Pillow Cases

Yesterday I delivered the Tshirt quilt to my friend Mary Kay.....the one we made for her daughter for Christmas. Mary Kay has been struggling with cancer the past few years, and I'm afraid she will lose this fight, she is going through some severe difficulties right now with her abdomen filling with fluid that has to be drained off every couple of days. She looks/feels 5 months pregnant (on her skinny little frame) and the pressure on her organs, etc is painful.

When I delivered the quilt yesterday, she had 4 extra shirts and asked if I could make some pillow cases to go with the quilt....I went online to find a pattern, at least with basic dimensions, and found the body of the pillow case needed to be about 26" by width of fabric (44").....how to get these tshirt panels to work with these funky dimensions? I ended up making pillow fronts 22X26 and then plain backs.

I think they turned out okay, I'd like to see them filled with pillows and put on the bed with the quilt to get a good idea of how they really look. The blue fabric is the flannel we used to back the quilt with...it is very soft and cuddly!

I had JUST enough of the border fabric from the quilt left to do the cuffs for the pillow cases. I needed 10" per pillow case, and I had like 2" left over...wheeeeww! The green accent stripe is left over binding/sashing from the quilt. Just enough of that left too. Some things you just luck out on, you know?

Bonnie

The Borders Win!

One consideration I had with this quilt was the SIZE...it was only 72X78...so not really long enough for a bed, even if all quilts don't need to be bed sized, I kind of wanted this one to be.

I took one of the comments, looking for a green that was a bit darker than the setting triangle green, but still had that same feel, and I found this one....it's a civil war repro. It does the job I think.

The inner border was a 1/2 yrd piece of a burgundy resist type repro in a funny shade of brownish burgundy, and it went really well with the colors in the center of the quilt but gave a break between the pink/green in the setting triangles in the center, and the final green border..I didn't want the inner border to be lost because it blended too much with either the green or the pink, and a neutral was TOO light...

Oh! the 4 patches in the corners of the outer border were leftovers from a project a couple years ago too..so it was fun to pull those 4 orphans out of the box and use them in the corners of the border...they look at home in this quilt!

So here we have it. I'm pleased. I want to machine quilt this quick, bind it and use it!

To Border or Not To Border??

Okay guys... See the quilt below! I've got 1/2 of my stash out trying to find border fabrics for this quilt. It's just not working for me..NOTHING is working for me!

I don't have enough of the green setting print to do anything more than bind the quilt. I have lots of the pink. But the pink is too light for an outer border, and there is too MUCH pink if I border it with pink.

I've tried alternate fabrics from green to brown to burgundy, NOTHING looks right.

Is this one of those old timey quilts that just doesn't need a border? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Bonnie

Four-patch & Furrows

I found myself yesterday afternoon pulling out a pile of double 4 patch blocks that had been sitting and aging for quite a long while! I just never had a clue how I really wanted to set them, and so they sat.

These double 4 patch blocks were all pieced with strips from the 2" scrap strip bin, lights and darks.

I finally decided to set them with alternating large 1/2 square triangle squares and give the quilt a "furrows" effect. At first I was thinking brown and pink, but the few sample blocks I stitched up just did NOTHING for the double 4 patch blocks. It was BLAH. So I went back to the cupboard and found this antiquey green that I've been wanting to use, but didn't know where it was going to go. It went really well with the antique dirty pink and I decided to give it a shot. The color is quite a bit off in the full shot, so I took a close up to give a better idea..it's not as blendy as it looks!

I still need borders, but it was fun how fast this went together...the hardest part was spending the evening sewing 1/2 square triangles together....all alike! Scrappy keeps me from being bored. Dealing with just two fabrics...is a challenge!

Bonnie

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Lucy isn't home right now, her hubby stole her off on a surprise birthday trip!

I still wanted to post to her Happy 41, and may this be the best year ever...

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Bonnie

In A Blue Funk

I finally forced myself to finish the borders on the blue hourglass star quilt today. I'd been in such a funk about it. I guess the thoughts on the borders were so mixed that I just lost interest in finishing it. I know I shouldn't let other people's opinions cause doubts in my own creativity, but there you have it. I do value what other people say and think and I second guess myself.

The problem was...I had almost all of the hour glass units for the border done before I thought that maybe it wasn't such a good border idea...and my flame went out.

But now, reminding myself that DONE is better than PERFECT..I decided to finish it as I originally thought, and I do like it. Sometimes it is okay for a border to be just "fine" instead of...WOW...I think this is one of those times.

I also finished the quilting on my friend's tshirt quilt. Binding is done too. I think there is a smear on my camera lens...after uploading the pics it showed up and I don't have time to retake everything, so...deal with the smear :c)

I'm winding down finally on customer stuff. Only 2 more to go that HAVE to be done before Christmas. We are leaving on our Christmas cruise on the 16th...and back on the 23rd..so everything that has to be sent out has to be sent by the 15th.

