Indecision–The Storm Within

Based on Tennessee Williams play “Spring Storm.” Choosing between two is sometimes a hard choice. This or that. Good or bad. Life or death. Blessing or cursing. (Deut. 30:19)  “…choose you this day whom ye will serve … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” –Joshua 24:15

After quilting, the bolt of lighting wanted to buckle and the background didn’t want to lay flat.

So I cut down through the lightning and cut out a portion and …

…added a piece of black to the underside.

Then using a zig-zag stitch I  quilted around the lightning to make it sizzle.

When I was all done, the quilt still wanted to buckle and ripple.

I’m all for blocking a quilt to make it lay flat. Just pour a gallon of water over it to soak the fibers, square it up and blow it dry.

I am delighted that I met the March 23 deadline and …

met my goal for March with

Mother and Me

I so much enjoyed having mother here for 2 weeks.

When she finished her “Blue Ribbon” quilt top …

… I took her outside for a photo shoot.

Back inside, she started on her third quilt. Remember how Emily sorted my scraps by color? I chose the orange drawer and the purple drawer for a crazy quilt.

Mother cut out the foundations and then pieced the blocks like she has been doing for years with velvets.

She took both of these tops home with her hoping to quilt them with her sewing machine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Parting Shot

1600 Quilt, Giveaway Winner, Picnic

Since Mother finished the FourSquare String Quilt, she started another one with the left over strings of my "Spring Storm."

She just sewed the ends of the strips together  for a 1600 quilt only…

I think it’s more like a 3072 quilt.

I think she was both surprised and pleased at how fast it went together.

 

I need to cut some borders for her, and then I think it will almost be a twin size.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

And the winner for my fabric giveaway is #111.

 

111. Linda said...

HI! IT'S THE ROSEBUD PINEAPPLE!

THANKS FOR A LOVELY GIVEAWAY!

HAPPY STITCHING

 

Congratulations, Linda!

 

I found it interesting to see my readers favorites of my NQOF quilts. I'm guessing that "A Plate of Pineapples" and "Pharoah's Tombs" were chosen the most.  Thank you everyone for your comments and participation. A Plate of Pineapples won a blue ribbon last week at QuiltFest in Pigeon Forge.

 

And "Pharoah's Tombs" and "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" were both on exhibit at the AQS Show in Lancaster, but no ribbons there!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Saturday I took Kirby, Stacy, and Ashton for a picnic…

 

…out at the implement shed.

 

Later I took a walk while the boys rode their bikes.  First Kirby’s pant leg got caught in the chain.

Then his chain came off. And later the riding got too hard for Stacy & Ashton. I was glad to get back to the house where the boys could play quietly in the living room and I could get back to my quilting!

Mother’s Quilt, Spring Storm, Guests

Mother has stuck with her string quilt and sewed and sewed. And now she already has it finished. We thought she was making this for charity; but yesterday I got to thinking that here she made this quilt when she is 87 years old, and I think it needs to stay in the family as an heirloom. So she said I could have it. How about that? Maybe we can do something else for charity!

We are trying to think of a good name for it. Maybe someone out there in blog land has a good idea of a name.

I have been working on “Spring Storm” as much as I can. Here is the background for a big bolt of lightning coming down out of the sky.

I’ve machine appliqued the lightning to the background and now I’m quilting it with organic lines about 1/8” apart. I’m loving the texture the quilting is giving it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget to enter my fabric giveaway here. You have until March 17 to enter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last Sunday we had a table full of company.

Darren & Becky with Corina

Wes & Heidi with Jackie and William

Jed & Vicki

Paul’s folks, Mom & Daddy

Melanie

and my mother, Margaret.

Emerald Pine

I decided to take the challenge of making a mini quilt with “emerald” in mind.

 

After I had chosen my fabric I decided the green really had too much blue in it for emerald. So I added a light green horizontal quilting thread in the gray strips, darker green on the emerald strips, charcoal on the black, and a variegated blue and green thread to make the pine tree. Then I used brown on the trunk.

This quilt has a subtle look to the pine and draws you in for a closer look. It is stitched with organic lines approximately 1/8th inch apart.
Size: 16” X 18 1/4”

In the pines, in the pines …

From a distance I think of a pine tree against the night sky. As you come in closer you can see how it lights up and brings life to the piece.

The back.

The label.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashton takes Great Grandmother’s order for a cheeseburger, fries, and coke.

I had a quilt presentation in Tuscaloosa and enjoyed the WAQG meeting and show and tell. One of the ladies made Bonnie Hunter’s Easy Street.

We had the family in for pizza and after supper. The grands enjoyed the Legos – great fun for building and just mixing them up and pulling them out of the container.