Happy Fishing!

Bob, longtime family friend from California.....Jimmy's best friend since children growing up in Denison, Texas.....visits us each year in the spring.  A few years ago, I ran across two panels that made me think of Bob, and I got them with plans to one day make a lap quilt for Bob to commemorate his love of fishing.  As happens to "the best laid plans", these panels ended up on the backburner until about a month ago; when I was going through some stash, I ran across them.  Knowing Bob would be coming to Texas, I set them aside to start a project for him.  Of course, two panels are not enough to make a full quilt, and two panels are not going to make a balanced pattern.  I had recently seen some fat quarters at the new quilt store next to Big Lots that I thought may have come from the same maker of the panels, so I went back and bought the 2 fat quarters and some matching teal fabric.  Then I searched the shelves in my quilting room for fabric that would work as a contrast and found some beige print....Perfect!   I went to work making half square triangle blocks to make the star effect around each of the four panels and then sashed those blocks in the teal fabric.   Another treasure in my stash was the teal/turquoise ombre fabric used in the outside border.  The green section of the ombre was in the center of the fabric so I had to cut the strips in half at the green and sew them back together at the darker ends to get the green effect in two places on each side of the quilt.  It turned out better than I expected.  The binding is another stash item that worked its magic in bringing all the colors together.   

I had some smaller fish pictures that were originally around the larger panels, so I cut one out and adhered it to the label before I framed it with the same binding fabric. 

I rushed to get this finished before Bob's departure on Saturday night, but I put the final stitches on the label Thursday morning and presented it to Bob Friday night.  He likes it!

TCU T-Shirt Quilt

A friend of a friend called me to do a T-shirt quilt for her from college T-shirts.  She brought about 25 - 28 T-shirts.  I managed to use all except 2 of the shirts, including pocket logos.  Delivered yesterday: 

Puzzle Quilt

Sister Trish and I attended a class at "Quilt Among Friends" in Arlington a few years ago on Puzzle Quilts by Paula Nedelstern.  It was a challenging class, but I became addicted with the concept.  I made several blocks from the pattern book and stored them away until this year when one of my New Year's resolutions was to finish some of my UFOs.  So, after the dust settled from Christmas, I dug out the blocks and arranged them on the design wall.  Granted the 4 lighter (and larger) blocks look a bit out of place, but they were in the book and they are part of the group.  So, I arranged them such that I could add sashing to match them all up.   I added a border to merge the greens, blues, and purples.  Machine quilted with green thread in a free motion design. 

Christmas Gifts

I am so negligent in keeping this blog current, but there's not enough time in my world to sit down and write it all down.  Since my last post, I quilted two already completed tops from a few years ago.  It was a really nice pattern for the Lone Star that didn't require "Y" seams.  I made two at the same time mostly from my fabric stash.  They were hand pieced and machine quilted; gifted to my granddaughters, Madeline & Gabrielle Hyde for Christmas 2014.