Dresden Plate blocks for quilt.

I've made 50 blocks for this quilt.  It's called "Dresdren Plate but is a variation, as the blades, or "petals" are usually bigger and the center circle is smaller.  I took a bunch of pictures off Pinterest and drew them out onto cloth and then embroidered them.  the second picture is one I had of Val's kids when they were little, braving the waves at the Jersey Shore.  The blocks are quilted and I will join them using "QAYG" method - Quilt as you go.  It ends up looking like blocks with sashing between.  Quilting an entire quilt is hard but quilting each block separately and then joining them is time consuming, but the quilting is not as hard.    

 

Jill and daughter at the same age.

 I don't know if I Facebooked these pictures but I had to post them again.  Can you see the same face? The bottom pict is Jill in our Mt. Prospect, Ill house.   When Jill sent the pict a few  years ago, I knew I had the "same" picture.  Jill's daughter is doing the hand sign for "more please"  so cute!!  She is now 10  years old.

September 2023, Two quilts for "The Linus Project"

When I make quilts, I usually cut the leftover scraps in to squares - 1 1/2", 2", or 2 1/2".  When I get a box full, I put together a quilt or two.  I had a huge supply of pink and another huge supply of blues, so I made these two quilts.  I added a few splashes of other colors just for fun.  Notice the "Stars" of yellow and white in the blue night sky of the blue quilt.  Also, you can barely see the diagonal pink stripe of the binding on the pink quilt. 

 

February 2023, one baby quilt for charity, one baby quilt for a friend

This fabric is called "cheater" fabric, it looks pieced but the squares and the cute little pictures are printed on.  I had enough fabric to make three quilts, 2 for members of our church - I like to make the baby quilts for when our sisters have their babies.  The third one is for the pregnancy center in town.  People can take instruction and classes to become better parents and they are rewarded by a handmade quilt.  The bottom picture is of the back - it's pieced with fabric that compliments the front pictures.

In NJ so many years ago, I had a little friend, (her name will not appear here).She was about 3 or 4 when this started.  She'd sit with me, by me, or on my lap for church.  After church she would come with us and I would  make mac and cheese for us and we'd sit down for an afternoon of Disney movies.  She called them, "moofies".  Anyway, it was so fun, she was the cutest, she called me Grandma Shauna.  So, we've been gone from NJ 20 years and she has grown up and I can't believe it, she married.  Her first baby is due momentarily.  She needed a baby  quilt.  This is it,-  mostly blue flannel, some yellow contrast, pattern - 9 patch.

 

About 35 years ago I made this crazy quilt for Bruce.  It was made from scraps from all kinds of projects, mostly my nightgowns.  You can see them in the pictures.  I basted the large pieces on an old sheet, then put backing and batting together with the top and tied it with yarn.  It was made to be used, a Lot and it was.  A few weeks ago Bruce brought it to me to mend it.  I pulled out my tub of flannel pieces and started sewing big pieces over some places.  I realized the batting was impossible to smooth out - in the top two pictures  you can see, it is clumped together in places and the rest was just swiss cheese.  The flannel was in rags, and the pieces that still looked whole were so thin, they'd be rags soon.  So I bagged it, and started cutting squares of new flannel and made a new quilt.  It 's not quite as big as the first one, but it is bright and warm and Bruce can wrap up in it for years to come  and know that I love him.

 

August 2022, Baby Quilt for a Girl

My friend, Betty, has been a good friend over the years.  The best I can do for her is make quilts for her family.  Her daughter's daughter is expecting a baby girl any day now, so I made this quilt for the newest member of Betty's family.  It's one of my favorite patterns, a Half Square Triangle (HST's)  I  usually make wildly colorful quilts but wanted to do something different, pastel colors, low contrast.  I quilted it on my home machine, also my favorite - meander quilting.

 

 

July, 2022, Full size "Double Triangle"

A friend from New Jersey posts on my FB a lot.  She posted she is getting married.  I told her I love to make quilts and would like to make one for her.  She seemed very enthusiastic.,  I asked her for her favorite color and she said purple.  That is a very unusual favorite color and I was  surprised I had so much in my stash.  I had one huge piece of very deep purple, and I used all of it.  The other pieces are mostly for contrast, notice the two triangles of yellow and several pieces of the fabric with purple and pink lilacs.  I made the back, which has become my habit, of 12" squares of extra front fabric and/or matching fabric.  This back has some extra blocks, from the front.  Whew, this quilt is big and time consuming.

 

June 2022, Lap size and baby quilt

I found a small piece of fabric with cute little cartoon animals.  There was not enough fabric for a whole quilt to I fussy cut it and added complimentary color square to fill out the quilt.  Always love to make baby size quilts. 

This is the back of the quilt showing the separate squares I used to sew the batting and strips onto.

This quilt was made with strips of mostly blue fabric in the method of "string quilt" but without using foundation of paper or muslin fabric.  I cut a back fabric 8 1/2" and a batting square the same, then sewed the strips onto the batting, sew and flip method.   Then I had to join the squares with the white fabric.  It's nice to have the quilting done as t he rows go together, but still, lots of time spent.

