Strawberry Jelly

It only took two years.  I began this quilt in March 1014.  I’ve had all the material necessary to complete it, other stuff just kept getting in the way.  The Quilty Guilt is back up and running and this was a rather large project for a domestic machine, the blame could be assigned there.  I’m glad I am one UFO closer to reaching this year’s goal to clean all of them up.  Mostly it’s quilting tops, I have only three or four partically cut and planned.  I’m getting better.

Pink is not my colour.  I love some of the fabrics in this, and it turned out quite nice.  I have a dear friend who will love it.  I’ll try to get it in the mail the beginning of next week.  It should arrive close to her birthday.  Maybe she will stop begging now.  Hahaha.

John 11:44 – The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Thwarted Thursday

verb

past tense: thwarted; past participle: thwarted

1. prevent (someone) from accomplishing something.

I am prevented from quilting.  I am going through withdrawal.  I miss my stuff.  If you have been following along, you will know that I have a new job in a new city.  Our house in British Columbia has not sold.  God willing it will soon.  We packed most of our belongings and put them into storage.  All that remains in the house are the largest pieces of furniture so it will show well.  We just brought what we thought we might need until Advent.  At some point soon we will return to move everything here since I have no inclination to drive across the country with a moving truck in the winter.  Yes, you may have guess it, my sewing machine, my stash, all my notions are 1800 kilometres away, waiting, while I am here, missing them.

Before we moved, I managed to complete the top I introducted to you here.  I didn’t care for the layout provided.  Here is my spin.

Job 5:12  He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.

Mystery Quilt #2

I’ve been sewing, and cutting, and quilting, and imagining.  I did finish the Lenten stole in time for worship last Sunday.  Another quilt made as a farewell gift for a couple who moved to the other side of the mountains is being bound by W. who offered to complete it.  Two down, two more up.

One is an accumulation of fabric at this point.  There has been a request I design banners for Pentecost.  I have collected scraps and pieces of fabric from yellow through orange to red.  I want it to be very textural.

The other quilt is a Mystery Quilt.  About a month prior to the first step being posted there was a 2 1/2″ strip exchange in the group.  Each person sent off 20 width of fabric (WoF) pieces and got back a lovely selection of fabrics.  There were three pink/burgandy ones.  Not my favourite colour.  Naturally, my only logical decision was to use them as the foundation for the MQ colour palette, since this may be another one of those quilts I may give away.  The coloured strips are now cut.  Next – the background fabric, which is a very pale pink with a barely darker peach pink geometric pattern.

Isaiah 23:18  Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits will not be stored or hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord.

Hearts for Baby

My holidays are going splendidly!  The grand-daughter’s quilt was finished well in advance.  Great grandma (my mom) loves it, my son and his girlfriend think it should be hung on the wall.  Completely their choice.  I was really pleased with the quilting, towards the end.  It took a little time to get in the ‘groove’.  The idea was to emulate the swirls in the border/binding.  It worked, eventually.  It is not entirely uniform throughout the entire surface.  I am not ripping it out, thank you very much, in spite of my anal retentive attitude toward ‘perfection.’

I bet you can’t even tell, unless you click on the picture to enlarge.  (Made you look!)

 

 

 

 

Exodus 35:29     All the Israelite men and women whose hearts made them willing to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.

Pretty in Pink

The peonies are blooming in resplendent glory, so weighty that their faces are surveying the ground.  They are wonderfully fragrant, their perfume wafting through the garden, sweet greetings as soon as one exits through the garage door into the back yard.  I have two plants, both pink.  I prefer the scent of the white variety.  I purchases a white one this spring.  Mischievous nymphs were said to hide in the petals of the Peony, giving it the meaning of Shame or Bashfulness in the Language of Flowers. While the peony takes several years to re-establish itself when moved, it blooms annually for decades once it has done so.

“Ode on Melancholy”

…  But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globèd peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes. …

–John Keats (1795-1821)

The peony is named after Paeon (also spelled Paean), a student of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing.  Asclepius became jealous of his pupil; Zeus saved Paeon from the wrath of Asclepius by turning him into the peony flower.

Frédéric Bazille (artist)
French, 1841 – 1870
Young Woman with Peonies, 1870
oil on canvas
overall: 60 x 75 cm (23 5/8 x 29 1/2 in.) framed: 83.8 x 99.4 x 7.6 cm (33 x 39 1/8 x 3 in.)
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

She Got It!

I’ve had to wait to post these pictures of my recently completed quilt.  Mom finally picked it up at the Post Office this morning.  Now I can post pictures without the worry of spoiling the surprise. 

This project presented nothing but a series of challenges.  The first was finding a tulip pattern that I liked.  When I did it was in an older magazine.  Not surprisingly, the templates for the block was missing.  Having to make my own was a first, with mental gymnastics that relied on grade school mathematics.  See!  Fractions do have practical uses!!!!

In the process of quilting the pebbles my sewing machine seized.  My own negligence, it should have been serviced months earlier.  Taking it to the dealer, an hour away, I got a chip in the truck’s recently replaced windshield (par for the course).

Approximately 3/5ths of the way through the pebbling, I realized I would not have enough thread.  It is a beige/light brown variegated from YLI called Pyramids of Giza.  None of the quilt shops in the Peace River District had it in stock so I had to wait for some to be ordered in – another two week delay.

 

When the thread finally arrived it required a one hour trip to pick it up.  I rushed home, threaded the machine, turned it on, the light was burned out.  By this time hubby was getting irritated by all the trips east for supplies that he told me under no uncertain terms was I driving an hour there and another back for a $2.50 light bulb.  Another two-week delay until underlayment was needed for the basement floor and a trip to Home Depot was necessary.  It was a serendipitous journey, as I found the butterfly stencil to free motion stitch the border.  Later I found one with tulips on-line., if I would have only known…

The fabric backing was another fortunate discovery.  It was in the sale rack at one of my favourite quilt stores.  It is a Quest for the Cure design, a percentage of the proceeds going to cancer research I think.  I felt mom would appreciate that, since her younger sister died from pancreatic cancer a year earlier.

I am thrilled with this quilt.  It turned out gorgeous.  Now I can turn my attention to the three current WIPs.