Wednesday, October 28, 2015

little lap quilt--blogger's quilt festival entry

I received a special request this week from my daughter for a lap quilt.  She is a physical therapist for children at a rehabilitation hospital.  At the end of her workday, she sits at her desk to fill out the daily paperwork and her office is cold.  Like most quilters, I have a pile of quilt tops waiting in line to be finished, so I looked through the pile and I found a small one that would be perfect for her office lap quilt.

This is also my entry in the small quilt category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2015.  Be sure and go here for lots of  beautiful quilts and inspiration.



This small top has been waiting quite a while to be finished...here is the original post that I wrote about making this quilt top from leftover strips of Botany by Moda and Kona white.

I machine quilted in straight lines and then added some of my favorite big stitches. 






After adding the binding, I decided it was too plain, and I added more big stitches : )



This lap quilt measures 30"X40".  
It has been washed and is now waiting to be gifted to my daughter... it'll be like I am giving her a big ole hug every time she uses it!  That must be why I quilt... I am a hugger : )



It is always so satisfying to finish a quilt.

piece,
elizabeth







Sunday, October 4, 2015

slow stitching

I have been away from my blog for a while...been busy, all good...but now that things are getting back to normal, I hope to get back to my blog.  I thought I'd begin with a relaxing project that is making me happy.  Why? Because I have had these vintage blocks for years and haven't known what to do with them.  Well, I decided to do some needle-turn appliqué and these vintage blocks make the perfect background!

I don't know about you, but I like to have some sort of "slow stitching" project handy.  This one is going to be fun.

I decided to cut out petals, and when I layed them out, it seemed that five were just enough.





My next step was basting the petals a little more than 1/4 inch away from the edge.



Now it was time for some slow stitching...in this case, needle-turn appliqué.


I plan to make a at least a dozen blocks, so my hope is that "practice makes perfect", and I will get more comfortable with my appliqué stitch as I go along : )

Here are two finished Petal blocks:



And of course, I had my helper at my side to occasionally play with the thread!


piece,
elizabeth