Category Archives: quilt

Happy 90th Birthday!

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My aunt had a milestone birthday last month and I sent her a goodie box filled with fruits, muffins, breads, and a special handmade gift.

Her iPad has a factory Smart Cover to protect it but when she takes it out of the house she doesn’t have any way to carry it except in a way-too-large tote bag.

And since I am on this sewing and quilting kick, I sewed and quilted one for her.

002-FrontIn red and purple.

006-Open-frontTwo of her favorite colors.

007-Open-backWith a bit of pink since that was what I had in my stash.

012-close-up-2The darker red is actually part of a skirt I had that I ripped apart.

014-stitch-in-the-ditch-2The closure is actually two buttons sewn on together.

003-ButtonThe strap is padded with a couple of layers of quilt batting as most tablets have a bit of weight to them and I wanted it comfortable enough to carry over a wrist or in the hand.

010-side-2It’s just machine quilted in a grid.

011-close-up-1

004-front

008-closed-backLined with red cotton and light blue flannel (because that’s what I had).

016-inside-1I schootched the lining out a bit before I top stitched around the edge so it almost looks like piping.

005-open-front

To be totally truthful…this is the second one I made for her.  The first one fit my iPad but not hers as her Smart Cover adds an inch or so to the overall size.  My sister took the smaller one for her tablet so it all worked out.

Quilt inspiration

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Lowes logo

Inspiration struck me at my local Lowe’s store last week. I stopped in my tracks when I saw these huge posters of snowflakes.

Lowes-posters-002-full

Not just any snowflakes.

Lowes-posters-002

Huge, colorful snowflakes.

Lowes-posters-001-full

Huge, colorful snowflakes that could become a quilt.

Lowes-posters-001

Another customer saw me snapping these pictures with my phone and looked at me like I was wacky.  But that stop me from explaining how I saw the snowflakes as possible patchwork quilts.

After looking at them for a few seconds, he agreed with me.  And walked away rather quickly.

Inspiration in an unusual place.

Have you been inspired by anything unusual?

2/5 down 3/5 to go

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Happy Belated New Year!

I survived the last three Holidays!  Thanksgiving (US), Christmas, and New Year’s!  I gained Bluetooth headphones and only five pounds.  Fortunately I lost nine pounds before all the crazy eating and drinking of all the calorie-rich food and drink.  That is a plus for me.

Do you have a bucket list?  I do.  And I don’t.  One of the things on this nonexistent bucket list was to make a quilt.  Well, I made two quilts but still need to make three more.  One for each of my grandchildren.  That lifetime goal was made when I was 35 years old.  I’m a lot older than that now but having a bucket list was also nonexistent way back then.

So here are my two quilts.  The first quilts I’ve ever made.  I learned a lot from this experience…meaning I’ve made mistakes.

I posted photos of this project in 2013 and now I have finally finished them.

Without further ado…

Zs-quilt-front

I used the stack and slash or whack technique with eight different fabrics plus a neutral ivory solid and a sprinkling of khaki.

Es-quilt-front

I wanted the quilts to be a little bit longer so I added three rows of leftovers.

Close-up

The backs…

Zs-quilt-back

The backs involved the first letter of each recipient plus some leftover fabrics to coordinate with the binding.

Es-quilt-back

Close-ups of the backs.

Zs-quilt-back-closeup

Es-quilt-close-up

My sewing machine does some lettering/monograming so I made machine stitched labels sewn to the lower right side on the quilt backs.  In case you wondered, I am “Nona”.

Label

Straight line quilting, well, as straight as I could do it.

On the beds.

Zs-quilt-bed

Es-quilt-bed

So two down, three to go.

Weekend

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I woke up early for a Saturday – 8:00.

Guest bathroom – Fixed the 2-3 year-old water damage on the ceiling.  Still have to paint it.  The bathroom was all clean and shiny until I looked at the trim.  I’ve been meaning to repaint the trim for years but never got around to it.  Until Saturday. Done.

Washed, dried, folded, and put away two loads of laundry.

Made cornbread and soup for lunch.

cornbread

Hung the garland on the front porch with Mr. Aitch.  Finished taking in all the porch and deck furniture.  Rolled up the rug from the front porch.  All put neatly away for the winter.  Mr. Aitch swept the porch.

Cut the fabric for one of the quilt tops.

Jambalaya with chicken (no sausage) for dinner).

Cut more fabric for the second quilt top.

Went to bed.

Sunday morning – church.  It started snowing during Mass and when we left the church, about 2 inches had fallen.

Went to the market.  It was crowded for a Sunday morning when I arrived but quickly cleared out as the snow kept piling up outside.

snowy-drive

Groceries put away.

Pancakes and sausage for lunch.

Roast beef with carrots, celery, and onions in the oven.  It smelled so good.

Pieced one quilt top together.  No photo as it was a dark dreary day.

Added potatoes to the roast beef concoction in the oven.

Watched a part of “The Crossing” with Mr. Aitch until dinner was ready.

crossing

Lovely roast beef and vegetables.  And a bottle of wine, of course.

Finished watching “The Crossing” with Mr. Aitch.

Checked email.

Pinterest.

pinterest_logo_red

Did an Internet search for a free knitted pattern for a newsboy cap aka bakers cap, golf cap, ivy cap, English driving cap for a small child.  No luck.  Found crocheted patterns.  Don’t crochet.

cap-2

Turned on the dishwasher and went to bed with a book, “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak.  Couldn’t stop reading until my eyes got too tired.

The_Book_Thief_by_Markus_Zusak_book_cover

The alarm clock went off at 6:00 this morning.  I turned it off and fell back asleep for 45 more minutes.  That happens more often than I care to admit.

The schools and colleges were closed today due to the snow storm and freezing rain.  I had no trouble getting to work.

And so it goes.