The next project

This quilt is the culmination of something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I first made a similar quilt for my sister in law (picture in a previous post). I loved the pattern, and am finally getting the chance to re-create it.

This is also a bit of a "patchwork" quilt, only in that I used scraps of material and leftover peices to finish out the quilt. I loved being able to find peices of other quilts I have made that were left over and to use them again. They will now be contstant reminders of the quilts that I have made and given away to loved ones. It is like an ongoing connection.



Finally, I am going to use a technique on this quilt that I have wanted to use for a while but have not been able to try. Basically what you do is take scraps of material and sew it all together in a big peice. Then you take the peice and treat it like any other fabric, cutting out the shapes that you need for what ever you are working on. I am going to take this home made fabric and edge the rest of my quilt with it. More pictures will follow. For this part of the project I have also used the edging of the fabric, where it tells the name or maker or colors used. We saw this at a recent quilt show where someone had made a whole block out of the part of the fabric that is usually thrown away or hidden inside a seam. i like the idea and have been saving the edges for just such a project as this one, so I will put some better pictures of that part of the fabric up as I continue working on this project.

Beacon quilt 2

I am posting my pictures of the final quilted version of the quilt I made for my boss. I will be giving it to her on Monday. I hope she likes it. I like the way it came out with the quilting. It ended up not being as big as I thought, so it is more of a big lap quilt. It almost seems decorational vs. for warmpth. But it is very usable and nice.

The quilting is in the shape of stars. They don't show up obtrusively, but are nice background patterns.

I am happy with the final product. I hope my boss is as well.

flowers...a change of pace

Just some views of my little garden. I have been having some fun with a pot garden this year. I did not ever have a lot of success with my flower bed. I got phlox to grow there, which is great, but nothing else ever took. With the pots, you can move them around in the sun or out of it as needed. THey take a lot more watering, but otherwise I like them that way. Also, I used Miracle Gro Potting soil this year, which was great. It really did make everything grow bigger.

But I love the three pink flowers. They are my newest. The balloon flowers are quite pretty and really do look like a baloon bursting open. Also you can see my lilac growing behind it. I had to put it in a bigger pot this year, since I still haven't found the right place to put it.

Flowers are fun as a change of pace from quilting. You get to be outside and yet you can still be creative and enjoy the process of planning and working toward a beautiful end result. Of course, these little attempts are no where near as beautiful as BRD's garden, but it is an attempt.