Thursday, March 28, 2019

Finally Done!

It's hard to believe
that it's been almost 2 years 
since I was able to travel to the
Netherlands with new friends
and, of course, meet more new friends.

One of our goals was to attend this show.


and see the beautiful quilts of both
Di Ford and Petra Prins.

It's there that I saw
Di's quilt called "Sutton Grange".


(Can you believe in all of my excitement I 
didn't even take a full photo of the quilt!)

But fast forward to April, 2018.
I knew I had waited long enough to begin 
working on this wonderful quilt
that included applique, broderie perse, curved piecing,
and lots of patience.


the center section


I actually had many of the same fabrics Di had used in my stash.
No sense reinventing the wheel right?
But did use one of her wonderful printed borders 
over and over again,
as the repeating border.


A couple of weeks ago I began the machine quilting process.

Lots of quilting in the ditch,


lots of feathers,


diagonal quilting

Again, I didn't really 
get too original in the quilting.

I pretty much followed what
the original machine quilter had done,
but modified to fit my limited machine quilting ability.


I used some leftover garage sale stickers
to quilt circles.
No, the quilt isn't for sale for $.50!

Here it is.
All done.


"Plymouth Grange"
70" x 70"

I changed the name to 
honor my grandmother,
Edith Luella Gale Elkington
(1896-1983)
who was always a member of the
local grange in Michigan.

Di's pattern are beautiful and
a labor of love.
Not a project to be quickly completed,
but it was well worth the time.

The question is...
Time to start another one?

Until Next Time-
Kyle


Wednesday, March 20, 2019

A String Fling

For the past couple of days
Running Man and I have been off
to our favorite mountain retreat.

The YMCA of the Rockies

It's nothing fancy, but

the scenery is beautiful,
it's totally relaxing,
and the perfect place to get
a natural  "Rocky Mountain High."

It's also a great place for a quilt photo shoot.


String Fling
80" x 96"

I'm loving how all those
strips and strings from a multitude of
different fabrics came together.



I started this project only in January.
You can see the beginning HERE.

I was determined not to let this one
get bogged down.

Sewing 6 blocks at a time,
and keeping it random,
it didn't take long to make
120 blocks and get them sewn together.



The blocks were sewn with a muslin foundation
which kept the blocks square
after they were trimmed
and no paper removal.


You might have noticed that the
middle white strip varies in width.


Well, that was not done initially, on purpose,
but I liked how it worked out.
I didn't have to worry about matching up seams
and it added to the randomness, 
part of the whole charm.

My friend and machine quilter, Kathy,
kept the quilting simple for 2 reasons.



1. You're not really going to see it on the top
except for a little texture.

2.  The top is pretty heavy just with the fabric,
muslin foundation, backing and batting.  I didn't 
want any extra weight from being heavily quilted.

When trying to decide on a binding
I discovered a bunch of hidden leftover binding remnants.


Perfect.
Use 'em up!

Having this quilt with us
up in the mountains in March


kept us warm and snuggly while we stayed at the .....


 Y                 M                                  A

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Good Intentions

This has been a week
filled with "good intentions".
The actual execution of
those "good intentions"
has been less than desirable.

Some days are like that, 
some weeks are like that,
some ....
I won't go further than that.

My intentions
included getting started
on machine quilting my
version of Di Ford's Suttton Grange.

I had acquisitioned the dining room table
for space and good lighting,
Running Man has been off
on a business trip all week,
no meals to prepare, etc,
nothing to stop the flow of sewing.

Well, I'm not sure what totally
got in the way, other than 
cold cloudy wintery Colorado days or
a dead car battery at 7 a.m.
Maybe, 
my heart just wasn't in it this week.

So instead,
I went to Trader Joe's 
and bought a couple of bunches of daffodils
and then decided to bake.


Lemon Snowball Cookies

Oh, if you remember these
as Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies,
think again. 

Melt in your mouth lemony goodness.
The recipe is from a local business,
Check out her website and also her
delicious enticing macarons.  
I haven't tried those yet,
but it's definitely on my list of things to do.

Maybe now I can focus on the quilt.

Until Next Time-
Kyle