Wonderful fabrics

Today I had an appointment in town and was done early so I stopped to pick out some new fabrics for the Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt. I seem to have plenty of the darker and bright colors - and needed some softer colors for the outer ring.

I was in luck - found some really pretty pale colors that are just the ones I needed. I still don't have any "flowers" finished - but I've got lots of hexagons basted - and lots of them strung on thread in bunches - one yellow for the center - 6 dark for the inner ring and 12 light for the outer ring. I'm doing each flower in one color - for example - yellow center/dk blue/pale blue.

Soon I will have some flowers to show you - but for now - you may pet the fabric if you'd like.

New Ironing Board Cover - and some other stuff.

I was supposed to have Ben all day today but his mom is sick so they both stayed home. I decided I would try and get some stuff done on the extra free day.

First - the weather is gorgeous - the spring I've been whining for, for so long. It was sunny and bright and warm - I had the doors and windows open most of the day. So then I set to work - washed, dried and folded three tubs of towels, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher (it won't be full for a couple more days), and worked on the Grandmother's Flower Garden Hexagons.

I have a box full of hexagons that have been glued (washable glue stick) to the fabrics and cut out

And a box of the hexagons basted . . .

And a box of hexagons strung like beads - with the yellow center, 6 of the dark color and 12 of the lighter shade - ready to be stitched into "flowers".
Oh - and a little tin full of paper hexagons too.

This is the first official "flower" for the GFG quilt - it isn't quite finished but it wanted to be in the blog too so I let it come in unfinished. I'll finished it up tonight. You can see another GFG quilt that I made by going here.

Then I made some curtains for the laundry room. We've lived here over a year, and I've had the fabric almost that long. It is soft and feels so good, and so pretty, and I got it for $1.00 a yard at Walmart. While I was working on the curtains I happened to read the edge - and it is 100% pure silk - can you imagine - silk curtains in my laundry room?? And silk for $1.00 a yard?? I was pretty impressed. I also made a valance and a half curtain for the long window by the washer and dryer - but have to get some tension rods to hang them up. It looks like the sun is shining in there all the time now.

Next - I decided to re-cover the ironing board. This photo came out fuzzy, but I can guarantee, you DON'T want to see it clearly anyway. I can't remember where, or why, I got this cover for the ironing board. The needle threader is there to show you how big and ugly those blue dots are on the turquoise. Who designed this? And WHO bought it? It must have come on my ironing board, which was used when I got it - because I KNOW I wouldn't have bought this on purpose.

I was at a sew-in recently and there was a stack of give-away fabrics. You bring stuff to give away and you can take from the pile also. I found this pretty rose patterned fabric, a nice heavy, almost canvas fabric and brought it home with me. I didn't really have a plan for it - but it was calling my name, and I didn't want to be impolite and not listen. Once I got it home I knew what it would be. And today it became the new ironing board cover.

Now isn't that better? And it even has a little purple in it to go with the iron. I will certainly enjoy ironing on this - it is so springy and bright.

And that was my day without Ben - dinner is ready (steaks, potatoes, green beans and tossed salad) - I sure hope Ben comes tomorrow so I can get some rest.

More Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

Some of you have emailed me and asked for closeups of the quilting on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. It was hand pieced, English Paper Piecing, and machine quilted by a friend who does fabulous machine quilting on her home machine. I posted two entries about the GFG, time for a review, class.


Here is the whole quilt



Close up of the machine quilting. I decided how I wanted it quilted and Julie did the work. She made such straight perfect lines - they all converge at the center of the "flowers" without a waver.



And just for fun - here is the quilt sitting on my treadle machine - along with some of its friends.

On top of the GFG is the Santa Quilt, under the GFG is the YoYo quilt - and to the sides are some baby quilts and doll quilts. The blue/cream baby quilt on the left I got from an old barn in Kansas.

We recently moved the treadle into our bedroom - looks pretty spiffy in there. It works, but i have to put the new belt on - I've had it for several months - just need to get to it.

Happy Quilting!!

SOME QUILTING

Thanks for visiting my blog. I am currently working on embroidering twelve Flowers of the Month Blocks for a commission, and a Double Wedding Ring quilt. I paper pieced the arcs of the DWR and am hand appliqueing them onto the white background. I have about half of it finished. I'm using only 30s repros fabrics for it.

I am thinking of making the joining blocks out of parts of vintage embroidered linens. I would cut them to the size to fit where the arcs join. I have been collecting vintage embroidered linens for a long time now and have a nice box full of them. I get them at yard sales and thrift shops.

The weather is wonderful here, finally, after a long , long rainy spring, and I have been enjoying sitting on the porch in the evenings and working on the DWR quilt.