Second chances

We went to the sweetest wedding last night for a sweet friend who definitely deserves the second chance that God graciously gave.  The kids took part in the ceremony and the combined family is precious!  I think when you're older or you've been given a second chance at love, you value it more.  You truly understand what it is that you've found and understand the work involved in keeping it.  The bride and groom wrote their own vows which were beautiful and sincere.  At the reception, they had "daddy-daughter" dances with the two girls (her youngest child and his only).  He got down on the 7 year olds level and danced to a One Direction song, "That's What Makes You Beautiful".  He even sang it to her and it was one of the most precious things I've ever seen. His daughter even sang a song to the new couple.   After all the traditional dances, they put on "We Are Family" and the new family all danced together.  Cute, cute family.

And a great excuse to give away a quilt!  I had started this one a while back and was busy quilting on it when I realized that it would make a great gift. 

 

This was really fun to quilt because I got to use a template and put something pretty on there!  In the white spaces there are horizontal lines of a lotus type pattern, hand quilted in grey.  The bars of blacks and greys are quilted with a single line down the side of each bar. 

 

The fabric is Little Black Dress by Moda, the pattern is by me and it is a throw size.  The back is pieced with leftover fabric so the quilting design looks really interesting.  I was in a hurry taking a picture and I didn't get a picture of the back, nor did I get the label sewn on.  Oh well.  Next time maybe I'll remember.  And hopefully Jackie and Baron like the quilt well enough that they'll remember where it came from.  A new quilt for a new life!

Fit for a queen

I recently completed a quilt for our bedroom which is currently stuck deep in the makeover process.  By that I mean that the bedding is complete and I have a matching rug, the new curtains are still in the bag and the old are on the windows and the room is still pretty much blue.  But if you can just center in on the bed and pretend for a moment that it's been made, it looks really good!

I made this quilt using a wonky log cabin block and lots of imprecise cutting.  It was crazy easy and very freeing.  My inspiration came from a book called Block Party and a quilt named Once Around the Block.  No rules, just sew what you like. 

This was one of my very favorite tops to quilt so far.  I used three different colors - grey, lt yellow and dark yellow - to quilt large squares and rectangles to mimick the log cabin blocks.  I'm trying to learn better how to make my quilting match the piecing.  To enhance it instead of just being there. 

 

I usually dread quilting a queen size because of the bulk, but this was really fun and fast.  I should have taken a picture of the back too because it is pieced with leftover fabric and extra blocks.

 

 

Now I just have to make another one for wash days!!

 

 

Design wall

After about a year of complaining about not having a place for a design wall and really needing one, I finally figured out a way to do it! My studio consists of mainly windows (which I am NOT complaining about) so I had to get creative. I had seen the roll up type design walls but they are terribly expensive. I was trying to figure out how to manage a portable board type wall until I got this book.

 

 

The authors suggest a roll up shade mounted in the window covered with flannel. Genius. I went to Lowe's to get a shade. Turns out they are hard to find than I thought they would be. I wanted a fabric shade but had to settle for a plastic blind type shade. Roll up is key though. I bought a 72" shade and hurried home. Turns out my window is 71". Stupid builders. Standard is 72", could they not make it easy on me??? Luckily my DH said he could cut it to fit. He got it all situated and hung up for me last night and this morning I got to start adding the flannel.

The plastic blinds made things a little harder because I had been planning on just stapling the flannel to a fabric shade. I decided that the best way to attach it would be by sewing it on. So starting at the top I sewed a spot every 24" or so to the cording on the blinds. You have to make sure to put the flannel behind the pull cord on the front or the shade isn't going to roll up properly.

 

 

 

 

 

Voila! I now have a roll up design board that can be out of sight when I'm not working.  Although I'm having a lot of fun just staring at my quilt in progress so I haven't rolled it up yet.  And I didn't get enough flannel so I have to get another 3 yards.

 

This is my first improvisational quilt and it has been fun and stressful at the same time.  I'll be blogging about it at a later date.