I’ve been working (off and on) on a quilt for my granddaughter. About this time last year, I settled on a very simple block, and then pulled all the pink fabric in my stash. I used the entire range from the palest to the deepest fuchsia. I made a simple four-patch center, outlined by one more row of blocks. The basic block looks like this:

I took four of those blocks and inserted my granddaughter’s picture into the center in place of the four-patch. I used treated fabric in place of paper, scanned my favorite pictures and then printed them onto the fabric. In the center block of the quilt, I drafted a star, and used her picture for the center.
I decided that I would machine quilt this top by myself. I use a VERY old sewing machine, and our modern methods of machine quilting were not yet developed when this machine was created. I had to adjust the technique a little, and while the quilting is adequate, it’s not the most beautiful job I’ve ever done.
I gave the partially completed quilt to my granddaughter on her second birthday, promising that I’d finish it for her and return it. I FINALLY got the machine quilting done, and the binding, and a hanging tube (stitched to the back). All I have left to do is sew the label to the back, and it’s ready to be returned.
I’d hoped that my step-daughter would let her daughter play with this. It was intended to be used up and worn out and thrown out. But, when she saw it, she said, “THIS is going on the WALL!” So, I’m going to wash it, and warn her about sunlight on quilting fabrics, and hope for the best. I’ll make another quilt that my granddaughter can drag around with her.
This is what the finished quilt looks like:

The Friday Night Quilting Bee met tonight. I’m fortunate that they have met at my house for the past umpteen years, because I don’t have to drive home, and I don’t have to rush to get to Bee. And, this wonderful collection of women come to entertain me once a month!
I thought tonight might be an early night for the group. One of our members has to go home for the funeral of a close friend’s father. Another fell and broke her ankle a month ago, and is still recuperating. We got off to a slow start, but went more than an hour longer than I would have guessed.
We talked about the most amazing variety of things:
Senator Joe Biden
Depression Era Quilts
Coyotes in our back yards
Raccoons in our back yards
Our early saving habits
Putting kids through school without loans
Radiation, Chemotherapy and Breast Cancer
Loss of hair
Quilt Pink (the auction of quilts at eBay to support breast cancer research. Go to:
www.quiltpink.com for auction details)
Revocable Trusts
Title searches
Caring for our aging parents
Running a quilt shop when there’s an electrical outage for several days
Quilting thread
Teaching our kids not to drink and drive
Litigation
Designers of depression era quilt fabric
Hand Piecing versus Machine piecing
Carotid Artery Health and Cumadin
Irish Restaurants
Long Arm Quilting Machines
Retirement Plans
Girl Scout Cookies
Health Insurance
Dessert
Huggable husbands who can be found at the grocery store!
Kids changing jobs and
Quilt Kits, to name just a few of the subjects.
We’re old friends. We’ve met here for easily twelve, perhaps as many as fifteen years. We know each other’s families, and our ups and downs. It’s like having seven more sisters! And you can see that we talk about anything that comes to mind. It’s very reassuring to have a community like this. It’s a lot like my community of blogging friends.
I’m looking forward to our next meeting. I hope to have one more project done so that I can show it in show and tell! YES!!

Yesterday, Elegante Mother finished the backing for an over-sized lap quilt that will go to one of her granddaughters. I gave the backing and the top a good pressing, and removed most of the stray threads. We found the batting that was purchased for the quilt, and today, I gave everything to the young woman who does EM’s machine quilting. In less than a week, she’ll have the quilting finished, and we can work on the binding.
I also worked on a few of my own projects yesterday. I have three sides of my granddaughter’s quilt bound. I made the hanging pocket, and have to sew that to the quilt. I have one more block to hand quilt, and a label to make. There’s hope that she will get it before she’s 21.
Speaking of hope….. I started a quilt about six years ago (possibly more) for one of my nieces. She has been waiting patiently for me to finish it. I’ve been working on hand quilting the borders during the last month, and I have to make a label for this quilt, too. My niece is 17 now…..halfway through her seventeenth year, actually. I’d better get a move on, or she WILL be 21 before I get this sent off. Sorry, sweetie…..it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you. It just means that you have an aunt who is supremely disorganized!
It was a joy to get back to playing with fabric. I NEED to do it more. Call it mental health days, or just a hobby, if you must, but make sure it’s on my schedule every week!
Ahem…..I know….you all want pictures. As I finish each quilt, I’ll post a picture.

…this fabric??

One of the pleasures of quilting is being able to occasionally share fabric with a quilting friend. I was at my favorite store last year, and saw a line of beautiful fabrics with a Jacobean look. I bought some, and on a spur of the moment decision, bought some for my friend, Cop Car. I know she loves fabric, but we’ve never had the chance to quilt together, so I’m just learning about her taste in fabric. It seems that I was a bit restrained. She loves the bright fabric that I’m just learning to incorporate into my quilts
So, I’ve been struggling to find a more modern way to set the fabrics so they weren’t so very restrained. Fons & Porter have a set of templates that can be used to cut Drunkard’s Path blocks, and they featured a very modern wall hanging based on block that were cut with these templates. A light went on over my head!
This is what a sample block looks like:

I’ve created about 30 blocks. It was a fun Saturday night, cutting and snipping, and sewing and cutting a bit more. I’ve laid out twenty of the blocks on the table to get a feel for what they might look like:

I tried several arrangements, and finally sewed the blocks together Sunday. Now I have to decide what border and binding fabric to use. Something simple, I think, that won’t draw your eyes away from the blocks. I was thinking about adding a few jet beads here and there to give it a little sparkle.
What do you think? Is this a dog, or can I share it with my friends??
When the top is done, I’ll post a picture of it.

