Friendship x and + Swap: Our Final Blocks!

I made some blocks and sent them to Suz...

 It's always fun to photograph the twinsies before I package up four.

 Susan chose orange, brown and red for this month's colors....our last set to mail! Here are the four that she made for me. It's autumn where she lives.

 As usual the sets blend well together and offer a survey of our separate stashes.

We each now have 64 blocks to make into a friendship quilt. I'm trying to come up with something a little different for the setting. Wish me luck!

Be sure to join all of the participants for our final reveal on the last Friday in September.
You can see everyone's blocks on our flickr site here.

Arrows

If you don't follow Carla on her blog, Grace and Favour, you are really missing out! She makes such pretty quilts from her home in Canada. Thanks to the Mid-Century Modern Bee, I feel like Carla and I have become good friends over the last couple of years. The month of May is her turn to be the queen bee and decide on blocks for the rest of us to make. 

This clever lady chose ARROWS as her theme and wrote up s nice tutorial describing how to make them. 

I had so much fun that I decided to make two!

I am so looking forward to seeing her final project.

 You can catch a glimpse of some of the other arrows here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Morning

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever,

His faithfulness continues through all generations."

Psalm 100:4-5

Really Random Thursday: May Edition

May is such a busy month, isn't it? Here's a little diary of random stuff that I've been up to: 
First off, today I joined about 45 quilters for a bus trip to Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri. I spent a lot of time in the Basics Shop looking at all of the pretty solids and polka dots. (Yes, I bought some.) Isn't the decor fabulous!

 The shop window reminded me of my sewing room!

Last week, Lois stood still long enough for me to snap a few photos of her wearing her new Jump Rope Dress. Of course, I think she would even look cute wearing a paper bag!

 All of my little grand daughters love to wear skirts and dresses. I whipped up these elastic waist skirts in just a few hours one afternoon. The fabric is by Anna Maria Horner.

 I used the last of my "Lolly" labels to mark the back of the skirts to help Lula and Jane in dressing themselves.

 But, just the next day, the postman delivered my new labels ordered from Jennifer's Jewels. Thanks, Suz, for sharing this great etsy source with me!

Speaking of little girls. Do you see any matches in this batch of socks that I washed last week when my daughter's dryer broke down?... Neither did I. (The joke was on me!)

Remember when I unsewed all of the background quilting on my Farmer's Wife quilt a year ago? And the quilter re-quilted it for me? Well, good news! Lynne  entered the quilt into the Machine Quilter's Showcase in Wichita, Kansas, and won a Teacher's Award Ribbon for her fabulous work. We are both so proud!

And while we are on the subject of beautiful quilting, have you heard about this big Quilt Festival coming to Kansas City next year? Be there or be square; that's all I can say! (If you are interested in being a vendor at the festival, give me a holler and I will connect you with the right people.)

 I love this time of year when everything is green and the flowers are blooming everywhere I look. Isn't this a cute display seen at our local arboretum! It's a bit hard to see in the photo but the flowers are planted in ROYGBIV order.

While visiting the arboretum, I glanced over toward the lake and almost said to my friends, "Hey, let's go see what that guy is painting!" He was pretty good.

Happy May! I hope you are relishing every minute of life!

Wordless Wednesday--Yellow

Sunday Morning

"As for God, His way is perfect;

the word of the Lord is proven;

He is a shield to all who trust in Him."

Psalm 18:30 NKJV

Green

 Green: grass, leaf, limes, parakeet, spinach, moss, shamrock, 

dish, sherbet, hosta, cup, pillow, alligator, tree, chair,

emerald, fern, popcicle, mint, hydrangea, margarita, olive,

limeade, kiwi, book cover, tractor, sunglasses, pistachio, grasshopper,

zinnia, crayon, melon rind, lily pad, frog, jade, palm, lizard

 I'm playing 'catch up' with this project. I had planned to make this green block in March. The next color is Yellow...for April. Oops! Where does the time go?

Have a great weekend!

Happy Mother's Day

"She speaks with wisdom,

and faithful instruction on her tongue."

