Almost Antique Apple Core Quilt

Isn't it funny that so many quilts have such specific memories attached to them? This quilt's story began in 1995 as our family was preparing to head out to Colorado to go skiing. I always take a hand project in the car, and driving from Florida to Colorado required a substantial project!!
I have been a charter member of this magazine, it's my very favorite!! When I saw this pattern, I was immediately drawn to the plaids. Back in 1994, I was knee deep in trying to collect homespun fabrics and build my stash. So when I got this issue, it was screaming my name!!

Notice this is only issue 8!! How awesome that 17 years later it's still going strong :). So in the weeks leading up to our departure, I cut little apple cores out by the scores! I was using only reds, blues and tans (my favorite color palette).

With my little bag of pieces, I hand stitched these little darlings into long rows mile after mile. I didn't know at the time that this quilt would not be finished and quilted until 1999, but it did get finished and is still one of my favorites.

I decided not to do the wavey edge, and just cut off the outer edge and added a checkerboard border. Of course back then, machine quilting was not even on my radar - everything was hand quilted. I try and pull this out every fall, I was a little late this year (can't imagine why *wink*).

Until next time,

-Karen

P.S. My DH is doing well, but PT is currently winning the battle :).

Full Bloom

The Christmas cactus are almost in full bloom. It was so pretty out Saturday, I sat on the back porch and quilted away. The leaves rustled and the birds chirped and I finished the appliqued berries. Such a nice way to spend a few hours after the hustle and bustle of a holiday.

Hope you all had a restful day.

-Karen

On the Other Side

Thanks for all the support for the berries. I've actually had quite a bit of time to work on my Joy Angels while sitting in the hospital. My DH has successfully come thru total knee replacement surgery and we are on the other side. He's still in the hospital, doing very well, and I'm trying to manage him, work and home :). It's all good.
This morning I saw this on my back porch and "stopped to smell the roses" and enjoy the beauty.
Have a great day,
-Karen

Berries or No Berries??

My Joy Angels are appliqued, basted and ready to start quilting - yea!!! I've marked a simple grid to start.
I'm was able to get some quilting done while we flew to Charlotte to spend a long weekend celebrating our oldest granddaughter's 7th birthday.

So my big question is this - do I add some red berries to vine or not? The original pattern called for red pears but I didn't want to add that much red since I added the red border. I'd love to hear your opinions..... :).

Until next time,

Karen

Blogger's Festival

It's that of year again - the Blogger's Quilt Festival. This is my quilt "Going Home" which was made for the 100th Anniversary of Naval aviation. It was accepted into the traveling exhibit and has been touring the country since January. Here it is hanging in my office - it was up for one day before I had to ship it off!

Of the quilts I've done in the past year, this one stands out as being very special to me. I'm kind of a traditional quilter and so this "art" quilt was a stretch for me. You can find the whole story here. It's also the first time I've entered a national contest. So even though I didn't win an award, just being selected to be in the traveling exhibit was a thrill!

The rules stated that the quilt had to finish at 40 x 40 and my squares finish at 1". So there are 1,600 squares in this. My biggest challenge was creating the setting sun and trying to reflect the sunshine on the water.

The planes are WWII F6 Hellcats. I learned a lot about planes doing this. I was pretty pleased with the quilting on this too.

While looking thru my pictures to decide what I wanted to use for this post, look what I found. A picture of Rodger - checking it out!! This almost made me cry. I don't even remember taking this picture. He was always so interested in my quilts LOL!! He might have been my biggest fan!! Still miss this little guy...

Anyway, thanks to Amy for this opportunity to share our work with each other. Go by and check out all the quilts!!
Until next time,
-Karen

Weekend work

I've been working on the vine and leaves - almost done!! I can't tell you how exciting it is to pull out an old book and make a project that you've been thinking about doing for years. That's how it is for me with these Joy Angels. I sure hope the whole "hanging it on the picture" thing works!!
When I hung this up this morning to take a picture, I saw my fall fireplace quilt - it's been up for a few weeks now. How I love changing these out for the seasons. You can check out the label list on the bottom right for more posts about my fireplace quilts (if you're new and have no idea what a Fireplace Quilt is :).)

I think it may be almost time to make a new fireplace quilt, that will have to go on my to-do list for 2012. Oh me, my list is already getting full for next year- LOL!! But for me, there is just something about a New York Beauty......... it makes my heart sing :)!!

Have a great Monday!
-Karen

Joy Angels

I have owned this book for probably about 15 years. I love Folk Art quilts and I've made lots of them. But there is one project in this book I've never made. I've used part of it, but never the way it was designed....... until now. This is the Joy quilt. I love these angels and have wanted to make this quilt forever!! But it's 61" x 21". That is an odd size. I guess you could use it for a table runner, but I wanted to hang it up. Where do you hang something that long and skinny? So I started walking around my house seriously looking for a place to hang it, and I ended up in the Dining Room.

Several years ago my DH painted my DR a brick red and I still love it. On the big wall is a fairly large watercolor painting (52 x 32). It struck me that if I made the quilt shorter and wider, maybe I could use the picture as a base and make a pocket of some kind on the back to hang the quilt. I've pulled out my precious stash or Robyn Pandolph Folk Art Christmas III and IV. It is still unbelievably gorgeous after all these years!! I am modifying the vine placement and adding a distinct border.

Can you see it???? How wonderful it's going to be??? I am very excited. And very grateful to Kim who came to the rescue with the perfect piece of green for the vine. How lucky for me that she hadn't cut it into 2 1/2" strips yet - LOL!!! Robyn decided to change the green on IV and there is virtually nothing on the market now that matches it. But now I've got a piece to make my vine, so I'm on my way.

I'm still working on my pink and green baskets (sort of) and also working on a secret project that I can't show for a while - but it's sooooo cool. I'm going to prep the applique for hand work as we're taking a trip in a few weeks and this will be perfect!

I am so excited that I'm finally making my own Joy quilt - I can't wait!

Until next time,

-Karen