Wednesday, October 15, 2014

It's a Challenge...

I recently accepted a challenge from the President of the
Longarm/Machine Quilters Guild that I am a member of.
This guild is a group of Quilters from the Metro St Louis area.  
Suzie Haas, our president, designed two quilts
for us to showcase modern quilting.  
I knew that this would stretch me in an area that I am slowly getting in to.  
There was a pieced pattern and one with some applique.
I chose the pieced chevron.  
We displayed all of the challenge quilts at
MQX Midwest in Springfield, IL last month.  
The requirements were, 40 X 40, 3 colors for the top
and two colors for the binding,
that was mitered on the corners where the colors met.

It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see how others quilted their quilts.
Here's my finished quilt.








I need to step out of my comfort zone more often. 
 It really was a lot of fun and helped me to think outside the box.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Catching Up....

Amanda has been back to school for over a week and I honestly don't know where summer went!
She goes to an early morning seminary class before school and has tennis after school so
we are up at 5am, seminary begins at 6am and tennis ends at 5:15pm
No more lazy, hazy, crazy summer days here!

Now we have crazy, hazy, hot school days.  Our "feels like" temps are suppose  to be over 100
the next few days and the humidity is almost as high.  Needless to say my yard doesn't mind the weather and everything is growing, especially after the rain last week.

I had to trim back my fairy garden for the first time last week.  
Amanda and I had a lot of fun planting this miniature garden at the beginning of the summer.



We planted it in an old wash tub.  I am hoping to find a stand for it so I can
bring it inside over the winter.  

Our newest grand babies met for the first time this summer.
I think Cody will definitely watch out for Hazel
as they get older.  Such cuties!

This is a quilt that I finished last spring.
My customer was given the quilt top by a friend and asked me to add the borders, quilt and bind it.
The triangles were pieced by hand from what was sure to have been clothing.
I can only imagine the stories the person who pieced this top together
would tell if they had it on their lap.
I am so happy that I could put it all together so it can be used
and treasured for many years to come.  



 I wanted to share this quilt that I made for a wonderful couple.
Steve and Cindy Clark left their home and family in Utah and spent 3 years serving and leading
300 young missionaries from our church in the
St Louis Missouri area.  My husband was asked to work with them
and he loved every minute of it.
I wanted them to have something to remind them of their
time here and some of their favorite things.



Two friends did the machine embroidery for me.
That included the temple and all of the words.


The friend that did the temple also hand embroidered
this block.  She really captured their personalities in
these simple stick figures.  So cute!


Our young missionaries can be spotted easily in their white shirts and ties.


The missionaries serve 18 or 24 months.  President Clark would tell them
that their time in the beginning would go by slowly like water draining from a
bath tub but as their mission would come to an end it would swirl by.


Favorite songs of missionaries.  


Who doesn't think of the arch when you say St Louis!


Books to guide them through their mission.


The Clark's loved "their" missionaries and the missionaries knew that.


Corn fields everywhere.


 St Louis Cardinals


Cindy loved to talk planes with Richard.


 Fitz's Restaurant and Rootbeer


The Butterfly House


Ted Drewe's famous frozen custard.


 Another man they worked closely with was a lawyer so this block was for him.


 Missouri State Flower


 The Missouri St Louis Mission takes in most of Southern Illinois.
Springfield and the Lincoln Museum inspired this block.


The star for the Nauvoo Temple and the rose for
the Missouri Botanical Gardens.


 Farms that dot the land.


 One awesome couple!


This backing fit Cindy's personality perfectly.  
She loved color and had a bubbly, happy attitude that was infectious!  
It was such a pleasure to get to know them and to work with them.

I better get to work.  Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Jane

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The heat is on!!!
We have lived in the Midwest for almost 10 years and I don't
know that I will ever get used to waking up to 70 degree weather
and 100% humidity.  And it isn't even raining!  

The warm weather will hopefully get my tomatoes growing.  It's
been slow going so far but I am seeing some progress.

May came and went in a blur.  The best part of May was
getting to meet our first granddaughter, Hazel Rue.

Our oldest son, Chris and his sweet wife, Janelle are so 
excited that she is here.  We had a wonderful week holding and getting to know her. 
I saw this quilt on Pinterest and knew it was the quilt for Hazel.
The pattern is Just Dandy from V and Co.




I should have taken better pictures before I folded it up for travel.  Janelle
wanted a picture of Hazel on the quilt the day of her blessing.  Her mom
made this beautiful blessing dress from leftover fabric from her
wedding dress that she also made.
We kept moving the blanket around trying to get away from the
sun.  I'm glad it wasn't possible to escape because the
picture looks magical.
Amanda is a great Aunt!
I tried really hard to be a good grandma 
and let others hold her.
We had a beautiful sunny day for a picnic lunch
following Hazel's blessing. 
I really have been quilting quite a bit despite this week of fun.
Here's a few of the quilts I have done lately.
 This was made by Ginny a member of our local guild for a President's challenge.
The quilt had to include 5 items; diamonds, pieced construction, applique, a variety of threads and emerald green.  Ginny won third place with her quilt.  Way to go, Ginny!



 Orange Slices was a first quilt for Kathy.  She made it for her 
daughter's birthday with leftover fabrics from her wedding.

 I quilted something different in each of the four fabrics
with an echo in the background




 This next quilt was huge, over 200 machine embroidered blocks.
The embroidery is absolutely beautiful.  The garden theme with wonderful
scriptures and quotes make it extra special.  Jean out did herself with this one. 

I kept the quilting to a minimum to let the embroidery shine.
 No two squares were alike.



I can't wait to show you her next two creations!

So that's a little bit of what I've been working on.  I have more to share but 
I need to get busy quilting.
I'm going to start on the challenge quilt that will be on display at
 MQX Midwest in September.
Hopefully I'll have pics to show soon.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jane