Is It Summer Or Fall?

Summer...?

...or fall...?

No, I don't live near a nuclear power plant, but I've never seen sunflowers grow as big as they're growing in my garden right now!

The tree at the end of my driveway started to turn color about a week ago...a couple of days ago I saw the first red leaf on the ground...

My family is off on a college tour again...last week, Cornell in Ithaca, NY...this week, Bucknell in Lewisburg, PA...

More Paper Piecing

Here is "L-3 Reflections Abound", an intermediate-level paper-pieced block. I'm doing well toward my goal ... 9 more blocks to do in about 9 weeks or so.

My Heart Belongs to Grandma

Today is my late paternal grandmother's birthday, so I thought I'd post a couple of photos of quilts I made using some of the doilies that she crocheted in the 1960s or so. About 20 years ago, I inherited an entire box of her handwork, but never knew what to do with them all until I saw an episode of Simply Quilts about using doilies in quilts. The guest on the show was Sharon Rexroad.

I made these in 2002 and until that time, the doilies had been hidden away in a box and never really seen by anyone. Although the idea of cutting up my grandmother's work horrified me at first, I decided that I needed to do it in order to make them into something that I would want to see on my wall. The doilies were not doing anybody any good hidden away, but now I have this quilt hanging on the wall in my foyer and I am reminded of my grandmother every day.



I made a smaller one for my cousin...

Like my maternal grandmother whom I talked about in my Aug 4th post, this grandmother also had to flee the Soviet Union with her husband and 3 young adult children after World War II. I don't have a picture of her with me handy, so here's a photo of her and my grandfather with their 3 children who survived to grow up into adults (my father is the young boy). It was probably taken around 1930.

I am fascinated by the stories that my parents and aunts tell about their childhood years growing up under Stalin's regime in the 1930s and 1940s. I cannot imagine living through what my grandmothers must have lived through -- husbands and other family members being arrested and sent to prison camps (no reason ever given, of course), property taken away, children needing to be fed on one potato a day, bombs raining down from the sky, traveling through Eastern and Central Europe by horse and wagon during the war years and not knowing where their next meal would come from or where they would sleep, starting life all over at age 50 in a foreign land not knowing the language...

Not a day goes by that I don't realize how extremely fortunate I am...Happy birthday Grandma!

Finished!

I've finally finished my quilt for the guild's exhibit (well, almost finished...I still need to hand sew one side of the sleeve and the label). Get ready for a whole bunch of photos...if I did things correctly, you should be able to click on a photo to see a larger version.

I used 2 different Rainbows thread (made by Superior Threads) on the top and Bottom Line (also by Superior) in the bobbin. All the quilting is free-motion. I see a lot of imperfections, but all in all, I'm happy with the results. I'm still a novice at this...every quilt is a learning experience...

Here is the back...I kind of like the effect. The back is busy enough to hide a lot, but if you look at it from a certain angle, you can see the quilting without seeing the mistakes!

The fabric is Flower Show -- a line from Benartex put out a couple of years ago. I had seen a pattern like this in the Keepsake Quilting catalog, but I figured it was easy enough to figure out on my own without purchasing the pattern.

I call this quilt "Window To My Garden II" because the first one I made from this pattern hung in the Sisters, Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show in 2007 and was sold to someone from California. I loved the fabric so much (and of course I still had some left over) that I decided to make another one for myself and then be more adventurous with the quilting. The first quilt just had an allover meandering loop design.

This quilt will make its debut at tonight's guild meeting...

Resolved

After making this block, I think I've resolved not to use fabric with big prints for DJ blocks with small pieces (remember, the definition of "small" is relative when it comes to DJ). Although I think this fabric is gorgeous, it doesn't work well -- too many different light and dark places on the fabric.

This block is "M-2 Duff's Bluff", an intermediate-level paper-pieced block. But since "finished is better than perfect", this block will not be re-done.

This is number 40 and counting...

Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings

I'm in the middle of a couple of weeks that are packed with meetings, many having to do with quilting or the MLQG's exhibit; if I really must go to meetings, I'd much rather they be about quilting than anything else, so I'm not complaining.


So, in honor of all those meetings, here is "D-7 Meeting Place", a beginner-level paper-pieced block.

Paper Piecing Is Fun

Boy, oh boy, do I love paper piecing. If all of the DJ blocks could be paper pieced, I could have this quilt finished in 2 months instead of the 2 years that I'm estimating...

This is "H-1, Peek-a-boo", another intermediate-level block.

I really must work on an applique block next...