June

 

May 2022, Double Wedding Ring repair/ Double 9 Patch, crib size

My friend at quilt guild had this double wedding ring quilt she said needed some repair.  I said I'd look at it, expecting it to be shredded.  Amazingly, the fabric was in pretty good shape.  Some of the seams had popped open and the batting was peeking out.  I blind stitched all that I could find closed.  The main problem was that the quilt had been tied and the ties were rubbed off, or worn away.  I spent most of my sewing time for 3 weeks retying the quilt.  I added ties to the white centers that had not been tied and the batting was bunching and shifting.  It is a huge quilt.

This quilt I made from my boxes of 1 1/2" squares.  I  used mainly blue/white and some yellow, for a boys quilt.  It will go to the charity "Project Linus" which gives quilts to sick children.  The backing was made specifically for Project Linus.  If you look closely, you will see Snoopy in uniform.  Cute!

 

March 2022, full size quilt "Double 9 patch"

 This quilt was made from the huge bag of fabrics that Tommy gave me a few weeks ago.  The last quilt I posted was made from the same bag.  Tommye had made several blocks for the "courthouse steps" quilt, and also several blocks for this one, "Double 9 patch".  Each piece measures 1 inch finished.  I usually don't do quilts with pieces this small but Tommye started it, I had to finish it.  Also, when I cut  up my scraps, I always end up with stacks of 1 1/2" squares, which means I have quite a few ready to use.  This quilt is big, used a lot of thread and time.  It is fun to sew up a quilt that requires no real thinking or planning.  I quilted it with simple straight lines, horizontal and vertical  - no fancy swirls and circles in this one.

January 2022, Baby size. Two 4 0 X 60 size, Courthouse step

This pattern is called "Courthouse Steps"  The difference from the usual pattern is that there is a small 9patch square for the middle.  The material was given to me from a guild member ( Tommye) as a large bag of 1 1/2 " strips and a big stack of the 9 patch squares.  So even though the material was cut, it took a long time to sew together.  There is more material in the bag, mostly the 9 patch.  I will put that quilt together sometime soon.,

This is the baby size quilt I made with pieces to match the larger quilt on the last post.  Very bright, very pretty fabrics.

I've made several quilts with this pattern, it's called "Double Triangles.  I like this pattern, the way it turns out, but it is time consuming.  The top one is more for a girl, the bottom is more for a boy.  The next picture is of the backing for the boy's quilt, made from left over pieces and blocks from the front.  These two quilts will go to Linus Project, but I think I'll wait till after our Moab guild quilt show.

 

  

 

December 2021, cribsize quilt for a girl.

I found  this pattern in my file folders, saved for a special project.  I made this by request for the grandchild for one of Vere's friend.  Actually, my neighbor, Barbara had loved one of my earlier quilts and I gave it to her to give to this family, it was bright greens and they loved it for their baby boy.  Now they have a baby girl we agreed they needed a wildly colorful quilt for her.  Close up of some of my favorite fabrics that I pulled out.  As I was cutting, I cut some strips of the same fabric for another smaller quilt, ready to go when I get to it.    

 

December 2021, Cutting down the tree

 This tree in the front of our house was nice looking, about as tall as the house when we moved here 20 years ago.  It's been getting uglier and uglier, dead in the middle with some green branches in the front.  I've been nagging Vere to cut it down, even offering to call someone to cut it down.  He wanted to do the cutting, and he started on it.  I knew it would take some time, a few branches and then a rest.  Vere loads the cut branches into the pickup and drives it out  to drop them off in the vast dessert around Moab.  

2021, Christmas cookies

 I make Christmas cookies and candy every  year to send to the children.  These are the sugar cookies which is a standard, and their favorite.  I thought this year I'd keep from breathing on them by wearing the ever present masks.  Vere surprised me by snapping this picture.  If I'd known that was going to happen, I'd at least have combed my hair.  Also, I'd have worn something other than my ugly house dress.

October 2021, full size, fifty states with state flowers embroidered

Finally finished this quilt.  It  was a lot of work and time.  An earlier post describes the origin of this quilt and showed the stack of blocks ready to be joined.  I didn't have Laura's plan for arranging these blocks, she might have planned  to put them on "point" with a turquoise block between.  I decided to make them straight, alphabetically, seven across and seven up/down.  But  that left "Wyoming" all alone on the bottom row.  Had to pull a couple blocks apart and rearrange them like this.  It worked out well.  One picture  here shows the back with a thin strip of the turquoise sashing that join the blocks.  Vere has said several times he really likes  this quilt and Sonya's eyes lit  up when she saw it.  So eventually it will go to Sonya.  I spent many wonderful, restful hours sitting out on my deck, doing hand embroidery. In the summer I was out there early in the morning in the shade.  As it got cooler I sat out there in 55 degree weather in the sun, watching the blue sky and green around me.  Did I say this quilt took a lot of time.