Thursday, June 27, 2013

{Post 1,190} GFG Sample Card

Had some questions about my sample card.  It truly is nothing fancy.  Here it is...



The bottom left aqua/light turquoise probably won't be used.  The blue/black one at the top of the next column stands out quite a bit as well.  The cream on the top right is my last ring on every block.  



{Post 1,189} Grandmother's Flower Garden

Well, call me slow, but I just realized I am a grandmother, and I have a flower garden!!  Here's an update on the progress on my GFG quilt.  I am making a queen-bed-sized quilt, just because I can.  This will be years in the making, but a little progress shot is good once in a while.  I am about to have a lot of travel/sitting/hand-sewing time, so I am prepping some hexagons for the trips to come.

The top pic shows all the color schemes I have going so far.  I have two of the red one and two of the butterfly block.  I am not completely pleased with the one with the dark blue center, but it IS nearly finished!  The ring of hexies outside the navy blue one is too light, but that's life.  So far...






I am fussy-cutting a lot of the hexagons.  That is fun and takes more time, but I like the way it looks.  I have done something that I hope will help me select fabrics in the future.  I sewed a small scrap of each fabric I am using so far onto a piece of paper that I am keeping in my purse.  That way if I'm in a random place (oh, I don't know...say, a pharmacy?) that happens to sell fabric, I can whip out my samples and see if there's something I want to add to the mix.  Genius, right?

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

{Post 1,188} Wedding Quilt

I am going to post my recently-pieced wedding quilt on here because I doubt the recipient even knows I have a blog.  If she finds it, she can practice acting surprised ;)

The bride-to-be picked out two fabrics.  I made a checkerboard style layout.  She had it displayed at her wedding, clothespinned to a sheet of plywood.  This was one of the most unusual weddings I've ever witnessed.  It was a cowboy-type theme.  The bride and bridesmaids wore cowboy boots (so did the groom and his men).  The bride was "delivered" to the barn and pasture in a pickup truck.  The flowers were sunflowers and daisies.  It was quite the rustic setting.

The top was pieced before folks started signing it.  A couple exuberant youths got carried away with scribbling.  I knew I'd have to remove those pieces, but I didn't have one bit of extra cream fabric.  Then I got the idea to put some pictures from their engagement, rehearsal, and wedding into the quilt!  I pulled out an ancient set of "Printed Treasures" fabric sheets I had.  My husband helped me figure out how to print 4 pictures per sheet.  I added a frame of cream from the blocks I removed.  Voila!  The pictures are a surprise for the bride.

Here are some pictures of the process.  There were two sets of blocks written with pink ink that were close together, so I purposely replaced those with pictures or relocated them.




 


She wants very little quilting on it, so I'll just use black thread and do a large meander in the dark blocks.  Should be finished in short order.  

I noticed one person at the wedding did not sign it, so I am waiting for them to let me know if they want me to add a message before it is quilted.