I hardly ever make anything for myself and I really don't have much in the way of Festive autumn clothing, so I made this sweatshirt for me. The scarecrow designs are by Julia's Needle Designs...
now on to Christmas!
I saw this napkin corner design on Sonia Showalter's website and knew I had to try it out. I had a package of napkins that I purchased awhile back at Sam's Club. With the way it is folded in this picture, you almost can't tell that the red outline is actually the edge of the napkin now. It stitched out great! My mom already wants to know if this is part of her Christmas present for 2011!
I started out making this rag quilt just because I wanted to give it a shot. I had lots of old jeans and some great wildlife flannel, and some fabulous wildlife silhouette embroidery designs. What a great masculine quilt this would make.
Then my sister and her boyfriend became somewhat of a permanent item. Great idea! I can expand the rag quilt as a gift for HIM! and I'd make her one of her own. yeah... the best laid plans, right?
Well, there's no way I'd have time to make 2 quilts plus the other projects in the works, so I expanded the quilt yet again to include her and it would be a joint gift. They camp and hike and fish and stuff like that, so it morphed into a great Christmas gift for them both that they can take camping with them without worrying about getting dirty etc.
There are the original wildlife silhouettes, camping designs, fishing designs and their names in tree branch lettering.
Designs came from Embroidery Library, Stitch It Cheap, George the Digitizer and A Stitch Club.
It's now January and I'm still not finished clipping the seams so it will fray properly once washed.
On to the next thing...
Lana
I think this is by far the most complicated quilt I have made to date. A basic Double Irish Chain done in traditional Irish green colors with a celtic knot print (to represent the bride's heritage).
The open areas are embroidered with a celtic knot design from Embroidery Library and the Italy map in Italian flag colors from Embroidery.com. To balance out the Irish theme, a piano key border done in the flag colors of Italy encompasses the edge (to represent the groom's heritage).
The cornerstones are embroidered tone on tone with the letter "D" representing the last name of the newlyweds, and bound in the same red from the piano key border.
The reverse is a solid green and the entire quilt is stitched in the ditch.
Fabrics were purchased approximately March while St Patrick's fabric was still available. My best estimate is that it was begun sometime in May and finished at the beginning of October.
Shipped in advance to the home of the bride's parents, and presented to her on the eve of her wedding.
Awhile back I ordered these market totes through a Yahoo group buy. They took a long time to get here as they had to come from China. The tote is a canvas material and there is a zip pocket inside. I put this logo together and stitched it on. The frame is secured with velcro so it is removable. I had to turn the bag inside out in order to "hoop" the canvas.
I will donate this to the Car Club for the September show for them to use in some way ... maybe a Chinese auction item, door prize .. who knows.
Lana
My youngest sister's good friend is getting married at the end of July. Instead of having just a bachlorette party, they are making a beach weekend out of it. My sister asked me for a beach bag in pink and white because those are her wedding colors, with "bride" embroidered on it. My first thought was a beach bag needs mesh. so using the basic construction pattern of the "TLG" from SewForum, I designed this bag. It measures 15 x 15 x 5, with a single magnetic snap. The strap on the "Bride" side has the year embroidered to memorialize that 2008 was the year she was a bride. The straps are 2 inches wide and long enough to carry over your shoulder. The top of the other side has her name in the same embroidered style.
One of our "cruiser" friends had painted this logo on his truck so I took a picture of it last fall at Endless Summer 2007. My friend Jen digitized it for me and I stitched up these shirts for everyone. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but the 1st one is purple with orange letter (it matches his hotrod Willys truck), the 2nd is gray with purple stitching, the 3rd is royal blue with gold stitching, and the 4th is yellow with black (Jeff's shirt matches his Chevelle). I have 2 more to do. Mine will be purple also but with white stitching I think, and one that is sort of a turquoise color, I guess I'll stitch it in white also. I can't wait to surprise them next week!
I finally finished the memory quilt that my SIL asked me to make for the parents of her childhood best friend who died of cancer just last August.
