Q is for Quilt

Linking up with

Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday meme of the letter "Q" .

& Alicia's Friday Photo Flashback.

 Sharing my progress on this Quilt...

called a "Cathedral Quilt"

I had started this particular Quilt over 8 years ago, but then it was tucked away for a very long time! 

Until a dear friend of mine started Quilting and so inspired me to pull out my Quilts to show her the many that I had "started"...

You can see my past posts:

 Quintessential Quilts and Quilting Quandry 

and 

Stitches...at a standstill., 

...about some of my favorite family quilts and vintage quilts and some of my unfinished ones that have been waiting so patiently for me to finish... (if you do take a peek at either of these past posts, please leave a comment there too, so I know that you stopped over there).

Here is a picture of the Cathedral quilt against the bedroom window, so that you can see how it really does have the look of the stained glass in a Cathedral window.

Well...I am happy that when my hubby and I went to Hawaii, I brought along this Cathedral quilt.  It was perfect, since it is all sewn by hand, and I didn't mind our very, very, very, very long delay at our stop at the Salt Lake City airport. (But that is another story :o)

**********

I have shown this family photo before...but see the dresses and the huge hair bows? 

 (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

I had sewn these for both girls...it had the Battenburg collars and lace
...but the girls favorite part...

Yep! The "Skirt" part of this dress!

They loved that with this style, they were able to "twirl" around in.  It was almost in a perfect circle shape, if you were able to spin fast enough! :o)

Well...I came across some scraps of this fabric and some others from other things that I had sewn and cut them to go into this quilt.

1. is a piece of the fabric from the scraps left from the dresses.

2. is a close up of other scraps that have some meaning..."Aloha" for family from Hawaii..."art supplies" cuz all of them are very artsy and creative.

3. the origami crane, cuz my son loved doing origami growing up.

4. another close up...the Pledge of Allegiance"...cherries, flowers, pinwheels, frogs (they loved frog catching at my parents in Wisconsin), etc...

 Here is a view of the progress thus far.  The right half was where it was tucked away since about 2003! The left side is what I have done since our Hawaii trip in October... (I photoshopped the red line so that you can see the two halves. Along the part where the red line is drawn, I am sewing on solid, textured fabric like flannel. Each will be the color of the rainbow and one black, brown, white, gray...).

I decided that instead of "tucking" it away again...that I would keep it in my mini cooper, so that when I am at a doctor's appt or other appts,  or bring it with me whenever I'm a passenger with my wonderful hubby who'd rather do the driving (I would rather be a passenger all the time :o)  

...and sew on it then...because with working outside the home or doing the art orders (which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to do :o)...I find I can sew on that little quilt whenever I am out and about.

This is a closeup so that maybe you can see something else about this scrappy quilt.  I am making 3 of these for the first grandchild of each of our 3 children. And besides the solid, textured squares, that I will sew down the middle, so that they can learn their colors...  

I have matching squares of two, so that on one panel (the right side), there is a match to the left side.  I thought it would be fun for the little ones to be able to snuggle with this quilt, but also have a game of "seek and find" of the matching center squares. (See the frog on the right side up at the top? The matching frog is on the left panel towards the bottom).

Here is a view on a twin bed... This is showing 2 panels worth.

I actually have enough little 2 inch squares to make four panels, but I think I'll stick to only two panels, so that I know that I'll get them finished!

  And I've cut all and enough of the little squares for each of our 3 children's first children...It's just a matter of getting them all sewn before the grandbabies start arriving! This shows 2 panels.
I think the 2 panels are large enough for a baby crib quilt.

**********

Here it is again...in the back seat of my mini cooper...

Ready and available for me to work on the next time I am in a waiting room or on a road trip.

**********

In my past posts about quilts, I had shared some art that relate to quilting. Please take a look at the posts that I had linked at the beginning of this post, if you haven't already and would like to see them.  

Here are a couple of orders that have just been completed and ready to be given as gifts.

