Home, finally

Home after being away for over 3 months, anxious to get back to work in my quilting loft to quilt all the lovely quilts I pieced while in Florida...and I have pneumonia (been sick for almost 4 weeks now) and I have no energy at all!  I still haven't unpacked my truck yet and I've been home for over a week!!!  Yes, my sewing machine and all my quilt tops are still out there and I just can't get the energy to bring them in the house!!  Hoping I will get up there soon to quilt the baby quilt for my niece who had a beautiful baby boy a month ago.

My daughter is finally settled in her new location!  For the next 3 years she will be a recruiter on the Olympic Peninsula!  Only a 6-7 hour drive from me, instead of a 5 day jaunt across the country.  I will miss the wonderful friends I made in Florida while house/pet sitting for my daughter while she was deployed to Afghanistan.  I will also miss the lovely warm of Florida, but my part of Washington is certainly warmer (right now) than the Peninsula!  Of course, winter is another story, but it is months away, so I won't worry about that right now!

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Wish I was there with you to celebrate you 91st birthday!!!

I'm currently in Florida while my daughter is finishing up her schooling to become a recruiter.  Weather is warm, humid and lovely!!  I have been piecing quilts, making a couple of appliqued wall-hangings and enjoying some wonderful Vit. F with my Sew What?! group.  I'll be missing them when I move my daughter from Tampa, Florida to the Port Angeles area of Washington next month.  It will be lovely to have my daughter only a 6 hour drive from me, but I will sorely miss my dear friends here in Florida.

This is what I have been working on.

Soldier Quilts

As my daughter was heading off to Afghanistan in March, she said that it would be cool if I could make RW&B quilts for everyone.  Lovely idea, but all my RW&B material was home in Washington and I was in Florida to house and pet sit for her while she was gone!  I asked members of the Yahoo group, Stashbusters, and members of the quiltingboard.com if they would donate a 12" block so I could make these quilts.  Well, 38 quilters from Maine to California, Washington to Florida, England and Australia sent me blocks, yardage, flimsies, and complete quilts!  My Sew What Bee group here in Florida helped me put the blocks together, quilt and hand bind the quilts.  Last week we delivered the quilts to 7 of the 9 service members deployed with my daughter (she is third from the left in the back row).

Will the Wolf Survive?

My guild's challenge this year was to quilt a song.  I knew I wanted to use the pattern by Toni Whitney, Winter Wolf, in my quilt.  I found the song, Will the Wolf Survive?, by Los Lobos and the whole quilt just came together in my head.  This is the first time my execution of a quilt matched the picture in my head.  Never made a round quilt before either, nor have I ever matched the binding around a quilt to the material on he quilt.  Everything was fused to the background and I used Texture Magic to create the bushes.  I quilted it on my Innova 18" using King Tut (13 colors) and Bottom Line threads from Superior Threads.

Gail's Sunflower Quilt

This is Gail's Sunflower Quilt - just off the longarm.

 The sunflower created in the large blocks.

Center block - I outlined the flowers with metallic thread, outlined some of the leaves in green.

 Corner block I outlined the flower petals in gold metallic.

Another corner block - I outlined these petals with bronze metallic.

Center of inner border - I quilted a sunflower with pebbling in the center with leaves going out to the corner blocks.

Dresden Plate

This is June's completed Dresden Plate quilt

 This is one of the 30 blocks - each of the blocks took an hour to quilt

 And a little closer picture of the detail of the block

This is a picture of the sashing intersection

This was a fun quilt to quilt.  I love the orange peel look of the quilting on the plates and the "leafy feathers" in the sashing was fun to do.  I did alternate the direction of the feathers so the quilt looks the same no matter which direction it is on the bed.  The feathers look like they go around the blocks....love how it turned out!  June is very happy with it too!!