Wedding Quilt

A dear friend has a daughter who is getting married in October. She wants to give her a quilt that was pieced by my friend's grandmother. The grandma brought home fabric scraps and pieced this top. Poor grandma was not a good piecer. haha   This is what I've been fighting.

Seams that were not pressed out before stitching. they are folded over...and see the stitches coming apart....they are all caught in the seams, so I couldn't straighten them out. I just sewed over the fabric rather than in the ditch...I figure that helped hold the bad piecing together, too.

And some blocks are pieced....can you tell they are not square?

This is how her seams go....check that bottom right corner on the blue....i fixed many seams that were coming apart.

And then there are these....holes in several blocks....i fused fabric to the backs.

Stains from something...

More stains...or dirt....or ??

But, my friend is aware of all this and says to just do what I can. She has had the quilt top for about 14 years, since her grandma died....and grandma had quit working for many years....so the top is at least 30 years old now. Her daughter will cherish it and that is all that counts.

That last red row was also "squares" but was so wonky that I couldn't bind it like that. As it is, parts of it are a bit wavy because of the way it lined up when I trimmed the edges. I used a light gray for the binding and made it a bit wider to be sure and cover the issues.

I put a different design in each round and tried to match the thread color to the fabrics.

There was no stitching in the ditch here....most times I had to stitch over the fabric in the seams. I feel the more quilting on this one, the better. along with poor piecing, she never backstitched to tie off the ends.  sigh!! There might not be a true square in the whole quilt.

There are creases and wrinkles and god knows what else, but it is quilted as best as I could.

Most of these fabrics were a bit shiny....some more than others.

I used an unbleached muslin for the backing. 

I used 12 different threads for the top...Glide...Key Lime, Lt. Orange, Pale orange, Tabriz Orchid, Cotton Candy, Chestnut, Lt. Olive, Celery, Sand, Ruby; Bottom Line Cream and So Fine Brown. the bobbin was So Fine Off White.  It is 68x84"....and took 13 bobbins. 

She brought me another quilt that grandma has pieced also....this one made of bright velour fabrics. hahahahaha  I'll tackle that one next month.

Offset Diamonds

A couple of months ago, I was cruising Pinterest .... looking at quilts. and I found this lovely..  I decided to make mine with selvages, since I have  plenty of them. I started piecing June 26, 2019. I didn't work on it every day, but made a few blocks here and there. Last week I decided to finish it up.

I cut my blocks to 8"...it is a square quilt and is about 70" square. I think it is very cool. If I can remember, I'll put a blue binding on it after quilting, as the original shows.

The blue blocks went the quickest since there were only a few of them.

I worked row by row and got it finished last night.

I was wondering if I would run out of white selvages, but I made it ok.

I like the simplicity of it and that the blue is offset from the center. Now it has to marinade in the to-be-quilted cabinet.....if it will fit. It's pretty crowded in there. haha

Judy's July Challenge Report

It's time for another monthly challenge report from Judy Laquidara's UFO challenge.

July was a pretty good month for me...I quilted 7 tops.

Crumb King.. thousands of pieces ... tiny pieces

Windmills on Selvages....selvage blocks with AccuQuilt cut diamond shapes

Jazz Club .... a panel i cut apart and added stuff to

MQR 2 color challenge....i chose blue and green...2.5x4.5" pieces

Scrappy Hearts....Heart shapes cut with AccuQuilt from crumb blocks...and more crumb blocks as border

Under the Sea...machine embroidered blocks with added fusible fish and turtles cut from a scrap piece of fabric

Selvage Surrounded Hearts....little hearts cut from a piece of fabric and bordered in selvages

For once, I quilted more than I pieced this month. Piecing includes....

BBQ....machine embroidered blocks on various red fabrics...improvisationally pieced.

MQR 2 color challenge top was pieced this month

Scrubs Scraps...I acquired tons of scraps from my cousin who sews scrubs, so, I made a bunch of blocks and bordered them in red and white stripe.

To celebrate the 4th...I made a flag quilt. all blocks and stars cut with my AccuQuilt machine.

The embroidery that I am working on now includes...

5x7 alphabet letters done on the embroidery machine. I am using various whites to applique the pieces and using only shades of brown threads to do the seam designs.  I have 4 more letters to finish.

After acquiring my scrubs scraps, I decided they would make a cute alphabet, too. so, i am using the same 5x7 pattern and using scraps for the pieces but not doing the seam designs. they are all on blue flannel backgrounds. i have 7 more to finish.

And that is my month....it was a good one. how was yours?

Windmills on Selvages

I pieced this one back in February of this year. It is 60x72". 

I pieced a bunch of selvage blocks and then decided they needed 'something'.  I used a diamond cutter from my AccuQuilt machine and cut out graphic pieces. 

I left the ragged edges but sewed them down with a fancy stitch on my machine.

The piecing of the selvages was done in yellow thread...and the windmills were sewed down in yellow thread, so I quilted it with a dark yellow/gold thread. and the binding is pieces of striped fabrics that i had that have yellow in them...a yellow and white...a yellow and green...and a different yellow and white and a yellow, white and red. i love using up bits of fabrics that just seemed to be waiting for me to find a good use for them.

The back is a muslin. I used a Baptist Fan Quilt E-Z board. I didn't always get it lined up perfectly, but i'm ok with that. 

Glide dark yellow/gold thread for the top; Bottom Line Off White for the bobbin.

This makes 7 quilts that got quilted in July....that makes me happy.

Scrubs Scraps Crazy Quilt top

I've been cutting and playing with these scrubs scraps for about a week now. I've cut a lot of selvages....and have tons to go.

I sewed together larger pieces and made 8" blocks and this is the top they became.

It is 70x87".  It took me a week to put it together.

Here are some close-ups. I love those tennis shoes

And the Loralie ladies are super cute.

There are sophisticated cats. haha

This little frog in the tulips just tickles me.

There is a sports block.

I can make many more of these....but am coming up with different designs.  stay tuned. haha

Alphabet blocks

I am almost finished with the embroidery brown and white alphabet blocks. Have done through V and waiting for the rest of the alphabet to be released.

While these are being embroidered, I've been cutting 4.5" squares from scrubs fabrics for an I Spy quilt...and got to thinking that I could use some of the pieces for alphabet blocks, too.

So, I started those and got through E today. They go a lot faster when you don't put the designs on the seams. I am using blue flannel for the backgrounds and different bright colored thread for the outside stitches.

A combination alphabet and I Spy quilt. wonder how many alphabet quilts I have made over the years.....dozens, I'm sure.

But, when an idea strikes you, you have to go with it. haha

Under the Sea

While I was at my sister's back in February, babysitting her dogs, this is one of the tops that I pieced together. The embroidery in the blocks are from a CD called Under the Sea by Anita Goodesign. It has the mylar in it, so they are sparkly.  I added the fusible fish and coral just for fun because I had a bit of that fabric left and thought I would use it up.

I just did some wavy, watery lines going across and quilting around things as I went.

I sewed the fusible fish and turtles and coral down as I came to them.

Some of the fish are together....you should never swim alone, you know. haha

I love the octopus. These designs are really rather colorful.

A couple of the designs are not really things that go under the sea....but I didn't design them.

And I like that I used the 'pieces' of fish that were cut in the fabric, too. I had the perfect piece of fabric for the binding with the blue, green, pink and yellow colors from the scrub scraps pile.

\

The back is a blue and white print that I had enough to fit. The quilt is 38x48.

Glide Hawaiian Blue for the top; Bottom Line off white for the bobbin.