Monday, April 22, 2013

Which one of these...

When my granddaughter was growing up, I would buy workbooks that had four pictures and you had to pick out which one of these is not like the other.  I can look at a block and it looks perfect.  Take a picture of it and it's like playing which one of these is not like the other. 

Enter my latest example...

Do you see it?  I was auditioning borders and took a picture with my cell phone.  Just as soon as I opened the picture on my computer, I saw the block which had been turned 90 degrees the wrong way.  Of course, then I went back and found another one.  (frog quilting... ripit, ripit) 

So I showed the picture to DH.  He came out to the studio and said, "I thought you were going to fix it."  Aaarrrggghhh.  He found two more! 

All are fixed.  We've made numerous inspections and think I have the all right now.  Maybe I should take a picture...

Monday, April 15, 2013

Design Wall Monday

On Monday's, Judy at Patchwork Times has a "link up" for quilters to show what's on their design wall.  Here's my current project in process...

In front of the design wall is my long arm quilter and you can see the strips lined up for making more blocks.  Lots of work to do...  this quilt was requested as a gift for Mother's Day in 2012.  I'm heads down trying to finish it for Mother's Day this year.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Wake Up, Harley

A couple posts ago, I talked about black and gold fabrics.  My cousin is a Harley Davidson bike rider and he asked me to make a t-shirt quilt for his daughter, Mary.  Mary is a recent graduate of Wake Forest University... hence, the black and gold fabrics.

The t-shirts had logos and designs of various sizes.  Some of them were 16" which is a little oversized for a t-shirt quilt.  Most t-shirt squares are cut at 12" and the logos are just chopped off... not to my liking for a special quilt like this one had to be.  Some of the logos were small which would have left a lot of negative space on the block if they were cut at 12".

So, it became a very custom quilt.  The t-shirt blocks were various sizes filled in with traditional quilt blocks in black and gold.  I used blocks like flying geese, square in square, pinwheels, etc.  I thought they would add a nice touch since the quilt was for a girl, yet the t-shirts and colors were somewhat masculine.  The traditional blocks finished at 5" square (except the geese) and I used sashing to make the rows even.

Here's the result...






The driver for preserving the 16" block is the middle block which says...

           What makes a road "Sweet"?
           What makes a journey "Epic"?
           It starts with that ribbon of pavement  calling your name.  

As Mary is at the beginning of her life's journey having just graduated from college, I thought it was so profound.  She will have roads in her life calling her name and whether the journey is sweet or epic is all about the decisions she will make.

Oh, Wake up, Harley is the name of the quilt... Wake Forest + Harley Davidson.  Get it?