The Supper Quilt and French Braid Quilt fabric selections

We are getting ready for a retreat.  Mary, one of our many talented teachers in our group, will be teaching the French Braid Quilt pattern.  These are my selections for the quilt.  I'm going with my Japanese fabrics.  

These below are my friend Sheelah's fabrics.  

This is the Supper Quilt made by a man.  There are 55,000 1/2 inch squares.  The back fabric is hand dyed.  The front fabrics are hand dyed also.  It is a beautiful quilt on display at the Mt. Washington Spring Festival.  There is a quilt show next door with 2, 200 year old quilts that are amazingly well preserved.

Casserole Carrier, Mother's Day Flowers and Beautiful Kentucky

Spring time in Kentucky is really beautiful.  This is the view in my backyard.  I will miss this place.  The yard is over an acre and it's getting to be less than inspiring to work in.  It's almost time to scale down and move to a smaller yard.

Our Mother's Day sermon ended with something about retiring to a place that had a study, a sewing room and a guest room in the scaled down version of the retirement home.  I think that sounds about right.  It's just blasted hard to get motivated to move though-so much work!

We have a family recipe for turtle brownies.  You make it in a 9 X 13 pan.  I made this casserole cover for her.  She likes to make the turtles and bring them to parties.  I made this with insulated batting so whatever she chooses to bring to a party, it will stay hot or cold.

My daughter lives in Albuquerque where they celebrate the Day of the Dead.  It's sort of like our Memorial Day where they visit graves and remember people that have passed. 

There's Almost Nothing You Can't Fix in Quilting!

I always like to tell people, in quilting, there is almost nothing you can't fix.  This is a quilt I have decided to give to my friend's daughter who is getting married.  This is a quilt I started in the 1990's.  I had the horses cut and adhered to freezer paper.  I had used a glue stick to make the edges turn under more crisply.  


With the popularity of Steam a Seam, you don't hear of freezer paper applique much these days.  Or, maybe it's a regional thing and in your area there are a lot of quilters choosing that technique for their applique projects.  Compared to Steam a Seam paper backed fusible applique, it gives a softer look to the applique.  


When I removed the glue stuck freezer paper from behind the batik applique pieces on the purple horse on the right (looking at the quilt)I tore part of the horse.  Over the tear you will see a butterfly.  The butterfly is fused on with Steam a Seam.  Steam a Seam has a definite advantage here.  Batik material is very tightly woven and therefore it tears easily.  Fusing the butterfly as opposed to appliqueing on top helps to bind the fibers so they will have less chance of tearing in the future.  


There you have it, nothing you can't fix.  This is the quilt I had intended to give to Mom's Closet for a fund raiser but just couldn't get it done.