A Quilt for Me

Do you know how sometimes you see something and you may not know why but it is just so familiar to you that you immediately identify with it?
That is what happened to me when I saw this quilt. Susan Cleveland sent it to me last year. I knew in an instant that I wanted to keep it! I just loved it.

Yesterday I decided to quilt it with the intention of putting it in the living room.  As I was enjoying the fabrics in the blocks, it triggered some "fabric" nostalgia for me!  I don't know by whom or when this top was pieced but the piecer could have been using tidbits from my life for the fabrics.  Maybe that was the subconscious connection for me.

Overall, it looks very much like the clothes I have worn through the years--lots of chambray blues mixed with some other pastels.  But, on closer inspection, I could see it also represented some people and events in my life; albeit, fairly insignificant but for some reason, stuck in my mind.  Here's a little tour around the blocks and what memory came to me yesterday as I quilted.

The backing is a piece of chambray I have saved 20+ years from my fabric store in the 1980s.  I had always planned to make a nice shirtwaist dress with it.  I haven't worn a nice shirtwaist dress in at least 10 years so yesterday, my chambray took on its new forever assignment as quilt backing.

These 2 blocks next to each other on the quilt gave me a chuckle.  In many ways, they represent Wes' 2 wives.  When I inherited his former (deceased) wife's home decor items, they were heavily colored in taupe.  My style is much like the aqua and pink.  And, it wasn't until my divorce in 2000, that I had the courage to fully embrace the aqua that I love.  Curiously enough, when I was dating Wes he asked if I would turn his house (which is now our house) into a blue house like my house (which is now Brent and Laura's house).  Well, I've been doing my best!  (as y'all know!)

I will forever remember my mother-in-law coming to visit us (my former husband and me) in the late 1970s wearing an apple green polyester pantsuit.  I don't know why that came to my mind yesterday but it did.  I also remember when I was in college and made a denim skirt from a pair of jeans.  The triangular insert was red and white striped fabric.  I paired it with red and white striped knee highs.  (This was, clearly, before the days of nice shirtwaist dresses!).  My former husband was horrified when he discovered I had gone walking through Marshall Fields in Chicago wearing that gitup. 

This block reminds me of Wes and his closet full of Ralph Lauren long sleeved dress shirts.  They all look alike; although I know they are different!

My two boys--as punk as Will was, he loved a nice little tiny plaid button down the front shirt.  Like Wes, he had a whole closet full of them.  Brent spent a few years in a green sweater my mother knit for him.  I'm not sure where Brent's fascination with kelly green originated but the guy loves it!

Going way back in the yearbook of memories, my mother, for more years than my brother and I like to admit, was fond of making the whole family gingham shirts to wear.  Everytime we went in public, my parents, brother and I wore identical gingham shirts.  I know.  Go ahead and laugh.  I am sure it scarred my brother and me for life.  *wink*

For 25+ years I shared a closet full of these kinds of shirts.  They were favorites of my former husband.  And, there's that chambray I loved to wear too.

In it's new home in the family room with the new pillows.  Aw, there's no place like home!
Thank you, unknown piecer!  Thank you, Susan!  I'll enjoy this quilt for a long time!

Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

 

More Pillows & Decorating

I really got alot done yesterday. I am working diligently to cross off projects from my To Do List that are easy enough to get done so I can begin some new projects. Recycling these wallhangings into pillow covers is perfect. It's giving the house a fresh new look and moving the wallhangings out of the closet. I can now enjoy them!

This wallhanging from the Interpret This! Challenge made 2 new pillows for the wicker chairs at the breakfast table.

One of my decorating tricks is to cover a round table with a quilted skirt.  I usually buy commercially quilted bedspreads at some place like Tuesday Morning, cut them into circles and reuse the binding for the tablecloth's hem.  On 1 skirt I did for the living room a few years ago, I also received 2 pillow shams in the package.  I pressed them into service as the backing for the breakfast room pillows.  I see quilted pillow shams all the time at the thrift store so I am going to keep them in my mind for more pillows.

Here's the quilted tableskirt--I love how the patchwork swirls around the circle.

I was really stumped for tables for this couch--the arms are very high--until I had these taller than usual round tables built.  You can get standard pieces of circular glass at Pier One.  I had the matching side chairs reupholstered from the olive green mottled print to a nice blue with a tiny orange square motif.  They are a bit strange--oversized -- but I've grown to love them. 

Last weekend I had to go deep into Houston for a meeting.  It was an area I used to visit more often and I knew there were some thrift stores in the neighborhood.  I did pretty well at one of them.

