The Erin Quilts VI

Friendship Star Brights  Another quilt that daughter claimed before it was finished. The fabrics were all from one bale of Merryvale. I thought I was going to use a blue or yellow for the background but they were just awful. Chartreuse green pulled it all together. My daughter could be the Princess of the Princess and the Pea for all the quilts she has piled on her bed.  --Ann--

The Erin Quilts V

Turtle Pond  When Erin was a little girl I would let her pick out a couple fat quarters every time we went fabric shopping. Eventually her stash was big enough that I could make something. She was 8 when we started this quilt. She chose the pattern and picked out most of the shell combinations, we talked about busy prints and calm prints and boring prints and how they need to work together to show off each other in the best possible way. Sometimes two really pretty prints together ended up sticking their tongues out at each other. So Erin would try a fabric that was less flamboyant. She has a good eye for color and design. This was fused applique with satin stitch around each piece. I echo quilted the background and used a pile of green from my early stash. Savoring the mommy Erin time. --Ann--

Off the needles

 Happy Feet first socks are finished!!!!!

they feel so good on my feet and just in time for cooler weather!!

Another pair of Lovikka mittens are done too. They are so soft after they are brushed. I'm willing to wait a couple more months before they are needed. Looking for my next project at Judy's On the Needles.    Happy knitting ~~Ann~~

The Erin Quilts IV

The New Millennium quilt. I completed this quilt in 2000 I had the binding ready to sew for New Year's Day when we were supposed to loose all power because the computers wouldn't know how to deal with changing from 1999 to 2000. That seems comical now but I had a stack of quilts to snuggle up with and sew the binding, I also had gallon jugs of water just in case. This was the first curved piecing I ever did. It was easier than setting in a sleeve or sewing a collar.  Because of the bright colors daughter claimed it as hers. She helped me arrange the quarter circles. We tried to arrange it so there was contrast between the pie parts and the crust parts, she said we had to stop before it drove us crazy.  All of the fabrics on the front are from Merryvale bales I cut 2 crusts and 2 pies from each 6" x 18" strip with the elliptical left over which I appliqued in the border. Goodness my machine quilting has improved I imagine lots of ways to quilt these blocks.  ~~Ann~~

Super Simple Roasted Tomatoes

Oven roasted Roma tomatoes Super Super Simple
1. preheat oven to 450 degrees F  2. wash tomatoes,  3. slice in half lengthwise,  4. lay cut side down on baking sheet with sides,  5. stick in oven for 20 minutes  6. remove from oven,  7. lift skins from tomatoes,  8. use in sauce or freeze.   These 2 pans made 3 pints of thick sauce.  No kettles of boiling water. No pruney fingers from blanching and ice water bath to remove the skins.    30 minutes and I was done!!! --Ann--

The Erin Quilts III

Today I washed her sheets and tidied up her room so it would be fresh the next time she comes home. This quilt was new for her new room in our new house that we built  six years ago. She chose the pattern and the fabrics, I dyed several of them. It is a Judy Niemeyer pattern Tropical Sundance. I do not like to do paper piecing but I do like the way Judy Niemeyer does it. She maps out how to cut the pieces so you don's waste a lot of fabric and everything fits together perfectly. I had fabrics enough to make a Roman shade for her window, it looks like stained glass when the sun shines through. The quilt was professionally quilted by Kay Peterson of Olive Branch. --Ann--

The Erin Quilts II

I only had enough fabric for sashing and cornerstones for this quilt. Quilting the faces was so much fun a couple of the suns even wink. I went out of my comfort zone with the border of these two quilts but with a little practice it was an easy border to do. This quilt is listed on etsy.  --Ann--

Wee Beasties on Wednesday

Do I want to make a brown and pink quilt next or a blue quilt?  Ann

The Erin Quilts I

My youngest child and only daughter went off to college a couple weeks ago, she is a senior this year and living in an apartment, the quilt is on a queen size air mattress. The house is feels empty and very quiet. I miss her and our late night talks. She always wanted to chat about the time I wanted to go to bed, so I would postpone my bedtime for one of our chats. She would talk about school, friends, movies, actors, her job (she worked at a nursing home this summer Bless her heart) her future, anything and everything and occasionally get to the issue that was bothering her and I would listen more. Sometimes she would ask my opinion or what I thought so I would tell her but mostly I would listen.  This is the quilt I made for her to take to the dorm as a freshman.  She picked the pattern and the fabrics I added a few as needed. I did the 8 point star the easy way with the split squares in the corners and split triangles. The machine quilting was so much fun I put the faces in each sun. I used a small plate to draw the circle then free motion quilted the rest. There were diamonds left from each strip so this quilt has a sister quilt which I will post on Thursday.  This will be a seven part series of the Erin Quilts on the T days. ~~Ann~~

Red and Butter

This quilt has been sitting basted for almost a year.  The color of the thread to use was the big obstacle. The red threads I had were not right and neither were the yellows, then when I was choosing thread for the Summer Salad quilt Color Challenge I tried a green to tan and a multi colored varigated thread with orange and I laid the green to tan thread on this and it was perfect because there is green running through all the prints. I quilted it with concentric teardrops. My favorite all over design with lots of pivots. Linking to PatchworkTimes Design Wall Monday  and  Leah's UFO project. This quilt is from one of Barbara Brandenburg's books and it has a bamboo cotton batting that was wonderful to quilt.  --Ann--
P.S. if you have been following my blog or just perusing through it and there are big black spots where some pictures used to be...... I foolishly thought I should clean up my picassa file because it was getting full. Little did I know I was deleting photos from posts so I will try to replace photos and buy more space on picassa. And in trying to replace photos in the Drama in the Sky post of last June it moved to September.  Always learning things the hard way. --Ann--

Drama in the sky

 These clouds seemed to form in our backyard and moved on east.

Today is a clear blue day with no clouds in any direction. I have to play with boring paints today like primer on the molding on my front door and then paint it blue again.  ~~Ann~~