Each block is 12", and each sash is an inch. I started working on it in January, and finished it Sunday night, April 20th, 2008, at about 11pm.
After a day of "Show-n-Tell", I finally delivered the quilt along with the matching pillow to my SIL today. She was very excited and couldn't wait to go and present it to the parents. I'm sure that it was a very emotional visit with them.
On to the next project ...
This memory pillow is part of the project requested by my SIL. It is for the sister of her friend who passed away. The quilt will be for the parents. I finished slipstitching the bottom last night, so it is FINISHED!!!!! Now to get crackin' on the quilt, and possibly another pillow, but I'm waiting to hear about that. The stars really fade out in this picture but they are much more evident in person, and I'm pretty pleased with it. This is the first project I've machine quilted with my new Brother machine and the variable speed made the quilting so much more precise.
I decided that the second version of the January block still didn't pop like it should so I swapped the fabric for the burgandy seen here. It really makes this block pop more, but you can really see the difference in the February block. 
Now I'm ready to move on to the March block.
My SIL custom ordered a photo memory quilt to present to the parents of her childhood friend who succumbed to cancer recently. I decided the Sawtooth Star was perfect for a quilt of this type. I've gotten all of the photos scanned and 10 photo blocks printed. This is the first finished block. The blocks will probably need to be sashed, but I don't want to take anything away from the photos so that's a wait and see what I can do for now. Hopefully by next weekend I can have half the blocks finished.
Here's my version of the BlockCentral.com Somewhere in Time" Block of the Month "Wyoming Valley". My fabric choices weren't the best as the design really doesn't POP, but I think I'll stick with this. I do think it will be pretty when done. Once again I think it took close to 5-6 hours to complete, but I have been trying to take my time. My points still aren't as good as they could be but all in all, it doesn't look bad. Okay, back to Robin's Legacy.
I had a little time last night and tonight to get back to the Jack's Chain. This progression shows 2 complete circle 'blocks', plus one joining section. Those points are still eluding me sometimes, but all in all I don't think it looks bad. It'll be awhile before I can get back to this now; time to get cranked up on "Robin's Legacy".
Mock up with new fabric
Originally uploaded by gidgetpics
Well, I wasn't happy with the way the first January BOM turned out. There's a value problem with the fabric. So today I went on the hunt for a new fabric. OMG! Nothing looked right, this was too dark, that was too pink, this was too red. Maybe I should've just stayed home. I finally settled on a fabric that I think has the right value and it's in the right family. It's gorgeous fabric. I'm just not sure how it works in the block. The fabric has a trellis pattern to it. I think I'll wait for some feedback before I stitch it in to a new version. I'll use the first block and make a pillow that coordinates with the final quilt (if I ever get it done). It's definitely a learning experience!
I've decided to participate in the 2008 Block of the Month on BlockCentral.com. The January block is called "Union Square". I may rework it and change one of the colors. One of the taupe colors should have been more burgandy I think. The challenge itself I think will be fun and I expect to learn a lot and improve my accuracy skills. The block isn't perfect. There are a couple places where the points don't match perfect, but all and all it's not too bad.
These are blocks and partial assembly of a rag quilt in progress. This is definitely the project on the back burner, but I'm in no hurry. The blue denim will all be from old jeans no longer fit to wear, which is one reason I expect it to take awhile. Once I run out of denim, I'll have to wait for hubby to wear out some more jeans!
The animal silhouettes are from Embroidery Library
and A Stitch Club.
The denim embroidered square will only be on the raggy side, the other side will have large blocks of the green flannel. It's a very masculine project, but I think it's going to be really warm when it's done.
This is the first real quilt I did. Before this, all I had done was one small wallhanging size to lay over the rocking chair on my front porch.
Made for my SIL for Christmas 2005, with pictures ranging from her parents while they were dating through her life until pretty recent to the making of the quilt.
There are pictures of her wedding, my wedding, her siblings and children.
I have it right now. It needs a sleeve. She won't display it until she can hang it on the wall.
This is the next quilt top I am working on. I want to try free motion machine embroidery. The center block is called "Double Card Tricks".