Quilting Fun

I've had the chance to do a bit of free motion quilting this week.  So far I've tried three different designs.  Having a black back has made it a bit intimidating, because every stitch shows, but I kind of like the effect. 

Reptiles and Pinwheels

The pinwheel block was one of the first blocks I learned how to piece together, and it's still one of my favorites.  Every once in a while I have to make a pinwheel quilt, because it always makes me smile.  Here's a pinwheel quilt top I put together today for a baby boy. 

 I also happen to really love this reptile flannel.  It's adorable and it's cuddly!

Quilted Building Blocks

I got the 3 Building Blocks quilted this week.  I always think it's interesting how you can take the same quilt block and change the look completely by fabric and quilting choices.

 I like the look of the quilting on the back.

February Peace Circle

This month was were asked to 2 non-symmetrical blocks for do.Good Stitches.  We could use whatever fabric we wanted as long as the sashing was white.  This was perfect, because I have a lot of scraps that were given to me.  I never say no to fabric as a general rule, but these scraps didn't go with a lot of my other fabric, so I used them for these blocks.

Bummer!  Looking at the picture just now I just realized I turned the lower triangles in the wrong direction.  Sigh.  Looks like I'll be picking it back apart and turning them in the other direction.  Bleh.  Good thing it's still the beginning of the month, so there's no rush to get them in the mail.  Boo.

Update:  I fixed them.

Big Sisters are the Best

BB wasn't feeling well and Little Lady said to him in the sweetest voice, "Do you want to cuddle with your big sister?  I'll read to you!"

I also happen to love that she's wearing her Princess Sophia tiara while reading to her younger brother.

Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away!

I have no idea why this quilt top has brought back 1990's Enya music into my head, but I've had Orinoco Flow running through my brain all morning. 

My goal has been to get completely caught up on my quilts from do.Good Stitches before it's my month again in March.  These are the sail boat blocks I requested in November.  I think this quilt is going to make some little boy very happy. 

A Special Quilt

On the Friday before Christmas a friend of mine was traveling with her 4 youngest boys on the highway when a car headed in the opposite direction turned into her lane and hit their van head on. The boys had bumps and bruises and amazingly were ok, but she sustained the majority of the injuries. She has two fractured feet, a fractured shin, a broken femur, and her lower back was crushed (her doctor said it looked like it was a crushed soda can). She was in the hospital for 3 weeks, and now has begun physical therapy from home.  It will be a while before she is able to walk again.   She has been nothing but positive and showing gratitude through the whole process, but she has a hard road in front of her.

As I started working on this Rising Star Quilt from do.Good Stitches, my friend kept running through my mind.  I felt instinctively that this quilt belonged to her.  I talked to my Peace Circle ladies and we all agreed this quilt was meant for her.  She loved it and I hope it's a comfort to her on her long road to recovery.

This was the first time I've done a large scale quilting pattern on such a huge quilt, so it was a bit rocky, but in the end, I liked the loose basket weave look.

I love these pictures because the clouds are so puffy they look like they're falling straight out of the sky onto the quilt.

 The contrast of the extremely dead grass is also quite striking.  😉

A Day in Ireland

 

I just finished reading Dubliners by James Joyce (1882-1941).  This book falls under category #2 of the Back to the Classics Challenge 2017. A 20th Century Classic - any book published between 1900 and 1967.  Dubliners is a collection of short stories.  This book first came to my attention because of the acclaim that The Dead often receives an example of the quintessential short story, and it is one of the short stories in Dubliners.  

I read one short story a day to break it up a bit.  It's pretty obvious from the beginning that he was a gifted writer.  Within a few sentences he's plopped you straight into a cross section of someone's life and it feels like you haven't missed a thing.  Most of the stories really only cover one day in that person's life, but it's almost always at a junction in their life where they have some sort of personal epiphany (and it's usually not a very happy one).   I can't say that I "enjoyed" the book, because that's not really the right word to describe it.  Most of the stories are depressing and they usually emphasize the lower natures of human beings.  He brings out a lot of the vices within the Irish culture.  For example, there's quite a bit of the stereotypical Irish drunkard of a husband squandering all the money on booze.  I can totally see why his writing would have been controversial when it was published back in 1914.  I do have to say that I definitely felt an appreciation for his literary prowess even if I didn't always fully understand all of the political and cultural nuisances associated with life in Ireland.  I'll end with a couple quotes from Dubliners to give you an idea of his writing style:

“He lived at a little distance from his body, regarding his own acts with doubtful side-glances. He had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a verb in the past tense.”  

“Too excited to be genuinely happy”

 “She respected her husband in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed: and though she knew the small number of his talents she appreciated his abstract value as a male.”