I scored 3 Pottery Barn pillows--linen with a jute edging and feather insert for $3.50 each.  They are in the perfect shade of orange and yellow I have in the living room.  I brought them home, rinsed out the covers, made a larger pillow from a vintage barkcloth tablecloth I had and I was ready with a new look!  I had another striped pillow I'd nabbed from my local thrift store for $1--liked the colors but I was very impressed with the 2 beaded buttons through the middle.  When I pulled it out, it matched the other pillows well.

So, now I am wondering what I might do with the 3 bird panels I thought I would make into pillows.

This is the tablecloth on the other side table.  The fabric is satin and the quilting is very rich looking against the sheen.  That's a red leather bench in front of the window.  Next on the agenda for the living room is to quilt the vintage quilt (it's ready to go for today) and drape or roll it up for decoration.  Then, I want to replace the drapes.  The drapes are quite elegant but the color is too drab.  I made them for another room and moved them to the living room when the guest room became Wes's exercise/military room.  They just aren't quite right for the living room.  But, drapery making takes a serious amount of dedicated mind-thinking-attitude and I'm not quite there yet.

So there is a little tour of part of my living room!

 Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

Four for the Vets

These 4 quilts will be headed to the Vets this Friday. I was able to get them quilted and 2 of them bound yesterday. First thing on tap this morning will be to bind the flannel quilts.  Snapped the pictures during the few hours of sun we had-good thing since it is raining now.  Thank you to the generous ladies who sent me these tops to quilt!
They were nagging at me and I just felt I couldn't start another project until they were done.
I feel like I need to spend a serious amount of time on scrap reduction. All the little pieces poking out here and there are about to strangle me!

From Julie in WA

from Katie

from Deborah McLaughlin

These are both flannel with flannel backings.  I used the recycled batting from the quilt show as the filler.  They are really snuggly.  And Good-bye to my flannel stash.  Not collecting any more flannel again.  Glad to see it gone!



 Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

  

Buy Your Raffle Tickets for Garden of Hope

Raffle Tickets are now available for Garden of Hope!  The drawing will be April 16th.  All proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society.

Tickets are 5/$20 and 30/$100; checks made to American Cancer Society.  Email me the number of tickets you want and I'll reserve them for you.  You can send me a check! 

Again, thanks to all the great ladies who helped make this quilt.  It currently being shown around my neighborhood--yesterday at the Ladies Club luncheon and the one word everyone uses is "Gorgeous!"

Garden of Hope

(The Fundraising committee liked the name so well they are using it for the 2013 theme.)

 Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

  

From Wallhanging to Pillows

Two wallhangings I made for challenges became family room pillows this weekend.   I was able to position the pillow cover so I could use the bound edges as the edge of the cover's opening. Bing, bang, boom and I had removable covers! Beats sitting in the closet!

It was a good solution--I learned what I needed on the pieces and now I can enjoy them in another fashion. I'm eyeing a few more wallhangings to transform next.

Join in the Discussion! I would love to know what you think.

 Have a Creative Day, Y'All!

  

Embroidering Crazy Quilt Pillows

I started working on the smaller of the 4 CQ pillows I have planned for the living room. I love the look of the herringbone combined with the chevron and lazy daisy. This makes a statement!

I could buttonhole stitch elements to cloth all day long. Maybe I should do that with a CQ one of these days! This bouquet was harvested from a thrifted linen dress. I am hoarding every single bouquet!

I like having tidbits from my life and from my friends in my work. The bottom trim has been in my stash close to 30 years. The trim across the top came from Angela recently. I have some button clusters planned for the bouquet and a small arch across the top. I am resisting stitching in the checks. I have to draw the line somewhere. My new question is: "Will doing XYZ significantly add to the value of the project?" Not surprisingly, the answer is sometimes a resounding No!  I also have to remember this is not a wallhanging, it's a pillow.

I am also contemplating cutting some very old wallhangings (ones I did for challenges) into pillows for the family room.  What do you do with old work that no longer interests you?

Have a Creative Weekend, Y'All!

 

Crazy Quilt Pillows-Rest of the Set

This is the 3rd of the large 25" pillows. It's more reddish orange than the other two but together they are all so handsome! It will be such fun to add the embroidery stitches to the seams.

This is a small toss pillow size. I'll do the embroidery on it first and finish it up before I start the other three. One thing I want to try is programming my embroidery machine to do a line of buttonholes for the back opening. I haven't done that yet and it intrigues me!

I used some of the decorator samples I bought a few weeks ago from JoAnns for these tops. A couple of pieces are from that drapery workroom haul too.  There is hope that I can sew something almost immediately after getting the supplies! 

Won't those checked spaces be great for stitches?

I really like these!  When I showed them to Wes, he held his finger to his head like a gun.  I think he likes them too!

 Have a Creative Day, Y'All!