November 8th, 2019
It’s been a really long time since my last blog post and there really is no one reason for it. Life got very busy and our new dog took up much more time than I thought she would (but we are still overjoyed to have her in the family!), and the hours of the day just got away from me. We also did some major renovations on our home and we’ve never done renovations before, and we learned just how much upheaval they can bring with them! We are about 99% done with renovations that took over almost the entire main floor and we have just started on some major outdoor renovations that will also last for months. So far, we are very, very happy with the changes in our home and for two people who were already homebodies, we now feel like we never want to leave home. We are now officially “nesters.”
In spite of this, I have been sewing up a storm, mainly charity sewing. If you haven’t tried it, give it a shot as it is quite gratifying. I pieced, quilted, and bound 14 quilts over the past 12 months and several hundred butterfly pillows, ear/heel pillows, and other assorted comfort items for 2 different hospices. It is really satisfying to be able to complete projects quickly, and this has kind of been lost on me for the past few decades as I’ve worked on quilts that take several months to years to finish. It’s also a nice feeling to know that my sewing skills help other people.
Here are some shots of one of the quilts I made for hospice earlier this year. It is a very basic quilt that began with a center feathered wreath block that was an old leftover and I added borders to it in a classic Amish style:
This was totally fun to quilt. Here is a close up of the center portion:
And here is a shot that kind of focuses on the widest blue/purple border area:
That section was quilted using the bump-back feather method, and the spine curves were made by tracing around acrylic circles that are used for ruler work quilting. The narrow side borders are also quilted using the bump-back feather method, but the spines are straight, so the feathers have a very different look.
This next shot is a tangential shot that gives a good sense of the texture created by the quilting:
Ooooh, la-la!! just love the warm colors and all that feathery goodness! I sure hope the person who received it loves it as well!
I will try to post more often and I definitely will be posting next week as I have some exciting news to share…
Filed under
Free Motion Quilting, Hospice Quilt Project.
