timeless reflections: August 2019

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Sunshine Makes You Happy

I feel lucky to live in

a place that has on average

300 sunny days a year.

John Denver said it beautifully

in his lyrics

"Sunshine on my Shoulders

Makes Me Happy".

I thought of that song

while I worked on my August mini.

"Sunshine Makes Me Happy"

34" X 34"

I found all of the hst's hiding out

in a zip lock baggie and rescued

them from an unused fate.

I think I had made extras

when I was working on something else.

No sense saving them any longer.

Yellow is one of those colors

that doesn't seem to get used very often.

I tried lots of different fabrics for

the border, but this older yellow

print was the perfect choice.

I machine quilted it with

# 2110 Aurifil thread, a soft pale yellow.

A simple design in the alternating

plain blocks.

A gentle wavy curve in the borders

was all that was needed.

When I was deciding about the

binding every color seemed so dark.

Not like the sunshine on my shoulders.

The best choice:

just a tiny flange of the blue

I had used in the narrow border

and then the same yellow as the border.

It even made me smile

when I was sewing the binding.

Every once in a while

the tiny design in the blue flange

would be perfectly centered.

Sometimes when you're

outside you suddenly realize

how happy the sunshine has made you feel.

The only other thing that could make

you feel happier

would be wearing yellow shoes!

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Pink and Blue

Pink and Blue,

Boy and Girl,

I put together two quilts

That I want to show you.

****
I guess this my funny way of showing
you what I finally finished last week.
But there's a story that
goes along with these two quilts.

It begins with these
cute vintage animal designs.

I'm guessing
that they are a 1940's to
early 1950's pattern.

The designs were ironed onto
both pink and blue fabrics.

They were embroidered with
2 strands of pink or blue floss.

On the blue animals
most of the embroidery was done with a
very tiny couching stitch,

while the pink animals
were done with very
small running stitches.

Instead of hand appliqueing the
pieces down, the edges were turned
and then machine stitched.

So, who made these blocks and then
appliqued them onto two large pieces of
toweling material?

No one knows.

But it was someone who wanted to make
something special for a boy or girl,
someone with some needlework skills,
but someone who never finished her ideas.

The next part of the story is that
a friend of mine, Liz Marweg rescued
these panels a few years ago on one of
her many jaunts for junk trips.

Then a few months ago she
passed these sweet pieces on to me.
One day I got brave and
started to cut.

Keeping it simple, I divided
the blocks into two quilts,
one with blue sashing and
one with pink, but
both with pink and blue animals.

The only border fabric I could find in my stash
that even began to go with these quilts
was an old Susan Branch teapot fabric.
It pays to have a stash.

Also I just discovered that Susan Branch
has many sweet designs on Spoonflower.

Then to add a bit more texture I added blue ric rac and
a pink ric rac to the edges before attaching the bindings.

I love how these two quilts finished
with simple machine quilting outlining the animals,
some quilting in the ditch,
and straight lines in the borders.

The animals are the stars.