Material Girl

Remember the quilt I made for Tyler to go to college?   Well, he texted me that the quilt arrived at his parent's house and they delivered it to him a few days ago .  He was so thrilled at how it turned out which warmed my heart.   That satisfaction for a job well done is what keeps me making more and more quilts.

Here's a close-up look at the fabrics:

And here is the pile of half-square triangle blocks for the main body of the quilt.

And every quilt needs a label.

Well it's onward and upward to the next quilt.   I have a lot of sewing to do for clients right now, but wait till you see the quilt I cut out for our youngest grandson.   It's amazing!

Sneak peek to follow,
Debbie

Gone to the Dogs

Yes, I've finally crossed over......to the dogs.   My son's dog, Winston, is the Sheltie on the right.   The fluffy mop on the left is Molly, my 16 week old Cavachon.   They weren't too sure if they liked each other when we first brought Molly home.   But after a month, they started playing together and now when they are awake they are always together!

So what does that have to do with sewing?   Well, their favorite place to crash is the carpeted floor of my teeny-tiny sewing room.   As I sew they sleep and keep me company.   I just have remember to step over them!

Woof,
Deb

Lobster, Anyone?

Remember the chair I slipcovered with white denim? 

 It had a sea turtle appliqued on the back of the chair and the owner liked it so much that we decided to bring another bit of sea life into the decor.  Here's the lobster pillow I pulled together to put on the brown and cream tweed couch.

I love it when a plan comes together!
Debbie

Wrapping a Present

How do you wrap a present for a fellow quilter?   With fabric, of course!   This summer I sent a package to Barb in Alabama and wrapped it in her favorite colored fabric, lavender.  Well, it's one of her favorite colors.   Here's what it looked like.  

When she unwrapped her gift, instead of throwing away the wrapping paper she had a yard of fabric to add to her stash!   Even the bow and fabric "flower" can be reused.  

 

I wonder how she'll use them..........

Debbie

 

 

Blue Ribbon Winner

Last September I was approached by one of the ladies in our church asking me if I would be willing to make a quilt for the elementary school there.   A couple of weeks later I had a stack of squares that the fourth grade class had painted.   Each square was painted with a state flag.  The art teacher had painted several large pieces, each depicting landmarks of our country.   The trick for me was to assemble all these pieces into a quilt that would look interesting and a little different.

My goal was to arrange the largest pieces at strategic points in the quilt so your eye would travel around and take in the quilt as a whole.   Then, fill in with the flag blocks.

 

In previous years, the flag blocks all had sashing around them and were arranged symmetrically.    Not this year!   I had something else in mind.  

 

 

Normally the label is placed on the back of the quilt, but since this was going to be hung on a wall I felt the label should be on the front so anyone viewing it could read about the history of the quilt. 

 

 

Now that the label was on and the blocks all assembled, all that was left for me to do was to quilt it!  

 

 

The quilt was a bit of a rush job as the kids had just finished painting the squares two weeks before the school was holding an auction.   The quilt was to auctioned off that night to raise money for the school.   One lucky family bought the quilt and took it home with them.   I thought that was the last I would see of it.   Boy, was I wrong!

 

 

A few months later Joel and I were at the Florida State Fair.   We strolled through the building that housed the quilt show and then we had a real shocker.   The quilt from the school was in a showcase and it had a blue ribbon on it!    I can't remember when I was so excited.......I've never entered a quilt in a quilt show and couldn't believe what I was seeing.   Apparently, the new owners of the quilt had entered it on behalf of the students at the school.  

 

 

Amazing!   That was most definitely the most exciting trip to the Florida State Fair I've ever had! 

 

 

Kudos to the students and the art teacher who all did such a great job painting the squares.   It made my job a lot of fun and I was proud to help them complete their project.

 

Blue is my new favorite color,

Debbie

 

 



Puzzle Piece Pillows

Try saying that three times fast!   Hmmmm, now try taking a drawing and turn it into actual puzzle pieces that are also pillows.   That was the challenge I received from a recent client.   Her husband drew the little critters and her idea was to turn the drawing into pillows for her child's twin bed.   She brought the fleece fabrics to me and we discussed what she wanted the pillows to look like when completed.

