No Greater Love

Greater love has no one than this, 

than to lay down one's life for his friends. 

John 15:13

Noah Rides the Waves

This one is for our fourth great grand-baby. His name is Ethan and he was born April 28 this year. I had a small panel with Noah and wife, and the other fabrics from that line, a few in my stash for more borders, and it is really colorful. Feels good to have it finished. All it needs is the label (just printed it) and a trip through the washing machine. I always do that with baby quilts. 

... instead of putting the binding on a baby quilt...

All my plans to quilt have been interrupted or sidetracked this week. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I'm trying to look on the bright side. Last night gave me something to smile about. 

Our youngest son (who is nearly 40 and does not own a sewing machine) came over with a costume he bought for the weekend. He didn't let me take a picture so I found one that is similar. The costume was size large, but DS is a big boy. The chest was too tight and the elbow 'armor' kept popping off. His girl friend had already carefully opened the seam in back. I used an old sheet to make a pattern for a large almond-shaped addition. Amazingly, he'd gone to a fabric store and found the necessary silver lame that matched the fabric covering the heavily padded armor. I also extended the tabs with Velcro on the elbow patches. He was delighted. All this took over an hour... and while I sewed, he was in my kitchen making himself some supper and having a nice visit with his dad. Cool.

Good start on the bigger version

This is the center panel of a large quilt our church ladies are making for the foyer stairwell. If you check my last post, you can see the completed small version that I made for myself. Mine is only about 3 feet wide. This middle panel is about that size. It is not sandwiched or quilted yet. We are making good progress as we work most Saturday mornings and Monday evenings. Notice that we picked different colors for this one.

I've also finished a top for a great grandson born earlier this year. (I know, I'm too young for great grand kids) and I'm still working on the Mariner's Sunset and our granddaughter's quilt - or should say quilts.

Life is good, just too busy!

Finally, a post and a finish (well, close)

Life has been too complicated lately. Company, unexpected assignments, everyone knows what that is like. However, in the flurry of it, I kept wandering toward my sewing machine and am finally finished this Christmas quilt. I call it, "And God became a man..." 

After making the pattern (see below) I put it together by tracing each piece to what some quilters call "lick and stick" but it is actually Steam A Seam II. Fabric selections were made as I worked (from the top down) using mostly batiks. After they were all in pressed in place, I sandwiched it using fusible batting, then stitched around each piece using invisible thread. That sounds like a chore, but by thinking ahead, I could stitch entire sections without having to break the thread. Who likes trying to thread a needle with that stuff! That secured the pieces (some of them are really small) and quilted it at the same time.

I put facings on the edges yesterday, but still have to hand-stitch them in place. The label and sleeve are done also. I am happy with it!

This one I made for me, but it was a trial run. Our little quilting group at church was asked to make a 7-foot wide quilt to hang in the church foyer. We found an old Christmas card, tried to track the designer (impossible), and decided this was not for profit anyway. It was my job to create the pattern.


I scanned it to my computer and used CorelDraw to outline each piece. I had to make changes in the design. For one thing, the architecture was wrong for the date of Christ's birth. Also, we decided to make it in three panels, so I had to do that to it too. The pieces were scaled to life size and printed in sections, as many together as would fit on a sheet of paper. We purchased fabrics and donated some of our own for the big one, plus I found our "lick and stick" on sale at Joanne's during a recent trip to Idaho. We are nearly finished the middle panel.

I've never seen a quilt constructed like this... but we are having fun! 

I'm still quilting

I've been working on three quilts. One is the giant Mariner's Sunset that covers our pool table. The second is a small "lick and stick" Christmas quilt with a zillion pieces and a stained glass look. The third is GD's Japanese Cherry tree... although I've been showing it off more than working on it --- which when translated means I'd not yet figured out how to quilt it! However, doing some sketching yesterday, I 've come up with a plan, so more sketching until I'm confident, and that one will go under the needle! No pictures today. Most of what I've done so far is not a significant change from what is below, except the Christmas quilt. Since it is taped to a table, I will wait until I can get it in a more photo-graphical position.

We have lift-off

Well, that is how I felt today after my lovely 19-year old GD came over and had a look at her cherry tree. (See previous post and I can't believe that it was posted that long ago!) 

She is thrilled, decided it should be a wall quilt, likely mounted on a studio canvas, and "I'll keep it forever." She agreed that her bed quilt could then have a kimono in the place she originally wanted the tree. She loved my selection of Japanese fabrics for it, and we are both happy.

The best part is this: she asked me to 1) make baby quilts in advance for the four kids she plans to have some day, and 2) make larger quilts in advance for them when they grow up. Don't you love the optimism! She made me feel at least ten years younger. Now I have to live long enough...

Btw, the picture is a pattern from Jukebox called "Shear Bliss." I have it, but haven't made it yet. After today, it might get pulled out of the drawer!