February Finish - A Lovely Year of Finishes

I was beginning to think I would not have a finish to report for the month of February...some months are like that. At the beginning of February I entered this Granny Square quilt as my Lovely Year of Finishes February Goal (No. 7).  But, right here at the end of the month I refocused my efforts and determined that this quilt just needed to be finished. 

I have to admit that I am truly smitten with this quilt. It has quite a story behind it which you can read about here. The granny squares are made from scraps of vintage clothing belonging to a sweet friend. These vintage fabrics really lend themselves to this particular quilt block.

My goal focused on getting the backing, quilting, and binding finished. I chose stitch in the ditch quilting on the diagonal in both directions. I felt this would allow the vintage fabrics to really be the focus of this quilt. 

Here is a final picture of the quilt all rolled up, because who does not like to see a quilt roll?

I am linking up with the February Finishes Party. Okay...bring on March...I'm ready!

 

First Meetings...are a blast!

You may recall back in January I shared how one of my local sewing friends and I were laying plans to start up a local modern quilt guild. Well, we held our first meeting last week and it was a total blast! Who knew meeting up with other like-minded modern quilters would evoke so-much-laughter!

Discussions ran the gamut of whether it really matters if points get cut off and seams don't exactly match up  {in other words...how OCD are you} to whether or not steam should be used when ironing. We had lively pantomime demonstrations for emphasis! 

There were eight ladies in attendance with a wide range of experience levels and quilt preferences. It should prove to be a group rich with diversity :o) We all agreed our Number 1 reason for seeking out a group is sharing our quilts with others who appreciate the time and effort put into the work even if personal tastes differ.

We had a time for Show & Tell and saw a wide range of beautiful quilts! To my fellow Faith Circle members...should you be asking yourself, "Why does Debbie still have the Row Quilt?" I kept it just long enough to show it to the new quilt group and it went out in the mail right after that :o)



It really was a great evening and I can say we are all looking forward to meeting again in March where we will be learning various techniques for flying geese blocks...I can hardly wait!

Clever?!

Do you ever marvel at the clever creations found all around us? It can be seen everywhere. For example, here is a fabulous succulent wreath from the Christmas display at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. This wreath is so amazing because of the the precise placement of texture and color...so clever!

Debbie of A Quilters Table is the host for the February Faith Circle quilt. She selected the Vice Versa block by Gen X Quilters. This block design is just so clever! I love it :o) Here are the two I made for our bee quilt:

I look at things like this and I wonder...how did AnneMarie think of this? Was it a sudden inspiration or did she ponder, sketch, cross out, and finally arrive at this Vice Versa block? She says blocks for this series were studied for positive and negative space and the inverse relationship that can be created. Clever, clever, clever. 

In one of my previous posts I mentioned my desire to someday be a designer. I've tried a bit of designing while crocheting socks. I've combined toe, heel and cuff construction from various patterns, and used my favorite stitches for the foot and ankle/leg sections to make these socks. 

Socks I made for me :o)

Socks made for my brother-in-law :o)

It's been fun (and at times frustrating) and takes me quite a while to get a finished product that actually fits. I find that one of the hardest parts of the design process is writing down what I did so I can actually replicate it again. I might call this mish-mash of sock parts a kind of franken-pattern for socks (taking from several different sources), but is it clever? I don't know. 

Back in the fall I started sketching out some ideas for my own quilt block design and then creating layout options for it. I've found that it take time, and it takes quiet. One of my layout options is pretty straight-forward and what might be expected of the block, but dare I say it...I think my second layout option just might be clever :o) It will be fun to make up these quilts and see just where they stand. 

Meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures from the huge snowstorm we had today. I just love snow and never tire of the beauty and wonder it creates in the world. Enjoy!

February in A Lovely Year of Finishes

I can hardly believe we are already up to February 2014! January was one of the coldest months I remember, and here in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains we had a fair amount of snow. With all of the snow days off school I was able to breeze right through my January ALYoF goal...we'll see how I do for February :o)

This month my goal is to finish this vintage patchwork quilt. There is a story behind this patchwork. This partial quilt top was found among the craft items belonging to the mom of a sweet friend from church. It is made of bits of fabric from her children's clothing and dates back to about the 1950's. 

My friend asked if it could be made into a finished quilt. When I looked at it I knew it would need to be disassembled and reassembled in order to make a sturdy quilt. Many of the seams had been stitched with less than 1/8" seam allowance and were already coming apart. It took several sessions with the seam ripper, but with perseverance I got them all apart. 

I knew these bits of fabric would look lovely in a granny square layout. (The little flowers are tablecloth weights--it was bitterly cold and extremely windy when I took this picture!) Most of the the fabrics are soft shades so I used Kona Cotton Bone for the background. I love how visually soft the top now looks!

My February goal is to complete this quilt. I purchased additional Kona Bone for the backing and DS Quilts Farm Stand Dots in beige for the binding. I plan on doing diagonal straight lines for the quilting using an off-white thread. 

I'm looking forward to getting this one off my work-in-process list. I'm linking up the the February Goal Party for A Lovely Year of Finishes!