The first thing I did was to blow up the drawing several times until they were the size we wanted for the finished pillows.   Next, draw around them and cut out the 3" foam with......my kitchen electric knife.  Yup!   Works great!

Then the cut out was used as a pattern to cut the fabrics and to trace the face and details.  

White fleece was used for the "palms" and stitching helped give definition to the "hands and feet".

I put a zipper on the back piece so the pillow could be washed and attached a side band to accomodate the thick foam.

His red buddy was made the same way and when completed it looks like they are holding hands.  The time spent adjusting the drawings at the start of the project was well worth it so they would interlock properly when completed. 

Just another interesting day at the sewing machine,
Debbie

Birthdays and Friends

Someone has a birthday coming up.    She's someone I've known for 20 years and I wanted to make a gift for her that showed her just how special she really is.   Margie and her husband moved from Florida a few years ago to their cabin in North Carolina to pursue their dream of living in the mountains.   They have a gorgeous cabin with fantastic long range views of Virginia and Tennessee.  They've planted trees, started a garden, fished a local pond, and buzzed around the top of their mountain on an ATV.

I came up with the idea of making Margie a tassle for inside their beautiful home.   Tassles can be hung from a doorknob, or a drawer pull.   They help to bring some personality into a room.  Margie and her husband have decorated their cabin with greens and reds to reflect the warmth of the log walls..   She loves the outdoors, so I decided to bring some of the outdoors to the inside by combining the colors of her decor with a nest and tiny eggs.   I think she'll like it!

 

The tassle is hung with large black ric-rac which extends from the nest holding three tiny speckled eggs.   Below the nest is gold, then green, then more gold plush fringe that overlaps black and tan 3" bullion fringe.   Striped grosgrain ribbon is looped and fancy gold ribbon decorates the 6" black bullion fringe to finish off the lower edge.  Voila!



Just hangin' around,
Debbie

44 and Counting

Whew!    My embroidery machine is smokin' !   Not literally smokin', figuratively speaking.   I've been working on a job for my upholsterer friend, Jeanne, who is making covers for beach chairs at a Clearwater Beach Resort.   There are 44 of them and they all need the resort's logo embroidered on them before they can be assembled.   I'm stitching as fast as I can......here's a peek at the finished embroidery.

Only 32 more to go,
Debbie

School Days

Yesterday was my only nephew's first day at college.   He was pretty excited; his mom and dad were missing him even before they got back home from getting him settled in.  Ahhh, growing pains.....

His mom really wanted his dorm room to be something special since he'll be spending a lot of time there.   Tyler is a music major and plays several instruments, so, music had to be part of the theme for his room.   I volunteered to make him a quilt for his twin bed and just got it shipped off to him last week.  

A lot of the fabrics have musical instruments on them or musical notes on a scale.   He loves red, white and black and his sheets for his bed are grey, so, it was easy to come up with a theme for the quilt.   Large blocks of half square triangles made quick work of the main body of the quilt.   A wide red border helps to define the center area and set up the outside borders.

 

I was so excited when the idea came to me to make the side borders look like keys on a piano.   Black and white strips cut  at 2-1/2", then pieced together did the trick.  The quilting was mostly done on the diagonal to follow the lines of the triangles. 

 

 

And there you have it.....Tyler's college quilt.   Whew!   Glad I had the opportunity to make something special for a really great kid.

Good luck, Ty,
Aunt Debbie

Red, White & Blue

As you are all aware, the upcoming Republican Convention is being held in Tampa.   A lot of the local businesses are gearing up for the increase in tourists that are expected in the coming weeks because many of those attending the convention are staying in hotels on our beaches.   Just a couple blocks from our house is Flying Needles, a needlepoint and knitting store where women go to sit and stitch as well as to purchase more supplies.  

Diane, the owner, is always changing the display in her window and for the next few weeks she has put in red, white and blue items.   Last week while I was knitting with the ladies, she asked if I could make one of the pincushions with a painted clay flower saucer as it's base.   I went home and dug thru my stash to see what patriotic prints I could find and this was the final result.

No matter your political persuasion, this is most definitely an interesting year to be an observer of all things political.  So put on your red, white and blue and remember to go out and vote.  Our Founding Fathers put it all on the line so we could have these privileged freedoms.

