Life and a Quilt for Delta Joy

Life ...

I love to hear the singing of children playing church.

This is one reason among many that I don't enjoy gardening! But I am going to look forward to some pretty dragon-wing begonias in a few weeks.

Whenever the rain stops and the land dries up, the men are kept busy in the fields.

... as a Quilter

I finally finished a quilt for Delta Joy. I had this "rail fence" top finished for a couple years and it was only just recently that I decided it would make a nice grandchild's quilt.

So I pieced her name in big letters and framed it with borders and strips to make a back for her quilt. Now it's reversible.

Delta's momma hung it across the balcony railing and Delta couldn't get up there fast enough to get it down. She was claiming the quilt for her own!

I am thankful for a handyman of a husband. My little featherweight quit sewing and I couldn't figure out why. When I packed it up I found a tiny little screw on the table so I picked it up for safe keeping. When Paul had time, he looked at the machine and found the problem and sure enough he needed that little screw to make it sew again.

Magnolia Sewing Circle

I so much enjoyed our day at sewing circle this month. 

The hand quilters have started quilting this donated beautiful sampler top.

There were 18 comforts that were tied at our annual March comfort knotting.

Now they needed to be bound and finished.

Some of the ladies prepared the edges of the comforts for finishing.

Others finished the comforts by machine sewing the binding and edges.

There were a total of 18 comforters finished and are now ready for charity.

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I enjoyed a visit from Marleen Berry Hanson the other day. She is from Columbus but grew up in the Shenandoah Valley near Luray and that's just not far from my home stomping grounds.

Poppy Quilt

Life ...

I had the pleasure of keeping these little 'grand' folks for a day while their momma's did other things.

... as a Quilter

I finished my "Poppy" quilt this morning.

Detail

 The back.

Label

Poppy

Dimensions: 13.5" width X 13.0" height

Techniques / Materials: fused commercial cotton patches onto cotton fabric, fused poppy onto heavily quilted background, finished with piping, binding, label, and hanging sleeve, embellished with glass beads

Flying Goose -- "On the Way"

On my design wall this morning are 2 pieces, the flying goose which I call "On the Way," and "Bumbo." You can read about "Bumbo" here.

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Using patches from a fabric with clouds, I fused them on to a darker blue background. The background was then layered with backing and batting and heavily quilted. Then I fused the goose to the front and free motion quilted him to the quilt.

The back is finished with a hand sewn hanger and signed and dated in the border. I'm calling the piece "On the Way" as he looks like he is flying somewhere.

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Now I'm trying another piece. I cut patches out of the fabric with blue flowers on a white background. Then I laid the patches on a blue background fabric.

 

Then I laid the same patches on a white and orange background fabric.

Neither of the samples have a focal point. I'm thinking of adding some sort of silhouette, maybe in the orange or real dark indigo blue. What are your thoughts?

Willow, a Tutorial

Here's a tutorial on how I made my "Willow" art quilt for the SAQA Benefit Auction.

Background fabric.

Patches fabric.

Patches fabric with fusible on the back.

Background fabric that I marked into a 1.25" grid on the diagonal.

1" square patches being cut from the patches fabric.

Square patches transferred to background fabric and kept in correct placement.

More square patches transferred to background fabric. 

All the patches in place and fused to the background.

Layer the top, batting and backing and begin quilting.

Add more quilting, and more quilting, and more quilting.

Keep adding lines of quilting until they are +/- 1/8" apart.

Audition fabric for a silhouette.

Sketch of bouquet.

Fuse dark brown silhouette fabric to fusible.

Cut willow tree parts from paper and audition for placement.

Audition dark brown and gold leaves.

Audition dark brown and white leaves.

Decide to go with all dark brown silhouette.

Fuse tree and leaves in place.

Cut and make more leaves.

Fuse everything in place.

Free motion quilt the tree and leaves.

Continue quilting.

All quilted and ready for trimming.

Trimmed to 12" square. Facings are cut and the long edges ironed down.

Ready to apply the facings.

Facings are pinned to the front and ready to be sewed, turned to the back, and finished with hand stitching.

Finished front.

The back with hanging sleeve and label.

Ready to mail to SAQA.