God's Words Wall Hanging

 I bought some Scripture panels last weekend and made them into a wall hanging for my office.  This one is the verse that had me buying the panel.

While I worked...the kids had me laughing.

Falling Hearts

The thing I love about the art of quilting is that you can do your own designs.  It's not that I designed this, more like I let the hearts fall where they willed.  My grandmother had cut out lots of large heart shapes.  My mother had once created a wall hanging for a dear friend made with small hearts.  When that friend's house burned down, she lost the wall hanging.  When I saw Grannie's hearts, I knew they had to go in my friend's new house.

I wish I had thought to measure it, it is as least the length of my ironing board.  I appliqued the hearts and then button-hole stitched around each heart.  I practiced my FMQ of leaves/hearts around the hearts and then practiced beginning and ending within each heart.  I think she liked it!

Kentucky Bound

Last Saturday, I woke up at 4...that's 4am!...and prepared to do something completely outside my comfort zone!  I drove to Nashville and ....  well, I got there early and took a small detour to Woodland graveyard to visit my Grandparents grave sites.  It seemed appropriate, my grandmother would have loved what I was about to do.  Then I drove to 100 Oaks Mall (a place my mom, grandmother, and I had spent many hours when I was younger) and met up with 4 ladies I had never met before.

Then....I got in the car with them and rode to Kentucky!  Paducah!

If you are a quilter, you know this is a special place.  A place my mom and I had talked of going many times...but never got the chance.  When I saw that the Music City Quilter's Guild was planning a trip there, I decided to join the group and for the first meeting travel with complete strangers to Paducah, KY.

I'll not lie....I thought about not going, turning around and heading back home before anyone knew I was even gone.  I could spend the whole day quilting, doing something comfortable, normal, safe.  I kept driving and cried most of the way.  I really didn't want to experience Paducah without Mom or complete strangers.

But Mom isn't here and strangers are only strangers until you introduce yourself and then they are friends.

Meet my new friends, Mary, Maria, Stefanie, and Trudy.

We are standing outside Quilter's Alley which was actually our second stop...well after lunch!  I got a pattern for a embroidery design that the owner had turned into an applique pattern.  I can't wait to try it out.

 They also had some lovely vintage quilts and some more modern quilts on display.

 Our first stop, of course, was at Hancock's.  It was my first time there, but it brought back so many memories of other Hancock's that my mom took me in for years.  There was so much material it was hard to know where to start.

 I decided to just walk the isles and ran across so many fun pieces.  I got some browns/whites to do a log cabin with, farm patterns for Adam, and Sally loves pin--up girls.

A special treat was visiting Quilt in a Day quilt shop.  Mom had every one of Eleanor Burns' books....well most of them.  When Mom was sick, one of those books was her "table" for her meals.  She would have loved going to the shop.

Then our final stop was the National Quilt Museum.  Oh, I wish I could have taken pictures.  No words can describe how beautiful the quilts were.  I wanted to touch them so bad!

Heading home, we stopped at Patti's Settlement for supper.  Mary had been trying to finish up a quilt binding and was finished when we stopped.  I love the back of the quilt and the colors she used.

Waiting to be seated at Patti's, I saw this sign.  He is the best Friend to travel with.  It was a wonderful day, I saw beautiful things, and made new friends.

Tomorrow I must quilt!!!

Mug Rug

With friends having birthdays, I went to my stock of items and matched crafts to friends.  I've pulled out scarfs and wall hanging.  But for one friend I wanted to do something different...I wanted to make her a mug rug.

I had some 2 1/2 inch precut blocks that I won in a giveaway from Moda this past summer.  I just did a simple block design and then used my new leaf/heart FMQ technique for the quilting.  I had to do little leaves which was even more of a challenge.  Since it needed to be finished tonight, I rolled the backing to the front for the binding.  I think I'll be making more of these.

Memory Quilt

Several people have asked me to do a memory quilt for them, using t-shirts and clothes from their loved ones.  I've given quotes and ideas and finally someone took the next step and brought me their clothes.  

I can't say that I have never made a memory quilt before.  I have saved left over material from clothes that I made my children and made both of them a couple of memory quilts.  However, this is the first one that I have made from the actual clothes.  

I met Leah through work.  In the midst of all our work related conversations and emails, we found out that we had some common interests.  Leah changed jobs and we stayed connected on-line.  It was through that Facebook connection that I found out that her husband had died tragically. 

My heart broke.  It was just a couple of months after I had lost my mother and my grandmother, so I knew, somewhat, her sorrow.....yet her's was far greater.  At least I had time to say my good-byes.  But Leah can tell her story so much better.  Click HERE to visit her blog and be prepared to cry, laugh, and be inspired.

Anyway....Leah and I had already been discussing a quilt before all the deaths came into our lives.  This past fall she asked if I would take her husband's shirts and make a quilt.  She actually drove over from North Caroline to bring me her treasures.  We had such a wonderful weekend getting to know each other, face-to-face, and going over patterns.  I had pulled some ideas together and the very last idea was the one I knew she was going to pick....it just seemed like Chris.  It captured his love for the outdoors.  I found the free pattern at Cindy Carter's website, The Scrappy Maple Leaf.