Flag Waver,
Debbie

Teal and Monday Morning Musings

I came across these fabrics in my "stash" of material not too long ago.   Teal, in all its shades and hues, is one of my all time favorite colors.   So, I started folding and stacking the luscious pieces and tied them all up with a length of teal ribbon.   They needed to be elevated to bring them more importance so I found a small cake stand and now I think they look so happy together!

Don't your fabrics want to be special, too?
Debbie

Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina

Now you know how much I love quilts; I love to make them, I love to look at them, I love to sleep under them, I love to find new quilt patterns, and I love to "talk" quilt-shop-talk with other quilters!
It was no surprise that when we were on a recent trip to North Carolina that I brought the car to an immediate stop while driving down a winding country road.   There was a quilt block painted on the side of a barn!!!  

How cool is that?  I knew that someone in a northern state had started a trend of folks painting quilt block patterns on wood and hanging them on the side of their barns.   But, I didn't know that there was a "trail" of quilt barns in North Carolina also.  

I think the blocks look especially pretty against the grey/bleached out wood of the barn siding.

Each day as we left the cabin, I kept a sharp eye out for more of the quilt barns.   As it turns out, there are tour guide brochures you can purchase to guide yourself thru the local farmland and small towns as you hunt down the quilt barns.   Check them out at www.quilttrailswnc.org  

Even the general store in the little neighboring town had a quilt block on it's exterior wall.  See it in yellow near the front of the left side?

I think it would be fun to drive from farm to farm and town to town and see if I could find all the quilt barns.   Hmmmm, I wonder if we could do something like that here in Florida?   Instead of barns, how about the side of buildings....you know, like the murals that some towns paint on buildings to make them prettier?

Just an idea,
Debbie

Sea Turtle

Sometimes I am asked to sew something that I wouldn't ordinarily sew.   That was the case as I helped a friend of ours to paint and update a living room/kitchen of a cute cottage.  I've only made a couple of slipcovers and always say, "Never again!"  because it is a time consuming, often frustrating experience for me.   Well, I got talked into trying again.  Here's what the chair looked like before.....

The fabric is heavy brushed denim in off white.   I washed and dried the fabric first to preshrink it so when the completed slipcover needs to be cleaned, the homeowner can simply pop it in the washer and dryer.

This is the fitting in progress......front shot.....

And here is a side shot......All the pieces get pinned in place to ensure that once sewn, the slipcover fits properly.

I had purchased a piece of home decorator fabric that had beautiful botanically correct drawings of sea creatures.   This sea turtle was the perfect addition to a clean lined simple

(and washable, I might add!)  slipcover for an otherwise ordinary chair.   Now the chair fits in with the Coastal look of the rest of the cottage.  

Whew!    Glad it turned out as pretty as it did........but I think it'll be quite a while before I do another!

Resting up,

Debbie       



Tyler's Quilt

While I really enjoy making quilts, it's especially fun to make one for someone in the family.   My only nephew graduated from high school up in Pennsylvania in June and I was invited to celebrate at his party.   His mom had sent me some of his high school t-shirts to turn into a quilt and I was determined to get it done before I flew up there.  

Before we started the set up for the party, Tyler opened his quilt.   He loved it!   As a music major, he is involved with all things musical, so the quilt had to have musical elements, too.

Tyler's buddy, Max, thought it was "cool"!  Soccer shirts, music related  and sports shirts from his youth were what made up the quilt.  I really had fun putting them all together and rounding them out with white fabric that had music notes on it.

My brother and his wife sure do know how to put on a great party.   There were over 100 people there.   Thank goodness for the tents which kept the temperature down.

Tyler and his friends had a cool jam session on a stage made from my brother's car hauler.

And the grand finale of the day was a fireworks display put on by my brother, Tim.  Wow!   Thanks for a fun time, guys!

Debbie

T-Shirt Quilt Anyone?

Yes, here's another t-shirt quilt hot off the sewing machine. This one was fun to make. Mom had saved his flannel pajama pants and I used those up at the top to form a border.

For me, details make all the difference between something that is just "done" and something that is "done well".   Whenever possible, I try to find parts of a shirt or the clothing I'm using in a quilt to give a three dimensional look to the finished piece.   For this quilt, the Lego brand t-shirt tag was a natural to insert between one of the borders and a quilt block.  Cute, huh?

Stay tuned for more pics,
Debbie