Blogger's Quilt Fest

I do love puzzles, word puzzles, number puzzles and tessellating star puzzles, I call this quilt Dragonfly Dance.  The stars are cut from two bales of Merryvale fabrics. (click for and explanation of Merryvale) The entire quilt was arranged on my design wall before any parts were sewn together then kept in order. (click for sewing tutorial or click on tessellating star in the label section)  The yellow and lavender swirl through the center of the quilt like a well choreographed dance to direct the viewers eye. There are only a couple blocks that could be switched in the quilt and not change the stars. I free motion quilted it on my Bernina with loops, dragonflies and echo quilting. I practiced the dragonflies on paper with pen then on the machine with paper and no thread until  my eyes, hands and brain memorized how to sew a dragonfly then practiced on scraps before working on the quilt. I hand dyed the back of the quilt. Enjoy all the beautiful quilts at Amy's Creativeside Bloggers quilt Festival. Be inspired!  Ann

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Free Motion Quilting

Scrappy nine patch in the log cabin quilt. This quilt was inspired by Kim Diehl's quilt in the March 2013 F&P LOQ magazine. The strips are all cut 1 1/2 inches wide. I free motion machine quilted it with concentric teardrops kinda sorta meandering feathers. Its my favorite to do on scrap quilts. I used miss matched leftover binding. And the best part no new fabrics were purchased for the completion of this quilt! scrap happy and we are off this weekend to celebrate our youngest's college graduation and deliver this quilt to a niece.
~~Ann~~

Out of the cupboard-- another old quilt

Another old quilt and my favorite color of blue. My great grandmother made this quilt long before I was born. It was on my bed when I was a little girl. It has a wool bat that has shifted, there is a lot of wool in the bottom corners but not much on the sides or top edge. She didn't sign or label her quilt and now I am foggy as to which great grandmother made this quilt. I must make a label for the next generations otherwise it is just an old quilt.~~Ann~~

Off the Wall Free Motion Quilting

 The Hummingbird in Green quilts are finished!!

 I cut so many pieces I made a second smaller quilt which I listed on etsy. I just free motioned a squiggly line through the hummingbirds and swung arcs from point to point of the triangles and sashing. I stitched across and up the borders like a ladder and followed the miter.

Sewing the block "how to" here and click on hummingbird in the labels section for all the hummingbird quilts made with Darlene Zimmerman's 30 degree tool. While I was working on these quilts I tried no line trifocals which gave me a headache so I didn't wear them much then I tried trifocals with lines which were better but I felt like a chicken bobbing my head around trying to figure out where to look anyway I had the center of the quilt pinned to my design wall and was considering which way to put the stripes in the border and was looking at the vertical stripes on the bottom of the quilt and horizontal stripes on the sides. The vertical stripes were clear and sharp but the horizontal stripes were a mess. I walked right up to the quilt and looked at it to see if the fabric was flawed nope so I went back across the room still a mess so I got my glasses and put them on everything was sharp now I know what it really means to have a mild astigmatism.
P.S. I traded the trifocals for bifocals and am much happier but still use the cheap reading glasses in my sewing room unless I am working with stripes.--Ann--check out Free Motion Friday at Leah's  and Nina Marie's on and off the wall.

Old quilt

My parents are both gone and my brothers and I begin the monumental task of sorting through the house. My oldest brother chose this quilt but then he stuck it in my car. Thank you so much. It was made for our mother born in 1928 by her maternal grandmother. It has a wool batting, it is machine pieced and hand quilted in the ditch and around the pin wheels. As I look back through the family history books I learn that Great Grandma Lena was born in Sweden and died in South Dakota in 1952. I believe my grandmother (my mother's mother mor mor as the Swedes say as opposed to far mor for father's mother doesn't that make it easy to know which grandma you are referring and  mor far and far far for grandfathers) put the quilt together and hand quilted it. My Mor mor also quilted this click.  I think the quilting was done by the same person. I love that color of blue and see the hint of green in the grass, our snow is finally gone.--Ann--

On the Needles

 My pooling yarn socks are finished the yarn is Ella rae Lace Merino which is 100 % extra fine merino and they are silky soft. What day will be the last day I wear wool socks this extra long winter!??!April 29? May 1? Later? June?? Then I go from knitting socks to wear to stock piling socks for gifts and next fall.

The blue are a super soft bamboo and wool yarn, they might be right for summer wear. The yellow stripe is a cotton and wool blend. I knit a couple inches then found the repeat so I ripped and started over so the stripes would match then I found a knot in the yarn and then another so much for matching stripes but I tried! Happy knitting. --Ann-- check out what's on the needles at Judy's

Sketching

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday. It made me feel like sketching.  One of my very dearest friends sent this beautiful bouquet on Friday because Saturday would have been my Dad's 83rd birthday. Her Dad's birthday was on Sunday he would have been 91. Occasionally they would celebrate together but more often they would play a joke on the other and it usually involved potatoes. I never got their jokes but the laughter was contagious. Snapdragons were one of my Dad's favorite flowers, after Mom died he planted them by the front steps and was always very proud of them and they just bloomed and bloomed all summer with the western sun. He was also proud of his amaryllis belladonna or as he always called them naked ladies. --Ann--