Connie's Quilts

These are two of Connie's quilts that recently went home.  This first one was a Block-of-the-Month hosted by our guild. I did some fun quilting in each square and a bead board border. Not sure you can tell from this pic (maybe click on it to blow it up) but in the corners I did a checkerboard with every other square quilted and the others allowed to have some loft.

A close-up of one of the blocks...

And a bit of the back where you can actually see some quilting

This is the second quilt and FOURTH selvage quilt I've done. In fact, its the second selvage quilt for Connie. The issue with that is design in those solid squares. All the quilts have gone back to the same guild. One was Carolyn's, two were Connie's and one was the Opportunity Quilt for the Quincy Guild.  

This is the design I came up with for the dark "blades." I varied it with differing leaves and occasionally a swirl instead of a leaf.

A close-up of the border treatment.

And this is the design I put in the four corners.

Do you recognize that feather? It would probably be more recognizable had I done it the way it was originally drawn/quilted.

Dory

Enough about Cooking; How about a couple of Quilts Instead??

I will take some pics of the food I'm preparing and post them in a few weeks. Until then, how about these two quilts that went home recently? This first one is a baby quilt that Barbara sent up. Simple quilting is always the rule on baby quilts, unless they're going to be the "heirloom, hang on the wall" type.

A close-up

The back (apparently the sun was shining through my window leaving those lovely crossbars on my pic! <grrrrrrrr!!>)

Barbara also tried her hand at a modern quilt. She made this up with squares and rectangles--even using some fabrics I recognized from her other quilt tops.

I quilted this one with loops and a square spiral (is there such a thing??)

I thought the back was really fun! 

Until next time...

Dory

Saving Dinner

Odd title for a quilting blog??  Yep, it is. However, after cooking this way for the past month, I have to share.  First thing you should know is that I enjoy cooking, but, like quilting, I'm easily bored. What this translates to is that I'm not one of those people that cooks the same thing over and over.

A good friend of mine told me about this cookbook: "Saving Dinner the Low-Carb Way."  (Sorry, I stole the picture from Amazon, so you can't 'Look inside'.)

I love this cookbook!!  Inside are menus for a week, along with side dish suggestions and shopping lists. Often, during the week, there is at least one crockpot option. Cooking the dinners rarely takes more than a half-hour. This book totally addresses my "what's for dinner?" dilemma and my issues with cooking the same thing over and over. Its a win/win. There are several versions of the cookbook, including vegetarian and holiday ideas. 

And now, back to our regularly scheduled quilting content!!

Dory

Black, White and Red All Over

Okay, not exactly. But seriously, thinking of blog titles is challenging. I don't even name my quilts--I have no imagination!!!

This quilt is for Alex, Julie's nephew. Julie was the winner of the QAL quilting that I donated. She like that quilting so much that she sent this one all the way from Florida for me to play on.  As you can see by the photo....its a BIG quilt!

Her plan with this quilt, since she made it for her nephew, was to give him options. He can use the side with the color, or turn it over for a solid black quilt. Being male, who knows what he'll choose!

My challenge was thread color. When we talked on the phone, Julie wanted blue thread so that it would show. When the quilt arrived, I didn't think that would look good as you'd only see it in the black and it would disappear in the blue section of the quilt. I felt the thread needed to bring all the quilt parts together, so we went with variegated Mauna Loa (purple & blue) by Superior. I use Superior Thread almost exclusively; I love their thread! For the back, I used a Navy pre-wound from Fil-Tec--those are the best bobbins. They're magnetic and my tension is flawless when I use them.

I did a geometric pattern in the background, which you can see above. Below, you can see that I used Ribbon Candy in the outside of the squares and a swirl for the inner portion. I wanted to add some curves to the squares, just for contrast.

And the back. The Navy thread contrasted just enough to add a bit of color with the texture. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a clear shot of the whole back. The quilting did show up on the shots I could get though.

Now I'll just be waiting to see what Alex thinks. Julie loved it!!

Dory