or something.  Not this girl.  Last night I was looking at my new b-friend's blog.  Her name is Natasha, and she is a new quilter.  She made a gorgeous crumb quilt and even had a tutorial.  I've seen these, and they have never interested me, until NOW.  I thought I'd try one block. 

I thought I didn't have many crumbs, but a search in my small-pieces drawers yielded enough and MORE for a large top.  I have all of the block centers finished, and am now working on making the blocks I want from them.

Years ago I sold Thimbleberries fabric (I still do, but don't work at selling it, KWIM?) and got sample squares (about 2-1/2" squares...a small piece from each fabric in the new line).  I had some weird colored packs...pinks, mint green, bright purple!!  I threw them all in the mix.  They are Thimbleberries, and they fit right in in spite of not matching at all.

This IS  like eating potato chips...I could not stop with just one.  I had all kinds of tiny blocks that I don't recall making.  But they do make the cutest block centers when framed out with odds and ends. 

The pictures below show my original plan on how to set them.  But the more I looked at Natasha's, the more I liked the way the two blocks played together.  The first picture is my 9-patch blocks with a larger center.  I got really creative and pieced my cornerstone blocks (the ones in the pic below are single pieces of fabric).

Here is a pic of both types of blocks together...the 9-patch and the 8-point star blocks.

Here are a couple of my favorite blocks...I don't know where else I would have used them.  The first one's center star was from this post...in 2008.

People are always asking me how I decided to put this fabric here or that one there.  I have no real plan except this rule for this quilt.  The block centers (which measure 4-1/2" unfinished, BTW) that have cream touching the outside are being used for the 8-point star blocks.  The all color ones are being used for 9-patches. 

As I was looking through my drawers, I came across 25 string blocks that miraculously measured 4-1/2" square.  I don't remember why I started making them.  Only two were incomplete.  I had been piecing them onto phone book foundations.  The paper had been torn off 23 of them.

I can't wait till the kids go to bed so I can sew some more.

~Joan

Random Baby Quilt Top ~ Hopskotch

I just love the look of this quilt.  Finished sewing the diagonal rows together tonight.  I did all the school grading I could before my eyes glazed over.  Still have 2 loads of laundry to finish up, so I'm going to do a little more sewing, then make 2 key lime pies for supper tomorrow, then clean up the kitchen.

This little lovely is 42" square.  I am not adding borders.  I am liking the old-fashioned look of borderless quilts.

This will be quilted later and gifted as a baby quilt.  I don't know to whom it will be given...yet!

~Joan

This Mother's Heart Hand-Quilting Started

This past few days have been some of my strangest ever.  Thursday night about supper time, I got a call from my daughter's fiance.  He had heat exhaustion...in Florida.  He was calling because Emily asked him to...she wanted to see why he was so ill and what he could do about it.

Emily (who was at work at the time) asked if we (she and I) could drive down to see him and "help him get better".  He had Friday off because he worked Memorial Day.  So, I had the bright idea of leaving when she got home from work, at 9 PM.  We drove all night and got there around 5 AM.  All in all, we figured we slept about 12 hours from Thursday night until we arrived home at midnight on Monday.  Total.  That explains a few things about how I've felt the past couple of days!

Just about every moment was filled.  I managed to quilt most of the outermost edge blocks on my This Mother's Heart quilt.  I did a few of the inside blocks, too.  Every second I had free was spent hand quilting.  I guess that was a lot of seconds, although it seemed like we worked non-stop on other things.

Above are a few pictures of how I'm quilting this.  I am quilting the "vein" between each heart section.  This will be lightly quilted compared to some, but I think it will make a nice summer quilt.  I am outline quilting the appliqued parts and echoing the design where the 4 empty block corners meet.

~Joan