Break the Cycle

Peggy's Quilt - Peggy is the BFF of my "sister" Gige.  Peggy has had some shit thrown at her for sure, but she still is smiling every single time I see her.  She often comes with Gige when they come take one of my kids out for their birthday.  She does that, no matter how tired she is, so that Gige never has to drive alone.  Peggy's husband committed suicide - that would be hard enough to live through, but then her son, Scott, also committed suicide.  I can't imagine.  He was only 30 years old.  His entire life ahead of him. There is so much to learn about mental health and so much more we could do to prevent the pain of loosing a loved one ..... I personally know the pain of depression, and the angst that depression can cause on loved ones. Anyway - Gige asked me if I would take Scott's clothing and make a quilt out of them.  Peggy still had them all in a tote.  They dropped off the tote during one of their birthday visits.  I...

This week I don't have much to show on my design wall.  No new BOM's came this week - so I started working on Dan and Amanda's quilt.  The colors are much more subdued than my usual choice - but it's fun making something that I know will be loved by someone as special as Dan and Amanda. These are the 4 corner blocks These are the centers of the 12 middle blocks I did get into the kitchen over the weekend as well.  I woke up really early Saturday morning craving scones - so figured I'd try out my new cast iron scone pan I bought last year - love it !!!  To see what others are working on, visit Judy's blog at Patchwork Times !

I know it's only Friday, but the way my weekends have been going lately - it's better early then never!  To see what others are working on - check out Judy's blog at Patchwork Times. Finished the 3rd and 4th blocks of my Moon Glow BOM.  I really like BOM's because I make myself stay caught up - never letting myself get more than a month behind.  That way, at the end of the year, I'll have 2 really nice size quilts to get shipped off to a quilter (which, I'm still looking for a replacement for Margaret .... VBS)  Right now the quilt is darker than I thought it might be - I'm hoping when all the blocks are together it might pop more, but I still love the overall look of the quilt.  Not sure I'll be able to gift this one when finished. 

www. Actually found time to sew again this weekend, and made my decision - I'm going to put 2 borders around the outside of the stars, and then add the garden maze blocks.   I don't think it's going to end up as large as I wanted, but I don't know about adding more borders .... waiting now for more of the 1895 Hoffman black that I ordered from ebay ...  then I can start on the borders. I do like how it looks without borders around the stars, so glad there were so many that suggested that last week!  To see what others are working on, check out Patchwork Times !

I am so happy to have something to share this week.  About a month ago, I received some inspiration from another blogger on Design Wall Monday - hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times .  I immediately fell in love with the star quilt that Kate from Life in Pieces   had put together using the pattern from Country Junktion .  I knew immediately that I could use it as the center of a quilt, and finally use those garden maze blocks that were sitting in my UFO pile.  What do you think ? This is the quilt made from the BOM pattern alone This is that same quilt surrounded by my garden maze blocks I started sewing the garden maze blocks together to see how big of a border I will be needing around the star blocks.  Now to figure out if I should border around each block, or just around the outside of the stars - what do you think?

Finally have something to contribute to Design Wall Monday hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times .  I started this quilt last year - its for my brother and sister-in-law ....  their decor is very country - and these fabrics will go nicely .... but I like working with brights .... so I keep putting this away.  Finally decided to get it done - I need 23 of these 16 inch blocks - I started the weekend with 8, now I have 12, so I'm halfway there.  Still not sure of the setting .... will work on that after I get the blocks done .....

Yes Indeed - I can finally participate in DWM again, hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times Almost a month ago (wow, does time fly) I finally graduated college after nearly 9 years (ok, ok, in reality I started in the 1980's, but we won't go there !).  To celebrate, I spent a weekend in Texas with some quilty friends.  We took up a challenge - to take some die cut fabric flowers, and use them on some type of project before the end of June.  Well, I can proudly say mine are nearly finished. POTHOLDERS - and all out of stash (OK, the one in the upper right hand corner is a pita bread warmer, and it was made from fabric purchased in Texas, but since I didn't add that to my stash count, I can't subtract it either !) OOOOPS - where's the flowers? On the flip side - of course ! Excuse the one in the middle on the bottom.  I still hand sew my bindings - and I could only do so many in one sitting.  Will finish it today !

True to my promise to myself - I've found time to turn last Mondays stack of fabrics into a wall-hanging. Next - I need to set up the head caps for our brain study - but tonight I'll try and get this sandwiched and ready to be quilted over the weekend! Next on the design wall - not sure - but I do have a stack of Fred Finstone fabrics that I know just who would love them ! To see what others are working on, check out Judy's site at Patchwork Times !

True to last weeks post and thanks to Judy at Patchwork Times for the challenge - I did find time to sew this past week. I finished my crayon top, have it sandwiched, and started to quilt it. I've already quilted everything I'm doing by machine - now I'm going to try my hand at hand quilting - since it's a small project - I can take it with me to swim practice! Since it's an exchange quilt - I can't show the final picture yet - after I send it I will. So on the design wall today is the new fabrics I'm trying to get together for a star quilt I want to make for the kids hallway upstairs - add a bit of color ! Still not 100% on the color scheme yet - might mix and match some more - but for my 2010 count this quilt will take 6.5 yards of fabric (should finish around 40 x 40)