Time Travel Tuesday

Since I'm working on a challenge quilt and cannot share photos of its progress, I decided to browse through some older photos for something else to share.  Today, we're traveling back to August of 2007.

This baby quilt was made from half-square triangles (also know as HSTs) for friends of ours who have had many babies.  I think this quilt was given to their fourth baby, or maybe it was their third.  I thought it would be nice for this child to have something especially for him.

I was in an online block swap in which every participant made a set of HST's with white-on-white fabrics on one side and a print on the other side.  These blocks were all mailed to the hostess and sorted so we would all have a nice variety of fabrics.  I used all the blue HST's and a few other colors to add interest and fill in.  Then the outer borders were made to continue those angles.

It was quilted on my home sewing machine with stars and loops.  A simple quilt that was meant to be used and loved and dragged around the house, not put up somewhere safe in a closet. 

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

Here's one from about 5 years ago.  A twisted four-patch of sorts.  It was made to try out a stack 'n whack technique using 4 alike pieces cut into 4 patches.  I loved the tropical fabric that we started with.  One of my kids, a 5th grader back then, helped me with the design, layout and a little of the sewing.  It was a gift for the teacher.  So we named it, Summer at Camp L_____.  The teacher often called her class Camp L______ and these flowers seemed to us to be a summertime celebration.

It's fun to look back and see how my fabrics selection has begun to change, along with quilting designs.  Of course this one was done on my regular sewing machine, so I have to shuffle more quilt layers around as I was quilting it.

 The bird of paradise doesn't grow here, but I enjoyed it when we visited my dad and his wife in March.  Their plant was glorious in bloom.  (Maybe summertime wasn't quite right, but it worked for us when we named the quilt.)

Part of my reasoning for sharing this twisted 4 patch is to motivate myself to finish another one.  I started quilting it by sewing machine years ago and once I stopped and the Tin Lizzie made her home here, I haven't continued.  It will become one of my favorites once it's done!

I'll take a week or so from blogging.  Family health issues have arisen.  So  my dad and his wife are coming here to enjoy our teens as well as feed them and drive them all over town to various activities.  Meanwhile, my husband and I will go separate ways to be with our mothers.  We're praying for both of these sweet ladies to recover ask quickly as possible.

Enjoy your upcoming week.
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

I stumbled across some photos I'd like to share with you today.  Not quilts, but almost!

Years ago, before I became a quilter, Sharon gathered a few friends to plan a ladies' retreat for our church.  We used one of her books which ties together various quilt themes and devotionals.  I chose the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern.  When I found a GFG quilt in an antique shop for a decent price, I snatched it up!

We made these candles using scraps of tissue paper and an embossing gun (basically a hair dryer, but gets hotter).  You put your paper in place and heat the candle.  As the wax melts, the tissue paper absorbs the liquid wax.  Once it's dry, it's fused together.  The candles became table decorations.

We made one quilt pattern candle for each of the topics, except for the sampler quilt, because that would have been very challenging!  After the retreat, these 3 candles remained.  I've kept them, even moving to/from the rental house during the repairs.  They got dusty and began to look a little shabby.

So, I washed them off and fixed the paper edges, then brought them on our quilting retreat this weekend.  Many of our group would take a break and sit in the shade on the back porch.  So I plunked those 3 candles on various tables.  I told our wonderful hostesses that they could toss the candles once we left.

Glad we were able to get double use from them! And also very glad to have them out of the house.  I may decide make some new ones as gifts.  No seam allowances and no seam ripping either.  Grin.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

A big welcome to my new blog followers!  Thanks for joining me and for your comments.  We all love comments!

Here's a baby quilt that I made three years ago for Jessica.  Her theme was jungle animals.  I think I love it so much because it's so bright and funny.

The quilting details didn't photo well.  I'm learning how shadows can help show off those stitches.  The yellow border is quilted with verbs like : run, play, sleep, pounce, munch, swing ... you get the idea.

The lion is my favorite, but all of these animals were fun to make.  Many of the fabrics were leftover pieces from a block of the month project.

 

 The pattern is available at Olivia Ann Designs

So Saturday, I made 4 cute gift bags for 4 friends.  While I was working, I thought about posting photos on my blog.  And then we all got busy, as families tend to do on a Saturday.  So I realized the next day that I didn't even snap one single photo of those bags.  Eye roll.  (or, as my teens say, "Face Palm!")

I do have another project that I can't wait to share, but it's also sort of a surprise.  So next week, I'll pinky promise to take photos BEFORE I give this one away.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

My Red Galoshes

Here's another blast from the past.  It came about as a Paint Chip Challenge quilt.  At our local quilt shop, the each participant drew 4 paint chips from a paint can.  They laid their chips in a row and wondered for a few moments how to make these 4 colors coordinate.  Then, with some shopping advice from the owner, they found a set of fabrics for their challenge quilt.

