Morning Glory Dresden Plate

Again on this one I don't have an exact date (uggh!).  I think it is from 2008, and it still isn't quilted (uggh!  uggh!).  I used an older line from Moda called Morning Glory, which I had picked up from a quilt shop, in Columbus, a few years ago.  Then a couple of years ago I was lucky enough to find some additional fat quarters to match the wovens that I already had.   Mix in some nice quality cream-colored fabric and a desire to learn how to do a Dresden Plate quilt ... and voila!   I should have smoothed it out on the design wall a little more before taking the picture though!  It is hard to see in the picture (because it blends in with the white design wall), but there's a cream-colored border OUTSIDE of the checkerboard border.  So this piece actually has three borders ... 1. Cream,  2.  Checkerboard,  3.  Cream.  While this is a lap quilt in terms of size, it will actually be hanging on one of the walls in our master bedroom when I get this quilted.

Spring Magic ...

Here's a wall hanging that I started tonight.  It uses a pack of charm squares from Moda's Spring Magic line, and a couple of white fat quarters.  Think I should have alternating rows point down?

March Table Topper (4/24/06)

My look back for today is to a wall hanging that I finished in April of 2006.  This was a kit, but I can't remember if it was from Glass Thimble (Columbus, OH) or from a small shop that was up in Medina, Ohio.  Both shops were carrying the table topper kits at that time.  Obviously it was all done in greens for St. Patrick's Day ... and when done, I chose to quilt it with green #100 silk.

Miniature Log Cabin (7/15/05)

My look back today is to a small log cabin wall hanging that I did in July of '05.  It was a miniature kit that I purchased at a shop in Mansfield (OH) called Quilt Connection, which is no longer around unfortunately.

Garden Magic (3/30/05)

My look back project for today is a small wall hanging that I did back in March of '05.  The project was a kit from Connecting Threads catalog, back when they were still selling a lot of Moda fabrics in kits.  (Wish they still were!)  I really encourage newbie quilters to do small projects ... they really do help you build confidence.  And with their small size, you have less money invested in each one (so you can do more), and you can get each project accomplished more quickly, and not get bored with the piece or feel overwhelmed.  Is it perfect?  No, not at all.  But I learned some new lessons, and gained experience and confidence!

Fruit Cocktail (7/25/05)

I learned a lot of lessons from this wall hanging that I completed back in July of '05.  This was pretty early on in my quilting, and wasn't confident at all with my thread choices when it came to my quilting.  I ended up using pink thread to do a freemotion pattern called "Ricky Doodles" (according to Ricky Tims) or a version of "headbands" (according to Diane Gaudynski).  My favorite name for the pattern is called "peacock feathers", and it's really the first freemotion motif that I became comfortable with.  As for the wall hanging itself, this was a small wall hanging kit available through Connecting Threads when they were offering Moda stuff (before they radically changed their catalog offerings).

And here's a close up of the stitching.

Flannel Flower Vase (8/2008)

Well, today I'm looking back to a project from August of '08.  It's a good time to remember because it was before the chaos hit our house.  Little did we know that a couple of weeks after this we would be rushing our oldest dachsie to MedVet for her third back surgery and two weeks after that my husband would fall down the stairs and break his ankle in two places.  It was pure craziness.  So I'll take a deep breath and think back to the calm times when I was making this piece.  I had acquired the fabric grouping from Keepsake Quilting a couple of years prior, and had never really known what I wanted to do with the bundle.  I can't remember what the name of the fabric line was, but it is flannel and has a lot of visual texture.  It's just one of those fabrics that makes you want to reach out and touch it!  I used the fat quarters in the bundle to make a Yellow Brick Road quilt (pattern by Terry Atkinson) - but I made the pieces smaller.  Then instead of using the blocks to make a Yellow Brick Road quilt, I used them to create a square around the outside of the flower vase panel.   On the outside I added an extra wide border, using some other black flannel that I had.  This *may* end up getting cut down - it just depends on how I decide to quilt it.  At this point I'm leaning towards doing trapunto work on the flower vase panel - so that would mean it's going to be a wall hanging.  In that case I'll trim those fat borders down a few inches!

February Table Topper (12/28/06)

My look back project for today is a Valentine's Day themed wall hanging that I did back in December of '06.  The project was from a kit, put together by the quilt shop where I bought it.  When it came to the quilting, I used some wool thread to do machine blanket stitch around all of the "logs" in the log cabin, and around the wool heart appliques. 

Here's a close up of the stitching ...

Strep Throat & Democracy Star (10/16/07)

Went to the doctor yesterday because of that sore throat that had me down all weekend - and it turns out it was strep throat.  My voice is nearly gone too.  What a great combo - I could barely tell the pharmacy people my name when I stopped to get my antibiotics.  I actually had to pull out my driver's license and point to the name so that they knew who I was. 

On a sad note, tonight I saw the obituary for a lady that I knew briefly ... she was the mother of my sister's first husband.  I didn't know her well, but she was always very nice to me when our families got together.  Rest in peace Delores, and I hope that her husband and son are able to find some comfort as they move forward without her. 

I didn't have a chance to post anything yesterday, so I missed my look back quilt of the day.  So my look back project for today is a wall hanging called Democracy Star.  I finished it back on 10/16/07.  It was quilted with tan, red and navy silk ...

Some Trapunto ...

I worked on another Valentine's Day wall hanging this past weekend and decided some trapunto work was in order. Hope you can see the dimension on some of the flowers and the flower pot in this picture.