GRADUATION QUILT TOP DONE

I finished the quilt top for my GS's high school graduation - Star Gazing from Bonnie Hunter's book,  "Scraps and Shirttails."  It is made from a variety of scraps including men's shirts, but also some new "musical" fabric because he plays the trumpet, piano and organ.

Close up of the border.

  I have to say that Bonnie's instructions are always easy to follow.  I bought sashing fabric from Connecting Threads on sale and got similar colors to what she used in her quilt.  The cheddar is some Jo Morton fabric that I purchased at a garage sale and I used it in another of Bonnie's quilts that I made last year (see my heading picture above),

I have to add that we are very proud of my GS, as he has earned scholarship offers from 2 colleges and he has until May 1 to make up his mind.  Both schools are offering an academic scholarship, plus an organ performance scholarship that brings the price down within reach of a regular family - for all four years!  He wants to major in history, which is right for him as he is very studious and loves the old fashioned way of life (at least he thinks he does) better than modern life.

Now I'm piecing the back so I can get it quilted before we go to his graduation in June.

DOLL QUILT SENT FOR EXCHANGE

This is the doll quilt that I made for the Doll Quilt Exchange that Lori of Humble Quilts organized.  I already had made the 9-patches out of fabric from my basket quilt and picked out a really cute red and white shirting for the alternating blocks.  I mailed it to Debra and today I received a very sweet thank you note from her that she had received it.

When I was trying to decide what to put on the back, I happened to see this FQ of toile fabric and luckily it fit!  It was the perfect fabric for the backing!  I hope I'm not the only one who machine quilted their quilt.  I've kind of given up on hand quilting lately - bad me.  I've done my share of it, but don't really enjoy it very much.

Again, here is a picture of the wonderful quilt I received from Laurie:

You can read more about it in this blog post.  Thanks, Lori for organizing this exchange!  This is the first exchange I have participated in for something that it a finished item!  It was fun and easy!

ANNIVERSARY QUILT FINISHED!

I finished the 25th anniversary over 2 months ahead of the date (July 1)!  It's good to have that one out of the way.  It is a queen size but will be used on a double bed - so it will be long enough to tuck in the pillows and to hang down on the sides.

Hanging sideways on the fence and still too long.

Close up of the quilting.

I am now working on my GS's high school graduation quilt (son of the couple receiving the anniversary quilt).  It will be easier to quilt as I'll do an overall design.

Happy Easter to all! 

DOLL QUILT EXCHANGE

When Lori at Humble Quilts announced she was having a doll quilt exchange about a month ago, I decided to join it - on the spur of the moment.  I already had some blocks made, so the doll quilt I will be sending was easy to complete.  I'm not showing you that one yet because I want the recipient to receive it first.

However, I received my doll quilt from Laurie (a different Laurie) on Monday and couldn't be happier with it!  She even hand quilted it!  Check out those tiny HSTs!

It has a medallion in the middle!  See how she fussy cut the brown hexes?

Here is my doll bed with it's old quilt on it.  I really was getting tired of it - it was the first doll quilt I made, after all.

Here's how it looks with the new doll quilt!  Much better, don't you think?  Thank you so much, Laurie!

Here's a better view of it.

A couple more Dear Jane Blocks:

B-2

Uh Oh!  look at the lower left corner!  I will have to fix that.

B-4

These were both relatively easy blocks, so you would think I would be able to do it correctly the first time!

Happy stitching!

A DONATION QUILT FINISH

First, I have two Dear Jane blocks to show you.  Both of these were easy paper pieced blocks.

C-1

 My first triangle!  I may have to redo it because my iron left some marks on it.  I cleaned the iron, but not the block yet.  Maybe it will come out.

BR-1

I love to make string quilts for donation to Children's Hospital.  This time I made a rainbow one and I like how it turned out.  This is the one that I quilted on the long arm machine on Saturday and now it is bound and ready to go.  This time I completed the binding with the sewing machine and it turned out fine.  The quilts we make are given to the patients and they get to keep them, so I hope some sick girl will like this one.

Here's a couple close-up pictures of the quilting and the corner folded back over the backing so you can see it.  I got the wild backing fabric a couple years ago at a garage sale and I already backed one quilt with it.  It is used up now.

We're having beautiful weather here in Texas and my irises are budding!

LONG ARM QUILTING IN WAXAHACHIE

I love going to Waxahachie - it's such a unique town.   I went there today to attend a Charity Stitch-A-Thon at Seldom Seen Quilting, a long arm quilting business owned by Diana Buckley, who is a member of my quilt guild.  Even though I've been to Waxahachie many times, I had never visited Seldom Seen Quilting, which is right across the street from my favorite quilt shop.  Diana celebrated her business's one year anniversary by hosting the Charity Stitch-A-Thon.  

Ellis County Court House

Seldom Seen Quilting Sign in front of My Father's House Antiques

The long arm quilting business is located inside My Father's House Antiques - in the upper room.

My Father's House Antiques

Diana's quilting studios -  one of her two long arms

Here's me quilting a quilt that I made to donate to Children's Hospital

I'm kind of nervous starting out.

Diana Buckley and Trudy Coker, her expert assistant.

Common Threads Quilting, right across the street

Another view of My Father's House Antiques

I really appreciate the opportunity to quilt on the long arm machine.  This quilt got done a lot faster that way.  Quite a few other guild members came to either quilt or help finish other charity quilts by binding them.

Here's a couple pictures of my quilt that I took when I got home and the lighting wasn't very good.

When I get the binding on, I'll take a better picture

Thanks Diana!  By the way, Diana teaches people how to use her long arm quilting machines and then rents the machines out to them so they can do their own quilting.  Visit her web site here.