{Post 1,194} Marcie Quilt and Shirts Abound

Here is some sewing progress for today.  I quilted and bound my Marcie quilt.  I hand quilted in the ditch between the pieced blocks and the border, then horizontally and vertically in the setting squares and setting triangles.  Here it is completed:

I also pieced a few more Shirts Abound block units.  Let me know if you want to swap some.  I want all stripes or plaids, 100% cottons.  I use men's shirts, but I suppose you could use store-bought fabric.

The units are 7-1/2" square each, making a 4-unit block 14" square finished.  Only the upper right block is sewn together.

{Post 1,193} Marcie Quilt

I know--you couldn't stand to wait a few more days.  Well, me either!  I happened to have the perfect color for the binding for this little quilt.  I had the binding already made, and had 2" to spare.  It was meant to be.  

The whole quilt measures 10" x 12".  It will fit perfectly on my nightstand.

This little quilt is now basted and ready to have the binding sewn to the back and the hand quilting done.  We are making a long road trip next week.  Guess what I'll be doing?

{Post 1,192} Meeting Marcie

Wednesday AM, my son James and I drove to VA Beach, VA for a wedding.  My adopted son, Tim, was to be married yesterday (and he was!).  James was a groomsman.  I was the adopted mother of the groom ;)

Here's Tim and his bride:

When I learned that the wedding was going to be in VA Beach, I contacted my then e-friend Marcie Patch to see if we could get together.  She invited me to stay with her, but the bride had already arranged a place for me to stay.  Later I found out that the bride's plans had fallen through, so I ended up staying with Marcie and her husband at their lovely home.

I want to respect Marcie's privacy, but oh, did I have a marvelous time.  She even made me a mini quilt top .  I will show pictures of it after I hand quilt and bind it.  

I didn't want to be too pushy (after all, I had already asked if I could stay with her), so I didn't get a picture of the two of us together.  Here SHE is, though:

There was something magical about the room I slept in at her house.  For the first time in many years, I slept all night without waking up!  That's from 11 PM until 7 AM.  It seemed like a 48 hours.  Incredible.  Thanks, Marcie and husband for a wonderful stay.

{Post 1,191} Baby and Blossoms

Yesterday I saw all my children except my son who lives in AZ.  My grandson is growing like a weed.  Speaking of weeds, I weeded this flower bed this evening for about 30 minutes.  My hubby had been mowing the lawn, but came over the joined me in the fun and rewarding experience of turning THIS:

Into THIS:

Here are some lilies in my front yard:

Black-eyed Susan:

Here's the cutest baby in the world.  No bias here:

Close-up of those chunker legs.  He is well nourished.  My daughter and SIL are taking excellent care of him.  He lacks for nothing :)

Yes, I went in and took pictures of him while he was sleeping.  I am that kind of grandmother!  Can't get enough of the little nipper.

{Post 1,190} GFG Sample Card

Had some questions about my sample card.  It truly is nothing fancy.  Here it is...

The bottom left aqua/light turquoise probably won't be used.  The blue/black one at the top of the next column stands out quite a bit as well.  The cream on the top right is my last ring on every block.  

{Post 1,189} Grandmother's Flower Garden

Well, call me slow, but I just realized I am a grandmother, and I have a flower garden!!  Here's an update on the progress on my GFG quilt.  I am making a queen-bed-sized quilt, just because I can.  This will be years in the making, but a little progress shot is good once in a while.  I am about to have a lot of travel/sitting/hand-sewing time, so I am prepping some hexagons for the trips to come.

The top pic shows all the color schemes I have going so far.  I have two of the red one and two of the butterfly block.  I am not completely pleased with the one with the dark blue center, but it IS nearly finished!  The ring of hexies outside the navy blue one is too light, but that's life.  So far...

I am fussy-cutting a lot of the hexagons.  That is fun and takes more time, but I like the way it looks.  I have done something that I hope will help me select fabrics in the future.  I sewed a small scrap of each fabric I am using so far onto a piece of paper that I am keeping in my purse.  That way if I'm in a random place (oh, I don't know...say, a pharmacy?) that happens to sell fabric, I can whip out my samples and see if there's something I want to add to the mix.  Genius, right?

{Post 1,188} Wedding Quilt

I am going to post my recently-pieced wedding quilt on here because I doubt the recipient even knows I have a blog.  If she finds it, she can practice acting surprised ;)

The bride-to-be picked out two fabrics.  I made a checkerboard style layout.  She had it displayed at her wedding, clothespinned to a sheet of plywood.  This was one of the most unusual weddings I've ever witnessed.  It was a cowboy-type theme.  The bride and bridesmaids wore cowboy boots (so did the groom and his men).  The bride was "delivered" to the barn and pasture in a pickup truck.  The flowers were sunflowers and daisies.  It was quite the rustic setting.

The top was pieced before folks started signing it.  A couple exuberant youths got carried away with scribbling.  I knew I'd have to remove those pieces, but I didn't have one bit of extra cream fabric.  Then I got the idea to put some pictures from their engagement, rehearsal, and wedding into the quilt!  I pulled out an ancient set of "Printed Treasures" fabric sheets I had.  My husband helped me figure out how to print 4 pictures per sheet.  I added a frame of cream from the blocks I removed.  Voila!  The pictures are a surprise for the bride.

Here are some pictures of the process.  There were two sets of blocks written with pink ink that were close together, so I purposely replaced those with pictures or relocated them.

 

She wants very little quilting on it, so I'll just use black thread and do a large meander in the dark blocks.  Should be finished in short order.  

I noticed one person at the wedding did not sign it, so I am waiting for them to let me know if they want me to add a message before it is quilted.