November 17, 2014

Comfort Quilt Presentation


I have been traveling all week and wanted to share some things with you this morning. On Monday, my friend Libby and I drove up to Fredericksburg, VA for a 3 day sew-in with friends.  We were on a mission to deliver a quilt that a group of 100+ quilters made for a friend who had lost her son.  Our friend Tammy is the recipient of this quilt of love and was very surprised when we presented it to her.  Some other friends on the forum had sent her a pillow and others had sent her something as well so she had no idea something else was in the works.




Friends who could not make blocks sent funds to help with backing, sashing fabrics and batting and all left over funds went to purchase a couple of extra keepsake gifts.  Tammy loves sea turtles so I bought her a glass sea turtle at the Hallmark Store.  I also had enough funds to purchase the friends hugging figurine.  This symbolizes all of the many hugs she was sent and is still being sent by all of her quilting friends.



This is Tammy and her mom...



And friends Karen (left) and Libby (right)




I got home around 6pm on Wednesday evening and left again on Saturday morning at 7am to take my mother in law Mildred and sweet Aunt Neva to see their sister in Havelock, NC.  We had a blast! Aunt Lynda made us right at home with foot soaks when we got there and a wonderful dinner of homemade beef vegetable stew with stove top cornbread fritters! yummy!  We drove down the coast to meet up with Aunt Lynda's daughter for lunch on Sunday before heading home. Aunt Lynda treated everyone to a delicious seafood lunch! Mildred, Aunt Neva and I all ordered fried shrimp, Aunt Lynda had fried oysters and Leanne had the fish tacos.  The food was excellent so we were all stuffed when we left!




And oh yes we spied a quilt shop... and yes.. we had to buy something.. But it wasn't fabric.. Actually it is the first quilt shop that I have been in that did not sell fabric.  they had tons of ready made quilts for sale, gift ware, and antiques.



It just so happened to have been Leanne's birthday the day before so we bought her a set of placemats for her dinner table and a potpourri bowl that had the aroma of vanilla, actually called a wax pottery vessel. The Habersham Candle Company makes the potpourri bowls right here in the United States, down south in Georgia.  These are not candles... they have a fragrance built right in so you only display them and enjoy the aroma without having to search for matches.

They did not have a photo of the vanilla vessel that we purchased at the Quilt Cottage so I will show you a couple of others.  Go to the candle website to view them all and the other items they have on the market.


And my birthday is this coming Friday so my mother in law bought me this sweet and cuddly piggy for my birthday.  It was between this and a new leather satchel (the satchel was not at the Quilt Cottage), and the piggy won!  I just love him!  Thank you Mildred!


We had an excellent time all the way around but on the way home it started to mist rain and the sky darkened up.  It was a miserable 3+ hours drive home and I was so glad to be safely tucked under my quilt and in the recliner resting before bedtime.

November 12, 2014

Quilted Living Book

Have you ever seen a copy of the book "Quilted Living".  The book is filled to the brim with so many inspiring projects!  You will have a hard time deciding which project you want to do first!  Mix and match design elements of more than one quilt to create an entirely different look for a new project!


There are 10 designs inside the book and after a bit of deciding and undeciding,  I chose "Liberty".  There was a quilt and a tablerunner made from the design and I chose to create the tablerunner.  I modified it a little in order to fussy cut the fabrics for the inner light colored strips.  I wanted to showcase the farm animals in the print so I cut the strips 4" instead of 2".  I also continued the border to the ends so it wrapped the entire tablerunner.

As you can see the model in the book is made from red/white and blue fabrics.  My first initial thought was to stay with the patriotic theme but my kitchen decor is pigs and apples with black appliances so I knew I wanted to  choose fabrics that would compliment my breakfast area.  I wanted to be able to use the runner year round.


My husband and I collect pottery from the Western part of North Carolina and some parts of GA, SC  and AL.  When I was getting ready to make the photos I decided to show off a few pieces of our pottery with the tablerunner.  A few extra quilted pieces never hurts anything either, right.

First up to adorn the runner, allow me to show off a couple of our many pigs we have collected over the years.  Albert Hodge's swirl pig and David Bellar's round belly pig.  The teapots in the display are also all by David Bellar.  Last, but certainly not least, is Charlie Lisk's red pig in the chair, one of our favorites!


This is actually how we will use the tablerunner. The water pitcher is by Kim Ellington and the pasta bowl and mini dressing pitcher are by Sylvia Harrison. The tablerunner is a perfect backdrop for these pottery pieces!  These pottery pieces have sat on the table for quite a long while and now they have a gorgeous runner to add a softness to all the hardscape.


I free hand quilted the runner with square spiral, ribbon candy, cross hatching and meandering.  All of this was done free form so when you look closely, you will see nothing is really even. And rightly so, when you think about farm living.  There is nothing like the carefree nature of living on a farm surrounded by nature and quilts!




Thank you for visiting my blog today!  I hope I have inspired you to create something today!