Patriotic?

I've been thinking of making a patriotic quilt - red, white and blue - and so I've gone searching.  I've looked through magazines and books and even Google images where I found these three pictures that caught my eye:

Could I make a heart shaped one?  Why not!  But even though I love the look of it it doesn't seem very practical.  So what about the middle image of stars all scattered on the white background, then with a border like the last image?  Wonder how many stars that would take....and oh, my, what a lot to applique.  

Oh My Goodness

I haven't written a post in what seems like forever - very unlike me.  But in my defense I've been just a bit busy.  I am in the fifth week of a mission trip and will be going home on Friday.  As many of you know Jerry and I often serve at UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, Louisiana and that's where we've been this last few weeks.  Jerry is back at home but I'm still at the mission - he has another volunteer gig he's going to next week so he went home to get ready.

Unlike other times I've been here I didn't do much sewing this time.  It's been a bit busier than usual and our groups have required more of my time - and I love what I do!  I had big plans before I left home and brought 3 or 4 tops I wanted to get put together but that didn't happen.  I did, however, do a couple of little things.

I made a little zippered bag with a vinyl window so I can see what's inside - love this!  Originally I planned to make it a pencil bag for a grandchild but I decided a super hero fabric might be better received so I'm going to keep this one myself.  It makes a perfect bag for my embroidery.

The ruler fabric is the lining and also the back - don't you love it?  I bought the kit from Quilt Taffy but I'll be making many more from my stash.  There are two sizes in the pattern and I made the smaller of the two.  I think the larger size would make a great makeup bag - and when I do that I'll use vinyl fabric for the lining so it will wipe clean.  I have some cute red polka dot vinyl that will be perfect.

I also complete another of the wool candle mats from Primitive Gatherings - this one for the Independence Day celebrations.

I used Valdani wool thread in this project.  The blanket stitch on the outer edge is done with a variegated blue.  The tails on the stars are a chain stitch and I used a star stitch on the stars with just a french knot holding the red circles down.  I'm not sure what those are supposed to be but the pattern called for them and the color added to the mat was a nice touch.  If you've never used wool to applique with you really should try it - such wonderful soft stitching!

The first thing I'm going to do when I get home is to head into my sewing room to work on my picnic quilt for the next blog hop?  What's on your agenda?

Almost to the End

As some of you know I've been working on some Kathy Schmidt BOM small quilts.  I'm getting almost to the end - finished two more last week!

I call this one Liberty - obviously it's the July quilt.  I love hanging these on my Ackfeld hanger beside my fireplace but I thought I'd show you how it looks in a couple of other places.  Who knew palm fronds would stick you when you tried to lay something on them?

Thank goodness this bench didn't mangle my hands when I borrowed it for a viewing!  :)

March winds - you gotta' love them!  Or not sometimes.  :)

I tried to add a little wind look in my machine quilting on this one.

And now I'm down to one - only one more to finish.  That makes me sad!  I've loved these pieces and especially the combination of one small fused piece with the embroidery.

What am I working on now?

I had a charm pack I wanted to use in a table topper - love these scrappy flying geese!  But it's not quite as big as I need so I plan to add some borders.  The problem is.....what kind of borders.  Any suggestions?

Meow

I've had this little pattern for a long time - I don't even remember how long!  But it was one of my UFOs uncovered when searching for something else.  I love when that happens...it's like I just made a trip to the quilt shop since I'd forgotten I had it.  :)

The cats are fused down and then stitched with one strand of white embroidery floss, using the blanket stitch.  The scalloped border was done like no other I'd seen.  I added it just like I would any other border, then cut the scalloped edges, then the lighter border was put on, not as a border but as a whole piece almost like it was a backing.  Then I blanket stitched the scalloped border with two strands of purple.  This is how the directions showed to do this and it worked fine with one exception.  Because the background of the cats is white the floral showed through.  The easy fix for that was to cut the center of the back piece out at about where the green sashing is.

The colors are actually a little lighter than is shown in either of these pictures but if I lighten them then the cats fade too much.  :(  These are 1930s reproduction fabrics and I would almost swear that my grandmother had dresses/aprons made from some of these exact fabrics!

With A Heavy Heart

Tornados - just the word has the power to take my breath away.  Devastation, injuries, deaths, broken lives....my heart is heavy for fellow Arkansans as well as those in other states who were affected by these storms last night.

Sixteen lives were taken by this tornado - perhaps more.

As many of you know my husband and I are members of the United Methodist Church and are frequently volunteer missionaries at a facility in south Louisiana.  At UMCOR Sager Brown we put together Cleaning Buckets, Health Kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, washcloth, soap, etc.), school bags, baby layettes, bedding kits and more.  These kits are sent to areas of crisis here in the United States and all across the world.  When I see the aftermath of not just tornados but also floods, earthquakes and wars I know that the work we do truly reflects the love of Christ.  We try to be His hands and feet where people are hurting.

I am not soliciting anything....but for those of you who have asked me I want you to know that 100% of all donations given to UMCOR go directly to disaster relief.  Administrative costs are covered another way.  If you so desire the way to donate is at www.umcor.org.  But please, please say a prayer for those who have been so profoundly affected and for those who are already at work helping to restore, rescue and serve.

A New Series

I've started a new series - wool candle mats from Primitive Gatherings.  This is the first one I've finished.  I'm using it as a mug rug on my desk.  :)

As you can see from the closeup I'm using variegated Valdani threads with a blanket stitch.  My next one in this series will be a patriotic one...red, white and blue.  These are small enough to finish in an evening or two!