Where have I gone ???

To the QUILT ROOM…To The QUILT Room !! Not a mystery really…been sewing at every opportunity.  My “Summer in the Park ” sits on my big table, waiting for the final ROW to be assembled and stitched on.  I have spent the last 2 weeks working really hard on the T-Shirt memory quilt.  I have had a few breaks while I play “Driving Mr. Daisy” to his appointments at the local surgery center.  I took a trip to Lancaster PA to the AQS Quilt Show last week too.  Oh, and I have made a couple trips to the mail box — to pick up  prizes! ! !

I love to win things…really I do.  I was chosen by one of my favorite bloggers to receive a prize, because of my comment on her blog.  I was tickled pink to receive this :

Blank Canvas, paint and brushes and a fun magnet!

Thank you Denise – http://thewonderofyarrowhouse.wordpress.com  !!  As I mentioned to Denise, I am looking for a class this spring at the local community college, the vo-tech or the art league !  I love that she chose me.

I also won a book from Starwood Quilters Online Quilters Book Club!  That also came in the mail last week!

I’ve enjoyed reading Susan’s blog and following along on the book club. http://www.starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/p/mar-14.html

I use it as a “source” for quilt stories, and look for them at the library on “cd” or “mp3 player” and listen while I sew.  I just finished listening to Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and now I have the book to keep.  I am looking forward to re-reading the paper version.  I love books.  My librarian gave me a “book log” to record what I have enjoyed, want to read next, etc.  I have several Jennifer Chiaverini books in the “read” section. They are a lot of fun, and most often are “quilt stories”.  Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker is not “heavily” quilt oriented. It is really a relationship story between the Dressmaker, a free black woman, in Washington DC and Mrs. Lincoln and her family.

I took only one photo at the Lancaster quilt show last week -Ms McDonalds Farm.  Check out the little guy at the bottom of the photo!

I did mention the t-shirt quilt.  My friend Karen asked me to make this quilt using shirts she had given her Dad over the years.  I wanted to include things that were meaningful to him, beyond the shirts.  I was able to find 2 images to stitch out with my little embroidery machine –

St Louis Cardinal

Last week on the design wall — Summer in the Park’s final row and the start of the T-shirt quilt.

design wall

Had to figure out how to bring some uniformity to the shirts, so I went with sashing:

Block building

I don’t want to show any more pictures until she has the quilt in her hands; but let me say, it has really progressed a long way from this point.

I am using a blue sashing between & around all the blocks, and have added several things to the blocks that I hope she finds meaningful.  I have done some printing on fabric and some other embroidery machine work for it as well.  I am very excited about the fabric for the back. That will be a surprise, and there is a story to go with it that I must wait to tell.

This afternoon I hope to get the 3 “columns” of blocks joined with another row of sashing and get the borders figured out.  Turns out to be much larger than I had originally thought it would be. I have been enjoying the creative process of building this quilt with NO pattern.  I decided to “track my time” on this quilt, and I am up to over 24 hours.

I took a little “me” break on Saturday when I joined the ladies from church that I sew with.  My “senior quilt top” was finished, and I didn’t want to drag my Summer in the Park up to church or the T-shirt quilt, so I started a NEW project.  This was a quick one, and my cousin Lisa, had shared the pattern with me.  She calls it a 30 minute bag….I spent a longer bit of time, but I was tickled with the results, and plan to make another soon, but larger.

my LISA bag

drawstring LISA bag

This bag was made with 2 fat quarters. My next one will be done with 2 yards.  My Aunt Fran and cousin Lisa worked together to make their bags in February, and Lisa photographed the steps and wrote the directions out to share with her guild.  They both think it would be a fun pattern to add a zipper to next time.  It was quite easy to make and I think Lisa needs to “copyright” her pattern!

Happy stitching everyone!