In Like A….

March lion, bold--fierce,

Pounces with frosty breath and

Leaves a crystal world.

What Do You Think, Siri?

Continuing to catch up on past projects, this quilt was a struggle for the maker (P).  The top started out as a Disappearing Nine Patch, but the plaid proved to be quite a cantankerous fabric to work with.  P was ready to throw up her hands, but rather than just toss the whole thing, she took what she had and put it together.  The result was a nine patch made up of five nine patch blocks and four disappearing nine patch blocks.  After the top was done, she handed it off to me with the instructions, "Now make this pretty."  

Not long after this I ran across the Microsoft/Siri ad-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoEqbf6S4dc--which gave me a good laugh.  Now I like and use Apple products, but I thought this was a good comeback from the Apple ads comparing Mac and Microsoft.  So with that in mind, I named this quilt Siri.

Since this will be a guy quilt, I tried to keep the quilting from being too feminine.  In the nine patches, I did a large motif.

Back view (fabric is actually a dark teal color, but the camera on my phone just doesn't do blues and greens well)

In the disappearing nine patches, I echoed the first motif and then did leaves in the blue sections.

The inner border echoes the motifs and the outer border the leaves.  I think P was pleased with the result, so all is well.  

  

A Return to Sanity

Well, we made it through the flooring work.  It was quite a week.  The first day after the demo, I stopped by the house about noon, walked in the door, and thought, "Oh, my!"  There was broken tile and dust everywhere it seemed.  Yet, by the end of the day, they had the floor remarkably clean.  

Despite covering the cabinets and closet shelves, still enough dust seeped through to require my cleaning everything out.  I had put off deep cleaning for some time, so like it or not, I had to do it now.  The house is mostly back to order, so I can start thinking about creative activities again and a regular schedule.  

To catch up, I was able to finish my granddaughter's quilt before Christmas.  I have wanted to make a quilt with house blocks for ages and I thought this would be a fun quilt for her.  Here are some pics:

A Busy Beginning

A Happy New Year to everyone!  I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday celebrations.  The new year has gotten off to a busy start for us.  For several months now we have been looking into replacing the flooring in our home.  The carpet is over 10 year old and we have had problem with the original tile floors cracking.  Just before Christmas we picked out the new flooring materials and right after Christmas we met with our installer.  Next week is the big install and our house is in chaos with all the packing and preparation.  

My hubby and I spent the week of New Years painting our new baseboard….lots of baseboard….720 linear feet of baseboard.  But much easier to do it laid out on the floor than to do it once it is installed. Our installer will put in the baseboards and caulk the nail holes, so all we have to do afterwards, then, is the touch up.  

The rest of this week--packing.  Two things I have thought of in this process:  I don't every want to move again and minimalism definitely has its appeal.  Though I keep things pretty organized, there is a lot of stuff I have in closets and cabinets simply because I had the space to keep it.  So, along with all this upheaval, in the before and after I am doing and will do a lot of cleaning out.  

I look forward to posting pics once it is all done.  Again, Happy New Year!

One of six bundles we did.

Someday

A few year ago, we transplanted an oak that had come up volunteer in our back yard. http://elzbeesplace.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-busy-guy.html  We weren't sure exactly what kind of oak it was, but we hoped it would be one that would give us some fall color.  This is the first year that it has showed us its potential and I am so pleased.  If our crepes myrtles manage to hang in there after these tough drought seasons we have had recently, in a few years, come fall, I may be able to step out into our back yard and get a good soaking of fall color. Happy sigh!

This is my last post for the year.  Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year!  See you in 2014.

Churning Day

Continuing with a nostalgic theme, here is another quilt made from some older blocks donated by the neighbor of L, one of my quilt ladies.  The name of the block is Churn Dash. W set the blocks with blue and yellow gingham and then quilted in the ditch around the block pattern and sashing.  

Since the background for the blocks was a plain muslin, I did some fill work to add some texture.

We used muslin for the backings as well, so this quilt has a sense of real old-fashioned comfort.  

Family Ties: Connections to the Past and Present

The old always has a certain fascination about it--a certain patina and romance.  My latest commissioned project gave me opportunity to tie together the past and present.  A woman in my church had some friendship blocks that had belonged to her mother and she wanted them put into a quilt.  I overheard her say to someone that everyone named in the blocks was family.  So I bring you Family Ties:

Using some fabric from my stash, I pieced together the blocks.  

 Here is the finished quilt.

In the blocks I did a simple outline around the names and then a heart and leaf motif in the corners

 Heart stippling in the sashing.

A simple leaf design in the first border,

Flower and leaf design for the outer border.

Back details.

 I had two extra blocks, so I hemmed them to the back.