Here You Go, Grandma

Thanks for your comments about my quiet blog. To my embarrassment, I realized that it hadn't actually been THAT long since the last time I blogged! ;) I guess what I meant was that I haven't been commenting on YOUR blogs as much as I like... I sometimes schedule posts if I had a really productive phase and want to spread the bloggy-goodness out a bit, so new posts might appear here even though I'm not actually active in blog-land - I'm sure some of you have noticed the sudden avalanche of comment replies :) well, that's the reason why!

Here's an update on actual quilting, as opposed to fabric splurging.

During a weekend trip a couple of weeks ago, I sewed the binding and wall-hanging sleeves on the animal quilt for my grandma (more about they reason behind this quilt here).


I put part of a pillow case I got at a second hand shop on the back, since no one will see that side anyway. I still have the duvet cover matching the pillow case and wanted to see how that fabric looks quilted. I had bought it originally to make a whole-cloth quilt out of it, for a really really fast quilt to relax in between the intricate ones. Then I thought maybe the fabric is too faded, but I think it's okay...


As you can see, I did a simple stitch-in-the-ditch for this quilt. I considered hand-quilting it, but I'm doing a lot of that these days it seems - another reason for the less frequent blog updates, I guess. So I opted for machine and simple instead.


Now, the binding... I hummed and hahed about this for quite a while. In the end I picked a fabric I really like, but I'm not so sure it goes well with the quilt...


It's almost too orangy, or too strong for it. I could ask your opinion, and I'd love to read it but you all know I won't take the binding off again :) But hey, maybe some of your opinion will mean I make a better decision next time. And who knows, maybe some of you like this binding?

As a side note - have you noticed how when any of us blog about a quilt WE think is ugly, no one ever agrees? The comments all read "No, it's lovely, send it to me if you don't like it!". I guess the people who agree that the quilt is ugly don't comment ;)

Boy oh boy, I'm totally setting myself up for comments a la "yes, that binding is horrid!" *LOL*

Another One Like This!

This is the quilt I made last summer for a dear friend of mine - it's her therapeutic bird quilt (all birds in the diamonds) and she says she's making some progress on the hand-quilting (it's her first attempt at hand-quilting! I'll see her in July and am curious to see how she's getting along after my impromptu, middle-of-vacation/road-trip 30 min quilt lesson :)


So, this winter, I visited my grandmother and showed her my quilt album - photos of all the quilts I've made to date. There was lots of hmming and hahing and "no, I don't like that one" - she's a very VERY honest grandmother ;)

Until she came to the quilt above, suddenly there was a gushing of "Now that quilt, that's nice, I really like that, you can make me one just like it!"

With an added "Except that blue doesn't go with my wall-paper..." Guess I can make a bet on where that quilt will be going :)

So, last week I got down to business and made her a copy of the quilt, with background and border that matches her wall-paper and some non-bird fabrics to replace the very dark blues "that don't go with her wall-paper at all" :)


The border is made of the same fabric I used for my summer purse - I bought it ages ago and it makes me think of summer and my childhood (I must have been under 10 when I bought it - without any idea what I'd use it for...)


In addition to various birds, I've included mice, bugs and frogs - I think what my grandma liked most about this quilt was that it was scrappy!

And grandmas hillarious? The stuff that comes out of her mouth... I've forgiven her for dissing all my other beautiful quilts :)