Mom and Dad's Quilts - Part 1

My birthday celebration moved last week from Charlotte, NC to High Point, NC where my sister and I spent 3 wonderful days with my Mom and Dad. I decided to take some pictures of the quilts I've made for them over the years. Here's Part 1.

My Mom collected all different kinds of moose for a while and this is a little wallhanging I made for them. She keeps it up during the winter.

This was the center of a larger quilt I saw in a magazine. I knew it would be perfect for a wallhanging. I love how it looks on their brick wall.

Next are some pictures of their 50th Anniversary quilt. I've posted pictures before, they brought it to their 60th anniversary celebration for family members to see and to do a new label for the back.

This quilt was very personalized for them. Most of the blocks had a special meaning to them.

The angels were keeping watch over their 3 children.

They love flowers and have many bird houses in their back yard.

They live in North Carolina - hence the Carolina Lily block. The birds represent my dad and his sister, the 3 flowers represent my mom (twins) and her sister.

The goats are for my dad, more flowers for my mom and the sunflower block was the signature block.

The back art combined one of the blocks (enlarged) and some left over flying geese units.

I'll be back with part two soon. I'm still in NC enjoying my time away from my "real" life. I did however, have to spend about two hours yesterday job hunting in order to claim my unemployment. So far, no one is jumping up and down about hiring me - imagine that LOL!!

Until next time,

Karen

Birthday Dinner

We celebrated a wonderful dinner out for my 15th birthday.

My daughter took me to her local quilt shop where I found something to come home with me (imagine that!!) and then my parents surprised me and drove down to spend the day too!

It was a great day - thanks for all the birthday wishes.
I am blessed.
-Karen

It's Leap Day!!!

Today is a very special day for some people and I'm one!! I was born on this day and today I'm turning 15 years old!! It's been a fun thing for me to be a Leap Year Baby.
My husband has taken me to North Carolina to celebrate with my children and grandchildren. What a treat! I hope you all have a wonderful day - I know I will :).
-Karen

Mystery Quilt Revealed!!

After weeks of clues and many guesses from you, here's the mystery quilt! Isn't it amazing? I am presenting a program tonight for my guild based on this quilt. I'll be showing all the clues but waiting until the end for the reveal.
I took these on a sunny day on the back porch, so the colors are pretty true. It has a very warm, woodsy feel to it. What always amazes me about scrap quilts, is how random some of the fabrics look at the beginning, but how they all fit together at the end.

Here's a reminder of the 9 patch block. What was so unexpected to me was what happened at the corners when the 4 little triangles came together. Just by looking at this quilt, it's hard to tell where the block is.

The pattern comes from this book. All of Cathy's quilts are wonderful - but the Pineapple Nine Patch really caught my eye.

Cathy did hers in reds and creams - which I love. But I've pulled all my reds for Orca Bay (which had to take a back seat for a while) so I wanted to use something different.

Remember how it started with the big triangles? 80 of these guys.

Then there were 120 little triangles. Plus all the other units.

Here it is on my design wall. I just love the circles that form and the way the border strips form the complete little corner blocks. They sort of look like pinwheels. I'll be adding an outer border to it. Hopefully it will get quilted soon.

Thanks for following along on my mystery. By the way, this is also another "free" quilt. All the fabrics came from my stash. It's always amazing to me when I can make a quilt this interesting, and I didn't buy a single piece of fabric!

Until next time,

-Karen

Folk Art Donation and Binding

I have finally finished this folk art wall hanging for our guild show next month. We are having a Chinese Auction and this is my donation. How I enjoy Red Wagon patterns, this is from the book Snowbound. This was actually a rescued block from a friend. All I had to do was add borders and quilt.
I struggled a little with the machine quilting. It's very fussy to go around all the applique shapes. I'm glad it's done.

I've been working on another project - I finished the quilting today. Here's the back. This is one of my go-to allover designs - I love it.

I tried something new in the inner border - turned out okay. I did a made up design in the outer border. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

What fun to work with Joanna's fabric line, Butterscotch and Rose!!

Going from folk art plaids to Butterscotch and Rose keeps me very interested :). I'm also still finishing up the hand quilting on the wedding quilt. Never a dull moment around here :). Tomorrow I gotta look for a job - :O. To qualify for Florida unemployment, you need to apply for 5 jobs per week!! I'm definitely going to have to psyche myself up :)!

But tonight, I'm going to be spending some quality time with this yummy quilt and some binding.

Until next time,

-Karen

Last Mystery Clue

Well, it's time to share the final clues in my "mystery quilt". Here's a description of all the segments below:
1- the triangle and the hourglass block using 4 varied triangles
2- the big 60 degree triangle and the small triangle
3- a 2 1/12" strip and the unit with 2 small triangles on each end
4- the big triangle cut in half
5- 1 1/2" strips sewn in pairs of 2, cut 4 1/2" and 2 1/2"
6- corner unit using the small triangle and the 2 short log units
7- the big triangle cut again in half - should have 4 logs
At this point you would have lots of varied triangles all cut into 4 logs. You would choose four and turn them all upside down. This is when the magic happens!!
Here's a close up of the 4 varied logs sewn together and attached to the corner unit.

At this point, it's put together just like a 9 patch block. The hourglass block goes in the middle, and the other units are attached. So here's the finished block!! It will finish at 13 1/2". I'm sure some of you may have guessed which pattern it is and which book it's from, but the big reveal will be tomorrow. If you still have not seen this book, I think you will be amazed!

Hope you're intrigued, it's been fun!

Until next time,

-Karen

Getting So Close

I know it's been a while, I've been missing in action. But I've been busy. I always forget how long hand quilting takes especially for a bigger quilt. As you can see, I am getting so close. This quilt has been such a joy to see as the quilting design emerges. I'm still not totally pleased with the center design of feathers. I have a couple of ideas, we'll see....
I am really beyond pleased with how it's turned out. I will be excited to see it hanging at our Guild's quilt show in a few weeks. I am working on the binding now. Having a few problems, but I'll work them out.

Until next time,

Karen