My grand daughter turned two in May. Her parents invited all her grandparents and every friend who had children to join them in celebrating. I had a great time. I was invited to read “Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” I got to help little ones blow bubbles. We ate birthday cake and other goodies, and generally had a good time.
We watched our little one open her gifts and thought maybe we should have purchased stock in Fischer-Price! Dear Husband bought a table and chairs that were 2 year old sized. I was working on a quilt, and finally had to admit the night before that it wasn’t going to be done on time. I had decided to machine quilt it on my own, and it’s been a while since I tried machine quilting. I broke two needles and one quilting foot and was only two-thirds of the way done, but it was time to go.
I put the quilt into a fancy bag and as the little one and her mom opened the quilt, I called out that I’d need it back to finish it. There was silence for a moment, and I was worried that I’d made a serious goof. Then, every woman in the room started to talk. My granddaughter turned to the quilt, opened her arms as though to gather it up, and kissed it! It was a success, even unfinished.
In the picture below, you’ll see the bottom half of the quilt. Diagonally from the upper left to lower right, there are five pictures of our granddaughter built into quilt blocks. I made the center block a star block. The fabrics in the quilt are from every pink in my quilting stash.
A friend from quilting bee is going to bring me a darning foot for my sewing machine that won’t break, and I’ll finish the quilt in a day or two. I’d like for our daughter to let our granddaughter use this quilt up, wear it out, and throw it away, but I don’t think I’ll get my way. She was talking about hanging it on the wall.

I had to move the lamp that usually sits on the table, to take this picture. This quilt took me several years to piece. I had about a third of it done when I ran into difficulty getting the piecing right at the points. One evening I sewed the row five times and STILL didn’t get it right.
A trip to the optometrist helped, and I resumed work a couple of months later. I think I played with it for a year or so before I was willing to send it off to be quilted. The quilt on the wall is a Friendship Star quilt. You can see that I love stars. The quilt thrown over the back of the chair is a star quilt, too.

I was approached after Katrina hit our shores by a woman who had read my blog, and knew I am a quilter. She had developed the idea of pulling together things for quilters who had lost everything in the hurricane, including the material to make a quilt.
I got started on the project, and then asked my Friday Night Quilt Bee if they wanted to participate. We’ve pulled together a variety of items the average quilter has in her quilt room: pins, needles, a magnetic pin holder, fabric and paper scissors, thread, needle threaders, marking pens, colored pencils, a Pigma pen for signing quilts, a pin cushion, safety pins, a bag of embellishments (buttons, beads, Yo-Yos, floss), two quilting books, a quilting hoop, template material, an Olfa rotary cutter, a mat and a ruler. We also added a package of comfort items like tissues, hand cream, Advil, playing cards, stationary and stamps.
Elegante Mother and I searched our stashes of fabric to find the material for a red, white and blue quilt top that is 68 inches wide and 88 inches long. I cut the blocks, sashing and setting blocks. We supplied fabric for the outer border, and yesterday I bought a wonderful fabric in shades of blue to white in a hydrangea pattern for the quilt backing. (I wish I had purchased a bit o that for my stash!)
We added our favorite batt to the collection, and I gathered scraps for the hearts that are to be appliqu

Beneficence: The practice of doing good; active goodness, kindness, or charity; bounty springing from purity and goodness.
Just a quick note about beneficence…
I am personally practicing beneficence this week. I don’t know that I’d say this bounty springs from purity or goodness, but it was a logical extension of my interests. A reader of this blog asked me if I’d care to create a “Quilt Room In A Bag” for a quilter who had lost everything due to Katrina or Rita. You all know that quilting is dear to my heart, so how could I refuse? I’ll blog more about it tomorrow, in case any of you would like to participate in this activity. I’ve asked my quilting bee if they would care to contribute items, and I hope that we are able to put together several bags. I personally think it’s a cool idea!

This is a dreadful picture, but I’m dying to share this with you. The ladies who do my machine quilting returned the batik quilt last month. I laid the quilt on the floor of my foyer on a sunny morning, and hoped there would be enough light with a flash to be able to get a picture. I can see that we will have to take it outside to get true colors, and the full size for you. The quilt is approximately 104 x 80 inches. The quilt is not bound yet. I need to make a run on the quilt shop to buy black fabric for the binding. (I know….tough duty! *G*)
My brother and his wife were visiting this week, and my mother encouraged me to show them the quilt. I told them that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but that it was a quilt I needed to make. I was astounded when my brother said that he had a wall in his house that would be the perfect spot for it if I cared to give it up. That really gave me a pause. I’m not ready to let it go, but it would be quite an honor to have my brother show my work. If I gave it to him it would be with the caveat that it had to stay within our family if he tired of it.
This is a closeup of the quilting. The ladies found a variegated thread that had all the colors of the quilt, for the quilting in the black triangles. The batik is quilted in gold to bring out the designs in each block. The strips are quilted in threads that are close to their color.

Cop Car has sent me back to school. With her wonderful gift of Electric Quilt 5, she’s made me a student again.
The software comes with a very user friendly manual and a “Getting Started” booklet with six lessons. I was working on Lesson Four and ran into concrete wall. I was trying to work on the lessons at night, just before going to bed. We all know better, but I kept trying to follow the instructions despite being too tired.
I learned how to delete a project , and wiped out all my mistakes. I’ll get a fresh start on it in the morning. I’ve been excused from jury duty, so I’ll have a little time to myself that I hadn’t counted on. I’m sure things will go more smoothly this time around.
Soon Cop Car and I will be melting the wires with files of our newest designs!