Proverbs 31:26

Something New

Sometimes a girl like me just has to start something new...

 Actually, I've been thinking about this one for months now. The Kaffe fabric, on the left, was my inspiration for the color scheme: low volume fabrics in pink, aqua, lavender, peach, yellow and white, all against a grey background. Maybe I'll use this Michael Miller Spot On that I have in my stash. Course, I don't have enough.

 I've never made a Dresden Plate block before. The directions included with the EZ Ruler were easy to follow and included tips for stitching everything together as well as a chart for making various sizes of blocks.

 Mine will be large: at least 20 inches as the Dresden is 18.5 inches across.

 Each block has 20 spokes. I'm doubling up so needed 10 fabrics. That's fine with me 'cause you know how I love all that scrappy goodness! No two blocks will be exactly the same, of course.

 I'm pretty happy with my experiment and think that I'll continue. Sewing the block was not difficult and fairly quick, really. I enjoyed making it a lot and look forward to creating 19 more!

 This week I've also sewn up a dress. Another little grand daughter needs a new one made by her Lolly.

 Again, I used the Jump Rope pattern by Oliver +S, this time in a size 2, for Lois. I'll try it on her today and maybe even get a picture!

 The fabrics are from the Briar Rose line by Heather Ross. I love sewing up this quick and classic pattern. I wonder how many more I'll make before I'm done!?

Do you sometimes like to start something new right in the middle of sewing on other projects? Or am I the only one?!

Sunday Morning

"The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,

to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly

for the Salvation of the Lord."

Lamentations 3:25-26 KNJV

My Landmark Quilt

Today is Reveal Day for the Four-in-Art Bee. My quilt is the third in a series around the main theme of Urban. Our topic this round was Landmark.

Being a directionally-challenged girl, whenever someone asks me for directions to my house I always say the same thing: "Do you know where Johnson Farms is?" Johnson Farms is a wonderful garden center and nursery just down the road from my house. Most of the plants they sell at this family business are  grown from seeds in their nursery.

After thinking about several options to convey the idea of "landmark" I finally, decided to create a quilt that reflects a landmark that I use constantly. The sunflower windmill represents all of their gorgeous flowers. In the fall, the garden center turns into a wonderful Pumpkin Farm: one we have visited many times with our grandchildren!

From the start, I knew that I wanted to keep the fabrics in this third quilt in the same color range as the first two for consistency. Many of the pastel solids and the grey are actually cut from the same cloth as my first two Urban quilts, seen here and here.

I chose to make the background sort of a mosaic using two inch squares. Then I inserted a pinwheel block to represent the sunflower windmill and an orange hexagon to stand in for the pumpkin.

After piecing the quilt all together, I added a raw edge applique sunflower, windmill derrick, pumpkin stem and tiny pink squares for flowers. My walking foot easily stitched over the little glued-on squares.

I wanted to somehow depict the barn shaped roof of the Farm sign, so, after piecing in the sides of the barn and the angles, I used the binding to convey a roof by piecing in a length of taupe fabric to match. The remainder of the Architextures binding matches the first two quilts in the series.

I tried to keep my matchstick quilting as straight as possible but toward the edges, I got a bit off. I love the texture that the quilting added to this piece of art.

Because the quilt is only twelve inches square, the stitching went fast. I doubt I would have the patience to tackle this style of quilting on a larger piece!

The backing on this little quilt is  from the True Colors line by Heather Bailey.

I'm pretty pleased with my representation of a landmark in my life. I might even get brave and take it over to Johnson Farms sometime and see if they recognize it!

Making little art quilts has been a new experience for me; one that I've enjoyed. I invite you to take a few minutes and check out the landmark quilts made by the other seven quilters in the Four-in-Art Bee. The links are listed below. 

Amanda  at whatthebobbin.com

Anne  at springleafstudios.com

Betty at a Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2

Carla at lollyquiltz.blogspot.com

Elizabeth at opquilt.com

Leanne at shecanquilt.ca

Nancy at  patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Rachel at rachel-thelifeofriley.blogspot.com