A Few Finishes and Some Further Along

Despite the awful heat and humidity following some wonderful rain, some stitching is still happening here.  It is nice to have a few items checked off the list!  

First is the reproduction doll quilt Pink Lemonade, from Lori of Humble Quilt's quiltalong from a few years ago.  I've been hand quilting this and finally put the last stitch in early one morning. 

 I like the way the big stitches give it some depth and tone down the yellow a bit. 

 One of my favorite green blocks.

Closeup of the two color binding I made to simulate a flange.  Much more accurate for me! I'm going to enter this in our County Fair and the deadline is Sunday so I'm glad this one is done.

Then there is a duo finish.  I promised DD Erica some Euro pillows as a Christmas gift, but she had to wait until Christmas in July for them to be delivered to her room. 

 The first zippered cover took much longer than the second to make.  Isn't that always true?  I bought the 26" Euro pillow forms at Kohl's on a good sale at Christmas. 

I really like the texture from the simple Kantha style stiching.  I used ombre thread for machine stitching first, and then ombre embroidery floss.  Now I'm going to need some of these for my own bed!

A near finish for the Any Witch Way quilt--the guild president is a longarm quilter and did a great job on this small quilt.  (For those who ask, the pattern from Quiltmaker Sept/Oct 2009  is now available as a digital issue per my search today!)

It's a bit hard to see, but she did pebbling in all the black border and put a spiderweb in each corner. So fun!

All I have to add is the binding and this will be ready for Fair entry too.  These witches have been waiting a long time for a finish.  I can't wait to finally hang this up at Halloween after 6 years.

I spent a steamy Sunday watching TV while big stitching on this pillow that I want to enter in the Fair.  I've only just realized when taking the picture that I forgot to add the border strips of white before quilting.   Hmm.  Not sure what I'm going to do about that. 

In other stitchy news, I've now completed the back of the quilt for my cancer-stricken neighbor and made a companion pillowcase out of the flannel.  This is what happens when you are THIS SHORT of backing fabric and have to buy a coordinating flannel to make the quilt back the way you want it...I'm hoping to get it basted tonight and have already decided on a quilting plan as well as the binding color so things should move along!

We got to see Grandson Cove a lot over the weekend.  He had his first traditional Swedish pancake made by Papa and made lots of yummy noises while eating.  He's always busy running everywhere and is talking more and more all the time.  Very exciting when he calls us Mimi and Papa!  His Mama sent me this photo of him looking out their window.

Love him to bits!

Design Wall Monday--July 13, 2015

On my design surface is the ongoing comfort quilt project for our neighbor's son who has cancer.  I now have a finished top to show:

About that one red block...

I like my quilts to have a "heart", where all the extra love and good wishes lay right over the recipient's heart when they draw the quilt over them. I've done this for a lot of quilts and people seem to like it. 

I've got the flannel for the backing all ironed and need to do just a bit of math to figure out the best way to piece the backing.  Have you ever seen a fabric fray in swags like this?  I thought it amusing.  I'll take the top to my guild meeting Monday night.  I'm also going to pick up my witches quilt which has now been professionally quilted.  Can't wait to see what it looks like!

Other progress on the second and third quilts in progress include deboning about 13 shirts from my brother-in-law's closet, and cutting a bunch of background squares and print squares for the Bullseye top remodel for my brother.  I need to sew faster!

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday--July 6, 2015

We had a great 4th of July weekend, spending time with lots of family and watching the fireworks from my parents' backyard.  Grandson Cove (16 months) was a little scared at first, but his Great Auntie Kathy had explained before they started that they would be really loud and go "pow pow" and "boom boom".  He had his eyes glued on the display while in his mother's arms, and kept saying "boom boom".  He was totally worn out by the end of that long day!  

On my design surface today are some completed blocks for the comfort quilt I'm making our neighbor's son, who has an osteosarcoma on his leg and is undergoing chemo prior to surgery  He's feeling well enough to join his All-Star baseball teammates in the dugout this week. 

I'm liking these so far!  I've been careful with my piecing so the top will go together easily once all 20 blocks are complete. I got 10 done yesterday.

Next one is laid out next to my machine with the others stacked and ready to go.  

I also managed to finally finish the big-stitch embroidery on some pillow fronts for Euro pillows I promised daughter Erica at Christmas!  This was the second of the two fronts.  Now on to the pillow construction.  I've already got the zippers and pillow inserts as well as the back pieces cut.  I'll have to revisit my notes to see what finished size I planned.  Don't want them to be too big or too small.

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.