JOY

This is my final entry for the Weekly Photo Challenge. We were to depict "letter" in some way. I chose three letters, J-O-Y and made a small 16"X9" quilted motto. Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others in between!

Quilts and Farming

The photo challenge word for this week is, BIG. Here is a quilt I made back in 2009 that depicts big that I named, "From New York to California."

I decided to make some changes on my new project "Jacob's Ladder." I'm changing out some of the blocks for paper pieced four-patch blocks.

 

Here you can see the sections of the SLM charity quilt done so far.

 

I kept Georgi one day this week.

 

Yesterday I took some parts to the field for Quinten.

 

He changed out the parts in a hurry and was soon back to cutting corn.

 

And what is Austin and Quinten looking at?

 

Oh dear, the grain cart needs some work done to it.

 

I dropped Paul off to bring the grain cart back to the shop for repairs.

 

Paul was still working hard when evening came around.

Photo Challenge and a Flying Trip to Virginia

The photo challenge theme for this week is "garden." I thought I wasn't going to be able to make a quilt with all that I had going on and would have to use a picture of the "No Flowers in My Garden" quilt that I had on my design wall in the last post. ... But, I found some time while I was in Virginia and made "Three Flowers in My Garden" for the photo challenge.

The back is almost as pretty as the front. I should have made the bobbin thread match a little better instead of trying to just 'use up' the thread that was already wound on the bobbin.

Detail

I couldn't pass up a quick opportunity to fly to Virginia to visit Mother. Joel was going up there to pick up Sheila and their two girls and taking Perry with him. There was an extra seat, really 2 of them, in the plane for me, so I went along to visit Mother for 2 days.

When we got there soon after lunch, Mother and I went to Ruth & Etta Showalter's store. I forget the name of it but they carry fabric and a few notions, cards, books, gifts and there is a small thrift store in the back. It has lots of light and is very spacious.

From there we went to the visitation at the Bank Church for Joyce Heatwole. Our thoughts and prayers are with her husband Kenneth and family as grieve with her passing.

I was glad to go with Mother to the graveyard to see Father's tombstone. It's been over a year now that he is gone.

Mother enjoys reading the paper and watching the birds and wildlife from her rocking chair by the window.

She fixed me such good meals. One evening she broiled some salmon that Terry had caught in Alaska and given to her. Another evening she grilled us each a hamburger and fixed a nice supper.

I went with her to "Gift and Thrift" where she donates one morning a week. She measures and prices fabric and gets it ready to put out on the shelves.

At the thrift store I found a piece of tulle, some glitzy paper scraps, and a black pair of pants for background, thinking that I could make my photo challenge garden somehow.

The glitzy bits of paper just didn't work for me so I opened drawers in Mother's sewing room and found this pretty assortment of thread.

I chose red, green, and yellow and fashioned my flowers with the thread and laid the tulle over the top. Then I layered the top, batting, and backing together and machined quilted "Three Flowers in My Garden."

Barbara met us one day for lunch at the Dairy Queen. That's one of my favorite fast food places and we don't have any close to us in Mississippi so I like to take advantage of them when we travel.

All too soon it was time to pack up and go home.

We had to stop in Knoxville to wait for a heavy storm system to pass over. Joel went out and bought us lunch at McDonalds and brought it back to the FBO for us to eat.

When we got to Joel's we noticed the banana plants had blooms with some bananas growing. Here's Sheila checking them out.

Weekly Photo Challenge

This week's challenge is "On the Floor."

I'll try and explain how I did it.

I first took last week's "Fun" quilt and put it on the floor and took a picture of it.

I enlarged the picture and printed it out in black and white and used it for my pattern.

From that pattern I cut out the small squares of "Fun" and fused them on to the corresponding fabric. I also drew lines on the background "floor" fabric with a pencil to mark where to sew the lines for the tile floor.

Here is the small "Fun" quilt fused together and ready to be ironed to the background "floor."

I sewed (quilted) the gray tile lines and then fused the "Fun" quilt in place. Then the quilting began in ernest with lots of pebbles.

Detail

Here are the two quilts, "On the Floor" and "Fun" on the floor!

And now, I need to start thinking about next weeks challenge, "Chair."

Weekly Photo Challenge -- Fun

Fun. That is the challenge for this week. And this "Crosses" quilt was fun to make.

I have a box of old 1970ish blue fabric and some yellow orange scraps that I decided to put together.

After making my wonky cross blocks I trimmed them down to measure 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" ...

... and sewed them together.

My inspiration for this quilt came from Trudy Too.

And then later I found this turtorial by LollyQuiltz on making the wondy cross blocks that would have been even more fun.

This would make a quick and easy crib quilt.

Weekly Photo Challenge

This week's challenge is called, The Best Part of My Day. I chose to make a small quilt (11" X 8 1/4") of my hands at the sewing machine.

I first had Amy take a photo of me at the sewing machine.

Then I cropped the photo.

Then I changed the image with the "glowing edges" filter on "Picture It 9."

And with the negative of that, I tried printing it on my fabric which didn't work very well.

I ended up printing the light image on paper and cutting out a portion at a time and tracing around it onto my fabric.

Detail

And now, here is a sneek peak of my work in progress for next week's "Fun."

Busy Bee

I watched longingly at the June Photo Challenge in which some of my friends were participating. I wanted to make a simple "Journal Quilt" each day of the challenge but I knew it would be way too much for me. Now that June is over, they are having a "Weekly Photo Challenge." I decided to join them thinking that maybe I can make a small journal quilt once a week.

This week the word is "busy." I too thought of "Busy as a Bee" as did some of the others. So, here's my first quilt for this challenge. It measures 9"X12" and I call it "Busy Bee."

Detail