Chic Country Quilt & NMQG Color Challenge UPDATE

Guess what???  I got so busy, I forgot to actually finish this post before I posted it :-0

lol!

When I saw this quilt by Jenny of Sew Kind of Wonderful I knew that I would 

have to make one for myself!

NMQG's opening challenge for 2016 is going to be a color challenge.

(Yippee!!)

As a member of the board, we all drew a color and I got blue!

(I HATE blue)

I tired to cheat and drew another crayon out of the bag and got BROWN!!!

(The other most ugly color in the WORLD!!)

Anyhoots, when I took a moment to look at the blues in my stash, I realized that if I start on the color wheel, just the blue side of green and go all the way to just the blue side of purple, there is a pretty amazing array of colors!

I had so much fun pulling all of the blues from my stash.

I did my best to divide the fabrics into saturated and low volume.

There were quilt a few of my favorite prints in the lot.

I made this whole quilt while I was at a getaway sew week with my friends in Park City.

I cut and sewed like a madwoman for two solid days.

The more I sewed, the more I fell in love!

Eventually the top was finished and it was time to go home :(

Due to the crazy busy holiday season, I didn't get to quilt this beauty until after New Year's.

...but boy, it was worth the wait!

I decided to do a curved crosshatch.

...and lots and lots of narrow curves.

I just love all of the texture.

This quilt pattern is so amazing and fun to look at!

Sorry, I am crazy in love :)

For the backing one of my quilting BFF's found an amazing black and white script fabric.

The binding is my favorite black and white on the bias.

I am so sad that this quilt is so small :(

I thought it was going to be bigger.

If I were more brave, I would have made it four times bigger.

...but alas, I am lazy and have way too much other work to do!

Now enjoy photos of my grandchildren and the quilt.

The couldn't possibly hold still, so the pics are pretty bad! lol

I love these two so very much.

Being a grandma is the BEST!

Poor Livy Lou is always being steamrolled by Benito!

Good thing she can hold her own!

Pattern: Chic Country by Sew Kind of Wonderful

Eva's Vintage Embroidery Quilt is FINISHED!!!

In early 1958, my mother in law found out that that she was 

expecting the first of their nine children.

She immediately began working on the most beautiful (and frankly perfect) 

embroideries to make a special gift for that child.

(Her work is amazing!  This is actually the back side of the lamb.)

Eva grew up in East Germany.

She went to school there and became and expert seamstress.

(her final was to make a perfectly tailored ladies suit...she passed!)

Her stem stitch is so perfect and smooth.

I only wish I could do work like hers!

These embroideries have been sitting in a box for 57 years.

Last year, she asked me what she should do with them and I promptly took them from her

 and told her that I would take good care of them. :)

I decided that 1930's reproduction prints would suit this quilt.

Sweet and simple 16 patches would be the perfect compliment to her expert handwork,

I didn't have a plan as I began, but sure enough the quilt took on a life of it's own.

Pinwheels were the final border.  Sweet, simple and just what the quilt needed!

It was so exciting to quilt this myself!

My only regret is that I didn't double the batting :(

It was really fun to decide the different quilting motifs.

I used rulers for the orange peels and the crosshatching.

The rest was free motion quilting on my longarm.

For the backing I used some 1970 vintage yellow rose buds.

(I love that things from my childhood are now considered "Vintage")

For the binding, I happened to have some yellow yardage from the collection I used for the quilt!

Perfection!

It was so much fun to make this quilt and my mother in law loved it!

Some days, being a quilter is just plain the BEST thing EVER!!!

....the only problem is that I TOTALLY messed up the year on the label!!!

I gave it to her for Christmas 2015!!

EEEKK!!!!

Antique Quilts

My friend Laura was charged with finishing these beautiful antique quilt tops for a friend.

....and I had the privilege of quilting them!!!

They were both hand pieced a LONG time ago!!

(My guess would be in the 1930's)

This log cabin quilt was foundation pieced on fabric.

Some of the foundation fabric was SO wonderful!!!

I LOVED quilting these!

...and I didn't want to give them back!!

Feathers seemed the best fit!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!