Crazy Quilting

I guess crazy quilting is an appropriate technique for me to use. I have often been told I'm crazy!

My 40-year-old brother-in-law died the day after 9/11 of a heart attack. No connection to the 9/11 attack. I took his ties and made crazy quilt pillows for all the family and gave them out at Christmas.

I used a base of muslin and started with a 5-sided "center" piece, then worked out from there, sewing and flipping each new piece until I filled my muslin. Then I cut then down to size and sewed 4 squares together. I used a bunch of the "fancy" stitches on my machine to decorate the patches.

I apologize for the photos. The flash made them very yellow. They aren't. But maybe you can see he had quite a collection of interesting ties.

Thanks,

Lin

First May Finish!

I completed my Jelly Roll Race. Got the binding all finished, everything!

It's hanging on the banister, waiting for me to find it a home. Up close, I don't especially like the prints, but when I'm downstairs, looking up at it? I like it.

Linking to Quilt Matters
Thanks,
Lin

Practice, Practice, Practice

Last summer, I bought a sample pack of Hobbs battings. Eighteen by eighteen squares, very neatly labeled with what each of the battings are composed of and their properties. I had planned on making myself a lesson plan. I've heard a lot about Hobbs' 80/20 batting.

So I started playing with these battings this week end. I've been cutting the batting square in half and using some old muslin as my top and backing. You can see I've made myself notes on what I'm doing on each square. I want to stitch around the edges and then wash them to see how they turn out. Here are some of my "experiments."

curly hair, Trapunto'd feather

two stencils

Swirls, bubbles, open headbands, and smallish stippling

Ruler work

circuit board

Swirls

Feather

 I'm pretty impressed with the photos. Late afternoon sun really shows up the texture.

Thanks,
Lin

April in Reivew

Let's just see what I got done in April, shall we? Yes, we shall!

My daffodils bloomed! I worked hard on that, you know.

I finished my Purple Mountains Majesties Triangle Quilt Along quilt.

 I got this big guy spray basted.

I finished the tee shirt quilt.

I finished a mug rug.

I won a spool of Glide thread in Military Gold. Can't wait to use it!

And we got a ton of hail!

Oh, yeah, I had a birthday, and my honey and I celebrated out 45th Anniversary.

A good month.

Thanks, 

Lin

Flannel and Trixie

I ordered more flannel for the blue jean quilt. I ran out. I thought I had so much. Guess I have way more jean fabric than I thought. Should make this a heavy quilt. At least there won't be any batting, just jeans and flannel. Should ravel pretty well, don't you think? When last I posted about the jean/raggy quilt, I got a message from Mia about the one she made. You can read her post here. I really liked what she did. Mine will have jeans on one side, and flannel on the other.

The new flannels I got are here:

I really like the argyles in the mix. I think this will be a fun quilt!

My baby dog was groomed the other day. She always looks so adorable after she's professionally groomed.

It's amazing I got any shots of her looking at me. She always turns right when the lens is closing. I have great shots of the back of her head, or of her butt.She shines so. I love it!

Thanks,
Lin

I love entering drawings

I love all the drawings in blogland. I enter every one I see.

I won a spool of Glide thread! From Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures.

I

I've heard so many good things about Glide that I'm anxious to try it. Thank you, Amy.

I think this may be a perfect color for my Celtic Solstice quilt. I got that spray basted this week, and is next on the list.

I also spray basted my Christmas quilt. But the bad news there is that I didn't buy quite enough backing, so I'll have to piece to make it a little wider. Luckily, I have more of the green I used for sashings. That will get quilted after the Celtic.

Thanks,

Lin

Mug Rugs and Hail

I've been a busy girl. I got my mug rugs finished for my swapper partner, Dianna. They are applique mug rugs. Now I remember why I don't particularly like applique. I'm not too good at it! I bet the ones I get from Dianna will be ever so much cuter. I can't wait til we swap so I can show and tell.

I can show this rug mug I just finished:

Can you see my feathers? They show up the best on the solid lilac. These are some triangles I had left over from my Purple Mountains Majesties Triangle Quilt.

We had a terrific hail storm last night. I've never seen such a violent hail storm. It dropped buckets of hail on us, we still have a little 24 hours later.

Looks like we have snow again! When I was little I named a doll Hail (or Hale, I don't think I could spell yet). I think I named her this because my aunt always sang, "Hail, hail, the gangs all here..." I guess I thought Aunt Harriet was talking to my doll! LOL

Thanks,
Lin