Christmas gift- Jai's guitar quilt

For Christmas gifts for my sister's grandchildren I made quilts.  The 2 little girls are 7 and got everything in the toy store from Santa, so I made them cute little flower quilts they could use to take a nap (Ha).  My sister's grandson is 14.  He plays the guitar and loves to hunt deer.  His quilt is guitars (and other musical instruments) on the front.

And on the back, camo fabric

He loved it!  And we put it to good use.  As it began to get dark on Christmas night we decided to all sleep over and have a slumber party!  It was so much fun.  Happy Holidays All!

Santa's Elf

I feel like one of Santa's elves on a treadmill.  Why oh why did I decide to give so many quilty items as Christmas gifts?  I've been busy the past few months making wall hanging, placemats, napkins, casserole carriers, wine gift bags, etc. for the church Christmas bazar.  It was over yesterday.  Now on to the projects for family Christmas gifts.  Oh, but I did accept a commission from one of my fellow Sunday school teachers to make a t-shirt quilt for her husband for a Christmas gift.  Did I tell you I got so excited she asked me that it never occurred to me to say no?  Thank God I am off of work until January 12.  Now, if only I can make it to December 25- then I can rest. 

Anyway, here is Aaron's t-shirt quilt.  I just finished the top.  Now to the back and quilting it.  I've never quilted a t-shirt quilt on my domestic machine, so keeping my fingers crossed all goes well. 

 

I just got back from the French bakery where I picked up a baguette.  I love the sign on the wall that says "Look Busy.  Jesus is Coming".  No problem with that here!

Gooseberry Garden

I was looking for a quilt pattern that had a center medallion that could pass as a cross.  I came across this one by Judy Niemeyer called Gooseberry Garden. 

The only problem is that it is 48" X 48" and I want a bed size quilt.  So, I am adding borders.  This is the first  few borders- the tan and then 4 patches.

Today I am working on flying geese for the next layer.  Almost finished those.

Then there will be another border of tan followed by half-square triangles.  The last wide border will be the cream color onto which I will applique the vines, leaves and flowers that are on the center of the quilt on the pattern.  If my measurements end up accurate, the final quilt will measure 105" X 105".  Obviously this one will take a while to get the applique done. 

Wild Women Don't Get the Blues

This is my version of Wild Women Don't Get the Blues.  I took this class with Karen Stone in January 2012 at a GSQA workshop in Pensacola, FL.  I tried to go with the predominant colors of pink and black, but, I also added in blue, yellow, lime green, etc.  It is all paper pieced.  It is 42 blocks total.  Just needs a little long-arming! 

Effervescent Pineapple

I finished my pineapple quilt.  I took the Trash to Treasures class with Gyleen Fitzgerald in March at the GSQA seminar in Baton Rouge.  I made 42 pineapple blocks and completed it with borders from Robert Kaufman's Effervescence fabric I got at my LQS.  It's hard to see in this picture, but the border on the top and bottom are the border fabric.  The sides are a 3" narrower border suggested by Gyleen.  It's not borders as above, it's just bubbles on black background fabric.  Ready for the longarmer now!

Spiritual Tree of Life

This is what I call Spiritual Tree of Life.  I saw a picture of one in a magazine several years ago and adapted it my life.  The leaves are aspects of life that are part of my spirituality.  I machine quilted it on my domestic machine. I hand embroidered the words on the leaves.  The rest of it went together in a weekend.

Leader & Ender String Blocks

I am still working on my paper pieced pieces for the Wild Women Don't Get the Blues quilt blocks.  This takes so much longer than I expected.  I keep telling myself I should have gone for a wall hanging!  Truth is that I think I'm bored with it and haven't seemed to find the time to work too much on it.  Anyway, I have used the Bonnie Hunter philosophy of leaders and enders to make string blocks.  I will need 42 of them for a quilt and I suspect I will have that done by the time I finish the Wild Women Don't Get the Blues blocks done!  The string blocks will be made into a throw size quilt and machine quilted.  It will be a donation quilt.  I can't believe it has hardly made a dent in my string stash!  So, I guess I'll start on another one as a leader and ender.