I was visiting the blog of Bejeweled in America Samoa and she mentioned that there was a great giveaway at Trends & Traditions by designer Heather Mulder Peterson of Anka's Treasures. I went to that site and found some really beautiful quilts and she was right...a great giveaway. I've entered, hope you do too.

Flowers for her garden:

Over the years I have made quilts for each new grandchild. This one was made for my granddaughter Kelsey about 6 years ago. I worked on it for a few weeks and did most of it while Ray and I were driving on a vacation. All the flowers were done by hand as individual hexagons, then formed into flowers, then hand sewn onto the white background. It turned out so cute. What I learned from this quilt is that when I make a quilt the is "too cute" it doesn't get used on the new baby. Denise has it hanging over Kelsey's bed where the outside purple border looks perfect with the lavender wall. Of course, I have made several fun quilts for Denise's family so having one hanging on the wall (and possibly becoming an heirloom) is quite an honor.

I am still working on my black, white and red quilt. All the blocks are done but I'm trying to decide if I should just sew them all together or use a thin red sashing between the blocks. I think the red sashing would really look great. Now to find more of the red fabric or something quite close.

My daughter Nicky and I loved all the sweet tutus that we saw in stores and on little girls. We figured we could make one quite easily. We got the netting, cut it into about 1 1/2 to 2 inche wide strips and started working around the elastic. The more we put on the scrunchier it became. After we put all the netting on it turned out pretty cute but even after we sprayed it with a detangler it still scrunched up tight. Later we found a great tutorial on line that said we should have cut the strips 4 inches wide and then they would hang straight and should have used wider elastic also. We will have to make another one to see if that works better. I added ribbons to the one I made and sent it to my granddaughter, Kelsey, in Illinois.

I just read my last post and realized that I wrote Paducah, Tennessee instead of Kentucky! We had gone to Tennessee to drop off my youngest daughter with my oldest daughter while we were at the quilt extravaganza. Please all you Kentuckians excuse my mistake.

Non Allergenic Cats:

When my daughter, Nicky, got married 3 1/2 years ago I knew her soon-to-be-husband, Patrick, was highly allergic to cats.....and Nicky had a cat all her growing up years and I was pretty sure she would want one some day again. So I found this wonderful Buggy Barn pattern and had to make it for him. I call it, "Non allergenic Cats". The whiskers are made out of ric rac. I really enjoyed making this quilt and I especially love the flower centers. So much fun to make and so much more fun to give to Patrick.

I mentioned in my last couple of posts that my friend Janine had some black and white fabrics that we were going to make quilts out of. I had some left over blacks and whites and made a mock up of a couple of blocks for her to choose from. I made a Log Cabin block to show her. We loved it and decided that was the pattern we wanted to use with her fabrics. However....and that is a big however!...the fabrics she had didn't have enough of a contrast between lights and darks to show off the pattern. After making 4 blocks I decided that I needed to find something better. I considered Rail Fence with the whites horizontal and the blacks vertical. No good. Then adding a thin red strip between each strip. Still no good. I finally made Square in a Square blocks and they look great. When I get the top made I'll post it along with the Log Cabin ones for you to judge. I think I'm going to like this one. (Boy do I need to get a camera so I can post immediately and not have to wait until one of my kids come home to do it for me)

Generations of Quilters:

Quilting has been such a big part of my life. My mother quilted but she only made 1 quilt at a time and it took months. She even hand quilted everything she made. I, on the other hand, have several quilts in progress. This morning I looked through my sewing room cabinets and found several quilts that just needed a border, or the backing made, or the binding. So I made a "Let's get this finished" list and stuck it on the wall where I have to look at it every day. Of course, today my friend, Janine, and I are going shopping to pick up a couple more black/white fabrics so we can start another quilt.

A few years ago my daughter, Krista, surprised me by taking me to Paducah, Tennessee to the big quilt show. We decided to go at the last minute so our Motel was about an hour away. But she was a real trooper and walked miles every day through the quilt show, vendors mall, and took classes with me even though she doesn't make quilts. She says she does like to be the recipient of quilts and that counts for something.

My daughter, Nicky, has spent a lot of time with me looking through quilt magazines and picking out quilts to make. I had made a couple of Chenille baby quilts and so she decided that it looked fairly easy and she would make one....but bigger for herself. After hours of sewing those lines and then cutting them she said 1 was enough! Here is a picture of the one she made. The picture doesn't do it justice tho. It is pink and blue and so soft.

CHENILLE


Nicky started this Storm at Sea quilt about 10 years ago when she was in High School. She set it aside for awhile because she was busy with other things, hadn't quite caught the quilting bug, and said it was a little boring sewing the same lines over and over. However, when she started putting the blocks together and she could see the pattern emerge.....she was hooked. She loves the way the straight lines look like curved lines to the eye. She even took a sewing class in college her first year and they made a sampler quilt. I think she may have known more than her teacher since she had watched me for so many years and had actually made a quilt herself before the class. It isn't finished yet because she doesn't want to have it quilted by someone else, she wants to do the whole thing. Now she has several quilts marked in magazines that she wants to make some day.

STORM AT SEA

O.k. So I hit a wrong button and the picture of the Sneaky Snakes quilt went on before I even wrote anything about it. This blogging stuff can be intimidating some times!

I have made several quilts for my grandchildren. A few years ago when my oldest daughter, Denise, had 2 little boys I decided to make them a Sneaky Snake quilt. Each snake is made from bright fabrics with 3 dimensional heads with beady eyes. All the snakes are creeping through the grass going in one direction....except one sneaky snake who is heading the other way. I couldn't find any cute snake fabric for the back so I used a bright colored lizard fabric. I knew I didn't want to scare them with real looking snakes. Jordan, one of my grandsons used to call me and give me ideas for their next quilt. It is fun that they are so appreciative all the quilts I make for them.