The other fun thing is that I'm going down to FL to spend New Years with Tonya! I found a great deal on cheaptickets.com yesterday round trip for $188 including the taxes....can't beat it! So...I'll be packing up a couple of projects after getting back from the cruise and heading back down to Fl....I'm sure we will have lots of pics to upload while Tonya and I have a sew-a-thon!

Bonnie

Christmas Quilts

Being a machine quilter, I seem to start quilting people's Christmas quilts clear in July....I kind of "ugh" and perservere through those, who is in the mood for Christmas in July? The year spins fast enough as it is, and I'm really not ready for Christmas until after thanksgiving. That's just the way it is :c)

This past week I have spent time quilting this wonderful yet simple Christmas quilt for my customer, Mary Ann. It has printed blocks in the center of the log cabin squares, and I just LOVE the secondary star that is made by the sashings.....the units are similar to the weedwhacker quilt blocks! This gives me ideas for quilts in the future, using these as sashings, not just as blocks.

I'm usually not a "pre-printed" block fan, but I really like this one, I love how the quilting ties it all together!

Bonnie

Thanksgiving is Over!

Dave and I spent the holiday from wednesday evening until yesterday (sunday) at Hilton Head Island!

The package for our villa (close to the beach) included golf for him....so for about 5 hours a day I was on my own :c) I finished quilting a small scrappy jacob's ladder block quilt while watching old movies, and did a lot of walking to try to keep the pumpkin pie from settling on my thighs! (I don't think it worked, but oh well!)

The boys both had to work this past weekend, and since we got the villa rental about 6 weeks ago....and it was non-refundable.....we ditched them ;c)

I love Hilton Head and all the other islands down the SC coast all the way down Georgia. I love how the moss hangs off the old craggy oak trees...it is SO "SOUTHERN". The weater was warm, low 70's....and I should have packed shorts!

And yes, I forgot to pack the camera on the rush to get out of town...I would have loved to have shown you the old oak trees dripping with moss, the flowers, the ocean so blue, and the HUGE alligators we spotted sunning themselves along the water on the golf course outside our villa! Those freaked me out...But fascinated me at the same time..this one was HUGE...I mean...HUGE....he didn't look real....

We avoided all post-thanksgiving shopping. Hilton Head doesn't have that much anyway, it's off season. We did end up at Sam's club and bought a few things, but it was more what we needed, not in the way of gifts.

Bonnie

Minus A Thyroid!

I got a voice mail from Tonya's hubby, Tom this morning! I was at the chiropractor's office and had my phone off, so didn't find the message until I checked my phone later.

He said that Tonya has come through the surgery just fine, and though her throat and voice are a bit rough and scratchy, she is in good hands!

I'm glad to hear this news.....and to be able to mention it here for you as was requested by Tonya, just so you'd know :c)

I'm finishing up loose ends here and getting ready to head out to Hilton Head. It's been raining non-stop for 2 days! MISERABLE weather.....so it's good that I've got a couple handwork projects packed to go. I decided not to take the sewing machine, but rather use the time to relax and either crochet on the afghan or do some hand quilting....Good weekend for rented movies and staying in I think.

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!
Bonnie

Holiday Humor

This just gave me the giggles today! I suppose it could apply to knitters too...*hehehe* (Click on the pic for clearer view of the text...)

Jason is happily working at Olive Garden and things are going well. Jeff is back working at Mc D's after a misunderstanding had him quit/fired. (These places don't work very hard to keep young kids, they are so disposable!) So all is calm and very busy with employment in SC!

Jeff also passed the written part of his driver's exam to get his permit. He won't get his license yet, but we figure we can use the chance to drive as some sort of incentive to help with more attention to grades, etc. I don't know if it will work or not, but it's worth a try?

A month or so ago, before Jason was coming home, and before both were employed, Dave found a condo deal for thanksgiving weekend at Hilton Head. Now both boys have jobs and can't get off for the weekend...and the condo deal was non-refundable! Have you ever HEARD of parents taking off, leaving their kids home to fend for themselves on THANKSGIVING?! Well, that is what is going to happen here. I figure I can cook a turkey any other day of the week (trying to find one when they are both home to enjoy it) and DH and I are going to Hilton Head by ourselves. That ought to keep me well away from the worst shopping weekend of the entire year....and I'm not sad to miss it!

Bonnie

Just Stitchin Retreats

I mentioned a while back that I will be attending a retreat in Feb....as the resident massage therapist!

I just got an email from the gals running the thing, and they have put up the beginnings of a website. I wanted to post a link for Just Stitchin Retreats so that any of you south east gals can pass the info on to your guilds if you are interested in getting retreats together!

The retreat I'm doing is a "Quilt Camp" style retreat where you work on your own projects. A mystery quilt and some other fun stuff will also be offered if you want to participate in that. The Palm Key retreats are where they bring in known teachers to teach special weekend workshops.

Bonnie