I didn't take a photo of the paint chips, but here's the quilt I made.  I gave it away as a baby quilt after the challenge.  For fun, I wrote a short poem about this zebra dancing in the rain, but I didn't preserve the poem either. (Guess I'm learning a lesson about how little space it takes to save digital items.)

My current works in progress are a surprise for an upcoming quilting retreat.  I'll be able to share them at the end of this month.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

This blast from the past was my first Scraps To Treasure challenge quilt made in 2007.  I made this quilt to celebrate the love that a couple has for their children, all adopted.  At the time I made this, they had adopted three and were prayerfully considering adopting one more.  Somehow I just couldn't resist giving them an extra baby girl.

Baby K.

So I was delighted to hear a few months later that they indeed had made another request for a baby and that a baby girl had found her way into their arms and their hearts.

Father and Son

Another Son

Both Daughters and a Rabbit

Momma will join the fun as soon as she sets this picnic basket down.

This one's called, A Patchwork Family.  It was challenging, but lots of fun to design and construct.  I learned a lot from the process, as I have with all these challenges.  It's just about time to get started on this year's STT quilt.  My fabrics have been sent and I'll soon get a set of every participant's 6" squares of fabrics to play with.

AGAPE (adoption agency) is stitched in Greek letters across the heart.  It represents the purest form of love.

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

This one is from November 2009.  Our neighbors across the street were preparing for their daughter's wedding. These colors were really off!  The wall was actually green.

It's a wall hanging of 9 separate quilts.  The inspiration came from an art piece that they listed on their registry.

Instead of the raised designs in the metal, there were designs in the batik fabrics.  Unfortunately, I didn't get shots which show the quilting.  It was a simple, 2 line design which restated an element in the batik.

The quilting followed the squiggly vertical double line in this quilt.

For this quilt, the quilting lines formed one large leaf from a fern frond.

The rods were painted wood dowels.  First black, then mottled with brown to make it look more textured.
Ribbons were the vertical supports.  Each quilt had a rod pocket which was split open in the middle.  I wanted it to be able to be hung with 1 nail and to balance well so that it wouldn't be crooked.

It was fun browsing through a few older photos today.  I'd forgotten about this one!

Our thought and prayers are with my mother-in-law as she's overcoming pancreatitis in the hospital.  It started suddenly and swiftly.  Wish we could jump across state lines instantly and be there during those restricted visiting hours.  For now, two of her sons have been there most of the week.  My husband will fly there soon and stay 10 days. 

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars

Time Travel Tuesday

This quilt was made as a signature quilt to comfort the family of a dear online friend who lost her battle with cancer.  The list was formed way back in the summer of 1996 when a bunch of ladies were expecting babies the following April.  We shared all those stories about our pregnancies that would have bored our other friends and family members.  Then, we stayed together while we had babies, then toddlers ... because we still had to share about all those cute little things they say and do.  We even have our own acronyms for the message subject : CTTS - for Cute Things They Say.

A quilt for Cindy's family

Over the years, our sharing has broadened to include topics about our other (non-April) babes and our marriages and family struggles.  It's been almost 16 years since we first formed the group.  I love that I get to understand how others think and feel about things.  Differing political or religious views, differing ideas on raising their children, differing regional culture... just about everything.  Since we're moms first, and have long time friendships, it really helps to have that foundation in understanding an idea completely opposite of my own.

As Cindy shared about her battle with cancer, we cheered her own.  Many of us prayed for her health and we often asked her how her treatment was going.  Her husband was amazing.  He supported her and showed his love to her very last breath.  When she couldn't post any more, he would give us updates and we'd return well wishes and words of encouragement.  Upon her death, we all wanted to do something to comfort her husband and children.

My first attempt at continuous curves quilting

 
Although most of the April moms are non quilters, they could share a photo or come up with words and a design on the computer.  Most of them emailed me their artwork, which was printed on to fabric.  A few did embroidery onto their fabric square and mailed it to me.    The blocks were arranged and rearranged until this layout came together.  I really like the Mariner's Compass blocks mixed in.

I had a few empty blocks to make the layout work.  So the quilt was mailed in December 2008 with permanent pigma pens to invite her family to add to the love expressed in this quilt.

Her husband, Jay, sent back a story of how Cindy had made quilts to comfort others.  He told me that if she had picked out the fabrics for this one, she would have selected from the same blues and teals that we used here.  He ended up helping her make a few and knew well the time involved and of rotary cutters and chain piecing.  Wow! In the midst of his grief, his expression of thankfulness was an encouragement to all in our moms group. 

Enjoy your day!
- SeeingStars