Papa don't peak ready for longarm! Everyone look! Except dad!

She has done it. My granddaughter Jana just finished the top for her father's quilt. The idea for the quilt began in the fall of 2012. Jana wanted to do something special for her dad. He likes red and black, and she likes Ohio Stars and Friendship Stars. The plan came together. We gathered fabrics, and started to made star  kits for each block. We got off track for  a few months when it was discovered that Jana had a serious problem with her spine and needed a spinal fusion, in December 2012. It was a nine hour surgery. The first month was a challenge, but by mid January she was back to school. And before long, back to sewing, back brace and all. Here is the initial layout. That is a smile of relief that those blocks are finally done. I am proud of her for sticking with it. She took some breaks and we also have been working on the Craftsy BOM 2013 quilt. Now to sew it together. She had reservations, but she sticks with things and got it done.

Whew! that was a lot of cutting, ironing and sewing!

These are the fabrics for the border.

Jana wanted to stay with the red, black and white theme. After 25 stars she was done with them. But the quilt needed to be bigger. Borders were the answer.  She realized that she needed something different to frame the quilt. (It's so nice to just be able to shop grandma's stash). We had two yards of the tree ring fabric so no piecing was needed for the first border. At first she did not understand why we did not just sew the border with a straight seam, but when she saw the results she understood how much better mitered borders look.

What attracts us to certain fabrics? I love anything organic, having to do with earth or plants. When Jana saw the tree rings she said, "The last thing we learned about this year in school is that tree rings help you know how old a tree is."  That was not the only reason she picked  this fabric, but it does add an interesting element. We laughed that when she sees this quilt on dad's bed it will always remind her of the 4th grade.

This is the first quilt where  Jana added a border. She learned to piece the border and  measure the border from the middle so her sides stay even. She was surprised how easy it is to make a mitered border.

Here is how you piece together your border.

Trim the extra fabric

Measure at the middle.

Here goes the borders.

We sew on an oval table, so it can make it difficult to keep the quilt from falling off the edge. Jana used an old chair to hold the extra fabric.

Will the sewing ever end?

So happy how the borders came together.

Jana's picture.

Our favorite block

All Done! Off to the quilter!

Red or Black backing?  Look what we found at Fabric.com

The perfect backing fabric

What a special quilt: Designed and Made by an 11 year old daughter with love for her father.

From a proud grandma! Dad's birthday is the end of September.. The quilt goes to our long arm quilter Sandy Erwin this weekend. Another happy event to end this quilt story is Jana sees the surgeon on the 27th of June and all indications are the back brace is coming off!  Hurray! Update. All went well the back brace is history!

Bonnie Hunter's Lazy Sunday- Part 3

After much anticipation, the newest Quiltmaker arrived, and I have been busy cutting and sewing, sewing and cutting (and ironing). I love putting the blocks together, so I did that first. I did some editing of my stash and pulled a few new colors in.  I decided that the background colors I used in the previous block just would not do in what I call the chevron blocks of this step. I loved the hydrangea fabric and was determined to use it, but it just was not the right shade for the block. So it was edited out and set aside. Perhaps I went a little overboard with my background fabrics for the first block? It worked well there, but no so much with the chevrons.

These are the fabric I didn't use in this step.

 I love how the pinks and yellows came together for this block. I realize it is not really scrappy as Bonnie's was. Previously I teased that my Lazy Sunday will be in the summer. At first I said I would use it to sit on the porch and drink tea. I think I need to change that to raspberry lemonade.

I loved the texture of these fabrics.

Four blocks with a green corner? 

 

 

The chevron block is where my editing game into play. I had to go through my stash and find some more tone on tone and a different purple to go with. I wanted to stay close my original selection. I edited out the purple floral above because it was too pink and there was too much contrast with the purples I used in the first block. I ran out of purple, so found some new on sale. Yeah!

All cut and ready to go. I just need the time to sew.

So only one more edition and the puzzle, and mystery will be solved. This is the first Mystery Quilt I have done that has progressed over so many months. The advantage is that you have plenty time to get each step done. On the other hand, you have to delay gratification and wait, and wait, and wait. That is actually good for me because I usually bulldoze through, making myself a little nutty trying to get everything done as soon as the step is published. No pressure with this one.

Here's a reminder of the previous block. You can see that the pink and purples do carry through to the current steps so I think it will still work well. I have no idea how this thing will go together. I just know I love doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts.

My funky background worked okay here.

Quilts for Dad - Show and Tell

One of the on line communities I enjoy being part of is Quilting Bloggers. This includes bloggers around the world. It's hard to believe, but there are thousands of blogs about quilting. Each week there is a Show and Tell where quilters can share their quilts. The online community votes on their favorite. The quilts are just fantastic.

Normally I just look at the beautiful pictures each week and vote for my favorite. The majority of these quilters are much more skilled than I am. Still I decided to add one of my quilts to the voting. I have to admit the picture isn't the greatest. And the quilt is plain. But it's a quilt that I really enjoyed making for my DH. He loves to fish and I wanted to surprise him with a quilt that had the look of being around fish camp for many summers. And it is not about winning, but about sharing what we love to do. One can not really be part of a community if you only sit on the sidelines and watch the action. You have to jump in and enjoy the fun from time to time.

The pattern is My Old Brown Shoe. The pattern called for several squares to be raw appliqued on each block. That was a bit much for me. So I decided to pick and choose the blocks where the applique would add something to the design. I call the quilt Old Brown Shoe at Fish Camp.

Finished quilt (I mean top-had not been quilted at this point)

Close up off blocks with fish

Of all the times to need batteries in my camera, it is not today. I thought I had a picture of this quilted, but can't seem to locate it. When I get the camera up and running I'll snag the quilt from my  hubby and I will add a picture of the quilting. Sandy did an all over quilt design of fishing lures! It is fabulous.

Click the show and tell button to be connected to the sites. You can enter your quilts. Voting starts on Friday and ends Monday.  You can also click onto the Quilting Bloggers button to see what all the excitement is about.  Enjoy!