This one was ordered by April for her husband's Army retirement and for his military service as a combat medic (This image is taken from a statue honoring all those in this military field) .

Thank you for your interest and for your husband's service!

This one is from a repeat customer for almost 10 years:

"My sister had another baby and I want to order a print from you.  You made me a violet 4 years ago with my neice’s name “Marley”...I want something similar but am looking for a different violet."

Thank you for thinking of another piece for your niece's upcoming birthday.

Thank you again for stopping by to visit and for your wonderful comments! 

I will return your visit :o)

Quintessential Quilts and Quilting Quandry

My very first recollection of a quilt was a scrappy, crazy quilt that my dad's mom's oldest sister (Great Aunt Mary) made for us.

Funny, but when I was little and someone would mention Great Aunt Mary...I always thought they were just talking about my dad's sister, who was named after her. And wondering why, was she called "Great" Aunt Mary and why my dad's other sisters...Aunt Annie or Aunt Kathy were not also called "Great" Aunt Annie and "Great" Aunt Kathy...cuz I thought they were equally as "great".

I remember having so much fun looking at all the scrap pieces of fabric....As a little kid, I would lay on it and just imagine what piece of clothing was made from each or make up stories about the pieces.  We were just visiting my dad, and I meant to take a picture of that quilt, but I forgot!

Quintessential: most typical representation; perfect

(The following quilts are what I call quintessential, for me they are perfection & cherished even more, since they were made by family...a "most typical representation" of the creativity, skill, and love that was put into each stitch and time spent.)

This quilt was one that was made (around the1940's or 1950's): 

...by my dad's Aunt Ann on his dad's side.

**********

These are some of the many quilts that my mom made. She didnt start doing quilts until the early 1990's. She was so gifted in so many other interests and hobbies! You can read a little more about her HERE.

She had made this block quilt for me (around 1990) in these pastels, since I liked those colors. 

And then later, she was whipping out Denim ones like wildfire!  Denim ones for Girly-Twirly, Heartbreaker, my brother, and other family and friends.

She made one of courderoy squares for my sister. And here is the white denim quilt she made for our Girly~Whirly.

All from old pants she purchased from the church thrift shop that she volunteered in.  I am in awe that she created all the quilts that she did in a short amount of time! And they are all large bed size quilts!

**********

I thought I would add these two photo taken in 1967, when we were in Massachusetts. (Not really quilt related, but I came across these when we were visiting my dad. He took these of mom, me & our dog Rascal in the "igloo" they made for me.

(...looks like I have a choke-hold on our poor pooch!)
...um...back to the topic of quilts...

Here are some cross-stitched quilts that she also made...the dark blue one to fit a full size and the smaller light blue one as a throw.

**********

This one was made by Mr. B's sister.

**********

And this one is a Hawaiian Quilt design for a pillow that was given by Mr. B's family to Girly~Twirly when she was graduating from high school. (I love the appliqued style of the Hawaiian quilts. I want to "one day" do a Hawaiian Quilt sampler of various patterns....)

Quandary: dilemma

My dilemma? ...my mathematical perplexity is...
...my unfinished quilts + my limited "free" time = my unfinished quilts!
...but I hope to get better organized and set aside some time to work on my unfinished pieces and projects.

The slideshow has some vintage quilts that I have found and purchased (hm...I think they were all bought while Mr. B was deployed ;o) Anyways...this will also explain why I am in awe at how many quilts my mom had made...because I have so-o-o many unfinished ones!

Here are some drawings that are "quilt-related". 

********

I am joining in with 2 marvelous memes of 2 lovely ladies...
with Jenny for
ALPHABE-THURSDAY "Q"

&

Alicia for 

FRIDAY PHOTO FLASHBACK.

Blessings & Aloha!

...we will be back "on the road" again! I will be sure to catch up more on my blog reading when we return. Thank you for stopping in and leaving your wonderful comments.