Garden

This colors in the garden are so inspiring. I love the tropical medley colors in the impatients.

Knitting and Charity

In May I was knitting and here are some pictures of a couple of baby gifts I made. I also made a Noah's Ark baby quilt that I gave to our guild's charity project.

Middletown Mystery Quilt - part 1

In February we started a Mystery Quilt with out guild. We choose fabrics, made some small blocks and now we are beginning to put blocks together. I'm very anxious to see how it turns out. Here are some of my blocks to date. This should be rotated to get the correct perspective, but you get the idea.

Houses

I saw this pattern in Weekend Quilts and loved it. I finally bought some batiks and made it in a few days. I really like it as a summer wall hanging. I can envision embroidering the words "Be it ever so humble" along the bottom, but that is a future project.

Summer Projects

I finished a quilt that I bought fabric for 2 years ago in Michigan. It has a fussy cut center and uses scrappy Kaffe Fassett prints. It was a pain to make because it is big and it had to be laid out to make the diamond pattern and keep the colors in the correct place. Twice I ran out of a certain color and had to order more. I finally got it pieced in May and quilted it on my Bernina. I like the quilting, which included some free-motion and some straight-line quilting. It is a lightweight quilt with only flannel as a batting. I was happy to finish this project. I used a vintage sheet as a backing, which makes it soft and light. I really like this as a summer coverup.

My beautiful new quilt

I saw this quilt about a year ago on the p s iquilt blog by Rachel Griffith. Rachel designed the quilt using the fabrics - Rouenneries by French General for Moda. I fell in love with the pattern and colors. I made the quilt in the fall of 2010, but did not get it quilted until spring 2011. It was quilted by Laurel Cook and it is exquisitely quilted, however, I did learn a lesson on this quilt. If I had studied Rachel's quilt closer, I'd have seen that she just quilted it with on overall Rose pattern. I had mine custom quilted and although it is lovely, the quilting blends into the quilt to the point that it really does not enhance the overall look of the quilt. The patterns in the fabric are dominant, and the quilting blends in. I don't think I would have liked the quilt at all, if I had made the quilting dominant by using a darker thread,because that would have detracted from the fabrics. The quilting does not take away from the quilt, it just does not add anything that an overall pattern would not have provided. The border quilting does show up. This custom quilting was additional cost for no additional beauty, in my opinion. Lesson learned. There is a time for custom quilting. I've had it done on other quilts and it made the quilt. More is not always better, just more.

A Long Break

I have not posted to this blog for a few months. It's not that I've have not been sewing at all, but I haven't finished anything completely until yesterday. I did a little gift sewing over the winter. I made Mug Rugs in February and some grocery totes in March. I've also been knitting. I finished a little Schnibbles Quilt and it is pictured here. The Schnibbles are designed by Miss Rosie Quilts, who defines a schnibble as follows: Schnibble: noun A scrap of fabric; a leftover bit of cloth; a small piece. The word has a German origin and is found primarily in German settlements in the Midwest. These are little quilts, less than a yard square. This one is hanging in the powder room. I also have another quilt completed except for the binding. And I have another on the design wall.

I'm sorry to have missed the Red and White Quilt Show in NYC last weekend. The pictures on blogs make it look breathtaking.