End of The Year_2013

Well, 2013 is coming to an end; I've been extremely busy finishing up projects for Christmas gifts.  I started some patriotic themes late last year and completed them once I got Frenchy up and running again: 
This one for son John (#2 Stepson):

This one for Paul(#3 Stepson)...no they're not the same pic!:

This one for Tarl(Stepson-In-Law)

 

My #1 stepson, James, passed away earlier this year.  I made memory quilts for his children (from T-shirts) and his wife and his mother (from his dress shirts).

 

For Jamey:

 

For Alison:

For Ben:

For Garrett:

For Cristi:

For Beverly:

Mission Accomplished!!!

A Texas Quilt, an evolution of planning, began when I showed Janet Payne my recent purchase of the Texas Map (provided in the Quilt Across Texas 2013 collection) in browns & greens.  She immediately wanted to make something for her daughter, Jordon, for Christmas.  I suggested an Evening Star (no "Y" seams) surrounding the panel.  From there it grew to include small Texas icons in the large spaces outside the star.  Together we went to the Houston Street Mercantile Quilt Shop, and she made her fabric purchases in a variety of colors as you can see.  Two embroidered pieces and a pictoral floral were purchased online, as well as the backing, which was found on Christian Lane website.  Janet's family has roots that reach back to William Barrett Travis and known descendants are listed above the Alamo icon. The border is a print of birds on a grassy lawn.  King Tut Sahara Sands thread was used in a free motion quilt design.  The king size quilt was machine-pieced and machine quilted with leaf-design machine binding.  We started this effort in September and it was completed and delivered on November 5, 2013.

Projects Continue.......

I’ve been working on a number of projects that won’t be posted until after Christmas (for obvious reasons).  In the meantime, my friend, Teresa, and I have been working on her project:  a tribute to her ancestors who fought in the Civil War.  Teresa started out making traditional blocks from patterns I had on hand.  Then she ran across this great panel with the portraits of Confederate Generals.   The evolution began.  As she continued working on the traditional blocks, she decided to add a block for each one of her ancestors who fought, and include birth & death dates, as well as their military information. This is the final product.  A special label was added to the back.

 

Making Progress!!!

On Wednesday, July 17, BFF Teresa and I finished her Star Quilt.  The color is not very clear but the stars are purple and gold batiks bordered with black and two shades of purple batik; the backing is black and the thread is a veriagated gold/brown.  We ran into a few "snags" along the way, but all in all,  it turned out very nicely.    This is Teresa's first longarm quilting experience......a job well-done!

Yes....the aforementioned Coleman Museum Flour Sack Quilt is finished!  As written earlier, a bunch of antique flour sacks were donated to the Coleman Heritage Hall several years ago.  I learned about the flour sacks when I volunteered to work at the museum and offered to make a quilt for display to show how the flour sacks were used.  I think these sacks, which are a purple and yellow floral, are dated sometime in the 30s or 40s.   I used a quilt pattern called Haberdashery.  Backing is natural muslin and the thread is a neutral cream.    I delivered the quilt to Coleman on Friday, July 12 and met up with Kay Mitchell who accepted the quilt on behalf of the Museum. 

UnFinishedObjects, better known as UFOs

Every week, usually on Mondays, my BFF, Teresa, and I spend the afternoon working on quilting projects.   The first few weeks (back in January and February), we worked on her project that began a year ago.  After about 5 weeks we completed the quilt top except for a border.  When we made our trip to Coleman to deliver the Curves Quilt, we went shopping at the Quilter's Patch in Santa Anna and found some fabric for the border with plans to use a black or purple sheet for the backing.    In the interim, we've also been working on blocks from past and current Blocks of the Month patterns that I have accumulated over the last 4 years.  Our ultimate plan is for each of us to make a quilt top utilizing a panel with the portraits of  Civil War Confederate Generals and adding blocks made up of muted prints and tea-dyed muslin.....more to come on that.  I am also working on a project for the Coleman Heritage Hall Museum using some donated flour sacks.  While at Santa Anna's shop, I found some purple and yellow fabrics that compliment the flour sacks.....more to come on that too.
Finally, another project I hope to finish before the end of this year is to make a Memory Quilt for each of my 4 grandchildren whose father, James F. Hyde III,  passed away in March.  I have 5 bags of shirts from which to work......yes, more on that too.   TO BE CONTINUED....... 

A Curves Memory Quilt

After I finished the practice piece, I decided to take on a project that had been on the 'back burner' for over a year.    After Curves of Coleman closed, I promised a loyal member that if she would gather up her Curves T-shirts for me, I would make her a T-shirt memory quilt.  She promptly provided the T-shirts last fall before we started the move back to Granbury....so the t-shirts were packed away until March.  I worked on this in spurts:  cut the logos out in large squares, apply stabilizer to the back, cut again in 12 1/2" squares, design placement; then I discovered (or re-discovered) a bolt of purple fabric I bought when Kelly Corder was selling her inventory.  It was perfect for finishing the borders and backing.  I had started working part time in an office in January, plus we were still settling in our new environment, so this was a slow-going project.  I finally got the borders applied and it was time to quilt.  So, it went onto Frenchy.   It took me a couple of day to work up the courage for the quilting phase, but it was successfully finished and ready for binding within 6 hours.  I used a bright green floral print from my extensive stash for the binding.  It made a pretty contrast against the purple.  I sewed the binding onto the front in preparation for hand stitching the binding to the back.   

At this point, I ran into a major obstacle:  a broken hip immediately followed by hip surgery on March 31, 2013.  I was in the hospital from Friday night until Tuesday afternoon.....the following weeks are a bit foggy since I was on heavy pain meds......but I managed to work on the hand stitched binding sometime during that period.  I prepared a label and applied it to the back and it was ready for delivery a couple of weeks before my friend's birthday on May 30, 2013. 

My BFF, Teresa Harrison, drove with me to Coleman so I could deliver the quilt to Carolyn McClellan.  We spent the day visiting many of my Coleman friends, but we made a lunch date with Carolyn; Teresa took our picture with the Curves Quilt.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

Relocated!!!  

Yes, we are back in Granbury after a 7 year “journey”.   My Frenchy was packed in nine boxes back in late August.  He hibernated in the garage at Coleman until November, when he was moved into our new house.  Then the holidays interrupted any opportunity to reassemble him.  Then after such a long “sleep”, he needed a ‘tune-up’ so another month went by.    I finally eeked out enough time last weekend to load a quasi-quilt onto the machine.  I used two old sheets and scrap strips of batting to re-educate myself on long-arm quilting.  No, it’s not like riding a bicycle!  My confidence has hit a low ebb, and I am getting reacquainted with loops, circles, feathers, and other free-hand designs.  It will be another week (where does the time go?) before I will have quilted the entire practice piece, but it’s worth the time-investment to feel secure again before I tackle a prized quilt top that merits craftmaship for a finished product.

 I have had so much fun unpacking and re-organizing my fabrics.  It’s like getting a new box of crayons…..lining up all the greens, blues, purples, reds, yellows, and more……also, rediscovering boxed up projects in different stages and realizing lost momentum.   I am getting re-inspired to get those items finished. 

So, here are a few pics of my sewing room.  WOW, I have a lot of stuff!