"It Doesn't Matter"...It's Quilted!

After almost a week back at our Raleigh home, I felt more rested.  Yesterday I drove up to our North Carolina mountain cabin, and today I decided to see if my poor, neglected Gammill long arm machine would crank up after more than four months of sitting idle in the basement.  Yes, indeed, what a good ole' horse!  I saddled up a little quilt top that I finished a long time ago.

Here it is on the machine with only the very top quilted.

The top is called It Just Doesn't Matter!  I read about how to make it here on Del's blog.  An instructor named Rachel Maus taught her how to piece the top using orphan blocks, strips, scraps, etc.  You can see some of the settings I tried after constructing the 9.5" squares on this old post.

Anyway, I ended up using no sashing, but adding a black dotted print border.

I used a lime green thread with free-motion "artistic" quilting on the long arm.

    

The backing is a cheerful cherry print.  I am thinking that this will be a table topper, and either side of the quilt could be used.

It has gotten very cold up here in the mountains, and the basement is still unheated.  One of our last projects in the basement was insulating between the joists, and I think that made a big difference.  I was quite comfortable quilting with just a small space heater.

We hope to get the gas company out here to move the kerosene monitor from our "Penthouse" garage apartment to the basement.  It would heat the whole basement easily, and we can put a much smaller one in the Penthouse.

Charlie is still worn out, but he came up here last week for the annual deer camp, his favorite time of year.  He did not even hunt, but enjoyed being around his son, grandsons, brothers, and other assorted friends and relatives who gather for deer camp.  Most of them went home Sunday.  We will be eating Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors Ricky and Mary, who also live up here on the family compound.  We are feeling lucky to be done with all treatment in time for the holidays.  There's no place like home!

Crazy Scrappy Quilt Blocks

I have been randomly piecing fabric scraps together to make 81/2" quilt squares for children's quilts.  I keep a basket under my sewing machine table, and throw in trimmings, orphan blocks, ones that did not turn out to be the right size, etc.  Most are bright pastels.

I have made enough for a little girl's quilt, and am auditioning how to set them.

Here they are lying on top of a bright turquoise hummingbird fabric.  I think they get lost.

Here they are just butting up against each other with no fabric in between.  Too busy.

How about on a light dotted background?  Not enough contrast.

If contrast is needed, how about black?  I love the dramatic look of the bright blocks against the black, but don't want to use black for a little girl's quilt.

Black with the turquoise outer border?  Maybe, with a less "in your face" black fabric, or a dark green or blue.

Still have not decided, so I contacted her grandmother to find out her favorite color and her bedroom color.  But I have ordered the backing fabric, which has bright pastel birdies.  I decided to go with flannel for the three kids' quilts I am constructing.

For two brothers, I have made lots more of the scrappy quilt blocks.  This time I have added more darks, and I like them all set together with no sashing.

It is really fun to do this kind of piecing.  No measuring until you trim the final blocks.  Lines can be straight or not.  I added in a few big pieces of fabric like the frog print.  I have ordered two different froggy flannel prints for the backings.

The weather here in Central North Carolina is bitter cold.  So we are heading to the North Carolina mountains this weekend, where it is even colder!  If the weather cooperates, my brother and sister-in-law from Boone will come over to pick up the double wedding ring quilt.

Here is a picture my sister sent of the creek, dam, and road where we are heading. BRRRR!

Catching Up

It has been raining hard off and on for days now.  That actually has given me lots of extra time for my artsy projects!

On Thursday I went to Clayton to exercise my visitation rights on my Gammill machine.  I managed to quilt both my baby quilt and the flower challenge quilt while I was there.

The baby quilt just has loopy meanders with some flowers and maybe a butterfly for fun.  The baby's name is Holly, so I added her name and a holly leaf.

The backing is pieced from leftover fabrics in the quilt and some others that coordinate.

I made a label today, and will try to finish hand-sewing the binding and label tonight.  I'd like to give it to Holly when we are in the mountains for the Fourth of July.

Here is the flower challenge quilt, now that it is quilted.  I did not touch the flower or stem, only the background.  That makes the non-quilted areas pop.  I will be doing some stitching/beading in the flower area.

I did a lot of small, artistic freestyle quilting.  Near the base, feathery ferns. 

I added some quilted leaves along the stem.

Around the flower I just added some spiral swirls.

Next up for this project is to add beads, crystals, embroidery etc. to embellish the flower.

While I was at Maureen's, there was a severe thunderstorm with heavy rain and dark skies.  I finished quilting just as it started to storm, and by the time I traveled home the rain was over.

On my design wall is the beginning of another child's quilt.  I can't really call this a baby quilt because the baby is already three years old.  This one is for our friends, Ricky and Mary's granddaughter Shelby.  I made  quilts for both of her older brothers, but got in a slump on baby quilts a few years ago and could not keep up!  

This one is going to be a sort of I Spy quilt with pairs of blocks with the same center fabric.  Two mermaids, two butterflies, etc.  Hopefully she can make a game of finding the matching pairs.  

All of the center patches have an animal or other novelty print fabric.  Many are left over from the last three quilts I have made for Charlotte, Lucas, and Holly.

In fact, I have so many leftover scraps that I am piecing together scrap quilts for yet another baby quilt.  I have two more to go before I have made one for all the great-nieces and great-nephews.

I keep a basket of scraps by the sewing machine, and when I am in the mood for some mindless sewing, I just stitch the scraps together randomly until I can cut an eight-and-a-half-inch square.  Very relaxing!

I also have been working on two watercolor paintings.  One is another view of the dam at our mountain place, this time from the bridge with dogwood branches reaching over the creek.  

Before, I had a lot of heavy branches above the dam, and did not like the way they looked.  So, I lifted the out by using a "thirsty" brush and going over the areas to remove the paint.  This left a kind of ghostly effect, not unlike when the mists rise off the water.  But I am filling back in with some color.

I want to have this one ready to take to Michael's to frame when I pick up the one that is there now.

The other painting is a practice portrait of my granddaughter Lily.  I had a good closeup of her face, so I used her as the subject even though she was in my last portrait, as well.  I want to work on the eyes and the shading a little more, and decide if I want to add some background color.  I already have the same face drawn on another paper, so I will try some different color tones for that one.  

Tomorrow we are going back to the mountains for the Fourth of July.  We have a big group gathering there. Lots of children, grandchildren, and friends.  We are looking forward to it...and hope that the BIG RAINS will be over by then.  Charlie and I went up last weekend to do some preparations since we had not been up there in a month.  It was lovely and cool.  We enjoyed watching my sister Katy and her husband Kenny feed the fish in the pond, the pigs, the chickens, and the goats. 

 And of course, the ride over the Christmas tree farms in the Gator is always a highlight.

After running up there, my dog Kasey looks like a lion lying in the savanna of Africa.

Guess that's it for now!  My art quilt bee met yesterday, but I will save that report for another post.