Friday, February 17, 2012

Sew & Tell Friday: Reward!

I have two quilts to show and tell today.  One I've already shown the top without the quilting, so I'll start there.  It's my Valentine Pumpkin Seed that I picked up on Valentine's Day.  Too late to display it anywhere, but I'm going to use it as my example at my class next week.  I had Dixie Anderson quilt it for me because she does beautiful custom work without grumbling. :)
With the back folded up you can see the two borders she did and a little of the medallion in each 12" block.  Seeing these two shots next to each other makes me wish I'd fixed the color on the second one.  The reds are truer in the first one.

My second quilt is a 38" lone star that I started early in January.  It's Christmas fabric and I didn't feel any rush to get it done, so I took too long on it.  Then it popped up in the middle, which hasn't happened to me with any of the lone stars I've made so far.  Boooo.  I let it sit for a long time (after re-sewing the main seam in the middle twice) because I didn't want to have to un-do the whole thing just to fix a little puckering.  Bah!  Then my friend came over and we played twister on my quilt top and it stretched out fine.  Off to the long-arm quilter it went!
It's black and white!  And red!  Fancy.  This should have been for Katy, but it's really too Christmas-y for her.  I fell in love with this line of fabric (it's Benartex - I know, WHAT?), but I only bought enough for the star.  When I went back for the border and maybe the back, all of it was GONE.  I missed a 40% off Christmas fabric sale and... duh, of course it was gone.
The red border is delicious and rich.  I loved the holly and berries on black fabric best, so that's the "burst" in the middle. 
My other favorite thing about this fabric is the deer hidden in this piece.  I Spy!  But my number one favorite thing about this quilt is that it cost me $1.20 to have it quilted.  After two years and a million quilts, I finally filled my punch card with Eagle Mountain Quilting!  That means I start over next time, but still!  I'm living in this moment of $1.20 for a quilt. :)

I don't know about y'all, but all this black and white and red and serious fabric is making me crave some fun Easter colors.  Yes?  Maybe someone over at Amylouwho's is in a Spring-y mood.

One last thing.  This is what my family room and dining room looks like right now, minus the babies:
The cushions are off the couch because when they're on the couch the babies climb up and into the window where they push on the window with all their might as well as make out with the glass.  Gross and dangerous.  The table cloth is pushed to the middle of the table because Emil likes to tug on it until whatever is in the middle falls on his head.  That's Colin making some calculations at the gate to the stairs.  He will figure out how to open that thing.  THEN WHAT?!  All I can do is not walk around in the dark, people.  That's it.  Nothing else gets accomplished.

2 comments:

elizabeth said...

Your quilts are beautiful! I am just starting to sew curves, so I will try the block on the top quilt soon : )
What a lovely family you have...enjoy these fun days...they go by quicker than you think.

Angie said...

That is gorgeous! Quality work :)

PS - the new City Creek Center is open on March 22. Come downtown one day and I'll take an extended lunch.