Category Archives: Quilting

My brothers’ eldest grandchild, my great niece, just graduated high school. She is one very smart, athletic and talented young lady. I wanted to send her something special for a graduation gift. My friend Laurie had made her daughter (and many others) a pillow with the school logo. What a great idea!

She is going to attend the University of Buffalo and the logo is a blue bull. I enlarged the bull to the size I needed and found the perfect blue to use. I spray basted it onto a medium gray.

I then stabilized on the wrong side of the piece I was appliqueing.

Lots of buttonhole stitching which went surprisingly quick! A backing and binding and off in the mail it went!

And here she is! It got a bit crushed in the box, but that will be an easy fix. I hope she enjoys her pillow and has a great college experience. It’s unfortunate I won’t be able to attend her big celebration party, but will certainly be there in spirit!

Sometimes doing an easy little quilt feeds my soul. I sorted through my box of 3 1/2” squares, sorted out a pile blues and a pile of greens, and sewed away! I brought the blues to a retreat, sewed them together the first evening, backed it the next morning, quilted and did the binding. What a great way to begin a retreat!

The green squares were put together at home on a day none f my current projects were appealing to me. Again, sewn, quilted and bound. Bam! Done!

Both will be donated to the local Community Pregnancy Center.

In January, I finished a special quilt top for a very special person. In March it made its way to the long arm quilter then back home to be bound. It was an absolute delight to finally gift this quilt in April for its intended recipient. This gentleman has an extensive book collection is why I chose the bookshelf quilt.

He does have a cat, so one sits on one of the shelves. The coffee mug has the first initial of his name, and the brass nameplate says “Chef”, which is his profession. A scattering of books has a “title.” For some, I used a selvedge, others just a narrow strip of print fabric.

The backing is an Anna Maria Horner fabric that I just happened to have in my stash – Score! It could not have been more perfect!

And here he is with his personal quilt! My hope is that this quilt gives him as much joy as it has given me.

Spring is in hyper overdrive here in the Piedmont, yet here I am continuing to work on Christmas ornaments! I’ve done several more of the Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments and am still very much enjoying the process.

The Goose-A-Laying and her egg. The “nest” design was so clever and the egg was a fun simple one to make.

The pattern suggests several color choices for each ornament. I loved how dramatic the black for the swan is.

Maid-a-Milking. I “cheated” a bit and ordered the prepainted beads for the heads. They were so reasonable and I just knew I would frustrate myself to no end trying to paint them myself! The people ornaments are definitely more challenging than the birds and less intuitive. Fortunately, the directions are excellent and I read and reread them.

The Drummer! He was the most challenging to date, but still fun. I continue to be in awe of the designer’s attention to detail like the cuffs on the sleeves and although not seen in this picture, there is a pom pom on the top of the hat!

Just a few more to go! I have all the pieces traced and have also chosen all the felt. I’m also still committed to doing a second set. Looks like I’ll have the first set ready for this Christmas!