Sunday, May 25, 2008

Four Seasons Quilt Swap

Well, I've gone and done it now. I've enjoyed following along with the Spring swaps in the Four Seasons Quilt Swap and just couldn't resist signing up for the Summer swap. Summer is my favorite season and I am having so much fun making my little quilts that I thought to myself...self, you can do this...and so I did! Well, I did join at least, now I have a little summer quilt to make!

Today I received the email telling me who I'm making a quilt for and I've had a good time reading their blog and getting to know them a little bit. Oh the ideas are swirling around in my head already! This is going to be fun!

And just to share a little bit of summer, here are some quilts I made years ago. The little sunflower is from a "buttons & plaid" challenge from my quilt guild about 11-12 years ago. It hangs in my kitchen now.


The next one is one of my personal favorites, it hangs in my hallway all the time. It is "Bill & Sue's Miracle Gro Garden". Miracle Gro since the flowers are larger than Bill and Sue! For those who don't know "Miracle Gro" is the brand name of a variety of gardening products including plant foods, fertilizers, etc. I've always loved the little Sunbonnet Sue/Dutch Doll quilts. This one was made in 1996.Someday I'll share my very first quilting adventure, a little Dutch Doll pillow top made when I was 9 years old, with the help of my precious Grandma. And along with that I'll share the Dutch Doll quilt she made for me many years later - obviously my most precious treasure.


And last is a basket quilt made in 1993/94. This is made from fabric from the first quilt shop I ever visited. It was a new shop in Chattanooga, the only quilt shop there at the time and while I had been quilting for quite a while, I had always used either scraps from my Grandmother's scrap bag or fabrics from Hancock's (the chain, not the Paducah Hancock's) or other local fabric stores.



Just a touch of my quilting history today. I have more to report on my current little quilts progress and will share that tomorrow I hope!

Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I have returned!

First, let me thank you all who sent good wishes for my Dad in his surgery. He is doing well, healing nicely and running my mother ragged! But that is nothing new :-) and she is doing well too.

I didn't get to do as much quilting as I had hoped but I do have one finish to report! Yes, the Little Bow Ties is completely done, quilted, bound, and labeled. Some of the chalk marks are still showing but they will go away. Here it is pictured on the old chair at the park - picture taken this past Saturday.


I'm about 2/3 done quilting Frosty & Fries and hope to finish that one this weekend. I also made a decision about borders on the 1930s Basketweave little quilt - yep, I added the borders and I'm glad I did. It seems to add that finishing touch. It will be the next piece in the little quilting hoop.



And finally, I thought I would share some more pictures from my quilting at the park this past weekend. Sunday I sat in the garden behind the cook house quilting - here is my little set up followed by some pictures of plants in the garden itself. It is such a lovely, peaceful place and I'm finally getting the hang of the macro on my little digital camera!







I can't show you what I was working on at the park this weekend yet. It's for a challenge that is due at the end of the month and I want to finish it completely before I show it off! So stay tuned next week!

Friday, May 9, 2008

More Little Quilts

I'm really getting into a groove with these little quilts. I've been enjoying reading a couple of books recently purchased on Amazon.com, in particular the following book:


There are many lovely quilts in this book covering the generations of one family. This one in particular really leaped off the page at me. I love Depression Era quilts and I thought this was a particulary lovely pattern.


I think I would love to do this as a bed quilt some day but thought I would start small first! This was so much fun to do! Again, all hand pieced, 1.5 inch squares.


I can't decide whether to add the plain border around this little one or not. I think I like the idea of stopping here, quilting it and bringing the back to the front for the binding. This is the way my Grandmother bound all of her quilts and it's the way I learned first.

So, now I have to finish the quilting on my Little Bow Ties, just need to finish the border, and then I have Frosty and Fries to quilt and this one. I'm heading off to my parents this weekend for a few days while my Dad has surgery. I'll have plenty of time waiting around in waiting rooms so I'm taking these to quilt while I'm there. I'll probably take a little piecing as well, it's not like I don't have any to do! Hopefully I'll have three little quilts finished to report when I return.

To all the mothers out there I wish you a very Happy Mother's Day! My furry kids "gave" me a lovely little Vera Bradley Pink Elephant wallet for my present! How sweet of them...tee hee hee...


Friday, May 2, 2008

Frosty and Fries Please...

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted! It's been busy, busy, busy here Casa Debbie. I've been busy doing some handpiecing and haven't had time for much of anything else. Why, you ask? Well, a certain sweet little dollie has been longing for a quilt of her own. And how could you resist this face!


I mean really! She seems to like her comfy spot on the bed but it has been getting a bit chilly at night and the big quilts just smother her. So...what to do? Make a little quilt of course! And that's what I've been doing for the last week - it still needs to be quilted but here is the top, entirely hand pieced, measuring about 17 x 19.


She seems to like it, don't you think? She tells me polka dots are her favorite.



Okay, I know what you are thinking. So what does this have to do with a Frosty and Fries??? Well, that's the name of the quilt!

Huh? Okay, to try to make a long story short... For those who have never heard of the chain of fast food restaurants known as Wendy's, they have a dessert that is like a really thick milkshake, called a Frosty. You really do need a spoon to eat it. One of my very favorite guilty pleasures is to have a small Frosty with french fries - you dip the fry in the Frosty and eat them together...yummy! May sound strange I know but it's a great combination of sweet and salty. As for how the quilt came to be so named it is because Sweetie and I were having a conversation one evening about sweet and salty flavors and how well they worked together. He has never enjoyed a Frosty and Fries!!! Poor boy has lived a deprived life. Needless to say we will be enjoying one soon. Anyway, as I was working on this little top during that conversation we began to joke that this quilt would be called "Frosty and Fries" and so it is...