A Little Embroidery Work

A friend asked me to embroider a baby name onto her vintage quilt. I was very worried about ending up ruining it so I asked a few embroidery experts what I should do. Of course, that turned out to be a mistake. I asked two people and got two different answers. And I didn't like either answer.

So onto Plan B. I decided to just wing it. The worst that could happen is that I would have to rip it out. I can handle that. I offered up a few fonts for the name and thread colors. She made the same choices I would have.

I practiced on a piece of muslin with thin batting. It was the same thickness as the quilt. I likes the results so I loaded the quilt onto the machine.

I think it turned out way better than I expected. I guess I should follow my own instincts more often.

A T-Shirt Quilt

I have a new t-shirt quilt project, a gift for a college graduate. Usually I sew the quilt blocks by spreading them across rows or columns. I wanted to try something new and I love the look of mosaic t-shirt quilts so I thought I would give it a try.

The neat thing about a mosaic is each block can be cut a different size. From there, you measure each block and draw it out on graph paper to scale. 

It was really fun to move the little graph paper blocks around until I liked where they were. What a genius way to work!  It was just as fun to convert the graph paper blocks into a quilt top. 

I spent a rainy afternoon sewing the blocks and by the end of the day the entire quilt top was done. All I had to do was add some borders.

I quilted the quilt with a swirl pattern and made the binding out of the same fabric as the border. There was no need to add any more color to the quilt besides the color from the t-shirts.  

I really like how this quilt turned out. I think it was the feminine color palette as well as the mosaic layout. I enjoyed making this one more than most of the t-shirt quilts I've made.

T-Shirt Quilt for a Friend

Sue and Jim Middlestead are one of the first couples we met when we joined the Legion Riders back in 2003. They were warm and welcoming and we liked riding to Veterans' charity events with them. Over the the many years we spent together, we always enjoyed each other's company. In fall Jim passed away after a long spell of illness. I told Sue at the funeral that I would be happy to make a quilt for her out of his shirts. In January, she took me up on my offer and brought me the shirts.

I cut everything out and started to put things together. This quilt is different because she added some souvenir tea towels. After moving blocks around, I decided the best thing to do is applique them over the top of the quilt.

I picked out some neutral background and backing fabrics and put it all together.  I absolutely love the Best Grandpa Hands Down block. It's so heartwarming.

It's all ready to be delivered to Sue next month when I see her. It feels good to help someone with a keepsake they will love. 

A Charity Quilt for A Veterans' Event

Our Legion Post does an event called "Souper Sunday" where we serve a lunch of soups, rolls and dessert. Everyone pays per bowl and the event raises money for veterans. 

I made a triple batch of French Onion soup for the event. It was an all-day project just cooking the onions but I was glad to help.

I also made a red, white and blue themed quilt to raffle off. I did't use a pattern, I just made two sizes of star blocks and a nine-patch to go in-between the stars. 

I longarmed the quilt with stars to add to the patriotic look.

Once completed, it was kitty approved!

A Patriotic Quilt Marathon

I was gifted 18 yards of red, white and blue fabrics. They were vintage bundles still in the packaging. I broke them all open to discover all half-yard cuts. I proceeded to wash all the fabrics, sort by color and press them. It was an all-day project. While pressing, I had to come up with a way to use up all the fabrics. Since they were half-yard cuts, there's a lot I could do. 

I chose three Villa Rosa patterns, making cutting easy and consistent since all these patterns requires thick strips to be cut. I liked the Olympiad pattern so much I made two quilts with it. They went together so quickly that it was an easy decision.

Using the scraps left over from the first two quilts I chose to use the Phoebe pattern next. It used up the ends of the strips from the first two quilts along with more of the half-yard cuts. At this point I was looking forward to doing a project that was not red, white and blue!

Once I completed the Phoebe there was still a bunch of fabric left. That's where the Daybreak pattern came in. It uses the same 5-inch square measurement as the Phoebe so I used up leftovers from that quilt along with more half-yard cuts. 

Of course, I had a helper. Jordy just loves to nap on quilts loaded on the longarmer. I'm sure it has the feel of a hammock and I know how much I love a good nap in a hammock so I don't blame him.

After all that, there was still fabrics left so I used it to piece the backs for two of the quilts. 

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to buy a single piece of fabric for 40% off. That's a big deal at the quilt shop so I purchased enough 108" wide backing fabric to complete 4 quilt tops. With 108" wide, I can get 4 quilts on the longarm with just 3 yards of fabric. What a bargain!

It didn't hurt that we're in a deep freeze here in Wisconsin so I wasn't going anywhere so I might as well get quiltinq!

What a fun adventure it was making all these. I'm sure these will become raffle quilts for events at our Legion Post or I will end up donating them to an individual as needed. 

I'm very happy to have given these old fabric bundles a new life.

The January Deep Freeze

Between the snow storms and the below zero temperatures, we knew we would be packing it in at home for a while. We loaded up on groceries before the weather came. I love the feeling of being home, safe, warm and secure. And it's so pretty after it snows. The backyard looks so serene. With temps around 8 below zero, I don't think we will be traipsing around on the patio for a while.

I'm planning on getting some charity quilts started this week. I'm going to take this fat quarter bundle of children's fabrics apart and cut a few quilt kits out of it. There's so many fat quarters that I think I should be able to get at least 3 quilt tops out of it. 

Jeff's favorite college football team, the Michigan Wolverines won the National Championship last night. He is so very excited that they finally won the whole thing! And here he is in his 1997 Championship t-shirt. I was happy to see it still fit - haha!

Wigglebutts

There's a deep freeze here in Wisconsin that doesn't seem to have an end in sight. So I'm quilting like a maniac.  Yesterday I took out my rolls of batting and cut enough pieces to longarm 6 quilts. Some have the backing and some do not. I'm going to start getting them on the longarm so I can get them off of my to-do list. I used 100% polyester batting for these.

The first quilt I completed was the Wigglebutts quilt top. It was one where the backing was ready. I did an allover meander so the quilt went quickly. And I hand bound it using leftover backing after the quilting was done.

I imagine that someday I will gift this to my neighbor, Sarah. She has a black labrador named Roxy that she loves very much. I've never seen so much dedication to a dog. It's a wonderful thing.

With this deep freeze and no where to go I also made some homemade bread and baked potato soup. My son Brian got us a Lodge dutch oven for Christmas and I've already used it twice. I love it.

Baking and cooking sure make the house feel warm.

Christmas Cookies and Quilts for Vets

I'm very happy to be hosting Christmas Eve dinner this year yet I'm amazed that I'm not stressing at all over it. 

Today my granddaughters and their friend frosted sugar cookies for the holiday season. It's so fun to let them do their thing. It's also a tradition that Jeff gets in there too to help. It's his favorite Christmas cookie so he's always ready to sample a few - haha!

I bought the girls goody bags for St. Nick's day and there were suckers with handles shaped like lips. They just had to try them out. 

I grabbed some quilts from my Sweet Sundays quilt group for my husband to take to Zablocki VA Hospital for veterans. His Legion Riders group goes to visit at Christmastime and he likes to take quilts along to give away. This year my group had 18 quilts for him to take.

I didn't realize until I took the photo that the quilts are sitting on my new Ikea furniture purchases. I think I will take that as a hint that I better get going on putting it together. I love assembling Ikea stuff.