Border by Border....

Adding borders....

only half-way through....

this is a fun quilt!

my girl is keeping me company and enjoying this amazing weather...

{Flanders}

tgif

mary

Architextures

I have had several questions about the ledger fabric in my last post...

the fabric is called Architextures by Robert Kaufman...

A great text fabric!

I have added a couple of borders to my quilt....

again, the pattern is from the new book by Sarah Fielke...the book is called Hand Quilted With Love and the pattern is Made to Measure...

several of the borders contain delightful corner blocks...

  

added to some fun pieced border strips...

 

I am loving working on this quilt...makes me want to stay up late and piece...

I also have a special one in the hoop....a little hand quilting with perle cotton {of course}

 

happy thursday!

mary

Wordless Wednesday....

from sarah fielke's Hand Quilted With Love

happy wednesday

mary 

A Special Quilt.....Blogger's Quilt Festival

It happens twice a year!

 

Amy brings us a spectacular display of quilts from Bloggers across the globe...

My entry is a quilt that is among my top all-time favorite quilts...

The pattern is Whirligig by Sarah Fielke

I still can't believe how this quilt came together.  It is a rather lengthy story....so grab a cup of coffee:)

A year ago this Spring we{my family} were going through a very tough time.  My mother had been diagnosed with brain cancer in February...my sister, brother and I spent day and night with her in the hospital for about a month.  By the end of March, my sister and I were living with her and had the assistance of Hospice to guide us through the difficult times. 

    

On April 11th., I received a call from my husband telling me that Kyle had asked for our daughter's hand in marriage. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it....

I knew my mom was dying...so I told her the good news.  She could barely speak at this point and whispered, "Wonderful".....

my mother died later that evening.

Now, I know every good parent loves their children...as it should be...

My love for my girls is so deep and so strong.  I love them with all the passion that my mother loved me and my siblings.

molly, maggie and mary....my dad just before he died with molly and mary...

    

I have 3 girls and they are all about 20 months apart in age.  They have always been the best of friends. My two oldest daughters have had type 1 diabetes since they were small. So life has definitely had it's challenges.  Anyone who has a child or relative with type 1 diabetes knows full well what I mean.

Molly is so full of spunk...bright as can be and so friendly and fun..

molly=bat, maggie=hershey kiss 

I knew I would make a quilt for them before they were married, but I was not sure what design....what fabric...and then like magic it all came together!

The design was fairly easy....I knew she would appreciate a hand appliqued quilt and I would enjoy the stitching after such a difficult year. Sitting and stitching quietly with my thoughts sounded like perfect therapy.

       

        So what fabric?  Her 'theme' was a honey bee.  When I spotted this seed fabric {on my way back to my mother's home to deal with estate business} I knew this would be a great foundation.  Perfect for the center - a great backdrop for the vines and leaves!  Plus it fit her colors....yellow, white, grey and touches of green.

Then what to use for the huge corner triangles....

It was a bit of Serendipity...

I found Bari J's amazing Art Gallery fabric...

  

Perfect!  It had her colors....and a coordinating fabric in grey worked beautifully into the palette.  And best of all the corner triangle fabric has a bee!!! 

Does it get any better than that?

So the quilt was hand appliqued, and completely all hand quilted...

   

There are so many things about this quilt that I love.  The whimsical tabs all along the border....the curvy, rounded shapes....I am much more partial to rounded shapes than to geometric shapes...they flow...

    

Having the time to work on this quilt was a blessing...it helped me  create something to celebrate the hope of the future and it helped me settle into my thoughts and contemplate how life would look without my mother.  

  

It is now on their bed in their new place.  

It is so much more than a quilt...

Enjoy the Blogger's Quilt Festival!
You can find my quilt in the Hand Applique category 

mary 

Simple Lessons....

I spent yesterday preparing for a class...but set some time aside to play with a few traditional blocks....

A Schoolhouse Block....

years ago I made a couple of schoolhouse quilts....gave one away and the other we used.  In fact, it is the only quilt we used until it was literally threads and batting!  

I like this version...it is not pieced with small triangles...rather uses Y-seams.  Gives it a clean simple look.

 

 

Clare of Selfsewn sent a lovely wreath of hexies for the newlyweds! So lovely!  This was waiting for them when they returned home from Ireland and they were thrilled!  I can't wait to see it in their new home together.  Do you remember your first place as a newlywed? 

Yay!  It's Friday!

hugs

mary

    

 

May Madness....

I had a talented group of new and experienced quilters who worked together over the last 5 weeks...

Some had a bit of piecing experience and a couple were completely brand new beginners!  How fun!

We worked on a Coin Quilt and learned as much as I could pack into 5 classes...

Some of the things we talk about...

types of thread, tools for quilting, types of batting, seam allowances, tips for pressing fabrics, proper cutting techniques, fabric and color- including value, size of print, etc., various ways to baste a quilt....

We piece, quilt {including hand quilting}, baste and bind.

Here are their special makes!

 

Aren't they fantastic!

When I have not been busy sewing with fun and talented folks....I have been enjoying {still} some relaxed time at home...doing 'what I want'....hee hee!

while I sip coffee from my favorite new mug....

   

Molly and Kyle brought this back from Ireland!

Oh yeah! She knows her mamma well!

I have been piecing more spools...

I was thinking 100 spools...hmmmm....not so sure I am quite that patient...

And I finished my block for the Mid-Century Modern Bee....a block for my dear friend Susan....a Feather!

The colors are not quite true in the pictures I took, but she asked for the colors of the Kingfisher.  Truly a lovely palette.

 

I am also part of another Flickr group....

Zakka Along 2.0....

projects made from Patchwork, Please!

 

I believe this group just started posting in May so I shouldn't be too tardy...

But this is the first of, hopefully, many cute projects from the book...

Patchwork Please!  by Ayumi Takahashi

This will be sent to someone special...

  

We have had some of the best Spring weather this year in Ohio...

my flowers are loving it!

  

Happy Wednesday!

mary :)

Finally!

As fun as the wedding was to plan and experience {and it truly was a complete blast}....it is good to have some time to work on a couple of things I have been wanting to try.

I have always loved the simplicity of a spool quilt...

where the textures and the quilting really do most of the talking....

 

I need to gather together a few more 'black' fabrics for the spool tops and bottoms and perhaps throw in some Essex in white and natural for the negative space....

And then I have a super secret project...that will have to wait for it's debut...

  

We had another busy weekend....daughter #2, Maggie, graduated from OSU on Sunday...

she was one out of 5 students graduating with a degree in Animal Nutrition....out of 10,000 graduating students! I found that amazing! She is a smarty pants!

happy monday!

mary