A St. Nicholas Day Gift

I was a wee bit late in getting this project done in time for the Feast of St. Nicholas, Dec. 6. I spent the day after the feast day finishing up the quilting. This gift is headed to my mom since she has sent me boxes of her fabrics to use in my quilts. All minus the yellow fabric were from her stash.

This pattern, Fun Poinsettia, is from Sew Kind of Wonderful (http://sewkindofwonderful.blogspot.com/2013/11/fun-poinsettias.html). I didn't have the curve ruler that she suggests. Instead, I used a curve ruler with lots of curves that I already own and selected a curve that worked close to the directions on the placement of the ruler. I had to make some modifications since the curve was slightly off. Also, I only made one flower since I only had enough fabric for one. Piecing was done on Davis NVF since the walking foot on that machine is easy to use for curves. Quilting was done with the Davis NVF, along with part of the binding. The decorative stitching on the binding was done with the Necchi Supernova.

Another Season

My mom asked me if I could make a mini quilt like the one I gave her for Mother's Day. She wants to give this quilt as a thank you gift for receiving free organic veggies from friends whose kids own the farm mentioned on the mini quilt, One Straw Farm.

Since I no longer have some of the same fabrics, I changed most of the fabrics. I like the background fabric for this project since the vegetable/fruit look like little, round, red peppers. The paper-piecing was done on my Singer 201, quilting and binding on Davis NVF, and the decorative stitching on Singer 224.

Mondrian Quilt in Shades of Blue

This blue jean quilt reminds me of Mondrian's work.

When researching quilts made from jeans, I came across this gal's blog:
http://lucysquilts.blogspot.com/2009/12/denim-quilts.html.
Once I saw the quilts, I knew that I had to make one for my daughter's new apartment as a birthday present. Plus, it looked like a fun, quick project. So, my box of recycled, cleaned jeans that has been sitting for months was pulled out, and I busily got started with cutting and arranging 2", 4", 6", 8", 10", & 12" blocks.

The blocks were then attached with 1" strips of brown Kona fabric that were sewn together with 1/4" seams made by using the Two Spools machine. This technique makes for no bulky seams since one isn't sewing denim to denim.



Then I sewed blocks together to form large sections. Those sections were quilted in a diagonal straight stitch that were 4 inches apart to the back fabric with the Davis NVF. It was easier to quilt sections versus quilting an entire quilt since denim is heavy. There is no batting used in this quilt since the denim alone is thick enough and heavy. The back of the quilt shows the best visible view of the sections. The solid black fabric pieces were added to fabrics pieces to form a complete panel or back section.

Once all of the five sections were quilted, I attached sections together by using black 1" strips of Kona fabric that were attached to sections with 1/4" seams on one side by machine. The other side of the strips were hand-sewn. Yes, I did hand sew those strips as well as the binding! I did the hand stitching so that there would not be any machine stitching lines showing on the top other than the quilted diagonal lines.

Not even my traditional finishing off of the binding with the decorative stitching was done on this quilt. I wanted to capture the simple, clean look of a Mondrian.

Decisions

...are sometimes difficult. I started quilting this table runner using the pattern that came with the kit, but I disliked the look of the quilting. It just wasn't a representation of my style of work- totally not me. So, I took the quilting out that I had done and let the work sit while I thought of patterns that I liked. After couple of weeks of reflection, I came up with this simple pattern that I could do using my Davis NVF for the quilting.

Minus the white fabric and the back fabric, all of the fabrics came from my mother's stash that she had given to me. This Wedding Ring table runner will be given to my mother.

A Mother's Day Gift

When I saw the Pick Violets free paper piece pattern by Amy Friend of During Quiet Time on her blog, I knew it would be my next project. I made a small change to the handle of the garden shovel since I didn't want to deal with the smaller pieces.

My mom loves wild flowers. She will sometimes stop on a side of a road to pick daisies, Queen Anne's Lacy, and other summertime flowers to make a beautiful bouquet. The daisies in this mini quilt remind me of some of those roadside fields that my mom frequents in the summer. This spring my mom has been replacing some old, leggy plants in her yard. That's a prodigious job for her since Mom is in her eighties. Instead of giving my mom flowers for Mother's Day, I'm going to give her this small table topper. It should last longer than a bouquet of flowers.

Petals, Bubbles, and Waves

I finally finished the quilt for my neighbor's daughter. I hope the decorative stitching holds up well on the petals and bubbles side of this quilt.

The pattern on the side with the multiple colors of the rainbow is called New Wave. The quilting was just a straight stitch in the narrower white sections.

Side One

I love the look of the New Wave Quilt pattern from Elizabeth Hartman/ www.ohfransson.com. Just one of many patterns that has been on my to do list for quite some time now. It's a very easy pattern to follow and assemble.

 

After arranging the layout of the colors, I spent the day piecing with my Two Spools machine. It has been a couple of months since I have sat down with this machine. I love this machine for piecing.

Side One finished; tomorrow I start on Side Two.

Chevron

...and deadlines. I made my deadline of finishing the baby quilt so that I could give it as my donation quilt to my quilt guild's community quilt outreach program at today's meeting.

This time, I went with a 1/2 inch binding.  I cut 3 inch strips that were sewn together, then folded in half, and attached with a 1/2 in seam. I like the look of the 1/2 binding. What I would do differently is to sew just less than a 1/2 seam so that when I fold over the fabric it is easier to cover my stitch line with the fabric.