Setting-on-Point

First I have to give those of you who have been praying for and asking about my mom an update. We admitted her to rehab on Monday night and she is doing pretty good now - ready to come home. She is walking and feeling better, although still not strong enough to be on her own. My mom is determined though and I so admire her for her strong will to get better. Thank you all for your prayers.

I have done a little sewing this week, and completed a quilt top for my new granddaughter, due to arrive November 20. Her name is Taralyn, which I think is a sweet name, and of course she has to have sweet feminine quilt as well. There is an ad on tv that says "Clothes make the man" - not sure I agree with that ad, but I do think in this case, the Fabric makes the quilt. It is a very simple pattern, but these fabrics are wonderful and I think the quilt is perfect for a sweet baby girl. The fabrics are Aviary by Three Sisters for Moda. I plan to machine stitch in the ditch around the sashings, and hand quilt butterflies in the squares and border.

The only problem I had was setting the blocks on point. Its hard to believe, with all the quilts I have made that I have never set one on point - at least not without the instructions telling me what size to cut the blocks. I am sure I have quite a few instructions in my library of books and magazines, but its easy to google it and find something on the net. I found great instructions at Quiltville Custom Printing which involved some calculations. Now I use Excel software in my job and the minute I see calculations, I have to translate that to an Excel spreadsheet, which I did. So all that is necessary is to enter the block size, sashing size and it computes the size of squares to cut. If you would like a copy of this spreadsheet, I will happily share it with you - just let me know your eaddy and I will send it on out. Highlighted in blue are the numbers you have to enter - including rounding up the measurements - but no calculations, Excel does all that for you.

Happy Stitchin'

Teresa

Mom's Hollyhock Quilt

I have not had much time for sewing the last few weeks and thought I would share one of my mom's quilts with you tonight. Mom makes most of her quilts by hand, and this one is no exception. It is hand appliqued, each block hand quilted individually and then the sashing sewn on by machine on one side and hand sewn on the other side. Its a beautiful quilt and one that she gave me several years ago - I treasure it dearly.

I have also included some pictures of a close up of one of the applique blocks, one of the quilted blocks and the quilt back. My photography skills are not that great, but I hope you can see her beautiful work

Mom is not doing very well these days. She is 88 and was recently hospitalized, and just not bouncing back like she has in the past. Please keep her in your prayers.

Teresa

A found treasure.

I was supposed to be at quilt retreat this weekend but was needed at home, as my mom is not doing well. I did get a little sewing in, and wanted to share with you a very wonderful project. I was helping my mom clean up her sewing room and came across this pretty Penny Rug she had made years ago, and which unfortunately a little mouse had discovered too. Momma said she could not bring herself to throw it away, and had been keeping it for years now wanting to mend it. I just fell in love with it and I believe its the only Penny Rug my mom had ever made. So I asked her if I could mend it for her. and that is what I worked on this weekend.

Here is the mended Penny Rug - and better still - she gave it to ME!

I also completed my Noah's Ark Wall hanging. This was a fun project to do .

I hope you all had a great weekend, and to my quilting friends at White Oak - you were in my thoughts and I know you had a great time. I can't wait to see the projects you worked on!

Happy Quilting,

Teresa

Crazy......

....quilt, that is. This is a quilt I started several years ago, teaching the crazy quilt blocks to my club. We had more fun, ordering a kit of "fancy type" fabrics and beads, buttons, etc from a site on-line and then adding to it. I purchased a pre-printed floral fabric for the center - assembled the top and then turned it over to my sister-in-law, Alpharine (no-blogger), a master at embroidery to do the stitching and embellishments. I have included a picture of the center block - notice how she embroidered over all the printed flowers - it is absolutely beautiful!

I finished it up this weekend - just in time to complete my guild's "PhD" program.

Talk about your coincidences - I finished this up on Friday, after having it in my UFO drawer for at least 2 years, and got a call this morning that Alpharine and her husband Larry (my husband's brother) would be dropping by today and spend the night with us. Now is that perfect timing or what?

Happy Stitiching!

Teresa