A Job Involving Lap Quilting

My sister gets me quilting jobs from time to time, and the latest one is quite different from most. Thought I would show you.

The client started making this quilt in 1978. She got all the squares done except for 2, which I have competed for her. The catch is, they were made using the lap quilting technique of Georgia Bonesteel. Although I bought every single pattern in her Spinning Spools collection, I never did make a quilt using her method.

There are 20 of these blocks, each measuring 20" square. I took pics, hopefully I can make them small enough so it doesn't take up too much room. (For some reason I can't get more than one on a line...). They all had mitered corners in the borders. That was a trick for me as I never do those, lol. On the  house block she embroidered the year, and a couple of others have embroidery. All hand quilted, of course. Lots of empty spaces, which is hard for me to leave alone, but she didn't quilt densely like I would have. The squares with the blue markings are the ones I had to finish up, but on many others, there is still remnants of blue marks from when she did her quilting. After all these years, I hope those marks come out. Oh, and you wouldn't believe the quality of the fabrics. I remember my first quilt I made from fabric bought at a quilt shop, it was so thin, not luxurious like we are used to now. Here are the blocks.

Now, I really did think about joining these using current QAYG methods, but that would have made it look like more sashings between the blocks. So, I went to YouTube and found a video of Georgia doing her thing. Here is a link to the how to video. You can tell how old this is by how young Georgia looks, lol.

So, it is going to be a bit cumbersome getting all these together. I have several joined and ready to hand sew down the back. Doing the blocks is not too bad, but when I have to join the rows, it might be a different story.

This is going to be a big quilt. Figure at 4x5 blocks...about 80"x100".

I will post more pictures as I go.

I have decided that I will use the proceeds from this job to buy myself a KitchenAid stand mixer. :)

WilmaNC

I Spy

I finished an I Spy quilt for great grandson, Ryan. Now I don't feel that he is neglected by my sending girly stuff all the time, lol. I made it as a ticker tape quilt. The backing and middle were both flannel, and the front cotton. I hung the backing on the wall, used spray baste and placed the middle, more spray baste and put on the front. Then as I cut out the pieces, I spray basted them onto the front. I didn't want to wrangle the quilt on my Bernina as I was afraid all the pieces might come off, so I put the quilt on my frame. I just connected the top and let the rest hang over the bar and did a free motion circle twice around each piece. It went pretty fast and I'm pleased with how it came out.

I washed it and all the pieces stayed intact and just a little fraying. I think he will like it!! I was surprised at how heavy it is from using all the flannel.

Now, a little brag about my son. He is all grown, but he is still my little boy, lol. Anyway, he got a grant for research and received this letter from his congressman in California. COOL!!

He is a fine man.

Not much else going on. It's starting to get hot here, which will be nice for the holiday weekend. Just wish we had more family nearby so we could have a cookout. Sigh. Maybe someday....

Later,
WilmaNC

Bingo, and doll quilts

I won the prize for a horizontal Bingo in the May for Me festivities, and received a really nice charm pack, Primitive Gatherings. I love the fabrics, and I love charm packs.

I made a doll quilt for a May swap with the theme May Flowers. The first 2 months have been a learning experience to see the kind of work these ladies do, I have been in quite a few doll quilt swaps, and sometimes the quilts received have been very simple, which is OK ... But these ladies are sending some awesome quilts!!! I think starting next month I need to increase the difficulty a bit. Here is the one I just made:

There is hand quilting in the flowers and stems, but it doesn't show up in the picture. Someone asked me if the buttons were Bakealite. I had to google that. All I know is that I got the buttons out of a jar that I inherited from Dave's grandma. You ever heard of them??

I decided to hang my swap doll quilts around the ceiling in my sewing room. I think when I run out of room I will put them on the ceiling, lol. I had a bunch more, but I gave them as gifts to the little ones who still play with dolls..

In my many internet searches, I somewhere found a pattern that was an older one from McCall's. It is a pineapple appliqué, and this is definitely the next quilt I am going to make. Here's the first block I have started, I plan to machine appliqué the pieces down. Nothing else on the quilt except squares like this, although I may add a border...I think it will look awesome when done. I love the pattern, and I love pineapples.

A Peculiar Post

First, let me say that we did not get Duffy. Went out to the Humane Society at about noon, and he had been adopted that morning. I was bummed. Now to wait til another dog comes along and steals my heart.

Now onto the peculiar. My little online group, ABC Quilters, did a mystery quilt called, The Peculiar Quilt. I hate mysteries. I like to see what's ahead so I make my quilt look nice, but that wasn't allowed. So I picked 2 fabrics and dove in making the blocks. On the last step, I didn't have enough of the dark grey, so I had to add one more print. The last step was: Assemble the blocks any way you choose. Well poop!!! So I played with them making larger blocks, but I couldn't fond a way to evenly disperse the 3rd color. So, I just did the blocks in order in rows and columns. THEN, it looked so bland. So I added a few stylized poppies, and now I love this quilt. My sister thinks I should add leaves, but I like it plain.

BINGO!!!! I finally got a bingo yesterday in the May for Me festivities. Have to check to see if anyone else got one too, cause then there will be a drawing to see who got the prize, and I am not lucky when it comes to drawings. We'll see. But win or bot, it is FUN!!!.

Later,
WilmaNC

Old Blue Jeans, and a Dog(maybe)

Dave had a couple of pairs of jeans that he outgrew, so I looked around to find something to do with them. Here's a couple of things I came up with:

An apron. Pretty much self explanatory from the picture. Just cut under the pockets, up the side seam, and around to the front under the waistband.

This is a little purse I made from one of the back pockets. I actually made 2, and gave one to my daughter. I carry this all the time. I originally had a denim strap, but I wanted it to be adjustable, so I took the strap from something else I had.

BINGO....NOT!!! LOL. The May for Me bingo game is going slowly, but sooner or later, we are going to have lots of bingos. I need just one, B-peace sign......


We just finished putting in the garden. We usually wait til May 15, but the weather shows lows in the 50's til then, so we're getting it over with. Now to just watch it grow. I can't wait for tomatoes.

I have wanted a dog since Buddy was put down 2 years ago, but I have resisted the impulse. BUT, yesterday I went with the Hiking Hounds from the Humane Society. Every other Sunday they have a group of volunteers take some of the dogs out for a hike. Well, the dog we walked was just the cutest thing. His name is Duffy, (and coincidentally I had an Uncle Duffy), and he just touched my heart. He's a smaller dog, and Dave was concerned about him hiking with us, but he did 2.5 miles yesterday and kept right up with the big dogs. And if after a long hike he gets tired, he is small enough to carry, lol. Here's his picture.

Look at that face. Awww. We are going to go there tomorrow so Dave can meet him, and if he likes him too, we will have a dog. (We will contend with the MIL after the fact.)He's got curly hair so he shouldn't shed near as much as Buddy did. I'll let ya know.

Later,
WilmaNC