Circle Quilt

Today I will finish the binding, but here is the second of the two quilts using the "bright & cheery" fabric. A customer wanted circles and had given me photo examples of a few she liked so I modified those to make her's similar but a little different.Then I quilted each circle different to make some pop and others more recessive. She now has a one-of-a kind quilt for her very sweet little girl!

Courtship

This is one page from my Fabric Collage book that I had made in honor of my Mother a few years ago. I thought it appropriate to share, given Valentine's Day is soon. Funny thing; as Mom and I sifted through old photos and came across the tin type photo that you can see tucked inside the envelope, she couldn't recall who he was. Hmmm? So he became the 'suitor'' in the collage just for the fun of it! The fabric transfer of the young lady in the fore-round is my Mother around the age of sixteen.

Quilt for Christmas

This quilt was designed by Christopher Florence. My husband and I went to a show in Springfield, IL where one like this had been entered and was getting a lot of notice. My husband seemed to find it most memorable of all the selections that I drug him to see over and over again while there. (I can never get enough quilt eye candy). I bought the pattern from my favorite quilt shop, The Hickory Stick Quilt Shop in Hannibal, Mo. with the intention of secretly making it for my husband. As it turned out, I decided that like another quilt that I made that still hangs over the banister because it's just too neat to use, Labyrinth Walk would also likely just hang over the banister instead of getting used. We knew that the adult kids in our family needed quilts this year for Christmas gifts, so this quilt was needing the daughter who is a senior interior designer in a major city. We were excited to give it to her when she was here and we hope that it warms her and her home.

Honey Bee Hive Quilt

I designed this quilt for a dear friend who made my husband and me stewards of four of her bee hives! As a beekeeper, I know how hard a decision that must have been for her and I felt like I was taking her "babies" away. She had been a beekeeper for 30 some years. I knew that I needed to make something meaningful and filled with the kind of love for our honey bees as only a beekeeper can really understand. So here are pictures of my heart-felt gift to her!

I really like how it turned out and have to believe that she will, too!

Excited

Today I am excited because I have some cute pictures of a couple of completed gift items. I am a bit behind on my gift giving and I apologize to all of my LOVED ones who are MANY and there just aren't enough hands on my body to get them all done.

These little burpie cloths are made with some soft flannel and just some stash that I had on hand. (You know, for those last-minute-woops-I-need-something-quick gifts)! As I got the pleasure of meeting sweet little great-niece Adalynn Marie, the other day and was holding her AND got to feed her and burp her; I was not given a burpie in which to catch those inevitable little spit-ups. Didn't ask for one either because she was wearing a bib, Anyway... these cute little burpies are what came from a tiny little creative spark on that visit. I think she will like them!

The little dolly is one that I have had since I was probably 5 or 6 years old. Her name is Buffy and she used to have a little car that she drove. Her original name was Baby-Go-Bye-bye.

Fabric Collage Book for Momma

I just realized that the last post I touched upon my aging parents. I want to share this Fabric Collage book that I made for my Mother.

The Cover

Her as a baby on the left & 4 generations of my fore-mothers on the right.

Mom in her school years.

The old Singer 

This project was so much fun to make. I used mostly antique laces, buttons, ephemera and just memory provoking ideas to bring nostalgia to the cloth pages. Some pages were from an old handmade quilt that someone in the family had.

There are more pages, but these were all the pictures that I had on the computer.

The photos are copies that I ran through my inkjet printer onto fabric except for the last one which was an iron on and I found that I like the inkjet transfer much better.

Maybe there will be a tutorial in the future, but for now I have more projects than I can keep up with!

Thanks for viewing! 

Honey Hexies Tutorial

I am so glad to be getting back into the benefits of blogging. I am hoping to get a lot of fun and inspiring information on here within the coming months. I have such a variety of things I want to share and I hope I will be connecting with some of you with similar interests. I can't consider myself in no way a computer "tech" and if I could higher someone to fill in all the things that come through this head to build my blog, I could quickly fill a blog library. Otherwise, it's just little 'ol me trying to divide my time between God, family, business, farm-life & blogs, so please bare with me! So here is the beginning of my designing stage for this honey of a project! It will be a small quilt and I am making it for a friend. I read about these easy-to-do hexagon shapes and am sorry that I cannot remember who to credit them to. Others that I've seen are paper pieced and seemed to be too time consuming, so I tried these and very much like them!

It begins with the bare basic tools; fabric, a pair of scissors, something to mark with, (I used a pencil that was handy); and a circle template. (I used an ever-so versatile-use canning lid). The circle can be from any template and any size you want. The fabric can be any color you wish and this is an awesome design to use up small pieces in your fabric stash, just because, or when you need a quick gift project and don't have a lot of time.

Cut out as many circles as you want. My project is still in the making and I am placing my little "Honey Hexies" in a random pattern for now. When I get them all sewn permanently, I will include those photos. Next you fold one circle in half WST (wrong side together) and iron. Then you will open it up, turn about a 1/4 of a turn and iron again, which will give you a little X in the center.

Next, you will fold up an edge that has the wider area between the creases of your circle so that the edge meets the center X. Then iron.

You will need to work in the same direction all the way around. It doesn't matter which... right or left. I went 'clockwise' or to my left. Pick up the edge that meets the outer-most point of your creased circle and fold it up and toward the center X. Make sure that it meets the X, then iron.

The following steps are the same. Pick up the bottom (in my case, left) creased edge and bring

it up to meet the center X and then iron. Continuing around until there is just one triangle section left.

Notice that I pinned the last two sections. You can pin all the way around if you'd like, but I didn't feel it necessary.

All you have to do now, is fold up the last section, iron and tuck it under the first section. Then I turned mine over and ironed the top side to set it. There are many different designs you can use these little hexies with. I may link to some when I have time, but for now try this technique and see if you enjoy them as much as me!

My little Honey Hexies. This is one of those projects that you can cut circles for a while or iron one section on a bunch and then the next section, or you can work one at a time if that's what you like. I found it to be too repetitious doing one at a time, so I mixed it up and worked on different tasks and it seemed to keep it moving along faster. I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. I've had fun with mine and can't wait to share the finished project!

Four Generation Quilt

I call this one a 4 generation because, when I was a wee child, my dear Mother copied pictures from my coloring book and hand embroidered the little animals onto blocks. The printed fabric blocks are from clothes my siblings and I wore Mother made and blocks from my own first projects as a young seamstress. I saved these and put the quilt top together when my daughter was a wee little one. Although it was not properly quilted, she still used it and enjoyed it. Well I got my Lenni and it seems like it came full circle. Now my daughter has a daughter and she is having a birthday very soon, so this will be a special gift to her!

Embroidery & Embellishing

Just a little gift that I made for someone. I love the scrappy quilts and all the hand embellishing potential they offer.