A Wildflower Morning

  Another quilt got finished up at our house yesterday.  That is always a major accomplishment, because I don't always find time to sew.  But really the credit on this quilt does not go to me, but to my son, William.  He is the one who pieced the quilt top, back in December 2008, on my Singer Treadle machine.  He loves operating that foot powered relic from 1951.  It really is an awesome machine.  I Finished the rest of the quilt for him.  It has dark blue fleece for the backing, per his request, and is tied with dark blue yarn.   So today it got hung in the place of honor out on the deck for a photograph.  We put an inscription on the back in his honor also.  I have a feeling it is is going to be a treasured quilt for a long time.

The cold foggy weather has been good for something.  I pulled out a quilt that I had pieced when my children were little.  I had started quilting it quite a few years ago after taking a machine quilting class, but had given up for lack of time (and skill).  Some of my beginning stitches weren't quite what I was hoping for, so I picked them out, and started over.  I've been working slowly on the machine quilting, as I found time, and I was able to finish on Sunday, and put the binding on on Monday and Tuesday.  Now it is making my living room look pretty, as we wait for spring, and live pansies out in the garden.  I don't think my machine quilting is ready for a competition yet, but it makes my heart happy.  It is my first large, complete, machine quilting project.  The quilt is like a very large throw, or couch quilt.  It is as wide as the cushions on my couch.  I think is around 60 something inches by 80 something inches, or so. ...

 This school year there has been very little time for the things I enjoy.  Our homeschooling days have been full to overflowing.  But it is Thanksgiving break, couldn't I do something enjoyable? How about some time to work on a fall colored quilt I started a few years ago?  You make a simple Nine-patch block.  And they you get out your rotary cutter and cut it in half in both directions.  I pinned each new set of four blocks into piles. Then I rearranged them into a new design and sewed them back together into a new block. The result looks amazingly complicated, but isn't.  With a little time, and a border, I'll have a new queen-sized quilt ready to put together.  And it was all made of random pieces of yardage from my fabric cupboard.