I had told Leah it would be after Christmas before I would get started and she was fine with that.  I pulled out the shirts and did the simple stuff first, removing all the buttons.  I meant to get them to her for a Christmas tree ornament project....but I was a little late getting started so maybe she can do it next year.  

I pulled out each shirt, trying to decide how to cut them and my scissors were ready to go to work....but I hesitated.  I keep thinking of this wonderful man and where he might have worn each shirt, to church, family nights with his wife and daughter, ballgames, fishing, hunting.  Finally, I said a prayer for his wife and daughter and went to cutting. 

The pattern calls for lots and lots of 2 inch squares.  I'm a little concerned how the jersey type material will work with the cottons and blends.  Going over the pattern, I decided to change it up a bit.  Instead of cutting all the material in 2 inch squares (like I did below for the first shirt), I cut the material into 2 inch strips.

Yep...that's 2 inch unfinished squares, so we are looking at 1 1/2 inch finished squares with a finished block being 10 1/2 inch.

I'm going to sew the strips together in different combinations and then cut them into 2 inch strips again, of 2 or 3 colors together.  Below is a picture of the beginning of the cutting.  You can see that there is very little left from the shirts, just the seams, hems, and collars.

To cut each shirt, I lay it out as smooth as possible and through the seams on the sides up through the arm, removing any hem or binding on the sleeve.  Then I cut around the sleeve and to the collar, around the collar and to the other side.

Now I have the shirt in its basic form again, just as if I had removed a pattern piece from it.  I lay the front pieces together, square up the ends and start cutting again.

I need 3 inch strips to make the half square triangles, so I cut a few strips off the largest portions of the materials and then cut the rest in 2 inch strips.

I use every 2 inch piece I can, including any pieces from the collar, cuffs, or button hole trim that is big enough.  Keeping the cottons and blends straight is fairly easy, however, the jersey pulls a little, but I think it will work out okay.  I know most quilters would suggest using some time of stabilizer.....did I mention these are 2 inch individual squares!?  I'm going to try and always put a cotton next to a jersey.  Here's a few squares for the basic layout.

I'm using a "snow" for the background, cutting them in 3 inch strips and then 3 inch squares.  It's a little bigger than really needed for making the HST, but I wasn't sure how the jersey would pull, so I went bigger.

Here's some of the 3 inch squares from the material to be matched up with the "snow" blocks.

I wanted to at least get a sample of one block made last night, so I did the basic technique for making HST, using my ruler to mark 1/4 inch on both sides from the center of the 3 inch square.

I did some chain piecing (sorry, I didn't realize the picture was sideways), sewing on both drawn lines.

Cut down the center.

Press to the dark side.

Trim to a 2 inch square.

This is not a finished block because I'll be working really hard not to use the same material in each block, but it is the basic layout of the maple leaf.  I love the little green stem (again using some sample material for the steam and background material).

I think it will look nice with all the colors making the leaves and I pray that it brings some comfort to Leah when she sees it. 

Coxey's Camp Quilt Block

 One of the things I inherited from my grandmother was her quilt books.  I've been going through them a few at a time and keeping patterns or articles that seem interesting.  In this June 1978 issue of Quilt World had an article about how quilts get their names.  The article about Coxey's Camp also had the pattern.

The block was named after Jacob Coxey who lead a peaceful march from Ohio to Washington in 1894.  It was the first march on Washington and was over before it got started.  Coxey was arrested for trespassing as soon as he stepped on Capitol grounds, for walking on the grass.  Coxey would later beome mayor of Massillon, Ohio and nominated for President in 1932.  He promoted reform for the unemployed, improvements of roads and public works.  

The quilt block was designed by a quilter that may have had some connection to Coxey's Army that marched on Washington, possibly allowing the "army" of about 500 men, to camp on her land while they were traveling (at least that is what the article speculates).

I made a copy of the pattern pieces from the magazine.  There were no instructions, I wasn't even sure if the pattern included the seam allowance or not.  Following the picture and the limited cutting instruction on each piece, I worked on one block.

 It turned out to be a 7 inch square (I did not add a seam allowance to the pieces).  However I had to trim a bit off the long strips and the blocks in the corner to get it to fit properly.

Then I searched on the internet for another pattern and found one for a 12 inch block at Quilt Block Galore.  Here are the two blocks together.

Most of the quilts I found using this block, used the same colors throughout.  I wasn't sure if I like the look of  limited colors.  I've been playing with other colors to make a sampler of many colors.

 The block goes together really quickly.   I like the squares on point in the center of each block and I like the Four Patch that comes together in the corners when the sampler blocks are put together.

I played with a few more colors, yellows/blacks and greens/white/rose.

Here are the four different blocks of color that I did this weekend.  One of my greens/yellows looks like it's faded, but still pretty.  I'm going to just keep playing with scarps and add as I go along.