Quilts ... and more quilts !

Spring sprung early in February .. and then .. it was summer .. what happened ? This year seems to be moving quite fast. It seems like it was just February, and we didn't have winter, Mother Nature brought on spring and I was outside working in the gardens, conditioning my horse by driving her on the road and I was drawing up a log cabin design that was going to be a quilt for ME. Since then, the center has been completed and I am working on the pieced borders. The first pieced border will be Half Square Triangles (HSTs) depicting trees.
 



      

Single log cabin block

    

        Assembly line making rows

As you can see, the block has a variety of reds and greens. So I'm using a variety of the greens for the trees. The 2nd pieced border is planned with blocks of Delectable Mountains and I will use the reds for the mountains. My vision is that the trees and mountains depict the Ozarks, the mountain range in the area where I currently live.

Grid for multiple HST  12 grid makes 24
at a time !  phew



Pieced border - trees made of HST
I need 108 HSTs

Center of log cabin  -- I have named this pattern
Cabin in the Ozarks
Note: pattern is in the making !

In April my son who is in the Marine Corp, got orders to be stationed in Japan for 2 years.  I needed to go see him ASAP. I started making arrangements PDQ ! Then my partner's employer decided to move him to Oklahoma to work, so he started work on a camper to live in for temporary housing. I made some curtains for the bedroom to make it a bit more manly, along with cleaning and scouring. Scouring a trailer from tip to toe is NOT my favorite activity. But the curtains came out nice :D

Before the month was out, a friend asked me to make a baby quilt for an expected grandchild -- I was thrilled ! She picked fabric from my stash, and I got to work !

 

 Here's the start ...


  Here's the machine quilting ...




and the finished product !!! I haven't gotten pix yet of the new grandaughter IN the quilt yet, but I have been promised they are coming !

  In May, our local library decided that they would like to have a quilt, or several small quilts, to display in the library to commemorate the Civil War as this is the 150th anniversary.  Our local quilt guild passed the word that they were forming a group to make this happen and it was decided to make one full size quilt and the pattern was the Civil War Love Letters book by Rosemary Youngs. I jumped at the chance and signed up.  I have 13 blocks in this quilt, another quilter friend made over

 50!  Due to the collective effort, it made a 120 block quilt go much quicker. It is now hanging in our local library proudly displayed with all our names on the label. I love doing things like this  :D  I love Civil War era quilts and reproduction fabrics, and I am making MYSELF the Civil War Tribute quilt. I'm only on Month #4, but each block set is a work of art -- and it's going a bit slower than anything that is able to be pieced quickly.



Here are my 13 blocks -- can you find them in the quilt?

 

In mid-May, a friend who raises black angus crosses made a cut of all my pastures -- made short work for my partner who has to bushog all the growing grasses .. boy was he surprised and it cut down the amount of work he had to do when he did get to come home!  We took 15 round bales off the 10 acres .. 

 

 



 

The end of May, I jumped on a plane to DC to visit my son. It was a well deserved time away from the farm, chores, demands of the 4-leggers.  I also stayed with a friend who had a cornea transplant the end of May and stayed with her through her 2nd week of recovery. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends I left in Virginia before I moved to Arkansas. I got the chance to help a friend put a mare to cart, have breakfast with a friend where I used to board my horse, have lunch with a friend who I used be able to help drive her mules .. and take the opportunity to go quilting with other women. And tour the National Museum of the Marine Corp at Quantico -- what an amazing tribute to our serviceman and women that have served.  The quilt below hangs in the museum and is an amazing example of the work this organization does .. check out www.quiltsofhonor.org . Of course, my son says this is the NEXT quilt I have to make for him.

 

 



  This is Dana and her mare that I helped her put to cart .. here we are working with a drag showing me what I can do with one of my horses -- it's coming, but much slower  :D

 

 In June, we had a baby shower at our church for the daughter of one of our women, I made a burp cloth with some awesome embroidery -- I think I have found the next sewing machine I need !

 

 

 

When I need to get out of the house, I take my horse Melody for a drive. I call it my hoof therapy. I have been driving since the early 90's, and the rythmic beat of her hooves on the pavement, or just the sun on my face, is enough to give me some inner peace. I can say a silent prayer and just still my brain for awhile. The hard part is finding someone to go for a drive with me, and the occasional opportunity is wonderful .. here is my friend Paige enjoying some carriage time with Melody.  

 



 

I just finished a quilt challenge project with my quilt group. The challenge was to make a center block, and for the next 8 months of monthly meetings, we would draw two block names. You could choose to do a border of one or both of the blocks, or neither.  I took a Laurel Burch panel I had found in my stash, and for the life of me could not make several borders with the limited amount of fabric I had. So I did the next best thing. I placed frame borders to get my one border to fit mathematically, and put the pieced blocks of those that I wanted to use in ONE single border. 

 

 

I had border stripe fabrics that I cut apart to use separately on different sides and the final border was a wide directional print that I had JUST enough to make them fit. I just put the final border on last night.

 

Well, believe it or not, there are several more quilts I want to complete in the coming months -- Christmas is on it's way !  County Fair started this weekend and I thought I would have something to enter. I have a quilt that needs a binding, and it didn't happen. Oh well ... chores are calling again ...

 

Til next time, sew on ...

 

Dee