More art

THis is more art we bought at our art show. Just wanted others to get to see it...The pictures do not do them justice.

The large one is a beautiful scene of a waterfall. The light causes the highlights to really stand out.

THe two other ones are done by an artist who lives in Sevierville TN. THey look great in our bathroom.

kitchen table

Just some pictures of our new table cloth. I really like the way it turned out in the kitchen. Plus it goes with our new art. I got the napkin rings to make the kitchen more festive...thanks to the encouragement of my sister-in-law. :)

The finished quilt top!

OK, so here are some shots of the finished top to the quilt. BAsically, stage one is complete.
I had some difficulty with the edge pieces, as I had accidently cut them wrong. You have to always be thinking when it comes to quilts!!

I am now trying to decide what to use as a backing. I have a large cream colored sheet that matches the stripe in the blue fabric. But I am not loving the combination. It matches yes, but does not speak to me, if you know what I mean. A nice light green that matches some of the other details would be ideal, but this will be an added expense. If I find a good deal at JoAnn's next week when I go, I will consider it. Otherwise, it is the old sheet. I hate to pair something that is only "SO-So" with something that took so much time and effort. So maybe I will wait and save up for a nice matching back.

The other debate is whether to get a backing and an internal batting to make it warm, or to use a fleece back which saves a step. I have made some nice quilts with the fleece backing--they are warm and soft. But I think I may go with the regular backing.

Also, I know a lady who does machine quilting and binding of the edges. I have never tried this method of finishing a quilt, but would like to. Maybe this is my chance. It would cost, but I'd like to see it finished this way.

Anyway, hope you like the top of this one. It took some time, but was worth the effort. Now for the hard part of finishing it! :)

Art spot

Honest opinions? what do you think of the fox. I am not done with the details. It is my impressioninstic attempt to capture the feeling we got when we kept seeing this one little fox near our house. He was so cute, and we would see him after our workout session most nights. That is until one day when Ashok saw that he had been hit by a car. It was very sad.

The lighthouse is not my work. It is a picture we bought from our friend who does the art show. It is currently on display in my art room, but will soon be a Christmas gift for my boss...the symbol for our company is a lighthouse, so it really fits.

Finally, my messy art space. Mom, I thought that maybe when you are in Altoona you could show it to Grandmom so she could see my painting zone. Note her art box on the side.

I did not have any pictures of the kitchen before our remodeling began, but I thought you may be interested in seeing what we did. The after photos are below. We love how it turned out. The only thing we still need to work on is sealing the sink into place.
We re-did the counters, backspash, and knobs and handles.

Aaah, cold weather is on the way....

And that sort of causes one to turn ones mind back to the nice warm quilt just waiting to be finished off. Just like quilting, my blogging comes and goes. But it is time that I updated my progress on the cat quilt. Since May, I put the quilt down for a while, then worked on it in two intense weekends, then put it away again for a while. But before I pick it up again, it is time for an update.

First, I need to feature the one who does all the REAL work on this quilt...my sewing machine. It is a simple, trusty machine that I got for Christmas many years ago. It needs oiled every now and again, but otherwise it is good to go. It has made numerous quilts, pencil endge my wedding veil, not to mention the skirts for my bridesmaids, and has stiched numerous other items. I felt like I was remiss in not showing this important peice of the quilting process.

Anyway, as you can see, I have gotten a good ways on peicing the quilt together. You can see above how I take the blocks and lay them out. As I get a line ready to go, I take it to my trusty machine, sew it, and then connect it to the body of the quilt. Sorry about having another foot shot. I swore I would avoid getting them in the shot, but was not careful enough.

It was a lot more time consuming of a pattern than I thought it would be, so I decided to make the section with the squares smaller and add a dark blue edge. This is a great way to make a quilt just a bit bigger. My husband specifically requested that this one be long enough to cover both his feet and neck . He says he does not like the small ones that leave parts sticking out!

I think the pattern itself turned out very neat. You can see how the pattern on the blue fabric lends to the chained pattern of the quilt itself, making it look more like a backdrop for the green fabric. It is very different. I don't know if I would like it with other fabrics, but with these it really turned out.

Hope fully I will have this done before Christmas and can post another update. Although, I am now starting to think about other projects to give as gifts. It is too easy to get distracted. But I love when I get a chance to work on these quilts.

hope you find this post interesting.

Mom's quilts

I have made a few quilts for my mom over the years. She is often cold, so she is really able to appreciate being able to wrap up in a warm blanket. In this post I will show you two of those I have made for her.

The first is one that we designed together...actually one day when mom was staying with me I woke up early, though of course not as early as mom did. When I got to the table with my cup of coffee, mom had a sketch for me. It was a quilt design that she wanted me to make for her.

As you can see, it is a long robe like quilt with a keyhole cut out at the top for your neck. This way, the blanket will wrap around your neck and keep warm air from escaping out the top! :)

Then at the bottom it is a big pocket for your feet to keep them toasty too. And a pocket sewed in the middle to hold a book or pen so that if you have to get up and go to another room, you can keep all your stuff with you.

I definitly recommend getting a big peice of fleece for this in a pattern that you like. These are great for wrapping up in. I like to call them the "Sophisticated Buffalo Robe". Remember, on this one, warmpth is key!!!

The second quilt pictured is one of the first I made for mom. A definite example of

falling in love with fabrics. I loved all these fabrics and had fun putting the peices together.

There is something so great about finding a fabric that is beautiful and soft and cozy. That is the key to a good "working" quilt...beauty and comfort. There are lots of wonderful "show" quilts out there, but I personally only like to make the kind of quilt that I am going to be able to use. I don't even mind it when small seams tear. This just shows that whoever has the quilt is using it...wrapping up in it, letting their dog lay on it sometimes :), having picnics on it, sleeping under it, throwing it in the washing machine, etc. It is functional. A quilt it a work of art that you can use.